2024 Formula One Predictions: Revisited

It isn't the longest season, but Formula One takes us the deepest in the year of the maor championships in the world. It still does not feel all that long ago the season was over in October and the holidays were months away. Now, the final checkered flag waves weeks away from the Christmas and the end of the year. All that is left to do is recap the season and put to bed the predictions made nearly a year ago.

1. The second Red Bull entry leads at least 200 laps

Wrong!

The thought was Red Bull would be good and its second entry would do better than it did in 2023. Instead, Sergio Pérez had a disaster of a season that may end his Formula One career. After leading 146 laps last year and leading 148 laps the year before that, Pérez led a grand total of... one lap over the entire 2024 season. 

If there is not a better encapsulation of this nosedive it is Pérez going from a regular podium finisher and someone who could pull off a few victories, to someone who wasn't even close and it felt like a fluke he even led a lap. 

The one lap Pérez led this season was lap 22 in the Italian Grand Prix. It was a race he finished eighth. Pérez's season with opened the sixth consecutive top five finishes. He did not finish in the top five in the final 18 races of the season.

2. There will be midseason driver changes at multiple teams

Correct!

After no driver changes from the final race of 2023 to the first race of 2024, it was almost a guarantee we would see somebody lose a seat midseason.

Technically, the first driver change was at Ferrari. Carlos Sainz, Jr. had appendicitis at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and that forced him out of the car for the second race of the season. Oliver Bearman stepped in, but this prediction wasn't about a quick substitution for an injury or illness. This was about a permanent break from a driver.

That still happened at multiple teams. 

The first was Williams letting Logan Sargeant go after the Dutch Grand Prix. Franco Colapinto entered and ran the remainder of the season, scoring five points after Sargeant scored none, though Colapinto had his fair share of crash damage.

The second was at the team formerly known as Toro Rosso, where Daniel Ricciardo was released after the Singapore grand Prix with 12 points to his name. Liam Lawson returned to the grid and he scored four points over the final six races.

Bearman did return to replace Kevin Magnussen at Haas after Magnussen was suspended for penalty point accumulation, forcing the Dane out of the Azerbaijan race. Bearman also ran in place of Magnussen at Brazil when Magnussen was ill. 

The final change this season was at the final race. Jack Doohan drove at Alpine in place for Esteban Ocon. 

3. On at least one occasions will there be three consecutive different winners

Correct!

This was a good year for winners. It started with Max Verstappen winning five of the first seven races and seven of the first ten races. It felt like we were on for another dominant season, but the result swung in the second half of the season. 

While Verstappen was winning all those races, he never won three consecutively. After Verstappen won in Spain, the Mercedes-AMG drivers of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton won the next to races in Austria and Great Britain. Then Oscar Piastri followed it up with his first career grand prix victory in Hungary. Four consecutive winners, but wait, there is more. 

From Piastri's victory spawned another stretch of four consecutive winners. Hamilton, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc won the three races after Hungary. 

But wait, there is more. 

Piastri's second career victory was in Azerbaijan. That led a run of six consecutive race winners. Norris won in Singapore, Leclerc won in the United States, Sainz, Jr. won in Mexico, Verstappen won in Brazil, and Russell won in Las Vegas.

This one was covered on multiple levels, and it is a good thing it was.

4. Each Williams car will score at least four points

Correct!

Alexander Albon had scored four points at the end of the British Grand Prix. He had a pair of ninths with he other coming in Monaco. Albon scored another ninth-place finish in Monza and he was seventh in Azerbaijan. That left the Thai driver with 12 points. 

As mentioned above, Colapinto joined the team at Monza. He scored four points with his eighth-place finish in Azerbaijan, and then he added another point for insurance with tenth in Austin. 

5. Fernando Alonso finishes at least five positions better than Lance Stroll in fewer than nine grand prix

Wrong!

This prediction was taking into account that Aston Martin would not be as good as last year, but Alonso would come down closer to Stroll's level and there would be better balance between the two drivers.

Alonso came down, but Stroll kept falling back as well.

Alonso was at least five position better than Stroll in nine grand prix!

Saudi Arabia: Alonso fifth, Stroll retired (19th).

Japan: Alonso sixth, Stroll 12th.

China: Alonso seventh, Stroll 15th. 

Miami: Alonso ninth, Stroll 17th.

Italy: Alonso 11th, Stroll 19th.

Azerbaijan: Alonso sixth, Stroll 19th.

Singapore: Alonso eighth, Stroll 14th.

Qatar: Alonso seventh, Stroll retired (18th)

Abu Dhabi: Alonso ninth, Stroll 14th.

This isn't even counting Brazil, where Stroll beached the car after sliding off course on the formation lap. 

But this one was correct on the road for about five seconds because Stroll was 12th in Abu Dhabi, however, he had a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits drop him to 14th, exactly five spots behind Alonso. If only Stroll could have kept it on the track, I would have had this one. That and if Oscar Piastri had not been spun and then hit Colapinto and all Piastri could do was finish tenth, one spot behind Alonso, kept this from being correct.

6. McLaren will score more than 29 points in at least six grand prix

Correct!

This season was far greater than even our greatest expectations for McLaren. Did anyone truly believe McLaren would win the World Constructors' Championship? Honestly? We expected a good year, a more competitive year, but did we expect the unfortunate 666 points and 14 more than Ferrari!? While Red Bull ended up 77 points behind in third? I don't think anyone can honestly say they had that. 

I can honestly say that I had McLaren scoring 29 points or more in at least six grand prix, but not including sprint race points. This is just taking into consideration grand prix results. When a team wins six races, it is easy to exceed 29 points.

Imola - 30 points (second and fourth)

Monaco - 30 points (second and fourth)

Hungary - 43 points (first and second)

Netherlands - 38 points (first and fourth with fastest lap)

Italy - 34 points (second and third with fastest lap)

Azerbaijan - 38 points (first and fourth with fastest lap)

Singapore - 40 points (first and third)

That is seven races with at least 29 points. It is kind of surprising that in two of its victories that did not see 29 points scored. In Miami, Norris won but Piastri was 13th and outside the points. In the Abu Dhabi finale, Norris won but Piastri was tenth and the total was only 26 points. There were at least two other better days to make up for those. 

You would have thought the constructors' champions would have scored 29 points or more in half the races, but this was closer to be wrong than when I starting going over the numbers.

7. The gap between sixth and seventh in the constructors' championship will be less than 40 points

Correct!

Alpine took the surprise sixth spot in the constructors' championship on 65 points. Thirty-three of those points came in the Brazilian Grand Prix when the changing conditions and timely red flag allowed Esteban Ocon to finish second and Pierre Gasly to finish third. That was the difference between sixth and eighth in the constructors' championship.

In seventh was Haas with 46 points. Haas scored points in 13 races with three double points days, and the team's best finish was sixth on two occasions. 

That gap between Alpine and Haas was seven points. Even if Alpine did not score 33 points in Brazil, we would have been looking at a 12-point margin between Haas in sixth and the team formerly known as Toro Rosso in seventh. We had this covered. 

8. Charles Leclerc will finish eighth in at least two races

Wrong!

This was very specific, but it didn't happen because Leclerc was damn fine this season. Leclerc had a points-paying finish in 21 of 24 races. He scored points in 22 of 24 rounds (sprint points in Austria). Every points finish for Leclerc was a top five finish. Twenty-one top five finishes was the most in the 2024 season!

Verstappen had 19 top five finishes and Norris had 18. Credit to Leclerc, which I don't think he was properly getting until late in the season. He didn't finish eighth because he was constantly running better than eighth. Through now 147 career starts, Leclerc remains on four eighth-place finishes in his career.

9. Max Verstappen will be in sole possession of fourth all-time in podium finishes by the conclusion of the British Grand Prix

Correct!

 

For this one to be correct, Verstappen needed at least nine podium finishes in the first 12 races with Fernando Alonso scoring zero podium finishes. If Alonso got one, Verstappen needed ten in the first 12 races. 

Alonso held his end of the bargain and he had no podium finishes in the first 12 races. Alonso had no podium finishes over the entire season. 

Verstappen scored his ninth podium finish in the British Grand Prix, moving him to fourth all-time on 107 podium finishes, putting him ahead of Alain Prost and Alonso. Verstappen ended 2024 on 112 points finishes, ten behind equaling Sebastian Vettel for third.

10. Somebody knocks Alain Prost out of the top ten for oldest pole-sitter in Formula One history

Wrong!

This came down to either Alonso or Lewis Hamilton winning a pole position in 2024. That didn't happen. Alonso's best starting position was third in China. His only other top five start was fourth in Saudi Arabia. Hamilton started second at Silverstone, 0.171 seconds off his teammate George Russell's pole-winning time. 

We were less than two-tenths of a second from getting this one correct. Oof.

11. Yuki Tsunoda will have fewer 11th-place finishes than in 2023

Correct!

In 2023, Tsunoda had three 11th-place classifications in the first five races (and four in six races dating to the 2022 season finale) and it became a running joke that Tsunoda always finishes 11th... even though he didn't finish 11th again over the final 17 races of 2023.

How many 11th-place finishes did Tsunoda have in 2024? 

Zero! 

So the man who always finishes 11th has not finished 11th in 41 consecutive races. In 87 career starts, Tsunoda has four 11th place finishes. Tsunoda has finished tenth in ten races in his career. He has more seventh place finishes and ninth place finishes (five each) than 11th place finishes.

Just keep that in mind.

12. Haas will exceed 12 points before Formula One's second visit to the United States

Correct!

This was a good year for Haas. It was regularly in the points and the cars had better qualifying pace. It was a slower start though. Haas had five points in the first ten races. In Austria, Haas scored 12 points in that race alone. A sixth at Silverstone the following week added another eight points to the total. 

Halfway through the season, Haas was up to 25 points, and there were six races until the second visit to the United States in Austin. By the time Haas rolled into Texas, it had 29 points, just over double the prediction. 

Eight out of 12! That is what you hope for. That is two-thirds correct. Pretty good. Not great but far from bad. You are bound to get a few wrong. I would argue you got to get a few wrong. It at least shows you are taking risks in your predictions. 

Speaking of predictions, stay tuned! More are just around the corner as we inch closer to 2025.

Musings From the Weekend: Last Things Last

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

The Formula One season concluded with a Lando Norris victory clinching McLaren's first World Constructors' Championship since 1998. Red was too common a color in São Paulo. There was a photo finish in Sepang. All that was needed to determine the Super GT GT500 championship was qualifying at Suzuka. Some 24 Hours of Daytona seats were confirmed. Colton Herta will drive with CrowdStrike Racing by APR in LMP2. Kevin Magnussen is going to be a BMW driver in WEC, but we don't know if he will be at Daytona. Andy Lally's final race will be the 24 Hours of Daytona. Genesis confirmed its LMDh program due for 2026 with André Lotterer and Pipo Derani as its first drivers. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing confirmed its 2025 Indianapolis 500 lineup. Toyota is exiting the NHRA after 2025. However, this is our final Musings From the Weekend of the year, and there is a project I had to close out this year. The topic is quite fitting for the last Musings from the year.

Last Things Last

When the IndyCar season ended in September and we were going over some tidbits from the 2024 season, there was one area that caught my eye. Last place.

At that time, I wondered how many drivers had finished last place in a race and then won the next one. This was after Josef Newgarden was last place at Milwaukee and I thought he had a good chance of winning at Nashville. The answer was 30.

However, I was not done with last place data.

Last place is an unofficial status. There is no tracking in the record book. It exists, but no one is counting. Everybody understands what it means to win, and everyone understands what it means to finish last. Nobody wants it. Somebody has to get it. 

But last place is not as simple as being the worst. Last place can be a good day gone bad. It can be an unexpected mechanical issue or being caught in someone else's mess. It is less likely that the worst driver in the race finishes last than the best driver finishes first.

Last place is also a little vague. There is no hard and fast position for last. Some races recognized in the IndyCar record book featured fewer than ten cars. A fifth-place finish could have been last. There was a time when 20th was last. Today, it varied between 27th and 28th in most races. At Indianapolis, it is 33rd, but it was once 42nd. One day, a finish is better than last. The next, it is last. 

When going over last place finishes for tidbits, I decided to do my best to come up with a comprehensive collection of last place statistics from IndyCar with the records available. We can name who has the most victories, most pole positions and so on, but we don't have official numbers of most last place finishes, and highest last place finish percentage. This is my attempt to provide some answers. 

Where do we begin? Why not the most? I am sure you are wondering, "Who has the most last place finishes in IndyCar history, and how many?" 

Before we get there, it should be noted that 702 drivers have finished last in an IndyCar race. For comparison, 299 drivers have won an IndyCar race. Last place is much more inviting than first. Let's face it, it is easier to be last than first. If well more than double the total of drivers have finished last, that suggests we are not going to see some high number as the all-time record. While A.J. Foyt leads with 67 victories, the most last place finishes will likely not be close to that. 

It isn't. 

So who is the all-time leader? Why don't I give you the top ten, which is actually 11 drivers?

1. Paul Tracy - 18 

2. Marco Andretti - 16

3. Takuma Sato - 16

4. Bobby Unser - 14

5. Lloyd Ruby - 13

6. Graham Rahal - 13

7. Rodger Ward - 12

8. George Snider - 12

9. Raul Boesel - 12

10. Buddy Lazier - 12

11. Tony Kanaan - 12

As you can see, last place is not exclusive for the worst drivers. 

Of the drivers with at least 12 last place finishes, over half were champions (George Snider included). Five are Indianapolis 500 winners. 

Paul Tracy was not the worst IndyCar driver ever... but he was surely one of the most aggressive, and that likely played into him having 18 last place finishes. Bobby Unser was not the worst IndyCar driver ever... but he too was aggressive and he pushed equipment harder than most. 

For as much flak as Marco Andretti gets, he too was not the worst IndyCar driver ever. He wasn't the best either, but he was not immune from pushing it or suffering a mechanical issue. 

Takuma Sato will forever be known for going beyond the limit, sometimes to a fault. It is not surprising he is tied for second-most last place finishes in IndyCar history, but Sato is again not one of the worst IndyCar drivers ever. 

This is a collection of the some of the most aggressive drivers in IndyCar history, and those who were not afraid to giving it all and then some. This is also a group of some of the most experienced drivers ever and that is a factor as well.

Six of the 11 drivers made at least 200 starts. Boesel made 199. Snider had the fewest starts at 142. The more you start, the more likely you are going to have some last place finishes. Tracy has the most last place finishes but his last place finish percentage is 6.405%. That is between Roberto Moreno's 6.4% (eight last place finishes in 125 starts) and Arnie Knepper's 6.5789% (five last place finishes in 76 starts). Tracy's winning percentage was 11.032%. For all the times he finished last, Tracy won almost double that amount.

(In case you were wondering, a total of 20 drivers have at least ten last place finishes. This includes Dario Franchitti with 11, and then Johnny Parsons, Mike Mosley, Spike Gehlhausen, Ed Carpenter, Hélio Castroneves,  Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon and Sébastien Bourdais all tied on ten).

Totals aside, what about percentage? 

Fifty-three drivers have finished last place in every one of their IndyCar starts. For 52 drivers, they only made one IndyCar start. 

I am not going to list all 53 drivers who only finished last in their careers, but I will give you the one driver that made multiple starts and finished last each time. As you may guess, that driver only made two IndyCar starts. The good news is if you make at least three starts, you are guaranteed not going to finish last in at least one of them.

The one driver was Jerry Kubik. Kubik's only two starts came in 1947. He was last in the final two races of the season, 18th at Springfield and 14th at Arlington Downs.

Who was the most recent driver to finish last in his only IndyCar start? I am going to give you the last two, because they have happened more recently than you realize. Though one should not surprise you.

The most recent was Jean Alesi. Alesi's only IndyCar start was in an ill-fated Lotus in the 2012 Indianapolis 500. One of one two Lotus-engined cars in the race, Alesi's Fan Force United Lotus was classified in 33rd-place, last, but Alesi got last after a penalty. He was docked two laps for not immediately coming in when he and Simona de Silvestro in the other Lotus were black-flagged from the race after only ten laps. 

So technically, Alesi was classified in last, but he wasn't last on the road.

You don't have to go back much further for the next most recent last place finisher in his only IndyCar start. 

Coincidentally, it came in the last race at Twin Ring Motegi in 2011. Running the road course at Motegi after earthquake damage made the oval unsuitable, João Paulo de Oliveira, a champion in Formula Nippon and race winner in Super GT, was entered in one of Conquest Racing's entries. De Oliveira qualified 12th at a circuit he won at earlier in the year and he had won twice in the last two years. 

However, a fuel pump failed the Brazilian after 19 laps and his only IndyCar start was a last place finish. De Oliveira would go on to win at Motegi the following year in Super Formula and he won again at the circuit in 2014. Those were two of the six additional victories he would achieve in his Super Formula career post-2011. In Super GT, he won the GT300 championship in 2020 and 2022. His 2020 title included a victory at Motegi. 

However, it requires more than just one or two starts to really have the worst last place percentage, but where do you set the limit?

I am going to set two levels, 20 starts and 50 starts. 

With 20 starts, you at least started a full season worth of IndyCar races. Even that doesn't seem like enough, but it is a fair number of races. What does the top ten (which will be 11 again for good reason) look like? 

1. Dale Coyne - 26.47% (9/34)

2. Dan Clarke - 25.925% (7/27)

3. Cliff Hucul - 25% (6/24)

4. Johnny Aitken - 21.739% (5/23)

5. Art Klein - 20% (9/45)

6. Carlos Huertas - 19.047% (4/21)

7. Steve Chassey - 18.367% (9/49)

8. Milka Duno - 16.279% (7/43)

9. Joe Saldana - 15.789% (6/38)

10. Spencer Wishart - 15.384% (4/26)

11. Ira Vail - 15.217% (7/46)

These are the 11 drivers with a last place percentage over 15% with at least 20 career starts. 

This is a little more representative in terms of driver ability. I would not have guess Dale Coyne would top this list, but it is almost fitting it is him. I saw everyone of Dan Clarke's starts and I knew he had his bad days. I didn't realize how many their were in such a short period of time until I gathered the information. 

However, this too is not a barometer for the worst drivers in IndyCar history. Johnny Aitken is fourth having finished last in 21.739% of his starts. Johnny Aitken also won 26.086% of his starts. In nearly half the races in his career, Aitken either finished first or last. Aitken also raced during a time period where he was fourth and that was last place. In another race he was tenth and that was last. In another race he finished last and was sixth. 

Aitken also has the distinction of finishing last and first in the same race. In the 1916 American Grand Prize held on the Santa Monica road course, Aitken's Peugeot fell out of the race after completing only one lap. He was classified in last, 21st. Aitken drove the final 28 laps in relief for teammate Howdy Wilcox and he brought the #26 Peugeot home in first, over six minutes ahead of Earl Cooper. 

Twenty starts is a fair number, but maybe not the most fair. Fifty starts is a few seasons. That is basically three full seasons in contemporary IndyCar. For some drivers, 50 starts was a career and even then some guys didn't even hit that milestone. Ted Horn didn't make it to 50 career starts. Neither did Wilbur Shaw, Mauri Rose or Louis Meyer. Those three barely made it over 30. 

What do the numbers for last place percentage look like for those with at least 50 starts? In this case, you will only get ten drivers.

1. Spike Gehlhausen - 12.658% (10/79)

2. Ralph Liguori - 12.307% (8/65)

3. Mario Moraes - 12% (6/50)

4. Salt Walther - 10.9375% (7/64)

5. Bennett Hill - 10.606% (7/66)

6. Rex Mays - 10.526% (6/57)

7. Jerry Grant - 9.615% (5/52)

8. Jerry Karl - 9.589% (7/73)

9. A.J. Foyt IV - 9.523% (8/84)

10. Johnny Parsons - 9.433% (10/106)

These are the ten drivers who finished last place in more than 9% of their career starts, minimum 50 starts. 

It should come as no surprise that two of the 20 drivers with at least ten last place finishes are listed here. Gehlhausen does have one of the toughest career records in IndyCar history. He also has the worst average finish in Indianapolis 500 history among drivers with at least five career starts (26.4).

There is another quirk in this top ten like the one of drivers with at least 20 starts. Rex Mays did finish last in 10.526% of this starts, but he also won 14.035% of his starts. It was a different time. 

Going back to what started this exercise a few months ago, how many drivers have finished first after finishing last, but what about the reverse? How many drivers have finished last after finishing first?

The answer is 40, and I will not list them all for the sake of not turning this into a 3,000 word dissertation. When was the most recent one? Well... it is tied with the most recent time a driver has gone from last to first. 

In 2019, Will Power won at Pocono. Power was then the first car out of the race at Gateway the following week. A week after last at Gateway, Power won at Portland. The last time a driver went from last to first immediately followed the last time a driver went from first to last, all in a three-race span. 

Power's three-race rollercoaster ride is one of seven occasions in IndyCar history where a driver went first-last-first. These I will list. 

1.  Billy Arnold

First in the Indianapolis 500 on May 30, 1930. 

Last (14th) at the Michigan State Fairgrounds on June 9, 1930.

First at Altoona Speedway on June 14, 1930.

2. Rex Mays

First at in the Langhorne 100 on June 30, 1946.

Last (11th) at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta on September 2, 1946.

First in the Indianapolis 100 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on September 15, 1946.

3. A.J. Foyt 

First in the Ted Horn Memorial from DuQuoin on September 4, 1961.

Last (18th) at Syracuse on September 9, 1961.

Won the Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on September 16, 1961.

4. Rodger Ward

First in the Hoosier Hundred from the Indiana State Fairgrounds on September 14, 1963.

Last (26th) at Trenton on September 22, 1963.

First at Sacramento on October 27, 1963.

5. Michael Andretti

First at Portland on June 24, 1990.

Last (25th) at Cleveland on July 8, 1990. 

First at the Meadowlands on July 15, 1990.

6. Dario Franchitti

First at Montreal on August 25, 2002.

Last (18th) at Denver on September 1, 2002.

First at Rockingham on September 14, 2002.

7. Will Power

First at Pocono on August 18, 2019.

Last (22nd) at Gateway on August 24, 2019.

First at Portland on September 1, 2019.

In case you are wondering, "Has any driver gone last-first-last?" 

The answer to that is nobody. 

There remains some things we have yet to see in IndyCar history. Perhaps one day it happens, though I don't think any driver would like to experience the yo-yo of results from low to high to back to low. The first driver to have a crack at it will be Felix Rosenqvist. 

There was one other thing that crossed my mind.

Which driver has made the most starts without having a last place finish? I will tease you by saying the answer may surprise you. 

Every driver who is somebody has finished last at some point. Mario Andretti did it eight times. A.J. Foyt nine times. Only two drivers with at least 200 starts had fewer than five last place finishes in a career. Simon Pagenaud had four in 207 starts. Rick Mears had three in 203 starts. It is bound to happen once. Except for one driver. 

Going over the numbers, there is a driver who made over 100 starts and never finished in last place. 

It is Danica Patrick! In 116 starts, she never finished in last place. She did have a remarkably consistent career, and does hold the record for most consecutive races finished. But she had a few accidents and a few bad days, none of which however saw her complete the fewest number of laps. 

Who is next closest? It is an active driver. In 89 starts, Patricio O'Ward has yet to finish in last. 

I am sure there are more ways to pick at the last place data, but I am leaving 2024 providing more than you likely knew and more than anyone else has likely documented. What does it mean? Nothing, other than there is more information on something that will not change the world. It is fun to have but rather insignificant. It doesn't change that it can be seen as fun.

Champions From the Weekend

You know about McLaren, but did you know...

Gabriel Bortoleto clinched the Formula Two championship with a pair of runner-up finishes in Abu Dhabi.

The #36 TGR Team au TOM'S Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita clinched the Super GT GT500 championship with pole position for the season finale from Suzuka. The #36 Toyota went on to win the finale as well.

The #88 JLOC Lamborghini of Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima clinched the Super GT GT300 championship with victory in Suzuka.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Lando Norris and the Super GT finale, but did you know...

Mitch Evans won the São Paulo ePrix after starting in dead last.

Pepe Martí (sprint) and Joshua Dürksen (feature) split the Formula Two races from Abu Dhabi. 

The #30 RD Limited Oreca-Gibson of Tristan Vautier, James Allen and Fred Poordad won the first 4 Hours of Sepang. The #35 Ultimate Ligier-Nissan of Stéphane Lémeret, Matteo Quintarelli and Bence Válint won in LMP3. The #57 Car Guy Racing Ferrari of Esteban Masson, Daniel Serra and Yudai Uchida won in GT.

The #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson of Malthe Jakobsen, Michael Jensen and Valerio Rinicella won the second 4 Hours of Sepang, a shortened race due to weather. The #35 Ultimate Ligier-Nissan swept the weekend in LMP3. The #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Jules Gounon, Gabriele Piana and Rinat Salikhov won in GT.

Coming Up This Weekend

Well... nothing from what I can see on my calendar. I am sure there is something, but the next few weeks are open in my book. 

Christmas shopping.

Cutting down a Christmas tree.

Time with family.

Writing. 

How does that sound?

2024-25 Formula E Season Preview

December might be the end of the year and there might be a number of reviews left to do, but this weekend marks the start of the 2024-25 Formula E season, the 11th year of competition for the all-electric championship. 

The series continues to develop and there will be a few new elements to this season. The Gen3 ruleset is receiving an upgrade with All-Wheel Drive being introduced to the championship and an increase in power available to 350kW. New front wing elements and softer Hankook tires that should see greater tire wear during races. At some point this season, we could see pit stops return to Formula E, with the new "Pit Boost" system allowing the teams to stop and charge the car while also activating Attack Mode after the pit stop. 

Along with new regulations, there are a few new teams on the grid, and there will also be a few new locations visited this season.

Schedule

São Paulo moves to the season opening spot after hosting a round this past March, which saw McLaren and Sam Bird take victory. A month after the Brazil opener, Formula E will make its ninth visit to Mexico City. Porsche powertrains has won three consecutive years in the altitude with Pascal Wehrlein responsible for two of those, including in 2024. 

Both new circuits will occur in consecutive race weekends. Formula E remains in Saudi Arabia, but it will move from Diriyah to Jeddah, and it will run a doubleheader on a shortened portion of the Formula One circuit over February 14-15. This will be the sixth consecutive time Saudi Arabia hosts a doubleheader.

The next new circuit is also in a familiar location. Formula E has run in the Miami, Florida-area previously, but in 2025 the series will make its first trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway and it will run a roval configuration that has yet to be confirmed. Regardless, it appears Homestead will be the longest circuit in Formula E history when the Miami ePrix returns on April 12, nearly 13 years and one month after Nico Prost won the only previous edition ahead of Scott Speed and Daniel Abt on the streets of Miami. 

Things become more familiar in May. The Monaco ePrix will be a doubleheader for the first time over May 3-4. Jaguar powertrains has won in each of the last two years in the principality. After Monaco will be the Asian swing to the championship. Tokyo hosts a doubleheader for the first time over May 17-18. Shanghai is back with two races over May 31 and June 1. Jakarta will return to he championship after a year absence with a single race on June 21. 

The 2024-25 season will close with a pair of doubleheaders in Europe. The Berlin Tempelhof Airport hosts two races over July 12-13. The season will conclude with the London ePrix doubleheader from the ExCeL London circuit on July 26-27. There have been seven different winners in eight races held at the ExCeL London circuit.

Teams:

TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team

Pascal Wehrlein: #1 Porsche 99X Electric

What did he do last season: Wehrlein came from behind in the final weekend of the season to win the championship with 198 points over Mitch Evans' 192 points. The German scored points in 14 of 16 races with three victories, five podium finishes and 11 top five results. 

What to expect in this season: Porsche will remain competitive and we saw that in testing from Jarama last month. Porsche went 1-2 in the test race with the "Pit Boost" system in place. We have seen plenty of consistency from Wehrlein the last few seasons to know he will be toward the top. The concern is can he be at the tippy-top enough. He won the championship without being great last year. Good is likely not going to be good enough this time around.

António Félix da Costa: #13 Porsche 99X Electric

What did he do last season: Da Costa led Formula E in victories with four, but he also had six finishes outside the points with a disqualification in the Misano as well. The Portuguese driver was sixth in the championship on 134 points.

What to expect in this season: If da Costa stays in races and does not make mistakes, he should be the top Porsche driver and be a championship threat. Plenty of unforced errors took him out of the championship last year despite winning the most races including three on the spin. He should be better and finish in the points more consistently.

Jaguar TCS Racing

Mitch Evans: #9 Jaguar I-Type 7

What did he do last season: Evans had a title slip through his fingertips. Despite ending the season with three consecutive podium finishes and having two victories and six total podium finish, but the New Zealander was six points shy of the championship.

What to expect in this season: It was a devastating end to the 2024 season for Jaguar. However, the wheels have not come off this team. Evans looked good and had pace. He is going to win races and it would not be a surprise if he is in the thick of the title fight again heading into London.

Nick Cassidy: #37 Jaguar I-Type 7

What did he do last season: It was worse for Cassidy than Evans. Leading the championship by 25 points with four races remaining, Cassidy failed to finish in the points in three of the final four races and his best finish was seventh. He ended up third in the championship, 22 points off Wehrlein. 

What to expect in this season: As good as Cassidy was last year, with how it ended, this feels like a year where we will see Evans be the clear number one driver in the Jaguar camp. Cassidy will be competitive and win a race or two, but things will swing slightly more in the favor of the other side of the Jaguar garage.

DS Penske

Maximilian Günther: #7 DS E-TENSE FE25

What did he do last season: Though he won in Tokyo, Günther had seven finishes outside the points and ended up eighth in the championship with 73 points. 

What to expect in this season: Günther is a good but not a great driver. Somehow, he wins a race on a more regular basis than most. He has won a race in four of the last five seasons. He has finished ninth, 16th, 18th, seventh and eighth in the championship in the last five seasons. History suggests he will slip into the top ten but not much higher than that.  

Jean-Éric Vergne: #25 DS E-TENSE FE25

What did he do last season: For the second time in third years, Vergne ended up as the top driver in the championship without a victory. Vergne had three podium finishes and he finished in the points in 14 of 16 races, placing fifth with 139 points.

What to expect in this season: Vergne has never finished outside the top ten in the championship in ten Formula E seasons. He has finished in the top five of the championship in seven of the last eight seasons. Race victories have not been as plentiful as his back-to-back championship seasons. He will finish somewhere in the top ten in the championship and possibly the top five, but a third title seems a little ambitious for this season.

Nissan Formula E Team

Norman Nato: #17 Nissan e-4ORCE 05

What did he do last season: Driving for Andretti Global, Nato ended up 15th in the championship with one podium finish on 47 points. 

What to expect in this season: Not the most electric driver, Nato has one or two great races a season and then doesn't stand out much. Nissan is good but not great. I don't think Nato does much better than where he was last year. He will fall short of the championship top ten. 

Oliver Rowland: #23 Nissan e-4ORCE 05

What did he do last season: Rowland had a career-year, finishing fourth int he championship on 156 points. He won twice and stood on the podium seven times, but he missed the Portland doubleheader due to illness.

What to expect in this season: Rowland carried Nissan last year and was the surprise of the season. Testing was ok for Nissan. Rowland will lead the way, he could have a few strong days again, but I don't think he will replicate what he did last year. It was still be a good year but not as good as the season before.

Andretti Global

Jake Dennis: #27 Porsche 99X Electric

What did he do last season: The title defense did not go as planned for Dennis in 2024. He won the second race of the season and he had four podium finishes in the first seven races, leaving him tied for the championship lead. However, in the final nine races Dennis did not finish on the podium once, and he ended up seventh on 122 points. won the

What to expect in this season: Dennis took a dip in form, but it was rather unexpected after how the first half of the season went. This season will be more balanced, and he should be marginally more competitive. It will be tough to beat the factory Porsche drivers. Dennis can improve from last year but still not make it back to where he was in the summer of 2023. 

Nico Müller: #51 Porsche 99X Electric

What did he do last season: At ABT Cupra, Müller helped carry the team above expectations with 52 points, good enough for 12th in the championship. He had two top five finishes and he ended the season with four consecutive finishes in the top six.

What to expect in this season: Müller has a knack for performing better than what he is given. At Andreti, this is the best car he has ever been given in Formula E. He will have a career year. The championship top ten feels like the minimum and he should get on the podium at least once. Perhaps he captures his first career victory.

Envision Racing

Robin Frijns: #4 Jaguar I-Type 7

What did he do last season: Frijns had three runner-up finishes, but he could not breakthrough for victory. Those were his only top five finishes as his other four points finishes were seventh, ninth, ninth and tenth. He ended up ninth with 66 points.

What to expect in this season: Envision wasn't quite as competitive with the factory Jaguars as previously thought entering the 2024 season. It was a good year for both drivers but far from great. Frijns will somewhat match what he did last year, some good days and some bad days. A few good days could be great days, but a few bad days could be depressing days. 

Sébastien Buemi: #16 Jaguar I-Type 7

What did he do last season: Buemi was second in the season opener and third in the penultimate race. In-between, he had seven finishes outside the points, and was 11th on 53 points, the third time in the last four seasons he has finished outside the championship top ten.

What to expect in this season: Another fight to make the championship top ten. The car is capable to pull out a race or two in Buemi's favor, but he has not won in 72 Formula E starts. He is due but he not due to be the driver he was in the first three Formula E seasons. 

NEOM McLaren Formula E Team

Taylor Barnard: #5 Nissan e-4ORCE 05

What did he do last season: Barnard started three races after Sam Bird was sidelined due to a hand injury. Bernhard was 14th in Monaco and then tenth and eighth at the Berlin doubleheader. Five points placed him 22nd in the championship, ahead of full-time competitor Lucas di Grassi. 

What to expect in this season: Rookies do not fare well in Formula E. Barnard does have a few Formula E starts, but he has a tough teammate to beat. They could be close to equal as we saw last year with the McLaren drivers. A few races could go in his favor but there will be some races where he has a lot of work to do.

Sam Bird: #8 Nissan e-4ORCE 05

What did he do last season: The winless streak ended! Bird won in São Paulo, his first Formula E victory in over three years. Unfortunately, Bird failed to finish in the points in eight races and he missed another three due to a hand injury suffered in first practice from Monaco. Bird was 13th on 48 points.

What to expect in this season: Bird did not have the greatest time at the Jarama test. Championship top five feels like a stretch. He could be good enough to get into the top ten, but he will need to be spotless over the 16 races to make that happen.  

Maserati MSG Racing

Stoffel Vandoorne: #2 Maserati Tipo Folgore

What did he do last season: Score 61 points for DS Penske as Vandoorne had one podium finish, third at Monaco, but he scored in 12 races to put him tenth in the championship.

What to expect in this season: Maserati had a hot start last season before fading out in the second half of the season. Vandoorne is good enough that he could pull out a victory, but I think somewhere between eighth and 12th in the championship is where he will find himself when London is all said and done. 

Jake Hughes: #55 Maserati Tipo Folgore

What did he do last season: Score 48 points at McLaren as Hughes was tied with his teammate Bird, but Hughes' best finish was second in the second Shanghai race. Hughes also only finished the points on six occasions. 

What to expect in this season: In two Formula E seasons, Hughes has scored 48 points and finished 12th in the championship, and he has scored 48 points and finished 14th in the championship. Hughes will score 48 points and finish 13th in the championship.

Lola Yamaha ABT Formula E Team

Lucas di Grassi: #11 Lola-Yamaha T001

What did he do last season: Di Grassi scored four points in 16 races. He was tenth in the first Misano race, tenth in the first Shanghai race and ninth in the final race of the season from London. This was a career-low in points scored and 23rd made him the lowest championship finisher among the full-time drivers.

What to expect in this season: Lola returns to motorsports competition and testing was a little more promising than expected. Di Grassi struggled with speed, but the team looked competitive. He should do better than four points, but don't expect a leap back to the top of the grid. 

Zane Maloney: #22 Lola-Yamaha T001

What did he do last season: Maloney spent 2024 competed in the Formula Two championship. He swept the season opener at Bahrain, and he had five more points finishes over the course of the season. Maloney will miss the 2024 Formula Two finale in Abu Dhabi to run the Formula E opener. Maloney is fourth in Formula Two with 140 points.

What to expect in this season: Maloney did well in testing and led the way for Lola. Everything will be new for him as he transitions to Formula E. He will score some points but not a great abundance. Maloney and di Grassi could be tight in the championship.

Mahindra Racing

Nyck de Vries: #21 Mahindra M11Electro

What did he do last season: In his first season back in Formula E after a two-year absence, de Vries had two points finishes, seventh in the first Shanghai race and fourth in the penultimate race of the season in London. He was 18th on 18 points.

What to expect in this season: Mahindra has finished eighth or worse in the Teams' Championship in five consecutive seasons and it has been tenth the last two years. That should not change much this year. Points scoring will be low. De Vries could perform marginally better but it will not be noticeable.

Edoardo Mortara: #48 Mahindra M11Electro

What did he do last season: Mortara scored 29 points with three finishes in the points, eighth in the first Berlin race from pole position, fourth in the first Portland race, fifth in the first London race. Twenty-nine points earned him 16th in the championship.

What to expect in this season: Same as for de Vries. Possibly one or two good races, but in all likelihood, Mortara will finish in the points three or four times, possibly get 20 points and Mahindra will finish ninth or tenth in the championship.  

Cupra Kiro

David Beckmann: #3 Porsche 99X Electric WCG3

What did he do last season: Beckmann spent most of 2024 as the Porsche reserve driver. The only race he competed in this year was the 24 Hours Nürburgring in the Cup2 class for Porsche 992 Cup cars. His entry was sixth in a 14-car class. Beckmann's only Formula E appearance was the 2023 Jakarta doubleheader with Andretti in place of André Lotterer, who was running the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Beckmann was 16th in the first race and retired from the second.

What to expect in this season: New to the championship is Kiro Race Co., a British-American team taking over from ERT. Historically the cellar dwellers of Formula E, Kiro will use the previous generation Porsches this season and it has partnered with Cupra this season, which moves over from ABT. The Porsche powertrains look promising though they will be a year old. It is still an accountable powertrain to have. This season should start well for Kiro and then could fall off. It will be better than last year when ERT had seven combined points. Beckmann will have some points finishes and could sneak into the top five early in the year.

Dan Ticktum: #33 Porsche 99X Electric WCG3

What did he do last season: Ticktum was fourth in the first Misano race and those 12 points were the only he scored all season, placing him 19th in the championship. 

What to expect in this season: This is lining up to be Ticktum's best Formula E season. In three seasons, his highest points total is 28. His best championship finish is 19th. He should top both of those, and it is set up for a few surprise results early. It might not be enough to get him into the top ten in the championship, but it should put Ticktum in a far more competitive spot than with NIO 333 or ERT.

The first practice of the 2024-25 Formula E season will take place this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. ET. Tomorrow, the second practice session will be held at 5:30 a.m. ET before a 7:40 a.m. ET qualifying session. The 2024-25 season opening São Paulo ePrix will run at 12:05 p.m. ET.

Musings From the Weekend: A Few Random Things

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking…

Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix despite a dog of a sprint race and a one-spot grid penalty. That wasn’t the only penalty from the weekend. Either a 15-year drought or a 25-year drought will end in the World Constructors’ Championship. A prediction turned out to be wrong after the results in Jeddah. Elsewhere, there is some concern with FIA leadership. A Netflix show is out. People keep being impressed with the little things. However, it was a holiday weekend, and there was a lot of time to think.

A Few Random Things

The year is running out and there has been a lot to take place over 2024. There are only a few Mondays left in this year to cover a variety of topics before we go into the end of year review and preview for 2025. 

There is always something to expand upon, something that requires a little more attention and time, whether it be looking for a solution or considering a decision. Some things are more important than others. However, there are a variety of topics that might not require that much time. 

This week, I am going to cover a few things that have been on my mind, some serious, some not so. 

For starters…

Why is Thermal included with all the other races on Wikipedia?

On Wikipedia, each driver has a season-by-season matrix of the race-by-race results. It is great, except there is one problem with the IndyCar ones. 

For 2024, the exhibition race from Thermal is included. Example, here is Álex Palou’s.

Thermal wasn’t a championship race. It wasn’t the second race of the season. The 2024 season didn’t have an 18-race calendar. It is entirely misleading. I understand it should be recorded somewhere, just not as one of the championship races. 

Yes, there are some rough spots in the record. Look at 2008 when Motegi and Long Beach happened on the same weekend. There was even a non-championship race that year, but take a look at how it is record. Here is Scott Dixon’s matrix from 2003 through 2008. 

It notes the Motegi-Long Beach weekend, but Surfers Paradise isn’t even include though the exhibition race was held after the Chicago season finale. 

Note the Thermal result elsewhere. It is ultimately irrelevant. Don’t mix it with results that could toward the record book. 

There should have been a more serious penalty for Will Power’s loose seatbelts at Nashville

No one has mentioned this but how wasn’t there a more serious penalty for Power’s loose seatbelts?

That was a massive blunder by the team and considering all the concerns about safety in IndyCar, the fact there wasn’t a more serious reprimand for this is kind of startling. 

This wasn’t a minor thing. It was inexcusable that Power and his team didn’t make sure his seatbelts were properly done prior to the start of a race. 

Considering in seven of the 16 IndyCar races prior to Nashville there had been an opening lap incident, Power, Team Penske and IndyCar were all lucky another one didn’t occur at Nashville. We could have witness the most horrific accident in series history is quite some time.

Though nothing happened, there should have been a stiffer penalty for such a mistake. If drivers are going to be fined for forgetting their gloves or improper underwear, forgetting to properly do the seatbelts before a race should be something serious. It should be more than a slap on the wrist. 

This was worse than the Team Penske push-to-pass manipulation. The push-to-pass manipulation was never going to end in a driver being thrown from a race car. Forgetting to do the seatbelts properly significantly increases that possibility. 

This should have been at least a six-figure fine, and on the higher end.

Zak Brown is right

Last week, McLaren CEO Zak Brown made a statement over rumored interest of IndyCar going to Adelaide to join the Supercars weekend. Brown said IndyCar should not go to Australia and should focus on growing in the United States.

He is right. 

It would be cool for IndyCar to race at Adelaide, but IndyCar has plenty of work to do in the United States before it considers Australia, Argentina, Brazil or anywhere else in the world. 

The only way it makes sense for IndyCar to go abroad is to race is if a promoter were to spend a stupid amount of money, a total that would see a fair share flow into each team’s wallet. If that is the case, IndyCar should go for it. Adelaide would not be that. 

Both could be possible, but Adelaide isn’t going to help IndyCar in the long term. It needs a long term plan to spread itself across the United States. Once it does that, then it can consider the rest of the globe. 

Swearing 

This has been an insufferable year when it comes to Formula One and swearing.  

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem wants less swearing. The drivers do not want to change. Charles Leclerc was fined for swearing after the Brazilian Grand Prix. 

The general sentiment is the drivers should be allowed to express themselves and they are adults. I get that, and to be fair it isn’t the drivers that are choosing to broadcast the swearing over the radio. It is the television presenter. 

The world feed doesn’t have to give us the radio bites. It chooses to do so. It could decide to present radio bites without any swearing or limited swearing. It is on Formula One Management. FOM a could just decided to stop broadcasting the swearing and then this is a non-issue. 

However, let’s not act like we need the swearing. Sure, it is going to happen, but swearing doesn’t make it better. It doesn’t make it more passionate. You can enjoy the races without it. There were decades when you didn’t hear the bleeps during radio messages, don’t you remember? Those times you consider golden? You would live without them today. 

Champions From the Weekend

The #51 AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and Alessio Rovera clinched the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with a third-place finish in the 6 Hours of Jeddah.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Max Verstappen, but did you know…

The #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG of Lucas Auer, Maro Engel and Daniel Morad won the 6 Hours of Jeddah.

Oliver Bearman (sprint) and Paul Aron (feature) split the Formula Two races from Qatar.

Corey Day would the Turkey Night Grand Prix from Ventura Raceway. 

Coming Up This Weekend

The conclusion of the Formula One season from Abu Dhabi.

The conclusion of the Super GT season in Suzuka.

The Formula E season opens in São Paulo.

The Asian Le Mans Series season opens with a doubleheader in Sepang.

Best of the Month: November 2024

This will get lost in the holiday shuffle, but if you are reading this on your Friday, a day after filling yourself with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and a varieties of pies, welcome. You can hold off on Christmas shopping for a little bit longer. There are still 26 days until Christmas. No need to panic. 

Holidays aside, the motorsports year is winding down, but it is about to pick up again shortly. A few championships are actually starting shortly. How about that? Either way, we have some cleaning up to do. It is a period of reflection more than anything else.

Martin Truex, Jr.

Plenty has been written about Martin Truex, Jr. in the last few months as Truex, Jr. announced 2024 would be his last full season in NASCAR Cup Series competition. 

Truex, Jr.'s full-time career ends after 19 consecutive seasons of full-time competition in the Cup Series. He made 693 starts in his Cup career, 24th most all-time. He won 34 races, 27th all-time. Twice he won the Coca-Cola 600. He won the Southern 500. Truex, Jr. will be most remembered for his 2017 NASCAR Cup Series championship with Denver, Colorado-based Furniture Row Racing. 

There is plenty more we could add. Two championships in NASCAR's second division. Three-time championship runner-up in Cup. A winner in all three national touring series. Truex, Jr. had an incredible career and that is despite the rough start to his Cup career.

His first career victory was on a Monday in his sophomore season. It was a late spring day in Dover, one of many home tracks for the New Jerseyan. A fitting spot for his first triumph, but the second would not come for a long time. 

Caught in the turmoil of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. left the team his father created for Hendrick Motorsports, Truex, Jr. lived through the downfall, and was a member when the team merged with Chip Ganassi Racing. After making the playoffs as a sophomore, he would only crack the top fifteen once in the next three years. He moved to Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota, where results improved slightly. 

There were two winless seasons at MWR. His winless streak hit six years in June 2013. It felt like Truex, Jr. was going to become a forgotten Cup driver, one who dominated the lower division but couldn't quite crack it in Cup. A man who would be lost to time. Then he won at Sonoma, 218 races after winning at Dover. At the time, the second-longest winless drought behind only Bill Elliott.

Only when it appeared things were turning around did it all circle the drain. 

Truex, Jr. appeared set for another playoff appearance before race manipulation from Michael Waltrip Racing earned the team and Truex, Jr. a penalty. It cost more than a playoff spot as Napa Auto Parts left the team in the aftermath. Truex, Jr. lost his ride in the process for an action he did not commit. 

It could have ended there, but the second half of Truex, Jr.'s career is a redemption story the likes we have never seen in NASCAR.

Furniture Row Racing provided him a landing spot. They went through the suck together in 2024 and then became a surprise championship contender in 2015. The team switched to Toyota in 2016 and was better, but stumbled when one engine failure at Talladega knocked him out of the playoffs. This incident led to another modification of the playoff system to provide insurance for consistent drivers. Playoff points came in handy in 2017, but Truex, Jr. didn't need it. He dominated the championship and won a championship that should have always been his. 

He probably could have won another. He was one of the best in 2018, but lost it in the final race. He fell a spot short again in 2019 and again in 2021.

In another world, Truex, Jr.'s career ends in 2014. He spends the better part of the next five years bouncing around back-marker teams and his farewell goes unnoticed. He becomes a "remember that guy?" the likes of David Stremme or David Reutimann. 

Despite all these twists against him, Truex, Jr. became one of the best drivers of the last decade. He wasn't brash. He wasn't brazen. Truex, Jr. was as gentlemen as they come in 2024, a time when drivers are unhinged nine times out of ten without a care for fellow competitors. 

As much as others raced Truex, Jr. in a way they would not like to be raced, Truex, Jr. never strayed from his beliefs. Truex, Jr. never wrecked a driver to win a race. He never made a desperate move. Perhaps it cost him one championship, but the respect he earned from being himself will far outlive a second title. 

It is remarkable all that Truex, Jr. accomplished considering the wandering he had to do in the first half of his career. He was not in a cozy home until he was at rock-bottom, and even then it would not last long. He succeeded in the most unlikely location. Not many other drivers could have replicated what he did with Furniture Row Racing. It is a success story that will live in NASCAR lore for quite sometime. 

Truex, Jr. will be around. There is a plan he will run the Daytona 500 in February. How many races and how many more years he is around remains unknown. NASCAR in 2025 is not the NASCAR of 2005 where recently retired drivers would still stick around to run seven to ten races for seven to ten years. He may run a few more races, but it is not many more. Part of me wants to see him get to 700 starts. It is a milestone that does not mean much. His career is no lesser ending on 693 or 694 starts. It would be nice to see him join another esteemed club after he could have become one of many members of a less-celebrated establishment. 

For all his success, Truex, Jr. never quite achieved the levels of adulation as some of his contemporaries. The reserved man likely doesn't mind, but he earned it, and his presence will be missed because there are many more Martin Truex, Jr.'s walking through that door, though we could definitely use a few.

Formula One: The Summer Onward

The inevitable happened in Formula One, and yet the 2024 season could not be ending on a better trajectory. 

Max Verstappen clinched his fourth World Drivers' Championship, and Verstappen did it with races to spare. That was the predicted result from 99.9% of observers on January 1, 2024. However, nobody expected this season to be quite like this. 

Verstappen was not in the best car and he had to fight for the title. He benefitted from the Red Bull being clear of the field over the first four months of the season, but the other teams caught and surpassed Red Bull. Verstappen had to do all he could to pull more out the car while living on the cushion established long before we got into summer. He ended up as champion, but with the way the tides are turning, we all know 2025 will not look like 2024 or 2023 or 2022. 

A fifth title will require a fight, a 24-round brawl over nearly nine months. It will not be a walkover. There will be plenty of stout competition. 

Even 2024 was plenty exciting considering the constructors' championship will either go to McLaren or Ferrari. Red Bull has a shot but with Verstappen being a one-man band as Sergio Pérez has fallen off significantly and has not had a top five finish since he was fourth in Miami, it is unlikely Red Bull will take the constructors' crown for a third consecutive season. 

The truth about this season is other than Verstappen in the first ten races, nobody was dominant. McLaren has been the next most consistent, but it has its races where it is not even the second-best team. Ferrari has shined at times, but against does not have that consistency. Mercedes-AMG has been able to pounce on a few weekends but be off the mark in others. 

This is the first season in Formula One history when seven different drivers have multiple victories. There are also 24 races. It is more likely to now than ever before, but it has been a long time since we have seen four teams this competitive. That will carry over to 2025. 

Either they will all remain on the same level and we will see the season ebb and flow with different manufacturers going on hot streaks or one or two will stand out with the others have the occasional good day, steal a victory here or there, but still be clearly off the top. It is Formula One. One team could come out and blow the doors off the rest and we could see a lackluster season, but that does not feel likely.

Let’s consider what the points totals look like since the summer break ended:

Charles Leclerc - 142

Lando Norris - 141

Max Verstappen - 126

Oscar Piastri - 101

George Russell - 101

Carlos Sainz, Jr. - 97

Lewis Hamilton - 58

Sergio Pérez - 21

Pierre Gasly - 20

Esteban Ocon - 18

Fernando Alonso - 13

Nico Hülkenberg - 13

Kevin Magnussen - 9

Alexander Albon - 8

Yuki Tsunoda - 8

Franco Colapinto - 5

Liam Lawson - 4

Oliver Bearman - 1

If the last three months are a sign of what to expect in 2025, we should be pleased. 

December Preview

This is an odd time for motorsports because there is not much to preview and what is left is a tad obscure. 

This space will be used to acknowledge the Super GT championship, which ends on December 8 at Suzuka.

In each class, three entries are alive for the championship with 23 points on the table.

In GT500, the #36 TGR Team au TOM’S Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita lead with 74 points, 18 points ahead of the #100 Stanley Team Kunimitsu Honda of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino and 22 points clear of the #38 TGR Team KeePer CERUMO Toyota of Hiroaki Ishiura and Toshiki Oyu.

The #36 Toyota is the only one of the three title contenders to win a race this season. Tsuboi is attempting to become sixth driver to win the Super Formula and the Super GT GT500 championship in the same season. It would be the second consecutive year for it to happen after Ritomo Miyata did it, and Tsuboi and Miyata were co-drivers last year in Super GT. 

GT300 has the #65 K2 R&D LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG of Naoya Gamou and Takuro Shinohara leading with 84 points with the #88 JLOC Lamborghini of Takashi Kogure and Yuma Motojima 11 points back. The #2 muta Racing INGING Toyota of Yuui Tsutsumi and Hibiki Taira is 20 points off the top. 

The #65 K2 R&D LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG and the #88 JLOC Lamborghini have each won two races with JLOC entering the finale with two wins on the spin. The #2 Toyota won the season opener in Okayama.  

Other events of note in December:

While it is a time of ends, this December is also a time for beginnings. The Formula E and Asian Le Mans Series seasons will each begin this month. 

2024 Sports Car Predictions: Revisited

Most championships are complete at this point. Sports car season is basically over, but it is about to start again and it has a few races left to run. The Gulf 12 Hours will take place in a few weeks, and the Asian Le Mans Series season begins in less than two weeks with a doubleheader in Sepang.

But we have to cut the season off somewhere and this year is basically complete when it comes to reviewing our 2024 predictions. We say basically because one pesky championship is not over yet. Either way, we know the answer to most of these and we know how these predictions have played out.

FIA World Endurance Championships

1. A manufacturer not named Toyota nor Ferrari will have at least three podium finishes

Correct!

This one was technically achieved in the first race of the season as Porsche went 1-2-3 with its factory cars in first and third and the Hertz Team Jota entry in second at Qatar. 

Porsche then put two more cars on the podium in the second race from Imola and went one-two with Hertz Team Jota winning at Spa-Francorchamps. It was shutout from the podium at Le Mans, but had both factory cars on the podium at Interlagos. Porsche won Fuji and was second in Bahrain.

Porsche ended with 11 combined podium finishes this season, more than double the next best manufacturer. Ferrari and Toyota each combined for five podium finishes. 

2. At least SIX drivers get their first overall WEC victory

Correct!

This one was taken care of very quickly. We had eight first-time overall winners in the first four races. Each race had at least one driver pick up his first career victory.

We had Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor in the opening race from Qatar.

The #7 Toyota won at Imola, a familiar winner in WEC competition, but it was the first overall victory for Nyck de Vries in only his second start in the top class.

In round three, we had Callum Ilott and Will Stevens win at Spa-Francorchamps. 

At Le Mans, Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen won overall. 

Then we had Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yi Yifei won at Austin. 

There were 11 first-time overall winners this season.

3. No entry in LMGT3 will finish on the podium in four races or more

Wrong!

The #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm had six podium finishes this season. The #92 Porsche had four podium finishes in the first five races.

Two other entries had three podium finishes. The #91 Manthey EMA Porsche of Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin had three and the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas also had three podium finishes.

4. In at least two rounds will the overall winner and LMGT3 winner be manufacturers from the same parent company

Correct!

With Porsche winning the drivers' championship in both class, it is no surprise that Porsche did it twice.

The #6 Porsche and the #92 Manthey PureRxcing won the classes in the opening round in Qatar. Two races later, the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche and the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche split the classes at Spa-Francorchamps. 

Ferrari was the only manufacturer that won in each class this season, but not in the same race. Ferrari won twice overall, Le Mans and Austin. Ferrari also won twice in LMGT3, but it won the final two races at Fuji and Bahrain.

IMSA

5. Antonio García does not finish first nor third in the GTD Pro championship

Wrong!

We have already covered this partially, but this was crushing. 

García and the #3 Corvette sat fifth in the championship in the final race. It looked like a long shot for the #3 Corvette to get up to third. Then it significantly out-qualifies the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW and the #14 VasserSuvillan Lexus at Petit Le Mans, the #14 Lexus retired from the race and the #3 Corvette finished ahead of the #1 BMW. 

It was enough to move García up to third and for the 13th consecutive year, García has finished first or third in the championship. This was the third consecutive year García has finished third in the championship. It is bound to end, but it just never seems to.

6. At least three drivers will have class victories in each WEC and IMSA

Correct!

This one was tight, but we had exactly three drivers win in each WEC and IMSA.

The first driver to achieve it did it in consecutive weekends. Nicklas Nielsen won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and then the following weekend won in LMP2 at Watkins Glen. 

Alex Riberas also won at Watkins Glen in the GTD Pro class, and then he won at LMGT3 in September at Circuit of the Americas in Austin. 

It was getting a little tight on the third winner, but then the #54 AF Corse Ferrari won the LMGT3 class at Fuji with Davide Rigon as one of its drivers. Rigon won the 24 Hours of Daytona in GTD Pro in January. 

It was tight, but it happened. 

7. The Riley Motorsport LMP2 entry's average finish will be greater than 3.5

Correct!

The #74 Riley Motorsport Oreca ended up second in the LMP2 championship and it had four podium finishes in seven races, but a tenth-place finish at Road America tanked its average finish and it finished at 4.1428. If you remove Road America, the #74 Oreca had an average finish of 3.1667 in the other six races.

8. In one race, the pole-sitter from at least three classes will take victory

Wrong!

Not only was this one wrong, but there were only four instances of pole-sitters winning a race all season.

No pole-sitter won in either prototype class in the 2024 IMSA season. 

Three times did the pole-sitter in GTD Pro.

The #14 VasserSullivan did it at Sebring, the #3 Corvette did it at Mosport and the #1 Paul Miller Racing did it at Virginia International Raceway in GTD Pro.

The only GTD entry to win from pole position all season was the one race VasserSullivan entered a second Lexus at Long Beach when the #89 Lexus took the victory. 

This was not close, which is interesting at how much it appears qualifying doesn't matter in IMSA. The five endurance races are understandable, but the two-hour and 45-minute races should see the fastest car over one-lap be able to put together a full race. 

Let's keep an eye on this in 2025.

European Le Mans Series

9. The #22 United Autosports entry does not extends its winning streak

Correct!

Not only didn't the #22 United Autosports' entry not win a race, but no United Autosports' entry won in ELMS in 2024. United Autosports had one podium finish all season, third in the season opener at Barcelona, fittingly with the #22 entry.

This was the first season United Autosports did not win in LMP2 since 2016 when it only had entries in the LMP3 class.

10. In GT3, there will not be a winning entry with multiple Italian drivers

Correct!

Only one Italian driver won the entire season in GT3. It was Andrea Caldarelli in the season finale driving the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini. 

Eleven different nationalities won a race in the GT3 class in 2024. The one with the most different winners was Denmark with four different winners. The #50 Formula Racing Ferrari of Conrad Laursen, Johnny Laursen and Nicklas Nielsen won the season opener in an all-Danish effort. Michelle Gatting won at Imola as well. 

Other

11. The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup champion finishes outside the top five in the Spa 24 Hours

Well...

We don't know yet. The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup was supposed to end last weekend, but the finale from Jeddah had been pushed back a week. We had already planned on doing these predictions prior to Thanksgiving. So we don't know yet, and it can go either way.

Technically, any of 12 entries could win the championship this weekend. Three entries are covered by three points and then fourth is 16 points back.

Three of the top four were top five finishers at the Spa 24 Hours. The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim lead the championship on 54 points and the #7 Aston Martin won at Spa.

Three points back is the #51 AF Corse - Franchorchamps Motors Ferrari of Alessandro and Alessio Rovera, which was second at Spa. Also three points back is the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi of Alex Aka, Ricardo Feller and Christopher Haase, which finished 12th overall at Spa. 

The #163 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Franck Perera, Jordan Pepper and Marco Mapelli is fourth, 16 points back, and it was fifth at Spa.

We will wait and see how this plays out. It is on the fence and can go either way. We will update on Monday.

12. Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters will not have a stretch with five manufacturers winning five consecutive races

Wrong! 

There were multiple stretches with five different manufacturers winning five consecutive races.

From race two to race six: Lamborghini, Audi, Porsche, Ferrari, BMW.

Race eight to race 12: Lamborghini, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG.

Race nine to race 13: Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, Lamborghini. 

Race 11 to race 15: Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, Lamborghini, BMW, Audi.

There were four different instances where it happened, but never did six different manufacturers win in six consecutive races. I guess five is the limit.

Heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, we are sitting at 7/11 with one to be determined. Being 8/12 is a lot better than being 7/12.

Musings From the Weekend: One Step at a Time

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

The inevitable happened. Max Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive World Drivers' Championship. The drain covers remained in place. It was still a late night for everyone. There was an award show. Some announcers were announced. I might have been a week early on a season finale. Thanksgiving is upon us. People remain impressed by the little things. As the year approaches the end, it is a time to be thinking about the bigger picture, and something has been on my mind for some time.

One Step at a Time

The gripes have been covered extensively over the last few months since the IndyCar season ended.

Whether it be the schedule length, lack of engine manufacturers joining the series, lack of a new chassis, hybrid technology, marketing, start times, regional spread of the series, network broadcasting, streaming broadcasts, star power, horsepower, commentators, sponsors, charters, Mark Miles, Roger Penske, social media silence, LED panels, every knit that you can pick has been covered and we aren't even into December yet. We are just under 100 days until the 2025 season opener. We will not hit the halfway point of the offseason until December 8. There will be plenty more to pick apart.

At some point, we will focus on the races, the championship, the yearly Penske vs. Ganassi title fight, find more to complain about, and then wonder why nothing is great while ignoring the good that is around because it is not good enough to some lofty and unrealistic standard. 

Only so much finger pointing can be done before things need to stop and a plan must be established for what comes next. You can be happy about how things are going, but being angry about the present and not having an outline for the future is not helpful. 

There is a truth you must keep in mind when thinking about IndyCar's future. 

It cannot be everything that everyone expects it to be. 

For a series' that's entire identity is basically one race, it is expected to be the world and then some. 

It must be an oval series, but also run all these great road courses while also having street course shows to attract different viewers. It is American and must be in every part of the country, but it also must be international and go all over the world. It must avoid football to maximize viewership while also race during football season to maximize viewership. It must promote more but Heaven forbid it does something untraditional to try and attract new fans and not cater to the people already watching. It must spend more money but not lose more money than it already losing. 

There is no way to check all these boxes. It is at the limit but it must be more. In that scenario, it will never truly be seen as successful even if it does all it can with the resources available. 

That is a tough place to be at, but this should be the time to recognize what the series is up against and at least properly adjust expectations of what the series can be in the short-term and the long-term. 

Nothing will change in time for 2025, but things are already in motion for 2026. The Arlington street race has already been announced for March of that year. Races in Mexico City and São Paulo have been rumored. There is plenty of time between now and then announcement of the 2026 calendar. Arlington could be the only addition, or the schedule could see a shift.

What is realistic is IndyCar expanding beyond where it currently races. At the moment, there are four races along the Pacific Coast and then nothing until Iowa. Once past Iowa, the series only goes as far east as Toronto and St. Petersburg, Florida. Arlington will fill part of the middle of the country, but the absence on the Eastern corridor of the United States, which will be pushing seven seasons come 2026, is a major letdown for the series. Without any races in the area, a large population of the country does not have access to an IndyCar race. 

IndyCar is constantly living for now. It is constantly making the decision that benefits the series in the moment because it needs money now, but it must start making some decisions for the long-term. The series must adjust its decision making and take a few chances with long-term hopes in mind that require patience.

The series must ask, “Does it need three races in California?” What is better, a Laguna Seca race that might draw 10,000 spectators or a Pocono race that will draw 25,000 people or a Loudon or Richmond race that will draw 20,000 people? Thermal is paying now, but are there enough one-percenters joining the series as team owners, series partners and sponsors that justifies a race at a facility that is severely limited in attendance and is not reaching the common man, the ones that can actually boost viewership? 

If IndyCar is limited to 17 races on a schedule then it must make the most of those 17 races, and that might require some tough decisions. Laguna Seca has had some good races since it returned, but if it isn't drawing a respectable crowd and the series can draw something significantly better in a different part of the country that it is currently not visiting, then IndyCar should make a change. 

For 2026, there should be a commitment from the series to race in areas where it isn't. It must be willing to take a five-year chance on racing in the Northeast and along the East Coast. It should find two tracks, doesn't matter if they are both ovals in Pocono and Richmond or an oval and Watkins Glen or two road courses, and say it is going to run there for five years. It cannot continue to be absent. It must establish a presence and see if it can grow. 

That is only a step, but that is a more likely way of growing the series than continuing to race in the same areas, over-saturating a few markets and remaining stagnant. That will likely also require accepting some changes that we do not want to make, but IndyCar cannot be a 25-race schedule at this time. Maybe it can add a weekend or two but even with those new races, it cannot be everything that everyone wants it to be. 

It is more than just scheduling. Location, location, location is important, but the series must produce faces that are recognizable outside of the current bubble. It is clear people will watch motorsports without making it about racing. There is a way to make those competing relatable without making it all about the racing. 

A plan is a reasonable expectation, but no plan is any good without an attempt. There is definitely a plan, but we are tired of plans from IndyCar. When it feels like every other major series in the world has taken chances and done bold new things since 2020 when it felt like the motorsports world was on the verge of collapsing, IndyCar hasn't. It feels like a series that has been stuck and if anything it has shrunk but mostly due to choice and lack of ambition. We are ready for the series to take chance because what it has been doing for the last four years has not produced any notable growth. 

These problems will not disappear overnight, but it is time to acknowledge what the series can realistically be and move in that direction, tough decisions and all. 

Champions From the Weekend

You know about Max Verstappen, but did you know...

Thierry Neuville clinched the World Rally Championship with a sixth-place finish in Rally Japan.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about some champions, but did you know...

George Russell won the Las Vegas Grand Prix, his second victory of the season.

Elfyn Evans won Rally Japan.

Coming Up This Weekend

Formula One travels right around the quarter from Las Vegas to Qatar for the penultimate round of the season.

Across the Arabian peninsula will be the Jeddah 1000km, the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.

Turkey Night Grand Prix will be run in Ventura, California.

Career Retrospective: Nigel Mansell

Our Career Retrospective series returns for a fourth year, as we have another batch of past IndyCar drivers to consider. We will look at a few drivers and how they ended up in IndyCar, what they did while competing in the series and how the series changed between the driver's first appearance and today. 

There is another theme in this year's set of drivers. It might not seem obvious, but it will become obvious once we get to the end.

The final part of this three-part series takes us to the most famous of the three drivers in this year's series. His career spans well beyond IndyCar. Most people probably only know him for what he did prior to arriving in IndyCar at the age of 39. It was quite a career, you can forgive those if they forget about his time in IndyCar, but this move was a pivotal point in global motorsports. The World Drivers' Champion left Formula One for IndyCar. The rest is history.

It is Nigel Mansell.

Where was Mansell coming from?

Formula One, and a lengthy career at that. 

Mansell debuted in 1980 with Lotus and remained with the historic team for one of its low points through the early part of the decade. Lotus was not what it had been in the 1960s or 1970s. Plagued with unreliable cars, Mansell was struggling for results. He became the defined number two driver to Elio de Angelis in 1983 and 1984.

Frank Williams hired Mansell to join Keke Rosberg at Williams F1. Driving with a Honda engine, Mansell was a more competitive driver, and he closed the 1985 season with his first two grand prix victories at Brands Hatch and Kyalami. 

With five victories in the 1986 season, led the championship entering the season finale from Adelaide. Eighteen laps from the finish and in third place, Mansell suffered a tire puncture and it cost him the title to Alain Prost. Mansell made another championship push in 1987 with six victories, but an accident in qualifying from Suzuka ended his season two races early.

Honda left Williams for the 1988 season, and Judd engines were placed in the Williams and were highly unreliable. Mansell retired from 12 of 14 starts. In the other two, he was runner-up and he missed two races due to the chickenpox. 

Enzo Ferrari selected Mansell to drive the team for the 1989 season just prior to Ferrari’s death in 1988. Mansell won on debut in Brazil, but the car could not regularly compete the McLarens. He had a strong summer, but finished fourth in the championship. Results dipped in 1990 with Alain Prost as his teammate. Prost competed for the title while Mansell scored one fewer points and finished one spot worse in the championship than in 1989. 

Mansell announced he would retire after the 1990 season, but Williams came offering a seat. Mansell demanded number one status in the team, and an assurance the organization and its engine supplier Renault. Williams agreed to the terms. 

Ayrton Senna and McLaren were still on top, but Mansell and Williams gave the Brazilian fits over the season. Mansell and his teammate Riccardo Patrese ended up second and third in the championship.

Williams further developed the FW14 into the FW14B, and it became one of the most dominant cars in series history. Mansell opened the season with five consecutive victories. He won eight of the first ten races. A runner-up finish in the 11th round, the Hungarian Grand Prix, clinched Mansell the world championship with five races remaining. He ended the year with a single-season record of victories. He won 14 pole positions, 88% of the races, and that remains the highest pole position percentage in a single year. 

What did IndyCar look like when Mansell started in the series?

IndyCar was still primarily North American-based. The 1993 season was only its third trip to Australia. While it raced at Surfers Paradise, it also ran in Nazareth, Pennsylvania and a new track in Loudon, New Hampshire. Of the 16 races, six were on ovals, six were on temporary courses and four were on permanent road courses. 

World champions were nothing new to IndyCar. Mario Andretti was well into his second stint in IndyCar. Emerson Fittipaldi had been present for nearly a decade. Along with those two, there were a few Formula One veterans on the grid, including Raul Boesel, Two Fabi, Stefan Johansson and Roberto Guerrero. 

Six different teams had won the previous six CART championships. Three of those teams were single-car operations. Five of those champions were American drivers, and 13 of the first 14 CART seasons had an American champion. Chip Ganassi Racing was entering its fourth season of competition. It had yet to win a race. 

Six other drivers who made their IndyCar debuts in the 1993 season opener. They were Andrea Montermini, Robbie Buhl, Mark Smith, Marco Greco, Gary Brabham and Andrea Chiesa. 

How does IndyCar look now?

IndyCar competes exclusively on the North American continent. It has been just over 11 years since it has raced somewhere other than the United States or Canada. There are no races at Surfers Paradise, Nazareth or Loudon. Nazareth is grown over. Of the 17 races in 2024, seven were on ovals but there were only five oval circuits. There were four temporary venues, but there were supposed to be five. Six permanent road courses host a race. 

In the 2024 season, no past World Drivers' Champions competed in a race. It has been four years since a past World Drivers' Champion ran an IndyCar race. That would be Fernando Alonso in the Indianapolis 500. Prior to Alonso, the most recent past World Drivers' Champion to start an IndyCar race was Jacques Villeneuve, who made a one-off start in the 2014 Indianapolis 500. There has not been a past World Drivers' Champion full-time in IndyCar since Emerson Fittipaldi in 1996, a year in which Fittipaldi's career was cut short due to an accident at Michigan with four races remaining in the season.

Two teams combined to have won the last 12 championship. Three teams have combined to win the 17 championship since reunification. Chip Ganassi Racing has four of the last five titles, and 11 of the last 17 championships. The Ganassi organization has won 16 IndyCar championships.

There has not been an American championship in the last five seasons, and American drivers have combined to win only three of the last 17 titles.

What did Mansell do in-between?

Mansell started with a bang, winning on debut from pole position after a back-and-forth race with Emerson Fittipaldi at Surfers Paradise. 

A practice accident at Phoenix knocked Mansell out of the car for the second round, but he only missed one race and he finished third at Long Beach. At Indianapolis, he qualified eighth, and he was a front-runner the entire race. He led 34 laps, but was passed on a restart with 16 laps remaining and fell back to third. He managed to finish third despite brushing the wall in the closing stages.

Despite the Indianapolis disappointment, Mansell won the next race at Milwaukee. He had six podium finishes in the first eight races. He won back-to-back races at Michigan and Loudon, the latter occurring on his 40th birthday. These victories put Mansell in control of the championship with five races remaining. 

Consistent finishes followed and victory at Nazareth in the penultimate race of the season clinched Mansell the CART championship with a race to spare. 

Returning for the 1994 season, Mansell started well with two podium finishes in the first three races. His second Indianapolis 500 ended just prior to halfway when Dennis Vitolo spun under caution and collided with Mansell's car, parking the year-old Lola on Mansell's shoulders. 

Despite sitting third in the championship with three podium finishes and five top five finishes through the first eight races, Mansell had yet to win in the 1994 season. The second half of his year was rocky. He retired from five of the final eight races. His best finish was seventh despite starting no worse than fourth over that stretch. In 14 of 16 races, Mansell started inside the top four with his worst starting position being ninth. 

This poor run dropped Mansell to eighth in the final championship standings on 88 points, 137 points behind champion Al Unser, Jr. Mansell was two points behind Raul Boesel and nine points ahead of Teo Fabi. 

During the 1994 season, Mansell returned to Formula One to drive for Williams. David Coulthard had taken over a race seat after the death of Ayrton Senna. Mansell ran the French Grand Prix during a break in the CART season. He qualified second, 0.077 seconds off teammate Damon Hill, but a gearbox failure ended his race after 45 laps.

Mansell returned for the final three races of the season and he finished fourth in Japan and he won the Australian Grand Prix from pole position after Hill and Michael Schumacher tangled as they battled for the world championship. 

After the 1994 season, Williams decided to run Coulthard full-time in the 1995 season. Mansell signed to drive for McLaren, receiving help from Bernie Ecclestone to get Mansell out of his Newman-Haas contract. Mansell missed the first two races as he could not fit in the car. A widened McLaren MP4/10 was ready for the San Marino Grand Prix, but he finished tenth clashing with Eddie Irvine while competing for points. He retired from the Spanish Grand Prix due to handling issues, and he decided to retire for good from Formula One then and there.

What impression did Mansell leave on IndyCar?

It remains the mountaintop for IndyCar. 

The World Drivers' Champion left Formula One for IndyCar. It does not get bigger than that, and it hasn't come close. 

Mansell took a healthy IndyCar Series and turned it in an international phenomenon overnight. Formula One viewership suffered and was particularly low come 1994 after the death of Senna combined with the absence of any past world champions. Prost was on sabbatical though he would never return to driving. Mansell was drawing bigger crowds in the United States than any of these venues had ever seen, and there was increasingly more interest from outside the United States in CART.

The best driver in world came and did what you expected the best driver in the world to do. Mansell won immediately, but he also adapted. Four of his five victories came on ovals, an entirely new discipline for him. He nearly won the Indianapolis 500, but he won the Michigan 500 in dominating fashion, leading over 90% of the race. He won on the short ovals at Milwaukee, Loudon and Nazareth. His road and street course form was still stellar, but he didn't fall back on his known skill set to win the championship. 

There has been no free agent signing that has come close to matching what Mansell did for IndyCar. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson moved to IndyCar and that was barely a blip in comparison to Mansell's move almost 30 years prior. Part of that has to do with how far IndyCar has fallen since The Split. A good portion of that has to do with how seismic of a move Mansell to IndyCar was. 

For as memorable as this was, the Mansell years were only two. He only won in one of those seasons. Like Mark Blundell and A.J. Allmendinger, Mansell was a one-year wonder, but he was the greatest of them all. 

A driver moving to another series on the verge of 40 years of age was never going to stay for long. Mansell did not become a staple on the IndyCar grid for a decade, someone a fanbase could grow up with. It was a brief moment that vanished. All the good that it did was quickly lost when The Split happened. 

It is hard to fathom something like this happening again. There is too much money in Formula One and nowhere near as much in IndyCar. Formula One drivers have no desire to leave even if the schedule has expanded to an exhaustive length. As much as Formula One drivers would like to leave that circus, they also know it is far more money they could make anywhere else. As much as they may wish to try the Indianapolis 500 or 24 Hours of Le Mans or any other motorsports series, they can make money in Formula One. It is far from a guarantee they can do that elsewhere. 

Mansell hasn't been around IndyCar since he left IndyCar. We do not see Mansell drop in for a random race at Mid-Ohio or Gateway. I don't even know if he attended any of the many anniversary Indianapolis 500s we had around the centennial celebration and centennial running. For as great as his one season was in IndyCar, it is not the defining moment of his career even if it was the defining moment for motorsports in the early 1990s. 

For as great as Roger Penske is in 2024, he couldn't do what Paul Newman and Carl Haas did ahead of the 1993 season. Sadly, Penske wouldn't have the ambition either. Penske would have to pay the equivalent of double entire season prize fund to get Max Verstappen to run for one season or Lewis Hamilton to join the series or have Lando Norris or Charles Leclerc switch at the start of their primes. Frankly, I am not sure any of them would leave.

Formula One has been their dreams. If they are making $20-40 million a year to race in Formula One, I don't think $60-80 million a year, or $100 million a year in the case of Verstappen, would get them to switch to IndyCar. Yes, it would be more money, but I don't think their hearts would be in it. There might be some prestige in Indianapolis, but outside of that, no race compares to even the most passionless grand prix. 

We will never see the equivalent of what Mansell did. Never is a strong word to use, but unless there is a major shakeup in the motorsports world, this will remain a one of a kind event that will only become more inexplicable as time goes on.