ECR Rookie Rinus Veekay

Photo Credit: Ed Carpenter Racing

The 2020 IndyCar Series is full of good stories, but the Rookie of the Year (ROTY) battle is arguably one of the best. Coming at a time when the series is on the verge of a generational shift, the trio of Rinus VeeKay, Oliver Askew and Alex Palou present a tantalizing view at the future of the sport. Together with other notable recent arrivals such as Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, a new group of young hotshots is shaping up to take the championship fight to Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi once veterans like Scott Dixon and Will Power retire.

While it would be obvious for headline writers to focus on another VeeKay-Askew battle following their Road to Indy rivalry, VeeKay himself actually sees Dale Coyne’s Spanish ace Palou as his main competitor for ROTY. “I think he will be the man to beat, to be honest. It’s a bit difficult to say, but he has been very strong in Europe and Japan. I do think Askew and Arrow McLaren SP will be fast as well, but Palou is going to be a very tough competitor,” says VeeKay.

Asked about that rivalry with Askew, he admits there is one but that it is also easily exaggerated. “In the end you do wish for the best for each other, as long as he is behind you, haha!” Then, more seriously: “I think his main strength is in running up front. When he can focus on his own race, he is incredibly strong. I think my strength over him lies in pure racing, passing other drivers. I am a bit more aggressive, and probably a better racer than a qualifier. That is one area I need to improve on, those quick one laps.”

While the ROTY battle is an interesting one, VeeKay himself is already looking beyond that. When presented with the choice between winning the ROTY title without race wins and winning races but not the rookie title, he doesn’t miss a beat: “Definitely winning races in my first year, as a teenager. I mean, eventually no one remembers that Rookie of the Year title.”

It is testament to his ambition. Late last year he said a number of times that he aims to drive for Penske within three years. Ask him about that now, and he steers clear of repeating it, instead issuing a vote of confidence in his new employer. “Of course, in recent years ECR did not always seem competitive enough. But I can tell there is so much potential here. Sure, Penske is the team to beat, but I really think we can make a big jump forward with the team.”

For 2020 he signed a one-year contract at ECR, and confirms there is an option for extension if both parties agree. “But it’s the results that count. We need to look at the results,” he says. Who holds which option remains unclear and VeeKay remains tight-lipped about other details, but you’d be forgiven for thinking that he is the one who holds all the cards. You get the feeling that in his mind, it is the team that has to deliver to him, rather than the other way around. Because there is not a doubt in his mind that he will bring the goods.

This is also a good moment to take away a misconception about how he got his contract. At the time of his announcement, back in mid-November, ECR had announced just a few days earlier it was parting ways with Spencer Pigot. To many it seemed like the affable young American, known for his speed as well as his lack of personal funding, was exchanged for a Dutch hotshot walking into the ECR shop with a few million euros in his back pocket. Comments about VeeKay being a “ride buyer” popped up on social media, putting him on par with some of IndyCar’s lesser gods of the past.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Motor racing requires funding and drivers securing a seat without any money are the exception to the rule, Pigot being one of them. While it is true that VeeKay receives some support from Dutch firms such as food conglomerate Jumbo and fitness group Basic Fit, the #21 entry is largely funded by ECR’s existing sponsors Sonax USA and Autogeek.com – the same sponsors that allowed for Pigot to spend two years as the team’s lead driver.

So why do Big Ed and his backers put their lead driver eggs in the basket of a 19-year old Dutchman? Because he is bloody fast, that’s why.

VeeKay says it almost matter-of-factly. “I am someone who gets up to speed pretty quickly, quicker than most other drivers.” Indeed he is. He needed only one year on each rung of the Road to Indy ladder to learn what needed to be learned, racking up victories, pole positions and an Indy Pro 2000 (formerly Pro Mazda) title along the way. Sixteen wins and thirty-six podiums in less than fifty races underline the fact that Rinus VeeKay is not your average rookie.

He seems somewhat bemused when I ask him how he does it. Struggles to answer at first. “Pooh, that’s a tough question. I guess you either have it or not, haha.” And yet, there must be some method to it. Some general approach he follows when first getting into a new car?

“I usually drive in a way that I think approaches the limits of the car, without going over it,” he says, trying to explain his MO. “I often miss my braking points pretty much everywhere in the first few laps, but after that I know where the limit is. You know where you can brake a bit less, hit the gas a bit earlier, enter the turn a bit faster.” Above all, he is not much of a thinker behind the wheel, preferring to feel his way around in an intuitive way. “The less I think, the better I drive.” And then he reveals: “When I am really in a flow, I often sing to myself inside my helmet!”

It is that natural ability that endeared him to team owner Ed Carpenter during his first IndyCar test in Portland, and then in a follow-up test in Mid-Ohio. It also ensured, as Carpenter told Racer.com following the Portland test, that VeeKay was comfortable in the car almost straightaway and able to give good feedback to the engineers. That in turn allowed the team to gather a lot of valuable data, rather than spending lots of time getting the driver comfortable. For a small team like ECR, which has a lot less data to work with than larger outfits like Penske and Andretti, that is a good thing.

VeeKay confirms that narrative. “I remember getting into the tub for the seat fitting, and even though I hadn’t driven a lap yet, I immediately felt at home. More than in any other car before,” he recalls. “And already in my first or second run at Portland, I was really pushing the car and getting on the limit.” During the Portland test he managed to give Rossi and Hunter-Reay a run for their money on new tires, while his fastest time at Mid-Ohio would have landed him a front row start at that year’s Honda 200.