Oriol Servia has rejoined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for the 2017 Indianapolis 500, although there is hope the deal can be extended to include other races, with the ultimate aim of giving the Spaniard a full season in the car.
The association between the driver and team goes all the way back to 2009 when Servia raced in the Indy 500, before returning for three races together in 2014 and then again in the 2015 Indy 500, but the veteran Spaniard has long been courted by the team as a team-mate to Graham Rahal for 2017.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be back with Bobby [Rahal], Mike [Lanigan] and my second father Mr. Letterman for the 2017 Indy 500,” said Servia. “We’ve done it before and had some success but both the team and myself are only doing this because we feel we can contend for the win together.
“Since Day 1 in 2009, working with Graham as a team-mate has been great and now at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, it just feels like a family. The team has been the best Honda entry the past two years and the objective would be to continue to make the team even better in order to fight the multi car teams at Indy and also hopefully for the entire season.
“We feel that together we can do that. I can’t wait to get started. We plan to go for the win at the Indy 500 and at as many other races as we can.”
Bobby Rahal believes Servia is a great fit in the team alongside his son Graham, and feels the Spaniard’s ability to develop the car will hugely benefit the team, who have been a one-car outfit for the past two seasons.
“Oriol is a talented driver who brings value beyond what takes place on the race track,” said Rahal. “His race craft is that of a veteran obviously but more important than that is his ability to develop the race car and as a one car team fighting the multi-car teams the last few years, that is a big benefit.
“We have a great chemistry at our team and Oriol fits nicely into our program.”
The team have also announced that veteran engineer Tom German has joined them as an engineering consultant, and Rahal feels his appointment will aid the development of the team much like the addition of Servia as a second driver will.
“We are very pleased to welcome Tom to our team.” said Rahal. “His record speaks volumes and I have no doubt having Tom work in conjunction with Eddie Jones, Martin Pare, Mike Talbott and Alex Farina will generate much success for all of our drivers, now and in the future.”
