Q: With aeroscreens here to stay, is there a point for drivers to keep using full-face helmets? Open-face WRC-style ones would be more appropriate to help aid in cooling, as well as allowing us to see more of the drivers’ expressions as they muscle these rocketships around the track.
Kevin, SoFlo
MP: That thing where there are vents that allow high-speed air into the cockpit aimed at the helmet and where the risk of fire with refueling and crashes makes the prospect of using open-face helmets not the best of ideas.
Q: After many years of not attending an IndyCar race in person, I went to last year’s race at TMS and had a great time. However as you know, the stands were practically empty.
I was just online looking for tickets for the PPG 375 and I’m baffled as to how so few tickets are available for sale. Take a look at this screenshot, which shows the tickets available for sale (there are a few more tickets for sale closer to Turns 1 and 4 that are not in the photo, but not many). Ticket sales for this year’s race may certainly be up from last year, but I can’t imagine the place will be full by any means. There is no way it goes from empty one year to a full house the next. Does TMS or IndyCar limit the number of tickets for sale? Something is fishy.
I wanted to send this to you before race weekend so you can compare with what it actually looks like during the event.
Jason
MP: I heard about this last year as well, but after the fact, so this helps. I rang TMS and was told the VP of ticket sales was actively adding seats for the event on Ticketmaster, so that’s a good thing.
Q: A race at a novel new venue, (Argentina has recently been mooted) to a possibly appreciative crowd is fine, but should IndyCar not look to its core?
While some North American venues work fine, many races in the series are poorly attended, ovals are dwindling, and interest from the media and general population is woeful. Why stage a race abroad when so much improvement is needed at home?
Anthony Jenkins, Brockville, Canada
MP: Feel like I’m saying nothing particularly new or revelatory here, but if you have an opportunity to add an event that has the potential to be positive for the series in terms of income and audience size, wouldn’t that be the exact thing to embrace?
How would ignoring an event in Argentina, or another international destination that could be a boost to the series, help the poor turnout at Texas Motor Speedway, which IndyCar doesn’t own or promote, or Laguna Seca, which IndyCar doesn’t own or promote? Struggling to find the logic on this one.
Q: I just read your response to JZ in Wisconsin about the drone and the Roombas cleaning up the track to avoid full-course cautions all the time. I would hope if we ever get the new car they could implement some kind of control system to have a virtual safety car. Couldn’t they use the pit lane limiters at a time where a virtual safety car would be instigated currently and monitor the speeds? It seems like that would really minimize the full course cautions.
CAM in LA
MP: No need for a new car to make this happen. When race control triggers a caution period, drivers are alerted on their dash. With that alert, slowing and pressing the pit lane speed limiter (or a secondary limiter at whatever track speed the series would mandate) could easily happen. Same could be done with a local yellow where the series provides instructions on where the slow zone starts and ends.
Q: I live in an area that is surrounded by racetracks and has a great racing heritage. We’ve got NASCAR NHRA, motorcross, and some of the best sprint car tracks and fans in the entire country. Yet my favorite series — IndyCar — no longer visits. The closest race is six hours away in another country. Do you think the series will ever come back to the Northeast? In the past I would attend three races a year. Now I just go to the Big One.
Jared, Reading, PA
MP: I’d love to say the Northeast is a scheduling priority for IndyCar, but I haven’t heard of any events on the horizon in the region.
Q: Any update on the Andretti F1 bid? I haven’t heard any updates in a while. And why are the WEC cars slightly faster than the IMSA cars? Seems like both the GT and prototypes are slightly faster.
Mark, Niagara Falls, NY
MP: WEC’s Hypercar formula allows for higher tech and performance which, on the surface, should be equalized with the LMDh/GTP formula through Balance of Performance restrictions, but that didn’t happen and rarely happens, frankly. IMSA’s all GTP cars, so there’s no concerns with trying to balance the speed of two different formulas.
On a Sebring-specific note, the WEC held its big pre-season Prologue test at Sebring days before the event, so its cars were dialed into the circuit in ways the IMSA cars were not.
CHRIS MEDLAND: No update on Andretti as of yet, but that’s because the FIA is still in the Expressions of Interest phase — any prospective new team can still make an initial submission, so it’s only once that window closes that we’ll hear how many firm applications there have been and what is being considered.