Dale Coyne Racing confirms Romain Grosjean for IndyCar 2026

Romain Grosjean will return to the NTT IndyCar Series in 2026 with Dale Coyne Racing, the same team with which he debuted in the category five years ago. The Frenchman's confirmation, announced this February 13, closes the last available seat on the grid for the season that kicks off on March 1st in St. Petersburg. Grosjean will drive the Honda #18 and will share the team with Dennis Hauger, the 2025 Indy NXT by Firestone champion, who will make his category debut with the #19. Dale Coyne, the team owner, bet on Grosjean five years ago when he needed to recover from the most violent accident in recent Formula 1, and now he trusts him again to build a competitive program alongside the Norwegian driver.

The first season under the weight of Bahrain

Grosjean arrived at Dale Coyne Racing in 2021 under circumstances no other IndyCar driver has faced in decades. Just eight months earlier, his Formula 1 car split in two and burst into flames upon impact with the barriers at the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2020 at over 200 km/h. The burns on his hands required months of physiotherapy and recovery, which limited his preparation for the new category. For this reason, Grosjean and the team decided to run only 13 races, focusing on permanent circuits and ovals, avoiding street courses where the risk of contact with the barriers is higher and emergency exits are limited. Despite the partial schedule and learning a completely new category, he achieved a pole position at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and three podiums that validated his speed. He finished 15th in the championship, but his points-per-race average would have placed him in the top 10 if extrapolated to a full season.

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Two years at Andretti with similar results

In 2022 and 2023, Grosjean made the step to Andretti Autosport, one of the teams with the most winning history in IndyCar. The results were virtually identical: 13th in the championship in both seasons. During those two years, he accumulated several podiums, including second place at Long Beach in 2022, and achieved poles that demonstrated his ability to extract the maximum in qualifying. Race-to-race consistency was the variable factor, alternating top-5 finishes with mechanical retirements or accidents that left him out of the points. He never won a race during that period, something that was also true for several of his Andretti teammates.

The move to Juncos Hollinger in 2024

The transition to Juncos Hollinger Racing in 2024 took him to a growing team but with fewer resources than the main contenders. Grosjean finished 17th in the championship, with no podiums or poles throughout the season. There were occasional top-10 finishes when the car performed well, but the gap to the big teams was evident on most race weekends, especially in qualifying where the differences in engine and setup are amplified.

A year in endurance and as a reserve

The 2025 season was the first time since his arrival in IndyCar that Grosjean was left without a full-time seat. He competed in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a Lamborghini SC63 LMDh for Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse, where he raced endurance prototypes at circuits like Daytona and Sebring. The program will not continue in 2026, leaving Grosjean with no clear options in that category. During that year, he remained linked to IndyCar as a reserve driver and participated in pre-season testing at Sebring with Dale Coyne Racing in early 2026, where he worked with the team's engineers and readapted to the Honda.

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Return to the starting point with Hauger as teammate

Grosjean, with 179 Formula 1 Grands Prix and 10 podiums on his resume, returns to the team where he had his best results in IndyCar. In four seasons in the American series, he has never won, although he has five second-place finishes. Hauger arrives with the Indy NXT championship, the development category where he demonstrated speed and consistency in 2025. The combination seeks to leverage Grosjean's experience in setup development and knowledge of each circuit on the calendar, with the Norwegian's speed and hunger for results.

The 2026 season will have 17 races spread across ovals, permanent circuits, and street courses. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida will be the first race on Sunday, March 1st.