Q: With liveries changing every race, why doesn’t IndyCar mandate having driver name clearly on the car, whether on the sides or across the windshield? Every other series does. It would make for more viewer enjoyment.
Stevan Savich
MP: This is a fairly consistent complaint. Most teams have their driver’s names on the sides of the car below or behind the cockpit, but yes, for the sake of new fans or those who don’t follow every development between races, requiring something larger in a fixed place high on the sides of the aeroscreen would be a smart development.
Q: Can you throw some light on the Juncos Hollinger engineering team please?
Oliver Wells
MP: Yves Touron is the technical director. Steve Barker is Callum Ilott’s race engineer, and after doing the first eight races with Agustin Canapino, Charlie Ping was released and the team brought in veteran race engineer Mike Colliver to run his car at Mid-Ohio. Juncos Hollinger Racing also released Ilott’s performance engineer, who was replaced by Canapino’s systems engineer last weekend.
Ping has a solid reputation as a talented race engineer, albeit one without extensive or long-term IndyCar experience. Touron is as sharp a guy as you’ll find and with Colliver and Barker now working together, the team’s senior engineering group is stronger.
The next step for JHR is to stack more talent beneath and behind that group and to make major investments in its off-track engineering efforts. The Penskes and Ganassis and Andrettis and McLarens and Rahals of IndyCar have deep departments that run non-stop simulations and R&D projects — seemingly 24 hours a day — and it’s here where a newer team like JHR gets hit by a tidal wave after the first few races of the year are completed and all of their best ideas from the offseason have been used.
Q: My question is regarding Santino Ferrucci. I know that he had some troubles in Europe that I think can be attributed to immaturity. He has been fast in IndyCar and has done more with less at the 500 better than anyone in recent memory. He’s been bouncing around, and you’ve said his name doesn’t come up for better rides and that he’s about right for Foyt. You were also pointedly critical of his driving during practice for the 500. So, what is going on here? Is he just not liked or respected in the paddock? Is the problem his personality, his performance on track or something else?
Gary, Pittsburgh
MP: Not sure I’d use immaturity as a blanket excuse to absolve him of everything, but I’ve seen him come a long way as a young man since those days. Driving for Foyt this year has been good for him — humbling and softening in some ways as well — and I’d like to think he’s viewed as less of a bombastic outsider than he was the last a full-timer in the series. At the same time, he’s never struck me as someone who’s searching for friendship and acceptance from the rest of the field, so invitations to drink brown liquor with Hinch and Rossi or being the newest Bus Bro and hanging with McLaughlin and Newgarden aren’t necessarily the things that seem to motivate him.
As long as he avoids the aforementioned on-track behavior, I think his respect grows. And if he can stick with Foyt for another year — and why wouldn’t they keep him? — and continue to lead their turnaround, he might be on a few shopping lists for 2025.
Q: I have never needed hearing protection at IndyCar races. While at Road America, I noticed that the lower-level cars were much louder than Indy cars. Any idea why that is? I don’t think any mufflers are being used. Maybe Indy cars are just finer-tuned?
Craig
MP: That’s the difference between turbocharged IndyCar engines and mostly non-turbo junior open-wheel cars. It’s a straight shot from the exhaust ports on those naturally-aspirated USF Championship by Cooper Tires cars, and minus the turbos, there’s no muffling effect. The Indy NXT by Firestone cars are turbocharged and also don’t assault the ears. The turbo CART cars of the late 1990s and early 2000s were extremely loud, and that was a byproduct of the sheer ferocity of those motors and the high revs.
Q: As a lifelong NASCAR fan that has gotten into IndyCar over the last couple of years, one big thing I’ve noticed is that NASCAR has something happen every year or two that captures the attention of the entire motorsports world (and at least part of the broader sports world) unrelated to the Daytona 500 or the championship, and I don’t see this in IndyCar. Whether it was Ross Chastain’s “Hail Melon” wall ride last year, or Supercar champ SVG just now winning the inaugural Chicago street race in his first attempt at a stock car, NASCAR seems to be able to create these moments that command everyone’s attention and draw new eyeballs to the series.
Is it possible for IndyCar to have a moment like that, and what would it potentially look like? Obviously, not referring to something like a Fernando Alonso or Kyle Larson winning the Indy 500.
Matt, Atlanta, GA
MP: The funny thing here is IndyCar was once the super fun and inventive series and NASCAR was the super restrictive series where old cars, technology, and limited imaginations made it feel like it was 20 years behind the times. Flash forward and the two series have completely flipped, with NASCAR coming across as new and fun and more modern than ever. F1’s also killing it with big new ideas and actions in the U.S.
IndyCar is more conservative than I’ve ever seen, and that wouldn’t be a bad thing if it was the No. 1 racing series in the country and had a winning formula to protect. But that’s not the case. Look at NASCAR and F1, and it’s nothing but outside-the-box thinking while IndyCar’s stuck inside the box. As much as I love the place, going back to Milwaukee isn’t going to move the needle or capture the country’s imagination; it’s just going to satisfy its existing fanbase, which is far too small.
We know the racing is the best you’ll find, and there are plenty of positives with 27 cars on the grid and so on, but you’re right. IndyCar needs to snap out of its olden ways and try a few things that aren’t predictable and safe.