Scott Dixon’s ex-strategist signs with PREMA Racing to boost Callum Ilott & Co.'s 2025 campaign

PREMA Racing, IndyCar's newest team to join the grid in 2025, has made a big-ticket signing for its debut by bringing Michael Cannon on board as Head of Engineering. He previously served as Scott Dixon's race engineer for four years from 2019 to 2022.

Michael Cannon is a renowned engineer in the motorsport world and has had an IndyCar career spanning nearly four decades. His beginnings in open-wheel racing can be traced back to the 1980s, when he worked as a mechanic in Formula Ford, Atlantic, Super Vee, and Indy Lights.

Cannon worked in teams like Forsythe Racing, Andretti Global, Dale Coyne Racing, and Ed Carpenter Racing, absorbing key information and knowledge from everywhere. Scott Dixon was the first driver he engineered all the way to a championship in 2020. Cannon then joined A.J. Foyt Racing as Technical Director in 2023 and worked his magic to revive their IndyCar campaign before departing in Early November this year.

As per RACER, the engineering legend has joined PREMA Racing, who will have Callum Ilott and rookie Robert Shwartzman in 2025.

Dixon and Cannon shared a brilliant professional relationship, with the New Zealander lauding the latter in 2019.

"Cannon is different in many ways," Dixon said via IndyCar. "He’s a lot of fun to work with. He’s a different set of eyes, for sure, and just the process is totally different. For me, it’s a lot of fun."

PREMA Racing promises the best "mix of interaction between East and West" for promising IndyCar debut

PREMA Racing Team Principal Rene Rosin | Source: Getty

PREMA Racing's IndyCar announcement in April 2024 came as a pleasant surprise to the motorsport world. This move meant that the multiple junior Formula championship-winning Italian team would be building a bridge between European and American open-wheel racing.

In July this year, Team Principal Rene Rosin spoke with Motorsport.com about his plans for the IndyCar expansion. He explained how the talent working in the F2 and F3 series would play a vital role in building their IndyCar team.

“I already have a few people starting now, let’s say we already agree on 50% of the staff. Of course, more people will be available when the season finishes. People from Europe, when the Formula 2 and Formula 3 seasons finish, because we want to bring some people from Prema within the Prema US entity. There will be a mix of interaction between East and West, let’s say, and so for that I need more time, but we already have a plan that 50% is already secured," Rosin said.

The one junior Formula similarity for them would be the two young drivers they have recruited, 26-year-old Callum Ilott and 25-year-old Robert Shwartzman. In 2024, Ilott served as Arrow McLaren's reserve driver after three years of driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing. His to-be teammate Shwartzman was a Ferrari academy driver and also drives for AF Corse in the WEC. Both drivers have previously raced for PREMA during their F3 campaigns - Ilott in 2017 and Shwartzmann in 2018.