Q: In a RACER story about the IndyCar game last week, Mark Miles was quoted as saying: “We are in regular communication with Motorsport Games to get the information that we need to decide what’s best for us going forward. We’re not at the place yet where we have chosen which path that will be, but it is a top-of-mind question that we’re engaged in.”
Not 24 hours later, Miles was “disappointed” to learn — at the same time the rest of us did, it seems — that Motorsport Games had run out of money and pulled the plug on the IndyCar project. So much for IndyCar being a position to “decide what’s best” about an issue that was apparently “top of mind.”
I probably wouldn’t have played the video game either way, but am I wrong to feel that this symbolizes the current culture in IndyCar management? It’s the same attitude that ran all the way through the Jay Frye Mailbag a few months ago, which came off sounding arrogant, condescending and clueless.
I’ve followed IndyCar for a long time, and I always used to roll my eyes when I read Mailbag letters to Robin about how the sky was falling in on the series. But now I look at a series with old cars, a stale schedule and apparently no plan or vision beyond the next 12 months. Is it finally time to be scared for real?
Patrick, South Bend, IN
MP: The sky isn’t falling, but you aren’t wrong to question where the series is headed when all of its main rivals have dreamed big and been rewarded for it through new cars, new TV shows, and grand new venues that have drawn greater interest.
Q: Thanks RACER for the interesting read on the Foyt team’s early lead in the 2013 championship and its victory at Long Beach. This made me wonder about what happened with the Brazil track once the race was run for the last time. Are the guardrails of the Sao Paulo Sambodrome Circuit maybe still around somewhere over there? That was a pretty cool track, even though at first glance, it felt like rather a waste of money to run a street race in the same town where they also have a perfectly suitable road circuit with Interlagos. Is there anything new about another try at a Brazil race at this point, with the Argentinian idea seemingly having fallen through?
Also, IndyCar better be quick before NASCAR gets its foot in the door permanently in Mexico.
Yannick, Germany
MP: I was excited when RACER.com editor Mark Glendenning mentioned he was going to approach the team about doing the feature, and it didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, tracking the movement of guardrails from a temporary street circuit that was last used 10 years ago isn’t among my hobbies.
I believe an inquiry was made from a group in Brazil, but I’ve not heard of it moving beyond just that — an inquiry. Although I’d love to go to Argentina for an IndyCar race, I’m not sure it’s something most teams are keen to do. Not with a busy offseason of hybrid testing and bust season of racing ahead, and the limited financial reward — and the one-time visit — that’s been proposed.
Q: After reading your article about the split between Callum Illot and Juncos, is it possible that the team waited to cut ties with him after all the seats had filled up out of spite? Maybe I’m just reading between the lines and becoming a conspiracy theorist, but if the relationship had soured that much, why wait until they did to part ways?
Cory, Pennsylvania
MP: As I understand it, Callum had the option to continue if he agreed to the team’s amended contractual terms, so I don’t believe there was an attempt to ruin his chances to sign elsewhere.
Q: With the Le Mans/ACO news about hydrogen-based combustion and hydrogen fuel cells for Le Mans in 2027 and WEC as early as 2030, does a hydrogen ICE along the lines of the Toyota GR H2 seem a direction IndyCar can move towards for its engine platform? Would there be potential to marry a hydrogen ICE with the ERS systems debuting in 2024?
Gordon in Dallas
MP: It would be a direction to go if the series had buy-in from manufacturers. It’s about a year too late for hydrogen ICE to be implemented for next season. Given ample time, it could happen and would be a really interesting development.
Q: If Andretti decides to outsource the potential Tatiana Calderon entry to Bryan Herta Autosport, where would that put Bryan himself? Would he leave Kirkwood’s timing box to focus on this entry?
Joe
MP: We won’t have to answer that one, Joe, as the team has made the wise choice to trim its for-hire car and focus on three no-compromises entries.
Q: With all the talk about whether Andretti will run three or four cars next year, where does that leave Marco’s annual Indy ride? Is he done?
Ben, California
MP: The team wasn’t interested in answering the Marco question when we spoke on Monday, but I’ve heard he’s likely returning for another run in May.
Q: It makes me sick to think that Kyffin Simpson has a ride, Sting Ray Robb may have a ride and Callum Ilott doesn’t. Is there any hope for Callum in 2024? If not ’24, would he likely get one in ’25?
Paul, Indianapolis
MP: The sport has relied on funded drivers for longer than I’ve been alive, so while I agree that Callum being left on the sidelines is terrible, I don’t hate the paying drivers who help employ dozens of people and keep teams afloat. Unless Dale Coyne signs Callum, I can’t find an IndyCar seat for him to fill next year and that would mean 2025 is the next best opportunity, but who knows where he’ll be racing by then.