St Petersburg GP – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Rosenqvist stars in stark contrast to Blomqvist’s troubled Friday

Talk about a great first day on the job. Felix Rosenqvist was signed by the Meyer Shank Racing team many months ago, but the part that matters most-the on-track performance side-is where the real work starts. And in that capacity, MSR’s new leader …

Talk about a great first day on the job. Felix Rosenqvist was signed by the Meyer Shank Racing team many months ago, but the part that matters most—the on-track performance side—is where the real work starts.

And in that capacity, MSR’s new leader sprung a welcome surprise to start the new season by running towards the front of the 75-minute opening practice session at St. Petersburg and sealing his debut with a lap that was massively faster than anyone else in the 27-car field. For a team that suffered through a rough 2023 season, it was a long overdue shot of adrenaline for the Honda-powered squad.

“I’m really happy about that,” Rosenqvist said. “The team has just been super, super nice. And you know, it’s obviously a smaller group, which is good, I think, because it’s just so much easier to get to know everyone and get up to speed quickly. A super good start.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

The 32-year-old from Sweden spent the last three years with the high-profile Arrow McLaren team, and while he had some success there, expectations from both sides weren’t met as the team’s direction on chassis setup did not match Rosenqvist’s needs until the latter stages of their relationship.

With MSR tied to Andretti Technologies for race engineering, chassis setup info, and dampers for both cars, Rosenqvist has found himself quite pleased with the MSR-Andretti IndyCar package.

“I think it’s also no secret when I went to McLaren, there was a big learning curve with a car and obviously I was a bit worried that it was going to be the same here,” he said. “But it’s been a direct opposite. Like, it clicked from lap one and with the [limited] amount of testing we have, that is super important because you really don’t have time to learn the car.”

On the flip side of the MSR garage… Marshall Pruett

Rosenqvist’s shot to P1 was countered by a problematic start to the event for his rookie teammate Tom Blomqvist who spent a long stretch of time at the start of the session parked on pit lane. With a leak in the gearbox spotted by the team, the 30-year-old Briton sat in the car while the No. 66 crew pulled the gear cluster out of the transmission, inspected everything, and then reinstalled and resealed the unit.

It left him playing from behind, and where Rosenqvist was able to turn 24 laps, Blomqvist was limited to 14 and placed 25th as a result of the issue.

Mixed reactions after IndyCar’s split session format at St. Pete

IndyCar’s attempts to create more on-track action for fans and more free space for its drivers was met with some strong opinions on whether it should continue at other road and street courses. With the opening 75-minute session at the Firestone …

IndyCar’s attempts to create more on-track action for fans and more free space for its drivers was met with some strong opinions on whether it should continue at other road and street courses.

With the opening 75-minute session at the Firestone Grand Prix structured with a 20-minute window for all 27 drivers to lap the track before the field was split into alternating 10-minute sessions, the concept should have prevented the long periods of inactivity where teams have their drivers sit on pit lane and preserve sets of tires for select moments when the track is clear. The format change is only being trialed on Friday.

And with the series making one set of the faster green-banded Firestone alternate tires available for each car during the Friday session to perform qualifying simulation runs ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session, the Friday afternoon run was an important one for every driver.

But the random timing of red flags during some of those 10-minute blasts meant some drivers had limited or no time on the alternates, which will have a negative impact on the rest of their weekend.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Pietro Fittipaldi, a first-timer at St. Petersburg, had positives to offer about the format that was tested.

“I think it was good because for me, especially while learning the track, there was less of the traffic and people on out laps slowing me down,” he told RACER. “So for me, it was much better. The idea of the session was to do as many laps as possible. … I haven’t experienced it here without it, so tomorrow’s session will tell me what it’s like with all the cars out there at the same time.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward questioned the format’s need at anywhere other than the Chevrolet Grand Prix.

“I applaud us for trying something,” he said. “I think it’s only going [to be] worth doing at Detroit. What we suggested here was just to split into two groups and run two separate sessions. I think this was overcomplicated.”

Juncos Hollinger Racing co-owner Ricardo Juncos wasn’t a fan.

“I don’t like it much,” he said. “I think it’s a lot of stress. Right now, with the red flag, it hurst us with [driver Agustin] Canapino. We didn’t get a lot of time. We actually didn’t use the [Firestone] greens, so our lap times [are] pretty massively down. That’s the only chance for him before qualifying, so it screwed the whole thing.”

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay had a range of takes to offer.

“I wasn’t pleased with the first 10-minute run,” he said “The second one was nice. But on the other hand, because it went red twice, I barely got a second run. We just got a lot less running in than we usually do. So for me, it was okay, because I’ve been here [in an IndyCar]. I think for [rookie teammate] Christian [Rasmussen who hasn’t], I think it would be better without it because it hits the rookies pretty hard because they need all the laps.”

ECR lead engineer Matt Barnes also saw the pros and cons of the format.

“It’s hard to get everything done, but it’s nice to know you’re gonna have a 10-minute break,” he said. “But this all depends on [when] the reds fall. If you get your laps in, you’re probably happy, but if you didn’t, you’re probably not. I can say it was more smooth than I thought it would be.”

Rosenqvist tops opening St. Petersburg IndyCar practice

Felix Rosenqvist is known as a street course specialist, and St. Peterburg has always been among his favorites, which made for a happy debut with Meyer Shank Racing as the Swede placed the No. 60 Honda atop the times for the 27-car field. …

Rosenqvist’s 1m.3390s tour around the 1.8-mile circuit was well clear of his former teammate Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren in the No. 5 Chevy (+0.4722s), Marcus Armstrong in the No. 11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (+0.4792s), Team Penske’s Will Power in the No. 12 Honda (+0.5019s), Rinus VeeKay in the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy (+0.5458s), and in sixth, Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (+0.5716s) was in the thick of a pack with the No. 3 Chevy that was covered by 0.1s.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

“I think it’s just been really nice to come to Meyer Shank Racing, it’s been super-easy transition,” Rosenqvist said after completing the hot and humid outing. “Both with people and the car, which is nice.”

The 75-minute session was one of experimentation by the series with the opening 20 minutes made available to all cars, followed by 10-minute runs in split groups. Red flags made for shortened segments for some, which limited their ability to post fast laps.

The timing of red flags during some of those 10-minute blasts meant some drivers had limited or no time on the faster alternate tires which are used in qualifying. With one set made available for teams to use in the first practice session alone, some drivers were able to complete clean qualifying simulations while others did not, and as expected, their lap times suffered.

Among those who were pleased with their days, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean was a strong seventh while Arrow McLaren newcomer Callum Ilott was 10^th and new Dale Coyne Racing driver Jack Harvey was 21^st, ahead of two of his former Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammates.

The list of drivers who were adrift from their normal placings was long, starting with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in ninth. Josef Newgarden was 11^th, slowest of the Penske trio, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was not expecting to end the opening session in 13^th. RLL’s Graham Rahal in 22^nd and Pietro Fittipaldi in 26^th only added to the surprising results.

Colton Herta was Andretti Global’s quickest representative in eighth, but Andretti wasn’t expecting Kyle Kirkwood to be 14^th and Marcus Ericsson in 17^th.

Among the various spins and stalls, no damage was recorded.

Action resumes Saturday morning with a 45-minute session held within a one-hour slot between 9:35-10:35am ET.

RESULTS

Garcia leads Pabst domination in USF2000 opener at St. Pete

The record will show that 14-year-old Max Garcia started from the pole position for Pabst Racing and won Friday’s first of two races that will comprise The Andersen Companies Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the opening round of the new USF2000 …

Garcia, from Coconut Grove, Fla., chased Jay Howard Driver Development’s Evagoras Papasavvas, from Loveland, Ohio, for the majority of the 20-lap race before executing a pass to secure his first win. Papasavvas had to settle for second – matching his finish in the opening round last year on the unforgiving streets of St. Petersburg – while Garcia’s Pabst Racing teammate Sam Corry, from Cornelius, N.C., finished a close third.

Garcia, still nine days short of his 15th birthday, was not old enough to compete last year in St. Petersburg, but he took advantage of the experience he gained throughout the remainder of the 2023 season, as well as an excellent setup for his Tatuus USF-22 from the defending series champion Pabst team, to capture his first Continental Tire Pole Award.

Teammate Corry lined up alongside him on the front row of the grid, but neither of them was able to maintain their advantage at the first corner. Instead, Brazilian third-generation racer Nicolas Giaffone, last year’s USF Juniors champion, leapt from a fine third on the grid to the lead. Fellow second row starter Papasavvas followed him through into second, with Garcia back to third and Corry bundled all the way down to sixth.

An incident farther down the 21-car field ensured that the first lap finished with caution flags in the air, so the order remained unchanged until the field was unleashed again with five laps in the books.

An audacious move by Papasavvas around the outside line at Turn 1 following the restart saw his blue JHDD car into the lead, and Giaffone’s day soon deteriorated further when he made a mistake heading into Turn 4 and slid into the escape road.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1483]

Papasavvas and Garcia soon began to edge clear of Elliot Cox (Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development), from Indianapolis, Ind., who held third for a couple of laps before Corry was able to find a way past.

Another brief full-course caution interrupted the action after a dozen laps, whereupon Garcia redoubled his efforts to move back to the front. The pair managed to achieve an almost impossible task when they raced side-by-side through the tricky Turn 1-2-3 complex of corners before, incredibly, emerging in the same order, although finally, with just three laps to go, Garcia made a move stick at Turn Four to wrest away the advantage.

He duly reeled off the final few laps to secure a hard-earned victory.

Cox and Corry exchanged places a couple of times before Corry was able to claim third.

“It was really tough,” Garcia said. “Evagoras was protecting really hard but I managed to get by him with three to go. I never really looked back after that. Thank you to Pabst for giving me just an amazing car. I couldn’t have done it without them. Hopefully tomorrow we lead start to finish.”

Michael Costello (Jay Howard Driver Development), from Naples, Fla., was the top rookie finisher in fifth, hot on the leaders tail. Costello also earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award after lining up ninth on the grid.

Canada’s Nico Christodoulou (VRD Racing), Australian Quinn Armstrong (DEForce Racing), Jack Jeffers (Exclusive Autosport), from San Antonio, Texas, Ayrton Houk (DC Autosport), from McCordsville, Ind., and Joey Brienza (Exclusive Autosport), from Golden, Colo., completed the top 10 following an action-packed race.

Augie Pabst claimed the first PFC Award of the season as the winning car owner.

A new season of USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire also will take place this weekend on the streets of St. Petersburg. Australian Lochie Hughes, a USF2000 race winner at the corresponding event last year, will lead the field for the opening round Saturday at 11:55 a.m. after earning the Continental Tire Pole Award for Turn 3 Motorsport during qualifying earlier Friday. Race two for the Foundation Building Materials Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is slated for a start at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.

The green flag for the second round of the 18-race USF2000 season will fly at 4:45 p.m. Saturday.

RESULTS

New IndyCar tech on display

RACER’s Marshall Pruett dives into the major new tech items that are going racing for the first time in the NTT IndyCar Series starting with Round 1 at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. Click here to watch on YouTube.

RACER’s Marshall Pruett dives into the major new tech items that are going racing for the first time in the NTT IndyCar Series starting with Round 1 at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix.

Click here to watch on YouTube.

IndyCar to try out new FP1 approach at St. Petersburg

IndyCar will try a new approach to its opening practice sessions in an attempt to get more of its drivers on track to entertain its crowds. With a limited number of tires to use for each event, IndyCar teams tend to be conservative with how many …

IndyCar will try a new approach to its opening practice sessions in an attempt to get more of its drivers on track to entertain its crowds.

With a limited number of tires to use for each event, IndyCar teams tend to be conservative with how many laps they run during the first practice session, and as a result, large portions of the field tend to sit on pit lane between short outings during the 75-minute practice window.

To prevent ticket buyers from staring at a track that’s largely free of action, the series will trial a structure where the full 27-car field is free to run as they desire during the first 20 minutes of the session, and from there, the drivers will be split into two groups — divided by alternating pit boxes for the remainder of the session with Group 1 getting the track for 10 minutes before pitting and handing it over to Group 2 for the next 10 minutes, and so on, until the checkered flag waves.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

The adjustment, which was pitched by drivers to the series, plays to the natural rhythm of a practice session where chassis setup changes are evaluated, followed by a return to the pits where more changes are made and another evaluation run is conducted. With the structured windows of having 10 minutes on and off track for the two groups, half of the grid should always be in motion after the 20-minute all-cars block in the beginning is over.

According to the series, “As in qualifying, the clock in Segments One and Two will stop for the first red flag condition of each practice segment.”

If the format is a success, look for IndyCar to continue its use for opening practice sessions at other road and street courses.