2021 Motorsports Christmas List

Christmas is coming up this weekend and we must hand out some presents! Many had better years in 2021 than 2020, but everyone needs something to make their lives a little better. Though life might still be unsettled, this is a chance to find some joy and celebrate what we have. 

There are many people who need something, whether they know it or not, whether they will say they need it or not say a thing. This is our chance to give out items even if they were not asked for. Why wait any longer? 

Let's see what is around the Christmas tree!

To Kyle Larson: People not asking him if he is going to run the Indianapolis 500. Come on, people! The answer is no.

To Jimmie Johnson: Two co-drivers for an IMSA Endurance Cup effort. How about Joey Hand and Juan Pablo Montoya?

To Álex Palou: Just a sliver of notoriety in the United States. He may be from Spain, but Palou is one of the most affectionate drivers in the world and IndyCar should not let his nationality be a deterrent. He has the personality the series needs from a top driver.

To Scott Dixon: A moratorium on people writing the "Is Scott Dixon Done?" articles and columns for at least all of 2022.

To Tony Kanaan: A Ganassi fifth car for all the ovals. Let's give him one final trip to Texas, Iowa and Gateway.

To Marcus Ericsson: A few more rabbit's feet, because he can't count on being any luckier in 2022 than he was in 2021.

To Alexander Rossi: A few IndyCar victories, just to shut people up. 

To Colton Herta: Timely cautions in his favor and sturdy driveshafts.

To Hélio Castroneves: A three-place bump to his road/street course qualifying results. He is going to need it. 

To Simon Pagenaud: No mistakes doing laundry now that he will be with Meyer Shank Racing and have more pink apparel. 

To Sébastien Bourdais: A four-year commitment that Chip Ganassi Racing will take him to Le Mans starting in 2023 with LMDh.

To Romain Grosjean: DHL sponsorship for the next five years.

To Kyle Kirkwood: A guarantee that he will spend at least the next five years in IndyCar and most of those years will to be with A.J. Foyt Racing. 

To Oliver Askew: Respectable Formula E results and a part-time IndyCar seat. 

To Patricio O'Ward: Justifiable promotion in Mexico and to the Hispanic-American population. IndyCar seriously does not understand what a gem O'Ward is and is going to blow growing its fanbase.

To Felix Rosenqivst: His 2019 IndyCar season in a bottle.

To Josef Newgarden: No opening lap spins.

To Will Power: Somehow, he needs fewer mechanical issues again this year! 

To Will Power and Scott McLaughlin: A Bathurst 1000 wild card entry.

To Scott McLaughlin: Better friends taking him to NFL games.

To Rinus VeeKay: More consistent results.

To J.R. Hildebrand: A chance in the IndyCar broadcast booth.

To James Hinchcliffe: A GTD-Pro ride with Pfaff Motorsports. If there is any driver that should drive a plaid Porsche, isn't it Hinchcliffe?

To Jack Harvey: A box of chocolates. He is just a good guy. He deserves some sweets. 

To Graham Rahal: A few days off at home.

To Christian Lundgaard: A stomach strong enough to handle American cuisine, especially if he lives in Indiana.

To Callum Ilott: Formula One teams not forgetting he exists.

To David Malukas: A rookie season that matches some of Dale Coyne's other recent rookies.

To Takuma Sato: A trip to Le Mans with the Acura LMDh program. 

To Charlie Kimball: A car specifically built and trimmed for the Indianapolis 500.

To Mazda: Enough funding to continue in IMSA in 2022 and pursue an LMDh program.

To Corvette: Favorable Balance of Performance in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

To Marc Márquez: Full fitness.

To the other three Honda MotoGP riders: A bike they can handle.

To Valentino Rossi: A GT3 program that includes starts at the 24 Hours of Daytona, Bathurst 12 Hour, 24 Hours of Spa and a European Le Mans Series GTE program to boot.

To KTM: Civility among its four MotoGP riders. Remy Gardner and Raúl Fernández could be a dangerous teammate pairing and not for the right reasons.

To Fabio Quartararo: Better chest protectors. 

To Franco Morbidelli: All his bones remaining in one piece.

To Andrea Dovizioso: A comeback season for the history book.

To the motorcycle community: An Isle of Man TT. We have been waiting.

To Suzuki: Riders staying upright more often. 

To Darryn Binder: Better corner entry judgment. 

To Johann Zarco: His first career MotoGP victory. He deserves it. 

To Aprilia: The best of Maverick Viñales. 

To Jack Miller: No long-lap penalties.

To Francesco Bagnaia: Keeping the tires on the track when it matters most.

To MotoGP: A race at Barber Motorsports Park. This is going to be on this list every year until it happens. 

To Toprak Razgatlioglu: A MotoGP opportunity before too much time passes.

To Jonathan Rea: A MotoGP opportunity now. Who cares how old he is? Let's give him a shot!

To Liam Lawson: Better sportsmanship from his competitors.

To Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters: A return to Brands Hatch and a visit to Anderstrop, two of the races from the original 2020 schedule that didn't happen.

To Oscar Piastri: Alpine dropping some dough to get him a handful of IndyCar races. If Alpine is funding part of Christian Lundgaard's IndyCar program, the least it can do is get Piastri a few real races in 2022.

To Shane van Gisbergen: Safe bike rides.

To Brad Keselowski: Aspirin.

To Kevin Harvick: A victory with some help from teammate, maybe holding up a driver from a certain Chevrolet team. 

To Kyle Busch: Sponsorship that will keep him happy from 2023 onward.

To Denny Hamlin: A psychologist. 

To Bubba Wallace: Social media platforms going extinct. 

To Harrison Burton: No comparisons to his successor. 

To Joey Logano: Less than six months between victories.

To Kurt Busch: More sports car opportunities.

To Erik Jones: A larger bookshelf. 

To Daniel Hemric: A second NASCAR Grand National Series victory.

To Kaz Grala: A full-time NASCAR Grand National Series entry. If Landon Cassill is getting one, why not Grala? 

To Andy Lally: Ideal conditions in his handful of NASCAR starts.

To Gateway Motorsports Park: Its NASCAR Cup race being a night race.  

To Texas Motor Speedway: Starting over. I am serious. Let's bulldoze most of it, if not all of it, and try again. Let's take a year or two off and then come back in 2025 with a better racetrack. 

To Doug Coby: Full-time NASCAR Truck Series season with a few short track races in NASCAR's second division. 

To SRX: An even better second season but remaining true to work in season one. Keep it short, keep it on short tracks and attract a few more contemporary drivers and not as many retired out of race shape drivers.

To IMSA officials: A few new whistles because they swallow their previous ones during the final lap at Petit Le Mans.

To IMSA: A sensical points system.

To Ricky Taylor: Not being blocked at the least opportune time or at least getting the officials to call a block when he has been blocked.

To Jordan Taylor: A proper NASCAR Cup ride on road courses. It is bullshit it hasn't happened already.

To A.J. Allmendinger: Better results in October and November. February through September he has down pat. Just those two months.

To Virginia International Raceway: A return of IMSA's top prototype class.

To Mazda MX-5 Cup: A few races on network television. People would love it! 

To James Davison: A quality ride somewhere. Something that at least matches his talent.

To Formula One: Competent race control and fewer red flags.

Also To Formula One: Realizing sprint qualifying isn't as good as it is being made out to be.

To American Formula One fans: A television partner that brings its own Formula One analysis and does more than simulcast Sky Sports' coverage. It is good to have more voices in the room.

To NASCAR: Realizing it owns a short track, it is called Iowa Speedway, and giving that a Cup race.

To Indianapolis Raceway Park: A NASCAR Grand National Series race. By the way, how the fuck did we allow 11 years to go by between NASCAR national series races at IRP? How stupid are the people in charge that they let such a thing happen? Morons. 

To Dane Cameron: More respect for his talent level.

To Felipe Nasr: A one-off IndyCar race with Team Penske at Road America.

To JDC-Miller Motorsports: More than one good race. 

To Jack Hawksworth: Assigned as the lead driver for Toyota's IndyCar return.

To Bill Aubelen and Robby Foley: Contact that goes in their favor. 

To Tommy Milner: No one ever calling him Tommy Milner, Jr. 

To Chip Ganassi Racing's sports car program: No tire punctures in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

To Kamui Kobayashi: A Super Formula race victory.

To Gabby Chaves: Reminders to the top teams in Daytona Prototype international and IndyCar that he still exists. 

To Spencer Pigot: The same thing Gabby Chaves is getting. 

To FIA World Endurance Championship: Compelling racing in its professional classes.

To Peugeot: Counterpunches that land on Toyota.

To Ferrari: No delays or hiccups in its Hypercar development.

To Gustavo Menezes: Becoming the first American to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall since 1996. 

To Glickenhaus: A full-time WEC effort.

To Pipo Derani: A full FIA World Endurance Championship season along with his full IMSA season.

To the Indianapolis 8 Hours: Roger Penske embracing it. Also, America's top GT3 teams embracing it as well. 

To Team WRT: Success in the United States.

To SportsCar 365: A revival of The Double Stint podcast. It was quite a good show, an informative and concise chat about sports car racing each week. 

To Ryan Hunter-Reay: One final full season in IndyCar.

To Ed Carpenter: Committing to two full-time drivers for his IndyCar team while accepting an oval-only or Indianapolis 500-only program for himself.

To Marco Andretti: More races, but if he is happy doing what he is doing, he could re-gift those to someone else.

To Ernie Francis, Jr.: Five-year commitment to open-wheel racing.

To Kaulig Racing; A guarantee that all sponsorship payment checks clear.

To Martin Truex, Jr. and Christopher Bell: Soft landing spots for whenever either is kick out of Joe Gibbs Racing for Ty Gibbs. 

To Ty Gibbs: A year off to see the world, talk to some different people, see some different cultures, learn a few things. 

To John Hunter Nemechek: Someone at Toyota looking out for him. 

To Austin Cindric: A deep playoff run.

To Chase Briscoe: A firm understanding of NASCAR's cutting the course rules on road courses, because he is the only one who seemed not to understand it. 

To Alex Bowman: More top ten finishes.

To Ryan Blaney: A better sense of humor. 

To Tyler Reddick: A move to a bigger and better team.

To Road Atlanta: A NASCAR weekend. We don't need a second weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

To Dover International Speedway: A promise that Speedway Motorsports, Inc. doesn't screw it up. 

To World Rally Championship: A close championship possibly involving multiple drivers named Sébastien.

To Spa-Francorchamps: Ten years without rain on Belgian Grand Prix race day. 

To Max Verstappen: Humility. 

To Lewis Hamilton: A few timely virtual safety cars.

To Fernando Alonso: Esteban Ocon coming to his aid. 

To Daniel Ricciardo: That better second year he has regularly had.

To Yuki Tsunoda: Acceptance that his Formula One career could be over before he is 23 years old.

To Lando Norris: Intuition to stop for wet weather tires a lap before everyone else. 

To Nicholas Latifi: Anonymity. 

To Kimi Räikkönen: Peace and quiet. 

To Pietro Fittipaldi: A full-time ride somewhere! Stop wasting your time as a Formula One reserve driver for a team that will never give you the full race seat! 

To Race of Champions: Kyle Larson blowing off the Clash to race on ice in Sweden and Lewis Hamilton deciding he needs a Swedish holiday as well and competes. 

To Formula E: A compelling championship that does not require a convoluted qualifying format.

To Oliver Turvey: Any ride he wants in the world of motorsports. He cannot be thrilled running at the back for NIO in every race.

Also To Oliver Turvey: Patience with his new teammate.

To Mitch Evans: Perfect launches from every start next season.

To New Zealand: An FIA Grade 1 circuit, but one with legitimate grass runoff, that can host Formula One, WEC, IndyCar and any other major motorsports series. It deserves it. 

To Carlos Sainz, Jr.: Long-term commitment from Ferrari. How is this guy already on the fence? And he beat Charles Leclerc in the championship! 

To George Russell: Some thick skin. 

To Sergio Pérez: His best race coming in Mexico City. 

To Valtteri Bottas: More rallying opportunities.

To Sebastien Vettel: Sufficient fuel levels the next time he finishes on the podium. 

To Mick Schumacher: A few good days that go with his talent. 

To Every Formula One Circuit: Adequate grass runoff on the edge of the circuit. 

To the Bathurst 12 Hour: A healthy grid with drivers from all around the globe. 

To Supercars: Fewer border restrictions.

To Canada: A Canadian Grand Prix. We are missing Montreal. 

To Super Formula: A few more international drivers. 

To Phillip Island: MotoGP and World Superbike weekends. Another track that has been gone for too long due to the pandemic.   

To the inaugural Miami Grand Prix: Suitable support races. North American grand prix weekends have underwhelming support races. We can do so much better.

To the Bahrain Grand Prix: Moving to the perimeter circuit. Mind as well do something different. 

To the Asian Le Mans Series: A return to the Pacific region. 

To Nyck de Vries: A Formula One ride so the world can have a Dutchman to root for.

To Fontana: Remaining a two-mile oval. It sounds like everyone is getting cold feet over the re-configuration. Just leave it how it is then. Plus, I don't think NASCAR know what it wants to do. 

To Alex Zanardi: A full recovery.

Finally, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. What an odd year this has been? The quintessential example of two steps forward and one step back. We have come a long way from last Christmas, and yet this Christmas feels like it has circled back to where we were a year ago. This year had many positives. It felt more normal, arguably was close to normal, but we didn't quite get fully back there. It was better than 2020, but that wasn't going to be that hard to accomplish. And yet here we are, uncertain and clueless about what will happen next. 

But there is plenty to be encouraged about and 2022 should be better. Positivity will take us a long way. Most importantly, stay safe, stay healthy and enjoy this time with friends and family.  

2020 Motorsports Christmas List

Hanukkah concluded a few days ago and we are approaching Christmas again, and for another year we will got over a list of goodies for many people, series, racetracks and other entities in motorsports. It has been a difficult year for almost all of us, and we need a holiday season to sit-back and relax. 

There are plenty of people who could use a nice gift this year. This year, we are looking out for others. We are looking to make everyone's life a little bit better. Ok, maybe not everyone, some people are getting things they might not say they want but actually need. 

Let's get started!

To Jimmie Johnson: A second off his lap time in an IndyCar. He is going to need it. 

To Oliver Askew: Team owners that actually care about him and listen.

To Scott Dixon: A guarantee there will not be a caution in the final ten laps of the Indianapolis 500.

To Alexander Rossi: Fewer mechanical issues.

To Will Power: Fewer mechanical issues than Rossi.

To Simon Pagenaud: Better qualifying pace. 

To Josef Newgarden: Five years of job security. Too often Power and Pagenaud are hinted as being out the door because they only won two races and finished in the top five of the championship. Newgarden deserves safety into his mid-30s. 

To Scott McLaughlin: A year worth the move.

To Graham Rahal: The results that correspond to the speed.

To Takuma Sato: More time at home.

To Spencer Pigot: People remembering he exists.

To Álex Palou: Three years with Chip Ganassi Racing.

To Marcus Ericsson: A pogo stick. 

To Tony Kanaan: An Indianapolis 500 ride until he is 50 years old.

To Ryan Hunter-Reay: One final contract to end his career.

To James Hinchcliffe: More time as a driver and less time as a commentator. 

To Marco Andretti: One season to silence the doubters. And more sports car racing. An entry into the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans.

To Colton Herta: A trip to Le Mans. 

To Sébastien Bourdais: The best season for an A.J. Foyt Racing driver in twenty years.

To Felix Rosenqvist: A longer leash than James Hinchcliffe and Oliver Askew got.

To Patricio O'Ward: A 30-second glimpse into the future just to keep him on good terms with Arrow McLaren SP.

To Jack Harvey: Race results that are equal to his qualifying results. 

To Hélio Castroneves: No embarrassing moments where he accidentally walks into a Team Penske hauler or pit box or drives through a Team Penske pit stall.

To Conor Daly: Three positions off his average finish on road/street courses.

To Max Chilton: At least one top ten finish, maybe even two. 

To Rinus VeeKay: Three clean days at Texas Motor Speedway.

To Ed Carpenter: Less contact as an innocent bystander. 

To J.R. Hildebrand: Jumping to the front of the line of future television commentators. He is the smartest man for the job. 

To Dale Coyne Racing: A speedy and successful driver search. 

To DragonSpeed: A second shot at IndyCar down the line.

To Carlin: The ability to run two cars full-time.

To Juncos Racing: At least an Indianapolis 500 one-off.

To Zach Veach: A soft-landing in sports cars.

To Sage Karam: A full season in Indy Lights to revive his career.

To Stefan Wilson: An Indianapolis 500 entry for at least two consecutive years.

To IndyCar: A third manufacture that wants to be there.

To Indy Lights: At least 16 full-time cars and a return of the Freedom 100.

To Kyle Kirkwood: A year back on his career for losing 2020. 

To Alex Peroni: Keeping all four wheels on the ground in his rookie Indy Lights season.

To Fontana: One final 500-mile IndyCar race.

To Long Beach: A highly successful event in 2021 that ensures its long-term future.

To Barber Motorsports Park: A successful IndyCar return in 2021 and, as always, a MotoGP round.

To Circuit of the Americas: Financial solvency. 

To Iowa Speedway: An IndyCar race and a NASCAR Cup race. The fact Iowa is reduced to only having an ARCA race in 2021 is a crime.

To Chicagoland Speedway and Kentucky Speedway: An event to keep the doors open. Look, they might be 1.5-mile ovals, but they are home racetracks to someone, and I wish after the shakeups of the 1990s and 2000s NASCAR would have realized no track should be effectively closed.

To Lewis Hamilton: Respect of a seven-time World Drivers' Champion.

To Sergio Pérez: More than a year with Red Bull.

To Max Verstappen: The Dutch Grand Prix happening in 2021.

To Nico Hülkenberg: Another crack in a full-time Formula One ride.

To George Russell: Another chance in a Mercedes.

To Mercedes: Better pit stop execution when under the gun.

To Fernando Alonso: Fewer headaches than his last stint in Formula One.

To Pierre Gasly: An eventual second shot at Red Bull Racing.

To Yuki Tsunoda: A Formula One career beyond Honda's involvement.

To Sebastian Vettel: Aston Martin's pace being close to Racing Point's pace

To Carlos Sainz, Jr.: Extra testing time in the Ferrari.

To Charles Leclerc: The thing he wants more than anything else in 2021... a PlayStation 5.

To Ferrari: Loads of pit stop practice.

To Kimi Räikkönen: Accepting retirement is not a bad choice. 

To Valtteri Bottas: Peace and tranquility. 

To Esteban Ocon: A do-over for 2020.

To Romain Grosjean: Neosporin.

To Mick Schumacher: A Haas car worth his time. 

To Haas F1: A second driver with human decency.

To Callum Ilott: Maybe that second Haas seat, if not, some high-level sports car racing. 

To Pietro Fittipaldi: A full season in a series somewhere. 

To Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris: A shot in the third McLaren IndyCar on a Formula One off weekend. Perhaps one can get Nashville and the other can take the second IMS road course race with the NASCAR weekend. 

To Nicholas Latifi: Getting noticed for all the right reasons.

To Alexander Albon: A race seat that he can enjoy in 2021.

To Williams F1: A handful of points to get started.

To Portimão: A full-time Formula One and MotoGP race. 

To Yas Marina: A billion-dollar do-over because there is no way it could screw up on that track layout a second time. 

To: Bahrain: The chutzpah to make the perimeter circuit the permanent circuit of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

To Heineken: Two other Formula One retirees for its commercial than the Rosbergs. We will take anybody, sans Jacques Villeneueve. And any other song other than "Cat's in the Cradle."

To the world of GT Racing: A formula that is widely accepted that can be the premier GT Class at Le Mans.

To global sports car community: No major date conflicts.

To the Dubai 24 Hours: Dry weather. 

To DTM: At least 16 capable GT3 entires for a sprint championship.

To Jenson Button: A diverse calendar that includes starts in DTM, multiple GT3 competitions and an IndyCar.

To IMSA: A points system where the points actually matter and make sense.

To Corvette: BMW committing to a full IMSA season with two cars in GTLM, a Scuderia Corsa Ferrari, a privateer Aston Martin and a privateer Porsche running full-time.

To Audi and Porsche: Speedy and effortless development of LMDh entries.

To René Rast: A key role in the development of the Audi LMDh entry. 

To Kevin Magnussen: Avoiding getting on Chip Ganassi's nerve.

To Nick Tandy: A NASCAR race. He is now driving for Corvette; someone should be able to make this happen.

To Jordan Taylor: Same as Nick Tandy. Seriously? Why didn't this happen in 2020? 

To Felipe Nasr: A handful of IndyCar starts.

To Pipo Derani: A handful of IndyCar starts.

To João Barbosa: A full-time DPi ride.

To Paul Miller Racing: IMSA officials understanding that no means no when it comes to the team's number. 

To United Autosports: I am not sure what else you can give the team that has won everything it enters. How about steak dinners for the entire team? 

To the Asian Le Mans Series: More exciting races at Yas Marina than Formula One.

To the Bathurst 12 Hour: A successful return in 2022 with many guest drivers from around the world.

To the Red Bull Ring: No red flags for any of its MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 or MotoE races.

To Marc Márquez: A clean bill of health.

To the other three Honda MotoGP riders: Results that are at least in the ballpark with Marc Márquez.

To Joan Mir: A season that proves 2020 was not a fluke.

To Fabio Quartararo A better balanced Yamaha.

To Maverick Viñales: A better balanced Yamaha as well.

To Valentino Rossi: A 200th podium finish.

To Andrea Dovizioso: One more shot on a capable bike.

To Aprilia: A more competitive bike. 

To Garrett Gerloff, Joe Roberts and Cameron Beaubier: American interest in American riders abroad. 

To Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López: A Le Mans victory.

To Gustavo Menezes: A competitive Hypercar opportunity.

To Juan Pablo Montoya: A shot at the overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

To NASCAR fans: Not getting moody over the number of road course races.

To Kevin Harvick: Dry days and properly inflated tires.

To Kyle Busch: Less frustration and a healthy relationship with Ben Beshore.

To Martin Truex, Jr.: His pit crew not mixing up his tires.

To Denny Hamlin: A guarantee Junior Johnson will remain the driver with the most Cup victories without a championship.

To Chase Briscoe: A rookie season that does his team owner proud. 

To Ryan Blaney: Better results at Darlington, Richmond and Bristol. 

To Alex Bowman: No one comparing his results in the #48 Chevrolet to Jimmie Johnson.

To Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing: A respectable inaugural season.

To Erik Jones: A top-20 championship finish.

To Austin Cindric: More head and leg room.

To James Davison: A Cup car worth his time and an Indianapolis 500 entry too.

To Ryan Briscoe: A full-time sports car ride and maybe another crack at IndyCar. Briscoe can drive pretty much anything. 

To the World Rally Championship: At least 12 rounds and an exciting championship that goes to the wire.

To Sébastien Ogier: A fond farewell.

To Elfyn Evans: Keeping it on the road when it matters most.

To Robert Kubica: A second (or third... or possibly fourth) shot at rallying.

To the Race of Champions: Actually running an event. It going to be two years. I know we are in a pandemic and the landscape of motorsports has changed a lot over the last 20 years and it makes it tougher for such an event to take place, but it is still possible.

To Formula E: Accepting that events can be successful at permanent racetracks and not dropping tens of millions of dollars on one-day street races. 

To António Félix da Costa: An IndyCar start with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

To Nick Cassidy: A painless switch to racing in a more European-based championship.

To Naoki Yamamoto: More international exposure. 

To Ryō Hirakawa: An extra gallon of fuel and stopping for tires on the right lap.

To Super GT: The ability to safely contest its flyaway races at Buriram and Sepang.

To Supercars: A return to Adelaide.

To the Australian S5000 Championship: A full season that grabs the world's attention.

To Alex Zanardi: A full recovery.

To the entire motorsports world: The appropriate amount of iRacing being broadcasted. Not too much, but not too little, the adequate amount. 

More importantly, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. I want to wish everyone good health and that everyone can stay safe this winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the southern half of the world. We all want 2021 to be better. We want to return to a semblance of normalcy, and we want to be able to go to races and travel and see friends and families. 

Here's to Christmas, the holidays and the New Year. May everyone have a lovely time with whatever friends and family you can see. 

2020 Et Cetera Predictions: Revisited

We are looking at a dozen different championships today. Most of them faced different seasons because of the pandemics. Most of these series had rounds cancelled or moved or tracks took on multiple race weekends instead of one. One series avoided the pandemic. One was swallowed up and vanished. We can look and see at how our ideas from nearly 12 months ago aged. 

1. MotoGP: There will be at least three first-time winners
Correct! 

There were five first-time winners in 2020 and three of those came in the first five races! 

No surprise, Fabio Quartararo was the first to achieve his first MotoGP victory and he did it in the opening race from Jerez. Quartararo followed it with his second victory in the second Jerez race and then Brad Binder took a surprise victory at Brno on the KTM!

Two weeks later, KTM had another winner and it was Miguel Oliveira, who slipped on through after Pol Espargaró and Jack Miller went wide in the final corner of the Styrian Grand Prix from the Red Bull Ring. Espargaró had been leading into that final bend and if he had held on, he would have been the third first-time winner. Instead, it was Oliveira. 

We're not done yet. The next race was at Misano and Franco Morbidelli picked up his first career victory. Six races. Four first-time winners. 

Incredible... and we still haven't gotten to the fifth first-time winner, the MotoGP champion Joan Mir, who won the European Grand Prix from Valencia! 

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?
Not the pandemic, but Marc Márquez's injury in the first race of the season from Jerez. 

While battling Quartararo for the lead, Márquez fell off and fractured his right arm. He tried to return for the next race but could not compete. Then he fractured the plate in his arm after closing a window and that ended his season. Now, Márquez's start of the 2021 season is in jeopardy due to a slow recovery

If Márquez was healthy, he wins at least ten races this season. No rider was spectacularly consistent in 2020. Quartararo would have gotten his victory, if Márquez was competing. Yamaha was on another level at Jerez. Outside of that, I am not sure the KTMs of Binder and Oliveira would have broken through. Perhaps, Morbidelli would have had his day and with how good the Suzuki was, Mir could have gotten a victory, but I am not entirely sure three first-time winners would have occurred with a healthy Marc Márquez. 

2. Indy Lights: The winner of the first race of the season does not drop out midseason
Well... Indy Lights was cancelled this season due to the pandemic. We didn't even get one race in. There was a qualifying session held at St. Petersburg and David Malukas topped it, but not long after that the St. Petersburg weekend was shut down. 

With ten cars entered, and not all of those committed to a full season, Indy Lights did not attempt a season. Its future remains in jeopardy, though there is optimism a 2021 season will happen.

3. Supercars: At least four teams and at least two teams from each manufacture win a race
Correct! 

Ford had DJR Team Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard picked up victories, as well as Tickford Racing drivers Jack Le Brocq and Cameron Waters.

Holden had Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Jamie Whincup win four races while Shane van Gisbergen won four races, including the Bathurst 1000 with Garth Tander. Brad Jones Racing driver Nick Percat took a surprise victory in the second race back from lockdown in Sydney and Percat would follow it with another win in the second Sydney weekend. Erebus Motorsport made it three Holden team with a victory when Anton de Pasquale won in Darwin. 

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?
I don't think so. DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight were always going to win races. Waters was going to win for Tickford Racing. If there is one surprise it is Walkinshaw Andretti United did not win a race despite Chaz Mostert finishing fifth in the championship and that would have been a suspected Holden team to pick up a victory. 

4. World Superbike: American Garrett Gerloff will be no better than the fifth-best Yamaha rider
Wrong! 

Gerloff did great! He was the surprise of the season and finished 11th in the championship with three podium finishes, including a runner-up finish at Estoril. He was the fourth best Yamaha rider with Toprak Razgatlioglu in fourth, Michael van der Mark in fifth and Loris Baz in eighth.

Federico Caricasulo ended up 14th, the fifth Yamaha rider and I thought Caricasulo would hold the advantage after four seasons in World Supersport, where he won six races and he was runner-up in the championship last year. 

Instead, Gerloff took to WSBK like a duck to water and even was on standby for the MotoGP European Grand Prix if Valentino Rossi did not pass a COVID-19 test. That is a quick rise for Gerloff and I am excited for what is in store for his future.

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?

Perhaps, but the pandemic doesn't explain why Caricasulo was as far off as he was, considering he knew majority of these tracks and Gerloff was new to almost all of them. 

5. World Supersport: Randy Krummenacher wins an even-numbered race
Wrong!

This is a little messy. Krummenacher ran the first race at Phillip Island with MV Agusta and then left the team before the season restarted citing "serious breaches on the part of (MV Agusta) that compromise both the rider's performance as well as his professionalism, reputation, and personal integrity." 

It was announced about three weeks after Krummenacher's departure that MV Agusta was disqualified from the Phillip Island round after it was found the team's engines were unsealed without permission. It is not clear if this is why Krummenacher left, it could be completely coincidental, but not many riders leave a team after one race for serious breaches. 

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?

Yes and no. 

Yes, because if the pandemic doesn't happen, perhaps Krummenacher runs a few more races and perhaps whatever breach happened doesn't happen. We will never know, but here we are. 

However, Andrea Locatelli won the first nine races and 12 of 15 races. Yamaha won 13 of 15 races. Kawasaki won twice. MV Agusta had four podium finishes all season. It might not have mattered.

6. GT World Challenge: Italian manufactures will not take multiple championships between World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, Intercontinental GT Challenge and World Challenge America
This one is a little confusing.

Unlike past GT World Challenge America seasons, when it was Pirelli World Challenge, there was no overall champion this season. There were three class champions, but no main champion. Which matters because the #1 Ferrari won with Squadra Corse and Martin Fuentes in the Pro-Am class while the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup championship went to Alessandro Pier Guidi and AF Corse Ferrari.

In GTWC America's Silver class, the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura won that title with Shelby Blackstock and Trent Hindman and scored 300 points. The only problem is Racers Edge was uncontested in the Silver class for seven of 11 races. Pro-Am drew the most entries every race. Blackstock and Hindman did win five of 11 races overall while the Pro-Am class took six overall victories and Squadra Corse won three races overall. 

GTWC America did not keep an overall points championship. When this prediction was made I thought there was going to be an overall champion for that series, like there had been under the PWC banner. 

If you applied points to the overall results of each race, the #93 Acura comes out on top with 208 points over the #1 Ferrari on 183 points. I guess I am going to say, "Correct," though it doesn't feel right, but it doesn't feel wrong either. 

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT won the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup title with Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts. 

The Intercontinental GT Challenge championship will be decided this weekend in the Kyalami 9 Hours and an Italian manufacture will not win that championship. Porsche drivers Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor lead on 31 points, one ahead of teammates drivers Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Patrick Pilet. Bentley drivers Jules Gounon, Jordan Pepper and Maxime Soulet are third on 28 points. BMW drivers Nicky Catsburg and Augusto Farfus are on 25 points. 

Markus Winkelhock has an outside shot at the championship on 22 points, as do Honda drivers Mario Farnbacher and Renger van der Zande with 19 points. Another batch of BMW drivers, David Pittard, Martin Tomczyk and Nick Yelloly are on 18 points. Frédéric Vervisch also has 18 points and could win the championship, as he will share an Audi with Weerts and Mirko Bortolotti. Mattia Drudi and Patric Niederhauser are also on 18 points and will be in another Audi with Christopher Haase. 

Of the 12 entries in the Kyalami 9 Hours, nine of them have at least one driver that could win the IGTC championship.

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?
There were clearly other things that affected this prediction. 

7. Asian Le Mans Series: None of the class champions sweep the season
Correct!

In LMP2, G-Drive Racing won the first two races, and I got nervous, but Carlin won the final two races. 

In LMP3, there were four different winners in four races with Inter Europol Competition, Nielsen Racing, Graff and ACE1 Villorba Corse each getting a victory. 

The GT class also had four different winners in four races with D'station Racing AMR, Car Guy Racing, Team JLOC and HubAuto Corsa. 

Heck, if you even include LMP2 AM, that did not have a sweep. RLR MSport won the first race. Rick Ware Racing won the second and third race with the #52 Ligier and then Rick Ware Racing won the final race with the #25 Ligier. 

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?
No and we can definitely say no because the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series season concluded prior to the pandemic taking over the world.

Those were simpler times. 

8. Super Formula: There will be at least two repeat winners in 2020
Wrong! 

There is still a race remaining in the Super Formula season, but this prediction is already locked up because through six races there have been six different winners. At most, we could have one repeat winner. 

Through the first six races, Ryō Hirakawa, Sho Tsuboi, Nick Cassidy, Tomoki Noiri, Naoki Yamaoto and Toshiki Oyu each have a victory. 

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?
A little bit, because while I cannot say for certain we would have had two repeat winners, you had drivers miss rounds because they were traveling out of Japan to compete in other series like the FIA World Endurance Championship, you had drivers that planned to run Super Formula and not compete (Pietro Fittipaldi) or only run one race (Sérgio Sette Câmara).

One thing the pandemic has affected is how the Super Formula championship will be decided. With the number of drivers who had to miss races due to conflicts with the 24 Hours of Le Mans and other WEC races, the decision was only the top five results out of the seven races would count toward the championship.

With one race remaining on December 20 at Fuji, Yamamoto and Hirakawa are tied on 55 points. Both drivers have had two finishes outside the points so they will not drop any points regardless of their results in the Fuji finale. 

Nojiri is third and he will drop at least one point, meaning the lowest his score can be is 47 points. If he scores four points or fewer at Fuji, his final score will be 47 points. To win the championship, he will at least have to finish second or better or finish third or better and earn bonus points for qualifying in the top three. 

Cassidy is dropping at least three points and his lowest possible score is 46 points. Like Nojiri, Cassidy has to finish second or better to win the championship. 

Kenta Yamashita has not won a race and he missed Okayama due to sports car commitments at Le Mans. The most points he could finish on is 55 points because if he wins the race from pole position, he will have to drop two points. However, he would lose on tiebreaker because he would have a victory and second to Yamamoto's first, second and third and Yamashita's next best finish is fifth.

9. Super GT: No manufacture has a winning streak of three races or more in GT500
Correct!

The winning manufactures in order were Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Honda

There was only one winning streak in Super GT's GT5000 class this season and it came in the final two races, and Honda was about a half-mile from not winning that race because the #37 Toyota ran out of fuel while leading exiting the final corner. This allowed the #100 Honda to take the victory, and ultimately the championship. 

If there had been no instances of a manufacture winning consecutive races, that would have been impressive. This is still impressive in what was a crazy 2020 season for Super GT. 

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?

I guess it did because the season was four races at Fuji Speedway, two at Suzuka and two at Motegi. Without the pandemic, we would have had races at Okayama, Buriram, Sepang, Sportsland SUGO and Autopolis, and perhaps one manufacture could have pulled out a three-race winning streak. 

10. DTM: Ed Jones has a better rookie season than Pietro Fittipaldi did
Wrong! Because Ed Jones lost his ride due to the pandemic. 

Jones was trapped in the United Arab Emirates and was not going to make the opening race. Audi replaced Jones with Harrison Newey when Jones wasn't going to make it. 

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?
Yes, because the pandemic ended up costing Jones his job. I almost think this one should be removed from the board. No one could have seen that coming. I am taking it down. 

11. World Touring Car Cup: There will be at least one nightmare weekend for Goodyear
Scrolling through the internet...

Scrolling through the internet...

Looking for any story involving Goodyear and WTCC...

I am not seeing anything... 

No nightmare weekends I guess. 

Good job Goodyear.

And Wrong!

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?

Possibly considering it did not visit eight tracks it had scheduled to visit including Macau, Sepang and Salzburgring. 

12. WRC: Multiple Sébastiens win a rally in 2020
Wrong!

I was hopeful Sébastien Ogier and Sébastien Loeb would each get a victory. Ogier won Rally Mexico and ACI Rally Monza, which clinched him the championship. Loeb only competed in two rounds, sixth at Rallye Monte Carlo and third in Rally Turkey.

Did the pandemic affect this prediction?

Yes, because Loeb was likely going to run more than two rounds with Hyundai. If we had a full 14-round championship, perhaps Loeb does six or seven rallies and maybe he wins one. Loeb might not have won, but he would have had more opportunities. 

Five for ten, with two predictions dropped because Indy Lights did not run in 2020 and the pandemic cost Ed Jones his job in DTM. Almost half of these predictions were notably pandemic affected. 

Musings From the Weekend: Another Month of Video Games

We are gaining a half-inch at a time. It is May. It hardly felt like April. IndyCar concluded its iRacing series with Scott McLaughlin having a victory fall into his lap thanks to driver-induced chaos. NASCAR announced its schedule for the month of May. Darlington and Charlotte will host races, including a pair of Wednesday night races. Elsewhere, Formula E cancelled its Brooklyn and London rounds. Audi is pulling out the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. BMW continues its iRacing dominance. Sebastian Vettel came out to play. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

Another Month of Video Games
At the end of March, after a few weeks of simulated races, I wrote a few observations because iRacing and all these simulated video games were new to me. A month later and there are a few more observations.

With another month of events and formats under the belt I think it is time to look over what has gone right and what has gone wrong.

What has gone right:
Keeping it simple.

When a series creates format and sticks with it, the events take place seamlessly.

When looking at The Race, it has held pretty much the same event each week... until this week.

The original format was three heat races and an LCQ to determine the main event. Two heat races for professional drivers with the top five advancing to the main event, top five from the simulated racers heat advanced to main event with the remaining professional drivers entering the LCQ and the top five from that race filling out the 20-car field.

Intermingled with the professional race is the Legends Trophy races. The first race has a traditional qualifying format and the second race is a reverse grid from the results of race one. None of the races take longer than ten or 15 minutes. There are no cautions. A driver may receive penalties for infractions, whether it be jumping a start, cutting a corner or tacking out another driver.

This past weekend, The Race altered the weekend to make it more even for the professional and sim drivers. The format matches what is done with the Legends Trophy and each class has one race and then a professional race. It is different but it falls into line with what we have been seeing all along and it gives professional drivers and sim drivers their own spotlights.

IndyCar and IMSA have run pretty straightforward events. The familiar faces gather together. There is practice, qualifying and a race. Those races are not riddle with cautions and they are done within 90 minutes.

These series have also brought together drivers who otherwise would not compete together. The Legends Trophy is pure fantasy. Emerson Fittipaldi vs. Jenson Button? Petter Solberg vs. Dario Franchitti? David Brabham vs. Jacques Villeneuve? They dragged Sebastian Vettel into the party this week at Sepang! Where else can you have world champions from three different decades racing against one another along with three Indianapolis 500 winners and a pair of Le Mans winners? That is a dream come true.

The professional races have seen Stoffel Vandoorne competing against Gabby Chaves, Esteban Gutiérrez, Juan Manuel Correa, Nicki Thiim, James Calado and more.

IndyCar has had guest drivers along the way. First it was Jimmie Johnson, then it was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Kyle Busch. Lando Norris won an event. Scott McLaughlin competed in the full series. IMSA has brought together WeatherTech Sports Car Championship drivers with Michelin Pilot Challenge and FIA World Endurance Championship drivers.

Supercars has seen Max Verstappen, Will Power, Alexander Rossi and Joey Logano take guest drives.

What has gone wrong:
Complicating the proceedings.

For a few weeks it felt like everyone was having fun with this but NASCAR. Each week it was a butting of heads over who was competing, who was locked in, who was relegated to the Saturday night streaming race and then there was the increased pressure with the races broadcasted and sponsors taking it seriously.

For IndyCar's final event at Indianapolis, the series might have bitten off more than it should have. The first five events were open to everyone. We had 30-plus cars at Michigan, Motegi and Austin. It was the full-time grid with its guests. The final event was limited to 33 cars, à la the grid size of the Indianapolis 500. However, James Hinchcliffe, Robert Wickens, Kyle Busch, Kyle Kaiser and Felipe Nasr did not compete. Hinchcliffe, Wickens, Kasier and Nasr all attempted to run every race prior to this.

There is a limit at some point but it got messy when certain drivers were locked in but other drivers weren't. The series has a right to protect full-time competition and sponsors but when some full-time teams do not get that honor or some drivers dedicated their full-time to the iRacing series only to not have the favor returned at the end and some other drivers who were not full-time were wrapped in a security blanket it bred confusion.

Of course, explanations were rarely given.

What has gone right:
Creativity!

This is a chance to be different. Many restrictions vanish in the simulated world. You can run more cars than you can imagine at some of these tracks. Money no longer handcuffs who can run, nor does chassis or engine leases. We can be different. We see reverse grid races!

Series visit tracks that are otherwise not on the schedule. The Race holds no ties to any track. It has gone to the Nürburgring, the Silverstone national circuit, Sebring, Indianapolis and NOLA Motorsports Park! Sepang added its stamp to the virtual passport this weekend. They have run Indy Pro 2000 cars, LMP3 cars and the Legends Trophy has used the Brabham BT44 and McLaren M23.

IndyCar visited some tracks from the not-so-distant past. While fulfilling trips to Barber and Austin, the series went to Watkins Glen, Michigan and Motegi. These aren't three tracks from long ago but they are tracks fans have affection for and are no longer on the calendar.

International circuits fill Supercars' iRacing schedule. It kept Australian staples, such as Bathurst and Phillip Island, but it has gone to Monza, Watkins Glen, Montreal, Silverstone and will go to Spa-Francorchamps.

Dinner with Racers have done this the best. Every race is something we could never see. IndyCar vs. NASCAR Cup cars vs. LMP1 cars vs. Legends cars at Talladega? And it was fantastic. Last week was Nissan GTP vs. rallycross cars vs. Pro 2 Trucks vs. 410-winged sprint cars at Le Mans without the Mulsanne chicanes.

What has gone wrong:
Taking it too seriously.

And this isn't a dig at sponsors or broadcast partners. People got mad when television partners got involved and when sponsors perked up interest. Motorsports series need both to survive. If neither were interested in broadcasting this you should be concerned and you would probably be crying about the races not being broadcasted. You can't be upset when the races are broadcasted and then complain when they aren't.

When it comes to taking it too seriously I mean putting out a schedule and then allowing drivers to practice for eight hours a day every day until the race. If series want to have fun with this then have fun with this and don't put the pressure on the drivers.

Bubba Wallace cited the amount of practice being the recent he stepped away from the last two NASCAR races. First off, it shouldn't be that serious. If Wallace wanted to do an hour of practice the morning of the race and that was it then great! Take it easy. You should want drivers to roll out of bed and just run for fun.

This issue with keeping a schedule is while it is great to know where you are going you there is nothing stopping anyone from running for 80 hours over six days to practice. With the decreased barrier of entry, a driver could practice for 12 hours a day. There is no worry about weather or light or resources. However, not every driver has the same stamina for such an endeavor.

One way to keep it light is to keep the venues unknown. It could level the playing field.

Each series has about three or five guys who are absurdly talented at iRacing, another ten that are good and another ten that are not remotely competitive. If you give the top echelon drivers more time to practice they will have the track down pat in half a day while some drivers will only get the hang of it after six days.

If the venue was a surprise until about an hour before the race, we could see some different people at the front. A top-level driver could be brought down to Earth but some of these drivers take to these simulated platforms like ducks to water. It doesn't seem to matter what the machinery is or if the surface is asphalt or dirt but this would at least equal the playing field.

Instead of a budget cap it would be an hours cap. No one could get an advantage practicing for days. There would be no benefit practicing for no one would know where they will be racing. The drivers could spend the week relaxing at home, maybe doing iRacing without purpose if they want to but have time for other hobbies and only have to show up on race day.

What has gone right:
Not throwing cautions!

It is a video game. No drivers are in danger. No track marshals are in danger. No spectators are in danger. There is no need for a caution in any of these races.

Unless you are throwing a competition caution for a commercial break it is not worth it.

What has gone wrong:
Throwing cautions!

Looking at you NASCAR!

It has dragged races on. There is no rhythm. Worst of all a race will get a dozen cautions in the first half but then after shooting itself in the foot the race will have no cautions in the second half of the race and you have this inconsistency where single-car spins in the first half of the race brought the race to a halt a four-car accident will occur and everyone will keep going.

NASCAR already had consistency issues with cautions but this is much worse.

What have we learned?
This has been fun but mostly because it has been filling a void. If there was no pandemic, I would not be filling my days with The Race at noon and IndyCar at 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday. My Saturday would be Formula One qualifying in the morning, IndyCar practice and qualifying, perhaps a Michelin Pilot Challenge race or some other sports car series and Supercross at night.

When motorsports return, the simulated racing interest is going to dry up close to immediately. All the drivers will spread to the racetracks of the world. They will not be at their computers. Some of us will be attending those races at said racetracks. We're not going to be watching iRacing events.

We have had our fill and then some. IndyCar competed for six consecutive weeks. When was the last time IndyCar had a race for six consecutive weeks? I am not sure moving this to weeknights and filling the time between races would have any legs. Drivers are going to be at a track for three days, travel home Sunday night, rest on Monday and have to be on a plane Thursday night to do it all over again. I doubt many drivers would sacrifice their Tuesday or Wednesday to compete on iRacing, not on a weekly basis at least.

Simulated races have a place but the appetite for it being a regular companion doesn't seem to be there from either fans or drivers.

It could perhaps be a one-off but I think its life is in the offseason, not every week but a few weeks, perhaps around Christmastime. For IndyCar, the offseason is long enough that a three-week or four-week series in December would fall three months after the last race and three months before the next one. NASCAR has no offseason, even with the early November finale. It could probably do two or three races but no one would want to run all of December and January. Sports cars has time but January is busy with the 24 Hours Dubai, 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Bathurst in early February. It could probably do three or four races every other week during the winter.

The one place where I think iRacing could be handy is leading into a season. It could provide a great preseason event to promote the year ahead. It could be a chance to see drivers in new places, meet the rookies, catch up with drivers we haven't heard from since the previous season ended. It could be an affordable promotion for new season and provide a form of competition to get the juices flowing.

Television coverage has been wonderful but streaming online provides a friendlier space. Time constraint is not a problem online. Commercials aren't necessary for the broadcast. It can feel a little freer. If you can get it on television, then terrific, especially if you can sell a sponsor on the event, but streaming is an accommodating place for any future simulated race action.

We could be taking a breather from all these simulated races shortly. It has done its job keeping us engaged during this uncomfortable time. The size of its part when things get back to normal remains unanswered. We will have to check back in a few months.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Scott McLaughlin but did you know...

Marc Miller won the Thursday Night Blunder event at Le Mans.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Adrian Fernández split the Legends Trophy races from Sepang. Esteban Gutiérrez and Anthony Davidson split the Pro races.

Nicky Catsburg won IMSA's iRacing event at Mid-Ohio.

William Byron won the NASCAR iRacing event from Dover. Anthony Alfredo won the non-Cup drivers' race.

Coming Up This Weekend
Thursday Night Blunder begins May at the Nürburgring Müllenbach layout with seven different German cars.
NASCAR concludes its iRacing series at North Wilkesboro.

This Month in Motorsports Headlines: April 2020

April has reached its final day and it was 30 days of nothing and everything all at once. No real races took place. We continue to wait in isolation and it is difficult to say we are better than we were a month ago. Schedules are influx. Some seasons have pushed any season opener into summer. Some have announced plans for when things get restarted. Other plans remain indefinite.

It was hard to write this because it is hard to be snarky. I don't want to be snarky. This is not the time. There are too many serious headlines and you cannot pick all of those apart. It gets messy and nothing I say on those matters is going to help.

Despite the seriousness of the pandemic headlines, there are a few normal headlines out there. Motorsports hasn't completely shut down. There is still plenty of off-track banter going on and it allows for a small chance to be a little cheeky.

Once again, this is just for fun. In case you are new, this is my gut reaction to headlines without reading the article. Of course, the gripes I have may be answered in the article.

We are starting with Formula One.

Ferrari boss calls for F1 budget caps to vary by team
That sounds like something Ferrari would propose and I doubt the Scuderia is proposing an inverse budget caps where the top teams have stricter caps while the lower teams may spend 15% or 20% more.

Reminder, Ferrari is the only team that receives a bonus payment simply for being in Formula One ($73 million in 2019).

Reminder, the Formula One teams voted 9-1 against the halo while Red Bull was developing an aeroscreen but Ferrari designed the halo, voted for it and Sebastian Vettel got a little dizzy after one lap testing the aeroscreen and here we are with the halo today.

Reminder, Ferrari is going through its annual threat to leave Formula One.

So, yeah, we are probably going to get varied budget caps dependent on teams and Ferrari is going to get the highest cap. That is how this seems to work out.

Vettel: Happiness more important than money in next F1 deal
How much are you going to sacrifice for happiness?

Vettel is hoping to revive his career. Of all the four-time champions he is bound to be the most disappointing of them all and he is a four-time champion, third all-time in victories! He won the four titles consecutively nonetheless but oh how long it has been since the fourth crown in 2013.

The Ferrari days have been good to the German driver. He has won 14 races over five seasons but Lewis Hamilton has surpassed Vettel in terms of victories and championship during that time. The record book has shifted from Vettel following Michael Schumacher glory with a more German triumph to Hamilton leading a British charge, ironically on a German horse.

Since joining Ferrari, we have seen Vettel's career devolve. Once this strong and unshakeable driver at Red Bull, at Ferrari Vettel has become prone to outbursts. Each season has at least one or two incidents of mental fragility. Emotions take over and mistakes happen. Over the last five seasons the headlines Vettel has created have been antics of poor driving or poor sportsmanship, not for dominant victories or ruthless drives to the front. Boiling over has cost Vettel a countless number of points and cost him a chance at one championship.

Offer him a pay-cut to win races and contend for another championship and Vettel would take it but who is going make such an offer? Is Mercedes going to come calling when it is already dominant with a fraction of the attitude? Red Bull is off the table. Outside of those teams, none of the rest are going to provide what Vettel is looking for.

Ferrari would gladly pay him less because Charles Leclerc snatched the number one spot in the team last year in Leclerc's first year with the team. Taking less with Ferrari cements Vettel as the number two role and taking whatever race victories the team gives him. It also means no chance at another championship.

Podcast: Should F1 scrap Monaco or Silverstone?
This is the wasteful lockdown content we knew was coming.

It is kind of like being so bored you wonder if you should get a divorce just to change things up.

The answer is no and no and definitely no to the divorce.

No one pretends Monaco is some phenomenal race. It really is a spectacle, a clash of race cars with the glamour of a principality on the Mediterranean coast. It is damn near impossible to pass on track. The podium positions are set the first time through the casino square as long as none of the top three bounce off a barrier or botch a pit stop. We might see three or four passes all race through the 20-car field.

Monaco is purely for Formula One's identity and there is nothing wrong with that. It represents Formula One's prosperity and elegance. We all know the track does not meet FIA standards for a Formula One circuit and it receives every waiver and grandfather clause imaginable to be on the schedule but scrapping Monaco would remove one of the few remaining landmarks of the Formula One season.

Silverstone has a crowd limit for Friday! It is three-day celebration in Formula One's backyard, its birthplace if you will. What other venue replicates the display we see at Silverstone? Yes, there are traffic problems and yes, bad weather will get in the way but it doesn't stop the party. It doesn't stop the people from coming together year-after-year. And the racing is good. You cannot make cry processional over a race at Silverstone.

Much of the Formula One schedule feels sterile. It lacks pizzazz and excitement. We are down to a handful of tracks where seeing the name elicits giddiness. Monza, Spa-Francorchamps, Monaco and Silverstone are four of them.

Let's not be stupid here. No street-race in an authoritarian nation will counterbalance what Monaco and Silverstone bring to Formula One. Formula One is not hurting because it has Monaco and Silverstone. These are two of the great venues for Formula One and only make the series better. Scrapping them sheds what little life Formula One has in it, the few remaining connections to the lifeblood of the 70-year-old series. Neither should be on the chopping block.

To IndyCar and the virtual world...

Conor Daly happy to be iRacing goof: 'the Clint Boywer of virtual IndyCar'
Being the Clint Bowyer of anything is a pretty low bar.

During this period of lockdown where simulated races over a few platforms take place each series can break down its grid in the same way.

You have the drivers who take it seriously and are good at, you have the drivers you are trying but not might be the most successful and will still give it a go for sponsors, you have the drivers that are only there for the sponsors and are not having much fun and then you have the drivers who just want to be clowns.

There is nothing wrong with having fun and being relaxed through this time. Seriousness should be tempered with joy because these competitions are not for money or glory. These iRacing series are meant to keep the people at ease, provide a distraction during an uncertain time, try to make this period feel slightly normal.

But the goofball act gets old pretty quick, especially when we are doing this on a weekly basis.

We see two polar ends of the iRacing competitors, those who take it too seriously and then the goofballs. Both ends have few occupants and most competing are in the middle but dominating the airwaves are those who show rage or foolery. It gets tiresome seeing the same behavior being highlighted each week, especially when it is grown men acting childish.

How many times can we see the guys chuckling over their inability and turn it into a joke? At the same time, how many times can we see someone slamming their equipment, shutting down in anger or cursing at will?

I feel like there is a middle ground that is being ignored though it is larger than either end of the spectrum.

Back to something real and let's go to Australia.

Motorsport Australia wants more permanent circuits
I read this article and I felt it made a lot of sense.

The point of the article is Australia needs more circuits where people can compete and one issue with street courses is while they bring motorsports to city centers and allow large swaths of people to watch races from their own backyard the people cannot compete on those street courses when the series are gone. The roads return to the people, city buses carrying people to and from work, people driving to see family members and so on.

Those inspired after seeing a series competing on local streets to join motorsports need permanent circuits. Without permanent circuits, future participation will dwindle. For the last decade or so there has been a push for street courses to be the answer to decreasing interest and attendance in motorsports. Fish where the fish are is the line of thought but while that might be the answer to sell tickets, hot dogs and hats, it does not address how the young boys and girls who see a race car and then want to get behind the wheel.

Without permanent circuits, the future drivers, crew members, marshals and other key motorsports people, who competes and participates will be constricted to a select few number of people and that is not a good thing. Motorsports shouldn't be for a few fortunate people who live with the infrastructure in the area. It is going to be tougher for some to compete but we should try to lower that barrier as much as we can.

We should want people from all corners to come and be a part of motorsports. Permanent circuits make that possible. We need these places otherwise motorsports will contract even more.

That is it for April and it is fitting it is raining on this morning. We look to May and hopefully brighter days.

2020 Et Cetera Predictions

We are back with our annual look at a plethora of series from around the globe. There are just too many series to do specific predictions for each. In this case we will make one prediction for notable series, from domestic series to international, two wheels and four.

1. MotoGP: There will be at least three first-time winners
Fabio Quartararo should have picked up his first career victory in 2019.

Álex Márquez will be moving up to Honda.

Those are the two obvious candidates for first-time winners in MotoGP in 2020. It seems like it will be only a matter of time for Quartararo. The younger Márquez is another story. He is on the right bike. His brother Marc was the only one to get a handled of the Honda in 2019. It would be a slightly foolish to think Álex will jump on the bike and immediately be keeping up with his brother or in a few cases beating him. However, it would not be crazy if Álex figures it out and he pulls out a victory.

It would be easy if I said there would be at least two first-time winners with Quartararo and Á. Márquez but let's make this interesting.

Aleix Espargaró, Johann Zarco, Tito Rabat, Francesco Bagnaia, Takaaki Nakagami, Brad Binder, Pol Espargaró, Iker Lecuona, Miguel Oliveira, Joan Mir and Franco Morbidelli are the other riders entering 2020 without a MotoGP victory.

Mir could do it. Zarco was the guy knocking on the door for a while and then made the wrong career-move, went to KTM and now he is at the team that finished last in the championship in 2019, Avintia Racing Ducati. Binder has shown strength in Moto3 and Moto2, has been a contemporary to Álex Márquez for a few seasons and maybe 2020 is the year KTM surprises us. Pol Espargaró has done a good job with KTM. He would be a worthy winner.

On top of that, it is MotoGP; we have seen plenty of surprise winners. All we need is a rainy day and then anyone could be champion.

2. Indy Lights: The winner of the first race of the season does not drop out midseason
Last year, Zachary Claman won the first race at St. Petersburg, he had a good season going, was fourth in the championship and his season ended after the sixth race of 2019.

It was a shame because Claman went to IndyCar, had respectable results in IndyCar, went back to Indy Lights and it seemed like it was going to be a great chance for him to get track time and potentially win the scholarship to get back to IndyCar.

Things have gone quiet on Claman's career and the 2020 Indy Lights grid is still a work in progress. We know Robert Megennis is staying, David Malukas will remain, Kyle Kirkwood dominated the Indy Pro 2000 championship and has the scholarship and Nikita Lastochkin will move up with Exclusive Autosport after five years in the Road to Indy between U.S. F2000 and Indy Pro 2000 where he has made 75 starts, has zero victories, two podium finishes and 18 top five finishes.

I don't think we are going to have a repeat of the Claman situation, at least I hope we will not. Indy Lights really cannot afford that.

Setting the criteria, this has to be if the driver runs fewer than 70% of the races and then does not return. If the driver runs the first five rounds, misses one because of injury, illness or funding but returns and runs the remainder then that does not count as a midseason drop out. Now, if the driver runs the first four races and then does not run again until the finale, this will count as a drop out.

3. Supercars: At least four teams and at least two teams from each manufacture win a race
In 2019, three teams won a Supercars race, the Ford teams of DJR Team Penske and Tickford Racing and the Holden team of Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Both full-time Penske entries of Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard, both full-time Triple Eight Race Engineering entries of Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert of Tickford Racing were the winners. That was it.

In 2018, five teams won a race. In 2017, five teams won a race. In 2016, eight teams won a race.

Things have taken a turn and that happens when McLaughlin has a historic season but I think 2020 will see the pendulum swing and a few more different winners. McLaughlin, Whincup and van Gisbergen are all going to win a race. Mostert is moving to Walkinshaw Andretti United. That team has too much invested into it not to have some success. I think it will get back to the top step.

David Reynolds was sixth in the championship in 2019 but did not pick up a victory for Erebus Motorsports. Tickford Racing retained Lee Holdsworth and Cameron Waters. Waters had six podium finishes in 2019. Will Davison had two runner-up finishes in 2019 and he will return for 23Red Racing.

4. World Superbike: American Garrett Gerloff will be no better than the fifth-best Yamaha rider
This is a big jump for Garrett Gerloff. The American rider was third in the 2019 MotoAmerica Superbike championship behind Cameron Beaubier and Toni Elias with four victories and 15 podium finishes from 20 races.

That is good but World Superbike is a lot more competitive than the top Superbike championship in the United States. This isn't the AMA Superbike of old where Ben Spies could leave and then immediately win the World Superbike championship and be in MotoGP the year after that.

Gerloff is 24 years old and he is going to race on 13 tracks that are completely new to him. Add to it that the other Yamaha riders are Toprak Razgatlioglu, Michael van der Mark, Loris Baz and Federico Caricasulo. You have two World Superbike race winners, a World Superbike race winner who has spent time in MotoGP and the reigning World Supersport vice-champion. Gerloff is a fish out of water.

I am pulling for Gerloff. American motorcycle racing has waned. There has not been that next generation to follow Kenny Roberts, Jr., Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards and Ben Spies in international racing. Add to it the top domestic series was ruined a decade ago and it is just starting to recover but it is significantly diminished and the quality is not there yet.

Hope for the best but expect the worst and I am afraid the results will not be there for Gerloff and he will be quickly replaced in the Yamaha fold.

5. World Supersport: Randy Krummenacher wins an even-numbered race
Krummenacher had four victories in 2019 on his way to taking the championship. However, Krummenacher won the first, third, fifth and seventh races. In the Swiss rider's World Supersport career he has six career victories, five of which were an odd-numbered race in that calendar.

The one caveat is Krummenacher is leaving Yamaha and will join MV Agusta in 2020. Yamaha won 10 of 12 races in 2019, swept the 2018 season and won six of 12 races in 2017. That is a record of 28 victories in the last 36 races for Yamaha. MV Agusta only had two podium finishes in 2019 with Kawasaki responsible for the other two victories in 2019. The most recent MV Agusta victory was the 2017 season opener at Philip Island with Roberto Rolfo.

The 2020 season could be another Yamaha beat down but for one of the six even-numbered races Krummenacher will end up on top.

6. GT World Challenge: Italian manufactures will not take multiple championships between World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, Intercontinental GT Challenge and World Challenge America
Lamborghini took the Endurance Cup and World Challenge Europe titles with Orange1 FFF Racing, Ferrari took the World Challenge America title with R. Ferri Motorsport and Porsche took the Intercontinental GT Challenge title.

Ferrari has taken the last two World Challenge America titles. Prior to that the previous four champions were Cadillac, Porsche, McLaren and Porsche.

The Endurance Cup champions since 2014 were Audi, Audi, McLaren, Bentley and Mercedes-AMG.

Europe Sprint Cup champions since 2014 were Mercedes-AMG, Bentley and three consecutive Audi championships before 2019.

Intercontinental GT Challenge has only existed since 2016 and the champions have been Audi, Audi, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche.

These GT3 championships have been German-dominated for the most part. I think that will show up again. I think Ferrari has World Challenge America under its thumb with R. Ferri Motorsport. The other three championships will have plenty of competition and see Audi, Porsche, Mercedes-AMG, maybe even Honda fighting for silverware.

7. Asian Le Mans Series: None of the class champions sweep the season
Last season, CarGuy Racing swept the GT class. That is not going to happen again, even if it is only a four-race championship.

Let's go class-by-class: LMP2 had G-Drive Racing take the season opener after the Carlin entry got a penalty. Carlin has Harry Tincknell and Ben Barnicoat as drivers. Tincknell has an ELMS championship, won at Le Mans, won in IMSA and was in the Ford GT program. Barnicoat has had success in GT3 competition. Eurasia Motorsport has two cars, one has former Formula One driver Roberto Mehri and the other should have Nick Cassidy for a few races.

LMP3 had Inter Europol Competition take the season opener and that team is a regular LMP3 winner. This is the one class where I think it could happen but Nielsen Racing has two promising entries and Graff Racing has a good team.

The GT class is too deep. D'station Racing AMR won the season opener but CarGuy Racing is still there, Spirit of Race and HubAuto Corsa are race winners and Rio Haryanto is in an entry.

We are going to see a mix of winners in each class.

8. Super Formula: There will be at least two repeat winners in 2020
In seven Super Formula races in 2019 there were seven different winners. That is quite impressive. It is a series with plenty of quality drivers. There are more than seven potential winners on that grid. Kamui Kobayashi, Kazuki Nakajima and Lucas Auer were on the 2019 grid and did not win a race.

We could have three or four different winners to start the 2020 season and continue this stretch of different winners up to ten or 11 but that is unlikely.

It seems like Nick Cassidy will return and Naoki Yamamoto could return but he could have more Formula One responsibilities with Honda and one of the two Red Bull programs. These have been the top two drivers in Super Formula the last two years. It would be fun to have a season where both these drivers win two or three races each.

There have not been multiple repeat winners in a Super Formula season since 2017 when Pierre Gasly and Yuhi Sekiguchi each won twice and the champion was Hiroki Ishiura with one victory. The 2016 season saw Sekiguchi, Yuji Kunimoto and Stoffel Vandoorne each score two victories with the title going to Kunimoto.

There has not been a Super Formula season with multiple drivers with at least three victories apiece since 2007 when Takashi Kogure and Satoshi Motoyama each had three victories and the champion was winless Tsugio Matsuda, who started the season with two runner-up finishes, two finishes of third and then did not score a podium finish in the final five races of the season.

9. Super GT: No manufacture has a winning streak of three races or more in GT500
There has been a trend in Super GT that when one manufacture gets it right it gets it right.

Last year, Lexus won five consecutive races. In 2017, Lexus won the first four races of the season. Nissan won the first four races of 2016. Nissan had another three-race wining streak in 2015. Lexus closed out the 2013 season with three consecutive races. The 2012 season had a three-race winning streak for Nissan.

It happened of five of the ten seasons last decade. Lexus is rebranding with the Toyota Supra returning. That could mean a less successful season for that make, it could mean Nissan or Honda have a breakout year but I think it will be balanced.

10. DTM: Ed Jones has a better rookie season than Pietro Fittipaldi did
Jones will make a switch to DTM after three years in IndyCar. It is quite a switch for Jones. We don't normally consider IndyCar drivers to be on the radar for DTM. Other than Danny Sullivan, I cannot think of another driver who went from IndyCar directly to DTM.

Although, Pietro Fittipaldi ran IndyCar in 2018 and then was in DTM for 2019 but Fittipaldi is a bit different then Jones. Fittipaldi ran almost everything in 2018. He ran in the LMP1 class with DragonSpeed, he ran the season opener of Super Formula and he ran an IndyCar. Fittipaldi was not tied to any one series. He was searching the world but still had an eye on Formula One and he became a Haas F1 test driver for the 2019 season after his year skipping over the ocean into many different race cars.

Jones spent three years in IndyCar and before that was in Indy Lights for two years. It seemed like Jones would be set in IndyCar. His results were encouraging and someone would keep giving him an opportunity. The talent is clearly there because he got an Audi factory ride out of his time in IndyCar. That says a lot about Jones' talent.

Fittipaldi's rookie year was not spectacular. He scored 22 points and was 15th in the championship with six finishes in the points and his best finish was fifth.

This is a tough series and if you start slow the results will not go your way. The one thing in Jones' favor is Aston Martin has left the series and there is no guarantee the grid will have 18 cars next year. I think we are looking at 14-16 cars. In that case, Jones is going to win by default.

Here is how we are going to do this: Jones has to finish in a better percentile of the championship combined with scoring more points. With Fittipaldi finishing 15th in the championship with 18 drivers running majority of the races, he was in the top 83.333% of the championship. That means Jones has to finish better than the top 83.333%. If there are only 16 entries then Jones has to finish 13th in the championship or better and he has to score more than 22 points. If Jones is 13th but only has 20 points then this prediction will not be fulfilled. If there are only 14 entries then Jones needs to finish in the top 11 of the championship and score more than 22 points.

11. World Touring Car Cup: There will be at least one nightmare weekend for Goodyear
Oh Goodyear... Goodyear, Goodyear, Goodyear.

For some reason, Goodyear is making its way back into international motorsports. It is taking over as sole tire supplier in the LMP2 class in the FIA World Endurance Championship, although it is just re-branding Dunlop tires since Goodyear owns Dunlop. It is taking over the World Touring Car Cup, a random series for Goodyear to get in bed with.

Goodyear has basically only been in NASCAR for close to twenty years. It has not had spotless times in NASCAR. Goodyear has a reputation of getting it wrong and I feel like this will be too new for Goodyear. There will be one weekend when Goodyear is the storyline, drivers will be upset and it will sound familiar to NASCAR fans.

I could see that being the case for the Nürburgring Nordschleife round. I could see Goodyear's wet weather tire being garbage. It could be a hot race weekend in Vila Real, Aragón or Sepang where the tires cannot last the very short race distances.

You can expect a few hiccups for any new tire manufacture but I think Goodyear's hiccups will be quite noticeable.

12. WRC: Multiple Sébastiens win a rally in 2020
Let cut to the chase, Sébastien Ogier and Sébastien Loeb are both going to win at least one rally in 2020.

Ogier seems like a lock for one victory with the five-time champion moving to Toyota. Loeb moved to Hyundai for a few rounds in 2019 and those results were good but Loeb had one podium finish in six starts. In 2018, Loeb won Rally Catalunya, his final of three starts that year.

I think both will have at least one victory. It will be an interesting WRC season with it basically being Toyota vs. Hyundai. Ott Tänak is leaving Toyota fresh off a championship to Hyundai. Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville will both be in the Hyundai camp. Sordo and Loeb will be part-time Toyota will have Jari-Matti Latvala, Takamoto Katsuta, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanperä join Ogier. Latvala and Katsuta will be part-time. Ogier is definitely the leader of the Toyota camp. Hyundai will have a lot of big names and not a clear number one. That should be fun to watch.

Three sets of predictions down and two sets remain. Check out the NASCAR and Formula One predictions and the next set of predictions will come Monday.