Q: I have a poster for the 1970 Inaugural race of the California 500 at the Ontario Motor Speedway. 187,000 spectators! What ingredients produced this number?
TJ Spitzmiller, Parrish, FL
MP: A bunch of things like having three television channels, a lack of 300 different sports to follow, the spectacle of big speeds at a giant new track that brought the cars of the Indy 500 to a facility that was similar in scale, and the much greater place IndyCar racing lived in the lives of average Americans. IndyCar was a huge deal back then.
Andretti, Foyt, Unser, etc. Living legends and heroes, while in their youth, coming to a huge metropolitan area like Southern California/Los Angeles, was today’s equivalent of F1 coming to Miami or Las Vegas. Massive buzz, huge spotlight, and with enormous star power of the drivers pulling people in to see the daredevils in action.
Sadly, we have IndyCar drivers today who deserve the same reverie and treatment by the average U.S. citizen, but the spotlight isn’t the same as it once was. For the umpteenth time, we’re hoping IndyCar conjures up a few ideas on how to fix that problem, because the Dixons and O’Wards and Kirkwoods and Newgardens are worthy of the same nationwide adoration and following as the Verstappens and Leclercs.
Q: With Rolex 24 At Daytona this weekend, how many issues will teams have with transition from oval to road course, Bus Stop?
Mark, Ohio
MP: No more than usual, Mark. Same transition onto and off of the banking. Only the Bus Stop has been repaved and slightly modified. I watched the night session there during the Roar in super chilly conditions and there were no issues.
Q: Can you please expand/explain what Gunther Steiner means when he speaks of the organizational model all the other F1 teams are taking and the relationship between capital and operational expenses?
As a follow up, would you comment on the F1 cost cap in general? Do you think it is adhered to? Is it an effective step in leveling competition? Said differently, if a team is spending to the maximum of the cap in all areas, would additional funding be useless? How many teams are operating fully at the limit of the cap?
Jack Smith
CHRIS MEDLAND: Sure. He means that because F1 now operates under a cost cap (that almost all teams are operating at) the differentiating factor is how efficient you can be under that cap. Basically, where can you save money but get the same outcome in terms of how competitive the car is, and the best way to do that at the moment is by investing in your infrastructure to make yourself more efficient.
For example, a better wind tunnel on-site means more value from each run, but also lower transportation costs between the factory and an off-site tunnel. In Haas’ case, they have to design the part in one place, have a model made and transported to the Ferrari wind tunnel to be tested, then have it manufactured at Dallara, and then get it to Banbury for maintenance. All of that costs money that you then can’t spend on other areas under a cost cap.
I actually think the cap has had a really positive impact. The teams are all far more stable (Haas right now might not look it, but as a business it would have a huge queue of buyers), and the whole grid is closer together. Annoyingly, the biggest gap is between P1 and P2, but across all 10 teams it’s extremely tight given they design and build their own cars and it’s not a spec series.
It’s adhered to like all other regulations. Teams will always look for loopholes and small advantages, but that’s part of what makes F1 what it is. And yes, if a team maximized its CapEx spend and was operating at the cost cap, beyond that any income would be profit. (Although I’m not sure you can ever maximize your CapEx spend — even though there’s a limit to what you can spend over a four-year period, that’s likely to be an infinite area of investment as you try to ensure you have the latest technologies and best facilities).
Q: How long will it be until women like Chloe Chambers and Sophia Floersch make their debut in F1?
Kurt Perleberg
CM: I think quite a while. Sophia is closer in F3 but would need a big season this year to aid her cause of getting a competitive drive in F2, and then would need a big year at that level to knock on the F1 door. I’d say she’s looking at three more years in junior formulae before a potential F1 opportunity if she followed that trajectory.
For Chloe, F1 Academy is a great platform but she’ll need to nail this season to get the momentum to move up to F3, as the top finishers in the academy get support to help them make that step. If she can do that then she might catch an eye, but I can’t say I feel like Haas is the place where she’s going to get a big chance at this stage.
While it all feels a long way off from a female driver reaching F1, I do think F1 Academy — and W Series before it — have at the very least provided more seat time on the single-seater ladder that then will hopefully mean more women reaching higher levels than before. It’s a step in the right direction but the fact that we can’t talk about any in F2 right now shows how far there is to go to ensure more opportunities.