The month of May is arguably the peak of the motorsports season. If you think about it that sounds right. Motorsports do not go from January to December, at least not at a consistent rate. There are a few events spread around but we do not see regular competition until late-February or March, it increases when spring returns to the Northern Hemisphere, it is busy throughout the summer and come September it starts to wind down.
The end of May is a middle point. Championship pictures are becoming clearer. Races are becoming tenser. It will be over before we know it.
If your name is in the headlines it is either because of a great achievement or a colossal failure and McLaren is getting the recognition for its colossal failure. This is a McLaren heavy edition of This Month in Motorsports Headlines and it mostly circles on its inability to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and some other Formula One notes.
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.
McLaren has "no excuses" for Alonso's Indy 500 failure
Except for its backup car was in the paint shop for weeks because it wasn't the correct shade of orange and that in turn cost the team the Thursday practice day and Fernando Alonso did have an accident in practice but hey, accidents happen.
And the team didn't have a great partnership with any IndyCar team. It was in bed with Carlin but it was de-emphasizing that partnership leading up to the month of May, minimizing it as more of a support role, a neighbor who lets you borrow a lawnmower after you move in and have yet to get one, but then McLaren was ready to pass some of the failure onto Carlin.
And there is the fact the team was having electrical issues since the start of testing in April and the team was making mistakes in terms of using metric measurements instead of the imperial measurements.
And the team had the wrong gear ratio in the car for qualifying.
And the team might not have had an experienced enough team when it came to the Indianapolis 500 and did not have the right group of people working on that car.
So there are plenty of excuses it is just a matter of none of them being acceptable.
McLaren will consider "strategic alliance" for Indy 500
I think we have to talk about McLaren's multi-year tease with IndyCar.
The entity went from partnership with Andretti Autosport in 2017, which was just an Andretti car with the McLaren logo and sponsors plastered on the bodywork to the team could be full-time to not around at all for 2018 to possibly courting Scott Dixon for a full-time IndyCar effort in 2019 to not being full-time in 2019 to running a car for Fernando Alonso at Indianapolis.
Zak Brown has already come out and said failing to make this year's Indianapolis 500 has squashed any chance the team will be full-time in 2020 but Indianapolis is still a possibility.
I am going to say McLaren is at a point where it has to rip off the Band-Aid. Either commit to IndyCar or don't. The first five races of 2019 might have been road and street courses but I would argue committing to full-time and at least working on the car on a regular basis and getting used to the Dallara DW12 chassis and Chevrolet engine would have better prepared the team for this Indianapolis 500 attempt than the team was.
I get that Alonso might not want to be full-time in IndyCar but there are plenty of drivers out there that could have set up on the team and made sure all the kinks were worked out for when Alonso arrived.
It appears 2020 will look more like 2017. I am sure McLaren will have its finger prints on the car but another team, whether that is Ed Carpenter Racing, Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Autosport or Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, is going to make sure the team is heading in the correct direction.
If there is anything McLaren should have taken away from this month is it needs to be in IndyCar more. It would be beneficial for the team to show up at Pocono later this year and maybe even Gateway, Portland and Laguna Seca just to get reps and build up muscle memory.
McLaren isn't going to do that but man does it seem like full-time participation could be the best way for the team to prepare for an Indianapolis 500 attempt.
Brazil government wants Petrobras' McLaren deal terminated
And this had nothing to do with the Indianapolis 500 failure. McLaren couldn't get a break this May.
Indy 500 win could be most important of my career - Alonso
Alonso would become the second driver to complete the Triple Crown. It might be the most important victory in motorsports history.
That is a bit of hyperbole but consider that no one really knew what Graham Hill had done when he won the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans but the legacy of Hill's achievement grew over time and after the likes of Mario Andretti didn't win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Pablo Montoya won the Monaco Grand Prix.
If you talk about the greatest oval race, the greatest grand prix and the greatest endurance race, after all these years, pretty much nine decades, minus a few years because of war canceling the events, only one man has won all three. Nearly nine decades and only one man can claim victory in each!
There have been some great drivers, a handful have won two of the three. Graham Hill sits alone.
It would definitely be the most important victory of Alonso's career but it would arguably the greatest accomplishment in the 21st century for motorsports.
Alonso: No regrets over lack of competition in LMP1 stint
This was out of Alonso's hands.
He couldn't control Audi and Porsche leaving. When the door finally opened for him to take a shot at Le Mans and in turn run the entire FIA World Endurance Championship, Toyota was the only manufacture at the party. The best driver paired with the best team. It made perfect sense.
I am sure Alonso would have loved to have had more competition, heck, he was ready to give Le Mans a go with Porsche and that victory went to Nico Hülkenberg, but he cannot control what other manufactures do and he cannot control how the ACO and FIA handle the LMP1 regulations.
Timing is everything and he entered at the right time where he could win Le Mans on debut and he has one hand on another world championship.
Kvyat: F1 needs to do away with Friday running
I feel like this is a Ping-Pong match.
One driver says Friday practice is meaningless.
Another driver says Friday practice is the only real track time we get consider how little testing there is in 2019.
I don't think it matters. I don't think taking away Friday practice makes the races any better. I am not sure it makes the race weekends better for fans. You have some places where Friday is a ghost town and then you have Montreal, Silverstone, Mexico City, Monza, Spa-Francorchamps and Austin where all three days have respectable crowds.
Would it save the teams money?
No, they would spend it elsewhere. There is no need to get rid of Fridays.
F1 teams not willing to accept more than 21 races
I am somewhat believing this is where the teams are digging in their heels because we know Vietnam and the Netherlands are going to be on the 2020 schedule and it seems like Zandvoort's return will come at the expense of Barcelona and Vietnam's inclusion means one of Mexico, Germany or Silverstone will fall off the schedule but that brings us to our next headline...
Return to Africa a priority for F1 owners
What is priority, no more than 21 races or a race in Africa?
I would all be for a race in Africa. I am still not sure what the best place to go would be. There are really only two contenders: Morocco or South Africa.
The question is do the teams buckle and let an African round be the 22nd race or do the teams sacrifice another European round and remain at 21 races? Have you ever realized it is never Russia, Bahrain, Azerbaijan or Singapore that are considered to be dropped for a new race? It is always a place we love like Silverstone or Monza or Spa-Francorchamps.
I would also say Africa hasn't hosted a grand prix since 1993 so I am not sure if it is really a priority. We have had a lot of races come and go in the 26 years since Formula One last went to Africa and none of them have been in Africa.
It would be nice for the World Drivers' Championship to have a round take place on every continent but if that was really a concern concessions would have been made and we would have been racing in Africa already.
May is done. June is here. Summer is near in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere. There is plenty of racing ahead of us including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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