Indy 500 pole sitter Robert Shwartzman's fairly tale run was missing one thing. His dad

Indianapolis Star

25-05-2025

INDIANAPOLIS — Robert Shwartzman is standing in pit lane as race cars whiz by him in a blur. He's running his fingers through his hair, trying to figure out what happened to his car that ended with him running into pit wall and a few of his team members, promptly putting Shwartzman out of his first Indy 500.
Shwartzman ended his fairy tale run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Lap 86 after making history in what was the ultimate, underdog storyline of the Month of May in Indy. The 25-year-old Shwartzman came out of nowhere last week to take the pole with a speed of 232.790 mph. He was the first rookie to earn the honor since Teo Fabi in 1983.
As he rolled onto the track Sunday to race his first oval, Shwartzman was optimistic. His goal was, if not to finish in the top 5, to finish all 200 laps.
Instead with 114 laps to go, Shwartzman was out as his front wing dangled from the car and one of his Prema Racing mechanics walked to a stretcher complaining of right foot pain. There were no major injuries.
"It was really scary. It was like happening in a second. I couldn't do anything, like I couldn't ... I tried to turn the car. It just wouldn't turn," Shwartzman said. "And when I saw the guys just jumping on the car and I was bringing them to the wall, it just felt really scary. I'm very happy that they're all OK."
That's what's most important to Shwartzman. That his Prema Racing team is OK, the team who took a chance on him in 2018 and have been there for him through some of the darkest days of his life as he lost his father, his racing mentor and his best friend.
Second on Shwartzman's mind Sunday was his car. That's why he's running his fingers through his hair and looking a bit dazed. He isn't sure exactly what happened.
"We'll have to see what was going on because actually there is a weird feeling with the car. There is a suspicion that the rear brakes did not work," he said. "I was coming here, I was actually quite slow, just taking it easy, but at the moment I just touched the brakes, both my front tires just locked up. And I was just a passenger going into the wall."
It wasn't the magical ending Shwartzman wanted to the fairy tale he had written this month at IMS.
But no matter how it had finished, whether Shwartzman had won Sunday or finished last or was knocked out somewhere near the middle of the race, it was a bittersweet story for him.
From the time he arrived in Indianapolis, there was something missing Shwartzman was missing his biggest fan, his father Mikhail who died in 2020 from COVID-19. Mikhail was a racing lover who made his son fall hard for the sport. The two bonded over their adoration of cars and speed and were inseparable.
As he raced Sunday, Shwartzman didn't have his father watching him battle it out at the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. He didn't have his father to console him as he stepped out of his No. 83 red, white and green car in shock.
"I mean, honestly, it feels really sad and unfortunately I couldn't make him happy today. I did my best, I think," Shwartzman said. "I would really love to see him here to witness what we have achieved here in Indy 500. But I want to believe that he's watching from up there. I feel like part of him still lives inside me and that we're doing it together."
As Shwartzman thanked the fans on the microphone from pit lane, the crowd roared. He looked up and waved. And he smiled. His father would be proud.
A week before Shwartzman took the pole he said he had a dream that he took the pole. He wonders if that might have been his father giving him a little nudge. After the win, his entire world changed.
On Wednesday, four days before his first Indy 500, Shwartzman was getting mic'd up inside his Prema Racing trailer, looking at the calendar on his phone when his eyes widened and he sat up a little straighter.
"I have quite a lot of things tomorrow," he said, looking at Prema team manager Angelina Ertsou, who smiled and nodded her head. Yes, Shwartzman's calendar has gotten busier.
As the interview began, Shwartzman first wanted to be sure he knew which media outlet he was talking to. Yes, Shwartzman's media requests have blown up by somewhere in the range of 500%. Heck, probably more like 1,000%.
"OK, IndyStar, right?" he asked. Yes.
"So am I a star now?" he said laughing.
Yes, Shwartzman, is a star. No matter that he didn't finish the race Sunday, Shwartzman has driven his way into Speedway racing lore, filling the 42-year gap of rookies to take the top starting spot.
As Shwartzman rolled onto the track Sunday, he did so with a new handful of sponsors, including footwear brand Piloti, who was backing Shwartzman as an official sponsor for the race.
Yet, as he rolled onto the track, he felt exactly the same as he does every time he races — from his start in go-karts as a 4-year-old to a reserve driver for Ferrari in Formula 1 as late as last year.
"As you drive the car onto the track, you get quite nervous. You generally feel a lot of tension. You cannot avoid it. It's impossible," he said. "It's because your brain is cooperating in a way that it understands how dangerous this whole thing is, and so you have danger, you have a fear to crash the car."
But on the track the fear dissipates and adrenaline takes over.
After 22 laps, Shwartzman was in fourth place, but as each 2.5-mile turn played out, he steadily fell behind bit by bit. When he hit pit wall, he was in 13th place.
"We just need to keep going forward and get stronger and stronger," he said, "believing in ourselves."
As a young boy in Tel Aviv, where Shwartzman was born, he remembers how hot it was and how beautiful the Mediterranean Sea was. With so many shades of blue, it was hard to tell where one hue ended and the other began.
He remembers the apartment he lived in with his sister and his parents where his favorite snack was pita bread and hummus. And he especially remembers the car his dad drove, a white Audi A3. But that one only lasted a bit. His dad was always selling a car and getting a new one.
His dad loved cars, but he also had a full-time job as a businessman selling flowers. He would import them from places like the Netherlands, Colombia, Ecuador and sell them. It was a fine job, but Mikhail Shwartzman had always dreamed of being a race driver.
"His passion was racing, but his childhood it was very difficult, and he couldn't be a racing driver," Shwartzman said. "So, he just wanted to have a son who would continue his journey. I'm very grateful for that because he brought me into this world and motorsports, and he was my biggest fan."
Mikhail had Shwartzman in a parking lot with cones, weaving around on a go-kart by the time he was a toddler. That was 21 years ago.
After that, his road to the Indy 500 was "quite simple," as Shwartzman put it. From Tel Aviv, he lived in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and then Italy where he competed in top go-kart championships, including the FIA Karting European Championship.
He moved up the ranks to Formula 3, then Formula 3, where in 2019 he won the F3 championship. His father got to see that. A few months later in April 2020, he died at the age of 52.
It was tough for Shwartzman, who in his deepest throes of grief, thought about not racing again. Instead, he took his dad's passion and decided to make it his legacy. Shwartzman quickly moved up to Formula 2 and then, a few years ago, became a reserve driver in Formula 1.
Then Prema announced they were coming to IndyCar in the United States. Shwartzman was thrilled and excited. He had no idea in his first run at Indy, he'd make history.
Shwartzman never wanted to do anything but race, though he does have a rap song he recorded under the name Shwartzy. That's his side gig, which some day he wouldn't mind pursuing when his racing days are over. But first, the speed.
"I love the feeling of being at the edge," Shwartzman said before Sunday's race, "going so fast, battling the competition, the hunger for winning and generally trying to be the best of the best."
While he didn't finish best Sunday, he said this fairy tale Indy 500, the rookie pole sitter, will be something he and his team will never forget.
"It's a good example of dreaming, believing in that dream and working hard for that dream," he said. "It had the whole combination because we were underdog, nobody had any expectation on us and then we come to one of the biggest races in the whole world and we managed to win pole position."
As he stood Sunday watching the drivers he beat in qualifying blow past him, Shwartzman said he was at peace with the day.
"Today was not our day, unfortunately. I'm quite calm about it. It happens," he said. "I'm sure that with what we have shown in qualifying, in our future, we can definitely come back and get to this position."
And, Shwartzman said, his father will be there right there with him.
"I don't know how to say it. For me it's not an easy thing to describe, but I just want to believe that he's proud and happy up there," said Shwartzman. "And that there is still way more things to come in the future."