Who is Michael Cannon? 'IndyCar's Adrian Newey' recently signed by Dale Coyne Racing

Michael Cannon is often regarded as the holy grail of race engineers when it comes to IndyCar. Cannon has worked with the biggest teams in IndyCar. It was announced in the days following the 2025 Indy 500 that the IndyCar mastermind would be joining Dale Coyne Racing for the remainder of the season.

In a recent episode of the DIVEBOMB IndyCar podcast, IndyCar commentator Tom Gaymore referred to Michael Cannon as the Adrian Newey of IndyCar. Gaymore, while speaking about Cannon leaving AJ Foyt, said,

“I genuinely think he's like Adrian Newey. So I don't think they'll be going for the championship.”

But who exactly is Michael Cannon? What is his previous experience, and why is he compared to Adrian Newey? Let's find out.

Michael Cannon’s IndyCar career and accomplishments

Michael Cannon has been working in IndyCar for nearly three decades. The Canadian was introduced to the world of racing by his father, John Cannon, who raced in the Formula 5000. Cannon himself wanted to become a racing driver, but that dream eventually died, and he found himself enjoying the art of setting up race cars.

Cannon worked as a mechanic in the Formula Ford, Atlantic, Super Vee, and Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) in the 70s and 80s. His IndyCar career began as a Race Engineer for Player's Forsythe Racing in 1997. He worked with the team for almost a decade before joining the Minardi Team USA.

Michael Cannon then went on to work with teams like Ed Carpenter Racing, Andretti Global, Dale Coyne Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, and AJ Foyt Racing. Cannon was part of the CGR team when Scott Dixon won the 2020 IndyCar championship.

During his recent stint at AJ Foyt Racing, Cannon was credited for getting the team near the mid-pack from being backmarkers. The mastermind was also responsible for setting up AJ Foyt Racing in a technical partnership with Team Penske.

Cannon left AJ Foyt at the end of the 2024 season and joined the newest IndyCar team, PREMA Racing, for 2025 as the Head of Engineering. However, within a couple of months, Cannon announced his exit from the Italian stable. The Canadian has now returned to Dale Coyne Racing as Rinus VeeKay’s lead engineer.

When Michael Cannon was surprised by the engineering parallels he shared with Adrian Newey

Michael Cannon sat for an interview with Autosport in 2023 as he detailed the beginning of his career. The Canadian revealed how he got into motorsport engineering, and suggested that despite having a different entry approach to Adrian Newey, he was surprised to find a lot of parallels with the aerodynamicist.

“I don't think the path I took exists anymore. You need a formal education. I’m reading Adrian Newey’s book at the moment and I was struck by the parallels, but the big difference was that he did eventually finish school whereas I got distracted by wanting to be a driver and got into it that way,” said Cannon

Just like Adrian Newey, who's worked with the Top Teams in F1, i.e., Williams, McLaren, Red Bull, Aston Martin, and taken them to championship wins, Cannon is regarded as the man who can change a team's fortune in IndyCar.