ECR announces organisational changes to better its 2026 IndyCar programme, as Phil Hanson gets factory Ferrari WEC drive.
ECR announced today a series of organizational improvements and team growth ahead of the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES. The Indianapolis-based race team heads into Season Fifteen on the heels of its best campaign in several years, highlighted by Christian Rasmussen’s victory at the Milwaukee Mile. ECR will strive for more in 2026 with an expanded leadership team, a more robust engineering department, and an increased emphasis on pit lane performance.
Owner and Chairman Ted Gelov joined the team prior to the 2025 season and continues to guide the organization through a rejuvenated era. Co-owner Ed Carpenter also serves as CEO, making him the only individual in the 33-car Indianapolis 500 field who handles both the responsibility of driving the racecar while owning and operating his own team. From ECR’s inception, the team has operated under the direction of Team President Tim Broyles. He became the organization’s first employee in late 2011 and shaped the program into a race-winning operation within its first year. Broyles is one of the most experienced individuals in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES paddock, now in his 38th year of working in professional motorsports.
Joining the competition management side of the team is Derek Davidson, who works alongside Broyles as Team Manager. Davidson was an accomplished USAC racer before beginning his INDYCAR career as a fabricator, mechanic and Crew Chief. Over the past 20 years, Davidson worked his way up through the ranks of race team operations. He spent the last decade in team management roles before joining ECR’s leadership.
After serving as Race Engineer for one of ECR’s two entries and most recently as Chief Engineer, Matt Barnes will step into the role of Vice President of Competition. Drawing on 23 years of expertise, he now oversees all aspects of the engineering department. Like Broyles, Barnes joined ECR before the team’s first season and is one of the 10 original hires still with the organization. With Barnes assuming management of the engineering department, Quentin Montigaud has been promoted to Race Engineer of Alexander Rossi’s No. 20 Chevrolet. Montigaud, from France, began his engineering career nine years ago in Formula E. He has spent his entire INDYCAR career with ECR and was most recently Performance Engineer on the No. 20.
As Montigaud begins his first season as Race Engineer, he will have the guidance of both Barnes and Pete Craik. Craik will remain Race Engineer of the No. 21, a role he has held since Rasmussen’s first race at ECR. The Australian began his career in Supercars before moving to the United States and has spent 19 years engineering Supercars, INDYCAR, and NASCAR. He has led of one of ECR’s two entries as Race Engineer for the past seven years.
ECR’s engineering department gains additional depth with the addition of Robert Gue. A 23-year motorsports engineering veteran, Gue will lead development efforts for the team as Senior Project Engineer. With an increased emphasis on pit lane performance, ECR has added a full-time Strength and Conditioning Coach. Before joining ECR, Chase Campbell worked with collegiate and professional athletes for 10 years. He leads routine workouts for the No. 20 and No. 21 crews, as well as open lift sessions for all team members. Campbell also oversees daily pit stop practice for both crews and serves as the team’s Pit Stop Coach.
Additionally, he has taken on the role of Strength and Conditioning Coach for Carpenter, Rasmussen, and Rossi. Rasmussen and Rossi will be on track for the first time this year at Phoenix International Raceway on February 17-18 as part of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Open Test. The 2026 season begins in the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., on Sunday, March 1.
Phil Hanson –
Ferrari announces the multi-year signing, starting from the 2026 season, of Phil Hanson, who will join the ranks of the Manufacturer’s official drivers competing in major international endurance competitions. The Briton, born in London on 5 July 1999 and winner of the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans with the number 83 499P, after a season as a driver for the privateer team AF Corse thus joins the Prancing Horse family.
Hanson will therefore be able to continue a journey that has already seen him celebrate, in addition to the aforementioned victory in the world’s oldest and most prestigious endurance race, second place in the 2025 FIA WEC Drivers’ championship, and the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams for independent squads, thanks to the results achieved for AF Corse with Ferrari official driver Yifei Ye and with Robert Kubica.
Phil Hanson’s sporting CV includes his two wins at the Circuit de la Sarthe: in 2025, as mentioned, the Briton took the win in the overall standings, securing the third consecutive win for the 499P; previously, in 2020, he had taken the class win with LMP2 prototypes. The Briton’s trophy cabinet boasts five titles: in the Britcar Endurance Championship (2016); and in the Asian Le Mans Series in the LMP3 (2016-17) and LMP2 (2018-19) classes; in the European Le Mans Series (2020) and in the FIA WEC (2019-20), the latter two both all with LMP2 prototypes. To these is added the previously mentioned title for independent teams with AF Corse, in the 2025 FIA WEC.
After developing through karting, where in 2015 he won the Super One Junior X30 championship, in 2016 Hanson began racing with prototypes in the LMP3 class, a category in which he went on to secure two victories and four podium finishes – from as many races – in the 2018 and 2019 European Le Mans Series. In 2019–20 Phil Hanson made his FIA WEC debut, recording his first victory in Bahrain before winning at Le Mans. It was an unforgettable couple of years for the British driver, who celebrated success with LMP2 prototypes both in the FIA WEC and in the ELMS; in the latter championship he stood out thanks to a record 11 wins plus eight further podiums across eight seasons.
From 2021 the driver continued to compete in the World Endurance Championship. His step up to the top class of endurance racing came in 2024, when Phil Hanson drove an LMDh entered among the FIA WEC Hypercars and also competed with the same car in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. His continued upward trajectory and outstanding results earned him the opportunity, in 2025, to drive the number 83 Ferrari 499P together with Ye and Kubica: the trio, as mentioned, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and secured the first title claimed by the 499P itself, the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams, celebrated by the team at the Lone Star Le Mans contested at COTA (USA). During the season, the Giallo Modena-liveried 499P achieved one overall victory and another overall podium finish (in Qatar), as well as a pole position at Austin.
Phil Hanson: “I am immensely proud to join Ferrari as an official factory driver and to continue my journey in the FIA WEC. I have admired Ferrari since I was a kid, but it wasn’t until working alongside Ferrari in 2025 that I came to appreciate the team’s relentless pursuit of winning. I am honored to be able to continue to build on the success achieved last season, but above all to become part of the Prancing Horse family.”
Antonello Coletta, Global Head of Ferrari Endurance and Corse Clienti: “After a successful season with the AF Corse team, during which he not only won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the number 83 499P but also showed consistency and excellent performance throughout the championship, finishing second in the Drivers’ World Championship standings with his teammates, Phil has earned Ferrari’s full confidence. We are therefore delighted to welcome him into our family as part of the group of official drivers, convinced that the journey we are about to undertake will continue to be successful, just like the 2025 season.”
[The story is as per press release]