Catching up with Team Penske engineer David Faustino

BRUCE:

IndyCar fans, it's time to start your engines. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, a production of Evergreen Podcast. I'm your host, Bruce Martin, a journalist who regularly covers the NTT IndyCar Series. Our goal at Pit Pass Indy is to give racing fans an insider's view of the exciting world of the NTT IndyCar Series in a fast-paced podcast featuring interviews with the biggest names in the sport. I bring nearly 40 years of experience covering IndyCar and NASCAR, working for such media brands as NBCSports.com, SI.com, ESPN SportsTicker, Sports Illustrated, AutoWeek and SpeedSport. So let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy as we continue our fourth season of giving IndyCar fans a behind-the-scenes look at the NTT IndyCar Series and the drivers and teams that compete in the Indianapolis 500. Let's get to know one of the hidden heroes of IndyCar. It's Team Penske's David Faustino, the longtime engineer for driver Will Power on the number 12 Verizon Chevrolet. Faustino has become one of the most successful race engineers in the NTT IndyCar Series with a victory in the 2018 Indianapolis 500 and two IndyCar Series championships in 2014 and 2022. All with power is the driver. Power and Faustino previously worked together from 2007 to 2008, first with Walker Racing in 2007, where they captured the Grand Prix of Las Vegas for Power's first career series win before moving to KV Racing Technology in 2008. While at KV Racing Technology, the tandem won the prestigious Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2008. Over the past 18 years, Faustino has steadily built an impressive career in motorsports. Let's find out how he does it in this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview with David Faustino, the race engineer for driver Will Power at Team Penske. Our next guest has worked with his driver longer than many people have probably been married. It's race engineer, David Faustino, who is now beginning, it's gotta be close to 20 years of working with willpower. How many years have you been with willpower?

DAVID:

Gosh, I don't count. Let's see. So 2007 was the start, and then we skipped a year. Yeah, so it's been a while.

BRUCE:

Well, the other thing that I always thought was interesting about your relationship, Will's a guy that if you can ask him a question and sometimes you look at him and wonder if he really has an idea of what you just said to him, but you and him have like this certain wavelength that you're able to communicate with. How long did it take to really understand each other?

DAVID:

Honestly, not long. I mean, I think, you know, back in those days, we were both pretty still fairly young and learning a lot. So we, you know, we communicated pretty well and learned from each other. He taught me a lot about, um, the driving aspect of things. Um, you know, he's extremely talented. So, you know, I learned a lot about that and I taught him as much as possible about, you know, the car side of things and what I think things do on the car and how changes should react and what he should be thinking about. And that was really fun. Uh, you know, we went back and forth, just kind of leapfrogging off each other, but he's always thinking about something in the back of his head. So you see the look in his eyes and you know, when you should stop talking. And so, you know, more often than not, it's something racing related back in there, but sometimes it's not. So you just got to watch out for the, the, uh, the look.

BRUCE:

Now, those of us who remember willpower when he came over from Australia was very fast, very fast, very good driver, had a lot of raw talent. And I use the word underlying the word raw because he still had a lot of areas that needed to be refined. When you think of his first couple of years in IndyCar, you think that he was in those championship races all the way to the very end and for whatever reason, something would happen that would keep him from doing it. In fact, when he won the title in 2014, It was kind of a big deal because it had been like this. He was the best driver at that time. It was almost like he was snake bit.

DAVID:

Yeah. And I think, I mean, even this past season, we had a little bit of that. It was, you know, the lows were too low, right? We had lots of highs winning races polls, but you can't ever deal with too many lows. And you know, that's really it in a nutshell. And back then it was coming up to speed and getting to grips with ovals. And actually even a little bit of this year, some of our lows were in those areas, but not really as much there this year, they were spread out to give it, you know, a full championship go this year. But yeah, really just that too many, too many lows in, in, in those days you know, with respect to getting up to speed on ovals.

BRUCE:

But the point I was leading up to was he was about at the point when it was like people were writing, when is this guy going to win a championship or is he ever going to win a championship? Meaning he had been in the series a long time and had yet to win. Right. So he wins a championship. Then the questions start being Indy 500. Is this guy ever going to be able to win the Indy 500? Well, in 2018, he wins that. So when you think in a lot of ways, we talked about him and he talked about checking off boxes in his career. He had all these boxes checked off. So what does he do for an encore? He wins a championship in 2022, nearly won a championship in 2024. And as I just said to Ron Marzuski, He may be one of the older drivers in the series, but he's still just as fast and just as capable of winning a championship. So how amazed are you to see him still performing at this level?

DAVID:

But I guess, I guess I wouldn't say I'm amazed because I see, you know, I see work that gets put in and I see the desire, right? So, you know, for me, it's just a continuation of how he's been and not really a change. I think the changes in the competition and the competition is stiff. It's IndyCar is just really, really competitive now, but he's, you know, his, his goal is to not slow down. So, and he's been working on that, you know, extremely hard. So. Not surprised, but I am impressed. I'm definitely impressed that he's been able to do it and, you know, kind of meet his goals. So, yeah, you know, we hope it continues, but he's been doing great.

BRUCE:

I think impressed was probably the word that I should have used in that question. You as the engineer spend countless hours coming up with the right strategy, the right setup. the right this, the right that to win races. But I bet that there's nothing that prepares you for a spin out on a restart at Milwaukee or the lap belts breaking during a race at Nashville.

DAVID:

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, you know, you always kind of wonder how your season's going to go with things that are somewhat out of your control, you know, and minimizing the, those big points losing situations is, is, is a key part of winning a championship. We were fortunate enough in Milwaukee that he didn't hit the wall. Um, and we rebounded, I think we finished 10th that race. So for us, you know, that was okay. This, this wasn't a killer. We lost a little bit of ground, not a killer. Um, You know, and Nashville, obviously we're, it was a little bit of an outside shot. Um, but we were in the right position relative to blue, um, you know, until that happened. And, you know, I, I think for sure, once that happened to it, it took the wind out of his sails a bit and, you know, you gotta be questioning your overall safety a little bit out there. So, you know, and unfortunately Nashville wasn't one of those things we could rebound from, you know, when we were a lap down, um, With, with alternate tires out there, that whole thing with IndyCar and doing alternate tires kept people off each other's strategies, which led to difficulty in getting wave buys to getting laps back in that race in particular. But. you know, you just deal with them as they come. You can't do anything except just try to do the best after something like that happens. And if you still have races left in the season, you know, you just, you try and minimize that. And the belt thing that was definitely on us and you know, we've got a, we've got to be better than that.

BRUCE:

So the engineer looks at things logically and analytically, but I'm sure that there's also Some emotion that you have inside up on that timing stand. What was yours during each one of those?

DAVID:

You know, you definitely get deflated at first, but something, you know, when you're in the race situation, you definitely just snap back into, OK, what can we do? What can we do? And unfortunately, like something like Nashville, when you keep running out of things to do, it gets frustrating for sure. But usually you just snap into thinking of anything you can to suggest a way to rebound from from those issues.

BRUCE:

Is it almost like going into that championship race once that happened, similar to, say, a team going into the Super Bowl? I'm talking about after the lap belts break and all of a sudden, let's say it'd be like the New England Patriots going to the Super Bowl back in their heyday and Tom Brady gets taken out of the game by an injury three minutes in.

DAVID:

I don't know what it's like to go to a super bowl. So it's a little bit difficult to answer, I guess. Yeah. I don't really know. It's, it's, it's probably not much different, but it's hard to say. You know, in those moments, you're just, again, you're just trying to do the best you can after something like that happens. And And then for us, it turns into our, what can we do to help our teammates? And can we stay out of their way? And can we let them buy easily when they get to us? And can we communicate well so that, you know, potentially as a team, we can get a better result, you know, rather than, you know, just as a individual car.

BRUCE:

So I'm going to ask you a rather simplistic question and it'll probably have a complicated answer, but to describe to an IndyCar fan, what does the race engineer do?

DAVID:

Yeah. So the race engineer, um, I'll start out with weekend planning. You know, we have to figure out the approach to a race weekend with the driver. So that includes planning. So how we're going to use our tires, how we're going to approach each practice session leading up to qualifying in the race with goals, what we're going to test on the car during those sessions. And then race strategy. So I think that's the planning aspects. We have to plan all those things. Um, we also of course have to come up with the physical setup that goes on the car. Uh, you know, on an Indy car, that's the aerodynamic wing angles, the ride heights, the shock settings, the spring settings, the anti roll bar settings, the suspension geometry. Uh, those are all things that are highly tunable on an Indy car. So all those settings have to get, um, you know, communicated to the chief mechanic. So they do that. And then, you know, those are the things we work on changing in the weekend to make the car faster. Um, and even engine settings to some degree, uh, we're communicating with the engine guys. Um, And, you know, we typically have a couple of performance engineers with us on the road, and we're also somewhat managing those guys. And, hey, what are you helping with? What are your responsibilities? And and then within the weekend, leading up to qualifying, talking to the driver during the session, what are we what's your problem? What are we going to change? And then after the session, debriefing and deciding on changes and approach for the next day. And then same thing after we qualify, then we do the same thing for the race. You know, what's our race strategy, depending on how we qualified, what are we changing in the car to deal with the race and the tire degradation and whatever we might have that's different from qualifying. And then after the race, we try to do a little bit of post-mortem, of course. IndyCar schedule is pretty rigorous these days, but we do try to have a little bit of a post-race meeting. What did we do right? What did we do wrong? What do we think for next year? And you bank some thoughts for the next year, and then move on. So it's definitely a blend of engineering and management, I'd say, at this point in the game, and then strategy.

BRUCE:

How do you determine what is your best set of tires?

DAVID:

Ooh, good question. So for the race, is your question directed to the race? Yeah. So first of all, you got to figure out if the alternate tire, if you think it's actually better over a stint than the primary tire, if that's the case and it's better over a stint, it's an easy decision. It's just better. and you do your best to not kill them in qualifying so you have more of them for the race. So if you know that ahead of time before you qualify, it's great. Not usually the case. The harder thing to do is when the alternate tires degrade at a higher rate than the primary tires. So what you're trying to do there is look at what's the minimum amount of time that you, you basically can complete the race in. And so do you want to do a shorter stint on the alternates? If so, when do you think that's best to do? Um, and how many laps do you want to put on them? So we, we just plot the rate of degradation and we try to do the math on all that. And then you, uh, you also kind of take some, some guessing onto as far as like what you think the track's going to do is the track itself going to improve or not. Cause if the track improves, you may want to gamble a little bit and save those for later. Or if you think there's going to be late race restarts, you might want to save this for later. But, um, Yes. It's honestly, these days it's, it's mostly math and then a little bit of gut feel on what you think the track's going to do.

BRUCE:

What about scrubs and stickers?

DAVID:

That's pretty driver dependent. Um, because we find that some drivers, even if you say you have two drivers and they're in qualifying and they both put three laps on their alternates. Well, somehow, some way, some drivers wind up being harder on them, even in just a few laps. So those drivers typically have a harder time with those tires in the race if they use them. Will is pretty darn good at not over slipping the tires. He likes to drive right at the peak of the grip and not much over the peak of the grip. And I think that's the difference. Some drivers will drive over the peak of the grip because the tires don't lose much when they slide a little, but they do lose lifespan. So, with Will, we're pretty good at being able to use used alternates in the race. And I don't think other guys are quite as good at that. And that is an advantage that Will has.

BRUCE:

You have a tire allotment for each race. Have you ever come close to running out of tires?

DAVID:

Milwaukee this year ran out of tires. I had to take left sides from one set and right sides from another set. We're mixing them in pit lane because the spin flat spotted a brand new set of tires and it was a double header weekend. The double header weekends are very hard to manage because you're right up against it. And if you you're throwing tires at a late race caution in race one, then you're taking those tires out of race two. So it's usually it's usually that you're right up against it. Rarely that you're running out. But this year we ran out of Milwaukee.

BRUCE:

We'll be right back to pit pass Indy after this short break. Welcome back to Pit Pass Indy. Here's the second part of my exclusive interview with David Faustino, Will Powers race engineer at Team Penske for Pit Pass Indy. Nothing in engineering is really infinite. But when you look at all the different combinations that you can adjust on a car, even though you hear a lot of IndyCar teams say, we've worked on this car so long, there's not a lot left. But yet, how do you figure out the combination of wing angle, your dampers, all of that stuff, geometry, all of that? How do you figure all that out to find the right formula?

DAVID:

It's difficult. And I think that is the best thing about IndyCar in terms of being an engineer in racing. You can change anything you want within an hour or two. So we can change our world from one session to the next. And I don't think many other series can do that. So I think it's awesome for the engineers in the sport and the fans that get into it as well. But, you know, when you get a car for the very first time, you're hitting the basics. And it's, it's not as critical to get the combination super, super perfect. You know, you're on the seven post trying to get your damper somewhat close. You're getting your mechanical balance somewhat close based on how the tires, you know, how the tires perform and you're getting your arrow and mechanical balance usually dialed for the weight distribution of the car. So a lot of this stuff starts with the weight distribution of the car. But when you have had a car or a chassis, I should say, for as long as we have had in this series, you do have to now get to the level of refinement that is very difficult. And you can make a mechanical balance the same with 20,000 different combinations. But a lot of the core items, like let's just say we'll take a rear spring rate that helps the car turn if you go up and also like a rear roll center height, which is a rear geometry on the car suspension geometry. If you raise that, the car will turn more as well, but they have different phasings. So the drivers tend to identify these phasings, this item hits earlier in the corner, this item hits a little later in the corner, and they start to understand the little nuances of how those phasings work and how they work with the tire, potentially an upside or downside to tire degradation with these little nuanced differences and how to skin the cat the same way. And honestly, that is what starts to refine the combinations. And then some things get sort of set, and then the other variables get optimized. And you start to set more items and then optimize what's left over.

BRUCE:

But then the driver's got tools in the car for adjust ride height and things like that. So can the driver take what you think in theory is the right thing and mess it up by doing the wrong ride height?

DAVID:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And not even just ride height, like just general philosophy, like they might move the roll bar. the front roll bar a ton, maybe they'll stiffen it a ton. And all of a sudden the car starts to push, but they didn't realize how much they did or how powerful it was. And then they'll ask you to add front wing. And then that combination won't be as good as even how you started sometimes. So you definitely have to be wary about that. Um, and it, that's hard to avoid on Oles, especially because on ovals, they have the roll bars and the way Jacker and all that stuff. And the combinations there can get pretty complex.

BRUCE:

How do you know how much wing to adjust on a pit stop?

DAVID:

Uh, by the tone in their voice. I mean, you know, how bad is it is, is, you know, and, and then you're kind of gauging, okay, I know that in practice will felt two turns. That was pretty powerful. Let's go with one. You know, it's, it's, it's really just that. And sometimes they'll even call out, Hey, give me, give me two, give me one. They, they know, they know, you know, cause that's, that's a common adjustment.

BRUCE:

IndyCar has said a new car is on the way. We don't know what season that'll be, of course. But where do you stand on the new car? Pretty much everybody in the series would like to see a new car yesterday. But where do you see it? And also, what would you like to see that new car look like or do differently?

DAVID:

Yeah, I don't, I don't have that much information. So I don't know when I was like, I can't really say when, uh, when, when would I like to see a new car? Yeah. As soon as possible. I agree with, with everybody there. Uh, just a new challenge. Um, what would I like to see in the car? I definitely think that we've got to be really cognizant of the weight, the overall weight of the cars, because I do think that when the car is lighter and more nimble, the drivers can race it harder. And that's what I think is good about IndyCar. I want to see these guys racing each other hard, fair, but hard. Um, and I want to see, you know, a good product on the racetrack as far as them being able to do that. And, um, I think in order to do that, we're starting to become up against the limits of what's possible with tires. you know, with the cars gaining weight. So I think IndyCars just got to make sure they try and keep the weight down as a number one priority.

BRUCE:

A lot of fans out there, for whatever reason, I've never really bought into it, but they always want to try to compare what's going on in Formula One with what's going on in IndyCar. My attitude's always been, let's be as less like Formula One and be more like IndyCar. Let's focus on creating the best IndyCar series that we can, rather than become Formula One Junior. Does that irritate you when you hear people make those comparisons?

DAVID:

A little bit because I fully agree with you. I think that we shouldn't be trying to emulate formula one or adopt technology that they started using 10 years ago and we're going to start using it now just because I think, you know, and I think this comes back to even some of the manufacturers that participate in the series, they may want things that are good for advertising or, um, you know, the cars they want to sell, but, um, you gotta be careful not to degrade the product. And I think that you know, picking things that make the racing the best, um, and a package that makes IndyCar IndyCar is ultimately should be the number one goal. I agree with you. Um, so yeah, we have to be careful with things like that. And when they, you know, go for designing the new car, I don't think that the lines in the sand should be drawn just because of what any other series is doing.

BRUCE:

Another thing that may irritate you when, like, fellow competitors or fans act like, when it comes to race control, the field isn't level because the same guy that owns Team Penske owns IndyCar. But then I sit there and think, wait a minute, the team that got the most severe penalty was the team that he owned. So how much does that upset you when you hear people act like the fix is in?

DAVID:

Yeah, I wouldn't say to, I wouldn't say it upsets me because I understand the perspective, but what I can say with a hundred percent honesty is there is no favoritism. And if anything, Roger, make sure that we probably hear things last, to be honest. So, um, you know, sometimes we wonder in here, why haven't we heard this? This is new to us. Um, why they're going to change the rules. Like, you know, so it's a hundred percent isn't like the, what you would perceive if you were trying to gain an advantage. I think it's just a Testament to RP's integrity. He is, you know, really separated, you know, the series from us, um, in a, in a big way. And, Yeah, no one will probably believe me, but that's the truth.

BRUCE:

I'd be remiss if I didn't bring this up. But of course, the month of May, you were without several key people, Tim Sindrick, Ron Rizewski, Luke Mason, Robbie Atkinson. They were all serving a suspension that was imposed by Roger Penske. Yep. See, because of the disqualifications, the push to pass scandal that occurred at St. Petersburg. Did you take it upon yourself to take more responsibility during the month of May to be a leader?

DAVID:

Yeah, definitely. And Roger asked that specifically when he told us what penalties were going to go down. So yeah, definitely my, my role increased in, well, for one also playing strategist, um, car communicator, whatever you want to call it, um, for the Indy road course race. And then, uh, you know, Myron, uh, John Boslog helped out for the 500. But my role mainly changed in terms of making sure everybody was communicating and managing a little more of the communications at the track for us to try and work together, um, with the loss of manpower. Um, you know, we, we were fortunate enough to have really fast cars and we did in fact work together really well to get, you know, all the guys up there on the front row and, um, and race well. But yeah, that was pretty much my, My task that month was to kind of increase communication, make sure we're all on the same page, and make sure all the cars are working together.

BRUCE:

It seemed like there was a lot more determination in the Team Penske garages and gasoline alley during a typical month of May. You'll go out there, you'll run laps, you'll come back, you'll do work, you'll do business, but there's also times to Maybe people stick their head into the garage chance to chat a little bit. Didn't see any of that happen this past month. Did that just really amplify just the level of determination that the team felt?

DAVID:

I think so. Yeah. We came into it pretty determined. you know, to start the year because we, we were not happy with our qualifying performance. Um, and you know, in Chevy as well, we're not happy with our qualifying performance for the last couple of years. So we worked really hard in the off season and then, you know, that the whole push to pass scandal thing happens and for sure, you know, and, and Tim asked us to turn that into motivation and you know, most people did. And, um, I think really starting with Barbara, um, You know, we were all very determined, you know, coming out of there to do well. And yeah, for the most part, I think people stayed very focused during the month of May this year. And that was really nice to see. And I also think, of course, when everyone saw the cars were fast, That carrot is dangled and you get really serious because you know, you have a real shot and when you have a real shot there You know, he's got to do everything you can execute But two huge accomplishments in May Second time in history that the same team swept all three spots in the front row both times.

BRUCE:

It's been team Penske and And then also the first time since Elio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002, when he was with team Penske same driver wins back-to-back Indy 500s to have them both happen in the same month. That's got to go down as one of the great sweeps in Indy 500 history for the same team. Yeah, for sure.

DAVID:

We're all super pumped about that. Hopefully we can make it happen another time. Um, you know, and we'll be chasing that for sure. We'll be chasing that same result. And you know, Joseph drove his butt off to, to win that race. So you gotta give him a huge amount of credit for putting that in his shoulders and driving like a man possessed and that was last few labs.

BRUCE:

So I would say the season's a success just after the month of May. My attitude is any team that wins the Indy 500s had a great season. You guys think a little bit differently though. You want to win the championship too. You got two of the three drivers in the top five. Didn't get the championship, but how big a achievement is that to get both Scott McLaughlin and Will Power in the top five?

DAVID:

Yeah, that was definitely a good achievement. I think we're all a little disappointed because Scott had potential without the St. Pete thing and, you know, to, to win the championship as much as will did. And, you know, he, did he really gain, did Scott McLaughlin gain an advantage at St. Pete because of it? Definitely not. Um, so I, I felt bad for those guys and you know, and then on the 12 car, of course we, we opened up the season. Great. You know, we'll amazing road course performances and you know, we, we did well to, to keep the points going all year. So to, to not bring it home, you know, when you have that carrot there for so long, because when you have that carrot there, you just work harder and you just push yourself harder. And then when it doesn't happen, you're, you're just, you're just ragged. But it's a lot better to have that problem than to not have that problem. So, I'll take it any day.

BRUCE:

A lot of people wonder what Will Power's role in racing will be when he retires. And if you ask him that, he'll say, I'm not retiring. So when you look at where he's at right now in his career, I mean, he's still championship caliber material. You know, what do you see? This guy's got a lot of racing left in him.

DAVID:

Yeah, I wish I could tell you because it's not like he's he's showing like a slow decline or anything. I don't know. I hope he stays around and stays competitive as long as he can. He's got a great sponsor. They've been consistent. They're great. It's been one of the longest running relationships here. I just hope he can keep himself in a position to keep going.

BRUCE:

And as we head into the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season, obviously the goal would be to have all three drivers fighting it out for the championship on the last race of the year. But when you look at the series as a whole, Alex Polo is going to have some say in that. Padua Ward will have some say in that. Colton Herta won the last race of the season. His first oval victory, he ended up second in points. A lot of people may be surprised by that, but when you look at the competitive level of IndyCar, it's certainly not getting easier.

DAVID:

No, no. And, you know, one of the things that we do is reflect upon, you know, the past seasons and, you know, especially when you mentioned Hurto, we can see his potential is extremely high. And if he cleans up one or two things, he's really dangerous. So, you know, we're just going to attack everything the same way we always do. And we just got to, you got to keep that consistency. You know, the consistency that Palou has is what you need. And, um, you know, that's what we're striving for. And that's, uh, that's how we can win a championship.

BRUCE:

David Faustino, race engineer for willpower at Team Penske, and I would believe you're probably the only graduate of Rutgers in IndyCar. Isn't that true?

DAVID:

I think currently that's probably true. I think we've got a few in NASCAR, but not IndyCar.

BRUCE:

Well, the Scarlet Knight has somebody to cheer for in IndyCar, and it's Will Power of Team Penske. But hey, congratulations on a very exciting 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season. Good luck in 2025, and thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy. Thanks, Bruce. And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy. We want to thank our guest, David Faustino, the race engineer for Team Penske's willpower, for joining us on today's podcast. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests help make Pit Pass Indy your path to victory lane in IndyCar. For more IndyCar coverage, follow me at X, previously known as Twitter, at BruceMartin, one word, uppercase B, uppercase M, underscore 500. This has been a production of Evergreen Podcast. A special thanks to our production team, executive producers are Bridget Coyne and Gerardo Orlando. Recordings and edits were done by me, Bruce Martin, and final mixing was done by Dave Douglas. Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com. Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.

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