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The A.J. Foyt Racing team has parked the No. 11 Chevy entry for this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto event. It’s unclear whether the car driven by Tatiana Calderon on road and street courses and on ovals by JR Hildebrand will return later this season, but the team tells RACER it is only willing to confirm the entry’s absence for Toronto. The team also hopes to bring the car back if and when overdue payments from its primary sponsor are made.
What is this wonderful sponsor? You may know it as Rokit, who lost a $35 million suit from Williams for unpaid sponsorship earlier this year. Such a shady sponsor.
Yeah Rokit & Rich, 2 I'd hesitate to get involved with.
There's a reason why these shady sponsors go to these type of teams (at the bottom of the standings). They are desperate and will sign up for anything!
Also noticed that Sébastien Bourdais retired from Indy at end of 2021 to shift towards sports cars. Pretty amazing how many racing series he's been involved with in his career but none come close to his utter dominance of the last 4 years of CART/Champ Car which he won the driver's championship for Newman/Haas.
Also noticed that Sébastien Bourdais retired from Indy at end of 2021 to shift towards sports cars. Pretty amazing how many racing series he's been involved with in his career but none come close to his utter dominance of the last 4 years of CART/Champ Car which he won the driver's championship for Newman/Haas.
That dominance came with the defection of the top teams (Penske, Ganassi, Rahal, Andretti) to the IRL. At that point, Champ Car was running on fumes. It's a shame that we never got to see Bourdais competing against other top teams/drivers.
That dominance came with the defection of the top teams (Penske, Ganassi, Rahal, Andretti) to the IRL. At that point, Champ Car was running on fumes. It's a shame that we never got to see Bourdais competing against other top teams/drivers.
Meh, Rahal was not a top team before or even after their conversion to Indy, Ganassi was also not competitive in their conversion to Lola/Toyota, and even Andretti was not competitive from 2000-2002. So to call them top teams at the time is extremely generous. IMO the only top team in your list in that period was Penske. Penske was the dominant team with Neuman/Haas also competitive. 2007 Champ Car was on fumes, but 2004-5 were competitive seasons.
Ganassi, Andretti/Green, and Rahal won multiple championships and races in CART before they bailed to the IRL. Ganassi dominated during the Target-Reynard-Honda years with Zanardi, Vasser, Montoya. Andretti/Green won the championship with Villeneuve. Bobby Rahal won the championship with his own race team. When they left with Penske to IRL, the only historic team left in Champ Cars was Newman/Haas. The teams that replace them to fill out the grid were RuSport, Forsythe, Rocket, Dale Coyne. Those were hardly earth shattering teams that won any races or had any pedigree.
Ganassi, Andretti/Green, and Rahal won multiple championships and races in CART before they bailed to the IRL. Ganassi dominated during the Target-Reynard-Honda years with Zanardi, Vasser, Montoya. Andretti/Green won the championship with Villeneuve. Bobby Rahal won the championship with his own race team. When they left with Penske to IRL, the only historic team left in Champ Cars was Newman/Haas. The teams that replace them to fill out the grid were RuSport, Forsythe, Rocket, Dale Coyne. Those were hardly earth shattering teams that won any races or had any pedigree.
Forsythe won the 2003 CART championship so your last statement doesn't make any sense for them. Also considering that Green-Forsythe won the 1995 driver championship with Jacques.
Andretti/Green? They never competed in Champ. They started in 2003 exclusively in IndyCar.
Rahal? They only won one CART championship in 1992 with Rahal himself but that's it.
Again Ganassi dominate four years in the late 90's but were nowhere after that due to team decisions in the early 00's until a #2 in 2002 for Bruno Junqueira.
Here are the prior 4 CART driver championships
2003 CART Champ Paul Tracey - Forsythe
2002 CART Champ Cristiano da Matta - Newman/Haas
2001 CART Champ Gil de Ferran - Penske
2000 CART Champ Gil de Ferran - Penske
After that CART officially folded into Champ Car which ran from 2004-2008 (one race)
Just putting some facts into the discussion above, bottom line IMO Bourdais was a highly successful open wheel top tier driver. Besides his success in Champ, he almost got 4th place in his 1st F1 race for Torro Rosso had his engine not failed in the last 3 laps but managed 7th. He was overshined by Vettel that year but considering it was Vettel that's an accomplishment.
Not saying that Bourdais was a bad driver or anything like that, but he never went up against top drivers or teams in Champ Cars.
In his rookie season, he finished fourth, which wasn't bad. However, at that point, besides a few handful of drivers, most of the big name drivers were already gone from the series. The fact that Paul Tracy won the championship that year proves it. Tracy was a good driver, but he was waning by then, and he was never good enough to win the championship when CART was at its maximum strength.
Bourdais then dominated the last four years of Champ Car, but just look at the roster during those four years. They were mostly drivers reaching the end of their careers or drivers that should never have moved up from Lights.
Not saying that Bourdais was a bad driver or anything like that, but he never went up against top drivers or teams in Champ Cars.
In his rookie season, he finished fourth, which wasn't bad. However, at that point, besides a few handful of drivers, most of the big name drivers were already gone from the series. The fact that Paul Tracy won the championship that year proves it. Tracy was a good driver, but he was waning by then, and he was never good enough to win the championship when CART was at its maximum strength.
Bourdais then dominated the last four years of Champ Car, but just look at the roster during those four years. They were mostly drivers reaching the end of their careers or drivers that should never have moved up from Lights.
But here in lies the problem there were no big name drivers in IndyCar either at that time either with exception of Al Uncer Jr. whose career was sorta over by then and Michael Andretti only ran Indy500 mostly. Scott Dixon although a big name now had his first season in 2003, so majority of IndyCar driver's were arguably as more unknown that Champ during that period. Later they developed some more famous names besides Dixon, Dario Franchitti became a big racing name.
Jimmy Vasser spoke about this in a Q&A a few years ago (was on YouTube) how both series decimated each other during that period which cost them both TV coverage and confusion for the overall US market which allowed NASCAR to come in and offered a better "show". The revolving door of drivers in those IndyCar days didn't help the series. Vasser was a Champ team part-owner during that period and spoke about dealing with the TV coverage, getting sponsorship, and overall operation of his team. Really interesting as it got into the business side of racing.
Somewhat disagree. Towards the end of CART, we still had Gil de Ferran, Helio Castro-Neves, Christiano da Matta. They were huge talents. Scott Dixon was a rising star. Dario Franchitti, Michael Andretti, Kenny Brack were also in it.
Somewhat disagree. Towards the end of CART, we still had Gil de Ferran, Helio Castro-Neves, Christiano da Matta. They were huge talents. Scott Dixon was a rising star. Dario Franchitti, Michael Andretti, Kenny Brack were also in it.
Christiano da Matta went back to CART in 2005-6 after his Toyota drive in F1, so that defends my point. Gil de Ferran retired by 2003 in Indy. Michael Andretti was running only Indy500....
Graham Rahal renewed his invitation for Sebastian Vettel to test or race an IndyCar in the wake of the four-time world champion’s decision to retire from Formula 1 at the end of the year, and explained an unusual reason why he’s personally so keen for it to happen.
Vettel had been discussing the Miami Grand Prix circuit in May when he praised IndyCar track Road America.
Rahal took to Twitter in the wake of those comments to invite Vettel to try an IndyCar there, a notion that was seconded by his team owner and father Bobby Rahal, who won the 1986 Indianapolis 500 and three championships.
I’ll double down and say it, Seb if you ever want to test an @IndyCar at @roadamerica we will make it happen. Would be an honor to have you in our car! @RLLracing — Graham Rahal
Asked by The Race at Indianapolis last weekend whether anything had changed with the announcement of Vettel’s F1 retirement, Rahal made clear he and RLL were ready to help Vettel make an IndyCar chance happen.
“It’s open anytime he wants to try and maybe he wants to come race, I’m sure we can find a way to do it,” said Rahal.
“Like [Romain] Grosjean, I think Seb would find IndyCar a much more relaxed [environment], but also more competitive, for sure.
“And a guy like him, as a racer, I’m sure finishing 10th on back is not fun, particularly coming from the world championships and everything else that he has.
“So, if he wants to come try it, look, I’m sure there’s a seat, there’s a home for him.
“In many ways, we’re gearing up to look at a fourth [car] in the future anyway.
“So, not saying he wants to do it full-time, but if he wants to come try it, he certainly can.”
Vettel has left the door open to racing elsewhere after F1.
“Obviously, age-wise it’s not a problem to do anything else and to do more in Formula 1,” he said last week when asked if he was retiring from motorsport altogether or just F1.
“That’s not the limit. I think physically I’m in a great form, I have zero problem driving these cars. So there’s nothing that would hold me back on that front.
“Because obviously the decision I’m taking now is that this chapter is ending. I’m not saying this chapter is ending because another one is opening straight away and I’m driving other cars next year.
“Time will tell. It’s probably the fairest answer I can give right now.”
He added: “If I want to race something, I’m sure I’ll be able to think of something”.
The most recent F1 driver to make the switch to IndyCar was Romain Grosjean, who became an immediate fan favourite when he arrived in 2021 thanks to some standout performances and the back story of his return to racing after his fiery Sakhir 2020 crash.
Before Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson was the latest to switch from F1. Now in his fourth season, he won the Indy 500 and is in the thick of an IndyCar championship fight.
Rahal is well-connected in the sporting world generally, but there is a reason he feels particularly strongly about giving Vettel the chance.
He said “we’ve never met but our paths have crossed in a way he’s probably not sure about” and claimed that one of the most significant chances of Vettel’s junior career could in fact have gone to Rahal.
Finding American F1 prospects was one of the key early aims of Red Bull’s junior programme, with Scott Speed and Colin Fleming the main initial beneficiaries.
While Speed was taken into F1 with Toro Rosso, Fleming – who had been a close runner-up to Speed in German Formula Renault in 2004 – was abruptly ditched from the Red Bull programme three rounds into his second World Series by Renault season in ’06.
Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko cited underperformance, saying “he didn’t make any progress during last season or this one and it was obvious that we had to do something else – finishing eighth and ninth is not good enough”.
Fleming himself has since indicated that the decision was specifically because Red Bull wanted to try Vettel – who was fighting for the Formula 3 Euro Series title with Paul di Resta at the time – in the more powerful Formula Renault 3.5 car as it assessed how quickly it could get him into F1.
Vettel was dropped into Carlin’s ex-Fleming car for the Misano round and ended up with a double victory on his debut, elevated from third in race one because top two Pastor Maldonado and Ben Hanley were penalised, then winning on the road in race two.
But Rahal says Marko had a go at getting him into Fleming’s old seat too, only for calendar clashes to get in the way.
Rahal was 17 at the time, fighting Simon Pagenaud for the title in Champ Car feeder series Atlantic, but aiming at a European career and lining up GP2 tests with the intention of getting on the F1 ladder for 2007 – so while not a Red Bull protege at the time, he was potentially a drop-in-and-go addition to its young US talent search had a deal come off.
“The guy who did end up taking that seat, and won that weekend, was Vettel,” Rahal explained.
“And so it’s interesting. And that was kind of what skyrocketed him to the BMW deal at Indy and everything else.”
Chevrolet and Honda have swiveled their resources from testing their 2.4-liter engines to cooperating with each other and working with a new hybrid component supplier after it became clear that the proposed component from Mahle would be insufficient for the rigors of IndyCar racing and would not be ready in time for the 2024 season.
On the eve of the 2022 season, IndyCar announced that adoption of the new formula was being pushed back from ’23 to ’24, due to global parts supply chain issues. Mahle, which was building and developing the hybrid component, was struggling like several companies as chips or semi conductors were in short supply.
However, in a press release today regarding its steps toward sustainability, IndyCar revealed that the adoption of the 2.4-liter engines was being “paused” and that the focus for testing over the next 15 months would be on the hybrid component, as developed by Honda Performance Development, Chevrolet with Ilmor and a new outside supplier.
“IndyCar is… continuing its path toward the introduction of a hybrid engine platform for the 2024 race season,” read the release. “This program is being developed through the collaboration of Ilmor, Chevrolet and Honda Performance Development. Testing of the hybrid motor has commenced and will continue through the 2023 season. With the introduction of the hybrid motor, the 2.4-liter engine will be paused to allow the innovative hybrid technology to be paired with the proven 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engines.”
The 2.2-liter engines made their debut in 2012.
Frye declared: “We are most proud of the many advancements that the NTT IndyCar Series has made in leading the motorsports world toward a more sustainable future. The 2.2-liter IndyCar engines supplied by Honda and Chevrolet have provided the most competitive racing in the world. The 2024 hybrid engine package will provide even more excitement with horsepower increases over the current engine.”
Other eco-friendly moves by IndyCar include the strategic partnership with Shell whereby the IndyCar Series will compete with 100 percent renewable fuel from the start of the 2023 season. In addition, all IndyCar team transporters supporting the series will continue running on 100 percent renewable diesel between race shops and race venues.
Meanwhile the guayule Firestone Firehawk race tire as debuted in August’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville will be adopted in 2023 as the alternate race tire in an increased number of IndyCar races.
I think the technical aspects of the hybrid components for the IndyCar series based spec has driven Mahle out of contention. The eco-push for F1/IndyCar/NASCAR/.... is ridiculous to me for the optics of racing. There's no practical reason to have to make race cars more eco-friendly. Environmentalists thing ICE racing is pointless so making the cars more "eco friendly" is pointless.
McLaren's livery for this year's 500. Pays tribute to their Indy, Monaco, and Le Mans victories. I assume orange=Indy. day glow orange red/white (Marlboro)=Monaco. black (Ueno Clinic)=Le Mans.
Good to see Grosjean up in #5 position for IndyCar points 4 races in. He had gotten a bit of a wild driving reputation prior in IndyCar perhaps he's settled down and more focused in 2023?
Agreed F-C, I couldn't stand him as an F1 driver, he was so erratic and inconsistent and occasionally dangerous. He must've matured with his fiery F1 crash bc he seems a lot more settled down.
Agreed F-C, I couldn't stand him as an F1 driver, he was so erratic and inconsistent and occasionally dangerous. He must've matured with his fiery F1 crash bc he seems a lot more settled down.
You meant Legend.
In interviews, he seems to enjoy the less stressful life in IndyCar.
Indianapolis 500 fan whose car was hit by flying tire gets Brickyard visit, ride home
Indy 500 got extremely lucky that loose tire from the late race accident hot a parked car and not into the stands. That happened at Michigan 500 many years ago and killed a spectator.
Indy PR also did a great PR job with the owner of the car letting her onto the brick finish line for pics and a drive home from in a official Indy 500 car (wasn't sure if it was the pace car or what)
That was crazy, hopefully she gets a new car out of it.
The upside down cockpit shot was crazy as well. Never seen that shot used in F1, in the rare instances a car goes inverted.
Clever trick by IMS to make her happy before she left the race. Because you know those "ambulance chasers" would be pouncing to represent her for "pain and suffering" the moment she left the track.
On Tuesday, the IndyCar Series revealed an updated and lightweight aeroscreen with a new design that also improves cooling the driver in the cockpit.
The latest version comes ahead of schedule, with the original plan to implement it in the fourth points-paying round at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 10-11. However, with enough supply for the entirety of the grid, the decision was made to move up the timeline by two events.
After partnering with Red Bull Advanced Technologies, the series introduced the aeroscreen in 2020 as part of the safety enhancements. The device, mandated for ovals, permanent road courses and temporary street circuits, was constructed with a ballistic windscreen from PPG that is held with a titanium frame produced courtesy of Pankl.
Now, the new and improved aeroscreen holds steady at 14.5 pounds, a drop from first version that was 18.8 pounds.
The 3D-printed titanium frame, which was mandated at the beginning of the season and carries the same strength as its predecessor, also reduces weight by 6.8 pounds to showcase a combined drop of 11.1 pounds.
An emphasis on driver cooling has also been a component to the revised product, with vents added and a top front duct that angles to the driver’s chest. The ducting has been 3D printed in rubber as a preventative measure to limit hand injuries in an accident.
The combination of weight reduction and safety improvements help reduce the downforce of the new aeroscreen by approximately 35 pounds, according to Tino Belli, the director of aerodynamic development for the IndyCar Series.
“One of the objectives of doing a 2.0 version was to save weight,” Belli said.
“Then we've taken that opportunity to also make the styling nicer, improve the driver ventilation, and make the thinner polycarbonate as strong as the thicker polycarbonate.”
The amount of heat held within the cockpit was a major talking point among drivers when the aeroscreen debuted. After an evaluation, it was deemed that ventilation could be added without a significant redesign.
“We learned over the years where the limit of the vision was,” Belli said.
“In the first version, we were conservative. We gave them a wider field of vision. We found out that they didn't need it. So, now we’ve used that space to create a vent which comes underneath the titanium top frame, and it gets ducted down to blow air toward the driver’s chest.”
There is also an option for teams to add a filter to the honeycomb mesh to help filter dust from entering the cockpit.
“The aeroscreen has been massively important as a total driver cockpit safety solution,” Belli said, “that has already paid huge dividends many times.”
I'd like to see a view from the front. The problem right now is that from the front view, it looks so ugly. When the aero screen was first proposed, I and most were expecting something like a jet fighter bubble. Need it to be more sleek looking.
07-11-2022, 03:06 PM
Meh, Rahal was not a top team before or even after their conversion to Indy, Ganassi was also not competitive in their conversion to Lola/Toyota, and even Andretti was not competitive from 2000-2002. So to call them top teams at the time is extremely generous. IMO the only top team in your list in that period was Penske. Penske was the dominant team with Neuman/Haas also competitive. 2007 Champ Car was on fumes, but 2004-5 were competitive seasons.
