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INDIANAPOLIS — Robert Shwartzman can look at the first five weeks of his INDYCAR career and shake his head.
At one point, he missed practice time because his radio didn’t work. At another race, his car caught fire and had to be rebuilt. He missed other practice sessions with mechanical gremlins. He couldn’t catch a break.
Unbelievable.
Even if the team did everything right, to think he could do the unimaginable and win the Indianapolis 500 pole? The more likely scenario was that he’d be on the bubble to even make the race as a rookie with no oval experience driving for a Prema Racing team that joined INDYCAR this year.
“We had a difficult first five weekends with a lot of problems. The car went on fire. There were three times that I missed practice for different reasons,” Shwartzman said. “Coming here, I was like, ‘Just take it easy, guys. We have enough time to get in the car, just not rush things.’”
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The journey of the 25-year-old Shwartzman has been one where he is used to things not necessarily going as planned, both good and bad. His story will get more eventful on Sunday when he leads the field to green for the Indianapolis 500. It’s not just his first Indy 500, it’s his first race on an oval in any form.
From the time Shwartzman made his first U.S. appearance when Prema Racing did a livery launch in January in Charlotte, questions have followed about how he would adapt. A former Formula 3 champion who owns several Formula 2 wins driving for Prema, he has had a frustrating last few years as a Formula 1 reserve driver for Ferrari and Sauber.
He was born in Israel but spent several years in Russia. And his Russian roots potentially hindered his ability to get an F1 ride, despite many lauding his talent.
“In Formula 1, there are quite a lot of things going around that I have no control of, so I come here with the thought that this is a place I’m going to be racing for quite a while,” Shwartzman said. “My target is to bring myself up and the team to the top level.
“As soon as we do that and I start to deliver the result, if there is any interest from Formula 1, we’re going to discuss, we’re going to talk. But I’m not going to put my focus on it. My focus here is to put the car in the first position — that’s my target.”
Indy 500: Qualifying Day 2 Highlights
With his first five races that put him 24th in the INDYCAR standings (out of 27 full-time drivers), Shwartzman said he wasn’t concerned he was already hurting his reputation.
“You can’t judge by the fact that we’re just struggling to put the car together,” Shwartzman said. “We had a lot of things that were going on, and the car was by far not perfect. But I still try to do my best. I still try to get everything possible of what we had.
“With the right approach, with the right work, we had a really flawless car, and here is the result.”
One of the keys to the Shwartzman success this week was the addition of former Team Penske engineer Eric Leichtle to the organization. Leichtle used to work with Josef Newgarden and now works at SpaceX.
Leichtle, at the moment, is only contracted for Indianapolis, but he has made an immediate impact.
“He was also leading the team and the approach he had was the right one, just taking things step by step,” Shwartzman said. “And we just managed to improve the car better and better.”
As for Shwrartzman? He’s improving, too.
“It’s not that I am unbelievably amazing,” Shwartzman said. “I know I’m just giving my best, and they’re giving their best. It happened that we did everything right. We put the car in the perfect condition, and we took the pole.”
The hard part is still to come in leading the field to green Sunday.
“For sure, I’m going to be nervous,” Shwartzman said. “But I don’t want to put pressure [on us]. … I just want to have a smooth, nice approach.”
If he does that, he will be fine. Although most of the field doesn’t know him well, they have seen the Prema team in the garage scramble every week trying to keep up with teams who have competed in INDYCAR for decades.
“That’s a pretty phenomenal story,” said Pato O’Ward, who starts on the outside of the front row. “I think it’s fantastic for the series.”
O’Ward has no worries about Shwartzman leading the field to green.
“The guy’s a professional,” O’Ward said. “He knows what he’s doing.
“I think all he has to do is just watch some replays, talk to [officials] and he’ll know what speed to get out. And then get on the throttle, dude.”
Shwartzman will have no problem getting on the throttle. That is what he came to Indianapolis to do.
“I came here to Indy just to show that I’m willing to fight until the end, I’m willing to improve,” Shwartzman said. “And even though the circumstances — we’re underdogs and the team is not there yet, I want to show everybody that I’m a fighter, I’m fighting for being the best, and that’s always going to be the case.
“We all knew that there are teams that have raced here forever. It’s their turf and they know everything about it, and we’re just newbies here.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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