Q: What is the rough budget for an IndyCar team?
John L.
MP: Annual budgets range from about $6-11 million per car. Engine lease is just over $1m. Tire lease isn’t too far behind. Crew costs vary based on team size and quality; a 10-year gearbox veteran costs more than a newcomer. First-year race engineer should be a six-figure person, but some teams are cheaper than others; a title-winning engineer will be over $250K at a proper team. Travel is also a big variable since some teams take good care of their crews and others are booking flights and hotels by using the “Lowest Price First” filter (I’m often surprised when I’m staying at a semi-sketchy hotel and find an IndyCar or IMSA team downstairs in the lobby in the morning…)
Q: Why can an F1 car go a whole race on one tank of fuel and an IndyCar would have to refuel at least twice over the same distance? I know there is some difference in the cars, but they look the same and should have the same size fuel tanks.
Don, Grand Rapids, MI
MP: Same reason an 18-wheeler can go a lot longer before refueling than a Ford F-150: Fuel tank big on one, small on the other.
Q: I notice that the NXT cars have a backfire-type noise on shifting. Is this a turbo thing?
Yoshio
MP: It is. And it will likely sound a little bit different next year because the cars are receiving all-new electronics systems. And by “receive,” I mean that teams will be required to pay $40,000 per electronics/ECU system. For the teams with a lot of cars — bear in mind that some have spare cars that will need outfitting — it’s a big chunk of change to spend.
Q: Now that IMSA has dropped LMP3, what will become of those cars? Will they be sold to European LMP3 customers, or will another sanctioning body in the U.S. continue to race them?
I know there was some dodgy driving in the LMP3 class over the past few years (which didn’t win many friends in DPI/LMDH and LMP2), but LMP3 and GT4 might pair well together — especially at races like Detroit or perhaps Chicago.
Should we read anything into Charles Leclerc’s visit to the Ferrari paddock at Le Mans? Purely a PR event, or could we see Charles in the 499 sometime in the future?
Finally, which LMDH/Hypercar would you like to see Alex Palou in? With the season he’s had in IndyCar (especially his race craft), he would have the pick of the litter if he so chose.
Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA
MP: IMSA’s booting P3 from the top series, but not its feeder series, so I’d guess we’ll see them return to where they came from. But if there’s enough of a surplus, I’ll put money on the SRO America group offering an LMP3 class to diversify its offerings.
Chuck turning at Le Mans was a PR thing. Ferrari’s F1 team needs to get its act together before thinking of making Leclerc’s life more complicated by adding endurance racing in amidst a 24-race F1 season.
Palou in a Cadillac would be amazing to behold. It needs to be driven at 100 percent at all times, and with his ability to do that without making many errors, it’s the car that would reward his skills more than any other.
Q: Around Super Bowl time every year comes the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. Being a no-snow destination, it is the first major golf tournament of the year. The same conditions can be found in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties north and east of San Francisco. Unlike Laguna Seca, which would be a mud bowl that time of year, Sonoma Raceway is set up to be a viable track during California’s rainy season.
In my opinion Sonoma is really the only possibility Stateside to fill the gap between St. Pete and Texas. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors truly understands that the sanction fee paid for the Monterey Grand Prix comes back to the Monterey Peninsula in tourism dollars. There should be an outreach to at least the Sonoma and Napa County governments explaining that landing the second race of the season would be a good investment. It’s sort of different in that Laguna is a county park and Sonoma is privately held, but it would be worth the effort. Maybe Sonoma could be the AT&T Pro Am of the IndyCar season. We would certainly drive up for that.
Paul Ingram, Carmel Valley, CA
MP: As much as I’d love the track where I grew up return to the IndyCar schedule, we have two things that can’t be ignored. First, there was no crowd for the last visits, and therefore, no profits for the privately-owned venue. Second, asking local government to step in and be the ones to take the loss is a perfect way for the track to lose its good standing with the county.
At Laguna Seca, the big profits from its Monterey Reunion event covers the losses from its IndyCar and IMSA events, so this model isn’t one that would work for SMI at Sonoma.