Prema Racing, based in Vicenza, Italy, “is the latest” European team to “try and take on American racing on their own turf” with its entry in IndyCar, according to Vanessa Perdomo of BLOOMBERG NEWS. Co-founded 41 years ago by Angelo Rosin and three other employees, the company now “has roughly” 220 employees across five racing leagues in Europe, after “decades of dominating the leagues” where future F1 drivers learn their craft.

But while foreign drivers have “had success in IndyCar racing,” European teams have “scraped barely a handful of victories” since 1996 when IndyCar launched teams. Motorsport journalist and author John Oreovicz suggested that Europeans “haven’t done a good enough job adapting to the oval race track.” Prema is not the only European-linked team in the field. UK-based McLaren Racing completed its buyout of Arrow McLaren earlier this year, and “already found some success.”