Scott Dixon is preparing for the start of the 2022 IndyCar championship this weekend.
Drivers will face a number of unknowns when they get back on track with a number of changes through the field, many teams entering the season with new driver lineups, driver-engineer combinations, while other teams have moved from a two-car to a three-car operation
Some teams have also only completed a single day of testing since the season ended in late September at Long Beach.
Dixon recently spoke to Newstalk ZB’s Sports Talk about the upcoming season.
“It going to be an action-packed year, you know 26 full-time competitors this year lots of competition, lots of great teams and I guess we go into this season with more unknowns than we ever have before so I guess that’s great for the fans,” Dixon said.
“There’s just hasn’t been much pre-season testing to see the standouts, there’s a lot of different combinations.
“It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out from the get-go plus some teams expanded, some went from two cars to three cars
“It’s just an interesting dynamic I think where we’ve seen a lot of different speeds, maybe if these guys haven’t even run a full season, but when they have turned up they’ve been really fast so it should be interesting, I think to see how that plays out throughout the season, and who is going to be in the championship fight.”
Dixon has struggled to put together strong results at St Petersberg he has previously dominated the racing there only for errors late in the race to take away what could have otherwise been a strong result.
“It’s been a frustrating place, I think we’ve dominated the race a couple of times but I think both times I found the wall which is unfortunate, we’ve had plenty of podiums.
“For me, I think the highlight of the 2020 season was actually wrapping the season and championship up at St Pete and stepping on the top step for the first time and collecting the championship there.”
The IndyCar field will kick off the 2022 championship this weekend at St Petersberg, qualifying will be held Sunday 6.30 am with race coverage set to get underway Monday at 6 am.
Main image: Chris Owens
