Q: Big Possum wants to give a shout out to Jacob Abel for his smokin’ hot test with CGR at Texas. Great driver, great person and great family. And a Butler University guy as well – and dad Bill is what racing dads should be!
Can’t wait to see him at the Indianapolis 500 next year — and if Big Possum’s memory is correct there was another guy from Louisville that did quite well for himself – Danny Sullivan!
Big Possum
MP: The “Finger Lickin’ Fast” kid from Kentucky, as a friend calls him, will be a welcome addition to the series.
Q: I know a lot has been said, written, and expressed about Michael Andretti and his stepping down from Andretti Global, and I’ll wait patiently for any updates. I’m not sure if I’m alone in this view, but a good bit of wind has been taken out of the sails for my interest in IndyCar for the upcoming season. He’s had a presence in American open-wheel racing since the early ’80s, along with being my favorite driver. Not having him as an integral part of the team, the series, and season just sucks.
Terry, Maryland
MP: I’ll miss Michael, with hundreds of millions of dollars behind him and feeling untouchable, being the only team owner with the balls to speak his mind to the world in IndyCar.
I fear we’ll have no Andretti family presence in IndyCar next season, barring Mario’s longtime affiliation with Firestone. Andretti COO Rob Edwards recently declined to answer whether Marco would return to race once more in the Indy 500, and thanks to the recent efforts by Andretti to post content surrounding Jamie Chadwick, who said she isn’t returning for a third season of NXT, and her desire to race in the Indy 500, I do wonder if she’s meant to step into that fourth Indy entry.
Q: With all the discussion of Roger Penske, his management style and his influence on IndyCar I’m very curious about his racing and business experiences. There are three books about him on the market by authors Robert N. Marsh, Thomas M. Kinne and Sigur E. Whitaker. Do you have any suggestions as to the most informative or insightful of these? Do you have other suggestions for insight into the man? I’ve read that he has discouraged such publications, but he has become the leader of IndyCar racing so it would be helpful to know more about him without the strong opinions generated by recent events.
Web Beadle
MP: Wasn’t aware there was one book about him, much less three, so I’m of no use there. The two I’d recommend are the late Mark Donohue’s brilliant “The Unfair Advantage,” which on this subject, chronicles his involvement during the early years of Penske Racing, and Jade Gurss’s excellent book “Beast” on the secret 1994 Indy 500-winning engine project Penske backed. After reading those, maybe one of the three you’ve found will stand out as the best to follow.
Q: Why is the Las Vegas race at night? Vegas weather in November is OK in the daytime but miserably cold at night. I know, The Strip looks great on TV at night but sundown is 4:30pm and it’s fully dark by 5:30-6:00! Late start times are ridiculous.
Mark, San Diego, CA
CHRIS MEDLAND: The fact it’s at night you’ve already covered off in many ways — it’s the backdrop that Vegas wants. But why it’s so late is a bit of a point of contention…
Among the reasons given by F1 and the organizers are that they don’t want to shut down The Strip too early in the evening, so that traffic can still use it to move around to resorts, restaurants and their evening entertainment. But on top of that, it wants the race itself to be one of those nighttime entertainment options.
I can’t say I totally buy the argument that 10pm keeps people in the casinos longer in the day, because it feels like it makes it less likely that they will spend as much time back in any of the resorts after the race. But the race organizers and partners have the data and will see if it works in the way they want it to.
The track was closed long before 10pm for a support race this year — that started before 7pm — so it does feel like it could move earlier without disruption in the city, but that would then make it at a less convenient time for the large European market. What is currently a 7am race start time in Europe will attract a bigger live viewership than if it was a few hours earlier.
Q: It seems imminent that GM Cadillac is getting an F1 entry for 2026 without Michael Andretti. I know FOM’s position was that a 2028 entry would be considered but a 2026 entry was denied. Can you explain what influenced FOM to reverse its decision?
David, Danville, CA
Q: This recent GM F1 development, only one month after the bombshell Michael Andretti step-down, has a distinct odor to it. The high potentates at F1 clearly had it in for Andretti — they rejected the initial bid because GM would not have its own engine until 2028, and Andretti could re-apply then. Now, one month on, it’s just fine that the same team, same situation, (minus one person) still won’t have their own engine till 2028 and will buy an engine from Honda or Ferrari and join up in 2026?
John Becker
CM: It’s not the same situation minus one person, but it is very similar. The 2026 rejection always said it was open to discussions in 2028 if it was going to be a GM power unit, but what F1 wanted was full works commitment from GM. That initial 2026 entry that F1 rejected had targeted a Renault power unit supply, don’t forget, and Renault has since pulled out as an engine manufacturer.
Imagine if F1 had accepted Andretti Global in January and then Renault made that call? Stefano Domenicali and co would certainly have been aware that was a possibility.
Was the evolution of the project accelerated by the Department of Justice investigation into whether F1 was breaking any antitrust laws? It’s hard to argue that it wasn’t, but perhaps more in the fact it kept the lines of communication both open and active. Instead of leaving the ball in GM’s court, F1 may well have been more proactive in pushing for a greater manufacturer commitment.
Instead of it being an Andretti team supported by GM — where GM could back out more easily in future years — F1 now has a situation where the future certainty is greater. But it’s also not F1 entirely calling the shots on how it would look, it’s those who are financing the team and while it was Daniel Towriss as the frontman who took over as CEO at Andretti Global, Mark Walter is a name that Marshall Pruett had been hearing for a while.
Walter owns a number of sports franchises and leagues, and if he wanted to be involved in F1 too then he will have had many different ways of doing that. Much like the Mercedes setup, he will now be involved with a team representing an iconic car brand, and have the full marketing might of GM behind it, too.