It looks like there will be more full-time IndyCars on next year's gread.
Penske first time in history will drive with four cars: Power, Castroneves, Montoya and Pagenaud!
Ganassi will stay with four cars, Dixon, Kanaan and Kimball will stay, but perhaps Briscoe will leave the team for Karam.
Schmidt Peterson Hamilton will stay with two cars, in the first one with Aleshin if SMP could pay and in the second they will likely replace Pagenaud with Hinchcliffe
Andretti: Four cars are likely, three or five are possible. Hunter-Reay, Munoz and Andretti are safe, Hinchcliffe is leaving, perhaps Wilson or Abt or both will jumb in.
KVSH: Two cars are likely, perhaps there will be just one or even three cars. Bourdais is safe, perhaps Saavedra will stay, they also want to sign Hinchcliffe.
CFH: Two cars are likely, three are possible. Newgarden is safe, Carpenter will drive the oval tracks with Conway likely to return on the street circuits. Could also be Filippi, Hildebrand or Servià if Conway will be Toyota LMP1 driver. Hildebrand is working on a third car.
Dale Coyne: One or two cars: Wilson could leave, Huertas' plans are not known. They tested Gonzalez last week.
Herta: Hawksworth is very likely moving to Foyt, so there will be a new driver like Filippi or Chaves.
Foyt: It's likely they will enter a second car, with Sato staying and Hawksworth is very likely moving to Foyt
Rahal: I think they will field one car for Rahal or another driver like Filippi.
Fan Force United: They try to put together a full season with Stefan Wilson.
So we will have a minimun of 21 cars and a maximum of 28 cars with 23-25 cars are very likely.
My suggestion:
Penske: Power, Castroneves, Montoya, Pagenaud
Ganassi: Dixon, Kanaan, Kimball, Karam (?)
Schmidt Peterson Hamilton: Aleshin (?), Hinchcliffe (?)
Andretti: Hunter-Reay, Munoz, Andretti, Abt (?)
KVSH: Bourdais, Saavedra (?)
CFH: Newgarden, Carpenter/Conway (?)
Dale Coyne: Wilson (?), Huertas (?)
Herta: Filippi (?)
Foyt: Sato (?), Hinchcliffe (?)
Rahal: Rahal (?)
For the Indy-500 we likely will see
Buddy Lazier (Lazier)
Bryan Clauson (Jonathan Byrd's/KVSH)
Jacques Villeneuve (Schmidt Peterson Hamilton)
Stefan Wilson (Fan Force United)
Matthew Brabham (Andretti)
JR Hildebrand (CHF)
So these are unknown questions:
- What will Ryan Briscoe do?
- What will Gabby Chaves do?