Q: This is a letter to you, someone passionate about American open-wheel. Even if I do not always agree with your opinions on the sport (although I often do), I know that you love this sport and want to see it remain healthy. I know you have access to contact members of series leadership as well as drivers and team owners. I would like to ask you to communicate to these people a message from at least one IndyCar fan. Yours truly.
The type of behavior displayed towards Callum Ilott was reprehensible and unacceptable. It needs to be discouraged in the strongest way possible. It needs to be called out more explicitly than it has been. A generic “be civil” tweet from series leadership is not strong enough. It needs to be specified that the type of behavior towards Callum Ilott was not acceptable.
It needs to be conveyed in more than just the English language. It needs to be conveyed directly and explicitly, from the series, from Augustin Canapino, from Ricardo Juncos, and frankly from other drivers and team owners, that death threats, threats of bodily harm, and any other threats are not acceptable.
If individual fans can be identified, they need to be banned from attending IndyCar events. If specific members of the media or of the driver/team fraternity are identified as having fomented, condoned, or encouraged such behavior, they need to have any relevant certifications and permissions revoked. I hope those in a position to influence the behavior of others do so with conviction in the best interests of the sport at as a whole.
(Let me be clear I do not believe Canapino or Juncos have any ill intentions; they are also victims of this incident in a way.)
This goes beyond any Canapino-Ilott incident. It needs to apply to any incident or behavior moving forward. We can always say fan(atics) are just blowing off steam. But all it takes is a single unhinged person to put their words into action for a tragedy to occur. All around us in the world news we can find tragic and deadly examples of devastation caused by sick and unhinged people.
There is no reason it cannot also occur in the IndyCar world…
Proactiveness is vital. Let the series take these incidents as seriously as they do other matters of driver safety, where our series is the world leader.
Also, I hope people who have the power to influence the story lines of the upcoming documentary, not to mention the story lines of series coverage in general, realize that hate has no place. Sportsmanship, friendship, and compassion can coexist with competition and rivalry.
IndyCar’s hallmark is its fan friendliness. Many say this. But I think also a hallmark is, generally, a driver-friendly attitude on the part of fans. And lastly, there is the community minded attitude between fans. Let’s not take this for granted, let us all behave responsibly.
A Fan
MP: I’ll bounce around here a little bit because it’s not exactly a linear issue. Whether it’s nasty comments on social media or forums, I take that stuff in a very different way than real, direct threats. I’m not saying that posting vile things about Callum, Pato, or any other IndyCar driver from highly partisan fans is ever acceptable, but I do think of it as an extreme version of venting. Some people can’t stop sharing every damn thought they have on Twitter, IG, etc., and the people doing the venting have the luxury in many cases to yell/threaten/accuse/belittle without fear of repercussion. It’s today’s way of life, and certainly isn’t reserved for IndyCar.
It’s the direct messages where threats are made that take things in a different direction. I had someone threaten my wife and I directly last year prior to the Indy 500 — didn’t care for her race, our marriage, etc. — and I can tell you now that I was alert and prepared to handle the situation if the person tried to carry through with the threat. All the other stuff makes me laugh. People vomiting their threats and idiocy on social media? Happens constantly. People taking the time to threaten you, your partner, and your mother, via DM, as Callum experienced? That’s the stuff that will change your views on personal safety and protection.
I’m glad the series and some drivers took a public stand, but I’m also not particularly swayed here. I feel confident that every person knows it’s not OK to treat Ilott, O’Ward, or anybody else the way that they were treated, but people still do it. If I believed the folks threatening and barking at our drivers didn’t know it was unacceptable, I’d agree that harsher messages should have been sent to them. But let’s be honest here: The person telling Callum he’s going to kill his mom has a clear understanding of what’s being written before hitting the send button, but doesn’t care if it’s disgusting, and still hits send. That’s not the kind of behavior a “be nice” posting from IndyCar or an influential driver is going to change with a tweet.
If there’s a place for education, it would be with kids who don’t know any better, but I don’t think that was the problem here. It’s adults being intentionally dreadful, and not caring.
Q: What is the nature of the alliance between Andretti Autosport and MSR? What sort of data might the two teams share with each other?
Tim Shipp
MP: MSR pays Andretti Technologies for every aspect of its engineering for both cars. Andretti supplies all setup info, race engineers, dampers and associated proprietary items, and all Andretti and MSR data is shared along with all drivers taking part in group debriefs. The tough thing of late is Andretti has been highly competitive at every round while, so far, MSR has not. The chassis builds are to the same specification, so in theory, there should be no difference in the output of Romain Grosjean vs Simon Pagenaud, for example. It’s a perplexing issue that has MSR looking hard at itself.
Q: My question is about the O’Ward/Dixon incident at Long Beach. There is a curb at that corner and it seems to me O’Ward had all four tires on the inside of the curb. Is that legal? If it is, why bother having the curb at that corner in the first place. As for the hate on social media, all I have to say is sports betting. Wasn’t there a reason we outlawed most gambling back in the ’70s or earlier, because it destroyed families and lives?
Mark
MP: There were proper curbs there in the past, but they’ve been removed so drivers hugged the inside wall all weekend in every series except for the jumpy trucks.
The Long Beach social media stuff had nothing to do with betting. Zero.