The RACER Mailbag, May 18

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. Due to the high volume of questions received, we can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.

Q: Isn't the combination of those three words – rain, racing, and chaos – just the best for making an amazing race to watch? What an amazing lead-in to the Indy 500. How was it from your view?

John

MARSHALL PRUETT: More fun than any IndyCar race I can think of in a long while. I love a little bit of chaos with my racing, so the combination of rain and a bunch of restarts was always going to be amazing.

Q: Did you ever hear an explanation of how Kyle Kirkwood ended up with one black tire and three reds at one point during Saturday’s race? Was it a rain tire with a stuck wheel nut, or did they actually lay out a primary tire with the alternates?

Tom Hinshaw, Santa Barbara, CA

MP: They were mistaken on the broadcast, Tom.

Q: What an amazing afternoon on the track it was, full of challenges, twists and turns. My one unanswered question: who was busy behind the pace car wheel? It was the most "yellow" race we’ve seen in a long time.

Karen, Fernandina Beach, FL (at IMS for the weekend)

MP: It was Sarah Fisher.

Q: I’ve watched a couple of IndyCar broadcasts on NBC and I have to say James Hinchcliffe has been an excellent addition to the team. I know he’s been in the booth before, so it’s no surprise he lets his great personality shine as well as offering some great insight from a driver’s perspective. But I get the feeling there’s something left in the tank for his driving career. If he’s hung up his helmet, I think he’s had a roller coaster, but amazing career. Do you think Hinch is done with driving, or is he going to settle in at the booth?

Brandon Karsten 

MP: It’s like you were joining in the conversation we had in Gasoline Alley on Saturday. The Mayor has been excellent in the booth, but he has another 5-10 years of top-tier pro racing left to do. I don’t know if IndyCar is where it will happen; IMSA looks like a land with more opportunities and I pointed him towards one yet-to-be announced program to contact and explore if desired.

He should be full-time in IMSA next year, and if that’s the case, who would be a good modern driver to replace Hinch in the booth?

Hinch isn't done with life on the noisy side of the pitwall just yet. Image by Penske Entertainment

Q: Not only was the Indy GP Honda's first victory of the season, it had three cars in the top four when the checkered flag was out. How much of that is estimated to be due to the gain from the new exhaust system? Is it not a game-changer given the qualifying where Alex Palou was the lone driver from Honda teams in the Fast 6? 

Mitsuki Matsuura, Kanagawa, Japan

MP: Another great stat mentioned by an IndyCar fan on social media was the top nine were drivers from nine different teams. That’s crazy. If we’d had an 85-lap in the dry, I think we’re talking about Chevy getting its fifth straight win. I didn’t hear anything from the Honda drivers I asked about a noticeable increase in power.

Q: I bought the IMSA Track Pass when it came out and kept it until NBC Sports was shut down. And then I bought the Premium Plus streaming package for Peacock because I wanted to 1) support NBC for supporting IMSA and 2) watch the races without commercial breaks. And it was a relationship that worked well for years, until Laguna Seca this year. But then NBC Universal got greedy and put commercials into content I was paying extra for. And when I say added commercials, I mean they put in completely different advertisements than what is broadcast OTA/cable (yes, I checked). This is not what I paid for. This is classic bait and switch deceit, and I will have no part of it.  

Haskell Barnett

MP: Thanks for the intel, Haskell. The clear leader atop the NBC Sports/Peacock Complaints Championship is the presence of commercials on the live streams, and a close second in the standings is complaints about the volume of commercials on the live streams.

Q: There were some great exhibitions of car control on Saturday, but also too many times where drivers just shoved their opponents off the track to defend position. What's your assessment of the driving standards last weekend?

Jordan, Warwickshire, UK

MP: This was another Gasoline Alley conversation with two important figures on Monday. It seems that when possible, the act of passing someone on a road course and the passer leaving the passee enough room on corner exit to stay on the track has become an old-timey notion. The new thing is to make the pass by driving the other person off the road, and since the tracks have tons of closed-circuit and TV cameras, tons of in-car cameras, tons of corner stations with corner workers reporting contact and off-track incidents into race control, and direct SMS communication from every timing stand to race control, there should be no lack of information being received by race control to take action.

What I’m coming to believe is IndyCar is perfectly fine with the ongoing reduction in driving standards and escalating amounts of contact. There’s no other way to explain it, considering all of the footage, reports, and inbound messaging they have.

Q: Did MSR need any dispensation from IndyCar to run Helio's 06 number, or could anyone chuck an extra 0 in front of their number? Seems odd to have the 06 and JPM's 6 in the same race. 

Zac, Melbourne, Australia 

MP: IndyCar approves all numbers, so chucking of extra zeroes isn’t permitted. Knowing Shank, I’m surprised he hasn’t requested "5150" in honor of his favorite band, Van Halen.

Q: Had a great time at IMSA Mid-Ohio, although I think IndyCar should be there. There was over a two-hour gap on Sunday, which I understand from TV schedules, but really there should have been a race going on. IndyCar needs to move the Indy road course event to the last weekend and race with IMSA in May at Mid-Ohio and add the Glen to the calendar for the fourth weekend.  

Paul Hirsch, Westlake, OH

MP: I don’t foresee the Indy GP ever leaving its mid-May slot as the warmup for the 500. Teams get to move into their garages, get setup nice and early, do the GP and then roll right into practice for the 500. The cadence is just right.

Q: After looking at the still photos of the Indy GP I noticed that behind the front wheel the rain is hitting the ground effect. I’m wondering if the rain hitting this area gives any more downforce to the car (which would probably be needed in wet weather)?

John from Racine, WI (And no, I’m not going to bring up the Milwaukee Mile)

MP: Not totally sure what’s being asked, John, but no, those drops of rain reduce the volume of air passing over the wings, and with less air, less negative pressure is generated. BRING BACK THE MILE!

Q: Indy GP was chaos of all the best kinds. Firestone needs to keep those wets the way they are so that it rewards moves like Colton's – a driver who can keep slicks under them on a track that wet and still go faster deserves to move up 14 spots in three laps, especially if the series doesn't screw that driver over at Detroit by letting most of the field pit under yellow before the pace car has everyone.

I also don't see how the aeroscreen can be blamed for the lack of visibility at the end.  That spray looked on par with other races where IndyCar has thrown a red flag in years past, long before the aeroscreen was even a thought.

Kirk Lane

MP: Agree on the first part, but not on the second. Minus the aeroscreen, we have all the same water hitting the drivers in the helmet, and while that’s never awesome, at least they’d be able to pull tearoffs off their visors when too much muck builds up. When they’re hitting behind an aeroscreen, they’re passengers behind something they can’t clear by hand.

We’ve had plenty of open-wheel races over the years where the rain and spray/mist became too heavy for drivers to see, and they radioed in to tell their teams and race control. There’s nothing to do in those instances but to stop. Same with the aeroscreen, as we saw, with the difference being that IndyCar drivers are stuck with whatever’s happening on the screen and have no chance to try and improve the situation like they would without it.

If you want to be one of the most versatile drivers in the world, you've got to be ready to race in a lake. Brett Farmer/Motorsport Images

Q: Do you feel IndyCar is doing enough to improve, promote and grow its overall product both domestically and abroad? I had high hopes when Penske bought the series but as a longtime fan, it feels like the series has failed to evolve. What, if anything, do you feel IndyCar should be doing to increase attendance/viewership and in turn incentivize companies/manufacturers and race promoters to invest in the series?  

Jeff A. in Florida

MP: Hard to answer on the abroad part, since I’m domestic. I’d say that I have to constantly remind myself that Roger Penske isn’t a magician. He bought IndyCar/IMS at the start of 2020, saw the world shut down for a long time, had the calendar turned upside down, shuffled the calendar again in 2021, dealt with the serious and significant delays -- the supply chain issues spoken of in every facet of life -- and yet the series saw growth in ratings and no teams were lost.

If you’re a regular reader of the Mailbag, you know we routinely address concerns in all the areas you’ve mentioned, but if we’re going to judge the Penske Entertainment era against others, 2022 would be the first that’s close to a clean and normal season. Coming back to the not-a-magician part, I’d say we’re a year away from being able to give a full appraisal on how much they have or haven’t done.

Q: I'm not sure if I missed it mentioned somewhere, but is there a reason Tony Kanaan is taking car No. 1 for Indy? My assumption is that Palou has the right to it but is keeping No. 10 for sponsorship reasons, and the team is giving it to Kanaan as a sort of farewell honor. I do miss the days of the defending champion carrying No. 1. I never understood how having the "regular" number could be more important than that champion's No. 1, but I guess that's why I'm not in marketing.

Henry, Richmond, VA

MP: I asked the CGR team to help with an answer, and this is what they sent back:

“As the reigning overall series champions, the team has the right to run the No. 1 car. But after speaking with Chip and IndyCar, the team gave that honor to Kanaan and The American Legion Honda to help them launch the “Be The One” campaign. Their mission is to end the stigma around asking for help and encourages the public to be the one to save a veteran’s life.”

Q: Seeing Santino Ferrucci fill in for the injured Jack Harvey at Texas earlier this season got me thinking. How many drivers without rides are usually on site at a typical IndyCar race weekend?

Joe, Malvern, PA

MP: All depends on where we’re at and if the Road to Indy is on the schedule. If we’re racing at a venue near where drivers live -- such as Dallas-based Santucci coming out to hang out at Texas -- or one where recent drivers are coaching kids on the RTI, the numbers are decent. Otherwise, it’s usually just the early and late races on the calendar as drivers hunt for opportunities.

Q: In response to the question about solar panels in last week’s Mailbag, IMS has a giant solar farm outside of Turn 3, it can be seen on Google Maps.  If I recall correctly, it powers the Speedway when it’s in use and the surrounding neighborhood when the track is dormant.

Brandon from Noblesville, IN

MP: Thanks for the info, Brandon.

Q: Who controls merch situation IndyCar itself and the teams in general? The offerings on the shop on the IndyCar site are… not that great. The designs and choices are meh at best. I have, however, found some awesome throwback items at The Shop Indy online that are 100 times better than anything on the IndyCar site. Although, I think The Shop is somehow aligned/owned by the Ed Carpenter family, as 99% of the team/driver merch is ECR. Also, I’ve looked at team websites, and the gear there is spotty at best.

I’m sure part of it is supply and demand, but there’s frequent talk about all the people wearing awesome driver and team merch at their races, and the lack of team/driver gear at IndyCar races. But most of the team/driver-specific gear IndyCar offers isn’t great at all. I often look to get a couple shirts or hats, but rarely buy anything outside of some throwback stuff because the current designs aren’t any good.

Ross Bynum

MP: I walked through the giant IMS/IndyCar merch shop in the garages next to the Pagoda on Friday, and other than the replica driver jerseys, Sweet Lord, the driver and team t-shirts were ridiculously uninspired and basic. Granted, every fan isn’t looking for a thousand colors or abstract art, but if you walked out to where the driver and team merch trailers were located, you’d find more inspired clothing.

Q: Last week’s Mailbag had a number of writers wondering what all the hoopla is with F1 after the Miami GP was run, and the huge fan support and attendance the race receives. You and your readers are wondering why IndyCar cannot get that kind of fan devotion, except maybe during one race a year.

The answer is quite simple, really. In F1, the cars are the stars. Drivers come and go, they have good years and bad years. But the papaya-colored McLaren, and red Ferrari, and the blue livery of Red Bull, is consistent branding. Yes, you could probably get a Hamilton hat, or a Leclerc hat, or Sergio Perez shirt  in Miami. But all have the colors of the team on them You lament the hats were $80-$120, and that is quite ridiculous. But that hat will be relevant all year, and next year, and next year. Sponsors may change, logos will be different, but a Mercedes is silver, Ferrari is red, McLaren is papaya, always.

I could go guy a blue/yellow NAPA hat with Rossi’s name and number on it today. Next week, Rossi could be driving a green Capstone-liveried car, so my hat has lost its relevance in just five days. It is all in the branding. People cheer on Ferrari, more so than Carlos Sainz. There are orange smoke bombs in the stands supporting Verstappen, and that will happen even if he should go drive for someone else. But the Red Bull fan will still care for Red Bull. Love is something that is nurtured, and the up and downs that are endured to keep that love. Continuity then, is the key. True, IndyCar only has Honda and Chevy as manufacturers, but a quarter of F1 is Ferrari engines, and almost half are Mercedes.

The other point I want to make is one I have been making ever since IndyCar gave away its broadcast rights to NBC. There are rich people in many parts of the world that used to watch IndyCar practice, qualifying and races on YouTube whenever they wanted. They would sometimes say, “Gosh, it would be fun to go to Long Beach, or Toronto, or Nashville, to see the IndyCar race, and the party that goes with it.” Instead, now they can’t see IndyCar on YouTube, they have replaced IndyCar with whatever series they are following now. These fans now have plans to go to F1 in Miami, Montreal, Austin, and soon, Vegas. Dump that NBC deal, become global again.

Paul Sturmey, Ontario, Canada

MP: OK.

McLaren is papaya, always. Except for all those years when it was silver. Or those other years when it was red and white. Rainer Schlegelmilch/Motorsport Images

Q: You said in the last Mailbag that Kirkwood to Andretti "is happening." It's a no surprise, everyone thinks it'll happen and it means Rossi is out. But what's next for him? AMSP? CGR? ECR?

Szymon Kunda

MP: It’s happening. In the most recent silly season piece on RACER, I wrote that Rossi’s said to be on the Chevy-powered AMSP announcement docket at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

Q: Right about the time that DragonSpeed announced its entry into the 500 this year, there was an interesting interview with Elton Julian where he noted that the crews for IndyCar teams skew significantly older than other series he's been involved with. I wanted to see your thoughts on this, as that's not something that the average viewer thinks about. Perhaps its residual consequences of the Split and engineers fresh out of college going elsewhere in the 2000s because of that mess? Obviously this is more of a question for Mr. Penske and crew to ponder, but what avenues might exist for trying to draw younger crews into the series? 

Nathan from York, PA

MP: I think that Elton’s comments were 100 percent correct from his last experience here in 2020, but he might slightly revise that view once he gets a good look at the paddock in 2022. There’s been a significant "youth-ification" (not a word) over the last few seasons, and while there are plenty of veterans still in motion, there’s a whole new wave of younger men and women turning wrenches, on the timing stands, and filling other important roles.

Q: I have a question about F1’s carbon fiber front suspension arms. When Hamilton spun Verstappen at Silverstone, I was amazed that Lewis' car wasn't damaged and the rear of Max's car was broken. If that was an IndyCar, the front would've been bent or busted and both cars would likely be out of the race. At the time I thought that carbon fiber should be banned for safety reasons. However after seeing the Miami race, I think it makes sense on street circuits where there's lots of beating and banging and the cornering speeds are slower.

Would it make sense for IndyCar to make use of carbon fiber front suspension for street races, costs aside? The cars could touch and bump, but fewer cars would be knocked out, and perhaps there would be fewer cautions as well. I still think it's a hazard for ovals and high-speed road courses.

Inquiries on discussion boards have some responders positing that the carbon fiber pieces aren't adjustable and the arms themselves have to be replaced to adjust the suspension geometry -- is that true? If so, it would be a big inventory of parts and costly.

John Langston, Edmond, OK

MP: Hi John, you have things backwards here. F1’s carbon suspensions are not stronger than the steel suspension arms and pushrods used in IndyCar. Not by a long shot.

Q: Start planning for next year this year. I'll be 50 for the 2023 500, which I plan to attend for the first time. Is there a first-timers guide anywhere? Could you be my personal concierge? 

Shawn in MD

MP: Get me one of those three-wheeled cycles with the big bench on the back, and I’ll gladly pedal you around IMS for the month, Shawn. Not sure about a first-timer’s guide, but if you are on Facebook, there are a couple of excellent IndyCar fan groups -- you might check out Elite IndyCar -- and pose that question to the members and I’m sure you’ll get all kinds of suggestions.

Q: After reading your Silly Season update on drivers and seeing that the Enersons now own their chassis, along with Paretta saying it plans a partial season in 2003, I’m curious to know what you foresee as the number of full- and partial-season entries for 2023?

I would suspect that after this season Foyt drops back down to two cars with Kyle Kirkwood going back to Andretti, and if Jimmie Johnson doesn't return for a third season I would think Ganassi would potentially just field three cars in 2023.

That would drop the starting field from 26 back to 24, however with AMSP saying it is planning on adding a third car, and Ed Carpenter saying he wants to run a possible third -- although I would suspect that ECR may join with Paretta for that, which would potentially take the starting grid back to 26. What do think the percentages of the Enersons running a partial or full season in 2023?

Also, with Vasser Sullivan having a chassis with Coyne, will it expand in the 2023 season? What are the odds of Cusick, or DragonSpeed, or Dreyer & Reinbold expanding beyond just the Indy 500?

Is Juncos going to add a second car for 2023?

Are there any other new teams you might have heard rumors about? We need some new blood and owners in IndyCar to expand past the existing 10 owners. It would be nice to see 12-13 owners in the series next year.

Rod, Fresno, CA

MP: Hi Rod -- it’s never a bad thing to spread the 17 questions across two or three Mailbags… 😉

• Most teams support themselves by running multiple cars, so you won’t find Foyt or Ganassi just dropping down to fewer entries unless it can’t be avoided.
• If the Enersons find or want to spend many millions, they’ll be on track.
• If Dale wanted to run three cars and had someone paying for the third car to run… he’d be running a third car!
• Slim to none.
• Maybe.
• Yes.
• We do. It’s among the biggest issues to solve. As I wrote last week, the newest team to join the series and eventually go full-time was Meyer Shank Racing in 2017.

Maybe Marshall can drive reader Shawn around the Speedway in this thing, assuming Keke Rosberg and Patrick Tambay are not using it. Motorsport Images

Q: During the F1 Miami GP, Perez had an engine problem that was serious enough to bring into question whether he could finish the race. A DNF was a real possibility. Apparently the problem was fixed remotely from the pit wall.

How much remote adjustment is possible in F1, and do IndyCar teams have the same capabilities?

Warbird Willie

MP: Great question! Teams in both series are not permitted to monkey with the cars while they’re on track, so if there’s an issue that might be resolved, it’s done by the driver through the steering wheel and using the various electronic resets or bypasses designed into the software. By comparison, the "fix-it-yourself" options are far greater in F1 than IndyCar due to the vast differences in rules and technology.

If the drivers can’t correct the fault via the steering wheel, we’ll see them pit and their F1 or IndyCar teams will plug into the car and see if and what they might do at a more advanced level to overcome the issue. We’ll also see steering wheels replaced during those stops if there’s a belief that the electronics within the wheel itself are faulty.

Q: I recently saw an ARCA race at Michigan and the crowd was small – about the size of a good IndyCar crowd at Texas. Has anyone thought of trying to team up with ARCA to race at Michigan and maybe some other tracks?

And in a response to a question about IndyCar and Road Atlanta, you said Road Atlanta needs to reach out to IndyCar. That’s the problem – it’s ass-backwards. If you want to race somewhere, you go knock on the door to sell what you have to offer. I was a USAC tech and chief steward for the Midget, Sprints, and Silver Crown cars for 15 years, and my supervisor got us more races by mailing out flyers to potential tracks. If IndyCar wants to grow its business, fan base and sponsorships, that’s the thinking that has to be done.

AE, Danville, IN

MP: As much as I wish I had superpowers and the ability to read people’s minds, I cannot say whether anyone has ever thought of putting IndyCar and ARCA together. If nobody showed up for IndyCar at Texas and nobody showed up for ARCA at Michigan, I’m not sure that’s an open-wheel/stock car crossover event waiting to succeed.

Totally disagree on the Road Atlanta thought. This isn’t some amateur act trying to find county fairs and dive bars to play a set. The (name your favorite big musical act) doesn’t call around trying to see if they might be welcomed to put on a concert in town; they’re courted and strike lucrative deals befitting of their stature. I’ve heard nothing from inside IndyCar to suggest it’s pining to go to Road Atlanta. If the fine folks there might want an IndyCar race, they need to make it known to IndyCar.

Q: This may have been asked before, and it may seem like an idiotic question but would making the chassis (except for the carbon fiber tub that surrounds the driver) honeycomb aluminum with a fiberglass body covering safe enough and less expensive? I’m thinking it could convince new owners into the series and increase car counts if this would be less costly yet still safe and not hurt speed and performance.

Also, I’m curious if that would basically mess up the whole engineering side of the equation as far as weight and suspension designs. I'm a lifelong IndyCar fan, but I'm no engineer or mechanical genius by any stretch of the imagination.

Al Schonberg, Rockford, IL

MP: Since IndyCar is already facing a significant rise in weight when the hybrid engine package arrives in 2024, adding a bunch of extra weight by trading yards and yards of carbon bodywork for heavier fiberglass would be a non-starter.

Q: Why is it that NBC jumps into, "Drivers start your engines," like they did at Barber? I find it hard to believe that they cannot find three minutes for the invocation and the national anthem. It’s a slap in the face to IndyCar and its fans. It makes the entire racing community look second-class.

AE, Danville, IN

MP: I hear what you’re saying, but I wouldn’t assume your expectations for invocations and anthems are shared by all IndyCar fans and the racing community as a whole. I hear just as many complaints about NBC slowing down the broadcast by including the parts you want -- "Just get to the racing!" -- as I hear criticisms when the invocations and anthems aren’t shown. If what I watched on Saturday was on the broadcast, all of the pre-race ceremonies were aired.

Q: I read about Juncos’s technical partner Carlin quite often. My understanding was that Juncos bought out Carlin’s IndyCar operation. Please can you explain the exact relationship? Does Carlin have equity in the Juncos team, or is it a lease relationship? Could Carlin could re-emerge as a standalone team again?

Oliver Wells 

MP: Juncos and Carlin have been hesitant to fully define their relationship, so that’s not an option. What I do know is JHR bought all of Carlin’s IndyCar assets and has taken on the majority of its crew members. If Carlin were to return to IndyCar, Trevor and Stephanie would need to start from scratch.

There's some Carlin DNA in there somewhere, but pretty much all the bits you can see are Juncos Hollinger. Penske Entertainment

Q: Verstappen won yet another race in what would have been dominating fashion without a safety car to intervene in Miami. The comments from fans are about what a great drive he put in. 

Yet for the last several years, when Hamilton had a similarly dominant win, it was attributed to the car and Hamilton's accomplishments become disparaged. Hamilton finished behind Russell again, once again because Russell got a well-timed safety car. Again, commenters started tearing down Hamilton and praising Russell for using the hard tires to start and somehow strategizing to get a nicely-timed safety car.  

Vettel never reached the heights he found at Red Bull after leaving. For the couple years he had a car that could compete against Hamilton and Mercedes, Hamilton still beat him. Yet Vettel's accomplishments aren't disparaged nearly as much. 

Even last year, when all Verstappen had to do was dig deep and win one of the last four races without a massive gift from the race director, Hamilton showed up and frankly kicked his teeth in on race day at each of the last four races. Yet Hamilton gets disparaged because the race director chose to hand the last race of the season to Verstappen and Red Bull. 

So why are Hamilton's accomplishments viewed with such vitriol? I have my own opinions on it, but I'm wondering what someone closer to the F1 paddock thinks about it. 

Anonymous, Somewhere in the U.S.

CHRIS MEDLAND: I'm glad you pointed out this is a view built on fan sentiment/social media comments rather than coverage, because I'd hope you'd say you won't have seen Hamilton getting disparaged in our content here on RACER. But I believe those opinions predominantly stem from boredom. It was the same in the Schumacher era -- I was actually a culprit as a fan when I was younger -- because you get bored of seeing the same person winning all the time and want variety and unpredictability. Believe me, it won't be long before people are bored and saying similar if Verstappen keeps dominating races and appearing to ease to title victories, regardless of how well he is driving.

Where Verstappen has probably avoided that so far is that he has only ever been in close fights with Hamilton, or now with Leclerc, so we haven't really had a run of dominance from Red Bull.

I actually see Vettel getting his achievements belittled regularly because of how he's performed since 2013 (he got the Hamilton treatment back then too, with so many people saying it's boring and not liking him while he dominated), but he then gains a lot of credit back for his stance on wider issues. Hamilton also gets rightly praised for that from many, but as you say, not as strongly.

I feel that because Lewis has enjoyed a lavish lifestyle in the past -- one he's earned and is entitled to -- and is regularly transcending different areas of popular culture, people don't relate to him enough, which makes them quick to (unfairly) criticize. Either they're massive fans, or really don't support him, there doesn't seem to be a middle ground. Unfortunately I'm sure there will be an element of racism -- both subconscious and conscious -- and I’ve seen it at some races in the past, but I don't believe that's the overriding aspect at all. I think it's mainly the jealousy that is often projected towards those who have been extremely successful.

Q: I lived in Europe for many years, attended many F1 events and am familiar with typical race procedures. At Miami, the two safety cars, or perhaps the SC and the medical car, made the typical reconnaissance lap a few minutes prior to the cars doing the same.

But the two SCs took an additional lap and one peeled off down the runoff area of the long straight, and stayed there until the race began. Immediately after the last-place F1 car passed on lap one, the SC car came out of the runoff area and skedaddled into the pits.

I think the trackside announcers mentioned something about it, but the crowd was so noisy I could not hear what was said. There was no place for the SC to "hide" in the runoff, so what happened?

Tom Freiwald

CM: You're right that it will be the safety car and medical car, and they tend to line up together in the same space near the end of the lap for the formation lap, then the Medical Car arrives at the back of the grid for the race start to follow the field in case of any first-lap incidents such as a start-line crash or Romain Grosjean's accident in Bahrain. The safety car stays near the final corner in case such an incident means it is needed, but once a clean lap has been completed it can return to the pits behind anyone who might enter the pit lane.

I've watched the first lap back a number of times and can't spot where the safety car is hidden (which isn't unusual) but I'll have to take your word that it was exposed in the runoff area. You'll have to correct me if I'm wrong Tom, but I'm assuming it was in the corner so it was as far as possible from any car potentially going wide/having an incident? In that case it is likely it was simply what the FIA deemed the safest place overall in terms of being able to access the track quickly if required, because it couldn't wait in the pit lane with the two Aston Martin cars starting from there.

Q: I'm reading about the "disastrous" Miami GP track surface, but haven't heard a full description of what the issue was. Pressure-washing was blamed, but also the stones used. Could you explain how much of the available grip comes from the tire's conforming to the texture of the stones, vs any adhesion the rubber may have to the bitumen? (aka: tar, asphalt, liquid asphalt, asphalt binder, asphalt cement) Was there something wrong with the stones, and did that contribute to the marble build-up, or did the marbles accumulate because drivers couldn't go off the line, which would normally disperse them?

Stephen Stickel

CM: So, the race organizers in Miami were wary of some issues new track surfaces had gone through (such as Turkey in 2020) where there was a very smooth asphalt that hadn't cured enough and the oils were still being worked out of the track, leading to very low grip. So they opted for a less-smooth surface compared to many new venues and pressure-washed the oils away ahead of the weekend. As it was a brand-new track, that meant there was little grip initially, but the harsher surface allowed tires to get up to temperature quickly and lay down rubber on the racing line. But that meant you quite quickly had a much more grippy surface on the racing line than off it. By contrast, an established circuit will have plenty more running, track days etc, that will naturally add some rubber off-line just through higher use.

Put simply, all of the available grip comes from the chemical interaction of tire (at its correct operating temperature) on track surface, but when that track surface has rubber on top of it, then tire on rubber is far more grippy. And then the level of available grip evolves as more rubber is laid down, so it's a constantly moving target. It wasn't a problem with the stones as such, but the byproduct of how that grip level evolved more quickly with such a surface on the first visit to the track.

The marble build-up came in part from the rougher asphalt wearing the tires down a little quicker, especially with the higher speed corners/changes of direction. While those marbles just naturally end up off the racing line, in a street circuit they are usually contained within the track by the walls, rather than bouncing into the runoff areas, so it created a greater buildup and all combined for even lower grip off-line.

Usually a new track would improve over time in this aspect, but as the Miami International Autodrome won't be used as a racetrack again until next year's grand prix, the organizers are looking into a different surface that won't provide such a dramatic difference in grip level between the racing line and off-line, although that might well mean less grip overall!

At least Miami didn't cover the track in PJ1. Jerry Andre/Motorsport Images

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, May 17, 2017

Q: A caller on Donald Davidson’s "Talk of Gasoline Alley" radio show asked about the Last Row parties. Donald talked a bit about the history and was very complimentary of the job you did when you hosted/emceed the events. Do you have a funny (yet safe to print) story or two from the Last Row parties you can share with us?

Dave E, Speedway, IN

ROBIN MILLER: David Mannweiler, Gerry Lafollette and the late Art Harris all worked at the Indianapolis News and were big racing fans, so they decided to honor the Last Row in 1974 at the Indianapolis Press Club. It became the cheapest, wildest, funniest and most vulgar party in May and I was fortunate enough to emcee it from 1975-2006. In 1978, Harris went to fetch Mario from another party (the soon-to-be world driving champion had to start last because he missed qualifying)… let’s just say Art was well-oiled by 7 p.m. When they arrived around 7:25 (it was a five-block ride), Mario looked like his throttle had stuck at Milwaukee. He was ashen-faced and confessed it was “the scariest ride” he’d ever experienced. Harris was beaming.