NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference
Thursday May 22, 2025
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Robert Shwartzman – PREMA Racing
Starts 1st
THE MODERATOR: Robert, what has the last several days been like for you?
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: Very busy. Yeah, it’s good to be that busy, let’s say I’m very happy. Actually, I’m extremely happy. It’s still quite an unbelievable thing that happened on Sunday.
Like the guys said, we’re all trying to now focus on the race and try to get our best from the car to have the most comfortable environment starting the race.
It’s 200 laps. Probably the conditions are going to be changing a bit. From what I’ve seen, I’ve never raced on the oval, but you can get a bit of traffic. We’ll try to find a good way for having a good car for all of these conditions.
We need to use wisely this Carb Day. I like the name of it, it’s actually fun day. I come from karting. We used to have a lot of playing with carburetors. Carb Day is quite cool.
We’ll see how we’re going to go on Sunday. We’ll have two guys quite experienced, one guy that won twice, one guy that really wants to win. Big hunger. Twice super close to winning it. For sure it’s going to be a big challenge for me, but at the same time I want to learn, I want to experience, I want things going smooth.
I try to be calm throughout all the race. From what we’ve seen, the race is decided on the last lap. Just hopefully be there at the top battling with the guys for the win.
THE MODERATOR: No better way to start your first 500.
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: Big responsibility. You see 350,000 people, it’s quite impressive. We come here to race and win and do our best. Whenever there is a green flag, it’s just full focus on the front.
Q. Robert, you knew when you won the Indianapolis 500 pole it was a huge accomplishment. After what you’ve been through the last couple days, has it been jaw-dropping the experience, the notoriety that has come with it?
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: Well, I mean, I don’t even know how to answer that question.
It obviously feels amazing. I’ve never felt such a great qualifying in my entire career. I come from Europe. Normally qualifying, it’s important, but it’s never something that stands out so much. The next day you go race. Here it seems like it’s a different event. The whole race separates in two phases. There is one that is qualifying, another one is the race.
It’s unique. It’s the only where I’ve seen that so far. It’s just awesome. Honestly the whole vibe and fans that come here to watch qualifying, support drivers, support us, it’s just awesome, honestly.
Obviously I was very happy and tired at the same time doing so many interviews, having so many questions. I will still probably do quite a bit. But yeah, this is part of the job and I’m looking forward for it.
Q. Robert, have you heard from any recording studios?
PATO O’WARD: I saw TikTok.
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: It just doesn’t leave me now. (Smiling). Not yet. Trying to focus on Indy 500. I hope eventually at some point some cool studio or Colares is going to contact me. Maybe I’ll get a couple of guys as well on the beat.
I heard Colton is good on drums or something.
PATO O’WARD: Will Power also.
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: Probably will take couple of guys with me to the studio to do an Indy 500 song or something like that.
Q. Have you noticed any additional views, bump in any of your socials?
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: Quite a bit, yeah. For sure. I mean, it’s such a big event here. I’ve had a lot of — I was coming from Europe, so like 90% of my following are people who were following me from Italy, Ferrari, or Europe because that’s where I was performing, showing myself.
When I come here in the U.S., especially in the beginning, not many people knew who I was or my story. Step by step I was trying to get them to know me a bit. Especially that’s the whole qualifying thing, it was just a big hit for everybody. Who is this guy? Out of nowhere I just pop up. This is interesting.
For sure there was a good, let’s say, amount of people that started to know me. I’m happy about that. I always wanted to have an American fan base, as well. If you see Pato or Takuma, they have a lot of people that follow them, support them. They’ve raced here. It was also for me to become at their level, but also to represent my country, battle with them and have a lot of funs here in the U.S.
Q. Robert, after winning the pole, you didn’t get out of here till very late at night. Were you surprised at how much you had to do after all of that, the last couple days?
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: Yeah, initially before qualifying I thought we’ll finish it on Sunday, then we’re going to have a couple of days of chilling, relaxing, then focusing on the race. All of a sudden I take pole position. The moment I jump out of the car, they stick the camera right in front of my face and say, Let’s go. I couldn’t even see my team. It was just so fast. They brought me in here. There was interview after interview. It was just crazy.
I finish at 11:00, arrive at home at 12:00. The next morning I had to wake up at 6:00 because at 7:00 I had already another interview. And from then on it just started again.
So this amount, a lot of, let’s say, talking and interviews and podcasts and videos and stuff, I’ve never experienced in my life, in my career, that amount. In F1 they hit quite a bit, but it was way shorter. It was not as big as you guys have it here.
Q. Going into your first 500, you have a lot of veterans that are around the paddock that you can talk to. What has been the best piece of advice you’ve been given and who gave you that advice?
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: There is quite a few drivers that have talked to me, just generally tried to sort of give an advice.
I wasn’t there in the garage, but at some point Will Power showed up to the garage and spoke with my engineer because my engineer worked in Penske before. He sort of give him probably more of an advice that it’s getting quite cool in the qualifying top six, so get ready to have a different car balance. It’s going to be more grip. It was a good thing for us to also have a bit of info from his side.
There was Scott McLaughlin, who was also giving some tips and tricks what he have done in the past. There was a lot of drivers that give their support. It’s another thing that is quite impressive here.
When I was in Europe, it seemed that all of the drivers were just against each other. There was nobody talking, nobody helping. There was so much tension between drivers. I understand why. When you’re going to Formula 3, Formula 2, you want to stand out to get the chance in Formula 1. You need to show yourself as something special. Therefore the mentality of drivers were different.
Here it seems that everybody is way more supportive. It’s may more enjoyable. It’s a competition, but at the same time it’s way more respectful, let’s say. I really like it.
Q. How was it milking that cow?
PATO O’WARD: I’m jealous. I wanted to do that. I’ve never milked a cow.
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: That’s maybe what you need to have a proper good luck for winning the Indy 500. The woman, she came to me and said, The people who didn’t milk the cow, they never won Indy 500, and they were like DNF. It’s a bad luck. Whoever milk the cow. Alexander Rossi did it. He won the 500. You have to milk the cow.
PATO O’WARD: I’m going find a cow, and I’m going to milk it tonight.
TAKUMA SATO: I didn’t do that. There are some other ways you can get away with that (smiling).
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: You can always ask for milking a cow. Maybe next year ask for it.
PATO O’WARD: Get my own cow.
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: The cow name was Indy. I got to meet her. She was very calm and cute. First you need to pet her a bit, get comfy with her.
As I said, try next year. Whenever I came to her, she was ready. She explain to me the technique. It was working well.
Again, I don’t know. I don’t know how it works there. But it was a lot of fun. It was good. It was good.
PATO O’WARD: Did you try it?
ROBERT SHWARTZMAN: The milk? No, I didn’t try it, man.
About General Motors
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.
