Q: I was very disappointed to find out Isotta Fraschini was not given a point for finishing Le Mans. The FIA made a change to the rules at the end of 2021 where they got rid of the point for finishing Le Mans — do you have any idea why this may have been?
Finishing Le Mans is a massive accomplishment, particularly for a team like Isotta and may have been the only point they would score if the system was still in place. It’s a great shame they will not be rewarded.
Also, how much confidence do you have in them being able to expand to two cars in 2025?
Danny Morgan
STEPHEN KILBEY: The current points system for Le Mans is designed to encourage excellence, and is now in place for an era which features the deepest top class in WEC history.
As for Isotta specifically, finishing the race in the way that it did was truly impressive for the factory program in Hypercar that has been put together with the tightest budget.
The Tipo6-C has proven itself as a reliable machine. Now, the team needs to find a way to extract higher performance levels from the car, the team on pit lane and its set of drivers, if it hopes to take the next step — which is clearly, fighting for points.
Isotta quite rightly has celebrated finishing the race classified on its first attempt with a new car, something which two of its high-profile competitors — Alpine and BMW — failed to do. It really is an achievement that deserves recognition. But you have to ask yourself, should a car that finished 14th overall and nine laps down be handed a point? The rule-makers clearly don’t think so.
Interestingly enough, IFM did come achingly close to scoring a manufacturer point on merit, as it finished 11th of the cars eligible for scoring WEC points! The team will have to wield that as motivation to press on.
As for next year, it will be a huge challenge for Isotta to scale up, but the signs are there that this will be possible. Ahead of this season, the team was believed to have filed for a second car — only to be granted one due to the entry cap and the uncertainty surrounding the team’s capability.
I was also told by a senior source in the governing body after Imola that “every manufacturer that wants to be on the grid for 2025 will be OK to race with two cars” to meet the new requirement. Therefore, if Isotta wants to return, and nothing has changed in the past two months, then you could reasonably expect it to be back for a second season.
Assuming it can make the business case work and put together a commercial package for two cars, Isotta specifically should benefit from the fact that the organizers will give priority to teams in Hypercar if the grid is oversubscribed. Head-turning performances like this one at Le Mans will only help it make the case that it is a serious player in the top class.
Q: What is wrong with Kyle Busch this year? At this rate he is on track to have the worst year of his full-time NASCAR Cup Series career.
Kurt Perleberg
KELLY CRANDALL: There have been self-inflicted wounds from Kyle Busch and the No. 8, and there have been some really bad breaks the last few weeks, too. Busch has struggled at some tracks because the speed simply isn’t there in his Chevrolet. So, it’s a fight of speed and balance. But then there are races where he gets caught up in something, such as running out fuel at Sonoma and being spun by Ross Chastain. Had that not happened, he was likely going to finish top 10. He had top 10 speed at WWTR and was crashed by Kyle Larson. Busch told me early in the season that the theme was missed opportunities as well as fighting for speed, and that seems to be continuing as the year goes on.
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, June 24, 2015
Q: It seems pretty obvious that Will Power is, at minimum, the first or second-best talent on the IndyCar grid today in terms of getting the most pure speed out of the car. Sure he drives for the all-time best IndyCar team, which helps, but the evidence is in his qualifying dominance.
Seeing that in the last two races he has tied and passed Rick Mears (my childhood racing hero) on the all-time pole position list, how would you compare the two? I’m only 40 and my interest in IndyCar racing began at my first Indy 500 in 1987 as a 12-year-old. Rick was my hero, but he only raced a few years after I began to follow the sport. As I remember it though I only remember seeing Rick do well on ovals and being a bit of a backmarker on the twisties. I vaguely remember this being due to mangling his feet in a significant crash which affected his ability to pedal a car around the road and street courses.
How good was Rick on those circuits before that crash? Were the vast majority of his poles ovals? Just curious your perspective on Rick’s oval vs. road course skills and how they compare to Willy P.
Brady Hawxhurst
ROBIN MILLER: Tough to make comparisons but here’s some stats to help put Rick’s career into perspective. Before shattering his feet at Sanair in 1984, Mears was an exceptional road racer — winning six times in his first 28 road/street course starts with Team Penske. Bernie Ecclestone flew him to Paul Ricard in the spring of 1980 to test the Brabham F1 car and he got within a half second of soon-to-be world champ Nelson Piquet. Then, he tested for Brabham again at Riverside and was quicker than Piquet. Ecclestone offered him a contract but The Rocket opted to stay in CART because he liked running ovals as well as road racing.
Following his injury, Mears only scored one more RC victory at Laguna Seca in 1989 and obviously wasn’t able to road race with the same prowess because he found he couldn’t brake hard enough and also he had a “lag” on his right foot where he literally couldn’t mash it to the floor as quickly as he wanted. But he did win nine more oval races — including two more at Indianapolis. Power doesn’t have Rick’s oval-track savvy but he’s getting better and better with Mears’ tutoring, and nobody has been quicker on road and street circuits than Willy P. the past six seasons.