We are nearly two weeks removed from the IndyCar season opener, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and no penalty has been handed down to Carlos Muñoz for causing the lap 57 caution that ruined Graham Rahal's race as well as a handful of other drivers.
Last year, IndyCar officials attempted to retroactively punish drivers when causing accidents that ruined another driver's race. Last year, Ryan Hunter-Reay was deemed to have caused an accident with Simon Pagenaud and Sébastien Bourdais at the one and only Grand Prix of Louisiana. Hunter-Reay was placed 19th, Bourdais 20th and Pagenaud 21st. Hunter-Reay was fined three points, dropping him from 11 points scored to eight points, fewer than the two French drivers. Later that season, at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Hélio Castroneves ran into the back of Scott Dixon at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Both drivers would continue but Castroneves would go on to finish sixth while Dixon clawed his way to tenth. Castroneves was fined eight points so he would leave the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with one fewer than Dixon but appealed and his penalty was changed to a three-point deduction to be consistent with Hunter-Reay penalty.
These types of deductions have a precedent in IndyCar. In 2003, Tora Takagi finished third at Texas but scored only 12 points from that race after causing an accident that ended Scott Sharp's and Felipe Giaffone's race. Takagi left with one fewer than the Brazilian instead of the 35 points third place paid.
The penalty actually makes a lot of sense and doesn't intrude much on the results. Instead of issuing time penalties post race, this penalty keeps the results intact, not stripping those attending the race from what they saw and a driver is punishment so they cannot significantly benefit other those they wronged during the race.
At St. Petersburg, Muñoz hit the back of Rahal, putting the American in the barrier and causing five other drivers to lose positions and putting Bourdais and Oriol Servià a lap down. Muñoz would be given a stop-and-go penalty on lap 64 but Muñoz would remain on the lead lap while Rahal, Bourdais and Servià never made it back on the lead lap. Muñoz ended up benefitting as the Ganassi cars of Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball all made pit stops for overheating issues and moved the Colombian up the order. Bourdais ended up retiring while Rahal and Servià both finished outside the top fifteen.
Nearly two weeks later and Muñoz has had no points deducted nor has he been fined for his actions. I don't want to throw the new trio under the bus already but I can live with this if this is the standard going forward. Muñoz was punished in the race and there is no need to punish him afterward. I can live with that. But perhaps penalties should be a little harsher, especially if drivers lose laps because of another driver's actions. Muñoz was punished but he stayed in contention while at least three drivers were taken out of contention because of his mistimed move. Shouldn't Muñoz at least been held for one-lap, putting him on the same level as those he wronged?
Rahal, Bourdais and Servià lost their laps because they could not be restarted and were at the mercy of the marshals to restart not only their cars but also the cars of a handful of other cars. Perhaps IndyCar should automatically throw a red flag when anymore than three cars need to be restarted that way races are not ruined because of the order in which the cars are restarted. This also speaks to the issue IndyCar has without on-board starters or a properly working anti-stall system.
Muñoz admitted his mistake and he doesn't have a history of running over other competitors but the bigger take away is how the officials handled it and what this means for the rest of the season. The officials are not going to wait for a Tuesday press releases stating who lost points over what infraction. It is going to be taken care of during the race. While that is something I think most will appreciate, the next step is making sure the penalties are severe and not just slaps on the wrist.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Honda Wants More Manufactures and IndyCar Should Oblige
Part of IndyCar struggle for the last five seasons has been the strain on Chevrolet and Honda to supply the entire grid. While both manufactures have met the demands, they are at maximum capacity and that leaves little room for the series to grow in terms of entrants. The series needs to spread its eggs around and Honda is willing to help find another partner to get in the IndyCar bed.
Honda Performance Development president Art St. Cyr wants more competition in IndyCar and it sounds like he is willing to make concessions if it means adding a manufacture or two for IndyCar and that is very important. No manufacture is going to enter with the current technical regulations. Chevrolet and Honda are on year five of this engine cycle and no other manufacture is going to spend the time or money to make up the difference in year one. No one tests like they once did. Teams don't go out and test every day for a month over the winter and that wouldn't change if a new manufacture were want to enter IndyCar.
Think about when the DW12 was being tested for the first time. It wasn't tested until August 2011, about seven and a half months before its first race at St. Petersburg the following March. When you compare how much was gained in terms of time on track, the pole-time at St. Petersburg from 2011 to 2012 went from a 61.9625 to a 61.3721. This year the fastest time in St. Petersburg qualifying dropped to 60.0658 seconds. I just can't see why a manufacture would decide to jump into IndyCar now and start an engine program from scratch when they will be years behind and struggling to compete for top tens. People were complaining last year when the Hondas were a quarter of a second behind the Chevrolets and the entire field was covered by a second or 1.2 seconds. Imagine how people and teams would feel when the fastest car from a third manufacture would be at best a second back.
However, instead of forcing a manufacture to develop a 2.2 L, twin-turbo V6 engine, which the manufacture likely doesn't make, IndyCar can be open to something that is different but not radical from the current engine package. IndyCar needs to have wiggle room and to be honest, no body cares if engine manufactures different slightly. We were all ok when Honda ran a single-turbo and Chevrolet ran a twin-turbo at the start of the DW12-era. The first Indianapolis 500 was a hodgepodge of engines. You had four-cylinder and six-cylinder cars. You had 4.65 L to 9.78 L. While the range of displacement probably can't be that great in this era, the range of cylinders is doable.
If IndyCar were to relax the engine regulations, the door could be opened for many manufactures that are already making engines slightly smaller and slightly larger than the current IndyCar engine formula. Toyota's Super Formula engine is a 2.0 L turbocharged inline-4 and it has been whooping Honda's Super Formula engine. Mazda's IMSA prototype engine is also a 2.0 L turbocharged inline-4 and Mazda would be a great addition for IndyCar considering how invested the manufacture is in the Road to Indy ladder system. It makes too much sense for Mazda to be involved in IndyCar as well. Porsche's LMP1 engine is a 2.0 L turbocharged V4. While a Porsche return to IndyCar would be phenomenal and highly unlikely, the series should at least leave the door open. Another LMP1 engine that should be in play would be the AER's 2.4 L turbocharged V6. AER currently builds the Indy Lights engine and this could be an engine that is badged by another manufacture, just like how Mazda badges the Indy Lights engine.
The problem would be finding a balance between these newer engines and the current IndyCar engines and after seeing the struggles IMSA and other sports car series have had with Balance of Performance, the question would be if IndyCar wants to go down that road. I think it could be figured out and some toes might be stepped on but that is the nature of motorsports now. As long as IndyCar can be fair, I am sure it could be figured out.
These are just four examples of engines that exist already and are developed. What IndyCar needs is for one or two or more of these manufactures to enter the series and take the load off Chevrolet and Honda. Think about what Chevrolet and Honda have had to do the last four seasons after the Lotus debacle. Each has had to supply about a dozen entries and then add almost another half-dozen for the Indianapolis 500. When it comes to Indianapolis, Chevrolet and Honda are fielding IRL-size grids. You have to give them credit but they need some of the weight taken off their shoulders.
IndyCar can't grow in the current climate and it needs to grow. Think about it. The only team that tried to enter IndyCar during the DW12-era was Michael Shank Racing and he was rejected like a shot by Hakeem Olajuwon. The series hasn't recovered from that and it makes the series seem insular. IndyCar needs new blood but it needs somewhere for new blood to go. Indy Lights teams Juncos Racing and Carlin have each expressed interested in expanding to IndyCar and so has GP2 team Racing Engineering but despite their ambitions Chevrolet and Honda couldn't take either on any of those teams.
In an ideal world, a manufacture or two would enter, Chevrolet and Honda would drop to fielding about eight-nine full-time cars with say Toyota and Mazda entering and taking on four-five full-time entries. That would give IndyCar about 24-28 full-time entries and if each manufacture could add three-four entries for the Indianapolis 500, you would have bumping and lots of it. Bringing in a manufacture or two would allow teams like Juncos, Carlin, Racing Engineering and others to come into IndyCar while taking the load off Chevrolet and Honda.
IndyCar needs additional manufactures and it shouldn't be stubborn. The series should have the more the merrier mindset especially if the engine is similar to the current specs. It should be a series where an outsider could potentially bring its own engine package and not be living on one or two manufactures. Honda seems willing to new competitors and competitors bringing what they are already producing. IndyCar should be willing as well.
Monday, March 21, 2016
Musings From the Weekend: Line Them Up
Spring began and Romain Grosjean finished sixth on Haas F1's debut. Oh, and Nico Rosberg won the Australian Grand Prix. We will get to the qualifying in a moment. A flat tire ruined one driver's day on the final lap. Ignoring marshals ruined another's. The MotoGP season started and I bet you missed it if you live in the United States because the beIN Sport picked up the rights for 2016 and not Fox Sports making grand prix motorcycle racing all but nonexistent in the United States. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Line Them Up
Formula One modified its qualifying format as the series tries to spice up its races. The qualifying session itself was a met with a large majority of negativity about the lack of cars on track opposed to the previous format. The goal was for a mixed up grid and we ended up with another all Mercedes front row, Lewis Hamilton scoring his 50th pole position and Nico Rosberg once again in second. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen started on row two. Max Verstappen might have been the one surprise in the session, as he started fifth ahead of Felipe Massa, Carlos Sainz, Jr. and Daniel Ricciardo.
A mixed up grid normally means a more intriguing race. A race with Lewis Hamilton start 12th and Nico Rosberg starting sixth and Sebastian Vettel starting eighth with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo on the front row on paper is a lot more intriguing than if Hamilton and Rosberg were on the front row again with Vettel starting third with Bottas fourth and Ricciardo back on row four.
Formula One is trying to shed its predictability but its chase for excitement could end up being just as harmful as another race with the Mercedes on the front row. A series should never make the competition too complicated, the simpler the better. People want an easy and quick explanation. If you can't explain it in ten to thirty seconds than people will give up on it. In this high pace world, people don't have time to spend five minutes trying to learn something as inconsequential as how the grid for any motorsport series is set.
Why are grids set the way they are today? There isn't a decree from above saying all races must be set by a qualifying session with the fastest starting first and the slowest starting last. That is how it is because that is the simplest way to do it. It's not contrived. It's easy for everyone to understand. Time ballast is an interesting concept but it is contrived and it can be difficult for people to understand. One race, a driver could get a half-second penalty and dropping from fourth to ninth on the grid. A race later, they could be getting no time ballast at all.
If series do not want to use a single qualifying session to set the grid, it should use something that is quick to explain and easy to understand. Series could go IROC style where the starting gird was the inverted results from the previous race. Last became first and first became last. It is easy to explain and it is easy to understand, however, the IROC format would introduce a whole new set of predictable outcomes to Formula One: The Manors being overwhelmed at the start and dropping to sixth and seventh before turn one and it would also probably increase the amount of accidents as you risk faster cars running over back markers. The other problem with the IROC format is it encourages poor finishes. If a team isn't have a great race, it could choose to retire its cars to set them up better for the next race and no one wants to see that.
During the IndyCar opening weekend from St. Petersburg, I wondered if you could set the grid based on the results of all sessions. Instead of using one session to set the grid, have the Friday practices and the Saturday morning session factor into the process. The results from each session could be averaged and the lowest average would start on pole position with the highest starting last.
For example, using the results from the two Friday practice, Saturday practice and qualifying from St. Petersburg, Simon Pagenaud had the lowest average across the four sessions with a 3.25 followed by Hélio Castroneves and Will Power tied a 5.0 and Jack Hawksworth at 5.5. How would ties be broken? I think who every had the best result in any of the sessions would be a sensible tiebreaker and Power was fastest in three of the four session so he would get the outside of row one and Oriol Servià would still have to drop to the back.
The front row would have flipped, Castroneves would still be third and Hawksworth would jump from tenth to fourth. The rest of the grid would have been as follows:
Scott Dixon (No change from actual grid position).
Juan Pablo Montoya (-2).
Takuma Sato (+4).
Graham Rahal (-1).
Ryan Hunter-Reay (-3).
James Hinchcliffe (-1).
Sébastien Bourdais (-3).
Carlos Muñoz (+1).
Josef Newgarden (-1).
Marco Andretti (+1).
Charlie Kimball (-1).
Tony Kanaan (+4).
Mikhail Aleshin (+1).
Alexander Rossi (+1).
Luca Filippi (-3).
Max Chilton (-3).
Spencer Pigot (+1).
Conor Daly (-1).
Looking at how the IndyCar grid would have lined-up, its not as drastic of a change as I thought it would be. If anything it confirms that qualifying is a true representation of who is fastest and who isn't. However, these Friday sessions would now matter and cars would force to take to the track even if it rained. One poor session, could hold a driver back while consistent speed throughout a weekend, like Hawksworth would be rewarded. A team couldn't choose to sit out a session because it would negatively affect its grid position.
Lets look at what the Formula One grid would have looked like with this format:
Lewis Hamilton (No Change. 1)
Daniel Ricciardo (+6. 5.75)
Nico Rosberg (-1. 6.25)
Kimi Räikkönen (No Change. 7.25)
Nico Hülkenberg (+5. 8)
Sebastian Vettel (-3. 8.75)
Max Verstappen (-2. 9)
Fernando Alonso (+4. 9)
Sergio Pérez (No Change. 9.25)
Carlos Sainz, Jr. (-2. 9.5)
Jenson Button (+2. 10)
Daniil Kvyat (+6. 10.75)
Felipe Massa (-7. 11.25)
Valtteri Bottas (-3. 12)
Kevin Magnussen (No Change. 14)
Jolyon Palmer (-2. 15.5)
Esteban Gutiérrez (+2. 16.75)
Marcus Ericsson (-2. 16.75)
Pascal Wehrlein (+2. 17.75)
Felipe Nasr (-3. 17.75)
Romain Grosjean (-2. 17.75)
Rio Haryanto (No Change (after the grid penalty). 19)
There would have been a lot of change because some drivers choose not to participate in Friday practices because of the wet weather but with this format drivers would have to go out otherwise they would end up hurting their average. Vettel was eighth, third and third in free practice two, free practice three and qualifying but since he never did a timed lap in free practice one, he was credited with 21st as he ran eight out laps but never did a timed one. Had Vettel even did a lap that was 11th, his average would have improved from 8.75 to 6.25, the same as Rosberg.
All this talk about qualifying format and after looking at the actual results from Formula One qualifying I thought to myself, "what's the big deal?" Hamilton was always going to end up on top. The Mercedes were always going to sweep the front row. The search for a system that punishes the mighty is a futile effort. How much different would the results have been if the previous format been retain? Maybe a Red Bull cracks the top three rows? Maybe Valtteri Bottas cracks the top ten? Maybe Daniil Kvyat starts ninth instead of on row nine? Maybe the Haas cars would have jumped the Saubers?
People cried about the lost of track time but what's the point of all that track time if the results would have been near identical? If anything, the new format is the most honest of them all. No more wasting our time, filling us with hope only to get the same predictable results. It gets right to the point: Mercedes is the fastest and everyone else is chasing them. Did anyone really expect the Mercedes to be caught out by this season and both end up starting outside the top eight? Did anyone really expect a Manor to end up 13th ahead of a Williams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso?
Qualifying isn't supposed to be entertaining. It is suppose to set the field. No more. No less. The increased television coverage of motorsports made qualifying into another one-hour programming and race directors and television executives have been looking for a way to make it must-see programming. It has made qualifying something it was never suppose to be. It is like batting practice. Go to a batting practice before a Major League Baseball game. You will see dozens and dozens of home runs. You will see excited children chasing down what their idols have smashed into the bleachers. Other than that, it is nothing more than players stretching, jogging in the outfield and shagging those balls that don't end up in the seats. It's not exciting and it doesn't matter. The game matters. What happens between the first pitch and the 27th out is what matters.
The same is true for a race. Think of all the great races. Think of all the great battle. When has a great qualifying session been brought up? Other than the new track records and the bump days of yonder in preparation for the Indianapolis 500 and the famous 1997 European Grand Prix session when Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen all ran the identical lap time, qualifying sessions don't stand out and they shouldn't. Once Sebastian Vettel split the Mercedes on the start of the race and Kimi Räikkönen followed, notice how the qualms were silenced and forgotten.
This issue about the lack of excitement in a qualifying session is a 21st century issue that should only bothers television executives because they need justification as to why it should be shown and needs ratings to prove why it should be shown over another sports competition. Beyond that, it should bother no one. We will only remember the race anyway.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Nico Rosberg's victory and Romain Grosjean's sixth but did you know...
The #2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier-HPD of Pipo Derani, Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown won the 12 Hours of Sebring. The #54 CORE Autosport Oreca of Colin Braun, John Bennett and Mark Wilkins won in Prototype Challenge. Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fässler won in the GTLM class in the #4 Corvette. Alessandro Balzan, Christina Nielsen and Jeff Segal won in GTD driving the #63 Scuderia Corsa.
Defending champion Jorge Lorenzo won the MotoGP season opener, the Grand Prix of Qatar. Thomas Lüthi won the Moto2 race. Niccolò Antonelli won in Moto3.
Jimmie Johnson surpassed Dale Earnhardt for seventh all-time in NASCAR Cup Series victories as Johnson scored his 77th career victory at Fontana.
Jason Anderson won the AMA Supercross race from Detroit after Ryan Dungey was penalized two positions after Dungey failed to adhered to the red cross flag for a down rider.
Austin Dillon won the NASCAR Grand National race from Fontana after Kyle Busch had a flat tire and Daniel Suárez ran out of fuel on the final lap.
Shane Van Gisbergen won three of four V8 Supercars exhibition races from Melbourne. His Red Bull Racing Australia teammate Jaime Whincup won the other exhibition race.
Coming Up This Weekend
Easter weekend and it appears every major series is taking the holiday off. The only events I can find next week are the Toyota Finance 86 Championship at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in Taupo, New Zealand and the FIM Motocross World Championship, which will race on Easter Monday in Valkenswaard, Netherlands.
Line Them Up
Formula One modified its qualifying format as the series tries to spice up its races. The qualifying session itself was a met with a large majority of negativity about the lack of cars on track opposed to the previous format. The goal was for a mixed up grid and we ended up with another all Mercedes front row, Lewis Hamilton scoring his 50th pole position and Nico Rosberg once again in second. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen started on row two. Max Verstappen might have been the one surprise in the session, as he started fifth ahead of Felipe Massa, Carlos Sainz, Jr. and Daniel Ricciardo.
A mixed up grid normally means a more intriguing race. A race with Lewis Hamilton start 12th and Nico Rosberg starting sixth and Sebastian Vettel starting eighth with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo on the front row on paper is a lot more intriguing than if Hamilton and Rosberg were on the front row again with Vettel starting third with Bottas fourth and Ricciardo back on row four.
Formula One is trying to shed its predictability but its chase for excitement could end up being just as harmful as another race with the Mercedes on the front row. A series should never make the competition too complicated, the simpler the better. People want an easy and quick explanation. If you can't explain it in ten to thirty seconds than people will give up on it. In this high pace world, people don't have time to spend five minutes trying to learn something as inconsequential as how the grid for any motorsport series is set.
Why are grids set the way they are today? There isn't a decree from above saying all races must be set by a qualifying session with the fastest starting first and the slowest starting last. That is how it is because that is the simplest way to do it. It's not contrived. It's easy for everyone to understand. Time ballast is an interesting concept but it is contrived and it can be difficult for people to understand. One race, a driver could get a half-second penalty and dropping from fourth to ninth on the grid. A race later, they could be getting no time ballast at all.
If series do not want to use a single qualifying session to set the grid, it should use something that is quick to explain and easy to understand. Series could go IROC style where the starting gird was the inverted results from the previous race. Last became first and first became last. It is easy to explain and it is easy to understand, however, the IROC format would introduce a whole new set of predictable outcomes to Formula One: The Manors being overwhelmed at the start and dropping to sixth and seventh before turn one and it would also probably increase the amount of accidents as you risk faster cars running over back markers. The other problem with the IROC format is it encourages poor finishes. If a team isn't have a great race, it could choose to retire its cars to set them up better for the next race and no one wants to see that.
During the IndyCar opening weekend from St. Petersburg, I wondered if you could set the grid based on the results of all sessions. Instead of using one session to set the grid, have the Friday practices and the Saturday morning session factor into the process. The results from each session could be averaged and the lowest average would start on pole position with the highest starting last.
For example, using the results from the two Friday practice, Saturday practice and qualifying from St. Petersburg, Simon Pagenaud had the lowest average across the four sessions with a 3.25 followed by Hélio Castroneves and Will Power tied a 5.0 and Jack Hawksworth at 5.5. How would ties be broken? I think who every had the best result in any of the sessions would be a sensible tiebreaker and Power was fastest in three of the four session so he would get the outside of row one and Oriol Servià would still have to drop to the back.
The front row would have flipped, Castroneves would still be third and Hawksworth would jump from tenth to fourth. The rest of the grid would have been as follows:
Scott Dixon (No change from actual grid position).
Juan Pablo Montoya (-2).
Takuma Sato (+4).
Graham Rahal (-1).
Ryan Hunter-Reay (-3).
James Hinchcliffe (-1).
Sébastien Bourdais (-3).
Carlos Muñoz (+1).
Josef Newgarden (-1).
Marco Andretti (+1).
Charlie Kimball (-1).
Tony Kanaan (+4).
Mikhail Aleshin (+1).
Alexander Rossi (+1).
Luca Filippi (-3).
Max Chilton (-3).
Spencer Pigot (+1).
Conor Daly (-1).
Looking at how the IndyCar grid would have lined-up, its not as drastic of a change as I thought it would be. If anything it confirms that qualifying is a true representation of who is fastest and who isn't. However, these Friday sessions would now matter and cars would force to take to the track even if it rained. One poor session, could hold a driver back while consistent speed throughout a weekend, like Hawksworth would be rewarded. A team couldn't choose to sit out a session because it would negatively affect its grid position.
Lets look at what the Formula One grid would have looked like with this format:
Lewis Hamilton (No Change. 1)
Daniel Ricciardo (+6. 5.75)
Nico Rosberg (-1. 6.25)
Kimi Räikkönen (No Change. 7.25)
Nico Hülkenberg (+5. 8)
Sebastian Vettel (-3. 8.75)
Max Verstappen (-2. 9)
Fernando Alonso (+4. 9)
Sergio Pérez (No Change. 9.25)
Carlos Sainz, Jr. (-2. 9.5)
Jenson Button (+2. 10)
Daniil Kvyat (+6. 10.75)
Felipe Massa (-7. 11.25)
Valtteri Bottas (-3. 12)
Kevin Magnussen (No Change. 14)
Jolyon Palmer (-2. 15.5)
Esteban Gutiérrez (+2. 16.75)
Marcus Ericsson (-2. 16.75)
Pascal Wehrlein (+2. 17.75)
Felipe Nasr (-3. 17.75)
Romain Grosjean (-2. 17.75)
Rio Haryanto (No Change (after the grid penalty). 19)
There would have been a lot of change because some drivers choose not to participate in Friday practices because of the wet weather but with this format drivers would have to go out otherwise they would end up hurting their average. Vettel was eighth, third and third in free practice two, free practice three and qualifying but since he never did a timed lap in free practice one, he was credited with 21st as he ran eight out laps but never did a timed one. Had Vettel even did a lap that was 11th, his average would have improved from 8.75 to 6.25, the same as Rosberg.
All this talk about qualifying format and after looking at the actual results from Formula One qualifying I thought to myself, "what's the big deal?" Hamilton was always going to end up on top. The Mercedes were always going to sweep the front row. The search for a system that punishes the mighty is a futile effort. How much different would the results have been if the previous format been retain? Maybe a Red Bull cracks the top three rows? Maybe Valtteri Bottas cracks the top ten? Maybe Daniil Kvyat starts ninth instead of on row nine? Maybe the Haas cars would have jumped the Saubers?
People cried about the lost of track time but what's the point of all that track time if the results would have been near identical? If anything, the new format is the most honest of them all. No more wasting our time, filling us with hope only to get the same predictable results. It gets right to the point: Mercedes is the fastest and everyone else is chasing them. Did anyone really expect the Mercedes to be caught out by this season and both end up starting outside the top eight? Did anyone really expect a Manor to end up 13th ahead of a Williams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso?
Qualifying isn't supposed to be entertaining. It is suppose to set the field. No more. No less. The increased television coverage of motorsports made qualifying into another one-hour programming and race directors and television executives have been looking for a way to make it must-see programming. It has made qualifying something it was never suppose to be. It is like batting practice. Go to a batting practice before a Major League Baseball game. You will see dozens and dozens of home runs. You will see excited children chasing down what their idols have smashed into the bleachers. Other than that, it is nothing more than players stretching, jogging in the outfield and shagging those balls that don't end up in the seats. It's not exciting and it doesn't matter. The game matters. What happens between the first pitch and the 27th out is what matters.
The same is true for a race. Think of all the great races. Think of all the great battle. When has a great qualifying session been brought up? Other than the new track records and the bump days of yonder in preparation for the Indianapolis 500 and the famous 1997 European Grand Prix session when Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen all ran the identical lap time, qualifying sessions don't stand out and they shouldn't. Once Sebastian Vettel split the Mercedes on the start of the race and Kimi Räikkönen followed, notice how the qualms were silenced and forgotten.
This issue about the lack of excitement in a qualifying session is a 21st century issue that should only bothers television executives because they need justification as to why it should be shown and needs ratings to prove why it should be shown over another sports competition. Beyond that, it should bother no one. We will only remember the race anyway.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Nico Rosberg's victory and Romain Grosjean's sixth but did you know...
The #2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier-HPD of Pipo Derani, Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown won the 12 Hours of Sebring. The #54 CORE Autosport Oreca of Colin Braun, John Bennett and Mark Wilkins won in Prototype Challenge. Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fässler won in the GTLM class in the #4 Corvette. Alessandro Balzan, Christina Nielsen and Jeff Segal won in GTD driving the #63 Scuderia Corsa.
Defending champion Jorge Lorenzo won the MotoGP season opener, the Grand Prix of Qatar. Thomas Lüthi won the Moto2 race. Niccolò Antonelli won in Moto3.
Jimmie Johnson surpassed Dale Earnhardt for seventh all-time in NASCAR Cup Series victories as Johnson scored his 77th career victory at Fontana.
Jason Anderson won the AMA Supercross race from Detroit after Ryan Dungey was penalized two positions after Dungey failed to adhered to the red cross flag for a down rider.
Austin Dillon won the NASCAR Grand National race from Fontana after Kyle Busch had a flat tire and Daniel Suárez ran out of fuel on the final lap.
Shane Van Gisbergen won three of four V8 Supercars exhibition races from Melbourne. His Red Bull Racing Australia teammate Jaime Whincup won the other exhibition race.
Coming Up This Weekend
Easter weekend and it appears every major series is taking the holiday off. The only events I can find next week are the Toyota Finance 86 Championship at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in Taupo, New Zealand and the FIM Motocross World Championship, which will race on Easter Monday in Valkenswaard, Netherlands.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Baby Steps Will Be Victories For Haas in 2016
Thirty years and forty years.
The amount of time since the last time an American team was on a Formula One grid and the amount of time since the last time an American constructor won a Formula One grand prix.
Haas F1 Team will end the first streak this weekend when its two VF-16 slot on to the grid for the 2016 Australian Grand Prix. After the debacle of USF1 in 2010, an American Formula One is a reality. All the doubters have been silenced as the cars have completed testing and completed testing in a respectable fashion and now the questions of if the team will ever show up are changing to about performance.
Can Haas score points this year? Can it beat Manor in the Constructors' Championship? What is the ceiling for this team in year one?
The lack of an American team never stunted my Formula One viewing or enjoyment of the series but now everything has been heightened. It feels like I have some skin in the game. I am not going to live and die with the team but I want the team to succeed. Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez aren't Americans and Gene Haas was totally wrong when he said that there was no American driver that made an impression on him and then Alexander Rossi went out and made five Formula One starts and finished second in the GP2 championship but that doesn't matter. Grosjean is a talented driver and has what it takes to run with the big boys.
I know championships and podiums are highly unlikely in year one but Haas F1 is an infant and each step must be treasured. Getting both cars to the finish of a race is a victory. Getting both cars to finish on the lead lap is a victory. Finishing in the points is a victory. Finishing ahead of the other Ferrari customer teams (Sauber and Toro Rosso) on pace is a victory. Once those little things can be ticked off, then the bar can be raised to shooting for podiums and actual race victories but that may be another five years to a decade away and even then it is not a given.
Manor's roots extend back to that 2010 season when four news teams were slated to join Formula One. USF1 turned out to be glitter and not gold and a bruise to the heart of American Formula One fans who bought into the idea. Team Lotus, Hispania Racing F1 Team and Virgin Racing all entered the ring and were slaughtered. The following season Hispania became HRT and Virgin became Marussia Virgin and the slaughter continued. HRT would return for one more season but disappeared after 2012. Team Lotus and Lotus F1 got into a legal battle that morphed the three year old team into Caterham while Marussia Virgin dropped the Virgin. The name changes did not provide any aid to the results. Both teams slogged at the back of the grid making little progress.
In 2014, Marussia finally scored points when Jules Bianchi finished ninth at Monaco while Caterham missed out on points in the same race by one position. We know how the rest of the story goes. Bianchi is severely hurt at Suzuka. Both teams struggle financially and miss rounds late in the season. Caterham failed to return for 2015 but Marussia, revived as Manor Marussia, comes back but were not able to replicate Bianchi's performance in Monaco once in 2015 as the Frenchman succumbed to his injuries.
In year seven, a finish in the points is still a victory for Manor and the same could be true for Haas if team owner Gene Haas has that type of patience. By year three he could be fed up with the amount of money drained into an effort that can't even score a podium once over twenty-some odd races and decide to sell the team off to a sheik or oligarch the stars and stripes could be gone from the Formula One after as many seasons as Vel's Parenlli Jones Racing and quicker than the Eagle and Penske.
Hopefully that isn't the case. Hopefully we see the streaks end. Hopefully an American team scores its first points since Alan Jones finished sixth for Team Haas, run by Carl Haas, in the 1986 Italian Grand Prix this year. American constructors have won two Formula One races that weren't the Indianapolis 500. We all know Dan Gurney's famed win in the Eagle at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix. Penske's lone victory was the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix with Northern Ireland's John Watson; a year after Mark Donohue's fatal accident at the Österreichring. Penske's victory is also the last podium for an American constructor.
A third American victory is not expected in 2016 but hopefully it is in the cards in the near future. For 2016, the baby steps are what should be celebrated.
The amount of time since the last time an American team was on a Formula One grid and the amount of time since the last time an American constructor won a Formula One grand prix.
Haas F1 Team will end the first streak this weekend when its two VF-16 slot on to the grid for the 2016 Australian Grand Prix. After the debacle of USF1 in 2010, an American Formula One is a reality. All the doubters have been silenced as the cars have completed testing and completed testing in a respectable fashion and now the questions of if the team will ever show up are changing to about performance.
Can Haas score points this year? Can it beat Manor in the Constructors' Championship? What is the ceiling for this team in year one?
The lack of an American team never stunted my Formula One viewing or enjoyment of the series but now everything has been heightened. It feels like I have some skin in the game. I am not going to live and die with the team but I want the team to succeed. Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez aren't Americans and Gene Haas was totally wrong when he said that there was no American driver that made an impression on him and then Alexander Rossi went out and made five Formula One starts and finished second in the GP2 championship but that doesn't matter. Grosjean is a talented driver and has what it takes to run with the big boys.
I know championships and podiums are highly unlikely in year one but Haas F1 is an infant and each step must be treasured. Getting both cars to the finish of a race is a victory. Getting both cars to finish on the lead lap is a victory. Finishing in the points is a victory. Finishing ahead of the other Ferrari customer teams (Sauber and Toro Rosso) on pace is a victory. Once those little things can be ticked off, then the bar can be raised to shooting for podiums and actual race victories but that may be another five years to a decade away and even then it is not a given.
Manor's roots extend back to that 2010 season when four news teams were slated to join Formula One. USF1 turned out to be glitter and not gold and a bruise to the heart of American Formula One fans who bought into the idea. Team Lotus, Hispania Racing F1 Team and Virgin Racing all entered the ring and were slaughtered. The following season Hispania became HRT and Virgin became Marussia Virgin and the slaughter continued. HRT would return for one more season but disappeared after 2012. Team Lotus and Lotus F1 got into a legal battle that morphed the three year old team into Caterham while Marussia Virgin dropped the Virgin. The name changes did not provide any aid to the results. Both teams slogged at the back of the grid making little progress.
In 2014, Marussia finally scored points when Jules Bianchi finished ninth at Monaco while Caterham missed out on points in the same race by one position. We know how the rest of the story goes. Bianchi is severely hurt at Suzuka. Both teams struggle financially and miss rounds late in the season. Caterham failed to return for 2015 but Marussia, revived as Manor Marussia, comes back but were not able to replicate Bianchi's performance in Monaco once in 2015 as the Frenchman succumbed to his injuries.
In year seven, a finish in the points is still a victory for Manor and the same could be true for Haas if team owner Gene Haas has that type of patience. By year three he could be fed up with the amount of money drained into an effort that can't even score a podium once over twenty-some odd races and decide to sell the team off to a sheik or oligarch the stars and stripes could be gone from the Formula One after as many seasons as Vel's Parenlli Jones Racing and quicker than the Eagle and Penske.
Hopefully that isn't the case. Hopefully we see the streaks end. Hopefully an American team scores its first points since Alan Jones finished sixth for Team Haas, run by Carl Haas, in the 1986 Italian Grand Prix this year. American constructors have won two Formula One races that weren't the Indianapolis 500. We all know Dan Gurney's famed win in the Eagle at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix. Penske's lone victory was the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix with Northern Ireland's John Watson; a year after Mark Donohue's fatal accident at the Österreichring. Penske's victory is also the last podium for an American constructor.
A third American victory is not expected in 2016 but hopefully it is in the cards in the near future. For 2016, the baby steps are what should be celebrated.
Monday, March 14, 2016
Musings From the Weekend: The Fish Aren't Biting
IndyCar opened it season with a respectable race from St. Petersburg. Lucas di Grassi can't catch a break. Brits continue to dominate. A German won in Canada. There was another photo finish in NASCAR but a usual face was victorious. Pirelli World Challenge had a first-time winner. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
The Fish Aren't Biting
Racer.com's Mark Glendenning interviewed IndyCar's chief marketing officer C.J. O'Donnell prior to the start of the IndyCar season. O'Donnell is in, arguably, the toughest job in motorsports. When we critique IndyCar's marketing strategy, or the lack thereof, this is the person at the helm that we are critiquing. He is the captain of that ship, which sometimes appears to be just circling around in the ocean hundreds of miles away from shore.
One of O'Donnell's jobs is getting people through the gates and IndyCar races on television screens and tablet screens and computer screens in homes where it currently isn't being viewed. Easier said than done. It is easy to throw O'Donnell under the bus and I don't mean to do that but there were a few things in the interview that left me scratching my head.
When talking about target audience O'Donnell said, "eventually we have to start thinking about Millennials." While Millennials might be the most hated generation in the history of the United States, they are becoming a more powerful part of American society. By definition, a "millennial" is someone born from 1981-1996. Those people are somewhere from as old as 35 years old to as young as 20 years old. So from newlyweds expecting their first child to juniors in college. He should be thinking about Millennials now.
The upper end of that generation are in the workforce, hopefully making money, hopefully have some type of disposable income but likely not much because of the mountain of student loans. The lower end of that generation are slowly drowning in student loans while balancing studies, a part-time job and scrapping money together to pay rent, purchase the basic necessities and try and have fun every now and then.
While neither of that sounds great for IndyCar, those people who are struggling are who IndyCar should be trying to appeal to now and while that do that with the Snake Pit every year at the Indianapolis 500, what is it doing to attract people to St. Petersburg, Iowa, Pocono, Texas, Toronto, Barber and Road America?
O'Donnell pointed out that the youngest and most diverse crowds are in cities, like Long Beach and when mentioning changing the scheduled O'Donnell added, "if your goal is to attract a younger audience, you're got to go fishing where the fish are."
When Glendenning brought up a shift from ovals to more street races, O'Donnell admitted that is something to think about down the line. First off, how many fewer ovals could IndyCar have? It's already down to five and IndyCar just added Phoenix. If history tells us everything, street circuits are not a stable foundation for a series to grow.
Look at the list of street courses that have come and gone in less than five years: Baltimore, Houston (twice), São Paulo, San Jose, Miami (on three separate occasions), Denver (twice), Las Vegas (twice).
Fishing where the fish clearly isn't a bulletproof plan. IndyCar's growth ultimately comes down to making an IndyCar race something people want to go to. Look at the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival. The event drew nearly 200,000 people and grossed over $84,000,000 in 2015. The event is held in Indio, California, a city around 85,000 in population and two hours outside of Los Angeles. Here is an event far from where the fish are that draws a crowd smaller than the Indianapolis 500 and probably makes more than IndyCar makes in an entire year. Why does it succeed? Because it is an event people want to go to. It is an event that draws the Millennial generation.
There are plenty of permanent venues, ovals and road courses, that are within two hours of metropolitan cities. Fontana is an hour away from Los Angeles and the IndyCar race drew well when it raced in October and only suffered when someone (Mark Miles) thought racing in June was a brilliant idea. Phoenix International Raceway is about a half-hour from the city of Phoenix. Richmond is within a half hour of downtown Richmond. Gateway is right down the road from St. Louis. Circuit of the Americas is a half-hour outside of Austin. The Milwaukee Mile, Kentucky Speedway and Chicagoland are three more tracks within an hour of U.S. cities. All have been IndyCar venues and all could be IndyCar venues in the future.
IndyCar and permanent venues need to figure out why IndyCar can draw people to street races such as Long Beach, St. Petersburg and Toronto but can't get people in other cities to travel a half-hour to an hour to see the same series and arguably better races. I love racing and I love IndyCar but clearly a race in and of itself isn't enough. IndyCar races need to be social events that draw the community out in droves. It needs to be more than a race but the race needs to critical to the existence of the event.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Juan Pablo Montoya but did you know...
Michael Lewis swept the Pirelli World Challenge GT races from St. Petersburg. Jack Roush, Jr. swept the GTS races.
Felix Serrallés and Felix Rosenqvist split the opening weekend of the Indy Lights season from St. Petersburg. Pato O'Ward and Aaron Telitz split the Pro Mazda races. Jordan Lloyd and Yufeng Luo won in U.S. F2000.
Lucas di Grassi took the checkered flag in the Formula E race from Mexico City but a disqualification gave the victory to Jérôme d'Ambrosio, whose only other victory came in Berlin last year after di Grassi was disqualified.
Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes split the World Superbike races from Buriram, Thailand. Jules Cluzel won the World Supersport race.
Ken Roczen won the AMA Supercross race from Toronto, his third victory of 2016.
NASCAR race from Phoenix. Kyle Busch won the Grand National Series race.
Coming Up This Weekend
The Fish Aren't Biting
Racer.com's Mark Glendenning interviewed IndyCar's chief marketing officer C.J. O'Donnell prior to the start of the IndyCar season. O'Donnell is in, arguably, the toughest job in motorsports. When we critique IndyCar's marketing strategy, or the lack thereof, this is the person at the helm that we are critiquing. He is the captain of that ship, which sometimes appears to be just circling around in the ocean hundreds of miles away from shore.
One of O'Donnell's jobs is getting people through the gates and IndyCar races on television screens and tablet screens and computer screens in homes where it currently isn't being viewed. Easier said than done. It is easy to throw O'Donnell under the bus and I don't mean to do that but there were a few things in the interview that left me scratching my head.
When talking about target audience O'Donnell said, "eventually we have to start thinking about Millennials." While Millennials might be the most hated generation in the history of the United States, they are becoming a more powerful part of American society. By definition, a "millennial" is someone born from 1981-1996. Those people are somewhere from as old as 35 years old to as young as 20 years old. So from newlyweds expecting their first child to juniors in college. He should be thinking about Millennials now.
The upper end of that generation are in the workforce, hopefully making money, hopefully have some type of disposable income but likely not much because of the mountain of student loans. The lower end of that generation are slowly drowning in student loans while balancing studies, a part-time job and scrapping money together to pay rent, purchase the basic necessities and try and have fun every now and then.
While neither of that sounds great for IndyCar, those people who are struggling are who IndyCar should be trying to appeal to now and while that do that with the Snake Pit every year at the Indianapolis 500, what is it doing to attract people to St. Petersburg, Iowa, Pocono, Texas, Toronto, Barber and Road America?
O'Donnell pointed out that the youngest and most diverse crowds are in cities, like Long Beach and when mentioning changing the scheduled O'Donnell added, "if your goal is to attract a younger audience, you're got to go fishing where the fish are."
When Glendenning brought up a shift from ovals to more street races, O'Donnell admitted that is something to think about down the line. First off, how many fewer ovals could IndyCar have? It's already down to five and IndyCar just added Phoenix. If history tells us everything, street circuits are not a stable foundation for a series to grow.
Look at the list of street courses that have come and gone in less than five years: Baltimore, Houston (twice), São Paulo, San Jose, Miami (on three separate occasions), Denver (twice), Las Vegas (twice).
Fishing where the fish clearly isn't a bulletproof plan. IndyCar's growth ultimately comes down to making an IndyCar race something people want to go to. Look at the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival. The event drew nearly 200,000 people and grossed over $84,000,000 in 2015. The event is held in Indio, California, a city around 85,000 in population and two hours outside of Los Angeles. Here is an event far from where the fish are that draws a crowd smaller than the Indianapolis 500 and probably makes more than IndyCar makes in an entire year. Why does it succeed? Because it is an event people want to go to. It is an event that draws the Millennial generation.
There are plenty of permanent venues, ovals and road courses, that are within two hours of metropolitan cities. Fontana is an hour away from Los Angeles and the IndyCar race drew well when it raced in October and only suffered when someone (Mark Miles) thought racing in June was a brilliant idea. Phoenix International Raceway is about a half-hour from the city of Phoenix. Richmond is within a half hour of downtown Richmond. Gateway is right down the road from St. Louis. Circuit of the Americas is a half-hour outside of Austin. The Milwaukee Mile, Kentucky Speedway and Chicagoland are three more tracks within an hour of U.S. cities. All have been IndyCar venues and all could be IndyCar venues in the future.
IndyCar and permanent venues need to figure out why IndyCar can draw people to street races such as Long Beach, St. Petersburg and Toronto but can't get people in other cities to travel a half-hour to an hour to see the same series and arguably better races. I love racing and I love IndyCar but clearly a race in and of itself isn't enough. IndyCar races need to be social events that draw the community out in droves. It needs to be more than a race but the race needs to critical to the existence of the event.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Juan Pablo Montoya but did you know...
Michael Lewis swept the Pirelli World Challenge GT races from St. Petersburg. Jack Roush, Jr. swept the GTS races.
Felix Serrallés and Felix Rosenqvist split the opening weekend of the Indy Lights season from St. Petersburg. Pato O'Ward and Aaron Telitz split the Pro Mazda races. Jordan Lloyd and Yufeng Luo won in U.S. F2000.
Lucas di Grassi took the checkered flag in the Formula E race from Mexico City but a disqualification gave the victory to Jérôme d'Ambrosio, whose only other victory came in Berlin last year after di Grassi was disqualified.
Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes split the World Superbike races from Buriram, Thailand. Jules Cluzel won the World Supersport race.
Ken Roczen won the AMA Supercross race from Toronto, his third victory of 2016.
NASCAR race from Phoenix. Kyle Busch won the Grand National Series race.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One starts with the Australian Grand Prix.
MotoGP opens under the lights in Qatar.
The 12 Hours of Sebring.
NASCAR will be in Fontana
V8 Supercars runs its second round from Symmons Plains.
AMA Supercross heads to Detroit.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
First Impressions: St. Petersburg 2016
1. Juan Pablo Montoya is back on top. After losing the championship in the final race in 2015, Juan Pablo Montoya finds himself back on top of the IndyCar championship as he scored his second consecutive victory at St. Petersburg. He drove a smart race and had to nurse the car home after having something break in his steering. His team had great pit stops and he made a great restart to pass Conor Daly for the lead. He never really felt any pressure once he got out in front. I don't think we are seeing 2015 repeat itself but Montoya on top of the podium at St. Petersburg is the one thing that is the same from last year.
2. Simon Pagenaud had a great race. He was up front all race and led a bunch of laps at the start. He kept his nose clean while others found trouble. He did nothing wrong all weekend but now Pagenaud has to take the great results from race one and turn it into something in race two. He couldn't stay at the front last year and that is why he finished 11th in the championship. This is Penske's first victory and first 1-2 finish since last year's Indianapolis 500
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay was consistently in the top ten and he squashed Penske's hopes of a 1-2-3 by passing Hélio Castroneves in the closing laps. This is Hunter-Reay's fourth podium at St. Petersburg. This is a much better start than 2016 and IndyCar heads to Phoenix and Andretti Autosport excels at short tracks. Honda appears to have closed the gap to Chevrolet and hopefully a less political and controversial IndyCar season than last year.
4. Hélio Castroneves finished fourth. He had a good race but not a great race. He never seemed like a threat for the victory. He stayed at the front though and it paid off. One thing I noticed was the primary tires really didn't work for Castroneves. He lost a lot of positions at the start and lost a lot of time in the final stint which allowed Hunter-Reay to get the final podium spot.
5. Mikhail Aleshin finished fifth and was all over Castroneves for fourth. If they hadn't run into lap traffic, Aleshin very well could have finished fourth. He showed he hasn't lost his touch despite only running the season finale last year. I think Aleshin is a driver to keep an eye on for the rest of 2016.
6. Takuma Sato finished sixth despite a flat tire on the opening lap of the race. Unlike other races where Sato finds trouble, he didn't in this one and it paid off. A.J. Foyt Racing had a great weekend as a whole but this team also has one or two great weekends a season and then 11 duds. Can this team have five or six great weekends with only three or four duds?
7. Scott Dixon finished seventh after being hampered by overheating issues late in the races and he wasn't alone. All the Ganassi cars struggled with overheating and they appears to be the only cars on the grid to have extra long pit stops to clear the radiators. Not a bad day despite having to make a 27-second pit stop at one point.
8. Carlos Muñoz finished eighth despite running into the back of Graham Rahal and causing a parking lot at turn three. It is kind of amazing Muñoz was able to finish eighth after that accident. He also benefitted from three or four innocent bystanders stalling because of that accident and falling a lap down as the marshals scrambled to restart cars.
9. Tony Kanaan finished ninth after starting in the back, pitting early, ending up in the front, almost ending up a lap down, ending up in the front after pitting off strategy and then falling to the middle of the pack after overheating issues.
10. Charlie Kimball was around the top ten all race and ended up tenth and in the tires as he spun on the final lap. The race was so hectic that only nine cars finished on the lead lap and an incident like the one Kimball had wouldn't be a gut-punch.
11. Jack Hawksworth finished 11th but could have finished better. He was one of those innocent bystanders because of the Muñoz incident. Not bad and hopefully he can make an improvement at Phoenix.
12. Alexander Rossi was the top rookie in 12th but Conor Daly in 13th had the best race of the rookies. Went off strategy, ended up in the lead after a caution, hung with the big boys of Penske and ran second to Montoya for about a dozen laps and then a slow pit stop and another pit stop for overheating dropped him from a possible podium to outside the top ten. Daly should have a lot of confidence heading into Phoenix. And Spencer Pigot finished 14th in his debut despite getting bumped around a bit. I wish Pigot would be at Phoenix but it appears we won't see him again until May.
13. Quick recap of the field. Marco Andretti had a great race going and one ambitious move on Luca Filippi ruined his birthday. He was a lot better than 15th and could have finished in the top five. Graham Rahal recovered to 16th despite being ran over by Muñoz. Max Chilton finished 17th after making a late pit stop. He was quiet all day. Oriol Servià was caught up in the Muñoz incident and could only manage 18th substituting for Will Power. He did a great job despite being thrown in the car this morning. James Hinchcliffe had a flat and then was caught in the Muñoz incident. Luca Filippi had a much better car than 20th shows. He could have had a top ten. Sébastien Bourdais disappeared after being caught in the Muñoz incident and Josef Newgarden set fastest lap but had electrical gremlins end his race after 47 laps. A lot of drivers will be looking for a do-over at Phoenix.
14. ABC improved its graphic but not its announce team. Eddie Cheever is an ass. Scott Goodyear is a broken record. ABC should put Jon Beekhuis in the booth, move Goodyear to the pit lane and get rid of Cheever. Cheever mentioned the Indianapolis 500 over 700,000 times in this race. Why? Focus on the race in front of you. That is what makes the NBCSN broadcasts so great. There is no point about talking about the Indianapolis 500 during a race that isn't the Indianapolis 500. Focus on the race in front of you and give it the respect it deserves.
15. A week off for the 12 Hours of Sebring and another week off for Easter after that. This was better than the typical St. Petersburg race. Now we get two weeks off. To be honest, I need to be eased into the season.
2. Simon Pagenaud had a great race. He was up front all race and led a bunch of laps at the start. He kept his nose clean while others found trouble. He did nothing wrong all weekend but now Pagenaud has to take the great results from race one and turn it into something in race two. He couldn't stay at the front last year and that is why he finished 11th in the championship. This is Penske's first victory and first 1-2 finish since last year's Indianapolis 500
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay was consistently in the top ten and he squashed Penske's hopes of a 1-2-3 by passing Hélio Castroneves in the closing laps. This is Hunter-Reay's fourth podium at St. Petersburg. This is a much better start than 2016 and IndyCar heads to Phoenix and Andretti Autosport excels at short tracks. Honda appears to have closed the gap to Chevrolet and hopefully a less political and controversial IndyCar season than last year.
4. Hélio Castroneves finished fourth. He had a good race but not a great race. He never seemed like a threat for the victory. He stayed at the front though and it paid off. One thing I noticed was the primary tires really didn't work for Castroneves. He lost a lot of positions at the start and lost a lot of time in the final stint which allowed Hunter-Reay to get the final podium spot.
5. Mikhail Aleshin finished fifth and was all over Castroneves for fourth. If they hadn't run into lap traffic, Aleshin very well could have finished fourth. He showed he hasn't lost his touch despite only running the season finale last year. I think Aleshin is a driver to keep an eye on for the rest of 2016.
6. Takuma Sato finished sixth despite a flat tire on the opening lap of the race. Unlike other races where Sato finds trouble, he didn't in this one and it paid off. A.J. Foyt Racing had a great weekend as a whole but this team also has one or two great weekends a season and then 11 duds. Can this team have five or six great weekends with only three or four duds?
7. Scott Dixon finished seventh after being hampered by overheating issues late in the races and he wasn't alone. All the Ganassi cars struggled with overheating and they appears to be the only cars on the grid to have extra long pit stops to clear the radiators. Not a bad day despite having to make a 27-second pit stop at one point.
8. Carlos Muñoz finished eighth despite running into the back of Graham Rahal and causing a parking lot at turn three. It is kind of amazing Muñoz was able to finish eighth after that accident. He also benefitted from three or four innocent bystanders stalling because of that accident and falling a lap down as the marshals scrambled to restart cars.
9. Tony Kanaan finished ninth after starting in the back, pitting early, ending up in the front, almost ending up a lap down, ending up in the front after pitting off strategy and then falling to the middle of the pack after overheating issues.
10. Charlie Kimball was around the top ten all race and ended up tenth and in the tires as he spun on the final lap. The race was so hectic that only nine cars finished on the lead lap and an incident like the one Kimball had wouldn't be a gut-punch.
11. Jack Hawksworth finished 11th but could have finished better. He was one of those innocent bystanders because of the Muñoz incident. Not bad and hopefully he can make an improvement at Phoenix.
12. Alexander Rossi was the top rookie in 12th but Conor Daly in 13th had the best race of the rookies. Went off strategy, ended up in the lead after a caution, hung with the big boys of Penske and ran second to Montoya for about a dozen laps and then a slow pit stop and another pit stop for overheating dropped him from a possible podium to outside the top ten. Daly should have a lot of confidence heading into Phoenix. And Spencer Pigot finished 14th in his debut despite getting bumped around a bit. I wish Pigot would be at Phoenix but it appears we won't see him again until May.
13. Quick recap of the field. Marco Andretti had a great race going and one ambitious move on Luca Filippi ruined his birthday. He was a lot better than 15th and could have finished in the top five. Graham Rahal recovered to 16th despite being ran over by Muñoz. Max Chilton finished 17th after making a late pit stop. He was quiet all day. Oriol Servià was caught up in the Muñoz incident and could only manage 18th substituting for Will Power. He did a great job despite being thrown in the car this morning. James Hinchcliffe had a flat and then was caught in the Muñoz incident. Luca Filippi had a much better car than 20th shows. He could have had a top ten. Sébastien Bourdais disappeared after being caught in the Muñoz incident and Josef Newgarden set fastest lap but had electrical gremlins end his race after 47 laps. A lot of drivers will be looking for a do-over at Phoenix.
14. ABC improved its graphic but not its announce team. Eddie Cheever is an ass. Scott Goodyear is a broken record. ABC should put Jon Beekhuis in the booth, move Goodyear to the pit lane and get rid of Cheever. Cheever mentioned the Indianapolis 500 over 700,000 times in this race. Why? Focus on the race in front of you. That is what makes the NBCSN broadcasts so great. There is no point about talking about the Indianapolis 500 during a race that isn't the Indianapolis 500. Focus on the race in front of you and give it the respect it deserves.
15. A week off for the 12 Hours of Sebring and another week off for Easter after that. This was better than the typical St. Petersburg race. Now we get two weeks off. To be honest, I need to be eased into the season.
Morning Warm-Up: St. Petersburg 2016
 |
| New year, same pole-sitter. Will Power starts first at St. Petersburg |
Simon Pagenaud will start second and he was 0.1971 seconds off his teammates pole position winning time as the French looks for his first victory with Team Penske. Three-time St. Petersburg winner Hélio Castroneves and last year's winner Juan Pablo Montoya will start third and fourth. Power, Pagenaud, Castroneves and Montoya started first through fourth last year. The last three St. Petersburg races have been won from fourth on the grid.
Scott Dixon made it a clean sweep of the top five for Chevrolet and was 0.2945 seconds behind Power. Dixon has three runner-up finishes at St. Petersburg. Ryan Hunter-Reay was the top Honda qualifier and his best lap in the qualifying session was a 60.5530, which came in the second round. Hunter-Reay has three top tens in the last four St. Petersburg races. Graham Rahal missed out on the third round of qualifying by 0.0363 seconds. This is Rahal's best start at St. Petersburg since he won his first career pole position their in 2009. Rahal is the only American to win in IndyCar at St. Petersburg. Sébastien Bourdais will start eighth, right next to his former Newman-Haas teammate. Last year, Bourdais scored his first top ten at St. Petersburg in his fifth start on the Floridian streets. He finished sixth.
James Hinchcliffe's IndyCar return will start from ninth on the grid. This is his third top ten start in five St. Petersburg appearances. Jack Hawksworth rounded out the top ten. This is the first time Hawksworth has qualified in the top ten since he started third at Belle Isle I in 2014, his sixth career start. Five times, Hawksworth has qualified in the top ten and four of those came in his first six starts. He started eighth last year at New Orleans but that field was set by points. Takuma Sato will start 11th. Sato had made it to the final round of qualifying in the last three St. Petersburg races. Sato's first top five came at St. Petersburg in 2011. Josef Newgarden joins Sato on row six. He finished 12th last year after starting tenth.
Carlos Muñoz will start 13th after finishing 13th in the championship last year. Charlie Kimball will join Muñoz on row seven. Kimball has never started better than 13th at St. Petersburg. Birthday boy Marco Andretti will start right behind his Andretti Autosport teammate in 15th. Andretti has never finished in the top ten at St. Petersburg in an even-number year. His best finish in an even-number year at St. Petersburg is 12th and three times he has finished outside the top twenty. Should Andretti win, he would be the tenth driver to win on their birthday. Luca Filippi makes his Dale Coyne Racing debut from the 16th position. Last year, Filippi went from 19th to ninth in his debut for CFH Racing.
Max Chilton makes his IndyCar debut from 17th on grid with Mikhail Aleshin starting 18th. Chilton finished 12th after an accident and fourth last year at St. Petersburg in Indy Lights. Alehsin's lone St. Petersburg start came in 2014 and he started 15th and finished 12th. Alexander Rossi will start behind his former teammate Max Chilton from the 19th position. Rossi finished 14th in his Formula One debut last year in Singapore. He also finished third in his GP2 debut in 2013 from Bahrain. Tony Kanaan rounds out the top twenty. This is Kanaan's worst start since Houston 1 in 2014, where he started 22nd. Three times has Kanaan won from outside the top ten and the furthest back was 15th at Iowa in 2010. A victory would tie Kanaan with Al Unser, Jr., Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon for most victories when starting outside the top ten.
Conor Daly and Spencer Pigot make it an all-American, all-rookie final row. Daly won at St. Petersburg in then-Star Mazda in 2010 and finished second in Indy Lights at the track in 2011. Pigot finished third last year in both St. Petersburg Indy Lights races.
The 2016 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg can be seen at 12:30 p.m. ET on ABC with green flag scheduled for 12:52 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 110 laps.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)