The challenging schedule for the 19-year-old driver has been put together by CGR’s managing director Mike Hull.
It begins with an IndyCar evaluation on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (27-28 October), followed by an FIA World Endurance Championship rookie test at Bahrain International Circuit (5 November).
He will then test a previous generation Formula 2 car at Circuit Monteblanco (13-14 November), before a run in a World Series machine at Imola (20-21 November) and a return to the F2 car at Aragon (23-24 November).
It concludes with a return to IndyCar, with a test on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway at the end of the month.
“The important thing will be just preparing for next year, getting in high horsepower, high downforce cars getting ready for next year in IndyCar.”
Hull told Autosport: “Frankly, we've seen what goes on with Formula 2, with drivers that have come from there now that have stepped into an Indy car.
“It's a pretty direct crossover for power to weight ratio, tyre degradation and so on. The guys that are currently in IndyCar racing that came from Formula 2 made that step in that transition.
“So, that's why we're doing it with those particular cars. It's good experience. It's a bit compacted in November, but it's good.
“We'll have enough tires to be able to run all day long for two days in a row each, so six days of time. Plus, the test in Bahrain in the Cadillac, it'll be our WEC car, post-race. The open test for rookies is the day after the Bahrain race ends so it's on Sunday of that weekend.”
The additional opportunities come after capturing the championship in the European Le Mans Series last weekend, with a season that featured two wins and five podiums in six rounds with Algarve Pro Racing alongside co-drivers Alex Lynn, who also pilots CGR’s Cadillac in WEC, and James Allen.
That was only a fraction of Simpson’s 2023, though, having primarily competed in Indy NXT, where he earned one pole and two podiums in 13 races with HMD Motorsports.
Additionally, he ran four races with Tower Motorsports in the LMP2 category of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, which included a victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring while co-driving with Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin.
He also claimed one win and finished third in the overall championship in the Asian Le Mans Series with Algarve Pro Racing.
“I do think I've improved a lot over the year,” said Simpson, the 2021 Formula Regional Americas champion. “Improved lots of specific parts of my driving, just being more adaptable.
“I think feedback has been a big improvement this year as well. Working with like Alex Lynn in ELMS has been something that has helped my feedback for the engineers a lot. And also working with Scott McLaughlin in the Tower car this year has also been very helpful in that way.
“I think lots of little things like that have just helped me develop as a driver a lot over the year. Obviously, the racecraft as well with a lot of racing this year.”
Hull believes Simpson’s development is “at least 50%” from when everything began, with the ELMS season finale in a rain-marred affair at the Portimao Circuit standing out as a shining moment.
“He started on the pole for the first race,” Hull said. “He led and set the fastest lap in the dry.
“It started raining. He comes in, they put wet tires on, he goes back out, he ran in front of everybody and there were some pretty heavy hitters there. Turned the car over to his team-mate, who turned the car over to their team-mate. They ended up second in the race.
“And, then in Sunday's race, he started fourth. Pouring rain. Diabolical rain. Had no problem running in the wet, was very competitive, didn't put a wheel wrong and was fast. It was about 30 seconds behind the leader when he came in on Sunday before he turned the car over about 90 minutes into the race.
“What's really cool about the racing he's doing now, and here's what that racing gives you as a young race driver, it gives you a direct comparison to a professional team-mate; in this case, Alex Lynn.”
One of the key benefits of Simpson competing in sports car racing are pit stops, which is something not offered in any of the development categories on the ladder to IndyCar (outside of F2 in Europe).
“By years' end, I don't know what the tally is, but he will have done over 60 pit stops,” Hull said.
“So, if you can run in a ladder series and on the calendar find a means to be able to run in a number of sports car races where you have a proper team-mate who can be a mentor, and a compare and a measure of how you're growing as a team-mate. His lap times were equal to Alex Lynn.
“When he ran at Road Atlanta in Petit Le Mans the weekend prior, his team-mate was Scott McLaughlin. He was as fast or faster than Scott in the same car. So, they certainly all contribute to the end result when they're all driving. But that's where he is today versus where he was at the beginning of the year.
“He's made a lot of progress as a race driver. He's maturing as a race driver. The whole purpose of what we're doing is to make him a better race driver, whether it be for big sports cars or whether it be for IndyCar or whatever it happens to be.”
