Yahoo Autos The RACER Mailbag, October 11
Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. Due to the high volume of questions received, 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: Romain Grosjean is popular, but his Andretti tenure has been a real mess: woefully inconsistent, plenty of plain bad luck, weird problems with the car (the steering column that breaks twice?) and some awful strategy calls combined with bad pitstops from the team.
He’s definitely more affected by confidence more than most drivers. If he’s on a streak then he’s damn quick; if he’s on the back of a few bad results then he pushes too hard and errors creep in. Just bring the car home, for crying out loud. I’ve screamed at the TV more times than enough.
I still remember Laguna Seca when he was driving for Dale Coyne Racing… Romain pushed like hell, sending his car on like no tomorrow. I’d love to see a big reset and a return to Dale Coyne Racing, IndyCar is better for having Romain in my opinion.
Jack Taylor, UK
MARSHALL PRUETT: It was a bad season for drivers who were at the end of two-year IndyCar contracts: Grosjean, Jack Harvey, Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud and Conor Daly, too, I believe.
Romain’s speed is highly respected, and that’s the thing some midfield teams are interested in acquiring. At Coyne, there were no expectations and he was impressive in that no-pressure environment. At Andretti, as the replacement for Captain America, it was nothing but pressure, and it took he and race engineer Olivier Boisson most of 2022 to shape the car’s handling into something he could drive hard.
Things got off to a great start in 2023, but there were too many driving errors, mechanical miscues, and emotions boiling over. Andretti is the wrong team for such things to happen, and that’s why the relationship deteriorated so quickly. If this happened at a place like Team Penske, you can rest assured a dressing down from Roger, or an ice-cold come-to-Jesus interaction with Tim Cindric would have kept Romain in line and focused on getting the best from himself.
For where I understand he’s most likely headed, Juncos Hollinger Racing, I do have concerns about the same boiling over of emotions between driver and team owner, so if that deal gets done, let’s hope matches are kept far away from what could be a combustible situation.
Q: Nolan Allaer just won the Formula Ford SCCA national championship in the same car his uncle used to win it in 2011. Maybe the DW12 isn’t so old after all. ;)
Tom Hinshaw, Santa Barbara, CA
MP: The difference here is Formula Fords never stop being relevant or cool. I frequently dream of having my 1980 Tiga Formula Ford back in my hands…
Q: I have a suggestion for Penske Entertainment about how to market its potential exhibition yawner at Thermal Club next spring. How about calling it the Austin Powers Classic? $1 million was a whole lot of money in the ‘60s. Today, not so much. Not even second place in so many of the ubiquitous weekend golf tournaments. I highly doubt touting the size of that purse will draw a lot of interest. If anything it’s maybe a little embarrassing for the country’s top open-wheel series.
Not sure who calls the shots, but seems like they (and IndyCar fans) would have been better off staging a real points race on one of the NASCAR sunbelt tracks. It’s a perfect time to have leveraged a new venue, since NASCAR so badly wanted to be back on the oval at Indy. Instead, appears NASCAR actually had some influence, even if slight, on the Texas cancellation. Like I said, who calls the IndyCar shots?
Jim, Indy
MP: Of the many complaints about this event, I’ll admit that I never imagined the size of the purse would come under fire, but that’s just a failure of my imagination.
Grosjean’s still looking for his happy place in the IndyCar paddock. Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
Q: Can we expect NASCAR to ruin Iowa for IndyCar the way it did Texas? Since NASCAR hasn’t been to Iowa in years, it will most likely to have few test sessions there. What if they want to put down that oil slick crap? Does IndyCar have recourse to not race there if that happens?
Tom Ross, Morro Bay, CA
MP: Let’s hope NASCAR keeps its resin in the containers. IndyCar and Hy-Vee are wedded with Iowa, which is the company’s home state, so no, Iowa’s happening for sure.
Q: After 50 years, the Reno Air Races are done. To fill the void, is it possible to get IndyCar to investigate a race at that airport instead?
Barney, Reno, Nevada
MP: Only if Comedy Central promises to film a new episode of its rebooted Reno 911 series during the event.
Q: Anyone have any idea what IndyCar’s mission statement is, or would be if it had one?
BCNMKR
MP: It took me a moment to realize you weren’t suggesting the mission statement was to make bacon (not kidding).
Would IndyCar’s mission statement be different from any other sporting league that tries to provide athletic competitions for the entertainment of fans, and the enrichment — either financial or through personal fulfillment, or both — of its participants in a multi-event format where a champion is crowned?
Q: While Porsche Rennsport was going on a couple weekends ago, I was at the American Speed Festival at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, MI. One car I saw was the Robertson Racing Ford GT that got on the class podium in the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans. Andrea Robertson was there with the car, and I had a really nice chat with her talking about her Le Mans experience and running the team.
If I recall, there were a couple of privateer European teams, and I thought the Robertsons had the only American team to field a Ford GT at the time. Do you remember if Ford ever considered a factory effort with the Ford GT during the mid 2000s, or was that program meant to be for privateers like the Robertsons? Also, how did the Le Mans regulations work at that time to allow a five-year-old car like that to compete long after Ford stopped making the GT?
Brandon Karsten
MP: If Ford had designs on a factory effort, I don’t recall them being shared with the public. Oliver Kuttner was central, I seem to recall, in making the privateer GTs for the Robertsons and others. We saw one dressed in Falken Tire’s colors in the former American Le Mans Series, and in purple for Petit Le Mans, and in Europe, as you mentioned. I was at Le Mans for the car’s debut in 2011, and if my memory isn’t failing me, it was accepted through its homologation and running in the ALMS GT2 category. The ACO was a bit more lax with such things during this late 2000s and early 2010s era; we had old Spykers and a Lamborghini and some other oddities that brought variety, but little in the way of true competition for the standard bearers of GT racing at Le Mans.
Q: I hear that the powers that be in IndyCar shut down any dissenting voices. Journalist credentials can be withdrawn if an article displeases. What is it they are afraid of?
Oliver Wells
MP: Not true. But it’s fair to say the series’ displeasure with critical journalism can be felt in a variety of ways that are hard to ignore. I wouldn’t say ‘afraid.’ I’d say ‘unaccustomed to.’ The Penske Corporation, and its offshoot Penske Entertainment, haven’t been in the crosshairs of criticism from fans and reporters like this before, but it comes with the territory in IndyCar, so it has taken some time for the series’ new-ish owners to understand that criticism isn’t an enemy to defeat through harsh reactions. It’s something to defeat through improvement and growth.
Q: I have kind of a multi-part question on new hybrid unit for next year.
First, you mentioned that the wastegates get a break from P2P levels of boost next year. I know IndyCar has always adjusted the boost levels for various track types. The 500 never gets full power for the race, short ovals can be different from road and street etc. Is that still going to be the case next year, with various boost targets for various types of tracks? Any word on whether the hybrid power will also vary?
Second, has there been any decision on if regen will be automatic or driver controlled?
Bonus question! Hybrid units will add weight in the back, Gen2 of the aero screen will lower weight, lower the center of gravity, and shift the weight to the rear as well. I also heard there is a new magnesium-based trans case. As more details emerge, can you do a full review of all the 2024 changes, and how the total weight of the car is changing as well as how center of pressure and center of gravity will be affected?
Tyler, Milwaukee
MP: IMSA does this very thing with varying electric boost outputs, Tyler. At Daytona for the 24 Hour race, it’s 40hp for the GTP cars. Everywhere else, it’s 67hp. IndyCar can do the same thing with its energy recovery system, so it’s just a case of waiting to see what outputs they’ll choose for the various tracks. As for turbo boost settings, that’s another question waiting to be answered.
No decisions yet on how regen will happen. The new bellhousing and gearbox case is mag. CoP shouldn’t change unless aero changes are made, but yes on the rest. The hybrid powertrains are still in testing mode, so we aren’t in a place where every aspect of the units and how they’ll be used have been locked down.
Q: This Indy NXT season was considered sub-par due to the part-time entries. Half of the grid either completed or almost completed the full season. We are not sure how the grid will become for 2024. But the Indy NXT champion only gets 15 points towards the FIA Super License. USF Pro 2000 only has 10. USF2000 champions are yet to be given FIA Super License points. I understand that these series are considered the road to IndyCar, but if the Indy NXT grid increases, what will it take for the FIA to increase the Super License points? And when will the USF2000 and USF Juniors be eligible to receive Super License points?
JLS, Chicago, Ill
MP: Other than having been told by Jay Frye that IndyCar continues to talk with the FIA about giving drivers in American open-wheel racing more points, it’s just not something I follow or care much about since my focus is on what happens here and not how to make it easier for our drivers to go to F1.
If you want evidence that IndyCar doesn’t shut down dissenting media voices, you could start with this guy. (No, not Tim Cindric. The other guy). Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Q: Why doesn’t IndyCar blatantly rip off, I mean learn from, IMSA and follow a similar formula to LMDH? GTP has Acura, BMW, Cadillac, and Porsche with Lamborghini joining next year. Telling the manufacturers to bring whatever engine they want to mate up to the a spec gearbox and hybrid system would mean they wouldn’t be playing catch-up to Chevy and Honda for years, like a new manufacturer would now.
Using the latest version of the DW12 monocoque as a spine for them to build their own body kits around that must have X of downforce and Y of drag would allow for brand identity that the current spec body kit doesn’t have.
Yes, I know that that would bring in the specter of BOP, but I see it as a necessary evil to achieve a larger number of manufacturers.
HB
MP: Think of an IMSA GTP car as a size 15 shoe. Then think of the space for engines between the tub and bellhousing in an IndyCar as a size 7.5 shoe. Except for the Acura, the other motors won’t fit. Ain’t happening, unfortunately.
Q: I continue to laugh at the crazy photo captions in the Mailbag. Perhaps I can fill in some details for the caption of the Milwaukee Mile from 2003.
The goofy guys in the costumes on the go-karts are the Usinger’s Sausage mascots. They appear everywhere in and around Milwaukee at all sorts of sporting events including The Milwaukee Mile. They do staged contests with whatever theme fits the sporting event. In this case, driving go-karts.
John Becker
MP: We need a sausage-kart race with the slowest 12 IndyCar drivers. Winner of that race starts from IndyCar’s pole. Last place drives the pace car.
Q: Long time reader, first time question. Will the new 2024 IndyCar hybrid engine require an external starter? I know in the past there was discussion that it wouldn’t, but that was in the old designs. I am unsure if the newer design Honda and Chevy are co-designing will remove the need for an external starter. I hope so!
Eric Williams, Champaign, IL
MP: That’s another wait-and-see item, Eric. At the Sebring hybrid test I attended in August, external starters were used.
Q: I’m writing this one because of something you said in a video from Laguna Seca about a situation with Romain Grosjean. My wife is very angry because you didn’t say anything about it. She asked me to send this email to the Mailbag so she could know what this fact is and telling me “I don’t like him any more because I want to know what happened.”
Also, the local media mentioned this year about some interest from Sao Paulo, Brazil in hosting an IndyCar race at Interlagos. Was this information received in IndyCar circles and how much of this is true? Is there any possibility, after all the issues with the older contract? (And even with some unpaid money from the CART days).
Renato Tonini, Sao Paulo, Brazil
MP: I asked IndyCar when the Brazil rumor made the rounds and was told there was nothing there. I mentioned in that video I’d either share the story in another video or on my podcast, and did so on my podcast. Please tell your wife she’s awesome.
Q: In last week’s Mailbag Craig asked why marshals still wave flags directly below the new electronic flag boards. As someone who has been volunteering to wave flags since 2007, I’ll say your answer was pretty spot-on (because yes, if IndyCar took away waving the flags completely, most marshals wouldn’t come to IndyCar events anymore, especially when other series don’t use the lightboards. Same reason I lost interest in Timing and Scoring when transponders came around).
The local flag conditions on the boards are controlled by each corner, but most of us come out to wave flags, not push buttons; so if nobody came out at all, there would be nobody to push those buttons. I figured I’d also provide what we are told at our morning meetings from IndyCar:
The cloth flags are still used for several reasons: the lightboard system may fail, and it is also only capable of showing one flag at a time. So the highest priority flag is shown on the board (usually yellow), but if a surface is also needed for debris, or a white for a safety vehicle, or both, then the cloth flags must be used to communicate the additional information. For consistency and clear messaging, whatever is on the board will be shown as a cloth flag as well so that there is no confusion over the board showing one thing and the cloth flags a different message.
The cloth flags are (in most cases) directly beneath the boards so that the zone the flags/boards cover are the same (typically in racing, a driver is considered to be under control of a yellow flag when they reach the invisible line across the racing surface perpendicular to the plane of the flag being shown, and are not out of the control of that flag until they reach the same perpendicular line for the following green flag. This is known as flag-to-flag coverage, vs. flag-to-incident coverage that is usually used in clubs). So if we are looking for passes under yellow etc., it is easier to define the yellow zone when the flags and boards are lined up. Makes life simpler for IndyCar race control as well.
Also, while this isn’t from IndyCar, most flaggers will tell you that body language makes a big difference to how drivers respond to a waving flag. While light boards are more visible, that flashing light looks the same whether it is a single car spun and stalled with one wheel on course but offline, or if it is a five-car pile-up causing 90% course blockage. Most flaggers however, will be doing what we call ‘ape**** flagging’ in the second scenario, and most drivers, even at the club levels, pick up on those nuances. Eventually the drivers are getting information over their radios as to the nature and location of the incident, but until that happens the flags/boards are all they have to rely on. IndyCar did experiment with using the boards only for yellow flags at Nashville in 2022. The cloth flags were immediately brought back at the next event…
Heather S., Currently waving flags at Petit Le Mans
MP: Thanks for the full rundown, Heather, and for your volunteerism.
Max better obey now before the guy on the flagstand is forced to escalate to apt*** flagging. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Q: We’ve heard many times that Sebring, specifically the south half, is too bumpy for IndyCars to race on. I’m curious about the exact nature of that. Are the bumps so big that it’s literally impossible to drive an IndyCar on that portion of the track, or is it just that the setup would need to be so compromised that they’d be too slow for an exciting race? How do the bumps compare with IndyCar’s bumpiest street circuits?
Mike, California
MP: A bit of both, Mike. IndyCars are designed to work best with the bottom of the cars extremely low to the ground; this is where the extreme performance is made possible. To run at Sebring, the cars would need to be raised far too high to clear the bumps to perform in their intended window.
No street or road course compares to the bumps at Sebring.
Q: I got to wondering where Simon Pagenaud could possibly end up for next season. It’s looking like he might be left out to dry without a ride, which would be disappointing – especially if he doesn’t get to make a return after that unfortunate incident that had him not able to finish the rest of this past season.
Even if he can’t find a seat, I feel it’s right that MSR honor their relationship in a particular way that I think would be a really cool idea for next season. Since Castroneves is retiring from the IndyCar Series and just doing the Indy 500 as a one-off in the new third car, why not use that third car for the Indy Grand Prix a couple weeks prior in May as well… but for Pagenaud?
This way Simon and MSR’s time can end with them actually having an official last race together, so to speak, and it would be commemorating the inaugural winner of the IMS road course – it’s 10 year anniversary since that win.
We’ve seen on multiple occasions that entries that are made primarily just for the 500 go ahead and race in the May GP anyways due to its convenience to the 500 event schedule.
Put Pagenaud in the third entry for the Grand Prix. Then Castroneves in it for the 500. Last season’s MSR full-timers make their return in May at their respective tracks they’ve won at many times. Make it happen, MSR!
Wes Compton
MP: I really love this idea, Wes. I’ll mention it to Mike when I see him this week at Petit Le Mans.
Q: Will we have to pay to see NASCAR races on TV? If so, when does that take effect?
Chris Fiegler, Latham, NY
KELLY CRANDALL: Well, you’re already paying the cable company to see NASCAR races on TV, but I assume you mean through streaming. There has been no straight answer from NASCAR, but some sort of streaming piece is expected in the next media rights deal. NASCAR, however, doesn’t appear to want to move all its races off TV. A new television deal begins in 2025 and is in the midst of being worked on, so time will tell if the current partners – FOX and NBC – stay or if someone else comes into the picture and the TV schedule lines up.
Q: Alex’s letter to Kelly on Sep. 4th spurred a thought in my mind.
If Andretti is ever allowed on the FIA Formula 1 grid, how about we lead the call for him to give Kyle Larson some testing opportunities? Michael has always been good about investing in and supporting American talent.
You can’t pigeon-hole Larson as a stock car driver, since he also races open-wheel. And soon he’ll be getting some rear-engine, high-downforce experience. He is an above-average driver, at worst, on road courses.
What’s to lose? At worst, Andretti gets a bunch of media exposure and Larson has fun. At best, America found the discipline-transcending star it has been waiting for.
Kristopher, Seattle, WA
KC: Kristopher, you go ahead and lead the charge on that, but I have a feeling that Michael Andretti isn’t focused on Kyle Larson and testing opportunities right now. As for Larson, he seems pretty happy being a stock car driver and dirt driver, but he will get to live that dream of competition in the Indianapolis 500 next season. Going to Formula 1, however, has always seemed unrealistic to him.
Q: Is Kyle Busch retiring?
Janet Teague
KC: Not unless he wakes up one day and decides to walk away, like Carl Edwards did a few years ago. Busch has a multiyear contract with Richard Childress Racing and has repeatedly stated he plans to continue racing for many years.
Kyle updating his LinkedIn profile before jumping into the car at Charlotte. Or not. Motorsport Images
Q: With all the hullabaloo regarding Andretti getting stone-walled by FOM and the grid got me thinking. Over there years, I’ve seen teams come and go, the grid ranging from less than 20 to over. However, I don’t ever remember the other teams being so opposed to a new one. Was Nelly right? Must it be the money?
Shawn, MD
CHRIS MEDLAND: Put simply, yes. I sort of get it – why would a team say “Sure, I don’t mind losing out on millions of dollars so someone new can have them”? – but it’s not meant to be a decision made by the teams. Perhaps the biggest difference is between management, as under Bernie Ecclestone there were multiple individual commercial deals and a far less even split, so the arrival of new entrants didn’t always come to the cost of existing constructors. Whereas now, it’s a much more equitable distribution that could be impacted, which means they all stand to lose out at least a little.
Q: With all that has been written about Andretti Global’s F1 bid and FOM’s likely rejection of it, I have not seen this brought up:
How do the heads of American tech companies in Formula 1 feel about this? After all, you can trace a lot of F1’s current financial largesse to sponsorship contributions from American tech companies, like Oracle, Alphabet, Dell, Zoom, AMD, etc. I stopped counting at 25 significant sponsors.
The other issue is that most of the commentary I have seen is written from a European, old world point of view. We look at things differently here. I know that Americans confound Europeans. We enjoy confounding Europeans. I want to make two points and get your comments, if you’re not too confounded.
1) From a demographic and psychographic standpoint, Michael and Mario Andretti look a lot like the heads, or founders, of those American tech companies I spoke of – either immigrants to the USA themselves (Mario) or children of immigrants (Michael). Families that migrated to America for opportunity.
2) From the point of view of many Americans, this looks like Old Money trying to keep New Money out of the country club. Or keeping the riff-raff out of high society. If that’s how this comes off, this is not good for F1 in the USA: our money is good for a round of golf as a guest, but we can’t be a member of the club.
My question is ultimately this: As this fight goes on, do you see major American sponsors of F1 putting quiet pressure on the principals of the teams they sponsor? And if they do, will it make a difference? Or will the teams go to the mat to keep America’s best known racing family and one of its industrial giants out of the club, no matter how it looks?
—@S2000_moose, just outside of the Kansas Speedway
CM: Honestly, I really don’t see sponsors putting any pressure on. Quite the opposite, they are getting more value out of their existing deals by already being in F1, and by being associated by one of just 10 teams. That gets diluted slightly too if there’s another team that other sponsors are involved with (as well as the risk of slightly less TV time in each race because you’re fighting for it with another team and therefore could get less exposure at times).
The main thing I keep reiterating – and having reiterated to me on all fronts, even by those linked with the Andretti project – is that this is nothing to do with Andretti specifically. It’s about an 11th team, whatever that team might be or wherever it might come from. Audi was pushed towards partnering with an existing outfit by the powers that be too, rather than being encouraged to try and become a new team.
Unless a proposal is given to them that makes them all better off, I do expect the teams to stick to their guns and not want another team added to the grid. That team happens to be Andretti, but it would be the same if it was someone like Stewart trying to come in again with the backing of Jaguar. If it threatens their ability to make money and be worth as much as possible, then they’re against it.
Q: Heard rumors of peacemakers within the F1 circle working toward getting Andretti Global into F1 without allowing an 11th team. This would be by brokering the sale of an existing team such as Alpine, Alpha Tauri or Williams to Andretti.
My question: When the teams line up for the start of the first race of the 2026 season, what is most likely?
a) Andretti Global is on the grid as an 11th team
b) Andretti Global is on the grid after obtaining control of an existing team
c) No soup for Andretti Global — they are on the outside looking in watching 10 other teams compete.
Ed Joras
CM: This is a great question because it’s so complex at the moment Ed, I can see it getting into legal matters. I think b) is the least likely to happen, because Andretti tried to go down that route and got so close with Sauber but it shows how nobody is selling, and even those suggesting they might are asking for huge money.
But all three are definite options. If you force me to make a call, the infuriating responses so far from in Qatar suggest I’d have to put c) before a).
Q: With four races in a row in the Americas (three on consecutive weekends), what are the logistics of team travel and supplies? I assume the entire teams don’t go back to their home bases, at least for the first three, but are personnel shuttling back and forth and parts being resupplied?
Tom Hinshaw, Santa Barbara, CA
CM: So, the cars themselves go straight between venues – Ollie Bearman was in Qatar with Haas because it was the only chance for him to do a seat fitting before his Mexico FP1 run! The car won’t go back to base for any proper amount of time, but will instead go straight on to Austin. So many components will also go straight from one race to another in the Americas.
Almost all personnel will go straight from one to the next, though some who can rotate (for example press officers and marketing personnel) will swap in and out and only work a selection of them. That also allows those team members changing over to either take components back to base with them or bring new ones out. You’d be surprised at the amount of equipment chaperoned in that way on commercial flights!
Joke’s on him. F1 cars don’t have doors. Seriously though, cargo containers are a home away from home for F1 equipment during multi-race flyaway trips. John Toscano/Motorsport Images
Q: Are F1 drivers not allowed to wear cool suits?
Ed Joras
CM: No they’re not, because they’re not FIA-homologated (for fire resistance etc), but also drivers wouldn’t fit in the seats in them, so tight are the cockpits and seat moulds due to the g-forces involved. They wear cool jackets right up to getting in the car and as soon as they get out at particularly hot venues.
Q: Josef Newgarden posted a question on Twitter about how the IndyCars compare to F1 cars in terms of cockpit temps and humidity. Many of the F1 drivers were complaining of the heat in Qatar, but there does not seem to be any statistics around how hot it was in the car, humidity levels and such.
I doubt race promoters take these things into consideration when scheduling races, but it is something that should be thought about.
Jim Doyle, Hoboken, NJ
CM: You’re already onto something Jim, as the FIA is looking into it after Qatar. Ways of monitoring cockpit temperatures and improving airflow are on the agenda, but also potentially blocking races taking place in certain locations at specific times of year.
Q: Maybe I missed something but wasn’t there some kind of legal action going on between Guenther Steiner and Gene Hass? Steiner believed he was to have some ownership in the team. Can you give any updates?
Bob Anderson, Arlington Heights, IL
CM: I’m assured this was a completely false story (I can’t print the word that was used to describe it) that originated from a publication that doesn’t get much attention in the F1 paddock due to the number of debatable articles it runs.
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag. 10 October, 2014
Q: Last week during the press conference for the Japanese GP, all the drivers were asked what the most powerful car they had driven by age 17. Sebastian Vettel mentioned that he tested a Champ Car at that age. This would put it around 2004 or ’05. I’ve never heard anything about this test, so do you have any information about where it was and who he was testing for?
Artem, Kitchener, ON
ROBIN MILLER: He was the Formula BMW champion and earned a test in Derrick Walker’s Champ Car at Homestead’s infield course. Here’s a quote from Walker: “He was bloody impressive, and I told somebody ‘That kid could be Formula 1 champ some day.’” Good call, D.W
