In just five days, the 26 cars that make up the full-time IndyCar grill for the 2022 season they will line up in 13 rows of two for the first race of the year on the streets of St. Petersburg. There will still be 10 teams in it, as has been the norm in recent times, but Carlin won’t be one of them.. The British formation founded by Trevor Carlin has taken a step back that has all the appearances of being definitive after four frustrating seasons in the American competition.
As several observers close to both teams had reported in the preceding months, all logistics material that belonged to Carlin at its American base, including chassis, was sold to Juncos Hollinger Racing, formation that returned to the championship at the end of last year with a view to a full program in 2022 after two and a half seasons of absence. Despite this, Carlin had not yet thrown in the towel regarding their presence in the championship as co-owners in an existing team, an initiative that did not bear fruit.
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That is why Carlin and Juncos have reached a second agreement, as a “technical alliance”, for which the team owned by Argentine Ricardo Juncos has had for some months the mechanics and engineers who until now worked for Carlin in the United States, but without paying their salaries. these employees maintain their contractual relationship with CarlinAt least for this season. For this reason, a future change of mind that would allow a return to the contest is not completely ruled out, although today it seems implausible.
Despite this integration of Carlin’s resources, which in practice entails an absorption, Juncos has not changed its original plans for this seasonand will only line up a single-seater for rookie Callum Ilott, to whom he has already given the alternative in the last three rounds of 2021. In fact, despite acquiring the chassis that were owned by Carlin, Juncos has no intention of fielding a second car in the Indianapolis 500preferring to use those extra resources as collateral in case of an accident, something the team came close to missing with Kyle Kaiser in the 2018 edition.
Although it is not for legal purposes, Carlin has thrown the curtain on the track to his seven years of competition in the United States, which started in 2015 with an Indy Lights team. 12 wins in three seasons, plus the Ed Jones title in 2016, encouraged Trevor Carlin to embark on his first major league adventure with a two-car team in 2018. However, these four years have been marked by a constant lack of performance and a scarcity of financial resources that prevented them from doing many test days or the pertinent improvements to be competitive.
In the 63 races they have contested, Carlin has only achieved a total of fifteen top 10. Eight of them were achieved by Charlie Kimball, as well as a team best finish with a fifth place finish in Toronto 2018. Conor Daly also provided great joy on the ovals in 2020 with four top 10 finishes and a pole position at Iowa. On the contrary, the troubles began in the Indianapolis 500, where his team of three cars was reduced to just one after Max Chilton and Pato O’Ward failed to qualify, adding all this to Fernando Alonso’s debacle in the that Carlin offered technical assistance to McLaren.
Chilton was present in all four seasons, but his resignation from contesting the ovals outside the Indy 500 in the wake of Robert Wickens’ accident at Pocono put the team in serious trouble, which was increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. Felipe Nasr’s debut was left in limbo along with the second car, and the team survived these two years as best they could, until Chilton said enough was enough. The fact that his best career in years barely brought him a 10th place in Road America last year (his only top 10 finish with the team), and not being able to count on a partner for data, signaled the end of his American adventure, and crucial family funding for Carlin.