James Hinchcliffe will be back behind the wheel full-time for the 2021 IndyCar season, returning to Andretti Autosport after racing with the team back in 2012.
Despite having a deal in place for 2019, Hinchcliffe learned that his driving services would not be required by Schmidt Peterson Motorsports who favoured Pato O’Ward and Oliver Askew in 2020 as the team linked up with McLaren.
When he couldn’t find a ride on such short notice and shifted into commentating duties for NBC Sports, many questioned whether his driving career was over after just nine seasons in IndyCar.
But ‘the Mayor of Hinchtown’ never considered walking away from the series as an option and went about searching for a team in order to get back behind the wheel as soon as possible.
“Honestly, I never really had that outlook because I was supposed to be on the grid,” revealed Hinchcliffe.
“I never thought that I should be anywhere else. The drive and the fight was always going to be there to come back, because that was the only option.
“It was a weird year for sure. But in a lot of ways, had it not happened the way it did, the opportunity that I find myself in now wouldn’t have presented itself.
“It’s one of those door close, window open deals, and I truly am a believer that everything happens for a reason, and there’s a reason it all played out the way that it did.
“I’m now back with a phenomenal race team with incredible partners like Genesis and Capstone. And yeah, there was nothing else to do.”
Hinchcliffe worked himself into a part-time driving arrangement with Andretti Autosport for six races in 2020, and the renewed partnership helped fuel talks that led to a return to full-time driving duties with his former team.
The charismatic Canadian found that having a wider perspective on the races trackside was beneficial and will look to use the added information to his advantage this upcoming season.
“I think one of the benefits of being on the TV side of things is you really get to see so much more of what happens during a race.
“When you’re in the car you know exactly what happened in one race: yours. If you watch the broadcast back after the fact, you see what was covered on the TV.
“But so much of what happens on the racetrack doesn’t make it into the show. You can actually pick up a lot of how people win races, how people lose races when you can sort of see the whole picture from being on-site there.
“There were events where I picked up a couple of notes and things that will apply to the year, but I’m definitely looking forward to having the helmet on instead of the headset.”
