Simon Pagenaud got Team Penske its 18th Indianapolis 500 victory and it was a stellar weekend for Team Penske. Monaco was interesting... I don't know. It was a repeat of 1992 but it is 2019 and the performance that what we hold as evidence for Ayrton Senna's greatness is unacceptable with the contemporary set of drivers. Elsewhere, Chris Windom is glad this weekend is over. Formula E is winding down its season and was in Berlin. The Hoosier Hundred had one final race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
They Know What They Are Doing
IndyCar made a seismic announcement on Carb Day morning. The series announced a partnership with Red Bull Advanced Technologies on an aeroscreen planned for introduction to the NTT IndyCar Series in 2020.
The announcement is a leap forward for IndyCar after having preliminary tests with the first prototype early last year with Scott Dixon at Phoenix and Josef Newgarden at Indianapolis. It had been over a year since Newgarden tested the aeroscreen at the Speedway and all had gone quiet on the latest safety enhancement, making the jump from two tests in 2018 to full implementation for 2020 a surprising turn of course.
It is going to be a jarring change for IndyCar. The car is going to look different and it will take time to adjust. The problem is with any change, people quickly come up with every flaw in the book to discredit the change and hope for a reversal so the status quo remains.
I have news to all those who discredit the aeroscreen: Engineers are working on this and they have taken into consideration all your qualms.
They know about smudges, water and oil. They know about rain. They know about debris, glare, fog, etc. Everything concern you have they have in mind and will work to correct. You aren't smarter than the engineers working on this that IndyCar and Red Bull employ.
Do you really think these people are daft enough to produce an aeroscreen and not taking into consideration that IndyCar races in the rain? Better yet, do you really think if a problem occurs they aren't going to work on it? The aeroscreen isn't going to be attached, the engineers slap their hands clean and declare job done and move on. This is going to be a process that is worked on constantly.
They aren't winging it. They are going to test it and test it in multiple conditions. They are going to fix any problems that crop up and problems will crop up during and that is ok. That is part of science. You test something, you get a result and if it is not desirable you work to fix it.
IndyCar is going to find a solution. This isn't going to be the first series in the world that runs with what is just a windshield in front of the drivers, in fact it seems like nine in ten series run with a windshield in front of a driver and these series are all doing fine. How does a Toyota LMP1 car handle when it gets fluid on its windshield or a NASCAR Cup car or a GT3 Ferrari? An IndyCar is going to be no different. The aeroscreen is going to get a ton of garbage splattered on it and drivers will adapt and if it gets to a point that visibility is so poor it forces a driver to pit then so be it. The same can happen in dozens of other series around the world and it is one consequence between putting that barrier around the driver.
It is going to be different for IndyCar. It is going to be a difference in the careers of A.J. Foyt and Colton Herta but there are a lot of things that separate the drivers of each generation. A.J. Foyt never raced with a riding mechanic and how many greats from the early 20th century did? We don't look down upon Foyt's career because of how IndyCar evolved and we shouldn't do the same for the drivers who will race with the aeroscreen for the entirety of their careers.
As for rain, maybe the solution is as simple as windshield wipers, an invention we are accustomed on our daily road cars. Sure, no IndyCar has ever featured it, no single-seater race car has ever featured it but there was a time when no IndyCar ever had seat belts and nobody is in a huff that the current drivers are strapped in tightly behind the wheel. It would just be a part of the evolution and soon it would not seem out of place but just part of an IndyCar.
We have to look at what the aeroscreen for not only what it is but what it could be.
It is evolution. The same way rules evolved in the 1960s to control how much fuel one car could hold in the day of safety. It took incinerating two drivers in front of over 250,000 people to enforce fuel cells to be introduced so the cars weren't ticking time bombs. It shouldn't take another serious accident for cockpit safety to be improved.
It could save a life and prevent injuries, whether severe or a simple concussion. We shouldn't be against it and there will still be risk in IndyCar with it. The aeroscreen can only do so much and for all the good it will do it will not make drivers invisible. When cars are driving at 220 MPH there is always a chance of injury or death. We saw a gnarly accident in the Freedom 100 with Chris Windom and David Malukas where both drivers could have been seriously hurt. Windom's car split in half but the car did its job and the monocoque remained in one piece, keeping Windom safe but Windom's car was inches from the helmet of Malukas. Both drivers walked away but we should not be pushing the limits of how close we can get a race car to a driver's head without a fatality occurring.
The Freedom 100 accident does raise questions about how long until the aeroscreen makes its way down the ladder system. Formula One introduced the Halo and Formula Two and Formula Three followed suit. Super Formula in Japan even adopted the device. It became clear the way the world was going and it was not going to wait to follow Formula One's lead. Things move a little slower in North America and lack of funding is one reason but if we are going to have this device in IndyCar it should be on Indy Lights cars and Indy Pro 2000 and U.S. F2000 to decrease the risk of injuries in those series as well as help those drivers adapt to the device from a young age that way if they make it to IndyCar it is one fewer hurdle a driver has to clear.
The aeroscreen is change. Change is tough. We will get used to it. We got used seat belts. We got used to fuel cells. We got used to drivers with closed face helmets. We got used to HANS devices. We got used to catchfences and the SAFER Barrier. We got used to rear-engine cars. We got used to rear wings. We got used to pneumatic jacks. We got used to Ethanol. We got used to the apron! We got used to the current Pagoda and the current victory lane. We get used to so many things and this will be different to look at but the IndyCar of 2019 doesn't look anything like the Marmon Wasps or the Duesenbergs or the Millers or the Kurtis Krafts or the Eagle.
In ten years, we will look at the cars and not even think of the aeroscreen or whatever evolution could come after that. It will just be apart of an IndyCar, the same we are used to seeing rear-engined vehicles powered by an Ethanol blend with rear wings and drivers wearing fully enclosed helmets in fire-retardant suits drive within an inch and a half of the SAFER Barrier.
We are going to adapt. The aeroscreen is coming and the engineers are one step ahead of you.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Simon Pagenaud but did you know...
Lewis Hamilton won the Monaco Grand Prix for the third time.
Nyck de Vries won the Formula Two feature race from Monaco. Anthonie Hubert won the sprint race.
Oliver Askew won the Freedom 100. Daniel Frost won the Freedom 90. Cameron Shields won the Freedom 75.
Martin Truex, Jr. won the Coca-Cola 600, his second Coca-Cola 600. Tyler Reddick won the Grand National Series race.
Lucas di Grassi won the Berlin ePrix.
Scott McLaughlin swept the Supercars races from Winton Motor Raceway.
The #38 Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo Lexus of Kazuki Nakajima and Yuhi Sekiguchi won the Super GT race from Suzuka. The #11 GAINER Nissan of Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Hironobu Yasuda won the GT300.
Tyler Courtney won the 64th Hoosier Hundred. Kyle Hamilton won the Dave Steele Carb Night Classic from Indianapolis Raceway Park. Kody Swanson won the Little 500 from Anderson Speedway for the second consecutive year and third victory in four years.
Coming Up Next Weekend
IndyCar has a doubleheader at Belle Isle.
IMSA joins IndyCar for the Saturday at Belle Isle.
MotoGP heads to Mugello.
NASCAR will be at Pocono.
Blancpain Endurance Series has a 1000km race at Circuit Paul Ricard.
World Rally Championship has a round in Portugal.
The Le Mans test day.
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