Michael Cannon, the real key man of the transfer window?

However, Canadian Michael Cannon did indeed start his career in a racing seat, notably in a Formula Ford in his native country. But in 1998, he chose to hang up his helmet and focus on a career as an engineer. Since then, he has built a reputation as a true "wizard", particularly in the context of the Indianapolis 500. After starting at Forsythe in CART, he headed to HVM Racing in Champ Car before joining theIndyCar via KV Racing Technology. It was his stints at Ed Carpenter Racing, Andretti Autosport and Dale Coyne Racing that greatly contributed to Cannon's reputation.

He was indeed one of the architects of the latter's transformation, from a team at the bottom of the table to a force that could regularly fight for victories. Present from 2014 to 2019 in Dale Coyne's team, he saw drivers like Justin Wilson, Ed Jones (third in the Indy 500 as a rookie in 2017) and Santino Ferrucci pass through, on whom he made a great impression. At the start of 2020, he became the race engineer for Scott Dixon, a true IndyCar legend. And unsurprisingly, the combination of the two men allowed them to win the championship title in 2020, and for the team as a whole to become the dominant force at the Indianapolis 500.

Marcus Ericsson's 2022 win was the highlight of the Speedway collaboration, but Dixon's back-to-back poles in 2021 and 2022 were also on the list, as was Alex Palou's 2023 win, who continued to benefit from Cannon's techniques despite his departure at the end of 2022. Quite simply, with a little more luck, Ganassi could have won all three Indy 500s in which Michael Cannon was involved, with Dixon finishing second in 2020 to Takuma Sato, and Palou finishing second the following year to Helio Castroneves.

But all this can be seen as "simple" within one of the best structures in the championship. So at the start of 2023, Michael Cannon, persuaded by his former driver Santino Ferrucci, joined AJ Foyt's small team. Stuck for several seasons at the back of the pack, the Texan team tried everything to move up the standings, and it paid off, with Ferrucci finishing tenth in the 2024 championship, with a pole position in Portland. And in Indianapolis, it was simply in third place that he finished the race in 2023, after years where Foyt, four-time winner of the event as a driver, had to see his team fight for positions in the top 20.

The most sought-after man in the transfer window?

It's no coincidence that Team Penske entered into a technical alliance with Foyt, before placing its three single-seaters on the front row of the Indy 500 this year. So when Cannon announced his departure from his post at the end of the year, he became the most sought-after person on the transfer market. Today, two teams would benefit the most from Cannon's impact, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and PREMA Racing.

For the first, the interest lies in one word and one number: Indy 500. Bobby Rahal's team, winner of the event in 1986, is at its worst level in Indianapolis in recent seasons, after winning the event in 2020 with Takuma Sato. Graham Rahal, the figurehead of the team, failed to qualify for the 2023 edition, and this year again, it was around 33th place on the grid that we found the RLL cars, Graham Rahal narrowly getting through, in 2023rd position. Given Michael Cannon's performances on the Speedway, it would be more than logical to want to recruit him, in order to get back on track a program that has proven to be able to still perform well on road circuits, notably with Christian Lundgaard's victory on the streets of Toronto in XNUMX.

But the team for which the arrival of the Canadian engineer could make even more sense is PREMA Racing. The Italian structure will make its debut in IndyCar next season with two cars, entrusted to Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman. Under the leadership of the experienced Piers Phillips, Team Manager, René Rosin's team wants to mix engineers who are familiar with IndyCar with personalities from the team in the European promotional formulas. The arrival of Michael Cannon, to oversee the team's engineering, would be the move that best represents the ambition of the team, which has not come to play second fiddle, and which wants to continue a tradition of victories that has been known for a long time on the Old Continent. The most persistent rumors also point to a marriage between Cannon and PREMA...

The "wizard" could, in both cases, play his favorite card again, and allow a team to move up the hierarchy, or another to surprise everyone in its first seasons in the category... The upcoming announcement of his new employer will in any case be closely scrutinized!

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