Q: I guess the old adage is true: No good deed goes unpunished. Conor Daly brings BitNile to ECR and in less than two years he gets fired. Can’t prove it, but I would bet that split was not mutual. Hope Conor can find a good home.
John Feeser, Wilmington, NC
MP: Colton Herta represents Gainbridge, the sponsor brought to Andretti Autosport — and IndyCar — by Zach Veach, so we are in familiar territory, unfortunately. It was 100 percent not mutual.
Q: I think this year we’re seeing less smiling in Helio Castroneves’s garage. The team and Helio don’t seem to be meshing and it looks like, as an outsider, that the relationship is cold. Simon Pagenaud seems tighter with the team than Helio. I’m sure the frustrations from the lack of results are impacting everyone.
In the June 7 Mailbag, you mentioned that Tom Blomqvist would be one of the drivers with Pagenaud or Rosenqvist. It seems like once Helio was not named as a driver at Le Mans, a breakup is coming.
Where do you see Helio going? Does he still have the opportunity for a full-time ride in IndyCar? Do you see him on the field for the Rolex 24 with MSR or with someone else?
Last, any idea if TK will run some IMSA races?
Leo Hilzendeger
MP: Helio has reached that inevitable point in a long-tenured driver’s career where latching onto strong and consistent results is a challenge. It happens to all of the greats who keep racing deep into their 40s and early 50s.
And to be fair, it’s not like his teammate Pagenaud has been running away from him on the track; MSR’s had a bad year following last year’s bad year, but it’s usually Helio who is struggling more in each session.
I’d expect MSR to offer him a third car for the Indy 500, and from there, it’s hard to say. IMSA’s GTP class is getting younger every day, which makes Helio’s stock a bit low there as well. Unless it’s a smaller IndyCar team in search of a “name” driver, it might be a full-time GT ride or something in LMP2 for Helio in 2024 unless things change rapidly with his IndyCar results.
Zak Brown’s United Autosports team is headed to IMSA’s LMP2 class with a couple of cars; TK seems like a great fit for the Rolex 24, if he’s interested.
Q: Why would Ed Carpenter get rid of Daly? Easy fix — stop spending money on the most overrated driver in IndyCar history. That driver would be Ed Carpenter.
David Tucker
MP: “Carpenter splits with Carpenter” is a headline that’s unlikely to be written.
Q: Glad to see that Mercedes seems to have turned a bit of a corner. Let’s see if it continues, but whether it will be in time to make a difference for the season is a question mark.
Alonso saying that Stroll is a future world champion doesn’t square with his performance against Alonso. Is anyone seeing more potential in Stroll beyond what his results indicate?
Don Hopings
CHRIS MEDLAND: On Mercedes, I think this weekend in Canada will be much more of a test. There’s not a track that Red Bull is weak at, but Mercedes performed well in Spain last year too, so it remains to be seen if the updated car is stronger everywhere.
As for the Aston Martin drivers, Alonso’s not stupid when it comes to keeping the guy paying the bills happy! You can’t really play too many games with your teammate when he’s the boss’s son, but then he’s regularly talked up former teammates as he knows it then makes him look even better by association when he beats them.
That said, Stroll is still only 24, and already has 130 race starts to his name. That experience is improving him, and he’s shown real skill in both the wet (think of his pole position in Turkey or front row start after penalties in an uncompetitive Williams at Monza) as well as his first-lap race craft such as in Spain last time out.
He had a target on his back due to his father’s influence but he is a very strong driver in his own right now, even if he was fast-tracked to F1 a bit too quickly in my opinion. There are no question marks over Alonso’s ability and Stroll has been close on quite a few occasions — his Bahrain performance with broken wrists and a broken toe still hugely impresses me — so I’d certainly say he’s capable of race wins in the right car. I can’t say I’d have him as a definite future world champion, though.