Yahoo Autos The RACER Mailbag, September 25
Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.
Q: So much is made of IndyCar driver and sponsor moves. Can you do a piece or expound here on some of the silly season related to the engineering side? With a spec series and so many years with this chassis, we know engineers can make a huge difference. Of course the relationship between the driver and engineer, along with the overall chemistry and philosophy of the team, can make some engineers look like rock stars while others who thrived in one setting suddenly struggle at others.
What is lacking at RLL to make the engineering side gel together or make a difference? I know in this series if you miss it badly one year you are going to really be on your back foot for at least two years playing catch-up while everybody pulls away. Also, who are the junior engineers or Indy NXT engineers ready for that promotion that will make a difference?
Doug Elmore
MP: Think of the car and driver like the quarterback and football, and the race engineer as the head coach and offensive coordinator calling the plays.
We went into depth on what RLL needs in all areas in the last two Mailbags — if you missed them, they’re here and here.
The next assistant or performance race engineer to get the bump to race engineer is Kate Gundlach at Arrow McLaren. NXT race engineers have too much to learn in their first IndyCar seasons to be hailed as difference-makers in waiting. One who made the transition who has impressed me is Andretti’s Ron Barhorst, who was moved up to Devlin DeFrancesco’s IndyCar program in 2023 and over to Meyer Shank Racing in 2024.
Arrow McLaren’s Gundlach is next in line for a pit stand promotion. Joe Skibinski/IMS Photo
Q: Since it’s a long off-season, here are some of my bold predictions:
PREMA convinces Roger Penske to sell them three charters. We already know that Callum Ilott has a well-deserved seat. The other two will be filled by Danny Riccardo and Logan Sargeant, who will both be paid $7 million each and not run ovals.
N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy announces the return of the Marlboro Grand Prix of the Meadowlands in 2027, despite a ban on tobacco advertising and the fact that the area is nothing like it was in 1988. The race will erroneously be advertised as happening in New York City. Drivers’ social media explodes with trips to the American Dream Mall, its indoor ski slope, and water park. Regular mall-goers will exclaim “Pato who?” Bruce Springsteen will be the grand marshal. N.J. native and former Atlantic driver Frankie Muniz gives the command to start engines.
Every oval track IndyCar has ever run on wants back on the calendar. For free. Yes, including Trenton.
FOX announces Greg Gutfeld will be IndyCar color commentator.
Alexander Rossi joins FOX in the booth, though his career is brought to a quick end by pummeling Gutfeld on a live broadcast.
Paul Tracy replaces Rossi and the booth becomes a lovefest for the rest of the season.
Santino Ferrucci becomes Penske Perfect, shaves every day and maintains a buzz cut.
Zak Brown suggests that Dallara create a modern Champ Car DP-01 to replace the current car. Every single driver loudly and forcefully endorses this. In response, Roger tells Scotty Mac no golf for two weeks. Will Power gets docked 10 championship points. Josef Newgarden takes full responsibility for the entire field’s reaction, including those of Sebastien Bourdais, Nelson Philippe and Bruno Junqueira.
Dale Coyne Racing partners with OpenAI and has ChatGPT create two drivers who don’t need salaries: Elf and Sonny. Elf freaks out at its first oval practice and is replaced by Katherine Legge on ovals, which makes switching the livery easy.
Ryan Eversley and Sean Heckman interview Roger for Dinner with Racers. Penske Entertainment bans its release. Sean says many unrepeatable words and never eats another chicken sandwich.
L’il Dave Malukas learns from last off-season’s mistakes and doesn’t exercise at all. A.J. Foyt endorses his decision. A few people at St. Pete call him L’il Bigger Dave.
Ed, Jersey
MP: I can confirm nine of the 11 as being true. Also:
Roger actually merged his outfit with theirs. Welcome, Team PREMA.
The return of the Meadowlands GP will also feature the return of New York’s Dennis Vitolo, who will try to set a record by vaulting over the back of every car.
After the checkered flag waves at The Thermal Club, IndyCar will drive southwest to the former site of the El Cajon Speedway and hold a non-points oval race on the 0.375-mile bullring.
That being Gutfeld with co-host Titus. San Mateo, California’s most famous son: Tom Brady. Second on the list: Dennis Haysbert. Third on the list: Gutfeld. No. 9,453,103: Yours Truly.
Rossi does seem like there’s been a big outburst brewing for at least a decade, right? If he retires without throwing a proper wobbly, his entire career will have been in vain.
PT also replaces Gutfeld on his own FOX show, which is renamed I WUZ HACKED with the Thrill from West Hill. It lasts one episode.
Ferrucci also adds to his sleeve of tattoos by going full Post Malone and becomes the first Penske driver with face and neck tattoos, Penske threatens to fire him, Ferrucci counters with a wager that if he wins the Indy 500, he gets a lifetime contract, keeps the tats, and Roger has to get a “Santucchi” tattoo on his forehead. Ferrucci hires former teammate Sting Ray Robb to engage all of his followers on PRAY.com to ask the Lord to let him win.
Speedy Dan Clarke, Andrew Ranger, and Cedric the Entertainer, former co-owner of the unfortunately-named CTE Racing Champ Car team, blast Newgarden as being fake.
Coyne goes one step further, hiring Sonny Hayes to drive, then learns he’s actually hired an in-character Brad Pitt, who contests the full season. IndyCar’s popularity triples.
Upset by the blunt nature of the questions, Penske gets loud and abruptly ends the interview, then tries to get DwR’s partners to drop Heckman and Eversley. Having failed, he buys the property, renames it Dinner with Roger, but it takes years for anything new or original to be produced. Longtime DwR fans ask if it would have been better to leave Heckman and Eversley in charge and implore him to sell the beloved show to Liberty Media.
Malukas is eventually banned from dining at Charlie Browns after his new nickname is replaced with Lil Chungus.
Q: What a disgusting embarrassment for IndyCar. Who in the world thought that clown that did the invocation at Nashville Sunday was appropriate? Regardless of your religious beliefs, anybody that witnessed that deserves an apology from Penske Entertainment. As a former pit lane employee with IndyCar, the invocations given by Jason and Chuck from IndyCar Ministry were always a moment of reflection prior to the next two hours of chaos. That was worse than the Steven Tyler anthem..
Paul, Indianapolis
MP: This sure was a polarizing thing. I didn’t care.
Q: Is there any word on the schedule expanding to maybe 20 races in the coming years? Any other ovals that could happen? Richmond might race well based on what we have been seeing (regardless of Miles’ chalking up personal wins based on not going back to old tracks).
P.S. Pato O’Ward being filmed hammering down the slice of pizza for a minute before noticing the camera and winking without changing his chewing pattern was great. He is a natural. The series needs to follow him anywhere he wants to go, including Mexico. Maybe they will send some cameras when he races NASCAR.
Jordan Glenn
MP: There’s talk of adding one race, which would push the calendar to 18 races unless one of the current stops is dropped. I haven’t heard of more ovals being readied for addition.
Before leaving Indy I took a moment to visit the billboard Pato put up in honor of Mark Miles. It’s spectacular.
Q: Before the long, dark, cold winter sets in, with the sun not shining until next year’s first race, do you know anything specific about the drivers that are not on salary with their teams, and what they might be doing in the off season?
Do they have regular jobs? Are they racing elsewhere? Not your Dixons or Powers or Hertas, but people like Harvey and VeeKay and Stingray or Pietro? Oh, don’t forget Conor Daly, Mr. High Groove-Good bye!
I asked Robin Miller about this a few years ago because I heard that JR Hildebrand taught some engineering classes at his local university.
Sean Raymond
MP: If you watched Jersey Shore back in the day and recall their GTL — gym, tan, laundry — routine, it’s pretty similar for all IndyCar drivers, paid or paying, with their GMGSSGG — gym, more gym, simulator, streaming, gaming, golf — routines.
For any of the IndyCar regulars you’re familiar with, they earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, at the low end, and low/mid/high millions per year. If they work at a business during the offseason, it’s one they own and are trying to grow, like Graham Rahal’s GR Performance, which just opened a giant and beautiful new facility next to his father’s racing team (and across the street from Group 1001, the source of Andretti Global’s financing) in Zionsville, Ind.
That’s one way to get the message across. Photo by Steve H. Shunck
Q: Mark “The Mouth” Miles has commented in the past that IndyCar doesn’t want to go back to tracks where drivers were killed or severely injured. If that’s the way they feel, why are we still going to IMS?
There are lots of great ovals around, just need to find sponsorships. Any hope?
Mike, Cincinnati
MP: It’s never lost on me how only a few letters are needed to change “ironic” into “moronic.”
If a quality oval brings a proposal to Penske Entertainment, I’m sure it would welcome the outreach. I’m unaware of any “new” old ovals being in play in the short term.
Q: I am absolutely gutted for Will Power after his seatbelt became undone during the race at Nashville, destroying any chance he had of winning the 2024 IndyCar title.
Is it rare for the clasp on a driver’s belt to become undone like that, causing a safety issue and forcing a driver to have to pit? When is the last time this happened? I heard something about the belt clip being redesigned recently. Has the cause of the failure been determined? If a crew member was to blame, how would that have been dealt with post-race?
David Colquitt
MP: Yes, extremely rare. Not the fault of a crew member. Hard to say when it happened last since it takes making such a failure public; the last most of us recall was also with Penske with AJ Allmendinger in the Indy 500. I checked in with the team and the source of the failure hasn’t been determined. The belt/restraint system manufacturer Schroth asked for the system to be preserved as-is for them to disassemble and investigate on their own and they’ll report back to Team Penske once the process is completed.
Q: With Ganassi downsizing from five to three cars, how likely is it that they’ll field a fourth or even fifth car at the Indy 500, and who could drive it? Any surprises possible?
Is there any chance of seeing a German driver in IndyCar in 2025 or 2026? There were some rumors about Dale Coyne talking to Mick Schumacher, which would be huge for German IndyCar fans. But I doubt it’s serious, is it?
Frank Lehmann
MP: On Ganassi and an extra entry, it would depend on sponsorship first, and the quality of the driver. If the team has a great sponsor and the ability to improve its organization through improving its financial resources, running an extra car would make sense. And/or if it had an amazing driver who could run up front at Indy and improve its odds of winning, and the team was able to hunt and secure funding, that would be the other reason. Rinus VeeKay comes to mind as a no-brainer, if he doesn’t land a bigger opportunity.
The prospect of simply running a fourth for the sake of it — with a funded but unremarkable driver — is where the team would likely focus on its three full-time entries instead.
Within the paddock, Dale Coyne is said to be offering full-season opportunities for somewhere in the $6 million range. If Mick has $6 million to spend with Dale, I’m sure he’d welcome him into one of the seats. To my knowledge, Mick isn’t shopping a big-money deal to become an IndyCar driver, but maybe that could change in the months ahead.
Q: Please help me out. IndyCar offers 25 charters among 10 teams and limits three per team as a max. The Leaders Circle pays one million per participant in the top 22 spots in the final standings. I will use Chip Ganassi racing as an example. In 2024 he ran five cars within his team. All five earned the 1 million Leaders Circle money by finishing in the top 22. Ganassi can only receive three charters total per the charter agreement. So my question is, apparently the Leaders Circle has zero bearing on the awarding of the 25 charters, just the one million dollars for each car. Is this correct?
Susan Bournoville
MP: Ganassi received Leaders Circle contracts for the Nos. 8, 9, and 10 in 2024. The Nos. 4 and 11 were ineligible. The Leaders Circle program has limited teams to a maximum of three cars — the top three cars in any stable — for eligibility. The only exception, through 2023, was Andretti Global, which had a grandfathered fourth car written into Leaders Circle eligibility — which angered most of their rivals.
When the team cut the No. 29 car driven by Devlin DeFrancesco after the 2023 season and reduced to three cars, it lost that grandfathering clause, leaving Ganassi as the only team with more than three entries, and making it the only team with a pair of cars that were effectively invisible in the Leaders Circle contest.
Under the new charter program, only the 25 charter entries can vie for the 22 Leaders Circle contracts, leaving PREMA Racing as the sole team to be ineligible to receive $1 million contracts. PREMA could place first and second in the entrants’ standings, and both would be ignored at $1 million contract time.
Q: Are you aware of any planned series test on the oval at IMS this fall? If so, do you know how many cars there will be, and if it is for one or two days?
Don Weidig, Canton, OH
MP: There’s a two-day test from Oct. 10-11 at IMS, the first for teams in race-spec hybrid configuration. I believe one entry per team will be invited, and Firestone will likely work on 2025 race compound and construction options.
Q: Considering how long it may take to spec-out, design, test, and build 40+ new chassis for IndyCar, it seems we are one administrative delay away from having a 20-year-old chassis design racing around Indy. (I concede modifications have been made over time, but that’s a distinction, not a difference)
The drivers may be younger than the car they are driving one day.
Richard M. Warner, Robins, GA
MP: IndyCar is definitely on the clock. Using the DW12 as a guide, the first tub design was completed in December of 2010. The first complete chassis tested in August of 2011, and the first batch of customer cars were delivered on Dec. 15, 2011. First race was March of 2012. If the series is going to bring the DW27 to market and go racing in March of 2027, it has a little over a year to get the design in gear.
Q: You may have covered this in previous Mailbags, but I just finished “The Lionheart” documentary and it is a must-watch for any IndyCar fan and/or for anyone who’s tragically lost someone. (Put me in both categories).
Kudos to all involved, including the producers, crew, drivers, team owners and especially the Wheldon family. You’ve made such a beautiful and loving tribute to your friend, colleague, son, husband and father. Not a dry eye in my house by the end, but a very full heart!
John, VA
MP: Glad you liked it, John.
Wheldon’s story still resonates. Motorsport Images
Q: Last week you answered a question about Pato O’Ward not using the hybrid system on ovals because he didn’t think it added enough. Herta in his interview said he was able to put the power down coming out of the turns to make passes and was able to catch and overtake Pato very quickly at the end. I know he had fresher tires but could it be that Pato should be using the hybrid coming out of the corners. Looking forward to our great 2025 season with FOX, and all of the good things in IndyCar.
CAM in LA
MP: I have no doubt Pato was using it, but maybe not as frequently as some others, and his early reticence did stand out.
Q: I’m sure when Roger bought IndyCar and the Speedway he must have come up with a five-, 10- and 15-year plan. Has he met his expectations?
Steve Coe, Vancouver, WA
PS: Still waiting for my Sonny Hays and Jimmy Bly hats.
MP: I recently received a few more Bly hats as the ones I had made years ago were worn out. Penske rarely lacks confidence or the belief that he’s winning at all times, so I’d assume he’s more than satisfied with his accomplishments since buying everything. In fact, he rarely feels he receives enough credit for all he’s done.
Q: After Dario Franchitti retired, it took Ganassi years to find another driver that could challenge Dixon on a weekly basis. You had guy like Rosenqvist who did earn podiums from time to time, including a win, but nothing like what we’ve seen from Palou during his time at Ganassi.
Many fans are of the opinion that Ganassi is a top-tier team but to me it seems you need the right driver that fits into what I call the “Ganassi system” as well. Neither Dixon nor Palou are blazing quick in qualifying (at least compared to guys like Herta and Power) but are good at saving fuel and tires. Mix this saving with great pit stops and you have a couple of drivers that can make up spots in a way that very few on the grid can.
Is Palou’s success more about his own personal skill or is it because he’s in a system that favors his own style of driving? Maybe both? Would he be just as successful if he was at McLaren, Penske, or Andretti?
Hitokiri Battousi
MP: Having witnessed far too many races where Dixon or Palou simply run away and hide from the rest of the field, let’s not paint them as good fuel and tire savers who use those skills to overcome a lack of speed. I wouldn’t accuse them of being the best qualifiers, as noted, and that’s the one area of Dixon’s game that has slowly tapered off with time, but Palou had three poles in 2024 — four if you include the non-points Thermal event — which placed him second to Scott McLaughlin.
Chemistry is the key at any team, so if it could be found at an Andretti, McLaren, or Penske, yes, we’d see similar output from Palou. There’s a reason McLaren went after him; in a car there, or at Andretti, the organizations would become more competitive. At Penske, he’d be an instant title contender, just as he is with Ganassi, if the right race engineer and race strategist and crew chief combination was orchestrated. He’s that good.
Q: Last week Mike on the West Coast mentioned the idea of Santino Ferrucci rebuilding the bridge between dirt and IndyCar, and you rightly mentioned the flaw in the notion.
However the problem with rebuilding that bridge goes deeper than that. The simple fact of the matter is that there are precious few talents that can make the jump from modern dirt cars to IndyCar, and most of the ones that can will need a few years to adjust before they can be expected to be competitive. So without a ladder championship that can help them bridge that gap during their formative years, that bridge will never truly be rebuilt.
The problem is that no existing class is capable of making this happen. If we want to rebuild the bridge between short track racing and IndyCar, we need a Silver Crown-type series that runs rear-engined cars to get those drivers experience with the differences in how they handle.
Its’ worth noting that someone is actually in a perfect position to make such a thing happen: Dan Andersen. Running all of the sub-NXT ladder championships (and even NXT itself for a while), he has a very clear understanding of the needs of a ladder championship, and with his series being USAC-sanctioned he has a connection to get things rolling on the short track scene.
Unfortunately, however, I get the distinct feeling he won’t be interested in such a project.
FormulaFox
MP: Between his construction business and running a large open-wheel ladder system, I’d agree that Andersen — who’s one of North American racing’s most giving figures — is more than busy with what he already has on his plate.
Q: Obviously IndyCar shocks are back in the news. Assuming Penske and Ganassi have a significant upper hand in tuning and development, have there ever been any comments from drivers that have gone “down” to mid-level teams regarding any significant stunted setup activity by not having those resources any longer?
Brian in Ohio
MP: In public, not really. There’s a reason a top team is better than a midfield team, so there are expected shortcomings that go with taking a step or two down in quality — be it budget, personnel, or R&D — and competitiveness. Said another way, if you’ve been accustomed to driving a Ferrari but need to trade it in for a Dodge, you don’t really need to vocalize the difference between the rides because everyone knows the difference.
Strong shock programs are one of the differentiators between IndyCar’s haves and have-nots. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Q: Just curious to know if you ever had one of those “uh-oh” moments from your crewing days like the story from last week’s Mailbag about the Williams pit crew leaving the cooling fan attached to the car?
Peter Carey, San Bruno, CA
MP: Just one? No. Many? Yes. My first big race team opportunity was with Pfeiffer Ridge Racing in 1989 when I was 18. First few weeks there, new guy, youngest guy, and the veteran mechanics wanted to go out on a Friday night of a race weekend — I think it was the IMSA event at Sonoma Raceway — and party. I thought I knew what partying was, but they quickly blew up that notion. I showed up at the shop at 7am Saturday morning with the worst hangover of my life at that point, and was damn near falling asleep after crashing at 4 or 5am.
We had a shop volunteer who’d come in for races, “Mr. Rick,” and I think he was a recently retired police officer — a no-nonsense guy. We needed to bleed the brakes on a Pro Mazda car (think of a USF Pro 2000 car of that era), so I helmed the master cylinders at the front of the car and pumped the pedal as Mr. Rick went around to each corner to bleed the little air bubbles that were in the brake lines and calipers that take away the feeling of a firm pedal.
You keep depressing and releasing the pedal, pouring in fresh brake fluid to replenish what’s being bled into the bottle… it’s a really simple job, and the new bottles of AP brake fluid weren’t cheap — $20 or more. My hangover started to win and I went full lizard brain; I’d half passed out but kept yanking on the brake pedal. Next thing I remember is Mr. Rick, in a full-throated voice of consternation, yelling, “Hey, jackass, wake the hell up” (or something to that effect).
It was early enough and quiet enough to where the sound of brake master cylinder reservoir had run dry and I was sucking air into the lines with each pull, which he could hear and the other mechanics could hear…
Getting barked at and being rightfully embarrassed was enough to wake me up. Then I went and grabbed two new bottles of brake fluid and we re-bled the entire system. I was also — rightfully — made to pay for the $40 in fluid; I was making $150 a week, I believe, so it was a big hit to my pocket. And in my many years at Pfeiffer Ridge, our crew chief Riccardo Pineiro, one of the architects and instigators of my hangover, never let me forget that low point in my career, as hardened veterans often do.
Some other time, I’ll share the one about performing a gear ratio change and sending the car out to race with no gear oil…
Q: I’ve just finished reading the excellent autobiography of Derek Warwick called “Never look back.” In it he recounts his experience of testing for Jim Hall at Mid-Ohio in 1992. He recalls that he went quicker than John Andretti, didn’t particularly like the car, but did like the circuit despite it being “bloody dangerous.” Warwick ended up going back to F1 for one final year in 1993, which is a shame as I think he would have excelled in IndyCar, as Nigel Mansell did that year.
Is there anyone that you look back on and think he or she would have been perfect for IndyCar but never had the chance or showed the interest?
Gareth Holt, London, UK
MP: Derek also took another look in at the Phoenix IndyCar race in 1994; I was there crewing with an Indy Lights team and snapped this shot of an unamused Warwick on pit lane:
Photo by Marshall Pruett. And Warwick looks thrilled to see him.
Toyota Atlantic and Indy Lights champion David Empringham was the great missed IndyCar talent from my era. He was an English Canadian at a time when the Player’s ladder already had an amazing English Canadian in Greg Moore, so he lost out on the chance to graduate to CART with Player’s in favor of French Canadian talent. Having seen Emp beat the Atlantic and Lights teams I worked for, I had no doubt he was capable of winning in CART. Just never got the chance due to being born too far west.
Q: Please share the news of the passing of Dick Wallen since it is getting little coverage in the IndyCar racing world. Dick’s spectacular privately-published books and videos documented American open-wheel racing from the board track era up through the 1970s. I own three of his incredibly detailed books and would recommend them to anyone, particularly those who are interested in IndyCar’s Golden Era — 1950s through 1970s. His books and films are available on his Facebook page as well as from collectors on the internet.
J.P. Davis, Dunnellon, FL
MP: Thanks, J.P. I own plenty of Wallen’s books as well, and for those who are old enough to remember, ads in racing magazines and on the former SPEED Channel for his racing videos were a staple back in the day. One of the great archivists of American racing who will be missed.
Q: I know you will get a lot of questions about the FBI raid on RLL but I am curious about your take. First, is there a lot of “stealing” that goes on in the paddock?
Is this pettiness, because from the outside, clearly Michael doesn’t like Rahal? I just don’t think he would bring in the feds if it was Penske or Ganassi.
David Tucker
MP: IP theft happens every season in every professional series as personnel move from team to team. Hard to speak about Andretti’s motivation, but this has broken a cease fire accord of sorts — an informal one — because IndyCar teams could be calling the FBI on each other on a regular basis, but haven’t.
Andretti, with all of the Guggenheim/Group1001/Gainbridge money behind him, has become Mr. DGAF. He seems absolutely fearless, so who knows what else might be on the way.
Q: Just wondering if Malukas going to Foyt is to see if he has the potential to be Will Power’s replacement at Penske? I imagine Will has one or two more years in him before retirement.
Also, has there been any talk of Bottas coming to IndyCar? There was a recent quote where he said how competitive the series was. I’d love to see how he would do on an oval.
Jim Doyle, Hoboken, NJ
MP: Yes. As I’ve said a few times since the announcement, I’m convinced he’s signed to Penske and is being farmed to Foyt for a season or two to get the seasoning he lacks. Lots of conjecture about Bottas. Where does he fit in the pecking order of those who’ve never made an effort to race in IndyCar but have expressed an interest or said positive things about IndyCar while they face the possible end to their F1 careers? Meanwhile, Rinus VeeKay is ready to go to work tomorrow. Same with Linus Lundqvist. And Indy NXT champ Louis Foster. And others who’ve been here instead of elsewhere. I’d love to see Valtteri in a car, but not before those who’ve dedicated years of their lives to be in IndyCar.
Is Malukas a Penske project? Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Q: When I think about the small teams’ place in IndyCar, I’m reminded of a line from Moneyball. In the movie, Brad Pitt, playing A’s GM Billy Beane, says during an offseason meeting: “The problem we’re trying to solve is that there are rich teams, and there are poor teams. Then there’s 50 feet of crap, and then there’s us. It’s an unfair game.” IndyCar isn’t quite that extreme as small teams do still win from time to time, but we all know the big teams have a lot more cash and tend to win more overall.
Let me ask you this: You are the racing director of one of these smaller teams, about to start your off-season with limited resources. Where might you focus your time and development dollars strategically to gain an edge over the top teams? For example, could a smaller team find a way to better use emerging technologies like AI more effectively than the big guys?
Stu
MP: It’s all about people. I’m trying to hire an excellent assistant race engineer or performance engineer to join us and take the step up to race engineer, assuming my limited resources prevent me from hiring a well-known race engineer or technical director. I’m putting the money into hiring or promoting promising engineers to lead a damper R&D program, and the best I can find to lead our simulation program. So much of what you see take place at the track is achieved away from the track in the work and ideas and sim/bench testing that takes place, and that’s where the competition wars are usually won. There are software tools that can help them, no doubt, but it’s people and their creativity and/or experience that make the greatest difference. I hope that never changes.
Q: Now that the IndyCar 2024 season is over, I was hoping that maybe you’d know more about Harry the Hybrid. So, here’s another round of questions on the topic.
When F1 introduced KERS from 2009 to 2013, it delivered 80hp or 60kW, had a 400kJ battery and was therefore usable for up to 400/60 = 6.7 seconds per lap. By way of comparison, today’s IndyCar hybrid system provides 60hp or 45kW, gives a maximum of 320kJ per lap and discharges in 4.5 seconds. However, 320kJ/45kW makes 7.1 seconds. So, why is the actual discharge duration that much shorter? Is the MGU power delivery non-constant?
Also, F1’s old KERS weighed 35-40 kg (77-88 lbs), whereas Harry the Hybrid weights a whopping 135lbs (61kg). What makes the latter so heavy compared to the former? Where does the extra weight come from? Is it the MGU? And if supercapacitors were picked over a conventional battery because of their lighter weight, how come they basically weight as much as the MGU?
Now, I always like to submit a few ideas when writing to the Mailbag. So, do you think any of the following is feasible?
First, if the only solution to the overweight issue is a new chassis, which isn’t coming before 2027 at earliest, and if the current MGU was designed to deliver up to 150 hp, how about making a smaller MGU that only delivers 50 hp (or whatever amount of power the current turbocharger P2P gives)? Couldn’t that help trim some of the weight? If so, and if IndyCar still wants to eventually use the 150hp one, let’s keep it for the new car and use the 50hp one in the meantime.
Second, in order to make the hybrid system something that really makes a difference in lap time, could it be possible, when defining the amount of energy that can be used every lap, to go above the ESS total capacity, allowing for multiple complete charges and discharges? With the current capacity being 320kJ, how about bringing it up to, for example, 500kJ at Portland and 800kJ at Road America? And for ovals, where less than 320kJ per lap gets used, would it be possible to remove some of the capacitors, just to gain a little bit of weight?
Xavier
MP: Keep in mind that with the mandate to save about 30 percent of the battery for refiring a stalled car, Harry the Hybrid never fully deploys all of its energy in competition. I’ll let you do the math to see how that jives with kilojoule/kilowatt max and mins and deployment times.
I don’t have specifics on old F1 ERS vs new IndyCar ERs, other than to say the F1 models were bespoke, had unlimited budgets to develop and miniaturize and lighten, and IndyCar’s did not have any of those things. The supercapacitors were chosen because there was no pre-existing place within the 2012 Dallara DW12 chassis to fit a lithium-ion battery, and due to their comparatively compact size, an array of 21 supercaps could be stuffed into the bellhousing above the MGU. The MGU was also designed to deliver more than 100hp if asked, which meant sizing it to meet the future output goals.
It’s possible to go beyond the first-season limits, for sure, which were put in place in the name of reliability.
Q: With Chip Ganassi Racing downsizing to three cars in 2025, Linus Lundqvist looks set to leave the team after only one season. I have a hard time trying to find any possibilities for him to stay on the full-time IndyCar grid next year, especially since he doesn’t have any economic backing. He was announced as a multi-year signing for Ganassi — could CGR still help him find a seat, or have they parted ways completely? Even without the help of Ganassi, could he be a serious option for any team? If Linus doesn’t land an IndyCar seat, could he be on the radar for some GTP teams in IMSA instead? It would be a shame to see him on the sidelines again like in 2023.
Fabian Blåder
MP: Linus has nothing at the moment and his options aren’t encouraging. I spoke with him for about 20 minutes on seats and series and options on Friday night at Milwaukee — he was driving out just as I was getting to my rental car — and shared all the intel I had on where he might pick up paying work as a driver. He’s too good to be overlooked, but didn’t do enough to make paying IndyCar team owners place him ahead of one or two others on the market.
Q: With the changing weather contributing, IMSA put on a great show in Indianapolis. However, I wish they could use more of the oval section after Turn 11 to finish the lap. My question is whether there is any chance of removing the last chicane (Turns 12 and 13) in the future? The GTPs are made for high-speed corners, and I feel that is what is missing from the current layout.
Dimitrios, Greece
MP: I’d love to see this happen. But it ain’t happening.
Q: I attended my second consecutive BOTB and thoroughly enjoyed the drama the weather brought us (especially since unlike in 2012, the windows of my car were up for the deluge, and I stayed completely dry despite no poncho). Well done on the fan experience to IMSA, IMS and the hundreds of people who help put this event on.
In the race, the No. 7 Penske Porsche stopped just past the yard of bricks to power cycle, if the report was correct. Why on earth were they thinking that was good spot to do that? Why wasn’t there some sort of penalty assessed? The No. 40 Acura narrowly missed the No. 7.
Grant Stouder
MP: I hear you, Grant. Having Nasr drive down into Indy Turn 4’s runoff (road course Turn 1) would have been the preferred solution. Do series normally assess penalties for stopping on course? If so, I can’t recall when and where.
Lundqvist is a casualty of the new charter rules, but hopefully that doesn’t mean the 2024 Rookie of the Year is saying a permanent goodbye to IndyCar. Chris Owens/IMS Photo
Q: Sounds like the charter system has some pluses, but PREMA is in an odd spot. Barring anybody getting out of the sport and selling a charter, is Prema out of luck until 2031? Any idea about how PREMA feels about this situation?
Is this also the final nail in Pratt Miller’s IndyCar interest?
Jim
MP: We spoke at length with PREMA about this in April. Pratt Miller did the same in May.
Q: Folks would say when the Cup race is on Saturday night, the local track would suffer. With this year’s low amount of Saturday night races, are local tracks doing better with attendance?
Nitro Bob, Boston
KELLY CRANDALL: I can’t give you that answer off the top of my head. I don’t cover the local tracks, or who is releasing attendance numbers. That would be something that you’d have to dig in with those tracks around the country that you’re particularly interested in.
Q: Here’s an idea to make F1 races more interesting: After qualifying, someone (track can select) spins a giant wheel. 70% of it says, “Normal order” and 30% of it says, “Inverted order’ (or choose your %). So if it stops in the 30% area, the starting order is inverted and we get to see Verstappen and Norris and Hamilton come from the back, and some drivers get a chance to be up front whom we’ve never seen there. What do you think?
Lloyd Parker
CHRIS MEDLAND: I’ll start off with saying I think a reverse grid would be great in the Sprint races, just to differentiate them and give drivers a need to showcase a different type of skill. But the right tracks would need to be used for that, because the field is so close these days that I doubt there would actually be much progress through the field made at some venues otherwise.
I think doing it in a Sprint gives a chance for those normally at the back to race at the front for a spell and have more chance of holding on, but all while not handing out massive points for reverse orders.
Now, I know Singapore wasn’t a classic (first time without a safety car ever – everyone kept it remarkably clean), but with the way the season is going and a lot of the races we have had this year, do we really need to try and mix up the main race on a Sunday? I don’t think so.
Forty percent of the teams have won multiple races this year, so I feel like it is mixed up enough race to race, even if individually some of them have brought dominant performances from either Max Verstappen or Lando Norris. I prefer where we’re heading, which does seem to be a more level playing field and a grid that is closing up front to back.
Q: I just watched F1 qualifying from Singapore. After seeing the hefty Carlos Sainz crash I was tempted to put my stopwatch on how quickly the safety and medical teams would be there, especially in comparison to the IndyCar version.
I could have spared that effort, since no one showed up at all, and Carlos got to take a long and lonely hike all on his own back to the pits and his seat in the garage. No medical checkup at all, just a few questions from what seemed to be an official.
How can the “greatest racing series in the world” come over as so amateurish — even arrogant? Obviously there is nothing to learn from IndyCar, is there?
To use the excuse that Singapore is a street course doesn’t fly. IndyCar has those covered as well.
Wiscowerner
CM: We get quite a few comments about F1’s medical team reactions and at times I’ve agreed, but at others I’ve strongly defended them. This will be the latter.
The safety systems of the cars themselves are remarkable, to such an extent that this wasn’t a particularly heavy crash for Sainz. There are tiny accelerometers that sit in a driver’s ear canal that can measure the forces the driver is subject to, and if it triggers above 15G then the medical car is automatically deployed.
The fact he went backwards across run-off into Tecpro kept it below that limit, but that doesn’t mean he’s just being ignored. There’s a high-speed camera facing the driver for medical purposes, which captures a frame every one hundredth of a second so the FIA can see exactly what a driver has just experienced in a crash, and it’s all working with the car’s Accident Data Recorder (think like an airplane’s black box) that measures the external forces.
This data is available to the FIA in real time, so they have a clear awareness of the driver and their condition when an accident happens. Add in team radio, and it is clear if an injury has been sustained long before any medical or safety team would have been able to get to the car.
The reason you didn’t see a car or marshal appearing on track was very much for safety reasons. There were cars on qualifying laps and it’s never clear if something on the track could have led to a crash, or if a car failures could still result in someone losing control, even under yellows or once the track goes red.
So unless the safety systems and/or driver have suggested they need immediate attention, marshals and the medical car are not supposed to appear from behind the barrier until all cars are back in the pits and the track is clear. (This is actually why Sainz got fined, because he got out of the car and crossed the track before marshals were with him and could tell him when it was safe to do so).
Safety in all categories can always be improved, and F1 is no different. It can certainly learn from IndyCar (for example, a permanent medical response team that is dotted around trackside at every race would be beneficial) but to suggest that it is arrogant just because it does things differently — with many unseen aspects, just as I’m sure IndyCar has — is unfair.
Q: I have never been able to find an answer to this question. How can F1 cars go the entire race without having to refuel? IndyCars have to refuel multiple times during a race.
Luke, Michigan
CM: Two reasons, Luke. One is the size of the fuel tanks. An F1 car is capable of carrying over 100kg of fuel, so around 30 gallons, whereas an IndyCar fuel tank is nearly half that size.
The other is due to engine efficiency, and that’s just through choice of the regulations — F1 wanted more efficient engines from 2014 onwards. (Thermal efficiency, which is the amount of energy from the fuel that propels the car, is now over 50%, compared to around 30% in a road car).
IndyCar, on the other hand, allows refueling, so it has a smaller tank, and then you often put less fuel in than its capacity in order to keep it as light as possible to be as fast as possible during stints. But you can see the push for more efficient engines from the hybridization this year, which means more power for the same amount of fuel.
For all the Drive to Survive-era F1 fans who never saw refueling in a grand prix, here’s McLaren showing you how it was done in 2008. Refueling was banned in 2010. (And yes, McLarens used to be silver, although then-team boss Ron Dennis probably had a fancier name for it.) Rainer Schlegelmilch/Motorsport Images
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, September 25, 2013
Q: I just read where Raul Boesel was six laps behind Emmo and Little Al while they duked it out for the win at the ’89 Indy 500. If both Emmo and Little Al had crashed on lap 198, wouldn’t they have had to hold the scoreboard on lap 198 until Boesel had completely unlapped himself? Surely, a “what if?” occurrence like that had no precedent, right?
Michael Hackney, Nashville, TN
P.S. I wish IndyCar would come back to Nashville. Their races at the Superspeedway were mostly way better than the NASCAR races.
ROBIN MILLER: After a quick call to Donald Davidson, “You are correct, sir.” Boesel wouldn’t have taken the lead until lap 199.
