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Schmidt Peterson adds Tristan Vautier to IndyCar line-up

Schmidt Peterson Motorsport has completed its long-planned expansion to two cars by signing rookie Tristan Vautier alongside compatriot Simon Pagenaud for the 2013 IndyCar season

Vautier won last year's Indy lights title with the Schmidt team, and several crew members from his Lights campaign will be promoted along with him to work on his car.

Team co-owner Sam Schmidt said that he believes the addition of a second car will help the team to build on its momentum from last season, when it helped Pagenaud to earn rookie of the year honours and finish fifth in the standings.

"We achieved success with Simon Pagenaud last season as a properly-run single-car team, but I believe we'll be even better with two cars given the chemistry of the package and personnel we have put together for this programme," Schmidt said.

"You really need to run two cars to reap the benefits of two sets of data and vie for the championship at this level."

Vautier tested with the team at Sebring last December, finishing the day with the second-quickest time overall.

2013 IndyCar Series line-up so far:

Team                       Engine Drivers
AJ Foyt Racing             Honda  Takuma Sato
Andretti Autosport         Chevy  Ryan Hunter-Reay/James Hinchcliffe/Marco Andretti/tba
Bryan Herta Autosport      Honda  Alex Tagliani
Chip Ganassi Racing        Honda  Dario Franchitti/Scott Dixon/Charlie Kimball
Dale Coyne Racing          Honda  tba
Dragon Racing              Chevy  Sebastien Bourdais/tba
Ed Carpenter Racing        Chevy  Ed Carpenter
KV Racing Technology       Chevy  Tony Kanaan/Simona de Silvestro
Panther/Dreyer & Reinbold  Chevy  JR Hildebrand/Oriol Servia
Rahal Letterman Lanigan    Honda  Graham Rahal/(Mike Conway - Long Beach only)
Sarah Fisher Hartman       Honda  Josef Newgarden
Schmidt Peterson           Honda  Simon Pagenaud/Tristan Vautier
Team Penske                Chevy  Will Power/Helio Castroneves

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