Q: Do the IndyCar teams have a private channel to communicate something to the drivers that they don’t want broadcast? I was thinking about the Power-Malukas incident at WWTR. After the race, once Will cooled down and saw the replay he realized it was totally his fault and immediately apologized to David. Could the team, knowing how hot Will can get, let him know during the race so he doesn’t have to do all the crazy stuff?
Ed Kelly, Studio City, CA
MP: Not that I’m aware of while the car is on track. When it’s on pit lane and the umbilical is connected, yes. Other than telling a heated driver to calm down while racing, doing as you suggest involves giving the driver the impression you’re taking sides, and that’s not what I’d recommend.
And Will didn’t do anything crazy. Malukas played it up like he was accosted or confronted by Power, saying that he screamed at him. In fact, Will was riding by on a golf cart with his wife Liz and yelled, ‘What the ****, Malukas?’ Power cleared the air with Malukas, but David also over-sold the encounter as being way more than it actually was.
Q: If I understand correctly, next year’s charters are limited to three per owner. How would it be handled if you have a technical partnerships with other teams? Would that count as one of three for the owner of the technical agreement? Also, would IndyCar allow a team to skirt the rules by naming family members as the owners of additional teams?
Susan Bournoville
MP: Hi Susan. This might be worth reading, along with the numerous links in the story.
The charter is set by where teams placed in the 2023 entrants’ championship. Technical alliances have no bearing on the entrants’ championship. If the team did not compete in 2023 and place inside the top 25 in the standings, they aren’t eligible to receive one of the 25 charters.
Q: With the passing of “Chuck,” the IndyCar racing community has lost another legend. Would you happen to know if there might be an organization that we could send a memorial donation? Perhaps Chuck had a favorite organization?
Bruce, Western Massachusetts
MP: Here’s what I got from the funeral home: He will be laid to rest at Acton Cemetery. The family requests that donations be made to Southminister Presbyterian Church.
Q: What is the general mood within the paddock on the future direction of the IndyCar series?
Bob
MP: Mixed. The paddock was beaming with pride at Milwaukee. Prior to Saturday’s race, I spent a lot of time with team owners and there are plenty of grievances that linger, including concerns over a Penske bias in race control, behavior of Penske Entertainment officials acting like they did back in the day as fanboys for their team, the costs of going hybrid, and myriad other items that persist. There’s general happiness with the charter program, but it also has some hardened detractors who do not want to speak out against it/Penske, at this point. There’s universal love for the FOX TV deal Penske delivered. Like I said, it’s mixed.
Q: How many miles does the pace car in the series you cover accumulate during the course of a season? Can you purchase one after the season has ended?
I would also ask of you to have a survey of the greatest souvenir you can go home with? In my opinion I believe it would be a flag, an autograph or a part of a car or a pace car.
Nitro Bob from Boston
MP: 1,241 miles. The Mailbag doesn’t do surveys, but photos with drivers or legends tend to be the most personal items that are spoken of and shared. Some of the pace cars are preproduction models, which get crushed after they’re done, and the cars with VINs — press pool cars — first get offered internally to Honda employees, and if there any that go unsold, they get moved to a wholesaler, I’m told.
CHRIS MEDLAND: Obviously it’s a hypothetical question based on how many incidents we get in a season, but the safety car runs with regularity on a Thursday when it completes around 10 laps as part of the High Speed Test (which is when it crashed at Monza), then also does a lap before the start of every race. So we can guarantee around 270 laps even before it’s called upon for its usual role in a race situation.
The safety car also appears in junior category races, so even though each season fluctuates I think we can safely say it’ll often do at least 100 laps in race situations across F1, F2 and F3. With the average length of a track being a little over three miles, factoring in all the variables you’re probably looking at between 1000 and 2000 miles.
But F1 has two safety car suppliers, so it’s split between Aston Martin and Mercedes, and that means each car could be looking at half of that (plus there are two safety cars available each weekend so there’s always a back-up, and each will get a test).
They’re not up for sale at the end of a season, though, because the same cars carry over to the following year — with some good servicing — until either manufacturer wants to introduce a new model.
I definitely think a part of a car is the best souvenir you can go home with. An actual physical item that’s taken part in the race you were at would be awesome, even if it’s damaged and you’ve managed to pick it up as debris from the side of the track!
I did some fundraising when I first did a charity sporting challenge 11 years ago (plug: I’m doing the London Marathon next year, so apologies for all the tweets you’ll see asking for donations) and teams provided items I could give away in a raffle, and by far the most coveted items were the car parts, with a rear wing endplate from Williams and front wing flap from Marussia.