Q: It seems like Pato has been having quite the offseason and his importance to the McLaren organization has grown. If Palou had made the switch to McLaren, do you think it would’ve still been the case, or would it have been Palou doing all the activities Pato has been? I can’t help but wonder if Palou is a little bit jealous of all the great things Pato has been able to do with McLaren. Sure, winning the IndyCar championship is great and all, but Pato probably got more media and fan exposure being named as an F1 reserve driver than Palou did from winning the IndyCar championship.
Ross Bynum
MP: Everything you say is true, but Arrow McLaren just went 0-for-17 in 2023 and has zero IndyCar champions on its roster and zero IndyCar championships to its credit. Palou, after his latest title run, has earned more IndyCar wins than Arrow McLaren as a whole since its inception as Sam Schmidt Motorsports in 2001.
That could change next season, but in the purest of competition terms, I’d say the real loser here is Arrow McLaren, not Palou, because he’d bring things to the team that it simply does not have entering 2024. Drop Palou into the mix, and that team jumps straight into title contention because he’s a proven champion, two times over.
Leaving the team outlook behind, Palou has never struck me as the jealous type. You know how some drivers are seemingly everywhere, posting dozens of things each day on social media, on every podcast and video, and chasing every spotlight they can find? That’s never been Palou, so I don’t think the loss of fandom/stardom/social clout has any meaning to him.
The loss of testing and maybe, one day, if everything magically aligned, to race in F1? That’s the thing he’s missing. That’s the sorrow, the dream he realized would not happen with McLaren, which led to the current mess he’s in. The thing that fulfills drivers is success. Pato would trade all of those new followers and the F1 reserve driver role for one of Palou’s championships in a heartbeat.
And since he remains Arrow McLaren’s top driver, the runway is clear for Pato to prove he’s a champion and take the team to new heights. I have no doubts that he’s capable of doing it, and we’ll find out of he and the team can take down the Ganassis and Penskes and Andrettis to stand atop the series and turn potential into reality.
Q: I’ve been a racing fan since high school and started following IndyCar regularly around four years ago. Toward the beginning, my wife said something along the lines of, ‘Are Alexander Rossi and Conor Daly in this race? I just watched them on The Amazing Race’” She had never watched IndyCar but immediately had two guys to root for.
Seeing drivers on other programming is fun for us fans and gives casual Indy 500 viewers someone to follow. I say this jokingly, but can you imagine CGR vs Arrow McLaren on Family Feud? Or even better and even more unrealistic… on Survivor?
By the way, I’d recommend a Paramount+ free trial just to watch Alexander and Conor in Season 30 of The Amazing Race. They do quite well (not giving any spoilers) and are a hoot to watch.
Tom, Ohio
MP: I was just thinking about those two knuckleheads on The Amazing Race last week when my wife and I started watching the latest season of The Challenge on Paramount+. I should go find and watch it; great idea. We did have a meeting of Nomex and silicone in 2015 on Family Feud. Sad to think that only one — DJ Willy P — is still a full-timer in the series.
Q: On hybrids next season: Looking back on the 2014 F1 season when they switched over to a new hybrid powertrain, one manufacturer got it right, the others not so much. Do you foresee a possibly large gap between Honda and Chevy? Also, given what’s said about buying the first model year of a new car; will there be significant amount of DNF/DNS due to mechanical failures?
Shawn, MD
MP: No big gaps that I can think of, Shawn. It’s a spec unit, so we’re looking at the same differentiators with increases in power, torque, and fuel economy with the Chevy and Honda internal combustion engines as the areas where one brand would put a beating on the other.
How teams use the energy recovery systems in competition — the strategy side — is where we might see some new wrinkles that create separation.
With the extra time IndyCar thankfully gave itself to ready the ERS units, I’d think the series would not take them live until the reliability was seriously impressive. The last thing IndyCar needs is for half the field to be parked and smoldering on the side of the road during its first hybrid races.
Q: I read your last emails where you hammered Penske Entertainment and Roger Penske, who probably saved the Speedway and the 500 during the pandemic. First, for years, I had to read time and time again the venom that Robin Miller spewed toward Tony George. And please don’t try to deny that. Then, Miller once said that Mark Miles was doing this job with IndyCar until the next thing came along. False! Now we’re blasting Penske and praising Miles. See a trend here? And I just love watching the same driver win every race like in F1, the series you praise.
Come on, Marshall, you’re losing credibility. I realize this won’t make the Mailbag, but I love IndyCar and the Indy 500 and your criticisms are just unfair. But since your followers are downers as well, they’ll hang onto every slanted comment you make about IndyCar and Roger Penske. I will be attending my 60th Indy 500 in May. And no one, including you, will put a dampener on that.
Gary, Crawfordsville, IN
MP: Just as I don’t let IndyCar’s problems dampen my love for the series, I’m glad to hear you won’t let anything spoil your next Indy 500. And just like Robin, I say happy things when things are happy and the opposite when they aren’t. That’s the job. We also live in a time where more and more people only want to read or watch or hear the things they agree with, and rail against those who don’t fit into that silo. Not much I can do to help with that.
I wish RACER still made the “Everything is Awesome” t-shirts from seven or eight years ago, which were created in response to IndyCar attempting to clamp down on its drivers when they began to complain more frequently and in louder voices about problems they saw with the series.