2020 AT&T Champ Car World Series season

2020 Indycar World Championship season

The **2020 AT&T Champ Car World Series season** was the 21st season of the Indycar World Championship, the 108th season of American open wheel racing, and the first season organized and managed by Horizon Corporation, who took over operational duties during the middle of the 2019 season. The premier event of the season was the 107th Indianapolis 500, won by Sebastian Devereux, while Andrew Draco won his second and final Indycar World Driver's Championship.

The season was marred by several high profile accidents at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Pocono Raceway, the worst of which occurring during the Indianapolis 500, when a crash on lap 171 claimed the lives of Tim Kourting and Giuliano Ansaldi. Jace Clarke, Gerard Perth, Mildred Moon, B.K. Glover, and Alicja Kowalkiewicz also sustained injuries during the season, which was the first using the new IR-20 chassis built by Andromeda Automotive Initiative.

## Background

The 2020 season was the first season organized completely by Horizon Corporation. Citadel Promotions, who ran the IndyCar World Series from 2016 until April of 2019, defaulted on critical payments, and was stripped of its ability to organize Indycar World Championship events. In retaliation, Citadel Promotions, who also own the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, cancelled the 2019 Indianapolis 500 less than a month from the race being scheduled to occur. Horizon Corporation stepped in to manage the remainder of the 2019 season, working out a deal with Citadel Promotions to secure the Indianapolis 500 for the next ten years beginning in 2020.

A new generation of American open wheel racing was unveiled in late 2018, with NAMRA, Citadel Promotions, and Andromeda Automotive Initiative unveiling the IR-20, the third iteration of Indycar World Championship chassis. The 2020 season marked the first time since the early 1990s that Dallara had not been involved in American open wheel racing. The Italian constructor produced the IR-00 chassis and the IR-10 chassis, covering the first two decades of Indycar World Championship competition. AAI, with the IR-20, were entering the racing constructors market after 15 years of development in aeronautics and aviation through its parent company, Andromeda Aeronautic Design.

The 2020 season also saw the return of a partially open engine formula for the first time since before the foundation of the World Championship. Engine suppliers Alpine-Renault, Honda, and Mercedes were allowed to enter with engines that did not have to conform to a single engine formula. Under the new 2020 regulations, engines would be homologated to World Championship usage if they were a) supplied by approved original engine manufacturers (OEMs), b) produced no more than 800 brake horsepower, c) did not exceed 12,500 rpms, and d) contained an even number of cylinders. Per the outlines that created the World Championship, engines larger than V8s were not permitted to be registered for use. Alpine-Renault was the only engine supplier to roll over their 2019 engine, sticking with a turbocharged V6 engine. Honda elected to supply twin-turbo inline 4 cylinder engines, the same engine formula found in Honda's GP1 Championship and All Japan GT Championship GT500 Class efforts. Mercedes elected to use a naturally aspirated V8 powertrain, developed initially for the GTPlanet Fantasy Series before the German marque elected to pursue Champ Car as its series of interest.

## 2020 Teams and Drivers

The following teams and drivers contested at least one event in the 2020 season.

### Team Changes

* Perl Speed GP, after competing from 2015 to 2019, elected to not compete in the 2020 Champ Car season, citing Citadel Promotion's inconsistencies and instabilities as its main reasons for leaving.
* Equipa Chama Transatlantica, after trying to survive during the Citadel era, folded after the 2019, failing to secure sponsors to continue.
* Rainbow Road Racing, an overseas team from Australia, failed to apply adequate paperwork to appear on the 2020 grid.
* Starion Motorsports entered hiatus following the withdrawal of Ford from the competition at the end of the 2019 season.
* LM Competition joined the series, entering with a three car effort supplied with Mercedes engines.
* Kearny-Fushida Drive Force would make its debut, having competed in the GP1 Championship in Japan. They would use Honda engines for the Firestone Triple Crown.
* Eastern Atlantic Motorsports joins the series with two full time cars, supplied by Honda.

### Driver Changes

* Jamie Ngaire-Jardine would leave the series after 6 years, being replaced at Striker Motorsports by Russian driver, Natalia Kirichenko. Kirichenko was tipped to drive for the team in 2019, having been a protégé of Stephanie Porter-Kelley since 2017.
* Diego Jaramillo was replaced at Striker Motorsports by Italian rookie, Giuliano Ansaldi. Jaramillo would sign a short term deal with Cat Devil Racing to compete in the 2020 Firestone Triple Crown.
* Mohammad Ahmed was released by Striker Motorsports so he could compete in the 2020 GTPlanet Fantasy Series season.
* With Starion Motorsports entering hiatus, B.K. Glover and Ray Taylor moved to new teams for 2020. Glover moved to Team Impulse. Taylor moved to newcoming team, LM Competition.
* David Wessel replaced Stefan Montana at Phantom Motors, joining Andrew Draco on the team.
* Patrick Marcelli joined Eastern Atlantic Motorsports after 3 years with Black Rose Racing.

## Calendar

The 2020 Champ Car calendar was ratified on 1 December 2019 by the North American Motor Racing Association (NAMRA) and the Federation Internationale Course d'Artificielle (FICA). The season featured 20 races on the schedule, competing on superspeedways, intermediate ovals, short ovals, natural terrain road courses, and temporary street circuits across five countries and three continents.

## See Also

* 2021 AT&T Champ Car World Series season, the following season of premier open wheel racing in the U.S.
* 2020 Indianapolis 500.