Q: Given the appalling way the Argentinian IndyCar fans have conducted themselves this year, surely the series shouldn’t be racing there next year?
Mexico has just as passionate a fanbase and to the best of my knowledge, Pato O’Ward hasn’t had to put a message out telling his people to not send death threats en masse to fellow drivers.
Also, if they do race in Argentina, Callum Ilott is going to need a police escort and bodyguards outside his hotel room.
Jordan, Warwick, UK
MP: If we start trimming races based on where disgusting things are said to drivers, we’d take the U.S. and Canada off the schedule as well, so let’s not be precious and single out Argentina or any other country unless we want to include all of them.
That doesn’t change how sad and stupid it is to see some of Canapino’s fans treat Ilott in an appalling manner for a second time, but if we’re canceling races because of fan behavior on social media, we’re doomed as a society. I hate everything about this for Callum and have spoken with him about it at length in April and again this week. I hope he and the team can either find a peace accord or part ways, because this isn’t good for anyone.
Q: Josef Newgarden seemed to be slightly more temperamental this year, and way more so than when he was driving for Sarah and Wink. Did he have any post-race availability after Laguna?
Dino, New Hanover, PA
MP: I didn’t seek him out for comment, but I haven’t heard anything about him refusing to speak to folks afterwards.
Q: My first reaction to the race at Thermal Club was “cool” — until I saw some details. “Limited tickets available” is code for “F1 prices only club members can afford.”And members share in the proceeds? Seems very tone-deaf at best. Is it me?
Mike, Elkhart Lake, WI
MP: It’s you, but you aren’t alone. A couple of things: It’s a highly private facility, so after hearing nothing but complaints about Spring Training being locked down earlier in the year, there will be a very limited number of tickets and spectating options made available. It’s never been done there, so this is a cause for concern among folks who’ve spent millions to live in a gated and super exclusive property.
The tickets shouldn’t be expensive. IndyCar’s trying to create some new team owners, so that’s where the sharing part comes into play. And more than anything, the series needed something to fill the big empty gap between Round 1 and Round 2, and this is it. I’m not sure if this is just complaining for sport, or if there’s a wave of IndyCar fans who really want to book flights for Palm Springs to attend a demonstration race in Thermal, California, and are mad that they might not be able to get tickets?
If it’s the latter, I understand the frustration. If it isn’t, I’m not sure what to say.
Q: Long time, first time. As a fellow Bay Area resident, I attended both Long Beach and Laguna Seca. Please explain how O’Ward didn’t get a penalty for punting Dixon into the tires in Long Beach, but Dixon got a drive through for contact with VeeKay in the middle of a Turn 2 melee?
On Dixon’s radio, when told of the penalty, after a few f-bombs, he said, “Arie’s boy, Arie’s boy…”
Dixon went on to call out the obvious conflict of interest when someone close to a particular driver is handing out penalties for incidents involving said driver. I see smoke, is there a fire?
Jeff Eyet
MP: There is no explanation because as I’ve mentioned on an increasingly frequent basis, I stopped understanding what race control was doing a while ago. If VeeKay was penalized for being hit by Dixon, I would not have been shocked.
Q: Can you give us a quick rundown on the final Leaders Circle results? Really a shame that Marcus Armstrong took out Rahal and Vips. It’s life, but it’s a shame that one bad decision has taken such a financial toll on other teams.
Now that the season is over, can you give any insight into what went wrong with Grosjean and Andretti during the season? Were there things going on internally beyond what the performance and crashing issues we know about?
Next year, do you see veterans taking the youngsters aside and having a serious talk about not trying to win the race on the first lap? Yes, the repave added a strong element of chaos and blew up any thoughts of strategy, but I ended up telling my wife on most restarts “They’re wrecking again!” It was wild, it was crazy, it was entertaining, but still left me shaking my head at times. A big change from the last few races that went mostly green.
John
MP: We did a story on the LC on Monday that covers the first item, John. Nobody doubts Grosjean’s speed, but his consistency has been an issue, and when that’s coupled with some mistakes by the team, it has been a mostly troubled relationship. When all went well, they were capable of winning, and yet, they never won, and there were far too many days where they were slow, something was wrong with the car, or Romain was making contact with a rival or a wall.
I expect nothing to happen among drivers. If it hasn’t already happened, Laguna Seca will be forgotten by the end of the week.
Q: What does the top 10 look like in 2023 only going by average qualifying positions?
John A
MP: Our statistician friend Scott Richard reports the following, and full respect to Scotty Mac:
Great question. Based solely on their average starting positions during the season, the top 10 in terms of drivers looks like the following:
Alex Palou 6.00
Pato O’Ward 6.29
Scott McLaughlin 7.24
Scott Dixon 8.65
Felix Rosenqvist 8.71
Colton Herta 8.82
Will Power 9.12
Josef Newgarden 9.35
Romain Grosjean 9.76
Marcus Ericsson 10.59
Note that we removed Tony Kanaan’s average starting position of 9.00 since he only made one start during the season.
Another fun way of looking at it is if you awarded the same points structure used for finishes to starts (50 to win, 40 for 2nd, etc with no bonus points added). Then the championship would have looked like this:
Alex Palou 517
Pato O’Ward 494 -23
Scott McLaughlin 493 -24
Colton Herta 454 -63
Felix Rosenqvist 441 -76
Will Power 420 -97
Romain Grosjean 420 -97
Scott Dixon 417 -100
Josef Newgarden 412 -105
Christian Lundgaard 374 -143
Either way, Palou is easily the best in this category!