Scott McLaughlin’s engineer for his second full season in the IndyCar Series has been named.

Ben Bretzman will fill that role on the three-time Supercars champion’s #3 Team Penske entry in 2022, according to IndyCar’s official website.

That appointment comes as a result of the move of McLaughlin’s 2021 engineer, Jonathan Diuguid, to Penske’s new Porsche LMDh programme.

The addition of that sportscar effort coincides with the downsizing of its IndyCar operation to three entries.

Bretzman makes the shift from the car driven by Simon Pagenaud, who has gone from Penske to Meyer Shank Racing.

Australian Will Power and Josef Newgarden remain at the squad, although the latter will also have a new, as yet unconfirmed race engineer for the season ahead.

Newgarden had worked with Gavin Ward, with whom he won the 2019 IndyCar Series, but the Canadian is a McLaren SP employee going forward.

Ward arrived at Penske ahead of the 2018 season from the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team, where he had filled a number of roles, including engineer for the likes of now McLaren F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo.

McLaughlin earned Rookie of the Year honours after finishing 14th in the 2021 IndyCar Series, and told Speedcafe.com’s KTM Summer Grill that he believes a first win in the category is “just in reach”.

The opening round of 2022 takes place on the last weekend of February, on the streets of St Petersburg.