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Mikhail Aleshin out at IndyCar’s Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

By Brittany Frederick

DETROIT, MI - JUNE 03: Mikhail Aleshin (7) during qualifying for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 1 on June 3, 2017, on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - JUNE 03: Mikhail Aleshin (7) during qualifying for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 1 on June 3, 2017, on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Mikhail Aleshin has lost his IndyCar drive at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports effective immediately, and the No. 7 car will be driven by Sebastian Saavedra.

Mikhail Aleshin is no longer a Verizon IndyCar Series driver.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports removed Aleshin as the driver of the No. 7 car on Thursday, according to a new report from Racer. Sebastian Saavedra will replace him as SPM partners with AFS Racing to run the entry for the remainder of the 2017 IndyCar season.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has not commented publicly on the driver change at the time of publication.

Thursday’s news is an abrupt end to Aleshin’s IndyCar tenure. He was in his fourth season, all with SPM, although he missed all but one race in 2015 after a crash in the 2014 season finale. He came back strong in 2016, however, almost nabbing his first victory.

Instead, he departs the No. 7 with two runner-up finishes (Houston 2014 and Pocono 2016). He had three Top 10 results in 11 races during the 2017 season, with his best result being 6th place in the first half of the Dual in Detroit.

Why replace Mikhail Aleshin, especially in the middle of the campaign?

There’s been no official word, but the lack of even one Top 5 finish this season may be a factor, as could the fact that he’s crashed in several races, which in turn becomes expensive for a race team especially one on a smaller budget like SPM. Aleshin spun out in the most recent race at Iowa and came dead last.

Sebastian Saavedra will drive the No. 7 car for the final six races of the 2017 IndyCar season, and presumably be in contention for the ride in 2018.

Saavedra hasn’t run more than a handful of races in IndyCar since he was a full-time driver for the now defunct KVSH Racing in 2014. He co-drove the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing entry with Sage Karam in 2015, and did not compete at all in 2016, so he’s coming back to the series somewhat cold.

However, he comes with his own funding thanks to the support of AFS Racing and Gary Peterson. It’s obviously crucial for SPM to find a driver with money when trying to keep a car going during the middle of the season, especially if crash damage did contribute to the driver swap.

In that sense, Thursday’s news isn’t much different than Dale Coyne Racing choosing Esteban Gutierrez as its replacement driver, despite James Davison’s strong performance at the Indy 500. The smaller race teams have to look at financial considerations, not just on-track ones, and Sebastian Saavedra helps keep the car funded as well as hopefully keeps it in one piece.

Hopefully Mikhail Aleshin will get a future opportunity in the Verizon IndyCar Series, because he does have talent and speed; he just hasn’t been able to pull it all together in 2017 and now he’s out of the car altogether.

The slightly painful part? Despite losing his job, Racer reports that Mikhail Aleshin is still expected to be with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports at Toronto in a “support” capacity. He’ll just be watching someone else drive his car.

Next: Tony Kanaan discusses his future in racing

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