Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
Saturday, May 13, 2017
First Impressions: 4th Grand Prix of Indianapolis
1. Will Power dominated. He lost the lead on the first round of pit stops to Hélio Castroneves but he got it back by having the fastest car and timing his pit stops correctly. After his rough start to the season, this is a day Power deserved. He pulled away from the field and other than Castroneves for a brief third of the race no one came close to him. He is the 11th driver in IndyCar history to get to 30 career victories. He had a phenomenal drive and he will probably have another one or two of those this year.
2. Scott Dixon methodically finished second. He wasn't right at the front all day but he was consistently quick and it paid off. It was a typical Scott Dixon race and he was carving a few seconds out of Power's lead at the end but never really got close. Still a great day for him.
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay rebounded after three rough races with a third-place finish. After seeming to stumble into bad luck in April, he starts May cruising at the front and making a few key moves to get to third. He had a good car all weekend.
4. Simon Pagenaud didn't have it to challenge Power but he ran around the top five all race. This was a good outing for him and he will retain the championship lead heading into Indianapolis 500 qualifying next week.
5. Hélio Castroneves looked for a moment as if he was going to challenge for the victory and then his crew kept him out for two laps after Power's second stop and his chance of victory vanished like that as Power flew by and Castroneves couldn't keep up. It was a good day but it was a Castroneves-esque day of good but not good enough.
6. I am not sure how Graham Rahal went from 20th to sixth but he did and he did it a year after going from 24th to fourth in this same race. He had a quick car after struggling with speed all day yesterday. He picked his way through the middle of the field on the first stint and each stint he just seemed to get a few more positions each time. Great day for him.
7. This might have been Max Chilton's best race of his IndyCar career and he matched his career-best finish with a seventh-place finish. He didn't put a wheel wrong and this was a day he has probably been waiting for since entering the series.
8. Alexander Rossi had a really good start but he seemed to go in fuel-save mode earlier than everyone else during each stint and was running in the high-71s/low-72s when everyone was in the mid-71s. He still managed an eighth-place finish and that isn't something to complain about.
9. Spencer Pigot was P6 at his first pit stop and then he stalled and came out in P15 but he didn't quit and picked his way back through the field and finished ninth. He has been very impressive this season and he probably should have had two other top ten finishes. This is a promising sophomore season for Pigot.
10. Juan Pablo Montoya returned to IndyCar and he finished tenth. He started fifth but didn't seem to have the race pace with the other front-runners. Not bad. Montoya probably should still be full-time in this series
11. Josef Newgarden got not one but two pit lane speeding penalties and it cost him a shot at the podium but he rallied to finish 11th. Rough but it could have been worse.
12. Takuma Sato wasn't really mentioned and finished 12th. James Hinchcliffe had a great first stint and found himself up to seventh but he dropped to 13th by the end of the race.
13. Through the rest of the field: J.R. Hildebrand was a non-factor and finished 14th. Carlos Muñoz wasn't mentioned once and finished 15th. Marco Andretti got into the back of Tony Kanaan on lap one and was penalized and he finished 16th. Conor Daly, like Hinchcliffe, was in the top ten after his first stop but lost a few spots, stalled on his second stop and finished 17th. Mikhail Aleshin did nothing and finished 18th. Ed Jones went in the grass to avoid the spinning Kanaan on lap one and he had to make an extra pit stop and finished 19th. Tony Kanaan was 20th after the spin and his car lost speed. Charlie Kimball had a mechanical issue and retired after 32 laps. Sébastien Bourdais' engine expired after three laps.
14. The racing ended up being really good from P3 to P16 for most of the race. You are going to have races where there is no action at the front but it is happening everywhere else. It happens. The crowd looked good for what was a beautiful day at Indianapolis and it was caution-free, I think that is a good thing.
15. The ABC booth was the ABC booth but it was actually better than I expected. Eddie Cheever only mentioned the Indianapolis 500 six times. They missed passes. They didn't mention Fernando Alonso until about 70 laps into the race, which I am not sure if that showed control or lack of awareness of what it means. The booth was dull at times. So this was a usual ABC race.
16. I know this is the fourth year of the event but I like calling it the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and not the IndyCar Grand Prix. I think Grand Prix of Indianapolis sounds more formal. It isn't that big of a deal but I thought I would share my opinion.
17. Indianapolis 500 practice begins Monday. I hope you are ready.
Morning Warm-Up: 4th Grand Prix of Indianapolis
 |
| Will Power is on pole position again at Indianapolis |
Josef Newgarden swept the top three of Team Penske, the second consecutive race where Team Penske has swept the top three positions. This is Newgarden's best start of the season and his best starting position in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Newgarden has finished in the top ten every time he has started third in his career. Scott Dixon is the top Honda on the outside of row two. Dixon has yet to finish better than his starting position in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He did start and finish seventh last year. Juan Pablo Montoya makes his season debut this weekend with Team Penske and he will start fifth. The last two years Montoya won his first start of the season; both were at St. Petersburg. Montoya's only victory on a natural-terrain road course was at Mid-Ohio on August 15, 1999. Sébastien Bourdais rounded out the final round of qualifying in sixth position. Bourdais has never finished on the podium when starting sixth.
Simon Pagenaud missed the final round of qualifying for the third time in four occasions this year but the Frenchman will start seventh. Like his fellow countryman Bourdais, Pagenaud has never finished on the podium when starting in seventh position. Ryan Hunter-Reay joins Pagenaud on row seven. Hunter-Reay finished second to Pagenaud in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis three years ago. Hunter-Reay's worst finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis is 11th. Alexander Rossi will start behind his teammate in ninth position. This is Rossi's third top ten start in the first five races this season. Rossi had three top ten starts all of 2016 and all three came in the final four races of the season. James Hinchcliffe rounds out the top ten. The last time Hinchcliffe started tenth in a race was Texas last year. He went on to lead the most laps and finish second by 0.0080 seconds to Graham Rahal.
Marco Andretti missed out on the top ten but the third-generation driver picked up his best career starting position in this race in 11th with his former teammate Tony Kanaan joining him on row six. Andretti's previous best starting position in this race was 13th in 2014. He is still looking for his first top ten finish in this race. This is Kanaan's worst starting position in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Kanaan has not led a lap in a race before the Indianapolis 500 since he led 12 laps at São Paulo in 2013. Ed Jones will make his Grand Prix of Indianapolis debut from 13th on the grid with his former Indy Lights teammate Max Chilton starting next to him in 14th. Jones matches his career best IndyCar start. Chilton is coming off his third retirement in his IndyCar career after being caught up in the first lap accident at Phoenix. Conor Daly and Spencer Pigot will start on row eight. This is the first time Daly has qualified as the top Foyt driver this season. Pigot finished 11th in this race last year.
Mikhail Aleshin qualified 17th and he finished 17th after his spin at Phoenix in turn one, lap one. Aleshin's only other starts from 17th were at St. Petersburg the last two years. Carlos Muñoz rounds out row nine. He finished tenth at Phoenix two weeks ago and has improved on his finish each year in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal comprise row ten. Kimball has finished fifth in all three editions of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, including going from 23rd to fifth in 2014. Rahal finished fourth last year from 24th on the grid. J.R. Hildebrand and Takuma Sato round out the grid on row eleven. This will be Hildebrand's 50th career start and his first starting position outside the top twenty since 2013 at Barber. This will be Sato's 123rd start and the 21st time he has started outside the top twenty.
ABC's coverage of the 4th Grand Prix of Indianapolis begins at 3:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:50 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Track Walk: 4th Grand Prix of Indianapolis
 |
| The first race of May takes place on the IMS road course |
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday May 13th. Green flag will be at 3:35 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: ABC.
Announcers: Allen Bestwick, Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever in the booth with Dr. Jerry Punch, Jon Beekhuis and Rick DeBruhl working the pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice- 9:15 a.m. ET (45-minute session).
Second Practice- 3:25 p.m. ET (45-minute session).
Qualifying- 4:20 p.m. ET.
Saturday:
Warm-Up- 11:00 a.m. ET (30-miunte session).
Race- 3:50 p.m. ET (85 laps)
Pagenaud Back on Top
For the second consecutive season, Simon Pagenaud left Phoenix as the championship leader. Last year, he never looked back and held the championship lead all the way to a championship. The two-time and defending Grand Prix of Indianapolis winner enters this year's race with an 18-point lead over Scott Dixon.
Pagenaud and Dixon are the only two drivers with top five finishes in all four races this season with Pagenaud having three podium finishes this season. Pagenaud retired in the 2nd Grand Prix of Indianapolis with a gearbox issue. Dixon has improved in all three Grand Prix of Indianapolis with finishes of 15th, tenth and seventh.
Josef Newgarden trails his teammate by 26 points but he hasn't finished better than 17th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and he hasn't started better than 12th. Being caught up in the first lap accident at Phoenix dropped Sébastien Bourdais to fourth in the championship, 31 points behind his fellow Frenchman. Bourdais finished fourth in the first two editions of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis but retired in 24th after damage from a lap one accident.
Thirty-nine points behind Pagenaud is James Hinchcliffe. The Canadian finished third in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Hélio Castroneves has the best average finish in the short history of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis at 3.7 with two podium finishes including finishing second-place last year to Pagenaud. This comes despite having an average finish of 8.7.
Lap One, Turn One
All three Grand Prix of Indianapolis have had a first lap accident, two of which have occurred in turn one and three of the first four races this season have had a first lap accident.
The inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis is remembered for the infamous start line accident when pole-sitter Sebastián Saavedra stalled from the standing start and was run into by Carlos Muñoz and Mikhail Aleshin. Two years ago, Scott Dixon was spun in turn one by Hélio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden and Jack Hawksworth also spun. Last year, Sébastien Bourdais and Tony Kanaan came together entering turn one.
Of the nine drivers involved in the first lap incidents four have started in the top five and three have started outside the top fifteen. Castroneves and Dixon are the only drivers to be involved in a first lap incident to recover for a top ten finish. Castroneves finished sixth and Dixon finished tenth in 2015.
Charlie Kimball has been involved in two of the three first lap accidents this year. Despite Kimball's growing reputation for contact, he has finished fifth in all three Grand Prix of Indianapolis and started second last year after Graham Rahal and Josef Newgarden had their qualifying times disallowed. Kimball is the only driver to have top five finishes in every Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Graham Rahal has also been involved in two of the three first lap accidents this year. Rahal has an average starting position of 17.7 in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis but has an average finish of 9.0 with finishes of second and fourth the last two years.
Same Song, Different Tune for Andretti Autosport
Phoenix marked the second time in four races all four Andretti cars retired from a race but unlike Long Beach where all four cars retired because of mechanical or electrical issues, all four cars retired at Phoenix after contact.
Despite Andretti Autosport's rough start, three of the team's four drivers are in good championship position. Ryan Hunter-Reay is ninth in the championship with 82 points despite his only top ten finish being fourth at the season opener at St. Petersburg. Hunter-Reay finished second in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis and has the third best average finish of drivers to have started every Grand Prix of Indianapolis at 7.3.
Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi are 11th and 12th in the championship on 79 points and 75 points respectively. Sato finished ninth in the first two editions of this race before finishing 18th last year. Sato has completed all 246 laps in the history of the race. Rossi scored his first career top ten finish in IndyCar last year with a tenth-place finish in this race.
Marco Andretti finished seventh in the season opener but an electrical issue, gearbox issue and being collateral damage in a first lap accident have left him 19th in the championship, tied with Conor Daly on 57 points. Andretti has finished 14th, 16th and 15th in his three starts on the IMS road course with his best starting position being 13th.
The Return of Montoya
The lone addition to the IndyCar grid for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be Juan Pablo Montoya. The Colombian will drive the #22 Fitzgerald Gliders Kit Chevrolet for both Indianapolis races. Montoya has won his first start of the season the last two years in IndyCar. His best finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis was third in 2015. He has started in the top ten in all three of his starts on the IMS road course.
Road to Indy
All three Road to Indy series will be on track this weekend at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Andretti Steinbrenner Racing's Colton Herta has won two of the first four races of the Indy Lights season and he finds himself leading the Indy Lights championship on 101 points. Both his victories this season have come from pole position. Juncos Racing's Kyle Kaiser finished second in both races from Barber Motorsports Park and Kaiser finds himself second in the championship trailing Herta by 16 points. Herta's teammate Nico Jamin won race one from Barber and sits third, 26 points behind Herta with Belardi Auto Racing's Aaron Telitz a point behind the Frenchman in fourth.
Carlin's top driver is Neil Alberico, who finds himself fifth on 69 points. The Californian has finished third in race one of each race weekend this season. Belardi's Shelby Blackstock is on 61 points, three ahead of Team Pelfrey's Pato O'Ward. O'Ward is not entered for this weekend's race. Juncos' Nicolas Dapero sits on 52 points, one ahead of Carlin's Zachary Claman DeMelo with Matheus Leist of Carlin rounding out the top ten on 49 points.
Defending Indy Lights vice-champion Santiago Urrutia finished second in the second St. Petersburg race but he has finished 13th twice and 15th in the other three races and he is 11th in the championship on 48 points. Andretti drivers Dalton Kellett and Ryan Norman are tied on 44 points with Kellett having scored two top ten finishes and Norman has three top ten finishes. Team Pelfrey's Juan Piedrahita and Carlin's Garth Rickards round out the championship on 38 points and 34 points respectively.
Indy Lights will race at 5:50 p.m. ET on Friday and 1:15 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Pro Mazda returns to competition for the first time since the St. Petersburg weekend.
Anthony Martin swept the St. Petersburg weekend with two grand slam performances of winning from pole position, leading every lap and picking up fastest lap along the way. The Cape Motorsports driver sits on 66 points, 16 points ahead of Juncos Racing's Victor Franzoni, who finished second in both St. Petersburg races. Team Pelfrey's TJ Fischer finished third both in Pro Mazda races from St. Petersburg and trails Martin by 22 points.
Pelfrey's Nikita Lastochkin finished fifth in both St. Petersburg races and has 34 points, one ahead of World Speed Motorsports' Sting Ray Robb with Pelfrey's Carlos Cunha Filho in sixth on 30 points, one point ahead of World Speed Motorsports' Phillippe Denes. ArmsUp Motorsports' Max Hanratty sits on 28 points with World Speed's Bobby Eberle on 24 points. Matt Machiko rounds out the top ten on 22 points, tied with Jeff Green as both drivers finished ninth and 13th at the season opener.
Race one of the Pro Mazda weekend will be at 3:25 p.m. ET on Friday with race two scheduled for 8:15 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Cape Motorsports' Oliver Askew has won three consecutive U.S. F2000 races as the series heads to IMS. Askew had 122 points, 34 points ahead of Pelfrey's Kaylen Frederick and Pabst Racing's Rinus VeeKay. Frederick finished second in both Barber races while VeeKay has three podium finishes from four races. Defending U.S. F2000 vice-champion Parker Thompson sits on 79 points, fourth in the championship for Exclusive Autosport. Pelfrey's Robert Megennis rounds out the top five on 68 points.
Newman Wachs Racing's Dakota Dickerson finished sixth in the first three races of the season and he sits sixth in the championship on 56 points, eight points ahead of Exclusive Autosport's Luke Gabin. Pabst's Calvin Ming sits on 40 points, three points ahead of DEForce Racing's Kory Enders and four points of Pelfrey's Ayla Årgen, who rounds out the top ten of the championship.
U.S. F2000 will race at 2:30 p.m. ET on Friday and 9:52 a.m. ET on Saturday.
Fast Facts
This will be the sixth IndyCar race to take place on May 13th, the first since Sébastien Bourdais won at Houston, a street course race that took place under lights on a Saturday night.
The pole-sitter has won this race the last two years. The inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis was won from fourth position.
Will Power has led 65 laps, the most laps in the history of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Team Penske has led the last 266 laps of IndyCar competition and is responsible for all 344 laps led by Chevrolet in 2017.
Tony Kanaan has not had a top five finish in his last six starts, his longest drought since 2013.
Ed Jones won the first Indy Lights race on the IMS road course last year and finished third in race one in 2015. He finished fourth in the second Indy Lights race each of the last two years.
J.R. Hildebrand has finished 21st and 22nd in his two Grand Prix of Indianapolis starts.
Carlos Muñoz's average starting position in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis is 19.0.
Mikhail Aleshin started and finished 25th in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis and started ninth and finished 13th last year.
Max Chilton will have gone 1,750 days since his most recent victory on a natural-terrain road course on race day for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. His most recent natural-terrain road course victory was July 28, 2012 at the Hungaroring in the GP2 Series. Chilton's last two victories were at Singapore in GP2 and at Iowa in Indy Lights.
Conor Daly finished sixth in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis and led 14 laps. Daly has yet to start ahead of his teammate this season.
Spencer Pigot is still looking for his first career top ten starting position. He has still yet to make it to the second round of IndyCar qualifying on a road/street course.
The only drivers to have won on both the oval and road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are Alex Lloyd, Jack Harvey and Dean Stoneman. Lloyd won the Liberty Challenge in 2006 and the Freedom 100 in 2007. Harvey won the race one of the Indy Lights weekend and the Freedom 100 last year. Stoneman won the second race of the IMS road course weekend and the Freedom 100 last year.
Juan Pablo Montoya, Hélio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Josef Newgarden, or Ryan Hunter-Reay could join Lloyd, Harvey and Stoneman as winner on both the IMS oval and road course.
Marco Andretti or Ed Jones could become the first driver to win in both Indy Lights and IndyCar on the IMS road course. Andretti won the Liberty Challenge in 2005. Jones won race one of the 2016 Indy Lights weekend.
The average amount of lead changes is ten with a median of 11.
The average amount of cautions is 2.333 with a median of two. The average amount of caution laps is 10.333 with a median of ten.
Marco Andretti or Ed Jones could become the first driver to win in both Indy Lights and IndyCar on the IMS road course. Andretti won the Liberty Challenge in 2005. Jones won race one of the 2016 Indy Lights weekend.
The average amount of lead changes is ten with a median of 11.
The average amount of cautions is 2.333 with a median of two. The average amount of caution laps is 10.333 with a median of ten.
Possible Milestones:
Scott Dixon needs to lead 66 laps to reach the 5,000 laps led milestone.
Tony Kanaan needs to lead 4 laps to reach the 4,000 laps led milestone.
Marco Andretti needs to lead 10 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.
Josef Newgarden needs to lead 7 laps to reach the 700 laps led milestone.
Predictions
Ryan Hunter-Reay becomes the first American driver to win the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with Alexander Rossi making it two Andretti Autosport drivers on the podium. Simon Pagenaud retains the championship lead. Juan Pablo Montoya gets a top ten finish. The first lap will be completed without any incident causing a caution. At least two drivers will go wide in turn seven causing them to lose valuable positions. Team Penske continues to be the only Chevrolet team to have led in 2017. Sleeper: Max Chilton.
Monday, May 8, 2017
Musings From the Weekend: I Was Wrong
There are three certainties in 2017: death, taxes and the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Ricky and Jordan Taylor winning in IMSA as they won their fourth consecutive race of the year in Austin. Spaniards dominated Sunday at Jerez. Penske's plan for world motorsports domination continues to make progress. The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season finally got started and the Supercross season closed where dirty moves were the name of the game in Sin City. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
I Was Wrong
We head to the 4th Grand Prix of Indianapolis and I was wrong. I was wrong about the event.
I hated the idea. I hated it when it was first floated out there. I hated it when it was coyly being organized in plain sight. I just hated.
Then the first edition was held. And I warmed to it. And I continued to warm to it. And now here I am. Do I love the race? Love is strong, just as strong as hate and maybe hate was the wrong word to use three or four years ago. I enjoy the race and the race does round out the month of May more than it used to be.
In the 21st century, it makes no senses for the month of May to have Indianapolis 500 practice start on May 1st, two days of qualifying a fortnight prior to the race, two days of qualifying the weekend before the race, three weeks of practice, Carb Day and then the race itself. There aren't enough entries and interested spectators to justify that much time to one race.
The Grand Prix of Indianapolis has given people a reason to head out to the track for one of three action-filled weekends. You have the road course race, qualification weekend and Indianapolis 500 weekend. Three weekends and each one is slightly different while progressing and growing to the grand day that is the Indianapolis 500.
Prior to the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, opening day at the Speedway was a dud with just Indianapolis 500 rookie orientation and maybe a practice session for all entries. It was just practice laps with rookies trying to get up to speed and veterans shaking off the oval rust. Now you get not just an IndyCar race but doubleheaders for U.S. F2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights and more people have turned out than opening day had drawn in the last two decades prior. You can debate the crowd size for the race and whether it looks good aesthetically but by attracting 20,000 to 25,000 people to the Speedway for a race the track has found a way to make more money on this weekend in May than it previously had been and that is all that matters.
We worried about the race track after having almost a decade of duds when the United States Grand Prix was held at the Speedway but none of the three previous editions have been bad races. The track made alterations to the road course configuration and racing has been respectable because of these changes. Passing isn't non-existent. Drivers take chances and we have seen drivers go from the back to the front. Last year, Graham Rahal went from 24th to fourth and Conor Daly went from 22nd to sixth. The year before that Rahal finished second after starting 17th and Takuma Sato finished ninth from 22nd. Charlie Kimball went from 23rd to fifth in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
I didn't necessarily buy the idea the race would be a commercial for the Indianapolis 500 two weeks later and I still don't when you consider how the Indianapolis 500 television numbers have remained stable for just over a decade and it is hard to judge how many people are watching because the Grand Prix of Indianapolis reminded them about the Indianapolis 500. As we learned last year, the Indianapolis 500 doesn't need a two and a half hour commercial in the form of another race a fortnight prior. Last year's Indianapolis 500 sold out. If anything, the location of Indianapolis Motor Speedway has helped this race. I don't think we would be as excited for a race two weeks before the Indianapolis 500 if it was at Kansas or Kentucky or Chicagoland and I don't think we could get a race on ABC two weeks before the Indianapolis if it was Kansas, Kentucky or Chicagoland.
Is the Grand Prix of Indianapolis a game changer? Is it one of the big three or four or five races on the IndyCar schedule? I don't sense it is. I don't sense more people are tuning in because it is a race at Indianapolis and I don't sense drivers want to win the Grand Prix of Indianapolis more than Long Beach, Watkins Glen, Road America, Iowa, Toronto, Texas or Pocono. It has some cache because it is at Indianapolis Motor Speedway but I don't sense it would change a driver's career or it is a race a driver wants to brag about winning. At the same time we are only heading into the fourth edition of the race. I am sure the fourth Indianapolis 500 wasn't a race drivers were dying to win. The meaning wasn't there yet. It was just another race. It takes decades for a race to achieve that level of meaning.
This race has had a few growing pain as we head to year four. The race is without a title sponsor, which is a lost source of revenue for the track. This year's race will be the smallest of the four editions as only 22 cars have entered but the race should continue. It is better than no race at all but it doesn't make up for what is lacking from the Indianapolis 500. It doesn't make up for the lack of bumping and doesn't make up for the difficulty drivers have to put one-off programs together. It is a nice addition but there are still other issues around the month of May that need to be solved.
The Grand Prix of Indianapolis should be the kick off for May. Some think the race should be another time of the year, some think it should be the season finale but I think the race would lose attention if it were in August, September or October. It would become another trip to Indianapolis. By leading off the month of May it is the start to something much greater.
Champion From the Weekend
Ryan Dungey won the Supercross championship after finishing fourth in the season finale at Las Vegas.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about the Taylor brothers and Ryan Dungey but did you know...
The #38 Lexus Team Zent Cerumo Lexus LC 500 of Hiroaki Ishiura and Yuji Tachikawa won the Super GT race from Fuji on Thursday. The #51 LM Corsa Lexuc RC F GT3 of Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi won in GT300.
Dani Pedrosa won MotoGP's Spanish Grand Prix. Álex Márquez won in Moto2, his first victory in that series. Arón Canet won the Moto3 race, his first career victory.
The #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the team's second consecutive victory. The #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca of Romain Rusinov, Alex Lynn and Pierre Thiriet won in LMP2. The #71 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird won in GTE-Pro. The #97 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda won in GTE-AM.
Stefano Comini and Jean-Karl Vernay split the TCR International Series races from Spa-Francorchamps.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. won the NASCAR Cup race from Talladega, his first career victory. Aric Almirola won the Grand National Series race on Saturday.
The #38 Performance Tech Motorsport Oreca of Pato O'Ward and James French won in PC at the IMSA race from Austin. The #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio García won in GTLM. The #33 Riley Motorsports - Team AMG of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating won in GTD.
The #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart swept the Blancpain Sprint Series races from Brands Hatch.
Lucas Auer and Jamie Green split the DTM season opener from Hockenheim.
Scott McLaughlin swept the Supercars races from Barbagallo Raceway.
Jason Anderson won the Supercross season finale from Las Vegas.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Formula One returns to Spain.
Formula E kicks off the festivities at Monaco.
Italy has a busy weekend with World Superbike at Imola and the European Le Mans Series and TCR International Series at Monza.
NASCAR heads to its first night race of the season at Kansas.
Silverstone hosts the Blancpain Endurance Series.
The World Touring Car Championship will be in Hungary.
I Was Wrong
We head to the 4th Grand Prix of Indianapolis and I was wrong. I was wrong about the event.
I hated the idea. I hated it when it was first floated out there. I hated it when it was coyly being organized in plain sight. I just hated.
Then the first edition was held. And I warmed to it. And I continued to warm to it. And now here I am. Do I love the race? Love is strong, just as strong as hate and maybe hate was the wrong word to use three or four years ago. I enjoy the race and the race does round out the month of May more than it used to be.
In the 21st century, it makes no senses for the month of May to have Indianapolis 500 practice start on May 1st, two days of qualifying a fortnight prior to the race, two days of qualifying the weekend before the race, three weeks of practice, Carb Day and then the race itself. There aren't enough entries and interested spectators to justify that much time to one race.
The Grand Prix of Indianapolis has given people a reason to head out to the track for one of three action-filled weekends. You have the road course race, qualification weekend and Indianapolis 500 weekend. Three weekends and each one is slightly different while progressing and growing to the grand day that is the Indianapolis 500.
Prior to the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, opening day at the Speedway was a dud with just Indianapolis 500 rookie orientation and maybe a practice session for all entries. It was just practice laps with rookies trying to get up to speed and veterans shaking off the oval rust. Now you get not just an IndyCar race but doubleheaders for U.S. F2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights and more people have turned out than opening day had drawn in the last two decades prior. You can debate the crowd size for the race and whether it looks good aesthetically but by attracting 20,000 to 25,000 people to the Speedway for a race the track has found a way to make more money on this weekend in May than it previously had been and that is all that matters.
We worried about the race track after having almost a decade of duds when the United States Grand Prix was held at the Speedway but none of the three previous editions have been bad races. The track made alterations to the road course configuration and racing has been respectable because of these changes. Passing isn't non-existent. Drivers take chances and we have seen drivers go from the back to the front. Last year, Graham Rahal went from 24th to fourth and Conor Daly went from 22nd to sixth. The year before that Rahal finished second after starting 17th and Takuma Sato finished ninth from 22nd. Charlie Kimball went from 23rd to fifth in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
I didn't necessarily buy the idea the race would be a commercial for the Indianapolis 500 two weeks later and I still don't when you consider how the Indianapolis 500 television numbers have remained stable for just over a decade and it is hard to judge how many people are watching because the Grand Prix of Indianapolis reminded them about the Indianapolis 500. As we learned last year, the Indianapolis 500 doesn't need a two and a half hour commercial in the form of another race a fortnight prior. Last year's Indianapolis 500 sold out. If anything, the location of Indianapolis Motor Speedway has helped this race. I don't think we would be as excited for a race two weeks before the Indianapolis 500 if it was at Kansas or Kentucky or Chicagoland and I don't think we could get a race on ABC two weeks before the Indianapolis if it was Kansas, Kentucky or Chicagoland.
Is the Grand Prix of Indianapolis a game changer? Is it one of the big three or four or five races on the IndyCar schedule? I don't sense it is. I don't sense more people are tuning in because it is a race at Indianapolis and I don't sense drivers want to win the Grand Prix of Indianapolis more than Long Beach, Watkins Glen, Road America, Iowa, Toronto, Texas or Pocono. It has some cache because it is at Indianapolis Motor Speedway but I don't sense it would change a driver's career or it is a race a driver wants to brag about winning. At the same time we are only heading into the fourth edition of the race. I am sure the fourth Indianapolis 500 wasn't a race drivers were dying to win. The meaning wasn't there yet. It was just another race. It takes decades for a race to achieve that level of meaning.
This race has had a few growing pain as we head to year four. The race is without a title sponsor, which is a lost source of revenue for the track. This year's race will be the smallest of the four editions as only 22 cars have entered but the race should continue. It is better than no race at all but it doesn't make up for what is lacking from the Indianapolis 500. It doesn't make up for the lack of bumping and doesn't make up for the difficulty drivers have to put one-off programs together. It is a nice addition but there are still other issues around the month of May that need to be solved.
The Grand Prix of Indianapolis should be the kick off for May. Some think the race should be another time of the year, some think it should be the season finale but I think the race would lose attention if it were in August, September or October. It would become another trip to Indianapolis. By leading off the month of May it is the start to something much greater.
Champion From the Weekend
Ryan Dungey won the Supercross championship after finishing fourth in the season finale at Las Vegas.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about the Taylor brothers and Ryan Dungey but did you know...
The #38 Lexus Team Zent Cerumo Lexus LC 500 of Hiroaki Ishiura and Yuji Tachikawa won the Super GT race from Fuji on Thursday. The #51 LM Corsa Lexuc RC F GT3 of Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi won in GT300.
Dani Pedrosa won MotoGP's Spanish Grand Prix. Álex Márquez won in Moto2, his first victory in that series. Arón Canet won the Moto3 race, his first career victory.
The #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the team's second consecutive victory. The #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca of Romain Rusinov, Alex Lynn and Pierre Thiriet won in LMP2. The #71 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird won in GTE-Pro. The #97 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda won in GTE-AM.
Stefano Comini and Jean-Karl Vernay split the TCR International Series races from Spa-Francorchamps.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. won the NASCAR Cup race from Talladega, his first career victory. Aric Almirola won the Grand National Series race on Saturday.
The #38 Performance Tech Motorsport Oreca of Pato O'Ward and James French won in PC at the IMSA race from Austin. The #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio García won in GTLM. The #33 Riley Motorsports - Team AMG of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating won in GTD.
The #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart swept the Blancpain Sprint Series races from Brands Hatch.
Lucas Auer and Jamie Green split the DTM season opener from Hockenheim.
Scott McLaughlin swept the Supercars races from Barbagallo Raceway.
Jason Anderson won the Supercross season finale from Las Vegas.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Formula One returns to Spain.
Formula E kicks off the festivities at Monaco.
Italy has a busy weekend with World Superbike at Imola and the European Le Mans Series and TCR International Series at Monza.
NASCAR heads to its first night race of the season at Kansas.
Silverstone hosts the Blancpain Endurance Series.
The World Touring Car Championship will be in Hungary.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Indianapolis 500 Entry List Update: May 2017
We have made it. May is here and we are just over a week and a half away from the first practice session for the 101st Indianapolis 500. The entry list is pretty much set and it is going to be 33 cars. No more. Hopefully no less but you do have a handful of entries on shoestring budgets so let's hope nobody has a first-hand encounter with the barrier.
Let's break it down. The regular cast of characters will be there, all 21 full-time IndyCar teams, the 13 Honda teams and the eight Chevrolet teams.
To start with the Honda one-offs we have to start with the biggest name on the ticket, the two-time world drivers' champion Fernando Alonso with Andretti Autosport. Alonso completed rookie orientation at his test session on Wednesday and completed 110 laps. Joining Alonso and Andretti's four full-time entries will be two-time Indy Lights vice-champion Jack Harvey, whose entry will be a collaboration between Andretti Autosport and Michael Shank Racing.
Oriol Servià was one of the earliest Indianapolis 500 entries announced and should he take the green flag, this year's Indianapolis 500 will mark the 200th start of the Catalan driver's IndyCar career. Servià has also been confirmed for the Belle Isle round the weekend after the Indianapolis 500.
Jay Howard was another early Indianapolis 500 entry announced and the 2006 Indy Lights champion will drive the #77 Tony Stewart Foundation Team One Cure Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. This will be Howard's first time in a car since 2011 and his third career attempt at the Indianapolis 500. He did not qualify in 2010 and had an accident after 60 laps in the 2011 race.
The final additional Honda for the Indianapolis 500 will be Pippa Mann as she returns for her sixth Indianapolis 500 attempt. This will be her fifth consecutive year with Dale Coyne Racing at the Speedway. Last year, Mann scored a career-best 18th-place finish in the Indianapolis 500.
The five additional Honda entries bring the total up to 26 cars.
Juan Pablo Montoya was arguably the first of the additional Indianapolis 500 entries announced and he will drive for Team Penske. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner will also run the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 13th.
Sage Karam returns for his fourth Indianapolis 500 attempt and third with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Karam has spent the 2017 season driving for Lexus' factory GT Daytona program in IMSA. Karam will have a teammate of sorts as Dreyer & Reinbold has a technical alliance with the newly-formed Harding Racing and Gabby Chaves will be driving the #88 Harding Racing Chevrolet. This will be Chaves' third Indianapolis 500 attempt and it will come with his third different team but this will be his first year in a Chevrolet.
Zach Veach made his IndyCar debut at Barber Motorsports Park just under two weeks ago substituting for J.R. Hildebrand at Ed Carpenter Racing but the Ohioan and Indy Lights race winner will drive the #40 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing at Indianapolis. Veach made three Freedom 100 starts at the Speedway and finished third in 2014.
Buddy Lazier returns with his own team Lazier Racing for the fifth consecutive year. Lazier has qualified for the Indianapolis 500 in three of his four attempts with his own team. Lazier is shaping up to be the oldest entrant at 49 years old and he could become the eighth driver to make 20 Indianapolis 500 starts joining A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock, George Snider and Gary Bettenhausen.
Those five additional Chevrolets leave us at 31 entries with two remaining both likely to be Chevrolets and both likely to come from Juncos Racing. Spencer Pigot drives for Ed Carpenter Racing in the #20 Chevrolet for the road and street course races but with Ed Carpenter in the #20 Chevrolet for the ovals and the teams not fielding an additional entry for this year's race, Pigot has had to look elsewhere and he is a leading candidate for one of the Juncos Racing entries.
The final seat it is believed to be down to either Sebastián Saavedra or James Davison. Saavedra and Davison both have not raced in IndyCar since the 2015 season. Saavedra has five Indianapolis 500 starts and all have come with a different team but his last four starts have been with Chevrolet teams. Davison has two Indianapolis 500 starts, his first in a Chevrolet and his second in a Honda.
Ryan Briscoe reportedly was a name Juncos Racing was interested in hiring but conflicts prevented that pairing from coming together. Alex Tagliani is another name floating around in contention for one of the Juncos Racing seats. Kyle Kaiser was in contention for a Juncos seat but the team has decided Kaiser will focus on the Indy Lights championship instead.
With the final seats on the verge of being filled, a few notable names who appear will be on the outside for this year's race are Townsend Bell, Matthew Brabham, Stefan Wilson, Jack Hawksworth, Dean Stoneman, Félix Serrallés, Katherine Legge, Tristan Vautier and Gustavo Yacamán.
Let's break it down. The regular cast of characters will be there, all 21 full-time IndyCar teams, the 13 Honda teams and the eight Chevrolet teams.
To start with the Honda one-offs we have to start with the biggest name on the ticket, the two-time world drivers' champion Fernando Alonso with Andretti Autosport. Alonso completed rookie orientation at his test session on Wednesday and completed 110 laps. Joining Alonso and Andretti's four full-time entries will be two-time Indy Lights vice-champion Jack Harvey, whose entry will be a collaboration between Andretti Autosport and Michael Shank Racing.
Oriol Servià was one of the earliest Indianapolis 500 entries announced and should he take the green flag, this year's Indianapolis 500 will mark the 200th start of the Catalan driver's IndyCar career. Servià has also been confirmed for the Belle Isle round the weekend after the Indianapolis 500.
Jay Howard was another early Indianapolis 500 entry announced and the 2006 Indy Lights champion will drive the #77 Tony Stewart Foundation Team One Cure Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. This will be Howard's first time in a car since 2011 and his third career attempt at the Indianapolis 500. He did not qualify in 2010 and had an accident after 60 laps in the 2011 race.
The final additional Honda for the Indianapolis 500 will be Pippa Mann as she returns for her sixth Indianapolis 500 attempt. This will be her fifth consecutive year with Dale Coyne Racing at the Speedway. Last year, Mann scored a career-best 18th-place finish in the Indianapolis 500.
The five additional Honda entries bring the total up to 26 cars.
Juan Pablo Montoya was arguably the first of the additional Indianapolis 500 entries announced and he will drive for Team Penske. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner will also run the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 13th.
Sage Karam returns for his fourth Indianapolis 500 attempt and third with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Karam has spent the 2017 season driving for Lexus' factory GT Daytona program in IMSA. Karam will have a teammate of sorts as Dreyer & Reinbold has a technical alliance with the newly-formed Harding Racing and Gabby Chaves will be driving the #88 Harding Racing Chevrolet. This will be Chaves' third Indianapolis 500 attempt and it will come with his third different team but this will be his first year in a Chevrolet.
Zach Veach made his IndyCar debut at Barber Motorsports Park just under two weeks ago substituting for J.R. Hildebrand at Ed Carpenter Racing but the Ohioan and Indy Lights race winner will drive the #40 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing at Indianapolis. Veach made three Freedom 100 starts at the Speedway and finished third in 2014.
Buddy Lazier returns with his own team Lazier Racing for the fifth consecutive year. Lazier has qualified for the Indianapolis 500 in three of his four attempts with his own team. Lazier is shaping up to be the oldest entrant at 49 years old and he could become the eighth driver to make 20 Indianapolis 500 starts joining A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock, George Snider and Gary Bettenhausen.
Those five additional Chevrolets leave us at 31 entries with two remaining both likely to be Chevrolets and both likely to come from Juncos Racing. Spencer Pigot drives for Ed Carpenter Racing in the #20 Chevrolet for the road and street course races but with Ed Carpenter in the #20 Chevrolet for the ovals and the teams not fielding an additional entry for this year's race, Pigot has had to look elsewhere and he is a leading candidate for one of the Juncos Racing entries.
The final seat it is believed to be down to either Sebastián Saavedra or James Davison. Saavedra and Davison both have not raced in IndyCar since the 2015 season. Saavedra has five Indianapolis 500 starts and all have come with a different team but his last four starts have been with Chevrolet teams. Davison has two Indianapolis 500 starts, his first in a Chevrolet and his second in a Honda.
Ryan Briscoe reportedly was a name Juncos Racing was interested in hiring but conflicts prevented that pairing from coming together. Alex Tagliani is another name floating around in contention for one of the Juncos Racing seats. Kyle Kaiser was in contention for a Juncos seat but the team has decided Kaiser will focus on the Indy Lights championship instead.
With the final seats on the verge of being filled, a few notable names who appear will be on the outside for this year's race are Townsend Bell, Matthew Brabham, Stefan Wilson, Jack Hawksworth, Dean Stoneman, Félix Serrallés, Katherine Legge, Tristan Vautier and Gustavo Yacamán.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Musings From the Weekend: What Would Formula One Look Like With 40 Cars?
Penske had a great weekend. IndyCar didn't have a great night in Phoenix. Pirelli World Challenge had an even worse weekend in Virginia. Valtteri Bottas won his first grand prix in Russia with help from Felipe Massa to hold off Sebastian Vettel. Rally Argentina was decided by a fraction of a second. World Touring Car Championship has had four different manufactures win in the first four races. I bet you can guess who won in World Superbike. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
What Would Formula One Look Like With 40 Cars?
I am not sure how I got to thinking about Formula One with a NASCAR sized grid but I think it was watching any number of the NASCAR races this season and watching Derrike Cope or Reed Sorenson or Timmy Hill or Corey Lajoie take up space and hardly get noticed.
Who would be the Derrike Cope of Formula One if the grids were such a size? You really can't compare the two grids now because there are 20 Formula One entries and you can't just take one of the bottom three and match him with Cope. There are too many factors that get in the way like a dud of a McLaren or an underfunded Sauber. But what if the grids were the same size?
There are a lot drivers who either don't have Formula One experience and probably should but time (and money) wasn't on their side or there are drivers who got a shot only to get it too young or have it taken from them before they had properly had a chance to show what they could do.
If Formula One were going to expand to 40 cars it would take more teams. Granted, a few teams could probably field a third and possibly even a fourth car. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull could all likely field four. McLaren, Renault and Williams could all field a third but that would only get us to 29 cars. Half the teams on the grid can barely support two cars but there is a reason only ten teams are in Formula One and the series couldn't double the amount of teams. However, customer cars could make it possible. You might get a new team or two that would build their own cars, especially if they received a chunk of the television money, but customer cars would be the easiest route to 40 cars.
Let's say Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all ran four cars and McLaren, Renault and Williams all ran three cars and the remaining four teams ran two cars, we are at 29 cars. Just to get it to an even number, let's say Haas ran one customer car and for the sake of it, that car is a current Ferrari. I know there is a big disparity between 2016 and 2017 cars but I am sure there is a way to update last year's cars to get them in the ballpark with this year's batch of competitors.
ART Grand Prix has been highly successful in the series formerly known as GP2 and the GP3 Series and the team ran a Mercedes team in DTM for two seasons before the reduction in the DTM grid for this season. I think the team could take on two updated Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrids. Prema Powerteam has been highly successful in Formula Three and won last year's GP2 title in the team's first season in the series. The team should also be fairly well funded with Lance Stroll money and with its Ferrari connections Prema could run a pair of year-old Ferraris.
Christian Horner founded Arden International and if Mercedes is going to have six cars on the grid and Ferrari is going to have seven cars on the grid, there mind as well be six Red Bulls on the grid, even if two of them are year old cars. DAMS has been heavily involved with Renault in Formula E and seeing as how Renault's 2016 car was a dud DAMS running a year old Renault would be foolish but the team could run two R.S.17s, which have been competitive and it would give the French manufacture five cars on the grid.
We have two cars to fill and just because they are working on an LMP1 program and seem to have loads of money, let's say SMP Racing develops its own Formula One car and let's say its SMP chassis will have a Ferrari engine.
Now, where are we going to get 20 drivers from? The easiest answer is raid sports car racing.
Not too long ago, Sam Bird was Mercedes' reserve driver and I think he would be a good fit in that seat but Mercedes is going to need a German and I am not sure it can bring back Nico Rosberg. All of a sudden the abundance of German options have disappeared. I think the team's best option is bringing Pascal Wehrlein up from Sauber, leaving the Swiss team with a seat to fill. Rio Haryanto isn't busy and has some fund. Sauber could use the Indonesian.
Ferrari has two open seats and I think Antonio Giovinazzi would be one of them. The Italian was second in GP2 last year and he did well with Sauber in testing and Australia and Malaysia wasn't great but every young driver has a rough weekend. Joining Giovinazzi at the Scuderia will be James Calado. The Briton was winning races in GP2 and he has been in sports cars since 2014 but he has been top notch at AF Corse.
Red Bull will reshuffle its deck. It will move Carlos Sainz, Jr. up to Red Bull from Toro Rosso to keep Ferrari from poaching the Spaniard and the team will move Pierre Gasly into the fourth seat instead of having him in Super Formula. Daniil Kvyat would stay at STR and joining the Russian would be Alex Lynn, a former Red Bull junior driver and now stud sports car driver.
Renault could benefit from bringing in another veteran driver to go along side Nico Hülkenberg and Jolyon Palmer and seeing as how Sébastien Buemi is doing in Formula E and considering his Formula One experience, the Swiss driver would be a smart grab. Williams has a former Formula One driver as its test driver and I would love to see Paul di Resta back on the grid. McLaren isn't that great and it was a toss up over whether Stoffel Vandoorne would replace Fernando Alonso or Jenson Button so I think Button getting one final year makes the most sense for that team.
As for the one customer Ferrari for Haas, Charles Leclerc just won the GP3 Series championship and he has had a few outings in Friday practice sessions. This would give the 19-year-old race experience without taking a Ferrari seat.
Now for the dedicated customer teams. Gary Paffett has been a Formula One test/development/simulator driver for over a decade. ART Grand Prix finally gives Paffett his first race seat and joining him at ART would be Robert Wickens, a DTM race winner for Mercedes-Benz and runner-up in the 2010 GP3 Series.
Felix Rosenqvist would be Prema Powerteam's lead driver. Rosenqvist is a talent driver who beat many current Formula One drivers in Formula Three and won the 2015 FIA European Formula Three championship with Prema. Next to Rosenqvist could be Lucas di Grassi, an Audi factory driver without a ride and one that is good enough to be in Formula One.
Red Bull Arden International needs an experienced driver and why not bring in another familiar face in Jean-Éric Vergne and why not pair him with the likes of Mitch Evans, a GP3 champion and GP2 race winner? And as for DAMS? Felipe Nasr is available and Nicolas Prost has been respectable in Formula E and that could be a respectable duo.
If we are going to add all these teams and drivers, there are going to need to be a few older drivers who are hanging on and if SMP Racing is going to enter Formula One, first off it is bringing Vitaly Petrov back to Formula One but next to the Russian could be Rubens Barrichello as he pads his record for most Formula One starts.
With Liberty Media talking about 25 races, maybe 40 cars might not be out of the discussion either. The rules would have to be relaxed to allow that many cars to compete in a race. I can't imagine what the traffic would be like and safety car periods would have to quadruple but it could cause for some intriguing races.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Simon Pagenaud and Valtteri Bottas but did you know...
The #31 TR3 Racing Ferrari of Daniel Mancinelli and Andrea Mortermini won the Saturday SprintX race from Virginia International Raceway after numerous of pit lane penalties due to a timing and scoring error. The #2 CRP Racing Mercedes of Ryan Dalziel and Daniel Morad won the Sunday race. Nico Jamin swept the GTS races in his debut weekend.
Joey Logano won the NASCAR Cup race from Richmond. Kyle Larson won the Grand National Series race on Saturday.
Jonathan Rea swept the World Superbike races from Assen after Chaz Davies broke down on the final lap in race one and held off his Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes by 0.025 seconds. Kenan Sofuoglu won the World Supersport race.
Thierry Neuville won Rally Argentina, his second consecutive victory but he won by 0.7 seconds over Elfyn Evans, the third-closest rally in World Rally Championship history.
Citroën's Tom Chilton and Volvo's Thed Björk split the WTCC races from Monza.
Ryan Dungey won the Supercross race from East Rutherford, New Jersey and retook the championship lead by nine points over Eli Tomac with one race remaining.
Coming Up This Weekend
Super GT will race on Thursday at Fuji.
MotoGP runs its first European round of the season from Jerez.
The FIA World Endurance Championship gets one final tune up before Le Mans at Spa-Francorchamps.
The TCR International Series will also be at Spa-Francorchamps.
NASCAR takes a trip to Talladega.
IMSA goes on its own to Austin.
The second round of the Blancpain Sprint Series takes place at Brands Hatch.
The 2017 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season finally gets underway at Hockenheim.
Supercars trek across Australia to Barbagallo Raceway in Perth.
Supercross season concludes in Las Vegas.
What Would Formula One Look Like With 40 Cars?
I am not sure how I got to thinking about Formula One with a NASCAR sized grid but I think it was watching any number of the NASCAR races this season and watching Derrike Cope or Reed Sorenson or Timmy Hill or Corey Lajoie take up space and hardly get noticed.
Who would be the Derrike Cope of Formula One if the grids were such a size? You really can't compare the two grids now because there are 20 Formula One entries and you can't just take one of the bottom three and match him with Cope. There are too many factors that get in the way like a dud of a McLaren or an underfunded Sauber. But what if the grids were the same size?
There are a lot drivers who either don't have Formula One experience and probably should but time (and money) wasn't on their side or there are drivers who got a shot only to get it too young or have it taken from them before they had properly had a chance to show what they could do.
If Formula One were going to expand to 40 cars it would take more teams. Granted, a few teams could probably field a third and possibly even a fourth car. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull could all likely field four. McLaren, Renault and Williams could all field a third but that would only get us to 29 cars. Half the teams on the grid can barely support two cars but there is a reason only ten teams are in Formula One and the series couldn't double the amount of teams. However, customer cars could make it possible. You might get a new team or two that would build their own cars, especially if they received a chunk of the television money, but customer cars would be the easiest route to 40 cars.
Let's say Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all ran four cars and McLaren, Renault and Williams all ran three cars and the remaining four teams ran two cars, we are at 29 cars. Just to get it to an even number, let's say Haas ran one customer car and for the sake of it, that car is a current Ferrari. I know there is a big disparity between 2016 and 2017 cars but I am sure there is a way to update last year's cars to get them in the ballpark with this year's batch of competitors.
ART Grand Prix has been highly successful in the series formerly known as GP2 and the GP3 Series and the team ran a Mercedes team in DTM for two seasons before the reduction in the DTM grid for this season. I think the team could take on two updated Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrids. Prema Powerteam has been highly successful in Formula Three and won last year's GP2 title in the team's first season in the series. The team should also be fairly well funded with Lance Stroll money and with its Ferrari connections Prema could run a pair of year-old Ferraris.
Christian Horner founded Arden International and if Mercedes is going to have six cars on the grid and Ferrari is going to have seven cars on the grid, there mind as well be six Red Bulls on the grid, even if two of them are year old cars. DAMS has been heavily involved with Renault in Formula E and seeing as how Renault's 2016 car was a dud DAMS running a year old Renault would be foolish but the team could run two R.S.17s, which have been competitive and it would give the French manufacture five cars on the grid.
We have two cars to fill and just because they are working on an LMP1 program and seem to have loads of money, let's say SMP Racing develops its own Formula One car and let's say its SMP chassis will have a Ferrari engine.
Now, where are we going to get 20 drivers from? The easiest answer is raid sports car racing.
Not too long ago, Sam Bird was Mercedes' reserve driver and I think he would be a good fit in that seat but Mercedes is going to need a German and I am not sure it can bring back Nico Rosberg. All of a sudden the abundance of German options have disappeared. I think the team's best option is bringing Pascal Wehrlein up from Sauber, leaving the Swiss team with a seat to fill. Rio Haryanto isn't busy and has some fund. Sauber could use the Indonesian.
Ferrari has two open seats and I think Antonio Giovinazzi would be one of them. The Italian was second in GP2 last year and he did well with Sauber in testing and Australia and Malaysia wasn't great but every young driver has a rough weekend. Joining Giovinazzi at the Scuderia will be James Calado. The Briton was winning races in GP2 and he has been in sports cars since 2014 but he has been top notch at AF Corse.
Red Bull will reshuffle its deck. It will move Carlos Sainz, Jr. up to Red Bull from Toro Rosso to keep Ferrari from poaching the Spaniard and the team will move Pierre Gasly into the fourth seat instead of having him in Super Formula. Daniil Kvyat would stay at STR and joining the Russian would be Alex Lynn, a former Red Bull junior driver and now stud sports car driver.
Renault could benefit from bringing in another veteran driver to go along side Nico Hülkenberg and Jolyon Palmer and seeing as how Sébastien Buemi is doing in Formula E and considering his Formula One experience, the Swiss driver would be a smart grab. Williams has a former Formula One driver as its test driver and I would love to see Paul di Resta back on the grid. McLaren isn't that great and it was a toss up over whether Stoffel Vandoorne would replace Fernando Alonso or Jenson Button so I think Button getting one final year makes the most sense for that team.
As for the one customer Ferrari for Haas, Charles Leclerc just won the GP3 Series championship and he has had a few outings in Friday practice sessions. This would give the 19-year-old race experience without taking a Ferrari seat.
Now for the dedicated customer teams. Gary Paffett has been a Formula One test/development/simulator driver for over a decade. ART Grand Prix finally gives Paffett his first race seat and joining him at ART would be Robert Wickens, a DTM race winner for Mercedes-Benz and runner-up in the 2010 GP3 Series.
Felix Rosenqvist would be Prema Powerteam's lead driver. Rosenqvist is a talent driver who beat many current Formula One drivers in Formula Three and won the 2015 FIA European Formula Three championship with Prema. Next to Rosenqvist could be Lucas di Grassi, an Audi factory driver without a ride and one that is good enough to be in Formula One.
Red Bull Arden International needs an experienced driver and why not bring in another familiar face in Jean-Éric Vergne and why not pair him with the likes of Mitch Evans, a GP3 champion and GP2 race winner? And as for DAMS? Felipe Nasr is available and Nicolas Prost has been respectable in Formula E and that could be a respectable duo.
If we are going to add all these teams and drivers, there are going to need to be a few older drivers who are hanging on and if SMP Racing is going to enter Formula One, first off it is bringing Vitaly Petrov back to Formula One but next to the Russian could be Rubens Barrichello as he pads his record for most Formula One starts.
With Liberty Media talking about 25 races, maybe 40 cars might not be out of the discussion either. The rules would have to be relaxed to allow that many cars to compete in a race. I can't imagine what the traffic would be like and safety car periods would have to quadruple but it could cause for some intriguing races.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Simon Pagenaud and Valtteri Bottas but did you know...
The #31 TR3 Racing Ferrari of Daniel Mancinelli and Andrea Mortermini won the Saturday SprintX race from Virginia International Raceway after numerous of pit lane penalties due to a timing and scoring error. The #2 CRP Racing Mercedes of Ryan Dalziel and Daniel Morad won the Sunday race. Nico Jamin swept the GTS races in his debut weekend.
Joey Logano won the NASCAR Cup race from Richmond. Kyle Larson won the Grand National Series race on Saturday.
Jonathan Rea swept the World Superbike races from Assen after Chaz Davies broke down on the final lap in race one and held off his Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes by 0.025 seconds. Kenan Sofuoglu won the World Supersport race.
Thierry Neuville won Rally Argentina, his second consecutive victory but he won by 0.7 seconds over Elfyn Evans, the third-closest rally in World Rally Championship history.
Citroën's Tom Chilton and Volvo's Thed Björk split the WTCC races from Monza.
Ryan Dungey won the Supercross race from East Rutherford, New Jersey and retook the championship lead by nine points over Eli Tomac with one race remaining.
Coming Up This Weekend
Super GT will race on Thursday at Fuji.
MotoGP runs its first European round of the season from Jerez.
The FIA World Endurance Championship gets one final tune up before Le Mans at Spa-Francorchamps.
The TCR International Series will also be at Spa-Francorchamps.
NASCAR takes a trip to Talladega.
IMSA goes on its own to Austin.
The second round of the Blancpain Sprint Series takes place at Brands Hatch.
The 2017 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season finally gets underway at Hockenheim.
Supercars trek across Australia to Barbagallo Raceway in Perth.
Supercross season concludes in Las Vegas.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
First Impressions: Phoenix 2017
1. Let's start with the aero package. It is disappointing that after last year's Phoenix race IndyCar didn't say, "let's make sure that doesn't happen again." I am sure enough drivers and fans are going to express dissatisfaction and changes are going to come and hopefully before the next two short oval races later this year at Iowa and Gateway. That isn't good enough for the series and everyone within the series knows it. I have faith that changes will be made in the right direction and they will be done quickly.
2. I don't want to say Simon Pagenaud didn't deserve this victory but it felt like whoever ended up in front was going to win because you needed to have a death wish if you wanted to attempt a pass tonight. However, with passing being excruciatingly difficult Pagenaud and his team found a way to the lead and won the race, his first oval victory and tenth in his career, and that is all that matters at the end of the day. For the second consecutive year, Pagenaud leaves Phoenix as championship leader. He didn't concede it once he got it last year.
3. Will Power finished second and he finally had a fine day. He wants more horsepower and less downforce on short ovals and he has been preaching that for over a year. Let's listen to the man.
4. J.R. Hildebrand made the most passes on the night and he finished third and gave Power a run for his money for second. This is a great way to come back after missing a race due to a broken hand. Hopefully that momentum carries over to the remaining races.
5. Surprise! Hélio Castroneves finished fourth after starting on pole position and leading, I don't know, the first 77 laps? This is what he does. He finishes fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh every race but can't keep up with the leaders.
6. Scott Dixon finished fifth and did nothing. There aren't many races where you can say Scott Dixon did nothing.
7. Tony Kanaan finished sixth and did nothing.
8. Ed Carpenter went from 21st to seventh and may have made one pass all night.
9. Charlie Kimball finished eighth and did nothing. He didn't even hit anybody.
10. Josef Newgarden was contending for a podium but he had to make two wing changes and contact with the lapped car of Ryan Hunter-Reay forced him to stop from third. He went from being on Pagenaud's rear in the championship to being much further back after a ninth-place finish.
11. Carlos Muñoz finished tenth and didn't do a damn thing. Congratulations to A.J. Foyt Racing on finally getting a top ten finish.
12. Ed Jones finished 12th in his first IndyCar oval race and completed 247 of 250 laps. Not bad. He has been fun to watch this season.
13. James Hinchcliffe had horrible fuel mileage and it cost him a top ten finished and he finished 12th.
14. Ryan Hunter-Reay brushed the wall while in the top ten and he called it a night 80 laps early but still finished 13th. Conor Daly was 70 laps down the entire night after a gearbox issue but was still running at the finish 14th
15. I have no idea what happened to Alexander Rossi. I think he brushed the wall and he finished 15th. Takuma Sato smacked the wall and brought out a caution. Andretti Autosport keeps finding a new way to get hit in the crotch.
16. Mikhail Aleshin, Marco Andretti, Sébastien Bourdais, Max Chilton and Graham Rahal all failed to complete lap one. I tweeted just prior to the race that I thought there would be an accident lap one because I thought Aleshin would lose it or Hunter-Reay would lose it by going to the outside on the start. I was right on the former. Aleshin gets a lot of praise but 50/50 chance is he bins it. The other four drivers were collateral damage and unfortunately it ended the fairy tale start to the season for Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing.
17. A few off-track things I want to get to. If you didn't know, ESPN has been laying off a ton of people and included in those are Allen Bestwick and Dr. Jerry Punch. If they are gone, two men who did more than just IndyCar but also college football, college basketball and college hockey, I have to think Eddie Cheever, Scott Goodyear, Jon Beekhuis and Rick DeBruhl have all also been handed their walking papers. Bestwick and Punch have both said they will continue through Belle Isle but when Bestwick signs off after that Sunday race, he and likely all of them are gone.
A lot of people have wanted the ABC/ESPN team gutted and frankly wants the series off the network. I have been critical of the network's use of Cheever and Goodyear but I was a proponent to Bestwick taking over the reins to the IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 coverage prior to Marty Reid being fired and Dr. Punch, Beekhuis and DeBruhl are a solid pit reporting team.
There is no positive from the ESPN layoffs and it only creates more questions as the network's IndyCar deal extends through 2018 and the lead commentator and senior IndyCar broadcaster are gone and I can't imagine ESPN kept the other four guys on through 2018. I am starting to wonder if ESPN will buyout its final year but I don't think the network would do that. If the final year of the deal is honored, what does the announce team look like? I can't imagine after laying off an unfathomable number of people ESPN is going to hire a few people to do five weekends of IndyCar racing and I can't imagine ESPN bringing the NBCSN crew in on loan but it could be the easiest solution.
We knew the next IndyCar television deal was going to be negotiated over the course of this season but now a whole set of questions have arisen over 2018.
18. While one network is in flux, I have to make a comment about NBCSN's crew and in particular the pit reporters. I caught the end of the qualifying show and it featured Kevin Lee, Katie Hargitt, Robin Miller and Marty Snider all sitting on the pit wall, a somewhat common thing the crew has done after a race or session dating back to the Texas rain delay when they talked to just about everyone on pit road. It is a relaxed atmosphere and it is refreshing but NBCSN has done a great job of putting together a diverse group of pit reporters.
You have Miller, the experienced some would call curmudgeon who has seen it all, Lee and Snider, generation X-ers, Lee who got into the series during the split and Snider who has covered almost every form of motorsports and Hargitt, a millennial woman who is in the same age bracket as many of the drivers and of the demographic the series tries to attract to the broadcast and race track. They all bring different mindsets and ideas to the broadcast and that is good for the presentation of the series.
19. Finally, I want to send my prayers and thoughts to John Andretti, who is fighting stage four colon cancer. It sucks. It just sucks to hear he is going through such a thing. There is so much I want to say but for now I will say John Andretti has come off as nothing but a soft-spoken gentleman and besides that he is an underrated talent as a driver. He never lit the world on fire and dominated a championship but he raced everything and anything and was competitive in it all.
20. May is Monday.
2. I don't want to say Simon Pagenaud didn't deserve this victory but it felt like whoever ended up in front was going to win because you needed to have a death wish if you wanted to attempt a pass tonight. However, with passing being excruciatingly difficult Pagenaud and his team found a way to the lead and won the race, his first oval victory and tenth in his career, and that is all that matters at the end of the day. For the second consecutive year, Pagenaud leaves Phoenix as championship leader. He didn't concede it once he got it last year.
3. Will Power finished second and he finally had a fine day. He wants more horsepower and less downforce on short ovals and he has been preaching that for over a year. Let's listen to the man.
4. J.R. Hildebrand made the most passes on the night and he finished third and gave Power a run for his money for second. This is a great way to come back after missing a race due to a broken hand. Hopefully that momentum carries over to the remaining races.
5. Surprise! Hélio Castroneves finished fourth after starting on pole position and leading, I don't know, the first 77 laps? This is what he does. He finishes fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh every race but can't keep up with the leaders.
6. Scott Dixon finished fifth and did nothing. There aren't many races where you can say Scott Dixon did nothing.
7. Tony Kanaan finished sixth and did nothing.
8. Ed Carpenter went from 21st to seventh and may have made one pass all night.
9. Charlie Kimball finished eighth and did nothing. He didn't even hit anybody.
10. Josef Newgarden was contending for a podium but he had to make two wing changes and contact with the lapped car of Ryan Hunter-Reay forced him to stop from third. He went from being on Pagenaud's rear in the championship to being much further back after a ninth-place finish.
11. Carlos Muñoz finished tenth and didn't do a damn thing. Congratulations to A.J. Foyt Racing on finally getting a top ten finish.
12. Ed Jones finished 12th in his first IndyCar oval race and completed 247 of 250 laps. Not bad. He has been fun to watch this season.
13. James Hinchcliffe had horrible fuel mileage and it cost him a top ten finished and he finished 12th.
14. Ryan Hunter-Reay brushed the wall while in the top ten and he called it a night 80 laps early but still finished 13th. Conor Daly was 70 laps down the entire night after a gearbox issue but was still running at the finish 14th
15. I have no idea what happened to Alexander Rossi. I think he brushed the wall and he finished 15th. Takuma Sato smacked the wall and brought out a caution. Andretti Autosport keeps finding a new way to get hit in the crotch.
16. Mikhail Aleshin, Marco Andretti, Sébastien Bourdais, Max Chilton and Graham Rahal all failed to complete lap one. I tweeted just prior to the race that I thought there would be an accident lap one because I thought Aleshin would lose it or Hunter-Reay would lose it by going to the outside on the start. I was right on the former. Aleshin gets a lot of praise but 50/50 chance is he bins it. The other four drivers were collateral damage and unfortunately it ended the fairy tale start to the season for Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing.
17. A few off-track things I want to get to. If you didn't know, ESPN has been laying off a ton of people and included in those are Allen Bestwick and Dr. Jerry Punch. If they are gone, two men who did more than just IndyCar but also college football, college basketball and college hockey, I have to think Eddie Cheever, Scott Goodyear, Jon Beekhuis and Rick DeBruhl have all also been handed their walking papers. Bestwick and Punch have both said they will continue through Belle Isle but when Bestwick signs off after that Sunday race, he and likely all of them are gone.
A lot of people have wanted the ABC/ESPN team gutted and frankly wants the series off the network. I have been critical of the network's use of Cheever and Goodyear but I was a proponent to Bestwick taking over the reins to the IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 coverage prior to Marty Reid being fired and Dr. Punch, Beekhuis and DeBruhl are a solid pit reporting team.
There is no positive from the ESPN layoffs and it only creates more questions as the network's IndyCar deal extends through 2018 and the lead commentator and senior IndyCar broadcaster are gone and I can't imagine ESPN kept the other four guys on through 2018. I am starting to wonder if ESPN will buyout its final year but I don't think the network would do that. If the final year of the deal is honored, what does the announce team look like? I can't imagine after laying off an unfathomable number of people ESPN is going to hire a few people to do five weekends of IndyCar racing and I can't imagine ESPN bringing the NBCSN crew in on loan but it could be the easiest solution.
We knew the next IndyCar television deal was going to be negotiated over the course of this season but now a whole set of questions have arisen over 2018.
18. While one network is in flux, I have to make a comment about NBCSN's crew and in particular the pit reporters. I caught the end of the qualifying show and it featured Kevin Lee, Katie Hargitt, Robin Miller and Marty Snider all sitting on the pit wall, a somewhat common thing the crew has done after a race or session dating back to the Texas rain delay when they talked to just about everyone on pit road. It is a relaxed atmosphere and it is refreshing but NBCSN has done a great job of putting together a diverse group of pit reporters.
You have Miller, the experienced some would call curmudgeon who has seen it all, Lee and Snider, generation X-ers, Lee who got into the series during the split and Snider who has covered almost every form of motorsports and Hargitt, a millennial woman who is in the same age bracket as many of the drivers and of the demographic the series tries to attract to the broadcast and race track. They all bring different mindsets and ideas to the broadcast and that is good for the presentation of the series.
19. Finally, I want to send my prayers and thoughts to John Andretti, who is fighting stage four colon cancer. It sucks. It just sucks to hear he is going through such a thing. There is so much I want to say but for now I will say John Andretti has come off as nothing but a soft-spoken gentleman and besides that he is an underrated talent as a driver. He never lit the world on fire and dominated a championship but he raced everything and anything and was competitive in it all.
20. May is Monday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)