No ‘short-term’ expansion plans for Penske in V8s

Reports surfaced earlier this month suggesting the Penske squad could expand to three cars next season should it be able to sign in-demand young gun Scott McLaughlin.

While expansion is not out of the question for DJRTP in the future, managing director Ryan Story told Motorsport.com that there are no short-term plans to go beyond the two-car model, particularly having only just for the 2016 season re-expanded from a single-car set-up.

“Certainly not in the short-term,” said Story when asked if three cars was a plausible concept.

“ As Tim [Cindric] eluded to in Adelaide, that’s the sort of thing that you might look at it if all of the stars were in alignment, and if that was the right decision for the team to go forward.

“And that’s something that Team Penske is not unfamiliar with, with the programme they’ve put together in IndyCar – firstly with Juan-Pablo Montoya expanding to a three-car team and then Simon Pagenaud to a four-car team.

“So it’s not something that we’ll categorically rule out, but it’s not something we’re thinking about either.”

Should DJRTP opt to stick with its two-car programme for 2017, that would mean either retaining it’s current driver line-up of Fabian Coulthard and Scott Pye, or replacing single-year signing Pye with McLaughlin.

As reported by Motorsport.com last week, DJRTP says it is not yet ready to make any firm decisions on drivers this early into the current season.