2023 AT&T Champ Car World Series season

2023 Champ Car season

The **2023 AT&T Champ Car World Series season** was the 24th season of Indycar World Championship competition, and the premier tier of the 111th season of American open wheel racing. The season's headlining event was the 110th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

The 2023 season marks the fourth of six seasons telecommunications conglomerate AT&T is contracted to sponsor the series. AT&T began sponsoring the series in 2020.

## Background

The 2023 season was the second season to use the AAI IR-22 chassis, introduced in 2022 as a development of the original chassis. Firestone continued to be the sole tire supplier of the series, in a tradition dating back to 1996.

### Rule Changes

#### Technical Regulations

* The 2023 season will be the final season to feature the usage of ethanol fuel. Beginning in 2024, the series will pivot to butanol, a biofuel that has the ability to be more efficient and more carbon-neutral. The change is part of Horizon Corporation's Neutral Initiative, which pledges itself to bringing Champ Car to a carbon neutral status by 2030.
* Push to Pass will return in 2023, marking the first time since 2004 that the system will be featured in the World Championship. The new push to pass system will allow access to 200 seconds of an additional 15 brake horsepower on the road and street course events.
* In an effort to ease costs in a return to racing after the pandemic, car and powertrain development will be frozen until the 2024 season.

#### Sporting Regulations

* Beginning in 2023, the top 22 entries from the previous season will be locked in to every event outside of the Triple Crown. Those outside the top 22, in addition to any new teams, will be required to go through a pre-qualifying session.
* With pre-qualifying in effect, the layout of the race weekends will be altered. A 30-minute practice session will be held on Thursday evening exclusive to cars having to pre-qualify. Pre-qualifying itself will take place on Friday morning, with Free Practice 1 taking place Friday afternoon. Qualifying will take place on Saturday morning, with Free Practice 2 taking place Saturday afternoon.
* Returning in 2023 to fill calendar gaps still present in the aftermath of the 2022 global H1N1 pandemic will be double header weekends. There will be three in 2023, in Chicago, Valkenburg, and Toronto.
* In weekends where there are two races, a single pre-qualifying session will determine the final 28 car entry list for both races.

## 2023 Teams and Drivers

The following teams and drivers are contracted to compete in 2023 in some capacity.

### Team Changes

* After five years with Alpine-Renault engines, Panasonic Team Impulse will switch to Toyota, who supply the team in the GP1 Championship.

### Drivers Leaving

* Hazel Lacasse would depart Panasonic Team Impulse to join Alpine in the FICA Formula One World Championship.

### Drivers Joining

* Artyom Kozlov will return to the series in a full time capacity in 2023, after racing twice in 2021, and four times in 2022. They'll replace Sakura Ishibashi for Panasonic Team Impulse.
* Thomas Rogers returns to the full time grid in 2023 for Panasonic Team Impulse, filling the #2 left vacant by Hazel Lacasse. It'll be Rogers' first full time season in the series since 2019.
* Three-time NAMRA Cup Series champion, Wyatt Jones, joins the series with Ludwick Motorsports after 13 seasons in stock car competition.
* Kage Kobayashi joins Vantare Racing as the team expands to a two-car effort.

### Drivers Changing Teams

* Sakura Ishibashi will join Cat Devil Racing beginning with the 2023 season, having been informed prior to the 2022 season that her contract would not be renewed at Panasonic Team Impulse.

### Mid-Season Changes

* Fortune Racing made its first change of the 2023 season, having to call on Rex Riley to race in Phillip Island after a scheduling conflict prevented Rachel Woycick from taking part. Woycick would debut at the following race in Japan. Riley would return to the car at Nashville following a crash at Texas that forced Woycick to reconsider her position in the series.
* Panasonic Team Impulse announced that Asumi Matsuo would return to participate in a few races as part of a proper retirement tour that would begin at the race in Twin Ring Motegi.

## Calendar

The 2023 Champ Car schedule will be ratified on 1 December 2022 by the North American Motor Racing Association (NAMRA) and the Federation International Course d'Artificielle (FICA). The season is expected to be contested across 17 race weekends, competing on a variety of track types throughout the season across multiple countries and continents.

### Calendar Changes

* Following a vote from the team owners during the 2022 season, the season was extended from 20 races, to 22 races, the most in a season since the 2018 season. Per Horizon Corporation imposed limitations, the series calendar cannot expand beyond 22 event weekends, meaning any additional events beyond 2023 would have to come from the formation of double-header weekends, where a venue hosts two races in one weekend.
* For the first time in over 50 years, the Indianapolis 500 will not be held on the second Sunday in May. It will now move to the third Sunday in May, where the race was originally held from 1909 until 1941 and again from 1946 until 1970. An additional week of festivities have been added to the "Month of May" scheduling, including more media, dedicated Rookie Orientation Program sessions, and other support events.
* The city of Chicago, Illinois will host a street course event in mid-July. The 2.140 mile course will occupy the Loop, one of Chicago's 77 community areas. The 12-turn layout immediately drew comparisons to the former Cleveland street circuit, albeit narrower, and with an undulating left hand sweeper around Buckingham Fountain.
* For the first time in World Championship history, the series will visit Italy, with a race taking place at the legendary Autodromo di Monza near Milan. American open wheel racing had not visited the region since the 1960s, when the venue had an oval in use at the facility.
* There were initially plans for Champ Car to return to the streets of Long Beach for the first time since 2008. However, the 2022 global H1N1 pandemic placed those plans on hold. The Long Beach City Council would then go on to vote in favor of keeping sports cars as the marquee event, over a return of open wheel racing.
* Champ Car will race on the streets of Miami in 2023, adding a new marquee event before the Indianapolis 500. The 3.363 mile temporary circuit wraps around the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, and features 19 corners. The event is set to be a combination replacement of both Long Beach, which had been displaced after 2008, and St. Petersburg, which fell off the calendar in 2020.
* Champ Car racing will finally arrive to Night City, taking place within Arasaka Arena on the southern edge of the Night City metro area. The venue ordinarily is known by race fans as Dodge Raceway, but due to the manufacturer not being involved in the series, the megacorporation Arasaka will assume full naming rights for the venue and the event.

### Event Contract Updates

* Phillip Island renewed its contract following the 2022 event for a 1 year deal, with the sanctioning fee reduced on the heels of the 2022 pandemic. It is expected that Champ Car will move its Australian race elsewhere in 2024.
* Twin Ring Motegi will see the final year of its long running event take place in 2023, with track officials, and Champ Car series officials failing to come to terms on a new deal. Twin Ring Motegi hosted a round of every year of the World Championship from its inception in 2000 without missing a year.
* Texas Motor Speedway's owners have exercised a fifth year option to host its Champ Car event following the success of the 2022 event. Its contract now runs until the 2027 season.
* Horizon Corporation, and Citadel Promotions, the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, signed an extension to see the race continue as a part of the Champ Car calendar until at least 2035.
* Auto Club Speedway's owners expressed intent to negotiate an extension with the series to continue hosting the series finale beyond the venue's contract expiration in 2025.

## See Also

* 2022 AT&T Champ Car World Series season, the previous season of Indycar World Championship competition.