Fortune has not been on Prema Racing's side in its rookie IndyCar campaign so far, and a disaster of a first day of Indianapolis 500 practice reflected how the rest of the 2025 season has felt in many ways.
Its cars weren't ready to practice - even after a near three hour rain delay - and it only got 22 laps in across them when they were running - just one more than the lowest total for any other single car from any of the other teams.
That being said, while it feels bleak now, there are some positives and time to turn things around.
We assess Prema’s first day and why it might not be quite as bad as it looked.
What happened?
The team has been working on its Indy 500 cars for a long time. At the open test last month, it ran road course cars, so the cars it brought to the 500 itself were being run for the first time on Tuesday.
In prepping the cars, there were no major issues, just small items that weren’t quite done and needed taking care of before they were ready to run.
The cars finally got out with under two hours to go and were predictably last in the order. The quicker of the two, Robert Shwartzman, was a full mile-per-hour slower than the next car.
Shwartzman only got six laps in, with Callum Ilott managing slightly more with 16.
How bad is this?
Taken in isolation, not being ready to start the most important event of the year is embarrassing and there’s no avoiding that, whatever the context.
It is worth pointing out two things. This happens to teams almost every year. They’ve just done two straight race weekends with different cars so having a couple of days before needing to be ready to hit the Speedway can throw up some issues. Small issues that don't get spotted until the car is getting a pre-tech inspection check are common.
This is also Prema’s first race at the 500 and its first oval event. It’s doing it without the technical help of another team - which is rare at the 500 for teams with no prior experience - and after one of its star signings for the 500 in particular this year, legendary IndyCar engineer Michael Cannon, left the team just prior to the season starting.
While rain can strike at any time, there’s enough practice left that Prema can recover if the cars are good. If the cars are poor, most of the time a few extra hours of practice can’t fix that anyway. We didn't see enough laps on Tuesday to know what category they currently fall into.
Ilott might be perfect for this situation
Ilott has only started three Indy 500s, but he’s been in a much worse situation than this back in 2023.
Back then he said his Juncos Hollinger car handled like a ping pong ball bouncing across the track, and he found it undriveable. There was a stand-off as Ilott wanted to go to the back-up car and JHR understandably didn’t want to throw away the primary car it had been working on for a year, as it struggled to see an issue in the data.
Eventually Ilott got his way and on one of his first runs in the back-up car - not as well prepared as the primary - immediately went quicker and was vindicated. But he got only a handful of laps in the car before going into qualifying (where he comfortably made the race).
Circumstances will be different here, but for someone with so few Indy 500 starts, Ilott has proven he can overcome that and deliver in the highest pressure moments.
Even last year, this time as a stand-in at McLaren, he had to go to the back after qualifying 15th because of an issue with the weight-jacker. A crucial in-car tool for managing a car across a stint and changed almost every lap by drivers, it was jammed maxxed-out.
Just steering the car to the end was an achievement, and he did so - finishing a bonkers-in-the-circumstances 11th.
We might be seeing a very underrated rookie season
OK, Shwartzman hasn’t scored any incredible results this year. But his start to the Indy 500, being late to get laps in at his first visit to the event, is symbolic of his season. If the season so far is anything to go by, he’ll meet the challenge head-on.
Total rookie laps in FP1 & FP2 sessions in 2025
Jacob Abel - 229
Louis Foster - 204
Robert Shwartzman - 133
Through myriad issues this year, Shwartzman has only done slightly more than half the number of practice laps of his rookie rivals before qualifying. That's against drivers for two very established teams in Rahal Letterman Lanigan and Dale Coyne, and yet Shwartzman has not looked out of place against them.
Louis Foster’s 11th at the last race, the Indy GP, boosted the RLL driver back ahead of Shwartzman, but only two points ahead and clear of three other IndyCar drivers including his team-mate Ilott, who he’s beaten in three of the five races so far.
Shwartzman and Ilott have done this while Prema has been the worst team in the pits this year according to IndyCar’s rankings. It has enlisted the help of Hintsa - a well known European company that works on improving driver and team performance - to help, and has improved in recent races. But there’s still work to do.
Shwartzman's main issues
St Petersburg - No radio for his first IndyCar race
Thermal - No practice laps, fire in the car in FP1 meant a penalty for Prema too
Barber - Hybrid issue in the race
Indy GP - four laps completed across both practices with car issues
Prema’s race pace has been strong at times, but there’s no doubt additionally Shwartzman has been an under-the-radar star in 2025 so far.
What we learned from the rest of day one
Last year’s winner Josef Newgarden was knocked off the top spot by his Penske team-mate Will Power in the last hour, but looks really, really strong in his quest to be the first three-in-a-row Indy 500 victor.
It’s way too early to get excited or sad depending on the fortunes of each driver on Tuesday as we only got just over two and half hours of action because of the rain, but there’s still some nuggets to look for.
The series’ form-man Alex Palou - the guest on this week's The Race IndyCar Podcast previewing the race - breached the top three in times and his car also looks excellent, with Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin making it an all Penske and Chip Ganassi top five.
However, Newgarden and McLaughlin’s days were made all the more impressive by setting the second and sixth fastest times in the ‘no-tow ranking’ respectively, which only counts laps set without the benefit of slipstreaming. This is relevant to qualifying, where cars run solo.
Topping that no-tow ranking was current second in the championship driver Kyle Kirkwood for Andretti, with Jacob Abel a surprise third in that category in a strong day for the Dale Coyne rookie.
One name you wouldn’t expect to see down in 29th is McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, but he set the seventh fastest no-tow speed and confirmed that had been his focus. He didn’t seem worried about his position at all.
There's a new schedule for Wednesday, which will allow for any refreshers and rookie orientation that were supposed to happen on Tuesday before the rain. That means Tony Kanaan - who needs to do a refresher so that he’s eligible as a back-up driver to replace Kyle Larson at McLaren - is available. He’ll drive at 10am ET on Wednesday, with two hours allocated for refreshers but unlikely to be needed as it's just Kanaan.
Full-field practice then runs from midday local time to 6pm.
