Yahoo Autos The RACER Mailbag, November 22
Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.
Q: I am new to IndyCar and am curious about the financial standing of A.J. Foyt Racing.
With one of the most recognized names in all of racing, I would think that getting financial backing, big money sponsors and capital would not be a big problem. But it seems like it would be classified as a small market team (using a baseball analogy), with quite a bit less money than other teams. I know they are trying to raise enough funds to keep Santino Ferrucci as a full-time driver, and really hope they do. This is probably not a simple answer, but any input or explanation would be greatly appreciated.
Steve Pizzute
MARSHALL PRUETT: The Foyt name is indeed legendary, but only to a highly specific, older demographic. To someone who graduated college or formed a small business in 2000, found and loves IndyCar, and has gone on to achieve great success as a CEO or seen their company grow to great heights, they’ve only known the Foyt team to be a midfield contender, at best, and a tailender at worst. That’s not what motivates most businesses to send loads of cash.
Now, if we’re talking about a successful businessperson who grew up idolizing A.J. from his achievements from the 1950s-1970s, and has the ability to spend big with the team, which is what they had with ABC Supply from 2005-19, it’s a different story.
The team’s current primary sponsor, Sexton Properties, falls into the latter category and the amazing Marlene Sexton, whose late husband idolized the four-time Indy 500 winner, stepped into the breach to keep the team afloat when ROKiT, the team’s replacement for ABC Supply, was allegedly late on payments in 2020 and 2021, and allegedly failed to pay a sizable portion of what it owed in 2022, which led to the company being taken off its cars at the halfway point of the season.
If you look back at Foyt’s cars, you’ll see smaller Sexton logos installed as associate-level support that maintained the great link between the two families. After ROKiT’s swift exit, Marlene Sexton did something rather amazing by elevating Sexton Properties to primary sponsor of the No. 14 Chevy to keep it — and the team — on the grid. It used its second seat, taken by Charlie Kimball and Dalton Kellett, as a for-pay entry, and in the case of Kellett, who raced for the team through 2022, his family-owned K-Line company was a rock-solid financial contributor, which also helped. Kellett’s family always paid their bills.
Moving to 2023, the Foyt team wanted to try something new by going with a new and likely faster driver in the second car. Kellett got better every year, and brought a good budget, but the team wanted to be more competitive with both cars and wanted to find a better driver who could also bring funding.
They went with Indy NXT race winner Benjamin Pedersen, which wasn’t a bad idea. Where things go sideways, according to what I’ve heard from multiple sources, is that Pedersen’s multi-year deal is said to be worth approximately half of what it takes to run a car per season. I’ve also heard the Pedersen family does not have to pay for crash damage which, in light of the numerous crashes — including the chassis that was destroyed on the first lap of the season — means the solid second-car budget it had with Kellett has been replaced by one that would place the No. 55 Chevy on precarious financial grounds.
Throw in the fact that Sexton Properties was only meant to be a stop-gap solution while the team went and found a new primary sponsor, and the Nos. 14 and 55 could use those big dollars you’d like them to have. Ferrucci placing 19th in the championship was a positive for the team, and the new link with Penske is certainly of great value and potential. If the team invests in the right business development people who can draw sponsors to the team, I’m sure some companies would find good value in getting involved. It’s been a bumpy ride since ABC left as Foyt’s full-season sponsor, but now the team has something it can sell due to its affiliation with Penske.
To most of us Sexton is just a logo, but to A.J. Foyt Racing, it was a lifeline. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Q: I was just reading about Graham Rahal signing a multi-year contract with RLL. I have been a fan of his for years, but given the past three or four years, I can’t understand him getting renewed, especially given some of the talent available. Other than the family connection, why is this a good thing for the team?
John Furnis
MP: He’s an excellent race day performer. He’s a passionate leader. He’s still young. He has and can continue to teach his younger teammates a bunch of things they would otherwise need many more years to learn on their own. His chassis and tire feedback is excellent. He’s a role model to the rest of the drivers with the multiple charities he supports and funds through racing. He finds/has found a huge amount of sponsors and sponsorship for the team. He’s capable of winning more poles and more races. How’s that?
Q: What is Andretti or others planning to help Colton Herta qualify for an F1 Super License so he can race in F1? What other racing options would help meet the qualification requirements that would not interfere with his IndyCar commitments?
Scott Thompson
MP: I’m happy to report Herta won’t be joining the Formula Regional Americas series to try and gain points towards an F1 license while also racing in IndyCar and IMSA. The best way for him to get that license is to do well in IndyCar, so his sights are set on winning the IndyCar title and opening the door to F1 with Andretti Global.
Q: Why didn’t Tony George just fund four or more drivers he thought were deserving or being passed over for lack of funding instead of creating an entirely new series and basically making the series irrelevant? It is not like anyone who did well in the IRL stayed to become big stars — they went to NASCAR ASAP. Plus, the schedule ended up having less ovals than before.
Steve
MP: I might not love what George’s Indy Racing League did to American open-wheel racing, but the main question posed here is one I don’t follow. George, like thousands of people before him, didn’t like something in the marketplace and felt he could do something better, so he brought his own product to market. It’s the spirit behind every business I can think of. My father was a mechanic at a dealership, thought he could do bigger and better things for himself and his family if he started his own car repair shop, and did. In his case, he was right. As for George, I can’t fault the guy for taking his shot.
The IRL wasn’t the only series to see its best leave for bigger opportunities. Jacques Villeneuve won the CART title and left for F1. Alex Zanardi won CART titles and went back to F1. Juan Pablo Montoya won the CART title and left for F1.
Q: Last week, Stuart from Pittsboro asked about how many people it took to lay the 3.2 million bricks at IMS. Here is what The History Channel says:
“Instead of the concrete surface that other racecourse builders were using, Fisher covered his track with a sticky amalgam of gravel, limestone, tar, and 220,000 gallons of asphaltum oil. For months, 500 workers and 300 mules laid layer after layer of the gooey mixture on the Indy loop and pulled steamrollers across it, pressing the roadway into a solid mass.”
D. Mason Crawfordsville, IN
MP: The Mailbag delivers again!
Q: Regarding Stuart from Pittsboro’s question from last week’s Mailbag. The First Super Speedway website may offer some insight. I’ve found an article mentioning about 200 workers being employed for the initial grading works. Looks like there is plenty of information to be found on the early years of the speedway on there.
Michi
MP: The Mailbag delivers again… this time, with conflicting information!
So we still can’t agree on how many people it took to build IMS. But we can say for sure that it was built. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Q: Seems fairly clear after a year of LMH vs. LMDh competition in the WEC that the performance of the two Hypercar platforms is not balanced, since LMDh is yet to win a race. I agree with you that, to paraphrase Mars Blackmon, “It’s gotta be the tires!” The LMH all-wheel drive hybrids get more performance out of theirs than the RWD LMDh cars, especially as the stint goes on.
So how about this for simple solutions? a) Give the LMDh entrants more tires, enough to reduce or eliminate double-stinting, or b) reduce the length of the stints for all Hypercar competitors, thus reducing the tire wear advantage?
I think either of those is simpler than messing with the cars themselves.
Ed Joras
MP: Giving LMDh entries more tires would mean they’d make more pit stops than the Hypercars, and the extra time spent on pit lane would likely negate any on-track advantage those tires would produce. This is history repeating itself. Audi brought its all-wheel-drive 200 model to Trans Am in 1988 and destroyed the rear-wheel-drive cars. The SCCA kicked it out of Trans-Am after one season. So Audi built a wilder AWD car, the 90, and took it to IMSA’s GTO class in 1989. It destroyed the RWD cars. And IMSA booted it after one season.
So, when the ACO/WEC and IMSA couldn’t agree on a single prototype formula — with IMSA wanting the cost-friendly RWD LMDh cars as the only solution — the ACO/WEC decided on doing its own thing with Hypercar where AWD and other high-cost items would be permitted. And, in the first combined WEC season with Hypercars pitted against LMDhs in the books, we have the totally unsurprising score of 7-0 for AWD Hypercars…
Exactly how the ACO/WEC brings the different formulas to a level playing field is beyond me because if it didn’t work 30-plus years ago with the AWD Audi, I don’t know what they could do next year without neutering the Toyotas and Ferrari, which would cause a revolt. It’s just as dumb as dumb gets.
Q: This year, the IndyCar support series witnessed broken barriers. In 2024, Myles Rowe will be only one step from becoming the first African-American to become an IndyCar driver since George Mack in 2002. But Myles is not the only driver who is breaking barriers.
We can also talk about Ugo Ugochukwu, who recently finished second in the Italian Formula 4 Championship and became champion in a three-event Euro 4 series. I was so sad after his weekend in Macau, but he has proven that he is the best U.S. prospect for 2024 who will compete in Europe. He recently tested major FIA F3 machinery, but he is a long way from a top 10 performance. And as a McLaren development driver, what are Zak Brown’s comments about his 2023 season as Ugo gets prepared for the Formula Regional European Series in 2024?
JLS, Chicago, IL
MP: McLaren’s Emanuele Pirro, who heads its driver development efforts, sent this in as a response:
“Ugo has had a very good 2023 season with the runner-up position in the Italian F4 Championship and the win in the Euro 4 championship. In particular, I liked his progression throughout the season, finishing very strong in both series. This is a path which is in line with the high target that we have for him and the other members of the Driver Development Program, which is to become F1 ready and earn a seat in the McLaren F1 team.
“In the 2024 season, Ugo will step up in Formula Regional by Renault. With his strong 2023 performance, he has secured one seat in the Prema Power team for which he raced this season. Then in the McLaren DDP, the expectations are high because we want to find and nurture the Landos and Oscars of the future. For the moment, Ugo is well on target and I wish him the best of luck.”
Q: Back in the day there was a lot of talk about how some drivers were hard on their equipment (namely the Andrettis) while others were much gentler (the Unsers) and that this was largely responsible for the lopsided Unser vs. Andretti Indy 500 victory totals.
I am really curious to get your thoughts on: 1) Do you think these reputations were deserved? 2) Was how one took care of his/her equipment back in the day a major factor in the number of one’s race victories? And 3), does driver care of the car matter less, more, or the same compared to the past?
For me, it seems that different eras of drivers require different skill sets, making generational or even series comparisons impossible. Just look at Scott Dixon, the master of fuel-saving — a skill that is irrelevant in current F1 racing.
Ed, Hickory Hills, IL
MP: You’re right about the difference of skills required of each era’s drivers. Indy and sports cars (and F1 cars, and so on) weren’t capable of withstanding maximum attack from their drivers, so engines, transmissions, clutches, brakes, and tires were treated as precious commodities that would fail or massively degrade if they weren’t driven below their peak potential.
Dan Gurney — an endurance racing guru — gave that advice to A.J. Foyt before the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans: Take your time with each shift, baby the brakes, and we’ll be there to go for the win at the finish. Foyt listened and won the world’s biggest race on his first try.
Move into the 1980s, and mass-production of Indy and sports cars, and the design technology improved, reliability improved, and cars could be pushed harder for more of each race. Get to the 1990s, and the big growth in computerization in design and development, plus huge expenditures from engine, transmission, and chassis manufacturers, and we were gifted with cars that could be driven to their limits without constant failures. That’s only improved with each new decade.
As for Mario and Michael, I can’t recall seeing anything that stood out as being overly harsh, but Mario was a magnet for odd reliability issues, and Michael was the most aggressive driver of his time, so that can’t be ignored. If Michael came along at the same time as Dixon, he’d have five or six championships, no doubt. Other than conserving a set of tires to be as good as possible for an entire stint, there’s nothing today’s IndyCar drivers need to preserve.
“…and back there is where we’re going to finish if we don’t look after the brakes.” Rainer Schlegelmilch/Motorsport Images
Q: So, Big M, here is the deal:
1) Chip Ganassi hired the fifth driver to keep Honda from doling out another engine to a competitor. I believe this.
2) That thing going out in the desert with the rich people? Great idea! I know you said billionaires never pay money for stuff. Fair enough, but I think a couple of Billionaire Boys will sneak in somehow and be giddy watching IndyCar. Then watch the moolah roll in! I believe this (maybe).
3) A question: How many drivers typically show up with helmets in hand to be available in case another driver cannot race?
4) Another question: What is the strangest thing you have ever encountered in the paddock?
Sincerely, Janis (Straight Outta Tampa), running life on wets on the driest track ever.
MP: Let’s roll:
1) The driver (Kyffin Simpson) hired Chip Ganassi to run a fifth car for him, not the other way around, so it would have to be Simpson’s master plan to stress the Honda engine lease ecosystem, which would make him a teenage Dr. Evil.
2) The Las Vegas Grand Prix, which looked more like an Instagram influencer’s post than anything I’d associate with a motor race, was just as empty and vapid as expected.
3) In what kind of race? If It’s IndyCar, you’ll have at least one or two — often those who are giving two-seater rides who are somewhat recent and capable — and then you’ll have one or more who were in the series in the last year or two who are trying to build opportunities for themselves. I do wonder if we’ll start to see more of an F1-style approach being taken by some of IndyCar’s bigger teams by having a reserve driver onsite at every event who is prepared to work if called upon.
4) A rival driver/team owner under our car — in my early days as a mechanic — when we arrived at the track and found him looking at how we built the car, its suspension settings, and so on. We put the cars — these were smaller sports prototypes — up on stands overnight, put covers on them, and had enclosed EZ-UP tents over each car with sidewalls installed. Started undoing one of the sidewalls and saw a pair of legs protruding from under the car… so he crawled out after being caught and walked off without fisticuffs being involved. He was a likeable and well-known character, so we couldn’t get too mad at him.
Q: Does the fact that Andretti’s hope of an F1 berth is intimately tied to GM have any impact on his Honda relationship in IndyCar?
Shawn, MD
MP: I’d have to assume the answer is no, since Andretti also serves as Acura/Honda’s factory IMSA GTP team, which is a lucrative contract, just as it was when Andretti was well paid to run one of Acura/Honda’s ALMS LMP2 programs from 2007-2008.
So, that’s answering the question from a “would being a Honda IndyCar team be problematic for GM if Andretti and GM get to go F1 racing together” perspective. Chip Ganassi is Honda’s leading IndyCar team and also runs GM’s biggest factory GTP effort, and Roger Penske runs GM’s leading IndyCar team and Ford’s leading NASCAR team, so major brand conflicts are by no means new.
Now, if GM were to decide that it wanted Andretti to only runs its products in IndyCar and F1, I’m sure it could make a sizable offer to bring the team back to the Bowtie where Andretti won its last IndyCar championship (in 2012) and used its engines through 2013 before shifting to Honda. If the business case is made, most teams would be willing to leave for a manufacturer that’s willing to do more than its current partner.
Q: To the RACER Mailbag team: I’m in off-season mode and I started thinking about the legends of racing that I have seen win a race in person. Now, the names that I may have left off this list are arguable, but this is what I’ve come up with based on my own rigorous definition of a legend of motorsport. I was hoping the Mailbag team could offer their same list just for fun… Hope this is fun for the readers.
My list: Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Al Unser Jr., Johnny Rutherford, Michael Schumacher, Emerson Fittipaldi, Rick Mears, Steve Kinser, Bobby Rahal, Helio Castroneves, Jeff Gordon and Dave Darland. (Gotta throw a Kokomo legend in the list). Regrettably, I never saw my IndyCar heroes, AJ, Mario, or Michael win one.
Hope everyone has fun with this.
Andy, Detroit
MP: From your list we share Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, Rick Mears, Bobby Rahal, and Helio Castroneves. I can add Mario Andretti and Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy, Greg Moore, Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser, Gil de Ferran, Jacques Villeneuve, Danny Sullivan, Arie Luyendyk, Tony Stewart, JPM, and a bunch more before 2000.
On the sports car side, Hans Stuck, Hurley Haywood, Allan McNish, Tommy Kendall, Scott Pruett, Tom Kristensen, David Brabham, Geoff Brabham, Davy Jones, Juan Manuel Fangio II, PJ Jones, Al Holbert, Brian Redman, Bob Wollek and tons more as well.
Granted, most of the wins I’ve seen have been a function of my job as a crew member or media member whose livelihood is what takes me to dozens of tracks each year, so it would be weird if I wasn’t there to see a lot of legends reach victory lane since I got my start in 1986.
KELLY CRANDALL: I’ve curated my list by including those I witnessed win a race while attending as a race fan and now as a media member (in no particular order). It is subjective, what one considers a “legend” but I think you consider their body of work or major events and overall impact on the sport. And I’m sure there are folks that I’ve forgotten over the years, unfortunately.
Tony Stewart; Jeff Gordon; Kevin Harvick; Kyle Busch; Jimmie Johnson; Kyle Larson; Kurt Busch; Shane van Gisbergen.
MARK GLENDENNING: Like everyone else, I’m stuck on how you define “legend” and I also have a crap memory. Here’s who comes to mind:
IndyCar: Scott Dixon, Will Power, Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Sebastien Bourdais, Juan Pablo Montoya. Robin probably would have classified T.K. as a legend so let’s include him, too.
F1: Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen.
NASCAR: Kevin Harvick.
Sports cars: Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, Dindo Capello.
Touring cars: Peter Brock, Craig Lowndes, Mark Skaife, Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen (although I watched him win a NASCAR race), Andy Priaulx, Alain Menu, Yvan Muller, Jason Plato.
CHRIS MEDLAND: Mine’s sadly quite boring on this one — blame periods of dominance in F1 and only a few trips to other races being possible! But I’ve got Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon… and without knowing your rigorous definition Andy, do we count Kevin Harvick?
Probably the first Kevin Harvick photo we’ve ever run in the Mailbag, so let’s make it a doozy. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images
Q: With complaints about track limits in F1 in the news again, I feel the need to once again promote the factually best option for dealing with the matter without compromising safety.
All that’s needed is a one-two meter wide strip of grass or dirt, not gravel, on the inside and outside of every corner. It’s enough to unsettle anyone who goes too wide to the point that if they hold it they absolutely deserve to hang on to any advantage gained. But it allows the long tarmac runoffs to be kept for improved safety while also retaining much of the “character” of a circuit that those runoffs can eliminate.
Sure, its one-two meters less of that paved runoff to reduce speed when control is lost, but in concert with proper crash barriers I don’t see that being enough to be a serious issue, especially as it eliminates the need for those [beeeep] sausage curbs that everyone but the FIA seems able to see the dangers of!
FormulaFox
CM: To be fair, the complaint was less about the track limits themselves and more about the policing — or lack of — at certain corners. Drivers learned they could get away with cutting Turn 6 in Austin because there wasn’t a fixed camera on it in the way required.
But in terms of your idea, the problem isn’t F1, it’s motorbikes and track days. Such a solution would likely throw someone off a bike if hit at any angle, or potentially cause a normal driver in their own car to lose control totally rather than just run wide on a normal run-off area. Track days can be very lucrative for circuits, which often also need to host other big events to help sustain the cost of F1.
Personally I think a removable solution needs to be found, so that tracks have the ability to return to boring run-offs quickly and easily after F1 leaves. That would be expensive, I’m sure, but this is meant to be the pinnacle of motorsport and I agree there are occasions when the track limits situation makes a mockery of that claim.
Q: What if track limits were enforced electronically? A car exceeds the set limits, a reduction in power is automatically instigated. Perhaps it would reduce power at the next straight so the power cut would not happen in the middle of a turn.
Bill Branagh
CM: On this idea, Bill, I don’t think it needs the punishment part — three strikes and you’re out as it currently stands would be fine if it was electronically enforced, because drivers would know instantly when they’ve exceeded the limit as they could be informed by a beep or alert on the dash. It would also mean there wouldn’t be any arguments over whether part of the car had stayed in contact with the track if it could be policed in that way.
A power reduction would be dangerous, as if a car was following closely and in the slipstream (and a driver might even be more likely to run wide when under pressure) then the drop in speed could cause a big accident. Just think Mark Webber in Valencia…
Q: I don’t have any skin in the game because the Vegas ticket prices were outside my income bracket, but if I paid for tickets and was told they were going to run the session without fans and we had to leave, I think I might have lost my mind. Montreal is potentially doable for me, but this has me wondering if I want to attempt that? (My son has been asking for a couple years now). First, why did this happen? Second, what is being done to ensure it doesn’t happen again? Third, were spectators who stuck around compensated at all?
Ryan, West Michigan
CM: It was a pretty embarrassing start to the weekend it must be said, given how all the talk from F1 and the LVGP was about how the race was going to set new standards. But it does happen from time to time, as it did in Azerbaijan in 2019 and Monaco a few years before that. It happened because until you run multiple current F1 cars over drain covers you’ll never know if you’ve secured them well enough or not, and the huge amounts of downforce they create acts like a sucker trying to pull them up.
Now don’t forget they can’t be permanently secured because access is needed after the race weekend is over (hopefully never during!), and as car performance increases you have to increase the resistance to stop them being dislodged. In the end I believe the solution was to fill the space below with sand and aggregate, to change the pressure difference either side of the cover, and it worked well as there were no further issues.
Spectators on one-day tickets were compensated, but only in the region of an offer of a $200 voucher to use at the official shop, rather than a direct refund. For some I’m sure that was a deal they were happy with if they had something they really wanted to buy, but for others it won’t have been enough as it’s almost encouraging them to spend more when they deserve their money back.
Q: F1 fan since 1966. I did not attend the Las Vegas race, but two of my friends did so I’m looking at it from their viewpoint since they’re the young people who got interested in F1 from Drive To Survive. One of them was in Montreal during the V10 era so she had something to compare Vegas to. First thing that they noticed and didn’t like was the sound of the cars. “Plastic-type V6 Mustang sound” was her comment. “Not impressed.”
I know that’s no fault of Las Vegas but it just shows one how the sound of those V10s still rings in her head 18 years later.
The inability to travel to other parts of the track during practice was a big negative. Nothing going on using the track all day was another issue. It seemed to them this was more about the show then about the race itself, and they followed that up about how many of the people attending weren’t really motorsport enthusiasts. Before the race itself felt more like New Year’s Eve than a race.
Hotel prices along with high ticket prices were another issue. They didn’t get them until the week before, when prices plummeted. The late hours were another problem. This same couple attended their first NHRA national a few weeks before in Las Vegas. They left there with an experience they couldn’t really describe and really wanting more of it, and it only cost $50 each for Friday tickets. Couldn’t believe how good a deal that was. They didn’t feel the same from the F1 event.
The last F1 race I attended was 1980 at Watkins Glen. On TV, the Las Vegas race was pretty decent; however, for someone like me to attend I’d offer a few suggestions. This is a race in the USA, therefore it only makes sense that TV coverage should be geared to that. Starting time for East Coast residents at 1am is ridiculous, not to mention on Thursday and Friday everyone looked tired. I’d suggest a starting time of 5pm. Race starts in daylight, ends in nightfall and the Europeans can just go to bed late like our citizens did this year.
Make large sections of the track general admission for Thursday for $50. Rest of the weekend, make ticket prices reasonable. Have support races of some kind throughout the weekend. F2, Porsche Cup, Vintage F1 (would be great) or heck, make a deal with IndyCar to have Indy NXT. Something on track to build the excitement. They do some of that, and this old guy will make the four-hour trip.
Nick Plenzick, Clarkdale, AZ
CM: I think everyone would love more track action over the weekend, Nick, and hopefully that will be the case next year. The problem is partly space — where do you put a support paddock? — but mainly time. The track needed to be closed for the shortest amount of time possible as it was being re-opened to traffic each day, given the importance to move people around to locations on the Strip.
That’s also a reason for the late timing, as the city only allowed F1 to close everything down late at night to try and minimize disruption, while still taking place at a time that some in the city would deem it an entertainment option. TV timings did play some part, but as races in Japan or Australia show, they’re not everything and I agree it should be more U.S.-friendly in future (it was also a brutal schedule to work on the ground, I can tell you).
That’s odd about the inability to move to other parts of the track. Usually GA tickets allow roaming and on practice days you can sit in any grandstand. It may well have been that they would have been allowed to do so, but for the issue with the track that basically meant there was no running on the Thursday night.
I’d expect hotel prices to be much lower next year, as all stakeholders seemed to admit that was a big error, and there will be cheaper tickets, too. But not as low as $50, as the race does cost a lot of money to stage and needs to make money, and is targeting itself at much higher price points. As frustrating as that is for people who want to go, having three races with three different pricing structures in the U.S. helps differentiate them too, so isn’t a silly move even if there will need to be better value for money in 2024 if the race wants to sell out.
All that said, I was pleasantly surprised how Vegas was still exactly how Vegas is across the weekend, only with loads of F1 fans walking around in merchandise. F1 was clearly in town, but on the whole it didn’t stop the usual entertainment, so it would be tough to be bored.
A screaming V10 would certainly sound epic, though.
A half thumbs-up seems about right. Francois Tremblay/Motorsport Images
Q: With the announcement of GM committing to being an F1 PU manufacturer, is Formula One Management more or less likely to accept Andretti?
Unlike everyone else, I think GM may have given Formula 1 an easy out: Accept GM and reject Andretti. Before GM signed on as a PU manufacturer, FOM was in an all-or-nothing position: rejecting Andretti was rejecting GM. Now, they can reject Andretti and dare GM to pull out — which is what I think they will do.
What are your thoughts?
Ed Joras
CM: I think it makes it more likely. GM has made it clear it’s only interested in partnering with Andretti and not entering at all costs, and the timing of 2028 allows it to make good on that promise. If Andretti’s bid for 2025 or 2026 doesn’t get approved — and there really should be movement over the winter — then GM won’t have committed anything yet.
You don’t actually get to accept a power unit manufacturer. FOM has no say in that. The FIA simply has to homologate it as a legal power unit, and a team sign a partnership to run it. So F1 itself could never make that decision, and it now means if FOM turns around and still says no to Andretti then it will be turning down a power unit manufacturer at the same time, which would likely be extremely damaging.
FOM needs an even more compelling and clear reason to say no after GM’s statement.
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, November 20, 2013
Q: I had many opportunities to speak with Dario Franchitti, probably like many fans. Dario and I talked about what it was like to drive Jim Clark’s Indy 500 Lotus and most recently the great racing at Baltimore. Every time we talked, he treated me as if I were his neighbor in Scotland.
But more than that, I loved how he took time with the kids who wanted a photo or autograph. Dario will retire as one of the all time best IndyCar drivers. And winning the Indy 500 three times makes him immortal. So I know first hand how engaging he is and I had the good fortune to see all his 500 victories, but I’m aware that you are closer to him and know much more about what went into his success as a driver. What will you remember about Dario?
Gerry Courtney, San Francisco, CA
ROBIN MILLER: How quickly he adapted to 900 horsepower and the CART tracks, but mostly how instantly competitive he was against a great field of drivers. He wasn’t intimidated or awed by his new surroundings, he walked in like he belonged, because he did. And I loved to argue with him about cars, tracks, TGBB and all things racing. But his personality, sense of humor, intelligence and sense of history made him as good off the track as he was on it.
