IndyCar: Matheus Leist joins Tony Kanaan to form Team Brazil at Foyt

INDIANAPOLIS – The official name for the next season of IndyCar should be the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Olympics.

First Andretti Autosport gave us Team America. Then Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced Team Canada. Now, after months of speculation, A.J. Foyt Racing has officially unveiled Team Brazil.

Team President Larry Foyt confirmed Thursday that former Team Carlin Indy Lights driver Matheus Leist will pair up with fellow Brazilian Tony Kanaan for the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season.

“This is a special moment in my career and I’m so grateful for the things that are happening,” the 2017 Freedom 100 winner said. “Sometimes it is hard for me to believe that I’ll be driving for the legend A.J. Foyt. Having Tony as my teammate is incredible because he’s been an idol since I was a child. Tony and I are from different generations but I can’t wait to be with him at the track and learn as much as I can from him.. … It’s a bit crazy. He’s 42 with three kids and I’m 19 (laughs). But I have so much respect for him and for Helio (Castroneves).”

For Kanaan, Leist’s arrival into the series could not have come at a better time. With longtime friend and rival Castroneves finished with full-time IndyCar racing and Kanaan himself “not getting any younger,” the sport was in danger of carrying on without a Brazilian driver for the first time in decades.

Now, Kaanan said, the ultra-talented Leist can carry the torch into the future.

“He’s a young promising kid, and I will teach him as much as I can so that when I’m gone, we’ll have at least someone to cheer for,” Kanaan said. “We’ve had a Brazilian in the field for so long, it would have been sad not to see one. Especially with the legacy we brought with Emerson (Fittipaldi) and Gil (de Ferran) and then Helio and me. ... So it will be nice to have at least one Brazilian representing the country when we’re gone."

That’s an awful lot of pressure to heap on a 19-year old kid -- to be the next Fittipaldi, de Ferran, Castroneves or Kanaan. Isn’t it?

“That’s his problem, man. Not mine,” Kanaan said with a laugh.

Truth be told, though, Kanaan believes Leist is well-equipped to deal with the pressure of following in the footsteps of his predecessors. Only 19, he already has a rich racing history filled with three victories in his Indy Lights debut last season and a British Formula 3 championship in 2016.

That British F3 title not only put him in the company of more of his countrymen -- luminaries such as Ayrton Senna, Rubens Barrichello and Nelson Piquet Jr. also won that championship -- it also put him on the map with Foyt.

Leist’s team owner at RR Racing, Anthony Hiett, where he won the title, raved about Leist to Foyt when the young driver arrived in America last year.

“He called me and said, ‘Watch out. This is kid is going to be a superstar,’ " Foyt recalls Hiett telling him. “So we watched, and we were obviously impressed when he won Indy and Iowa and Elkhart Lake in Indy Lights. That was really impressive for a guy who had just come over. That put him on our radar.”

While officially pairing Leist with Foyt is exciting, it comes at the end of a long and challenging road. The decision not to retain 2017 drivers Carlos Munoz or Conor Daly was one Foyt struggled with.

“It was super hard,” Foyt said. “It was a really, really tough decision. I hated to end it after one season, but it just wasn’t clicking as a team and as a whole group. Carlos and Conor are both very good drivers, but bringing them back didn't end up fitting what we had in mind." 

"At the end of the day, it came down to … Is this the combination that’s going to get us where we’re trying to go? I guess we couldn’t answer that question with a resounding yes, so that’s why we went ahead and made the changes.”

Leist’s pairing with Foyt means just one full-time seat remains -- at least among teams that competed in the series last season. Only Dale Coyne Racing’s Sebastian Bourdais is without a full-time teammate after Ed Jones opted to sign with Chip Ganassi Racing. Beyond DCR, Ed Carpenter is still searching for driver to race road and street courses, while the IndyCar world waits to see whether any more new teams join the fold next season. 

Beyond the Brazil connection, Foyt said this is an ideal pairing for his re-imagined team, which will now sport its third different set of drivers in three years. While he hopes Kanaan will be fighting for wins and a second Indianapolis 500 victory next year, the expectations for Leist will be measured as he wets his feet in the IndyCar pool.

Hopefully, Foyt said, when Kanaan is ready to walk away from the cockpit, Leist will be ready to lead the team in a new era of sustained success. 

More IndyCar:Charlie Kimball says chances are 'north of 90 percent' he'll be racing in IndyCar in 2018

John Andretti reports he is done with chemotherapy

2017 IndyCar rookie of the year Ed Jones signs with Chip Ganassi Racing

Follow IndyStar Motor Sports Insider Jim Ayello on Twitter and Instagram: @jimayello.