Q: Longtime race fan, grew up watching super-mods every Saturday night at Oswego, NY. And many trips to Watkins Glen.
I haven’t watched NASCAR except for races on Broadcast TV. Why? FOX Sports. I subscribed to FOX Sports, then they wanted me to subscribe to FS1. I dropped FOX on the spot.
I respect former racers’ knowledge, but to have someone like Jeff Burton just keep talking, I mean ram-bling, not really saying anything is a great reason we have mute buttons.
Now IndyCar is only available on FS1. This is a clear indication people at Penske have their head on back-wards. (I’m being nice). I guess these marketing gurus figure hiding their product behind a paywall is the way to go. Wrong on every level. Thank the Lord IMSA is still on Peacock. (Not a fan of them either).
Waiting on F1’s pricing for 2025, but most likely won’t spend over $100 for the entire year. The little guy (me) is being driven away from enjoying televised races.
You know all too well how things come full circle. What will these “smart people” say when merch sales drop and they don’t have the younger crowd getting involved because races are hidden behind this paywall they are praying to?
Via email
MP: Not sure what you’re referring to, since every IndyCar race starting in 2025, as we’ve written dozens of times since the announcement, will be on the FOX network.
Practices and qualifying and warm-ups will be reserved for FS1, and a tiny amount on FS2, so in that regard, yes, the non-racing sessions are reserved for cable, but isn’t that the absolute norm for just about every domestic racing series?
Q: Now that we’re about halfway through the off-season, have you gotten a sense from teams and drivers about how much the new FOX TV contract has impacted their sponsorship searches? Increasing network coverage from 10 races to all 17 races seems like it would be a big help.
Stu
MP: I interviewed a handful of team owners about this exact topic and need to get that story spooled up in the coming days. All were positive about it having an impact now, not just after a season of ratings have been delivered.
Q: It’s no surprise that Santino Ferrucci will race at the Chili Bowl. But somebody should do a feature on how Katherine Legge ended up on the Chili Bowl entry list.
Tom Hinshaw, Santa Barbara, CA
MP: That’s a great idea, Tom.
Q: You’ve had a lot of readers comment that the current F2 chassis would be a good reference for the 2027 IndyCar. It wouldn’t for a lot of reasons, but it got me to thinking about another F2 feature – the motor.
I’ve read internet threads that contend the Mecachrome V6 is unreliable, but as with a lot internet stories there are no statistics included.
Of course, the engine’s reputation took a hit when both Alpines dropped out of the Le Mans 24 Hours with allegedly the same issue. The remainder of the WEC season was trouble-free. And I can’t remember F2 engines expiring left and right.
I am curious to know what you and Chris’ technical opinion on this subject is?
Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA
MP: Small, turbocharged engines failing in their first 24-hour race is a rite of passage, isn’t it? If anybody harshly judged Alpine for motor issues on debut with their Hypercars at Le Mans, they lack a proper grasp of history. As for F2, that’s Medland’s fishbowl.
CHRIS MEDLAND: I’m always quick to point out that my technical opinion is never one to listen to! My knowledge is pretty limited, but largely comes from comments from teams and drivers.
The biggest issue with the Formula 2 car this year hasn’t just been the engine, but from a technical perspective it is general reliability problems that ideally should be at a lower rate for a spec series, even in the first year of new technology. The drivers are paying so much money for their seats (or others are on their behalf) that to have incidents at the start of the 2024 season that are not down to the way a team or driver operates the car was frustrating.
That led to criticism early in the year – I remember Campos had three engine-related issues across the opening two rounds – and that can set the tone, even when reliability after that did improve. Mecachrome actually points to 2022 as its worst year reliability-wise, and felt this year was pretty strong.
The year also ended with what Christian Horner described as “technical glitches with start line software” for title contender Isack Hadjar in Abu Dhabi, and many drivers had struggles off the line through the year.
Often, the actual reason is kept private – be that a supplier/Mecachrome issue or a team or driver one – so it’s tough to give you actual statistics. To do a general comparison on the rate of attrition in the series, we can look at overall failure to finish races in both Formula 1 and F2.
An F1 car didn’t legally complete all of the laps – including those retiring late on and still being classified, and also disqualified post-race – 55 times in 24 races. That’s a grid of 22 cars, and does not include Sprint races.
In F2, that figure of 55 was reached by the end of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend – its seventh round of the season featuring 14 races – albeit with 22 cars per weekend compared to 20. Extend it out to the full season and you end up with 99 occasions from 14 rounds and 28 races.
Collisions and errors obviously play a part in both sets of results, and junior racing is where you’re likely to see more of those, but it is a high rate.
Given my lack of technical access and expertise, I’d summarize it more generally as a reliability level that was not as disastrous as it can be made to sound at times during the year, but certainly could be better.
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, December 31, 2013
Q: Hey Miller, some reader wrote under your Granatelli story that he sold you your first race car. What’s that story?
Steve Huntley
ROBIN MILLER: In 1972, my pal Art Pollard took me to Chicago to Andy’s shop so I could buy a Formula Ford that Francis McNamara had given him as a present (McNamara designed the slug that Mario drove at Indy for Granatelli in ’70 and ’71).
I borrowed $5,000 from my banker buddy and just before we went inside, Art told me to put $2,000 back in my pocket and let him negotiate. Well, Andy wasn’t around so his son, Vince, handled the transaction and he wasn’t about to sell it for $3,000. I was foaming at the mouth looking at that gorgeous little day-glo orange FF sitting next to a couple of Novis, but Pollard stood firm and Vince finally relented. Suddenly I was the proud owner of a car that wouldn’t fit in my rented trailer without the aid of a forklift because the trailer was way too skinny.
Art went with me to shake it down at IRP and just before we started it up he asked me if I’d added oil and water. “Don’t they come with oil and water?” I replied. Ah, the first sign I should have never been allowed to own a race car.