The RACER Mailbag, November 6

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET …

Q: It’s hard to keep track of all the drivers Dr. Marko has dropped over the years, even just a race or two into it. But somehow Perez lives to fight another day. Does he have compromising pictures of Helmut in a vault somewhere?

Shawn, MD

CM: I know what you mean, Shawn. Leaving Miami – the sixth round of the season – Sergio Perez was second in the drivers’ championship and had scored 103 points. In the 14 rounds since, he’s scored just 48 points, and is now eighth. 

His 20 points since the summer break are the same as Pierre Gasly has managed in an Alpine, and that run includes Checo’s only top six since Miami, scored at Zandvoort.

But there’s an indifference to that seat now, because Red Bull showed it wasn’t overly concerned by the constructors’ championship situation in the summer when it had been very clear a change was likely to come and never did. I believe Marko was actually more on the side of sticking with Checo because of the lack of an obvious replacement – he wasn’t a huge fan of Ricciardo coming back – plus, it wouldn’t disrupt the team at a time when it was really having trouble with its car.

In addition to that, the absolute priority at that team is to provide an environment that Max Verstappen is happy with. I’m certain Verstappen backs himself against anybody, but bringing in an unknown quantity alongside him mid-season could have rocked the boat a little.

Perez is a very good driver, and he’s shown it both before Red Bull and on many occasions alongside Verstappen, too. His qualifying lap this year at Suzuka, for instance, was of the highest level. But if the inconsistency was frustrating before, this run just surely can’t be tolerated by a front-running team. For both the team’s sake and Checo’s, a change has to be made next year.

If I was Perez’s manager, I’d already be trying to line up a move to Sauber and if that was on the cards then would perhaps even instigate talks with Red Bull, because it really feels like he needs a fresh environment. He’s better than he’s shown this year, but you can’t go this long under-delivering at that level.

A change of scenery might be in the best interest of both Red Bull and Perez.  Mark Thompson/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool

Q: Will we ever see an end to the nonsense of teams being able to practically rebuild their cars during a red flag? Cars should be in parc ferme and no changes allowed until green flag racing!

DJF

CM: Hopefully! This seems to come up every time there’s a red flag in an F1 race, and I’m under the impression most drivers would like the rule changed. The reason it hasn’t been is safety-based – a red flag usually means a big crash or heavy rain. Either way, you can either get a puncture from debris if there was a big crash, or bad track conditions in the rain will require full wet tires or fresh intermediates.

The problem is, because you can gain from not changing tires when you really need to, it shifts the safety issue earlier. As we saw on Sunday in Interlagos, some drivers viewed the risk to not pit as one worth taking, but they ended up running on old and worn tires in heavy rain. That increases the risk of a big crash, and also increases the need to throw a red flag as a result.

Leaving things up to the discretion of the race director is always going to be controversial, but one solution would be to say drivers are not allowed to make any changes to a car under red flag conditions – even tires – and then if the conditions are deemed worthy of demanding them on safety grounds, then that call can be made on a case-by-case basis.

Similarly, you could say changes are allowed but at the expense of a drive-through penalty once the race resumes, as that would give teams a chance to change tires or repair damage if they wanted, knowing what it would likely cost them.

Q: I might be in the minority, but I enjoy NASCAR’s playoffs, maybe even more than the points system. Wasn’t there a season during the Tom Brady years that the Patriots had a near-perfect regular season, only to not make the Super Bowl? I see the current situation (at least, who’s in at the time I wrote this) the same. And there’s no one advocating that the NFL take on FIFA scoring. Lastly, would you know how close the final standings in playoffs line up to what the results would have been in a points system?

Shawn, Bernardo, TX

KC: I went back through the standings for the Patriots and found this: They went 12-4 in 2019 and lost the wild card game; 12-4 in 2015 and lost the conference game; 14-2 in 2010 and lost the division game; and 16-0 in 2007 and lost the Super Bowl.

As for the standings under a point system, it does not matter. It’s comparing apples and oranges, because teams and drivers race to the system in place. So for someone to argue that such-and-such driver would be the champion under the previous formats, to me, is not accurate.

THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, November 6, 2013

Q: Given Kimi Raikkonen’s stature and Lotus’ standing, I was surprised to hear he hadn’t been paid all year. I was curious if getting paid is an issue for drivers in IndyCar, given how many teams run on shoestring budgets? I’m also curious to how they are paid salary, per race? And do they still get paid if they miss races due to injury? I can’t imagine A.J., Mario, or Uncle Bobby driving even one race with payment in arrears.

Steve, Aurora, CO

ROBIN MILLER: Oh yeah, it’s been an issue for as long as there have been drivers and owners, though thankfully not too prevalent in IndyCar. I know a driver that was promised half of the purse if he qualified at Indianapolis and he never got a penny, and I know of another driver who didn’t get paid all season but didn’t want to take legal action because he thought it might hurt his reputation in the IndyCar paddock. Some get retainers and a percentage, some just get a flat fee and some get a percentage only. I doubt if anybody ever stiffed A.J. for fear of a bloody nose and the other two you mentioned were quite clever about being paid for their services.