As an IndyCar driver Rick Mears was one of the greatest ever and remains the last driver to win the Indianapolis 500 four times. Since he retired following the 1992 season Mears as remained with Team Penske in a vital capacity as driver coach and spotter that has allowed him to work with some great drivers in a different capacity.
With the addition of Simon Pagenaud Team Penske is a full-time, four-driver IndyCar team for the first time and Mears gets a chance to work with another driver who has the potential to be one of the greats in the sport.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Mears said. “I think he is going to be very good for the team and he is going to fit right in. He is obviously very talented. I think he is going to be a real asset to our operation and help strengthen the team even more. I’m looking forward to working with him on it.
“It’s going to be good.”
From what Mears has seen of Pagenaud during his time at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports he believes he is a real “racer.” And to do that with a smaller team at SPM Mears believes he can accomplish even more at Team Penske.
“I don’t want to take away anything from Sam’s team but with what he learned at that team I think that points to Simon’s ability to help sort a car and help figure out what the car needs and take it to the next level,” Mears said. “It tells me he has a good feel for the car and that is very important because it goes along with not just setting the car up but running it in the race and saving the tires and being flexible in the race. Doing what he has done points towards that.
“That is another big plus. When you have the caliber of the drivers we have and all pulling together and all having that ability to be able to sort cars like that and work with our engineers and give them the feedback they need. They can go off on one trail and another driver can go off and try something different and still another driver try something else, then they can all come back and put their heads together and sort through and figure the best of both. I think that will be one of his strong suits and assets to the team.”
Pagenaud joins an outstanding collection of drivers at Team Penske that includes 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves and 1999 CART champion, 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner, former Formula One driver and former NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
While those three drivers have enjoyed tremendous success the fourth driver promises to add even more success to team owner Roger Penske’s operation.
“Roger has always been flexible,” Mears said. “We have a pretty good record of what it takes to make it happen and what it takes to add another car. I think it is just going to make the team stronger.”
It’s also an interesting collection of diverse personalities with Power from Australia, Castroneves from Brazil, Montoya from Colombia and Pagenaud from France.
Mears, who comes from Bakersfield, California, gets to work with all of them.
“Fortunately, everybody speaks English because that is all I speak,” Mears said. “Racing has a language of its own. Part of my job description is when we have a new driver come in from another team and work with an engineer they have their own language and terminology. When a new driver comes in they use terms they are used to and me, as a former driver, if they say something about the car in terms my guys aren’t used to hearing and I know what he means I can help out with that.
“Different languages but racing is a language of its own.”