Indycar

11th March 2019

IndyCar St Petersburg Report: Newgarden fends off Dixon to take first win at St Pete

Josef Newgarden took the first win of the 2019 season at St Petersburg, a win that marks his first around the demanding track and Penske’s first there since 2016. He held off a late challenge from defending champion Scott Dixon in what as an action-packed season opener.

After being shuffled back at the start, Newgarden didn’t come to the lead until the second round of pit stops, but there he out-foxed the rest of the leading group and emerged from the pits with a near five-second lead over Marco Andretti, who was doing a good job of holding up the rest of the field. With the help of Andretti once more in the closing stages of the race, Newgarden came under threat from Dixon with the lead dropping to as low as 1.2 seconds but, once Andretti was out of the picture, Newgarden rebuilt his lead to take the win.

Dixon was forced to settle for second-place having not led a single lap of the race. He managed to pass Will Power during the first Andretti hold up, taking second place and allowing him to have a chance at fighting Newgarden for the win. However, the lead Newgarden had built up was big enough to act as an effective buffer, even when Andretti came back into the mix. It wasn’t quite the perfect start to Dixon’s title defence, but it was good enough.

For a while, it looked like the other Chip Ganassi of Felix Rosenqvist would be going for the win, but he got caught out and dropped back by the second round of stops. Rosenqvist passed Newgarden going into Turn 1 on the first lap, putting him in second and in a position to fight Power for the lead. The Swede took the lead after the first restart and went onto lead 31 laps in his debut race, the most bar race winner Newgarden. He came home in a respectable fourth place and showed that he’s ready to take it to teammate Dixon this season.

After starting on pole, Power had to settle for a podium in third with his nemesis, like so many others, being the second stops and Andretti’s rather wide car. He couldn’t clear Andretti after the stops and was passed by Dixon who then disappeared up the road, meaning Power was unable to improve his position in the final stages of the race, but he was still happy with his result, given how badly St Pete has treated him over the past two years.

Alexander Rossi was another driver who was forced to settle for a position probably lower than he was hoping for, especially after he came so close to the victory last year. Like last year, a rookie got the better of him, though this time it was Rosenqvist and not Robert Wickens, meaning Rossi couldn’t do much better than fifth having led two laps during the pit stop sequences.

Wickens attended the race with his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team to support their drivers and celebrate his thirtieth birthday with his fellow drivers. Attending St Pete was one of Wickens’ many goals on his road to recovery after his enormous crash at Pocono last season, with the Canadian a welcome figure in the paddock once more.

On track, SPM didn’t have such a good weekend with James Hinchcliffe finishing in sixth after getting the better of Penske’s Simon Pagenaud in what was a race-long battle. On the other side of the garage, Marcus Ericsson didn’t even see the chequered flag with a water pressure issue cutting his IndyCar debut short. Their sort-of-teammate Jack Harvey finished tenth in the #60 Meyer Shank supported SPM entry, in his first of ten races this season.

Rosenqvist may have taken the title of top rookie but fellow rookies Colton Herta and Santino Ferrucci were not to be forgotten in the first race of the season, finishing eighth and ninth respectively. Herta’s the only Harding driver after they failed to get an engine lease for their second car and Ferrucci lost teammate Bourdais 11 laps into the race, meaning the two rookies had to go it solo, but still delivered more than respectable performances.

One recurring feature of the race was Honda engine failures, of which there were four with Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Ericsson and Bourdais all suffering issues that led to their retirements. While Honda had four failures, their rival Chevrolet had none, meaning the former really needs to step up on the reliability side of things, otherwise the Chevy teams could be leaving them well behind.

That concludes the season opener at St Petersburg with IndyCar back in action on March 24 at the Circuit of the Americas.

Full Race Results:

Josef Newgarden
Scott Dixon
Will Power
Felix Rosenqvist (R)
Alexander Rossi
James Hinchcliffe
Simon Pagenaud
Colton Herta (R)
Santino Ferrucci (R)
Jack Harvey
Spencer Pigot
Graham Rahal
Marco Andretti
Zach Veach
Tony Kanaan
Max Chilton
Charlie Kimball
Ben Hanley (R)

DNF – Takuma Sato (gearbox), Marcus Ericsson (R) (water pressure), Ed Jones (collision), Matheus Leist (collision), Ryan Hunter-Reay (engine), Sebastien Bourdais (engine)

(Featured Image Credit: Karl Zemlin/IndyCar)

3rd March 201910th March 2019

IndyCar Season Preview

After a long off-season, the start of the 2019 IndyCar season is just a few days away. 2019 holds huge potential for great racing and a very close title fight, with numerous contenders all looking to topple the defending champion, Scott Dixon. Since the end of last season, there have been some significant changes, affecting action both on and off the track, so here’s a run through of them.

2019 will see the same number of races as 2018, seventeen, but there have been a few switches and substitutions. Phoenix and Sonoma have both left the calendar, with both experiencing financial difficulties and drops in attendance over recent years. With Phoenix gone from its slot in second on the calendar, the first oval race will now be the Indy 500, which is certainly a change from years past.

Replacing Phoenix is the Circuit of the Americas, which has been an F1 venue since 2012. This is an addition that has been expected for some time, and it has finally materialised for this season. Similarly, Laguna Seca is making its long-awaited return to the IndyCar calendar, taking over from Sonoma as the season finale.

The only other changes are relatively minor; Long Beach and Barber are switching around so that Barber is now third and Long Beach fourth and Iowa and Toronto have done the same, with Toronto now eleventh and Iowa twelfth.

Some more major changes have taken place off the track, with regards to how fans will be watching the series this year. Last season, ABC aired its last IndyCar race at Detroit, handing over exclusive rights in the US to NBCSN, who will show all races in 2019. Outside the US, it’s all change with IndyCar taking international coverage in-house, rather than going through ESPN as they have done in the past.

This means that UK coverage switches from BT Sport to Sky Sports, who will be showing all qualifying sessions and races live on their Sky Sports F1 channel. While it’s far from free-to-air, Sky is slightly more accessible than BT and it means that viewers can get F1 and IndyCar on the same channel, making the cost a bit more acceptable.

Fernando Alonso was reported to have taken over IndyCar rights in Spain near the end of last year, but that was never officially confirmed. Meanwhile, Canada’s TV coverage remains somewhat up in the air, with some races available on NBC, but not all, and no clear provider announced, which isn’t exactly great for one of IndyCar’s biggest audiences.

Back on track, there have been some alterations to what is the biggest IndyCar race of the year – the Indy 500. These changes mainly revolve around qualifying and bumping, after James Hinchcliffe was infamously bumped out of the race last year. With 33 entries already confirmed, and more expected, bumping will be taking place this year, but with a difference…

This year, the Saturday session will lock-in starting positions 10 through to 30 – leaving the order of the Fast Nine and the last three entrants to be decided on the Sunday, in two separate sessions.

Many are citing this as a way of avoiding any shock bumpings, meaning that all the full-time drivers should qualify for the race, as should Alonso who makes his Indy 500 return after a year away.

Another new addition to the Indy 500 will be the Advanced Frontal Protection system, which is scheduled to make its race debut at the 500 before being used in all races thereafter.

IndyCar launch all-new frontal protection system

For the season as a whole, there’s a wide range of drivers that could be in the mix for both race wins and the championship. The usual suspects of Scott Dixon, Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay should all be in contention, but the likes of Hinchcliffe, Sebastien Bourdais, and even some of the rookies like Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Ericsson, could also be strong challengers.

The season kicks off at St Petersburg on March 10^th, with the race starting at 12:30pm ET, 5:30pm GMT. The full schedule and entry list for St Pete are as follows:

March 8^th

Practice 1 – 10:45am (ET) / 3:45pm (GMT)
Practice 2 – 2:20pm / 7:20pm

March 9^th

Practice 3 – 10:25am / 3:25pm
Qualifying – 2:30pm / 7:30pm

March 10^th

Final Warmup – 9:20am / 1:20pm
Race – 1:30pm / 5:30pm

Entry List:

#	Driver	Team
2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske
4	Matheus Leist	AJ Foyt Racing
5	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
7	Marcus Ericsson (R)	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	Felix Rosenqvist (R)	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	Will Power	Team Penske
14	Tony Kanaan	AJ Foyt Racing
15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan
18	Sebastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing
19	Santino Ferrucci (R)	Dale Coyne Racing
20	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing
22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske
23	Charlie Kimball	Carlin
26	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport
27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport
28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport
30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan
59	Max Chilton	Carlin
60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing/Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
85	Ben Hanley (R)	DragonSpeed
88	Colton Herta (R)	Harding Steinbrenner
98	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport

Season Calendar:

10^th March – St. Petersburg (S)
24^th March – Circuit of the Americas (R)
7^th April – Barber Motorsports Park (R)
14^th April – Long Beach (S)
11^th May – Indianapolis GP (R)
26^th May – 103^rd Indy 500 (O)
1^st June – Detroit Race 1 (S)
2^nd June – Detroit Race 2 (S)
8^th June – Texas Motor Speedway (O)
23^rd June – Road America (R)
14^th July – Toronto (S)
20^th July – Iowa Speedway (O)
28^th July – Mid-Ohio (R)
18^th August – Pocono Raceway (O)
24^th August – Gateway Motorsports Park (O)
1^st September – Portland (R)
22^nd September – Laguna Seca (R)

(R) – Road Course
(S) – Street Course
(O) – Oval

Schedule subject to change

(Featured image credit: Chris Jones/IndyCar)

2nd March 2019

The (very nearly) complete 2019 IndyCar grid

The 2019 IndyCar season is almost upon us with a grid packed full of talent from across the world, each with varying amounts of experience in the series. Five rookies join the grid this season, accompanying the seven champions and plethora of race winners. Here’s a run-down of the twelve main teams and their respective drivers for 2019…

Reigning champions Chip Ganassi Racing have retained Scott Dixon, with their partnership entering into its seventeenth year, while a different driver steps into the #10 entry for the third year running. After Ed Jones’ fall from grace with Ganassi, Swede Felix Rosenqvist will be hoping for better fortunes in his rookie season. The ex-just-about-everything driver makes his IndyCar debut this season, after running in Indy Lights in 2016 and walking away from a top Formula E drive to take up the Ganassi vacancy. He, like all Dixon’s previous teammates, will have his work cut out trying to match ‘The Iceman’, but he’ll be learning from the best and has good potential for the season ahead. For Dixon, the aim’s the same as it always is; to win the championship – and you’d be brave to bet against him doing just that.

Andretti Autosport are keeping their four-car line up for 2019, with the same drivers as they had last season. Alexander Rossi leads the charge after just missing out on the title in 2018, while Ryan Hunter-Reay will be looking to regain his once established position as team leader. Zach Veach lines up with a year of experience under his belt after a tough but promising rookie season, with the youngster looking to take the fight to his teammates on a more regular basis. Attention is starting to turn to whether Marco Andretti really deserves his drive at the team after he extended his losing streak to 126 races in 2018; his future is in doubt if he doesn’t put that right soon. Andretti are planning to run five cars at the Indy 500 with Conor Daly joining the team in the #25.

Like Andretti, Team Penske are sporting an unchanged line up for 2019 with their three drivers all crowned champion in the last five years. Will Power was the main one flying the flag for Penske last season and will be aiming to continue to do so heading into this season. Josef Newgarden’s hopes of championship retention came crashing down during 2018, and he will not want to be left behind by Power again in 2019. Simon Pagenaud’s career seems to be on the rocks at Penske, with him edging ever nearer to the same IMSA fate of Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya – he needs a good season to stand a chance of staying at Penske. Castroneves will join the team for the Indianapolis GP and the Indy 500, as he did last season.

Dale Coyne Racing have kept hold of four-time CART champion Sebastien Bourdais, who will have the job of leading the team and coaching yet another rookie through their first season of IndyCar. This time, it’s F2-reject Santino Ferrucci who has had to turn his back on his F1 dreams to instead chase a career in the States, after his high-profile departure from F2 last season. Ferrucci’s pace was promising at the four races he competed in during 2018, and you’d expect Dale Coyne to benefit from the consistency of having a single driver in the #19, a far cry from the car sharing shenanigans of 2018.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing are the third of four teams to have an unchanged line up for 2019. Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato will once again be fielding the two RLL cars for the full season, while Jordan King will be joining them for the Indy 500. After Sato took the team’s only win last season, all involved will be hoping for a more fruitful 2019 and a rise up the grid, after years of inconsistencies.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports have a new title sponsor in Arrow Electronics, after being a personal sponsor of James Hinchcliffe for a number of years. Hinchcliffe is staying put at SPM, but he welcomes a new teammate for the third year running. Marcus Ericsson joins SPM after five years in relatively back-marker teams in F1. Having another new driver was not the intention of SPM, but after Robert Wickens was seriously injured at Pocono last season, they had to bring another driver in. Wickens continues to recover and the #6 SPM remains open to him ‘when he wants to and is able to return’. Jack Harvey will also run with the team in partnership with Meyer Shank Racing for ten races, up from the six he competed in last season.

Ed Carpenter Racing have kept on two of their three drivers from last season with Jordan King leaving and Ed Jones replacing him in the shared #20 drive. Spencer Pigot will once again be in the #21 car for the full season while team owner Ed Carpenter and Jones share the #20 – with Carpenter in on the ovals and Jones in for the road courses, as per the usual arrangement. The only difference this season is that Jones will be entering the Indy 500 in a one-off #64 entry, taking his race total up to thirteen for 2019.

Despite a fairly dismal 2018, AJ Foyt Racing haven’t been tempted to shake things up with their drivers, keeping their all-Brazilian line up of Tony Kanaan and Matheus Leist. At 44 years old, it’s widely accepted that Kanaan is nearing the end of his IndyCar tenure, while teammate Leist is only just getting started. They worked well together last season and will intend to do so again in 2019 in an attempt to drag AJ Foyt Racing back up the grid.

After initially expecting to have a three-car lineup, Carlin have ended up only entering two cars, with some doubt over whether the second will be running as a full-time entry or not. Max Chilton will be in the #59 full-time, as he was last season, and he’s once again joined by Charlie Kimball however, the American has only be confirmed for five races in the #23. RC Enerson, who has previously run in IndyCar, albeit briefly, has been announced as another driver of the #23, but his races are yet to be confirmed and there is some speculation that there could be a third driver in the #23.

Harding Steinbrenner Racing are another team who promised more entries than they have delivered. Indy Lights runner-up Colton Herta will be in the only full-time entry for the team while the #8 car is expected to run in the Indy 500, though a driver has yet to be announced. Previously, Indy Lights champion Pato O’Ward was signed for Harding, but after it emerged that they had failed to get an engine lease for the #8 to run for the full season, he walked away and is yet to find a new drive.

Juncos Racing also have a bit of a cloud over their heads with the team only confirmed for one race, Texas, with Kyle Kaiser. They’re expected to run in more with another driver, but nothing more has been announced.

DragonSpeed are the only new entrant to IndyCar in 2019 to be running in more than just the Indy 500. Ben Hanley makes his IndyCar debut with the team after racing with them in IMSA, WEC and ELMS over the past few seasons. Hanley’s been confirmed for five races in the #85, including the Indy 500.

That’s a wrap for the 2019 IndyCar grid! Stay tuned for more previews for both IndyCar and the Road to Indy in the run-up to the first race at St Petersburg on March 10^th.

(Featured Image: Chris Jones/IndyCar)

19th February 201919th February 2019

IndyCar launch all-new frontal protection system

IndyCar has released renders of their solution to cockpit safety, with the first on-track test of the device scheduled for April 24th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. All being well, the Advanced Frontal Protection system (AFP) will make it’s racing debut at this year’s running of the Indianapolis 500.

The AFP comes in the form of a three-inch titanium piece that will be fixed to the front of the cockpit, in a seemingly similar way to that of F1’s halo. IndyCar report that the addition has passed the same strength tests as the roll hoop, built by Dallara.

This comes after IndyCar ran a windscreen-type solution at multiple tests during last season, but, despite the running, it is not yet ready to be used in races with issues relating to visibility, practicality and reflection all still to be ironed out, as well as questions over its potential effectiveness. There is still a lot of work to do on the windscreen, but IndyCar has made it clear that this solution has not, by any means, been abandoned.

As such, the AFP seems to be coming in as an interim solution before something more substantial can be implemented.

A halo-type solution was considered during last season; however, this presents a number of challenges that are unique to IndyCar. First of all, a halo would pose serious visibility issues on ovals as the top structure would block parts of the track from the driver’s view – potentially causing far more problems than it would solve. Even on the road courses, a halo would be an issue as it can’t be fitted on the current IndyCar chassis, and, given the latest update only came in last season, they probably won’t be updated again for another few seasons.

The biggest problem IndyCar has to try and steer around is the cost-factor, especially for the smaller teams who are already struggling as it is. For likes of Juncos and Harding, a chassis change so soon after a major change wouldn’t be financially viable, and the series would risk losing a fair few entrants.

This also realistically rules out the potential of having two different solutions – one for road courses and one for ovals – as could again push out the smaller teams, which are vital to the success of IndyCar.

IndyCar President Jay Frye stated: “Safety is a never-ending pursuit, and this is IndyCar’s latest step in the evolution. There are more details to come about the phases to follow.”

One thing is for sure, IndyCar had to do something ahead of the 2019 season. There were too many near misses in 2018 for them to wait until the windscreen is ready to use, and the AFP, small though it is, is the first step towards a much safer IndyCar with a determination to not have repeats of recent accidents, such as that of Justin Wilson in 2015.

It’s a small step, but it’s a start.

(Featured image credit: IndyCar/Chris Beatty)

11th February 201911th February 2019

O’Ward’s Rookie IndyCar Season on Hold

Patricio O’Ward has parted ways from Harding Steinbrenner Racing, with whom he was expected to compete in his rookie IndyCar season this year.

The Mexican driver won the 2018 Indy Lights championship, winning nine out of 17 races. O’Ward then made his IndyCar debut in Sonoma last season with Harding Steinbrenner, reaching the Fast Six in qualifying and finishing the race in ninth place. He was understood to have signed a deal to race for the team on a full-time programme in 2019.

O’Ward’s Indy Lights championship win was accompanied by a scholarship worth $1 million to be put towards an entry in the IndyCar championship.

However, O’Ward announced today that he had parted ways with the team, releasing the following statement:

“The Harding Steinbrenner Racing team supported my decision to seek a new opportunity by releasing me from my contract and allowing me the opportunity to find a new team before the start of the 2019 season. Now, I am fully focused on finding the right opportunity and how I will use my scholarship from Indy Lights for 2019.”

With the first race of the IndyCar season on March 10, time is running out for O’Ward to secure a new seat, and it is unclear whether he will be able to find a full-time or part-time deal.

Harding Steinbrenner Racing are now expected to contest the season with only one entry, the #88 car, to be driven by 2018 Indy Lights runner-up Colton Herta.

(Featured image credit: Chris Jones/IndyCar)

10th December 2018

Australian Hunter McElrea wins Road to Indy Scholarship Shootout

Hunter McElrea was the driver to rise above the rest at the Road to Indy Scholarship Shootout, taking the victory and with it a $200,000 prize to see him onto the 2019 USF2000 grid. It was a very closely fought competition between first the nineteen assembled drivers and then the six finalists, but McElrea just about edged out all the other drivers.

Photos @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

After Saturday’s two sessions, each of the nineteen drivers was given feedback from the judges on their runs before they had one more session to impress on Sunday morning. With the first round done, the eighteen remaining drivers (one had travel issues and one dropped out after Saturday) were called to the pit straight to learn their fate in the shootout. The judges praised all of them for their ability to adapt to the unfamiliar Formula Mazda car and said that the decision to pick out six had been a very tough one.

The six finalists who progressed were:
Braden Eves (USA)
Jake Craig (USA)
Ross Martin (GBR)
Hunter McElrea (AUS)
Michael Eastwell (GBR)
Flinn Lazier (USA)

These six then had to do two qualifying sessions before a mock race and then a nervous wait to find out who the judges had selected with the winner announced at 4 pm local time – over an hour after the race had finished. It was another tough decision for the judges who had to consider both on-track and off-track performances from the finalists, but ultimately it was McElrea who won it.

US-born but Australian raised, McElrea will return to racing in the US after spending all his single-seater career to date in Australia. His ticket to the shootout was gained by winning the Australian Formula Ford Series, a championship which he won by a margin of fifteen points over his closest rival. He took thirteen wins in the season as well as sixteen podiums and three pole positions, making him a more than worthy champion and now the winner of the shootout.

There are still plenty of opportunities for the rest of the shootout drivers to make it onto the Road to Indy, one of which is next year’s shootout. The full entry lists for USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights are due to be published in the coming weeks with all the series kicking off at St Petersburg in March 2019.

Featured Image: Photos @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

8th December 20189th December 2018

Road to Indy scholarship shootout begins in Arizona

This weekend, twenty young drivers from across the world will fight it out for a $200,000 scholarship which will see them onto the 2019 USF2000 grid. The youngest contestant, Colin Mullan, is just sixteen years old with the other drivers ranging from seventeen to twenty-five. The event is taking place at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park with the track action spanning over today and tomorrow on the 1.6-mile circuit.

The scholarship competition has been running since 2016 and this year there were twenty-five eligible feeder series with around four hundred drivers in contention for a place in the shootout.

The weekend kicked off out of the cars with a welcome gala last night where all the drivers could get acquainted with their fellow competitors and the judges.

Drivers will be in Formula Mazda cars, taking part in three sessions across the weekend – two on Saturday and one on Sunday morning. After the Sunday session, judges will cut the field down and the remaining drivers will take part in two qualifying rounds, setting up for a mock race at the end of the day. From this, the winner of the scholarship will be announced at around 4:00 pm local time (11 pm GMT).

The judging panel is a talented list of representatives from both Mazda and the Road to Indy programme. Mazda has sent long-serving factory representatives Andrew Carbonell and Tom Long and from the Road to Indy we’ve got Indy Lights race winner Tom Long, last year’s Pro Mazda champion Victor Franzoni and the very first shootout winner, Oliver Askew, who won the USF2000 championship the following year.

Coverage of the event will be provided by Road to Indy TV (http://roadtoindy.tv/) and it’ll certainly be something to check out if you get the chance.

The twenty hopeful drivers’ names, ages and nationalities are listed below:

Guillaume Archambault, 24, Canada

Dario Cangialosi, 18, USA

Bryce Cornet, 25, USA

Jake Craig, 21, USA

Allan Croce, 21, Brazil

Courtney Crone, 17, USA

Michael Eastwell, 22, UK (England)

Braden Eves, 19, USA

Flinn Lazier, 19, USA

Ross Martin, 19, UK (Scotland)

Hunter McElrea, 19, Australia

Matt Round-Garrido, 18, UK (England)

Colin Mullan, 16, USA

Tyler O’Connor, 21, USA

Ryan Norberg, 20, USA

Raghul Rangasamy, 25, India

Jason Reichert, 19, USA

Kellen Ritter, 17, Canada

James Roe Jr, 20, Ireland

Stuart White, 17, South Africa

Featured Image: Photos @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

20th November 2018

Dale Coyne sign Santino Ferrucci for 2019 season

One of IndyCar’s worst kept secrets is finally out; ex-F2 driver Santino Ferrucci will race for Dale Coyne in 2019, after competing for four events with the team in 2018. This announcement has been expected for some time, with the announcing of the deal seeming to be a mere formality.

The first three races of Ferrucci’s IndyCar career, held at Detroit and Portland, were all tough to say the least – with the rest of the weekend’s showing far more promise than the race result itself. Things turned around for the young American in his more recent IndyCar race at the season-ending Sonoma GP where he finished a respectable eleventh, ahead of teammate Pietro Fittipaldi, though still in the shadow of the vastly experienced Sebastien Bourdais.

2019 will see him partner Bourdais once again in the two-car Dale Coyne team, with Bourdais being one of the best on the grid to learn from, given his vast IndyCar success and experience.

Santino Ferrucci – Dale Coyne Racing. Image courtesy of Chris Jones/indycar

His IndyCar track record makes the move more than credible, but, unfortunately for Ferrucci, the 20-year old is much more well-known for his F2 misdemeanours than for his brief IndyCar career.

This was, of course, when he drove into then Trident teammate, Arjun Maini, on the cool down lap of the second race… but that was far from the only problem he created that weekend at Silverstone. Amongst other rule breaches, Ferrucci drove his F2 car between paddocks while on his mobile phone, something that the FIA did not take kindly to and thus dealt him a two-event ban. This became pretty irrelevant when his Trident team fired him, meanwhile court action surrounding unpaid bills is still going on in the background of all this.

But anyway, Dale Coyne have, wisely or not, given Ferrucci a lifeline in this IndyCar drive, and his addition to the field will be a welcome one after his performances earlier in the year. Certainly, the European media have been tough to handle for Ferrucci following that Silverstone weekend, so a move back to his home turf will help him get a fresh start to his racing career.

You don’t get many second chances in motorsport… Ferrucci will be wise to take this one with both hands and prove to the world why he is still worthy of such a drive.

Featured image courtesy of Joe Skibinski/IndyCar

10th November 2018

McLaren and Alonso confirm return to Indy 500

It’s been on the cards for a while now, but McLaren have today confirmed that they will be participating in the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 with Fernando Alonso. They’ll return to the ‘Brickyard’ as McLaren Racing with no confirmation as to which of the two IndyCar engine suppliers the team will be running with, though presumably it would be Chevrolet.

We have, of course been here before… last year McLaren shocked the world by allowing Alonso to run in the Indy 500 instead of the Monaco GP with the goal of winning the race and thus completing a third of motorsport’s ‘Triple Crown’. At the time, Alonso only had one part of the crown, the Monaco GP. This has, of course, changed since then with the Spaniard taking the win at the 24 hours of Le Mans, along with teammates Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. This, therefore means that he’s only missing the Indy 500 to take the crown – but this could be his toughest challenge yet.

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City
Friday 26 October 2018.
Fernando Alonso, McLaren.
Photo: Steven Tee/McLaren
ref: Digital Image _1ST3356

When he last attempted the Indy 500, Alonso rocked up and was right up there contending for the win, only to be thwarted, rather ironically, by his Honda engine letting go. He took this defeat very graciously, delivering a very amusing speech at the gala after the race and drinking a carton of milk in the press conference.

Getting his hands on the real glass of milk, however, will not be easy by any stretch of the imagination. With the universal aero kits, the whole dynamic of oval racing has changed drastically, meaning that Alonso’s previous experience won’t count for all that much in the grand scheme of things. Pack racing is no more, and strategy is more important than ever, so it’ll be crucial that McLaren get some experienced IndyCar engineers on board.

With no Andretti teammates to rely on, things will be even tougher for Alonso, not to mention the fact that luck has to be firmly on your side to win the world-famous race; something that seems to have alluded Alonso in the past few years!

Another thing that will almost certainly be different is their engine supplier with the team expected to take Chevrolet engines instead of the Honda they used last time. This is because of a number of reasons, chief among which is the fractious relationship that McLaren and Honda endured throughout their most recent F1 partnership, leaving Honda unwilling to supply McLaren again. Also, Alonso’s WEC forays with Toyota don’t exactly help matters so Chevrolet is probably McLaren’s best option.

But anyway, this move is undoubtedly a positive thing for both parties. If IndyCar can’t have Alonso for the season, they’ll take him for the Indy 500, whether he wins, wrecks or does anything in between. Expect another announcement fairly soon, shedding some more light on the engine situation but, for now at least, McLaren and Alonso have got another two F1 races to focus on!

30th October 2018

Destination IndyCar: Marcus Ericsson joins Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

The list of ex-F1 drivers on the IndyCar grid is getting longer by the day, this time with the addition of the recently-ousted Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson who will line up with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (SPM) for the 2019. With Felix Rosenqvist’s earlier move to Chip Ganassi, Ericsson takes IndyCar’s Swedish driver count up to two, an unprecedented amount for the modern era of IndyCar which has seen none from the country since its merge with Champ Car back in 2008.

Marcus Ericsson. Image courtesy of Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team

Ericsson comes from F1 having spent five years in the series, the last four of which have been with Sauber F1 Team. There’s no doubt that the significant funding that accompanied Ericsson played a part in how long he spent at the team, especially as he’s been comprehensively beaten by the majority of his teammates, however, his talent is not to be overlooked.

Where many expected soon-to-be Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc to absolutely wipe the floor with Ericsson, the Swede has stood up for himself and avoided complete embarrassment. Even so, it was not enough for him to warrant keeping his driver at the team, being replaced by 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen who will line up alongside Ferrari junior Antonio Giovinazzi.

Having spent so long in F1, a change is scene will probably do Ericsson good, though his predicament on entering IndyCar is remarkably similar to Andretti’s Alexander Rossi. When Rossi came to IndyCar, it was seen as though he was using the series as a filler until he could get back into F1 but soon after joining he fell in love with it and kissed goodbye to his F1 dreams. Ericsson has said that he wants to return to F1, but his mind could well be changed… just as Rossi’s was back in 2016.

Ericsson joins SPM at a rather troubled time in their history, to say the least. Last season’s rookie sensation, Robert Wickens, has been left paralysed (at least for now) by a horrific crash at Pocono while racing for SPM, with teammate James Hinchcliffe’s car also being wrecked in the crash. Certainly, the financial backing that Ericsson brings will be very well-received at SPM, given all the crash damage they’ve had in previous years, but that was not the only reason that they chose the Swede.

The 28-year old will pilot the #7 SPM car with Hinchcliffe in the #5, with the #6 seat remaining empty for Wickens to retake when or if he wants or is able to. Hinchcliffe is one of the more experienced drivers on the grid and definitely one of the most popular, so Ericsson will have his work cut out going up against him. Equally, Hinchcliffe will not want a repeat of 2018 where Wickens came in as a rookie and beat him, the Canadian will want to stand his ground, that’s for sure!

Either way, SPM is a very good team to be going into as a rookie and Ericsson will have all the tools he needs to turn into an IndyCar contender, much like Rossi has in the last few seasons, and his entry into the series is an exciting prospect for all.

Featured Image courtesy of Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team