Even with considerable success at each level of his motorsports career, Louis Foster understands that he is again starting over.
This NTT INDYCAR SERIES season doesn’t care that the 21-year-old Englishman won eight of 14 races last year in INDY NXT by Firestone or that he won that series championship by a staggering 122 points. The field for each of this year’s 17 races features similarly motivated drivers championing their cause.
Foster will largely have to fend for himself, of course with the help of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and its No. 45 Honda-powered crew.
“It’s kind of a weird thing to go from reigning (series) champion to complete rookie,” Foster recently said. “It’s a very stark difference.”
There will be four new tracks for Foster to learn this season, including Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s historic oval, and all the races will be longer in duration, with nuances such as alternate tire compounds, the hybrid system and tighter pit boxes to navigate. Foster must embrace the world’s most competitive series knowing teams are stronger and deep in talent, and the drivers are older with more experience than he has encountered in the past.
Every tick of a second will matter in these qualifying sessions, and a tenth of a second lost in a single-lap run can lead to a half-dozen lost starting positions for the race. When it comes to the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, not being on pace can lead to missing the show as Foster’s new teammate, veteran driver Graham Rahal, did in 2023.
Every rookie faces these new challenges; few are completely prepared for them. What these drivers have accomplished in the past is ancient history. INDYCAR is full speed ahead, and the challenge is to keep up or get left behind. Some make it, many don’t.
Foster said it’s a conversation he has had with drivers who have been in this position.
“It’s weird,” he said. “You spend your entire junior career winning everything or being up at the front all the time because to get to INDYCAR you’ve got to be a good driver, and if you’re a good driver, you tend to win (races and championships).
“Then when you get to INDYCAR, depending on the weekend, the team, how it’s going, it’s just so competitive that a good day could be 10th (place).”
Foster, who is one of six drivers with 10 or more INDY NXT by Firestone race wins to his name, caught himself laughing at the irony.
“Being 10th last year, I would have put my head in the sand and cried,” he said.
Driving for Andretti Global, Foster finished first or second in the final 11 races of last year’s INDY NXT by Firestone season. Over two seasons in the series, he had top-three finishes in 17 of the 28 races, with 10 victories.
In 2022, Foster won the Indy Pro 2000 championship for Exclusive Autosport on the strength of eight wins and podium finishes in 17 of the 18 races. Much as he’d like to consider the possibility of similar success, it won’t be like that in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
“It’s definitely a weird way to look at things, for sure,” he said. “I want to be able to be on the podium (this season). If we could win a race, that would be great. But realistically, I know that we’re not going to come out aiming for a pole at (the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding). We’ll try our best, but the chances are we probably won’t get that.”
Rahal offered a warning.
“Louis is going to have an uphill battle just with the learning,” he said. “The speed is not going to be the problem, but pit stops and duration of the race, physicalities of the car over that period of time, all of those things will play a role in this.”
Last year’s top-finishing rookie was Linus Lundqvist, the 2022 INDY NXT by Firestone champion, in 16th. Marcus Armstrong led the rookie class in 2023, and he was 20th in the standings with a limited schedule. Prior to that, Rinus VeeKay (2020), Scott McLaughlin (2021) and Christian Lundgaard (2022) finished 14th as the series’ top rookies. The last newcomer to finish in the top 10 was Felix Rosenqvist, who was sixth in 2019.
Despite hoping to achieve lofty personal goals, Foster might settle for being the top-finishing rookie in a class that includes Jacob Abel, whom Foster battled each of the past two seasons, and Formula 2 veteran Robert Shwartzman. Abel is driving Dale Coyne Racing’s No. 51 Honda while Shwartzman will be in PREMA Racing’s No. 83 Chevrolet. The three posted relatively similar best laps in this week’s group test at Sebring International Raceway.
“I think the same approach in every championship I've taken is the same one I'm going to take for INDYCAR,” Foster said. “Obviously it's going to be a much bigger step than I've ever had before in terms of competition.
“But we've worked really hard – the team, myself – in learning each other, getting to know each other, me trying to get the ball rolling immediately with the new things for myself that isn't in INDY NXT, like fuel saving, pit stops, hybrid, all that stuff. Also just race distances.
“There's a lot of new things, but I feel like we've kind of hit the marks we wanted to hit at this point already.”
Foster’s new challenge begins in earnest next week. St. Petersburg awaits.
The season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida will air live on Sunday, March 2 at noon ET on FOX, FOX Deportes and the INDYCAR Radio Network.