The Alessandro Zanardi IndyCar Thread

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 10 May 2014, 23:57

i also noticed for this race that penske did the thing with the liveries on the three cars being the same sponsors on the sides. ahh the good old days.

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 12 May 2014, 03:19

Salamander wrote:How!? That was a technical failure. ROTR is definitely the restart procedure - it was clearly flawed at St. Pete yet they haven't changed it.

Still, it was an awesome nail-biter right at the end. Great to see Pagenaud win again, he's cemented himself as a very serious title contender now, alongside RHR and Power. And given Power's propensity to choke titles away...

Hawksworth would've won the race had his team not called him into pit lane after he had already passed pit entry. A shame for him given that he was the class of the field, but it's very encouraging for him and Bryan Herta Autosport. As for Servia's strategy... that was an easy top 5 they threw away right there. Though maybe Servia just couldn't match the other guys for fuel saving? I dunno why everyone was gambling on a caution at the end there, once the field got a couple laps under their belt, the odds were pretty low.

I think if it was a part that failed then I'd just blame the part on the pole sitting car of Saavedra. His track record sadly has never finished better than 8th so I'm fairly certain Saavedra would have binned it somewhere.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 17 May 2014, 17:50

So it's the first day of qualifying for the Indy 500 and Ryan goddamn Briscoe is being beaten by everyone except Lazier and James Davison. Briscoe drives for Ganassi in case you forgot. That he got the drive over Simona is absurd - hell, I'd have taken freaking Tags over this guy if I'd known he was going to be this crap. What an utter joke

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 17 May 2014, 20:26

almost thought it was a lotus-judd car from 2 years ago

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 18 May 2014, 02:00

Salamander wrote:So it's the first day of qualifying for the Indy 500 and Ryan goddamn Briscoe is being beaten by everyone except Lazier and James Davison. Briscoe drives for Ganassi in case you forgot. That he got the drive over Simona is absurd - hell, I'd have taken freaking Tags over this guy if I'd known he was going to be this crap. What an utter joke

Don't worry, Briscoe was able to requalify it into the 18th position outqualifying Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball. Looks like the Ganassi cars are downright shite. And then Briscoe dropped to 30th as he couldn't improve on his time while others were able to increase speed this morning. Still, the Ganassi cars look like shite.

AxelP800 · Post by **AxelP800** » 23 May 2014, 17:22

THAT INDY LIGHTS FINISH!!!!

---> I won't give any spoiler. WATCH IT, you'll know

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 23 May 2014, 20:39

AxelP800 wrote::o THAT INDY LIGHTS FINISH!!!!

---> I won't give any spoiler. WATCH IT, you'll know

And a violent crash for Chase Austin earlier in the race.

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 24 May 2014, 05:06

two amazing years in a row for the freedom 100! amazing!

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 24 May 2014, 06:31

I see JV qualified 27th. Will he pull an 'Alesi-2012' tomorrow?

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 24 May 2014, 06:50

Onxy Wrecked wrote:
AxelP800 wrote::o THAT INDY LIGHTS FINISH!!!!

---> I won't give any spoiler. WATCH IT, you'll know

And a violent crash for Chase Austin earlier in the race.

Austin was lucky, very lucky. The tyre barrier didn't cover the entire wall.

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 25 May 2014, 16:44

Jocke1 wrote:I see JV qualified 27th. Will he pull an 'Alesi-2012' tomorrow?

Looks like it, also looks like Busch is falling as well with the likes of Takuma Sato and Mikhail Aleshin having passed by.

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 25 May 2014, 17:27

This Sage Karam fellow really is performing brilliantly. 31st to 8th already

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 25 May 2014, 18:36

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:This Sage Karam fellow really is performing brilliantly. 31st to 8th already

Not to mention Townsend Bell who has gone from 25th to 4th now. Those two might be battling for IIDOTR of the Indy 500. Martin Plowman is ROTR for living up to his name and plowing into Josef Newgarden under caution like Dennis Vitolo into Mansell under caution. Plowman worse yet, still has his car apparently running out there which means he can do it again!

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 25 May 2014, 18:39

Onxy Wrecked wrote:
Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:This Sage Karam fellow really is performing brilliantly. 31st to 8th already

Not to mention Townsend Bell who has gone from 25th to 4th now. Those two might be battling for IIDOTR of the Indy 500. Martin Plowman is ROTR for living up to his name and plowing into Josef Newgarden under caution like Dennis Vitolo into Mansell.

Maybe he should have the Mr Plow song played when he's on screen

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 25 May 2014, 18:44

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Maybe he should have the Mr Plow song played when he's on screen

And it's hard to believe that Plowman could drive like that. And we have Townsend Bell squeezing Carpenter into Hinchcliffe with the underdog now in second.

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 25 May 2014, 18:47

Onxy Wrecked wrote:
Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Maybe he should have the Mr Plow song played when he's on screen

And it's hard to believe that Plowman could drive like that. And we have Townsend Bell squeezing Carpenter into Hinchcliffe with the underdog now in second.

Yeah perfectly read by the American Commentators there. Bell and Carpenter made slight contact sending Ed into Hinch

good_Ralf · Post by **good_Ralf** » 25 May 2014, 19:02

Race suspended with only 8 to go! Montoya 5th!

Sage Karam did a great job to finish in the top 10 from near the back of the grid and JV was 14th so not bad at all.

AxelP800 · Post by **AxelP800** » 25 May 2014, 19:29

That race and Monaco perfected my day. Wow. Great win and a breakheart

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 25 May 2014, 19:33

WOW what a finish! Congrats to RHR! and Kurt Busch on the TOP 10!! and Marco being... well... not winner.
Favorite quote of the race: "Holy sh*t that was 3 wide?" - Townsend Bell after tying up Hinch and Carpenter underneath him in turn 1(like rallycross lol) before his accident.
ROTR? probably Dixon. he kept making weird calls that his car didn't need. he had plenty downforce. not too much, but he and the team strategist decided to take some away and it bit him.
also, that was the longest green flagged race in indy history.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 25 May 2014, 21:32

An entertaining race at Indy as always. Good to see RHR take the chequered flag.

It's also good to see JR Hildebrand back in action as well. I've developed a soft spot for him after what happened in 2011, and it was good to see him in the Top 10 for a good portion of the race.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 25 May 2014, 22:28

Despite the thrilling finish, the race was pretty boring.

ROTR must be Chip Ganassi. Celebrating 25th anniversary with a rejectful result.

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 26 May 2014, 01:15

Dj_bereta wrote:Despite the thrilling finish, the race was pretty boring.

ROTR must be Chip Ganassi. Celebrating 25th anniversary with a rejectful result.

Remember, Martin Plowman deserved it more. He went Full Vitolo. One should never go full Vitolo under caution.

Rocks with Salt · Post by **Rocks with Salt** » 26 May 2014, 01:49

nome66 wrote:also, that was the longest green flagged race in indy history.

The only yellows out there were the three running up front. Fantastic race although I was rooting for Townsend (Should have seen his wreck coming, though) and Hunter-Reay seems very bland apart from the whole "good ol' American boy" thing he's got going for him. Still, I can't complain; at least it didn't end under yellow for once.

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 26 May 2014, 15:29

i would have loved to see Marco win, but the way Kurt was performing made me root for him more.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 26 May 2014, 16:28

Bad day for the Brits at Indy (particularly Pippa Mann

) and Charlie Kimball (who has the same health condition as me).

Yannick · Post by **Yannick** » 27 May 2014, 11:59

Indy 500 results from an F1Rejects perspective:

Congrats to Ryan Hunter-Reay for winning the 2014 Indianapolis International 500 Mile Sweepstakes for the team of the former McLaren-F1 driver Michael Andretti.

Ryan himself of course came 3rd in Dr Helmut Marko's very own Red Bull US F1 Idol competition some 10 years ago, behind former Toro Rosso-F1 driver Scott Speed who won it (but where is he now?) and the guy who can join a new team and win several races in a row right away (if he has prior knowledge of the chassis from having raced it for other teams), AJ Allmendinger, who is now a NASCAR regular.

The 2001 Indy 500 winner, former BMW-Williams- and McLaren-F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya came 5th for Team Penske.

Sebastien Bourdais, the former Toro Rosso-F1 driver and former 4-time ChampCar champion came 7th for KV Racing.
After a 19 year absence from the event, the 1995 Indy 500 winner, former F1 World Drivers Champion for Williams and former BAR/Honda and Sauber driver Jacques Villeneuve came home a respectable 14th for Sam Schmidt Motorsports - and he finished on the lead lap, too.

Former Toyota-F1 3rd driver Ryan Briscoe finished 18th in the 3rd car of Chip Ganassi Racing, which is the best result of all Ganassi cars in this race. (Rookie Sage Karam who Ganassi farmed out to drive the entry of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, came a very good 9th, however.)

Honda's very own Takuma Sato, the former Jordan, BAR/Honda and SuperAguri F1-driver, came home 19th as the 2nd to last car on the lead lap for AJ Foyt Racing.

Former Jaguar-F1 and Minardi driver Justin Wilson finished 2 laps down in 22nd place for Dale Coyne Racing.

Marco Andretti who used to be a mid-fielder for Team USA in the now defunct A1-GP Series came home a very good (but no cigar) 3rd.

Another A1-GP alumnus, former Team Lebanon driver Graham Rahal finished last in the National Guard sponsored entry for Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing.

Former Midland MF-1 test driver Ernesto J. Viso did not start the race after having had to give back the #27 Andretti Autosport entry before qualifying to regular driver James Hinchcliffe who had to sit out a large part of the "month" of practise prior to the race due to an injury. However, there was no additional engine deal to be found for Viso and Andretti Autosport was already full at 5 cars with no intention to compromise its efforts by running a 6th BumpDay-CarbDay-RaceDay entry.

Next up is the TV interview between the man who finished first, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and the man whose team finished last, talk show host David Letterman. That mere fact should make for an interesting conversation of the two.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 27 May 2014, 12:36

Yannick wrote:Former Toyota-F1 3rd driver Ryan Briscoe finished 18th in the 3rd car of Chip Ganassi Racing, which is the best result of all Ganassi cars in this race.

Admittedly that was only because Dixon crashed and Kanaan's awful Indy luck returned to spite him after having a year off.

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 27 May 2014, 18:07

Rocks with Salt wrote:
nome66 wrote:also, that was the longest green flagged race in indy history.

The only yellows out there were the three running up front. Fantastic race although I was rooting for Townsend (Should have seen his wreck coming, though) and Hunter-Reay seems very bland apart from the whole "good ol' American boy" thing he's got going for him. Still, I can't complain; at least it didn't end under yellow for once.

I suspect Townsend Bell actually damaged his rear suspension when he squeezed Ed Carpenter into Hinchcliffe. After that, Bell started to slide back down the order from 2nd to 5th and was unable to pass drivers he passed earlier in the race. The damaged part gave way and a violent hit into the wall was the result.

Rocks with Salt · Post by **Rocks with Salt** » 28 May 2014, 06:16

Onxy Wrecked wrote:
Rocks with Salt wrote:
nome66 wrote:also, that was the longest green flagged race in indy history.

The only yellows out there were the three running up front. Fantastic race although I was rooting for Townsend (Should have seen his wreck coming, though) and Hunter-Reay seems very bland apart from the whole "good ol' American boy" thing he's got going for him. Still, I can't complain; at least it didn't end under yellow for once.

I suspect Townsend Bell actually damaged his rear suspension when he squeezed Ed Carpenter into Hinchcliffe. After that, Bell started to slide back down the order from 2nd to 5th and was unable to pass drivers he passed earlier in the race. The damaged part gave way and a violent hit into the wall was the result.

I suspected it was just simply he had no momentum after that yellow flag that he started dropping places and started to get desperate. He was swamped on the restart and fell back to 5th place right away, but at least then he kept the momentum and stayed there until he wrecked. Maybe it was a suspension issue, but I doubt it; I'll bet it was just driver error.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 28 May 2014, 06:30

Rocks with Salt wrote:
Onxy Wrecked wrote:I suspect Townsend Bell actually damaged his rear suspension when he squeezed Ed Carpenter into Hinchcliffe. After that, Bell started to slide back down the order from 2nd to 5th and was unable to pass drivers he passed earlier in the race. The damaged part gave way and a violent hit into the wall was the result.

I suspected it was just simply he had no momentum after that yellow flag that he started dropping places and started to get desperate. He was swamped on the restart and fell back to 5th place right away, but at least then he kept the momentum and stayed there until he wrecked. Maybe it was a suspension issue, but I doubt it; I'll bet it was just driver error.

Given Bell's track record, it's more likely than not he himself just made the mistake.

Yannick · Post by **Yannick** » 01 Jun 2014, 12:37

After Will Power has won the first round of the Detroit Double-Header at Belle Isle Park yesterday, the points standings of the Mario Andretti Road- & Street Course Trophy of the Verizon IndyCar Series have changed from the drivers points standings before the Indy 500. Here's what they are looking like now, before the 2nd race of the double-header:

W. Power 200
R. Hunter-Reay 162
S. Pagenaud 151
H. Castroneves 136
S. Dixon 122
J. Wilson 119
T. Kanaan 117
M. Andretti 110
M. Conway 102
S. Bourdais 98
R. Briscoe 96
G. Rahal 96
C. Kimball 89
J. Montoya 88
C. Munoz 87
T. Sato 87
C. Huertas 87
J. Hinchcliffe 84
J. Hawksworth 82
J. Newgarden 81
S. Saavedra 79
M. Aljoschin 73
O. Servia 55
M. Plowman 12
F. Montagny 8

The AJ Foyt Oval Race Trophy of the Verizon IndyCar Series will be updated at a later date. For now, the points scores from the Indy 500 apply. But does it make sense that 500 mile races count for double points this year?

Post by **Londoner** » 01 Jun 2014, 14:34

So for the third time this weekend, the DHL car has found a wall. :lol:

RHR and Dixon to share the back row for Race 2. Ganassi can only get one of their cars working properly, and it's bloody Briscoe's to boot as well.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 01 Jun 2014, 16:24

I'm waiting to highlights to see what happened in the last lap, because brazilian tv coverage ended the transmission just after the check flag.

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 01 Jun 2014, 22:35

so race 2 went as planned for penske. ugh.

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 03 Jun 2014, 07:07

So which one of them is going to choke for the title this year?

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 03 Jun 2014, 08:54

F1000X wrote:So which one of them is going to choke for the title this year?

If it has to be only one of them, hopefully Will Power. Because let's be fair - Helio really does deserve a title. Though I'm still holding out hope that Simon Pagenaud can make back the ground he's lost the last 3 races.

Yannick · Post by **Yannick** » 03 Jun 2014, 19:19

Here's the update to the Mario Andretti Road & Street Course Trophy points standings after the Sunday race at Belle Isle Park:

W. Power 241
H. Castroneves 189
S. Pagenaud 179
R. Hunter-Reay 173
S. Dixon 154
T. Kanaan 139
J. Wilson 137
M. Andretti 124
C. Kimball 124
M. Conway 122
J. Hinchcliffe 116
R. Briscoe 116
C. Munoz 111
S. Bourdais 108
J. Montoya 105
G. Rahal 105
C. Huertas 102
T. Sato 101
M. Aljoschin 100
J. Hawksworth 99
J. Newgarden 94
S. Saavedra 87
O. Servia 55
M. Plowman 12
F. Montagny 8

Will Power has got a comfortable lead. Not so much in the drivers championship overall, though.

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 03 Jun 2014, 20:15

Yannick wrote:Here's the update to the Mario Andretti Road & Street Course Trophy points standings after the Sunday race at Belle Isle Park:

W. Power 241
H. Castroneves 189
S. Pagenaud 179
R. Hunter-Reay 173
S. Dixon 154
T. Kanaan 139
J. Wilson 137
M. Andretti 124
C. Kimball 124
M. Conway 122
J. Hinchcliffe 116
R. Briscoe 116
C. Munoz 111
S. Bourdais 108
J. Montoya 105
G. Rahal 105
C. Huertas 102
T. Sato 101
M. Aljoschin 100
J. Hawksworth 99
J. Newgarden 94
S. Saavedra 87
O. Servia 55
M. Plowman 12
F. Montagny 8

Will Power has got a comfortable lead. Not so much in the drivers championship overall, though.

Do they still give out the two trophies, or did that die with Randy? They certainly don't talk about them anymore.

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 04 Jun 2014, 02:54

Salamander wrote:Given Bell's track record, it's more likely than not he himself just made the mistake.

The problem is that a collision at 180 mph (the speed of cars entering turn 1 on a restart) is likely to produce some damage just given the contact. A driver with his track record would have been over his head if my theory of damage was indeed true as it would have become ill handling.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 04 Jun 2014, 07:37

Wallio wrote:Do they still give out the two trophies, or did that die with Randy? They certainly don't talk about them anymore.

Probably because it's still very early in the championship, and there's not really much point in talking about them yet?