American driver Santino Ferrucci will take part in two more races in the Verizon IndyCar Series this season.
Ferrucci made his début in the championship in June in the Detroit doubleheader with Dale Coyne Racing. The team announced on Friday that he will return to the series next month for two more races at Portland and Sonoma.
“We were very impressed with Santino at Detroit this year," said team owner Dale Coyne. "Not just by his performance behind the wheel, but also by his professionalism and maturity outside of the race car.
"We’ve had lengthy discussions with Santino in the past few months and we’re excited to have him back for the final two rounds of the season.
“We look forward to seeing what he will do with this opportunity as he gets back behind the wheel of an IndyCar," he added.
It means that the team will field three cars for the two events. Ferrucci will be lining up alongside team mates Sebastien Bourdais and Pietro Fittipaldi.
His first IndyCar outing earlier this year came to a premature end following a collision with Charlie Kimball. He finished in 20th position on his second attempt, after another collision this time with Spencer Pigot.
Ferrucci's 2018 calendar had been freed up somewhat after he was dropped by Formula 2 team Trident.
It followed a series of incidents that took place at Silverstone. He deliberately ran into his team mate Arjun Maini on a post-race cool-down lap, and then drove to the paddock while talking on a mobile phone having removed one of his racing gloves.
The multiple breaches of sporting regulations earned him a two-weekend race ban from F2 race stewards. Trident went further and said they were dropping him altogether.
However Ferrucci has so far been retained by Formula 1 team Haas in his role as development driver. Principal Guenther Steiner said that he would make a decision about the 20-year-old's future with the American squad in due course.
Ferrucci himself was just happy to put a difficult period behind him and get back to racing next month.
“I am extremely grateful to Dale and everyone at Dale Coyne Racing for giving me this opportunity to get back behind the wheel of an Indy car in Portland and Sonoma,” Ferrucci said.
“I truly enjoyed my time with Dale Coyne Racing in Detroit earlier this season," he added.
"I couldn’t be more excited to be back with them for a couple more races, as I look to the future and enter the next chapter of my career.
"I’m also excited to be bringing my long-time sponsor Cly-Del on board and introducing them to the world of IndyCar racing."
Next year will see IndyCar introduce a superlicence system similar to that operated by the FIA for Formula 1. Details of the exact criteria are unclear, but as things stand it seems likely that Ferrucci would struggle to get the necessary points to qualify him for a full-season campaign.
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