| Media Resources: Images | Media Advances | Chevrolet Newsroom |
| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESMission Foods Grand Prix Of Monterey2.238-mile, 11-turn Weather Raceway Laguna Seca road courseMonterey, CaliforniaFriday Practice ReportSeptember 4, 2026 MONTEREY, California (Sept. 4, 2026) – Pato O’Ward, a winner twice at Milwaukee Mile last weekend in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, continued his stellar run of form. The winner at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course earlier this year was the fastest Team Chevy driver on the Primary (Black) Firestone Firehawk racing tires and, on the Alternate (Red) Firestone Firehawk racing tires, ended as the third-quickest driver on the two types of tires. Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet ended up as the second-best driver wearing a Bowtie, and the fourth-best all-time. O’Ward was the quickest of the six Chevrolet-powered drivers in the first forty minutes, when all 25 drivers were eligible and spent the session on the Primary (Black) Firestone Firehawk racing tires. He was joined by Santino Ferrucci (No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet), Nolan Siegel (No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), Alexander Rossi (No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet), McLaughlin, and David Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) in the top 10. Mission Foods Grand Prix Of Monterey practice results: |
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| Christian Lundgaard gets the checkered flag at Road America in June |
| Road Course King? Team Chevy dominated the oval crown during the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, while similarly ceding the street circuit title to our competitors at Honda, leaving the title of road course king to be decided at the iconic WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Across the first five natural terrain road course races at Barber Motorsports Park, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Road America, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and Portland International Raceway, Team Chevy’s Christian Lundgaard, driving the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, leads series champion Álex Palou by six points on natural terrain road courses. The pair are 50 points clear of another Chevrolet-powered driver, David Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet), and by over 100 points clear of Rinus VeeKay (No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet), who has the ninth most points. Natural Terrain Road Course Points Through Five Natural Terrain Road Course Races |
| RANKDRIVERRD CSE PTS1Christian Lundgaard2072Álex Palou2013David Malukas1574Kyle Kirkwood1375Will Power1366Pato O’Ward1157Felix Rosenqvist1108Josef Newgarden1099Rinus VeeKay10710Graham Rahal10311Scott Dixon10212Kyffin Simpson9513Scott McLaughlin9414Marcus Ericsson8415Santino Ferrucci8216Marcus Armstrong7517Louis Foster7418Alexander Rossi7319Nolan Siegel7320Dennis Hauger – R6321Caio Collet – R6322Romain Grosjean5923Christian Rasmussen5424Mick Schumacher – R4925Sting Ray Robb48 |
| Lundgaard’s average finish of 3.0 includes a pair of wins at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and Road America, along with podiums at Barber Motorsports Park and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with a worst finish of ninth at Portland International Raceway. Palou’s average finish of 3.4 includes wins at Barber Motorsports Park and Portland International Raceway, along with a trio of fifth-place finishes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Road America and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Palou’s average starting position of 2.6 leads Lundgaard’s 10.4, with Lundgaard making up 49 total positions in the five races. Average Finishing Position Through Five Natural Terrain Road Course Races |
| 1Christian Lundgaard3.02Álex Palou3.43David Malukas5.64Kyle Kirkwood6.45Will Power7.46Josef Newgarden10.67Scott Dixon11.08Rinus VeeKay11.09Pato O’Ward11.810Felix Rosenqvist11.811Scott McLaughlin12.412Graham Rahal12.813Nolan Siegel13.614Santino Ferrucci14.215Marcus Ericsson14.216Louis Foster15.817Marcus Armstrong16.018Alexander Rossi16.219Kyffin Simpson16.820Caio Collet17.421Dennis Hauger17.822Romain Grosjean18.223Christian Rasmussen19.824Mick Schumacher20.225Sting Ray Robb20.4 |
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| Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet at the Mission Foods Grand Prix Of Monterey |
| NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference Friday, September 4, 2026Christian RasmussenPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Currently joined by Christian Rasmussen. Sixth quick in the group one session. Best finish of ninth last year last year at Laguna Seca. You claim this is the first time you’ve been in on a post-practice news conference. CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: True story (smiling). First time I’ve been invited. You should invite me (smiling). THE MODERATOR: What do you make of the start for your weekend? CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I think it was all right. Definitely found a lot of pace on the red tires. We were struggling a little bit on the blacks. Man, you only get one chance at it. The tire deg increases year to year here. That is no joke this year. Like, tire deg is very, very big. Once you’re past that first run, you’re never going to find that same lap time again. Felt decent on the reds. Yeah, I think we got some pace in it. THE MODERATOR: Might make things kind of spicy on Sunday. CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Usually makes for a good race, right? THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions. Q. Can you tell us something about the traffic situation here. Compared to any other kind of championship, especially in Europe, the INDYCAR season is ending very early. Do you have any other races coming up? CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I have nothing scheduled as of right now. I usually do Daytona start of the year, the 24 Hours. Planning to do that. That’s about it.You said the traffic situation? Q. Yes.CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: In the race? Q. Yes.CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Well, that’s a thing. Hopefully you’re not part of it and you’re the one going through it (smiling). No, I think it’s similar to other places. I could see that it might be a little bit more this year, if it’s super high deg, that some cars are going to fall off more than others. It’s a thing to manage. If you’re fast enough, you’re on the good side of it. Q. (No microphone.)CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Well, I think we’ve all seen the clip, right? I think there’s a couple year to year, right? It’s definitely a tough, tough passing zone. Q. There seems to be traffic everywhere except for the leader. A lot of times we see the leader start on the pole, run off into the distance. What can possibly be done to make it a more competitive race in terms of catching the leader?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Get a different leader (smiling).No, yeah, I don’t know. It’s a good question. But is it that much different than any other race with traffic? I think it’s very much a track length kind of a thing, right? I feel like anywhere we go, if it’s on a shorter track, there’s only going to be so many seconds between each car. I feel like it kind of evens out, right? Q. How valuable has it been for ECR to not have to worry about any driver lineup drama because everybody is known who is going to be back in 2027?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Yeah, a lot of stuff is going on out there right now. For me personally, it feels very nice to be locked in and just know that I’m going to stay with this organization for the foreseeable future. It excites me. It excites me where we’re going as a team. Again, this year has been super tough, but not necessarily the team’s fault all of it. Again, we’re still building. We’re still getting better. I think there’s a lot of opportunities for us to improve things for 2027, a lot of things in the works.I’m excited to see what’s ahead for us. Q. Do you put yourself in a decent enough position when it comes to the leaders circle that you can go out and race and not worry about points? If so, is this weekend about next year as much as this year?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I think this weekend is about taking ourselves in the off-season on a good note. I think obviously Milwaukee was super good for us in terms of the leaders circle. I mean, we’re not mathematically out of it, but we’re pretty safe, which is a good feeling. We’re just going into this weekend trying to get the maximum out of it, like we are every weekend, hopefully finish the year on a good note before we go into the off-season. Q. Good momentum entering this weekend with what happened in Milwaukee. What does that do heading into the off-season confidence-wise after the unfortunate season you had this year?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Again, it’s hard to say, right? There is so many times this year that, like, we’ve just been caught out being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like Markham where Dixon got spun right in front of us. Same thing in Detroit where we kind of got taken out from the back. I think both places we were fairly competitive. I think we have been competitive in a lot of places, but just haven’t really had the chance to show it.I think it’s just about bringing that into next year. Then again, yeah, hopefully finish the year off strong here. Yeah, hopefully finish off the season strong here so we have something to be proud of going into the off-season. Q. There’s been a lot of talk about the season finale. Where do you feel a season finale in INDYCAR belongs?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I love being out here on the west coast. Q. You mentioned tire deg and stuff like that. This practice session we just had is roughly about the same time as when the race is going to take place. Potentially look at the same type of heat range. The thing you see here a lot is people dipping a wheel off the edge of the track, gravel coming onto the track. Is that going to play a part in the tire deg scenario?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I don’t know. I think it’s just this place, like, year to year, you just see it. I was looking at it before the session, kind of was looking at Q2, Fast 12 times from year to year. It’s in between a second and second and a half slower from 2023 to 2024, and the same from 2024 to 2025. Every year I think the tarmac, I don’t know what it is. It’s really rough around here. It takes a big dip year to year. I think we’ll see the same this year. THE MODERATOR: Christian, thanks for coming in. |
| Tune-In GuideSaturday, September 5NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice #2 – 1pm (ET)/noon (CT)/11am (MT)/10am (PT) – FS2/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying – 4:30pm (ET)/3:30pm (CT)/2:30pm (MT)/1:30pm (PT) – FS2/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Final Practice – 8pm (ET)/ 7pm (CT)/6pm (MT)/5pm (PT) – FS2/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 Sunday, September 6 Mission Foods Grand Prix Of Monterey (95 laps) – 2:30pm (ET)/1:30pm (CT)12:30pm (MT)/11:30am (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218  |
| Christian Lundgaard (Arrow McLaren) celebrates on the podium at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 2025 |
| Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 2026 |
| Media Resources: Images | Media Advances | Chevrolet Newsroom |
| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESMission Foods Grand Prix Of Monterey2.238-mile, 11-turn Weather Raceway Laguna Seca road courseMonterey, CaliforniaFriday Practice ReportSeptember 4, 2026 MONTEREY, California (Sept. 4, 2026) – Pato O’Ward, a winner twice at Milwaukee Mile last weekend in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, continued his stellar run of form. The winner at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course earlier this year was the fastest Team Chevy driver on the Primary (Black) Firestone Firehawk racing tires and, on the Alternate (Red) Firestone Firehawk racing tires, ended as the third-quickest driver on the two types of tires. Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet ended up as the second-best driver wearing a Bowtie, and the fourth-best all-time. O’Ward was the quickest of the six Chevrolet-powered drivers in the first forty minutes, when all 25 drivers were eligible and spent the session on the Primary (Black) Firestone Firehawk racing tires. He was joined by Santino Ferrucci (No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet), Nolan Siegel (No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), Alexander Rossi (No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet), McLaughlin, and David Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) in the top 10. Mission Foods Grand Prix Of Monterey practice results: |
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| Christian Lundgaard gets the checkered flag at Road America in June |
| Road Course King? Team Chevy dominated the oval crown during the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, while similarly ceding the street circuit title to our competitors at Honda, leaving the title of road course king to be decided at the iconic WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Across the first five natural terrain road course races at Barber Motorsports Park, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Road America, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and Portland International Raceway, Team Chevy’s Christian Lundgaard, driving the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, leads series champion Álex Palou by six points on natural terrain road courses. The pair are 50 points clear of another Chevrolet-powered driver, David Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet), and by over 100 points clear of Rinus VeeKay (No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet), who has the ninth most points. Natural Terrain Road Course Points Through Five Natural Terrain Road Course Races |
| RANKDRIVERRD CSE PTS1Christian Lundgaard2072Álex Palou2013David Malukas1574Kyle Kirkwood1375Will Power1366Pato O’Ward1157Felix Rosenqvist1108Josef Newgarden1099Rinus VeeKay10710Graham Rahal10311Scott Dixon10212Kyffin Simpson9513Scott McLaughlin9414Marcus Ericsson8415Santino Ferrucci8216Marcus Armstrong7517Louis Foster7418Alexander Rossi7319Nolan Siegel7320Dennis Hauger – R6321Caio Collet – R6322Romain Grosjean5923Christian Rasmussen5424Mick Schumacher – R4925Sting Ray Robb48 |
| Lundgaard’s average finish of 3.0 includes a pair of wins at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and Road America, along with podiums at Barber Motorsports Park and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with a worst finish of ninth at Portland International Raceway. Palou’s average finish of 3.4 includes wins at Barber Motorsports Park and Portland International Raceway, along with a trio of fifth-place finishes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Road America and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Palou’s average starting position of 2.6 leads Lundgaard’s 10.4, with Lundgaard making up 49 total positions in the five races. Average Finishing Position Through Five Natural Terrain Road Course Races |
| 1Christian Lundgaard3.02Álex Palou3.43David Malukas5.64Kyle Kirkwood6.45Will Power7.46Josef Newgarden10.67Scott Dixon11.08Rinus VeeKay11.09Pato O’Ward11.810Felix Rosenqvist11.811Scott McLaughlin12.412Graham Rahal12.813Nolan Siegel13.614Santino Ferrucci14.215Marcus Ericsson14.216Louis Foster15.817Marcus Armstrong16.018Alexander Rossi16.219Kyffin Simpson16.820Caio Collet17.421Dennis Hauger17.822Romain Grosjean18.223Christian Rasmussen19.824Mick Schumacher20.225Sting Ray Robb20.4 |
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| Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet at the Mission Foods Grand Prix Of Monterey |
| NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference Friday, September 4, 2026Christian RasmussenPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Currently joined by Christian Rasmussen. Sixth quick in the group one session. Best finish of ninth last year last year at Laguna Seca. You claim this is the first time you’ve been in on a post-practice news conference. CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: True story (smiling). First time I’ve been invited. You should invite me (smiling). THE MODERATOR: What do you make of the start for your weekend? CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I think it was all right. Definitely found a lot of pace on the red tires. We were struggling a little bit on the blacks. Man, you only get one chance at it. The tire deg increases year to year here. That is no joke this year. Like, tire deg is very, very big. Once you’re past that first run, you’re never going to find that same lap time again. Felt decent on the reds. Yeah, I think we got some pace in it. THE MODERATOR: Might make things kind of spicy on Sunday. CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Usually makes for a good race, right? THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions. Q. Can you tell us something about the traffic situation here. Compared to any other kind of championship, especially in Europe, the INDYCAR season is ending very early. Do you have any other races coming up? CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I have nothing scheduled as of right now. I usually do Daytona start of the year, the 24 Hours. Planning to do that. That’s about it.You said the traffic situation? Q. Yes.CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: In the race? Q. Yes.CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Well, that’s a thing. Hopefully you’re not part of it and you’re the one going through it (smiling). No, I think it’s similar to other places. I could see that it might be a little bit more this year, if it’s super high deg, that some cars are going to fall off more than others. It’s a thing to manage. If you’re fast enough, you’re on the good side of it. Q. (No microphone.)CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Well, I think we’ve all seen the clip, right? I think there’s a couple year to year, right? It’s definitely a tough, tough passing zone. Q. There seems to be traffic everywhere except for the leader. A lot of times we see the leader start on the pole, run off into the distance. What can possibly be done to make it a more competitive race in terms of catching the leader?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Get a different leader (smiling).No, yeah, I don’t know. It’s a good question. But is it that much different than any other race with traffic? I think it’s very much a track length kind of a thing, right? I feel like anywhere we go, if it’s on a shorter track, there’s only going to be so many seconds between each car. I feel like it kind of evens out, right? Q. How valuable has it been for ECR to not have to worry about any driver lineup drama because everybody is known who is going to be back in 2027?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Yeah, a lot of stuff is going on out there right now. For me personally, it feels very nice to be locked in and just know that I’m going to stay with this organization for the foreseeable future. It excites me. It excites me where we’re going as a team. Again, this year has been super tough, but not necessarily the team’s fault all of it. Again, we’re still building. We’re still getting better. I think there’s a lot of opportunities for us to improve things for 2027, a lot of things in the works.I’m excited to see what’s ahead for us. Q. Do you put yourself in a decent enough position when it comes to the leaders circle that you can go out and race and not worry about points? If so, is this weekend about next year as much as this year?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I think this weekend is about taking ourselves in the off-season on a good note. I think obviously Milwaukee was super good for us in terms of the leaders circle. I mean, we’re not mathematically out of it, but we’re pretty safe, which is a good feeling. We’re just going into this weekend trying to get the maximum out of it, like we are every weekend, hopefully finish the year on a good note before we go into the off-season. Q. Good momentum entering this weekend with what happened in Milwaukee. What does that do heading into the off-season confidence-wise after the unfortunate season you had this year?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Again, it’s hard to say, right? There is so many times this year that, like, we’ve just been caught out being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like Markham where Dixon got spun right in front of us. Same thing in Detroit where we kind of got taken out from the back. I think both places we were fairly competitive. I think we have been competitive in a lot of places, but just haven’t really had the chance to show it.I think it’s just about bringing that into next year. Then again, yeah, hopefully finish the year off strong here. Yeah, hopefully finish off the season strong here so we have something to be proud of going into the off-season. Q. There’s been a lot of talk about the season finale. Where do you feel a season finale in INDYCAR belongs?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I love being out here on the west coast. Q. You mentioned tire deg and stuff like that. This practice session we just had is roughly about the same time as when the race is going to take place. Potentially look at the same type of heat range. The thing you see here a lot is people dipping a wheel off the edge of the track, gravel coming onto the track. Is that going to play a part in the tire deg scenario?CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I don’t know. I think it’s just this place, like, year to year, you just see it. I was looking at it before the session, kind of was looking at Q2, Fast 12 times from year to year. It’s in between a second and second and a half slower from 2023 to 2024, and the same from 2024 to 2025. Every year I think the tarmac, I don’t know what it is. It’s really rough around here. It takes a big dip year to year. I think we’ll see the same this year. THE MODERATOR: Christian, thanks for coming in. |
| Tune-In GuideSaturday, September 5NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice #2 – 1pm (ET)/noon (CT)/11am (MT)/10am (PT) – FS2/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying – 4:30pm (ET)/3:30pm (CT)/2:30pm (MT)/1:30pm (PT) – FS2/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Final Practice – 8pm (ET)/ 7pm (CT)/6pm (MT)/5pm (PT) – FS2/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 Sunday, September 6 Mission Foods Grand Prix Of Monterey (95 laps) – 2:30pm (ET)/1:30pm (CT)12:30pm (MT)/11:30am (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 |
| Christian Lundgaard (Arrow McLaren) celebrates on the podium at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 2025 |
| Chevrolet at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Chevrolet wins at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: 5 1993 – Paul Tracy – Team Penske1991 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing1990 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1989 – Rick Mears – Team Penske1988 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske Chevrolet poles at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: 8 2023 – Felix Rosenqvist – Arrow McLaren2022 – Will Power – Team Penske1993 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Team Penske1991 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing1990 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1989 – Rick Mears – Team Penske1988 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1987 – Mario Andretti – Newman Haas Racing Chevrolet podiums at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: 22 Chevrolet podiums at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca by driver: Mario Andretti (3), Danny Sullivan (3), Al Unser Jr. (3), Michael Andretti (2), Rick Mears (2), Will Power (2), Emerson Fittipaldi (1), Christian Lundgaard (1), Scott McLaughlin (1), Josef Newgarden (1), Bob Rahal (1), Alexander Rossi (1) and Paul Tracy (1) Chevrolet podiums at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca by team: Team Penske (11), Newman Haas Racing (5), Galles Racing (3), Arrow McLaren (2), Rahal Hogan Racing (1) Chevrolet laps led at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: 556 Chevrolet laps led at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca by driver: Danny Sullivan (156), Michael Andretti (86), Mario Andretti (83), Paul Tracy (81), Rick Mears (52), Will Power (29), Pato O’Ward (15), Al Unser Jr. (14), Felix Rosenqvist (11), Nolan Siegel (11), Josef Newgarden (10), Alexander Rossi (10), Emerson Fittipaldi (7), Callum Ilott (1), and Simon Pagenaud (1) Chevrolet laps led at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca by team: Team Penske (332), Newman Haas Racing (169), Arrow McLaren (47), Galles Racing (14), Patrick Racing (4), and Juncos Hollinger Racing (1) Manufacturer History at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Wins (with competition): 9 – Honda (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2000, 1997, 1996)5 – Chevrolet (1993, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988)5 – Cosworth (1987, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983)4 – Ford (2001, 1999, 1998, 1992)1 – Ilmor (1994)1 – Mercedes (1995)1 – Toyota (2002) Poles (with competition): 8 – Chevrolet (2023, 2021, 1993, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987)7 – Honda (2025, 2024, 2021 2019, 2001, 2000, 1996)5 – Ford (1999, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1992)4 – Cosworth (1986, 1985, 1984, 1983)1 – Ilmor (1994)1 – Toyota (2002) |