IndyCar 2021 Preview: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Could this be one of the biggest years in RLL's history? All the pieces are in place
Graham Rahal and teammate Takuma Sato are poised to have perhaps the strongest seasons they’ve ever had. Photo: Chris Owens/IndyCar
By Michael Eubanks
This is the ninth of a 10-part weekly series of previews of each full-time team slated to compete in the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series. Each preview will give an overview of all drivers currently signed to drive for the team, recap the team’s 2020 results, describe what’s new for the team in 2021 and provide an outlook for the team’s performance this season.
Today’s preview features Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing - the defending Indy 500 champions. The season-opening Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama takes place this Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park.
2021 Drivers (name, car number, all Honda-powered): Graham Rahal - No. 15, Takuma Sato - No. 30, Santino Ferrucci - No. 45 (Indy 500 only)
Takuma Sato is the defending Indy 500 winner. Photo: Chris Owens/IndyCar
2020 recap: For the sixth straight season, RLL was a winner in IndyCar competition. The team won the Indy 500 for the second time in its history, as Takuma Sato won the famed race for the second time of his career. While Sato’s win at the Brickyard was the organization’s lone victory in 2020, the team remained competitive all season long. Rahal nearly won the second race of the season at the IMS road course, and also picked up two more podiums at Iowa and the Indy 500. He finished a respective sixth in the overall point standings, while Sato finished seventh overall.
What's new for 2021: Both Sato and Rahal return to their respective entries, while Santino Ferrucci - who is racing in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series this year - joins the team for the Indy 500. Veteran race engineer Matthew Greasly joins the team as Sato’s engineer.
Season Outlook: RLL has been the “best of the rest” for the last few seasons, often being the only team besides Penske, Ganassi and Andretti to reach Victory Lane. With Sato seeming to only get better with age and Rahal coming close to Victory Lane last season, both drivers could very well collect wins this year. The team has another great shot to win Indy this year, as with the addition of Ferucci, RLL now has the first, third and fourth-place finishers in last year’s Greatest Spectacle in Racing in their stable.
Takuma Sato looks for his third Indy 500 win this year. Photo: Chris Owens/IndyCar
Driver Quotes: “Just really excited to be back into the car. The new season is very exciting. Obviously last year, with the worldwide situation, we were so restricted. Hopefully, we have more fans engaging this year, we see more fans everywhere we go, and we return to some of the tracks we missed last year, like Barber Motorsports Park. We left there with a very good memory back in 2019 (Sato won the race). So very exciting.
“I think the expectation is naturally just high. People are really excited for our team and for ourselves, too. We have high expectations. Of course, we wanted to be more consistently competitive for the entire season, but specifically for the Indy 500. I personally really look forward to being back in the Indy 500 as defending champion, and the team is preparing as good as last year. Hopefully, we can compete at a very, very high level.” - Takuma Sato
Graham Rahal may be smiling a lot this year. Photo: Chris Owens/IndyCar
“You look at where (IndyCar) is today and just how deep the field is, and it's impressive. Maybe everybody wants to say the golden era of IndyCar racing was in the early '90s - or in Champ Car - may have been the late '90s, early 2000s. But I've got to be honest, from a talent pool perspective, the golden era is right now. We're living the golden era. It's never been better, and I'm not sure it will get better. It is deep across the board, and it's definitely cool because you're also gauging yourself against the rest.
“For sure there's going to be times that guys go out there and they're going to perform great and we're going to be like, ‘Oh, yeah, they're awesome’, and then next weekend like us in Gateway, you may just completely suck, and it shouldn't be a surprise because you cannot miss a step.
“(As for) the depth, every single driver in the series can win. That's factual. That couldn't have been said 20 years ago, let alone five years ago.” - Graham Rahal