RMB – Syndication Server

The RACER Mailbag, June 19

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 …

Q: Good to see Malukas back and in the saddle with Meyer Shank. Doesn’t look like he missed a step. You think Arrow McLaren kicked him to the curb too soon?

Jeff, Colorado

MARSHALL PRUETT: I don’t think so, based on what the team was wanting from him. They waited four races and decided his uncertain return timeline wasn’t a fit for their needs. The fact that he never raced for the team was important; if he got hurt while driving the No. 6 Chevy at St. Pete, they’d have waited. Ilott did well as a stand-in, as did Pourchaire, who I can’t believe is now out of the car. Great shot for Siegel, but a cruel twist for the F2 champ.

Now Malukas has a chance to develop at a really good team at MSR and can revive his career and earn an opportunity to stay in the car next year if he does a proper job. He was a wild card at Arrow McLaren — an inexpensive experiment among two proven veterans — without holding extraordinary importance to the team with O’Ward and Rossi there. At MSR, he can prove himself to be a vital cog in the team if he puts up the results in the No. 66 Shank has been chasing.

It won’t happen this weekend or at Mid-Ohio while his recovering hand and wrist are pummeled, but give him some time and I think he’ll be someone MSR will want to keep.

Q: How about this: This proposed international IndyCar exhibition series grows revenue and eventually can move into filling early season calendar spots and a post-season or two non-points flyaways… maybe even a trip back to Motegi to entice/appease Honda or other potential Asian (Toyota/Hyundai) OEMs? Is there enough buy-in across the paddock to make it happen?

Gordon, Dallas, TX

MP: Not sure a Korean manufacturer like Hyundai would see any value in a Japanese race, but the main issue is the fencing placed around the calendar with FOX. The NFL with its Super Bowl and NASCAR on FOX at Daytona own most of February, and FOX and IndyCar are ending their first season together the weekend before the NFL season starts.

Whether it’s IndyCar’s long-held strategy to avoid going head-to-head with the NFL, or FOX’s full devotion to the NFL and NASCAR, IndyCar is left with a strict corridor of when it can be on TV.

I just don’t see where going to (name the places) before the season happens due to FOX’s priorities placed elsewhere, or where the series goes after the NFL dominates FOX’s airwaves from September-January. And no promoter I can think of is going to pay top dollar to host a pre- or post-season race that has no meaningful TV component.

Hands up if you’d like to see IndyCar go back to Japan. (My hand is also up). Steve Shunck/Motorsport Images

Q: With the news that Fox will broadcast IndyCar next year, I hope that they: do not have awful drawings of the drivers instead of real pictures, have someone other than Adam Alexander as the lead announcer, (he does a good job, but he’s too identified with Cup), do not have ceaseless promotions for the next Cup race during the IndyCar broadcast, and bring back Kelly Stavast as a pit reporter.

How many years is the multi-year broadcast contract?

David, Waxhaw, NC

MP: Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles declined to answer the duration part, but two to three years would make sense. He told us in a recent interview that they wouldn’t be signing a long-term deal due to the rapidly changing world of broadcast and streaming options.

Q: Watching Le Mans reminded me how quickly the state of things can change in motorsports. Just a few years ago Toyota was racing against incomparable competition (no offense to Rebellion and Glickenhaus). The top class was frankly uninteresting and uninspiring beyond the intrateam battle with the GR squad. Just a few years later, Hypercar has become the biggest and possibly the most fascinating motorsports class. With nearly 10 manufacturers racing globally in Hypercar/GTP, it’s hard not to be absolutely amped about what’s going on in the prototype world. The cars are cool and interesting, the racing is close and exciting, and there’s more marques than anywhere else in motorsports.

IndyCar, on the other hand, has really got itself into a pickle. Even before Penske, the series sat on its hands and avoided the changes necessary to grow manufacturer involvement. While I understand the reasoning to essentially freeze the ICE units and gently open up the hybrid units for development, it doesn’t feel like a step towards growing the series, but rather a way to prevent it from becoming fully spec. I get the mindset, but I wish IndyCar would do something more inspiring/open.

I just don’t see how additional manufacturers would be enticed by a badging exercise with minimal design influence? With torque sensing and fuel flow meters, you’d think there would be ways to have more passive BoP to prevent a spending war while maintaining close competition. Good racing, technical diversity, and restrained budgets don’t need to be mutually exclusive.

Michael, Halifax, Canada

MP: Amen.

Q: After watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans, what´s next for the LMDh guys at the Ganassi shops in the U.S. and Germany after the Ganassi/Cadillac split at the end of 2024? Another IndyCar program might not be the option…

Do you know why Honda doesn’t choose Ganassi for its GTP program from 2025 onwards, with the existing ties they have?

Lars, Germany

MP: I haven’t heard of any immediate follow-on programs for CGR in 2025, but I am aware of two significant manufacturers who are looking at joining IMSA’s hybrid GTP class in 2026 or 2027, plus another existing brand that races in the WEC and wants to add a GTP program. Any of the three could be a perfect fit for the team.

I’ve heard the bidding process for the Acura GTP effort had some teams come in with a higher financial need than others.

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The RACER Mailbag, June 12

Q: I never need to see another race at the Detroit street circuit ever again. The person who came up with the idea to replace Belle Isle with that monstrosity needs to find a new line of work. It has all of the pitfalls of Monaco and none of the charm.

If you were designing a track with the intention of producing a race with an even split between green flag and caution laps, what would you change? I’m straining to think of anything.

I can’t think of a worse (or more predictable) way to lose any potential ratings momentum from one of the greatest Indy 500s in history than what we saw in Detroit.

Andrew, northern Virginia

MARSHALL PRUETT: I hope this layout isn’t what greets the series seven days after the next Indy 500. It did have 600,000 people who watched on USA, which is tons better than the 300,000 who watched Long Beach on USA.

Q: Dear IndyCar,

There are lots of complaints in the Mailbag. I’ve got quite a few in mind right now related to Detroit and things that happened after Detroit, but that’s not what this is about. Things aren’t all bad and the sky is not falling.

I’m in my 40s and I have an 11-year-old son. He made his first trip to IMS for the Grand Prix weekend seven years ago. I think mostly he just liked seeing the cars. I don’t think we were able to stay even for the IndyCar race before he wanted to go home. He enjoyed rolling up and down the spectator mounds that day between races. He’s been to Detroit (the Stadium Super Truck series was his favorite and he got to sit in one of the trucks), Mid-Ohio, Iowa, and IMS for the 500. Why waste so much space in the Mailbag telling you these things? I’m obviously a big fan and I’ve dragged my kid around trying to turn him into one as well.

‘100 Days to Indy’ can be a hook for a new generation of racing fans – and an autograph from their favorite driver can go a long way, too. James Black/IMS Photo

Please allow me to explain why 2024 was the first time I took my son to an IndyCar race as an IndyCar fan. In 2022 we left the 500 about halfway through. He was done and nothing I could do would change his mind. In 2023 we made it to the second red flag, but before that the most important part of the weekend was shopping for souvenirs. He would scout out the field a little bit to see what diecast car he would want to get. Often he was ready to head home before the race was over (or before it started) because he wanted to play with whatever it was we got that day.

In 2023 I watched 100 Days to Indy, but watching TV in a timeslot isn’t what kids do. He had no interest at the time. Recently 100 Days to Indy dropped on Netflix. I think my son has seen it at least half a dozen times by now. Instead of talking about whether he wanted a Newgarden or a Rahal diecast this year (he ended up getting Pato), he kept telling me about IndyCar. Did I know about the father and son who have won the 500? Did I know that Tony Kanaan has two racing simulators at home? Did I know this or that about Mario Andretti? Everything from 100 Days to Indy stuck and it hooked a next-generation fan. This year we had our own countdown to Indy. That’s normally saved for our Labor Day weekend family trip, but this year the excitement he had for the 500 was almost too much.

Now he’s asking me when Season 2 will be out. I know it is on the CW app, but he wants it on Neflix. I told him it was coming ‘soon.’ I’m not sure if he thinks it’ll be different when it gets there, but he’s looking forward to it. So, while I’ve written way too many words and taken up way too much space, I wanted to say thank you for making a fan out of my son. 100 Days to Indy was a massive hit for at least one of the generation of fans you’re trying to reach.

Ryan, West Michigan

MP: That’s everything IndyCar could hope for. The biggest thing that could happen to IndyCar is for the budding relationship with Netflix — one that’s been developed on its behalf by The CW — to take off and become a bigger thing so more sons and daughters and people of all ages get their first taste of the series.

IndyCar has been an amazing product for longer than I’ve been alive. I’ve been fortunate to have seen it first as a fan, and then as a crew member at its modern peak when the CART IndyCar Series ruled the country as its most popular racing series. And we’ve seen it fall back and into NASCAR’s shadow. And we’ve recently seen it fall behind F1 at home. But the quality of the racing product and the people in the paddock who make IndyCar special has never been in doubt.

While sitting in those shadows, the decades-long struggle has been to get people to notice and care about the series. IndyCar is waiting to have its WNBA moment where a beloved but under-the-radar sporting league gets a giant boost to bring it forward. Netflix has that power.

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The RACER Mailbag, June 5

Q: Massive TV numbers for the Indy 500… and the next race is on USA Network. I understand NBC decides what goes where, and IndyCar is bumped by Women’s US Open Golf, but this is a short-sighted view, if not for NBC, but definitely for IndyCar. Any updates on the TV situation? I would hope someone at Penske has the brains to insist the race following the 500, always a ratings king, must be aired on network TV

Vincent Martinez, South Pasadena, CA

MARSHALL PRUETT: I’ve had two significant figures in the IndyCar paddock and one big name outside of IndyCar tell me NBC has offered to place all races on network in a new deal, but they said Penske hasn’t jumped at the opportunity and is continuing to fish for the biggest payout.

I’ve also heard from multiple sources that heading out of Detroit, the prevailing belief is we’ll be setting our DVRs for FOX, FOX Sports 1, and maybe even FOX Sports 2 next year and beyond to watch IndyCar racing. I’ve heard NASCAR on FOX veteran Adam Alexander is a strong candidate to lead the broadcasts.

Related, FOX just informed about 150 FOX Sports employees in Charlotte, N.C., that they’ll be out of work at the end of the month. Not sure how those two items reconcile.

Q: We are taking our boys (8, 6 and 4) to their first race and chose Laguna Seca. We are going to be camping at the campground and I was wondering if you had any recommendations for where we should sit, and any must-see areas of the track?

Secondly, my middle boy has hopes of being an IndyCar driver like his favorite driver Will Power and is also really interested in being an IndyCar engineer (the more probable outcome). He loves solving problems and tinkering with his Legos to see what he can build. Is there anybody I could write to that might be willing to take a few minutes out of the busy race weekend to talk to him about engineering?

Steven Rollins, Riverside, CA

MP: Great to hear. I’ll be in Watkins Glen that weekend for IMSA’s 6 Hour race, so have fun in my absence. There aren’t many grandstands to use, so plan your days like you’re constantly camping with backpacks or a rolling cart to carry folding chairs and your food and drinks. The hill overlooking Turn 2 and the infield is great for the start; lots of action. The obvious place is atop the Corkscrew, and the blast up to the Corkscrew from the inside of Turn 6 is also impressive to behold. Same on the way down from the Corkscrew on either side of the track down to Turn 10. The stands across from pit lane could be worthwhile during the race as you’ll see lots of passing attempts into Turn 11 and pit stops. Send your email address to me and I’ll get you connected with a team or two to host you and your future race engineer for a visit.

Laguna Seca has grandstands all over the place. They’re called “hills.” Barry Cantrell/Motorsport Images

Q: What does Santino Ferrucci have to do or say for something to be done about his awful attitude? He has a long history of dangerous, vengeful driving and saying offensive, bigoted and intolerant things, and yet nothing besides a hollow apology after practice on the Kirkwood/Herta comments. As an IndyCar fan who happens to be gay I found that quite disappointing that what he said was largely unchallenged.

Is there any interest in Ferrucci from teams other than Foyt, or will his actions and words always be a barrier to progression, much like Dan Ticktum?

Paul, Glasgow, Scotland

MP: Awful attitudes, plus poor results, will remove drivers or team members from any racing series. Awful attitudes, plus strong results, usually don’t. There are exceptions, of course.

Santino has the Foyt team up to 12^th in the championship and has been a central part in of one of IndyCar’s most amazing year-to-year turnarounds for the perennially beleaguered Foyt team. Unless he uncorks another gem on camera or launches Romain Grosjean into orbit in the coming weeks, I don’t foresee any changes to his employment status happening here.

His clashes with drivers, plus his societal, religious and political views, and whatever else, have not reached a point where A.J. is going to kick him out of the car. If he were to say something or do something that led the series or sponsors to intervene and call for his suspension or firing, that’s where action would be taken, but not pre-emptively.

Teams will tell you they want drivers to be angels, to be social media stars, and so on, but for most of them, all they care about is where their cars start and finish. All the positives and negatives found within people in the real world are found in racing, so it’s tough to find folks in the paddock — me included — who are free of sin. The only difference here is Ferrucci’s words were caught on camera.

It’s also worth overstating the obvious in saying that if his team or the series felt strongly enough about what Ferrucci said, the team and/or series could have taken action and made that action known. Other than being reprimanded in private by the series, I’m unaware of any fines or penalties being levied against Ferrucci by his employer or the sanctioning body. Based on its handling, this wasn’t considered a punishable offense.

On how his words were offered and received, here’s a bit of background: Santino reached out to me and wanted to share a public apology. It didn’t come across as scripted while he was speaking, nor did it sound insincere. He brought up Pride Month on his own and wanted to apologize to the LGBTIQA+ community. I also respect the fact that how you’ve received his words are different than my own, and I could be wrong in my perceptions.

I wish he hadn’t tried to use what he thought was an insult — referring to heterosexual males as being homosexual was once a “sick burn” as some might say, but it’s no longer tolerated as such by younger generations — which led to unimpressed reactions from IndyCar’s younger fans (but not just younger fans) moments after that went out on the airwaves. I also saw lots of “lighten up, people” and, “jeez, we’ve gotten soft” and harsher responses from older fans (but not just older fans) who’ve taken offense to others taking offense to the comment.

Between this and a new, third instance of Agustin Canapino fans threatening another driver following the hit he received from Arrow McLaren’s Theo Pourchaire, this extracurricular stuff is just exhausting.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 29

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and …

Q: Call me an old codger, but the current Pennzoil Dallara is not “The Yellow Submarine.” That title has always and will always belong to the Chaparral 2k. The late Al Unser Sr, Lone Star JR and the late Jim Hall are being dissed. The current Penske team members and NBC broadcast crew who continue to promote this falsehood are disrespecting the history of Indy. Probably many of them were not even alive when the original Yellow Submarine dominated Indy. Rant over.

Dale, Chesterfield, VA

MARSHALL PRUETT: You’re an old codger.

Q: With Josef Newgarden winning two championships and now two 500s (and counting on both), Where do you think he’ll end up when all is said and done with his career? Judging by his age and assuming he stays at Penske (or if he ever left you’d assume a powerful team would be his destination) he’s got another 10-12 years of high level driving still (maybe more based on Dixon and Power) Is he going down as the greatest American driver not named A.J. Foyt?

Steve

MP: We did have Rick Mears, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Louis Meyer, Johnny Rutherford, Wilbur Shaw and a few other Americans who Josef would need to first equal or exceed in the major accolades before he’s slotted into P2 at home.

But, if he keeps going for another 7-10 years, he could easily join the four-timers club at Indy, and stack 3-4 more championships onto his CV. He’s the best of his generation, without question for me, and that was before his first Indy 500 victory. Where he ends up beyond that is what we’ll be watching until he retires.

Josef, or Dixon, could beat all of his records and I don’t think a single person who saw A.J. at his peak would say anyone was better on pavement, dirt, open-wheel, stock cars, sports cars and so on. A.J. will always be in a category of his own.

Johnny Rutherford and the real Yellow Submarine, aka the Chaparral 2k. Murenbeeld/Motorsport Images

Q: I feel that this has probably been asked: Is there or a perception of an asterisk next to Josef’s 500 win? There’s got to be some folks in a beer joint wondering if he somehow cheated again.

Shawn, MD

MP: I know his win/Penske’s win on Sunday rang hollow for some since it happened a little over a month after a major cheating scandal, but he and the No. 2 Chevy team were the best at the Speedway on Sunday at lap 200 so there’s no reason to apply an arbitrary asterisk.

Like it or not, the top car and team and driver combination at the checkered flag on May 26 was duly crowned and Penske/Newgarden/No. 2 crew deserve to receive all of the respect that’s given to Indy 500 winners.

Q: Big Possum is at the Speedway this weekend and shocked, saddened, disappointed and flopsy mopsy and cottontail to see F1 merch on sale in the fan zone at Indy. The fox in the hen house, for sure. What say you, Marshall?

Big Possum

MP: First, it was great to meet you. This is the fourth IndyCar race so far this year where I’ve heard or seen it happening, so I can only assume Penske Entertainment has both given in and is taking a cut of the proceeds. It shouldn’t matter, I guess, but it is strange.

Q: I find it difficult to understand why there is so little discussion of or disdain for Penske’s cheating at St. Petersburg. Newgarden didn’t know about their advantage? Oh, sure… “Who, me?! No, I didn’t recognize the max horsepower being available without pushing the button!!! Promise!” My gluteus max… At heart, the Penske teams are all capable of and willing to cheat as proven, period. Respect? Maybe somewhere down the line.

L. Curtis

MP: This is the first I’m hearing of this. I’m going to make some calls this week and try to get to the bottom of what’s going on.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 22

Q: I am hoping for some helpful feedback regarding what to do the morning of the 500 at the track. In my first two trips the last two years, we got there early and checked out the museum in the morning, before sauntering slowly back to our seats in Turn 4.

With the museum closed, though, what are the best spots to check out? Where is the best place to watch the cars heading out to pit lane? Or are we better served sleeping in an hour or two? I am open to any ideas and appreciate any guidance and insight you have.

Ashley, West Bend, WI

MARSHALL PRUETT: I asked my friends at the Elite IndyCar Facebook group to provide some answers. I’ve never been to the Indy 500 as a fan, so I’m more useless than usual here. Here’s a link to the 40-plus responses.

Q: Word is that Arrow McLaren didn’t bring its massive portable suite to Indy this year. Is the team in jeopardy? Zak Brown getting tired of the mismanagement by Penske Entertainment and thinking about exiting?

Jah from Stankonia

MP: The team tells me they have rented a mega double suite off the end of Tower Terrace that gives they guests an amazing view of Turn 3 through Turn 4 and the front straight.

Q: What do you think would happen if I started a racing series whose sole purpose was to turn the fastest lap times as possible at all the current F1 and IndyCar circuits? Didn’t care how good the TV was. Didn’t care if it was safe. Just wanted a race to see who could do 250 miles in the fastest possible time on all the current F1 and IndyCar circuits.

John Shellhamer

MP: Using the note about disregarding safety, I’d think you’d spend the rest of your life being sued by the families of the drivers who got hurt or killed.

Q: Just want to say how much I’ve enjoyed the Peacock IndyCar coverage. It’s the only reason I have a Peacock subscription. I’ve been an open-wheel fan for more than 50 years. I’m the retired dork who watches every practice session and loves it. I hope the suits remember guys like me when negotiating the next TV contract.

Richard

MP: The quality of the broadcasts has been excellent for many years. Having Hinch add deeper layers of tech insights and driver insights has taken the NBC/USA/Peacock IndyCar shows to a new level.

Q: So I’m guessing the speedway engineer at RLL is in the unemployment line by now?

Bernardo, TX

MP: I hope not. They asked a younger kid who was a performance engineer who’d never been an IndyCar race engineer to step up to that role with Graham Rahal’s car earlier this year, and that’s one hell of a tough ask coming off a failure to qualify last year with nothing but race engineering veterans in charge.

It’s been a rough start to the Month of May for RLL, but the those struggles are not the fault of any individual member of the team. Phillip Abbott/Motorsport Images)

Q: In my 50 years on God’s green earth, Saturday was only the second time I’ve ever heard of a plenum fire, and never with so much frequency. What’s the odds someone over at Chevy is sleeping with the fishes tonight?

Adam, MO

MP: Yeah, it was kinda like a bunch of bigfoot sightings happening all at once. A definite rarity, and yet, still somewhat confusing. If only the drivers had sticks with marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers they could hold over their shoulders and make smores whenever the plenum fires went off…

Q: Roger Penske owns the Speedway. He owns the series. He owns the team. He owns the Chevrolet engine manufacturing company. All three Penske cars are on the front row and none of them had the same engine plenum issues as many other strong Chevy teams did. My opinion is that Rinus Veekay is an alien or he just had an audition for The Captain with the proper Ilmor programming. (Maybe another cut and paste incident?)

Is Honda gone for good in IndyCar now?

Tom Anderson, Mesa, AZ

MP: Penske’s Will Power had a plenum fire during the Sunday morning Fast 12 practice session. Rinus is ridiculously good. Honda has not told IndyCar it’s gone, from what I understand. Yet.

Q: What was up with the Chevy engine issues during Saturday quali? Poor quality control, or something else?

JM, Tulsa, OK

MP: We wrote a little explainer story about it on Sunday, JM. Here it is.

Q: We all know ratings drive how the broadcasters structure the deals with IndyCar. I typically always watch the races on Peacock but I know the Nielsen numbers don’t track those like me who don’t watch on traditional channels. Would it benefit the series if more people who stream on Peacock not do that and watch on the NBC channel to boost the Nielsen numbers and make those numbers look better to the series, or does it not even matter?

Jon, Cleveland

MP: Actually, streaming numbers are tracked. They’re used in something called “TAD,” which is short for Total Audience Delivery, which adds the broadcast audience size and share to the streaming consumption and combines them into the TAD figure. Watch whichever one you prefer, Jon, and it will be counted.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 15

Q: I see Roger Penske suspended some crew and Tim Cindric for two races. Sort of a day late and a dollar short on integrity. I reread the B.S. comments from Newgarden, acting so naive. I still can’t fathom that Power had the same software settings and yet did not cheat. If Penske was a leader he would clean house and fire these clowns. It stinks that the 500 is coming, but it is now clouded. If the series wanted attention they sure got real fans stirred up. Guess even bad press is better than no press.

Craig B. Leland, NC

MARSHALL PRUETT: I’ve never agreed with the “all press is good press” deal. We look like idiots. Based on the TV audience size at Barber just days after the scandal broke, it did nothing to put more eyeballs on the series and the race; the audience actually shrunk by 12.5 percent from the Barber race in 2023. Scandal… drama… and nobody seemed to care.

Q: How much of an impact are the Penske suspensions really going to be on the team for the month of May? In NASCAR, for example, the crew chief gets suspended (usually multiple racers for an infraction), and you get the impression that’s significant to the competition of the team at a race event. I’m sure for someone like (senior data engineer) Robbie Atkinson, the suspension is going to have an impact, given the publicity. But, in general the suspension seemed superficial and more a PR move, given that it was self-imposed and not handed down from IndyCar. That actually seems to be the worst part of it.

Matthew

MP: If Penske was serious about sending a message, he would have actually suspended them. Turning off their access cards. Taking their laptops and phones. Sending them home for the rest of the month like they are on four separate islands where no contact with the race team at Indy is allowed and no work product can be done.

You’re “suspended” but can still do your full jobs before and after cars are on track at the Speedway each day? That’s not a suspension; that’s a time-out.

Jon ‘Myron’ Bouslog kept watch over Newgarden’s No. 2 in Cindric’s absence during the Indy GP, and will move across to Will Power’s car for the 500. Jonathan Diuguid will take time out from overseeing the Porsche Penske Motorsport sports car program to fill the vacancy on Newgarden’s pitwall. Motorsport Images

Q: So, at the Indy GP, Rahal and Armstrong both had brand-new engines let go before they even ran two laps at speed. Since they’re only allowed four engines for the season, they will probably suffer penalties later in the year for exceeding the engine allotment.

When Honda takes them back and if it finds that there was a manufacturing or assembly defect that was Honda’s fault and they find it is through that whole series of engines, is there any kind of provision that would allow IndyCar to waive the penalty for using an extra engine? Say Honda built 12 engines that had the same defect, they had two fail, found the cause and pulled back the other 10 before they were used, could the two teams that had failures be given a pass?

Michael Pennington

MP: Due to higher usage of engines in pre-season testing than was forecasted, Honda chose to start changing motors after Barber instead of after the Indy GP, and they had the two failures with Marcus Armstrong and Graham with the new motors which were sent back for inspection and fixing. On the Chevy side, Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi also had motor issues at the GP.

IndyCar has a policy that says if the motors can be fixed without major work — I’m paraphrasing — they can go back into service with no penalty. But if the motor needs to be torn apart and broken items need to be replaced, or if a bad batch of parts have been identified and all need to be updated after they’ve been pressed into service, that would fall out of the scope of a quick and easy fix. If an issue was found with one or two and the others with the same issue haven’t been installed and used, the manufacturers could apply fixes without penalties being involved.

IndyCar doesn’t care on the how or why; it has a strict policy of four engines and 10,000 combined miles of use for the $1.45 million annual engine lease per entry. Stick to the four, and there are no penalties. Need to go beyond the four, and there are problems.

Anything other than the quick/easy scenario is treated by IndyCar as an “unapproved change.” So for those who needed engine changes last weekend, they’ll need to go to a fifth engine at some point late in the season, and any engines beyond the four included in the annual engine lease come with grid a grid penalty. Same for the sixth, seventh, and so on.

Q: At Indy in Friday’s first Indy GP practice, both Rahal and Armstrong had to replace a new motor with less than a couple laps running time. The NBC crew indicated that this would likely cause a grid penalty later in the season due to the need of a fifth engine. Can’t those engines just be repaired by Honda and sent back to the teams to use without burning an engine? I can understand some manufacturer’s penalty for supplying what appears to be a faulty engine but to penalize a driver and team for an engine loss in practice and not a race seems excessive. Marshall, we’re talking practice here. Practice! Is there any appeal process?

Dave Pisula

MP: Allen Iverson would be livid! IndyCar has changed the penalty at least twice since we went to the new formula in 2012. It’s solely a hit on the manufacturers in the manufacturers’ championship, and it’s been a hit on the team/driver, and the manufacturers. I’ve never understood the driver/team part, unless someone left an oil line undone and the crew caused it to blow.

Q: Seeing the astonishing results by Nikita Johnson, I wondered if a Ganassi or similar team have signed him? If this was a F4 driver in Europe a F1 team most probably would have. In fact, maybe they will snatch Johnson from the IndyCar ladder and place him in F3 or similar next year. Here is hoping an IndyCar team is looking to the future.

Oliver Wells

MP: I’d put good money on more than half of IndyCar’s team owners having no clue Nikita exists, much less drives race cars and has been doing big things in the USF Championships for the last two seasons. That being said, based on the results to date, a smart team owner would look to get him in their development pipeline, along with Max Garcia from USF2000.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 8

Q: I’ve watched more than my fair share of Hallmark Channel with my wife to know, one of the first questions a scorned woman asks is, how long has this been going on? Was St. Pete a one-night tryst or an ongoing affair? How long have they been cheating?

Bernard, TX

MARSHALL PRUETT: That would be best answered by an external investigation team, wouldn’t it?

Q: Will IndyCar ever come to the Northeast again? I will not drive nine-plus hours for a race. IndyCar goes to California and Oregon for three or four races, but the Northeast U.S. has nearly twice the population and zero races. I love IndyCar, but I feel like IndyCar does not have any interest in a part of the country with a huge population and no traditional interest in NASCAR. I think IndyCar should consider an under-served market. Thank you.

Michael Yarnell

MP: One out of every 10 Americans live in California, so I’m not sure on the math, but yes, there’s no doubt that IndyCar needs to find a regular home in the Northeast that hasn’t failed to draw a crowd or collapsed and disappeared in the last 10 or 15 years.

Overstating the obvious here, but if there was a track that came to mind that fit the bill, I’m confident IndyCar would be there. Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles has said to me and others that it’s a top priority. I view the lack of a solution as more of an issue on finding the answer than on Penske Entertainment lacking the will or effort to make it happen.

Q: Saddened by the news regarding Dave Malukas, but it was entirely predictable given recent history (Askew, Pagenaud).

I think all classes of cars in IMSA feature power steering. If Dave’s wrist heals throughout the summer, could we see him at Petit as a third driver in one of the classes? A good showing would keep his name at the top of potential IndyCar seat lists and keep the skills sharp.

Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA

MP: Plenty of possibilities there, but Davey’s an IndyCar driver and wants to be back in the series. IndyCar team owners wouldn’t notice or care if he did well in an LMP2 or GT3 car since there’s almost no chance he’d land a GTP seat, where he’d be properly seen. He needs to get back to karting, Indy NXT, and so on to build up the specific muscles that atrophied, and from there, arrange an IndyCar test.

Malukas’s wrist will be back in champagne-spraying shape in no time. All he’ll need then is a car to drive, and we’ll be back in business. Motorsport Images

Q: After all the controversy surrounding the P2P incident with Team Penske, we have heard from the Team Penske drivers, drivers of other teams, league senior management, and of course Chevrolet. Has anyone bothered to ask Honda about their opinion of it? You know, the honor-bound Japanese company that is considering a future without IndyCar?

Certainly, this incident had to be annoying at least, since it was a Chevrolet-powered team cheating to victory. When Honda previously withdrew in 2002 from CART, American Honda executive Tom Elliott said it was for two reasons: Lack of engine rule stability, and loss of confidence and trust in CART. It sounds like a similar scenario is developing for IndyCar.

Jane, Indianapolis, IN

MP: That’s a delightful question I failed to think of to pose to Honda when it all went down. Failure on my part, Jane.

Q: Is there any word on what Christian Rasmussen’s car number for the 500 will be? I know he used 33 in testing, but Peacock emphasized that was just for the test.

Vincent Michael

MP: I’m told by the team that it will indeed be the No. 33.

Q: How bad is the dirty air on road/street courses with the current iteration of the DW12/IR18 IndyCar? With such boxy wings and the fact that drivers keep mentioning it from time to time, one could think air turbulence when following another car are still a thing nowadays. But on the other hand, as we saw recently, these same folks still seem to be able to follow each other at Barber, which is a very twisty track. Same goes with the Thermal Club — I expected following to be a question mark in at least T8 and 9 and possibly all the way through to T13, but from the TV perspective, it looked OK-ish. Did you, in both races, get any feedback from drivers in that regard?

Now, if dirty air is still a thing, since IndyCar might consider introducing parts of a new chassis at some point in the future, and since you once wrote that there probably isn’t much to be gained from redesigning the sidepods, then how about the wings and the underwing? Could a stronger floor and flatter wings alleviate the wake turbulences?

Lastly, since the IR18’s debut six years ago, IndyCar has introduced quite a few upgrades, some of them being really heavy, namely the aeroscreen and the ERS coming later this year. That means the weight distribution and the location of the center of gravity will have moved a little bit, right? Couldn’t this be another reason for upgrading the downforce-generating parts?

Xavier

MP: I didn’t get any feedback from drivers on dirty air at the corners in question at Barber because there’s nothing new about dirty air with the DW12 or at Barber. The nomenclature “IR18” did debut six years ago, but that’s in reference to the new bodywork; the underlying car wasn’t new.

Maybe it’s dumb, but in my head, if someone named Steve decides to go in a different route with his fashion and starts dressing in an entirely different manner, it’s still Steve, right?

Yes, part of IndyCar’s work over the years has been to make the underwing more powerful so less reliance on giant topside wings and steep wing angles are required to make more of the downforce. Formula 1 followed suit with that philosophy when its new rules and cars were introduced for 2022. I’d expect IndyCar to ask Dallara to go farther in that direction whenever it chooses to replace the DW12. Also keep in mind that thanks to F1’s drag reduction system, we have passing in F1. But rarely do we see non-DRS passes for meaningful positions, so this approach is by no means a cure-all, nor is it guaranteed to promote tons of passing due to the lowering of topside turbulence affecting trailing cars.

Weight distribution and center of gravity have moved plenty since the aeroscreen landed in 2020, and recently when lightweight aeroscreens and drivetrain componentry was incorporated for 2024. And when the energy recovery systems are installed in June, both will change — and radically so — again.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 1

Editor’s note: IndyCar’s news cycle has been quite a ride over the past few days, and RACER’s readers had a lot to say about the controversy surrounding Team Penske — far more than we could fit into a Mailbag. To keep things somewhat manageable and minimize repetition, we’ve chosen a selection of submissions that we feel represents the full spectrum of letters and opinions that we received. Apologies to those whose letters we couldn’t fit in, but we hope that you’ll still find the answers you were looking for amongst those below. OK, here we go…

Q: Who was it that said, “If you ain’t cheatin’ you ain’t tryin’ hard enough”?

Were the penalties honest mistakes by Team Penske, or were they trying to cheat? Since IndyCar found it without much effort, I find it hard to believe that Penske did it deliberately. What do you think?

I think the penalties to Newgarden and McLaughlin were appropriate, but why was Will Power docked points if he didn’t use push to pass on restarts?

Doug Mayer

MARSHALL PRUETT: I think it was Ricky Bobby who said that.

There are so many amazing people who work on and run Penske’s cars that I know, and I don’t look at them as being accomplices in or responsible for this nonsense.

There are also so many contradictory statements from Josef Newgarden and Penske president Tim Cindric where Josef swore everyone on his car thought they could legally use P2P like they did at St. Pete, saying “The key difference on the 2 car, which is important to understand, is that somehow, some way, we convinced ourselves that there was a rule change to restarts specifically with overtake usage.”

But the day before, Cindric, the boss and strategist of Newgarden’s car — the most important member of the “we” Newgarden referred to — told me this with his managing director Ron Ruzewski on the call: “The number one thing I wanted to understand, that Roger [Penske] wanted to understand collectively is, was this done on purpose? And if so, who, what, where and why? Who would think that they would even remotely get away with something like this? And if we did, for how long?”

So if the No. 2 Chevy team — again, led by Cindric, the boss of the team, and the boss of the car — believed they could use the anytime P2P on restarts, why on earth would Cindric launch an internal investigation to find a potential cheater… since, according to Newgarden, everyone on the No. 2 car thought what they were doing was legal?

Both things can’t be true. At least one must be false. So which is it?

Have you ever heard of a situation where a team, which thought they weren’t cheating, searched for a cheater?

It’s just insulting. As my father would say when he thought someone was lying, “Don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining.”

And for the sake of absolute clarity, not once did Cindric or Ruzewski tell me in our 45 minutes that they were confused about the rules. Not once. Never hinted at. Never alluded to. Never mentioned.

I doubt we’ll ever know for sure, but Newgarden did himself no favors — at least within the paddock — by doing that press conference and directly and publicly contradicting what Cindric told us in our story that went up a few hours earlier. Instead of calming the waters, the contradictions, which is what triggered so many alarm bells in the paddock, made matters worse.

On the Power situation, he should have had entrants’ points taken away; that’s the championship for the teams, and this was a team thing where Power’s car was in an illegal specification. Taking 10 points from the drivers’ standings when he didn’t use the button illegally is hard to understand.

And so it begins… Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: Understanding the importance of the integrity of the sport and its history of creative gamesmanship, are we making too much of Team Penske’s infraction?

Gary, from The Road

MP: We aren’t. If this was Joe Smith Racing, it would have been more of of a nothingburger — an oops by a small team that’s not a championship or Indy 500 winner with decades of operating as the gold standard in the series.

Instead, it’s the team owned by the guy who owns the series, whose team fielded illegal cars that exploited the illegality to finish a demonstrative first, and to a lesser degree, finish a distant third. This is such a terrible look and loss of respect for the series.

Q: Rather than going on a lengthy screed there is one word to describe Newgarden’s and Cindric’s verbal behavior at Long Beach — irony. What will be the ultimate punishment for Team Penske? In-depth analysis of 2023 with Newgarden’s Indy 500 win being voided? Or sponsor withdrawal either all or in part if the further investigation goes sideways for Penske? Keep us posted, as always, of this black eye for IndyCar racing. A damn shame.

Diana

MP: IndyCar told us it has looked through 2023’s data, found nothing, and this is a closed matter. I would rather have seen an external investigator brought in to do a multi-year review. That takes the burden of pressure on IndyCar president Jay Frye — the series’ commissioner — having to investigate the guy who signs his checks, and would probably ease a lot of the paddock’s concerns that this is being put to rest too swiftly instead of hiring an independent firm to do a full compliance dive.

Time will tell if the team will bear any financial repercussions.

Q: Thank you for the explanation of the penalties to Newgarden and McLaughlin. It seems to me both drivers knew about the push-to-pass violation or why would they even push the button at the start and restarts? I cannot imagine drivers pushing the button when they know it is disabled. And according to your report it seems Chevrolet would have been aware of the violation as they track the data of each car but remained silent.

I know the St. Petersburg race is not as large as the Rolex 24 but seems what Penske did is not very different from what the Michael Shank team did — manipulation to gain an advantage. A big difference for me was Honda reported to IMSA what they found, Chevrolet did not report to IndyCar. Your thoughts?

Rick, Miami

MP: Drivers push the disabled button all the time across most teams, so that is real.

So far, Chevy has avoided the data review topic altogether.

I’d like to see a new self-reporting clause in the rulebook that comes with an eight-race ban for teams/manufacturers who fail to self-report. If the data showing a violation sits for more than seven days without it being handed over to the series, we’ll see you and your car/your brand’s car eight races from now.

Call it the “F*** Around and Find Out” rule.

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The RACER Mailbag, April 24

Q: I’m writing this from Turn 1 at Long Beach. The vibe from the crowd is insane. The IndyCar chassis may be old, but the public still love the races.

By the way, the positive reception of IMSA is getting bigger and bigger. This weekend is special, as always!

Daniel, Brazil

MARSHALL PRUETT: The racing is almost always great. That’s never been a problem with the Dallara DW12 chassis. IMSA’s on a continual rise. I’m so happy to see the series attracting the love it deserves.

Q: Long Beach. What a race, especially the last 10 laps. I don’t care what kind of engine is under the hood (as long as it sounds good, of course), or how old the chassis is, that was a great, nail-biting race.

Jim Hannon, Mount Sterling, KY

MP: Like you, I love a good dueling strategy race like the one we got with Dixon on fuel-saving, Newgarden on fuel-burning, and Herta and Palou on a charge and keeping Newgarden on his toes. It was nothing like St. Pete where almost everybody was locked into fuel saving and the drama was missing altogether.

Q: The Long Beach race just finished but I had to comment on the hysterical complaints from Josef Newgarden and Tim Cindric. Newgarden — if that isn’t a penalty, nothing is. Cindric — anybody can take anyone out of a race. Then Newgarden confronts Herta post race. He claims he got lifted up. I didn’t see it, nor did the announcers.

One incident comes immediately to mind: Newgarden doing a dive bomb on Romain Grosjean and punting him into the wall at Nashville. In that case, Newgarden wasn’t beside Grosjean yet, I didn’t hear any apology or an acknowledgement that the move was “slightly” optimistic. Newgarden’s comments are B.S. and the Penske driver appears to believe his poop doesn’t stink. Newgarden is a great driver but loses respect in not acknowledging that **** happens in races that isn’t a penalty. Finish the race then discuss the matter when the emotions aren’t so high. Dumb move.

Diana

MP: Not sure I saw anything that qualified as “hysterical” from Josef or Tim. Josef was hit by Colton, who acknowledged the mistake, and the back of Josef’s car was lifted up and did go into anti-stall mode, which left him sitting idle for a few moments where he lost two positions. Through no fault of his own, he went from second to fourth, and his hunting of Dixon and a possible win were taken away. I’d be pissed if it happened to me, so I wouldn’t expect Josef or his boss to react in a different manner.

Q: Do you have insight as to why IndyCar merely shows the time (seconds) behind the leader of the race, rather than between cars (as F1 does after a few opening laps)?

I would suggest that it’s far more interesting to know that P12 is 0.453s from P11 than it is to know that P12 is 45s from P1. Of course, one can do the rough math, but it would be so much easier to do it F1’s way.

This allows one to scan the pylon to look for close racing and to follow incremental gains and losses in each fight. I cannot tell the difference between 0.453s and 0.552s via the video, but the fact that the delta is expanding and contracting is interesting.

Gerry Harrison

MP: It’s been their practice for a while now. These are the graphics chosen by NBC. NBC doesn’t broadcast F1, nor do they want to be seen as copying what people see coming across on ABC/ESPN.

I’d love to see them copy everything we see with F1’s graphics, but I just do the math in my head (scary, I know) when I watch IndyCar.

Can’t really blame Newgarden for feeling bummed out last Sunday afternoon in Long Beach. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Q: Please educate me on why there is a drive-through when Pato O’Ward hits Alex Palou’s car, but Colton Herta doesn’t get one for hitting Josef Newgarden? Also, what is the anti-stall for and what does it do?

Steve Coe, Vancouver, WA

PS: Thanks for explaining what it would take to get Robert Wickens into an IndyCar.

MP: I wish I had the answer, Steve. I would have been fine with no penalty for O’Ward, but since one was given, a precedent was set and it needed to be adhered to with Herta. I explain anti-stall in my post-race column, which should be going online shortly.

Q: I know rumors are flying around about David Malukas and his job security at Arrow McLaren right now. I know that Gavin Ward and Zak Brown have made statements in interviews, but I want your personal take, Marshall.

If Malukas is unable to race in the 500, do you think this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back? Possible mid-season replacement or do they finish him out for 2024?

Alex, Michigan

MP: No need for us to debate the rumors. Let’s go with facts: David did significant damage to his wrist/hand when he crashed on his mountain bike, and for the sake of clarity, he wasn’t doing anything reckless or dangerous. It was a rather mundane and unspectacular incident, as he told me. But he still went over the handlebars and his left hand/wrist bore the brunt of the crash.

The problem he’s dealing with today and has been dealing with since the mid-February surgery, is there’s been a limited amount of healing taking place. For reasons unknown, the affected area isn’t responding on any kind of timeline that was predicted, and as such, there’s no timeline to offer on when he might drive again.

For David’s sake, I truly hope he’s is in the car for the 500. He’s excellent on ovals, and it would be the perfect place to debut for the team and show them he’s a talent worth holding onto. But based on the slow healing/no timeline realities, I’d put my money on Callum Ilott, who really came to life on ovals in 2023, and put in a starring drive at Indy, as the most likely driver in the No. 6.

As Kanaan told me in a Friday interview at Long Beach, the thing an injured driver worries about and needs to defend is a replacement driver doing big things while they’re sidelined and piquing the interest of the team. Pourchaire has no oval experience, so that’s not a role they’d ask him to fill right now.

But again, if the young Frenchman impresses this weekend and becomes a frequent road/street solution between his Japanese Super Formula commitments, and the team has Ilott as a road/street/oval solution, I’d think Malukas could be in trouble.

Nobody at the team has said that to me, but having worked on IndyCar teams where multiple drivers were used to stand in for an injured driver, I can tell you that each new driver is usually viewed as a potential full-time driver if they deliver a breakout performance.

Malukas signed a one-year deal, with a second year as an option the team can execute. If the team feels like they’ve found someone who could be better, it would be silly to park them. But David’s also quite popular, and the team probably wouldn’t want to invite a wave of criticism if Malukas wasn’t given a chance to defend his seat. It’s a brutal situation for all involved.

If David’s on the free agent market later this year, I’m sure he’ll draw some interest from a few teams because he’s quite good and will only get better. Pourchaire’s run this Sunday and all of the potential ramifications will be an important one to follow.

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The RACER Mailbag, April 10

Q: In 1996, Penske said in reference to the 25/8 IRL rule, “at the end of the day, we want to go on a level playing field.” Meaning he felt the fastest cars should be in the field. Fast-forward to today, and Penske wanted to guarantee teams into races. So he only likes the rule when it works to his advantage?

Nothing in racing is guaranteed, nor should it. The word “qualifying” means to see if you qualify for the race. If you are not fast enough, then you are not qualified for that race! Plain and simple. As a kart racer who battles against factory teams, I understand this is a factor. However I get extreme joy in overcoming their advantage, and have so far been on the podium three times this year alone. Nothing in racing should be guaranteed. If you’re not good enough, then you get to watch everyone else race. That’s racing.

Tom Harleman, Carmel, IN

MARSHALL PRUETT: It’s a strange fear to be driven by, isn’t it? In the 50-plus years Penske’s turned up to try and qualify for the 500, he’s failed once that I can recall. I’ll take those odds all day long. But what if you could improve those odds to the point of where it was impossible to fail?

I’d understand if the biggest teams were bumped from Indy on a regular basis; that would be a justifiable reason to be driven by fear and wanting to be protected from failure. But when it almost never happens? It makes no sense. I hope this misplaced fear doesn’t lead to an epically stupid decision to guarantee entries at Indy, or any other race, but I have no faith that the right decision will be made.

Q: Dear Sirs,

Your “Thermal Club $1,000,000 (-500,000) Challenge Creative Director” job sounds interesting. I would like to apply.

I am prepared to travel and have long experience with a number of prominent circuses and deserts.

I drive the clown car, and in that role marshal the other clowns (fit them in, basically), am tasked with the group distracting fans pre-show with as much makeup, tinsel and horn-blowing razzle-dazzle as 20 clowns can muster, and of course, I am charged with keeping a keen eye on tire-management of the clown car.

My wife’s second cousin’s sister-in-law’s is the hairdresser who looks after Roger Penske’s wife.

What is the salary range and expectations and is a (spec) clown car for personal use provided?

Your Sincerely,

Chuckles Valvolive-Jones, Fantasyland, FL

MP: The salary is amazing, but after telling you what it is, it will be cut in half. Also, I’m hoping Thermal becomes the Mailbag’s new “Cleveland” where submissions on the topic come in on a weekly basis. OK, actually I don’t. Forget I said that. Moving on…

Q: Any word on what the Nashville race distance will be? When they first announced that it was moved to the Nashville Superspeedway, the IndyCar schedule said that it would be 200 laps, but that’s since been taken down.

Aeren Maxfield, Westminster, CA

MP: I’m told 200-225 laps is what’s being considered.

Q: I read your story on the latest iteration of IndyCar’s proposed charter system, and have two questions.

What is Kyle Kaiser doing now? And will the possibility of Roger Penske re-introducing the nebulous 25/8 rule prevent one-off teams and new entrants from doing what Kaiser and Juncos Racing did in 2019, when they bumped one of motor racing’s biggest stars from qualifying for the Indianapolis 500?

Tom Harader, Florence, OR

MP: I saw Kyle at St. Petersburg but didn’t get a chance to do more than say hello in passing. He’s working as a financial analyst.

Yes, re-introducing the 25/8 rule could have a negative effect on part-time/one-off/non-charter entries from taking a chance on making the Indy 500. Especially when those teams with the 25 protected entries are likely to pad the entry list with additional cars. It’s one thing for a one-off from Juncos for Kaiser to knock off a one-off from McLaren for Alonso to snatch the 33^rd and final spot. It’s another when, regardless of charters, the Indy entry list could start at 29 full-time cars with PREMA factored in.

That leaves four cars to get to 33, and between Foyt, Arrow McLaren, Andretti, Carpenter, Meyer Shank, and Rahal, we could easily reach 34-35 cars from IndyCar’s mainstays. In theory, we could have bumping among the season-long teams at IndyCar, and if Dreyer & Reinbold show up, that’s two more veteran cars.

One of the greatest Indy 500 storylines has been when new and small teams decide to take on the establishment and try to make the show. I hope the direction taken with the charter program doesn’t kill the spirit for those small and new teams to continue trying.

I hope Kaiser has a photo like this as his screensaver at work. IMS Photo

Q: I recently read that USF2000 and USF Pro 2000 both competed at NOLA. When is IndyCar going to swallow its pride and ask for a race date? This big gap in the schedule is a big joke.

Yes, the first NOLA was a big failure, but that was a long time ago, and IndyCar is a different series now. And NOLA would be a nice stop on the way to Long Beach.

AE Danville, IN

MP: Not sure about the swallowing of pride; it was a **** show, put on by Andretti’s former promotions business. If a new promoter had the gumption to try and host another IndyCar race at NOLA, I’m sure IndyCar would be open to hear their thoughts, but putting in the effort to try and do it on their own…doesn’t sound like something IndyCar would do.

Q: I’ve got some more questions after your latest story about the IndyCar ERS.

Pietro Fittipaldi said that the energy storage system capacity could be about 150 kJ (kilojoules). By way of comparison, an F1 car battery capacity is 4MJ (Megajoules), hence about 26 times more that of an IndyCar. Is the reason for this small capacity simply because everything had to fit into the bellhousing, which could only offer a small amount of space? And/or because the electric motor is taking most of this space?

Let’s assume IndyCar keeps the ESS capacity the same next year, while simultaneously allowing the ERS to deliver up to the promised 150hp. Let’s do some simple math: 150hp is 112kW (kilowatts) and 150 kJ is 150kWs (kilowatt-seconds), so 150kWs divided by 112kW makes 1,34 seconds, which would be the amount of time drivers would be able to use the ERS at full capacity. If so, and if this ERS is supposed to eventually replace the turbo-based P2P, then this isn’t really enough time to complete a passing maneuver, is it?

Does it really make sense to only be able to use a power boost for such a short period? Wouldn’t it be better to have less peak power, but be able to use it for longer? Unless IndyCar also plans to increase the ESS capacity, but if the bellhousing inner volume is the limit, how are they going to do this?

Lastly, do we now have a more specific number for the ERS total weight and maybe the individual weights of the ESS and the motor? In the videos you made last year with Jay Frye, David Salters (from HPD) and Mark Stielow (from GM), it was said that Honda and Chevy managed to bring the weight down to 60 lbs. However, I think you recently mentioned it would be more around 100 lbs. Did I miss something? Or did they have to bring that weight back up for some reason?

Xavier

MP: Lots of great questions that I’m struggling to get exact answer for while testing is going on. A recent estimation I received suggests the complete ERS package adds 100-130 pounds to the car. “Estimate” is the operative word. I keep hearing 60hp is where the ERS boost will start in 2024 and could move towards 100hp in 2025. “Could” is the word to gravitate towards…

Yes, the tiny space available in the bellhousing is the limiting factor. ERS is being used as a torque-fill device off the corners and wherever else some added punch is needed. P2P will be active in the races, so when combined, a driver could have just over 100hp to use for passing or defending a pass.

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