The Alessandro Zanardi IndyCar Thread

[Bleu]

Since most of drivers who go to IndyCar have somehow failed in F1, probably higher chance is it's Nicholas Latifi.

[Yannick]

That was a well-deserved victory for former Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson. Congrats!

[Bleu]

In GP Rejects terms, more importantly Ericsson is a former Caterham driver.

[Alextrax52]

Just when I thought Will Power had become more mature this season I’m sure he’s gone and used his car as a weapon on the slow down lap. Can’t believe the coverage hasn’t spoken about that a little more.

Anyway Newgarden was excellent on a course he’s one of the masters of. It seems to be win or bust for him so far (3 wins but also 4 finishes below 13th. A few more finishes like Detroit (4th) and he’d be comfortably clear at the front. Rossi’s form has really picked up since his McLaren move was announced and so has the man who’s fighting to stay with that team Felix Rosenqvist.

[Alextrax52]

You’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Andretti debrief tonight. What an absolute disasterclass that was. Not pitting Colton Herta under a caution when literally everyone else did, team-mates at war with Alexander Rossi driving like a man who’s moving teams next year. Not to mention being shown up by Penske and Ganassi once again

[dr-baker]

It's awful luck for Stefan Wilson to be ruled out of this year's Indy 500, due to a practice crash with Katherine Legge, but at least Graham Rahal (the only DNQ) gets a chance to race.

[CoopsII]

Brits taking out Brits? How very quaint.

[dr-baker]

[dr-baker]

[Wallio]

It's awful luck for Stefan Wilson to be ruled out of this year's Indy 500, due to a practice crash with Katherine Legge, but at least Graham Rahal (the only DNQ) gets a chance to race.

Rules and precedents aside, I was very annoyed that Graham got in (mostly because it's Graham, and he is beyond unlikable), so I was very happy to see the gods of the Speedway punish him with battery failure on the grid.


In wheel news, an investigation has shown that the tether did not actually fail. Rather, the entire tether/wheel/hub assembly was seared off. Which to the best of everyone's knowledge, has never happened before. Alas, poor Snowball (the nickname the young lady has for her car) was totaled in this freak accident.

[dr-baker]

In wheel news, an investigation has shown that the tether did not actually fail. Rather, the entire tether/wheel/hub assembly was seared off. Which to the best of everyone's knowledge, has never happened before. Alas, poor Snowball (the nickname the young lady has for her car) was totaled in this freak accident.

Well, I hope the young lady finds her Snowball 2.

[Wallio]

Ok, that was funny.

[mario]

Having occasionally dabbled in this thread, I was wondering if somebody can make any sense of what exactly is going on with Alex Palou and the mess that is his contract status?

We had the initial lawsuit for Palou to stay at Ganassi, and now we've had Palou bail out of his deal with McLaren to stay at Ganassi - at which point, the company that had been managing Palou resigned over his decision. More recently, McLaren have now filed a lawsuit in the UK after paying Palou an advance on his salary, only for Palou to allegedly then refuse to pay the money back after breaking his contract with them.

McLaren seem to be throwing around some rather claims for compensation, with rumours that they're asking for as much as $20-30 million in damages to compensate for the advance made to Palou, plus lost earnings from sponsors that were apparently going to be moving to the team as part of the deal with Palou. It may be that they're asking for a lot to then negotiate down to a more moderate settlement, but it sounds like it could be rather expensive for Palou if he ends up losing the case.

[Yannick]

So by now, Pietro Fittipaldi has signed up with Team Rahal to drive 2024. And the "Man without vowels", Romain Grosjean himself, has signed with Ricardo Juncos' team. Whilst former Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson continues his IndyCar career with Andretti Autosport Global.

From the perspective of this very website, the 2024 IndyCar season is going to be an interesting one yet again.

[Jarvis]

Expecting a close fight between Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske in the 2024 season. Both teams have very good drivers in their disposal so everything is likely to be very close between them in the upcoming season.

[mario]

Expecting a close fight between Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske in the 2024 season. Both teams have very good drivers in their disposal so everything is likely to be very close between them in the upcoming season.

The ongoing court case between Palou and McLaren is unlikely to help Palou's performance, particularly since, about a month ago, Palou's legal team admitted in court that Palou was at fault for the breach in contact with McLaren. Indeed, their submission accepts that McLaren are "entitled to sue for damages", with their strategy now revolving around trying to minimise the size of the claim that McLaren can make against Palou. https://eu.indystar.com/story/sports/mo ... 733906007/

[Jarvis]

Indianapolis 500 winner, two-time CART champion and McLaren F1 advisor Gil de Ferran has died aged 56.

[dr-baker]

Indianapolis 500 winner, two-time CART champion and McLaren F1 advisor Gil de Ferran has died aged 56.

Also sporting director for BAR from 2005 to 2007, and according to Autosport, De Ferran holds the record for the fastest closed circuit qualifying speed ever in his Penske IndyCar, lapping California Speedway at 241.428mph in October 2000.

[Yannick]

Lately, Team Penske has been caught cheating after the season opener in St. Petersburg, FLA. They ran a manipulated Push-To-Pass button that was enabled during starts and restarts when it should not have been. According to findings, Josef Newgarden used it 3 times during the race, Scott McLaughlin used it once and Will Power did not use it despite having it at his disposal. The first two were disqualified, with Pato O'Ward now declared the race winner, and Power was docked points.

Elsewhere, the proverbial "big news in F1" is that McLaren's IndyCar team has dropped injured and still recovering driver David Malukas from their roster who, at this point is expected to be healed only in mid-June, according to reports.

And Dale Coyne is making classic Dale Coyne moves again, having brought in former F2 driver Luca Ghiotto to drive the #51 at Barber recently. Surprisingly, Ghiotto promptly outqualified his more experienced teammate Jack Harvey there, though, unsurprisingly, Harvey placed ahead of Ghiotto in the race. Ghiotto is also scheduled to run the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Coyne still has some open seats for select races this season.

Central Indiana. The entry list for the Indianapolis 500 is now down to 34, with Bill Abel's team pulling out their entry, reportedly due to lack of sponsorship from their driver.

[Yannick]

IndyCar will be broadcast on Fox next season with all the races on network TV nationwide in the US. Do you call that a boogity?

[Yannick]

The Toronto track seemed in worse shape than usual after the flooding that went on a week or so before the event: bumpier and dustier than usual.
Also, they had "the big one" multi-car accident in 2 successive events now, when really, it should be avoided.