The number of teams Chevrolet is powering for the 2025 IndyCar season has the manufacturer feeling “maxed out”, but it believes supplying series newcomer Prema “will add to the mix”.
The General Motors brand secured its third consecutive manufacturers championship in a 2024 season that also featured another Indianapolis 500 victory courtesy of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, and is prepared to expand its presence next year for the first full season with hybrid power.
Chevrolet will continue to supply AJ Foyt Racing, Arrow McLaren, Ed Carpenter Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing and Team Penske in 2025, with Italian junior formula giant Prema joining its roster for the team's debut in US open-wheel racing.
Its commitment to propelling 14 full-time entries is likely to be increased at other rounds where it will support one-off teams or expanded efforts, such as Kyle Larson with a fourth entry collaboration with Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports in the Indy 500.
Eric Warren, executive director of global motorsports competition for General Motors, said that while spreading out Chevrolet’s resources brought its challenges, he believes it an overall positive.
“Anytime we get an opportunity to add a quality team, we want to take a hard look at it,” Warren said.
“With Prema, one of the things as we looked at them coming from Europe, the success they had in some of the lower series, their access to drivers, experience with drivers, is something that we felt like will add to the mix.
“It is difficult as we add teams because as much as we as Chevrolet want the teams to work totally together for Chevrolet, they're still racing each other and still competitive.
“It creates more mouths to feed, information. We see that as a positive. The more we can learn, more we can try different things.
“But there's a limit of we don't want to spread our resources out too thin and not be able to compete.”
Warren revealed that Chevrolet is pushing fairly close to the boundary, but believes it is worthwhile.
“I always say we're over the limit,” he said. “Certainly I get told that by our finance people! But we keep pushing. We're maxed out.
“It's important to us that the series is successful. Sometimes just the attrition of people and teams and everything, we have to keep investing in it.
“We try to look at each situation individually and whether we can handle it. I think we're okay.”
While Chevrolet enjoyed its ninth Manufacturers Championship since returning to North America’s premier open-wheel championship in 2012, the driver’s title has been harder to secure.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou established a run of consistency — namely at road and street circuits — that has aided him in capturing three of the last four titles, which stands as a significant bright spot for Honda.
All of that helps bring to focus the key area of development Chevrolet continues to strive to overcome.
“I still think we have to improve on some of the road courses,” Warren said.
“When you look at the consistency of Palou, obviously he's leading, we want to be leading. I think we understand that more. We still have work to do.”
