Q: I’m sure that this will not go far, but here we go. I really enjoy the IndyCar coverage that NBC produces. I think there are three very knowledgeable announcers on these broadcasts, and they allow each to have his say while still allowing Leigh Diffey to his job as the main announcer.
Now for NASCAR. While I like all forms of racing, IndyCar and NASCAR are my favorites — except when NBC takes over the coverage. Rick Allen is supposed to be the main announcer while the others add what they can. Unfortunately, Steve Letarte didn’t get the memo. He talks almost nonstop, tries to explain why something happened on the track without any idea what really happened and then beats the story like a dead horse. I’m sure that he has some real insights on occasion, but he should take a cue from Larry Mac and add color, not just to hear himself talk.
Barry, Fort Wayne, IN
MP: I might catch three or four combined hours of Cup broadcasts per season, so I’m useless when it comes to coverage insights. The main thing I struggle with is telling who is speaking when Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Letarte are on the broadcast. It’s not the accents; it’s something about the pitch that my ears struggle to separate.
Q: Thank you for responding to my thoughts about F1 last week. I consider ours to be a friendly disagreement. Since the turn of the century, F1 has almost always had a dominant driver — Schumacher/Ferrari, then a brief free-for-all until the Vettel/Red Bull era, then Hamilton/Mercedes, now Max/Red Bull. The Schumacher and Verstappen eras have been particularly difficult for the British press to digest, and that’s the origin of most English language F1 reporting. They appear to approach the sport as the rightful possession of Lewis (whom I happen to agree is as good as they come).
Still, world-wide popularity grew immensely, even in the years preceding Drive To Survive, not withstanding these periods of one team/driver superiority. I suppose that’s why Liberty bought it. F1 doesn’t rely on corner-by-corner, lap-by-lap lead changing for its following, and I suspect a good part of the appeal is waiting and hoping for some team to knock the current dominant team off its perch, which I have most recently enjoyed especially as an independent F1 team has shown a global OEM how to do it.
Jack Woodruff
MP: Yep, all appreciated and understood. The fight to the line for third at Interlagos was great. Nonetheless, F1’s riding a giant wave of popularity, just as CART did, and just as NASCAR did, before the product began to wane and the wave got smaller. It’s inevitable for F1 as well.
Q: Thanks for the story about the Ilott/JHR split. Could you shed some lights on Callum’s future?
Jean-Pierre
MP: It’s all about Dale Coyne Racing right now. And if that doesn’t come together, I’m not sure where he takes his services.
Q: Will IndyCars be self-starting next year with the new hybrid system?
Brad and Shawna Heuer
MP: That’s the goal. Self-starting was used for the first time at a recent hybrid test.
Q: A World Cup of racing returns. In two weeks, Formula 3 drivers will return to Macau after a three-year absence due to COVID and Formula 4’s best will be on the bill for the first time. But I do not understand why North America has a Formula 4 series and the FIA Formula Regional Americas and no one from these series are part of this end of the year event. How long before these FIA series have a U.S. entry in the future?
JLS, Chicago
MP: I don’t have the foggiest notion. Other than observing when a F4 or FR A driver has moved to the USF Championships or Indy Lights/NXT, I don’t pay a ton attention to those series because they aren’t connected with IndyCar and aren’t looked upon by IndyCar team owners as a place where talent is developed in the strongest environment.
Q: If Roger Penske had asked for an F1 team, the red carpet would have rolled out instantly. Excellence is the added value that F1 team bosses speak about, or at least their goal is to bring someone that is the absolute best at what they do. No disrespect to Andretti, but there is room for them to continue to grow before F1. I felt that through time they were more focused on marketing their drivers than being the world class racing team that they achieved on several occasions. Am I wrong? Regardless, I think that IndyCar still has a driver’s championship, and F1 does not.
James, Florida
MP: I wanted to agree with you at first on this, but I’m not sure Penske would get the green light. And I say that because for most of the last two years, far too many F1 team principals have appeared to take pride in acting like bouncers in front of racing’s most exlcusive club. They don’t want anybody new in the club and hide behind all manner of quaint excuses to keep everyone that isn’t a member on the other side of the velvet rope.
Their behavior is centered on protecting their profits, so unless Penske came in waving a few billions of dollars in front of them in the champagne room, I can’t see him getting a permanent invite to the club. Sure, Andretti would probably do a few things differently if he could go back in time, but there’s no reasonable argument to be made to keep Andretti Global out of F1. And for the sake of clarity, I don’t particularly care about who would become the 11th team. If there was a better bid than Andretti’s, that’s the one that should be on the grid.
Q: Were details announced about the new IndyCar Toronto deal? Obviously Toronto is on the 2024 schedule, so something was worked out, but I don’t remember seeing details anywhere about the length of the new deal.
I also seem to recall a line in one of your articles, or a previous Mailbag, about some improvements coming to Toronto’s pit lane situation. Am I mis-remembering, or is that in the works? Hope the final sector gets new pavement, too.
Joe
MP: I sent your questions to Green Savoree Race Promotions, and it did not respond.
Q: Grosjean seems like the perfect antidote to last season’s drama at Juncos. He’s the consummate team player to bring calm and order. Do you think they should have tried for someone more vocal, who’s willing to stir things up with teammates and call out management? Attracting attention is so important for the smaller teams; seems like Juncos could have done more.
Ken Niese
MP: To think Noah Gragson was sitting there waiting to take the call from Juncos, but it was never made…