The RACER Mailbag, June 22

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.

* Note: We had to move the cutoff time for questions up this week, but any submissions that missed the cut are in the pool for next week's Mailbag – Ed.

Q: Any chance of bringing back the LED position indicator panels? I found this very helpful when at a race and not having access to the television coverage. And speaking of LEDs, do you remember one of the old CART teams (Newman/Haas, I think) had LED advertising within the car's rims? I try to tell people about this and they look at me like I'm crazy.

Buffalo Bills (and IndyCar) fan

MARSHALL PRUETT: I’ve asked IndyCar president Jay Frye about this, and he said it’s something they will consider with the new car. IndyCar genuinely liked the panels, but the move to a smaller and more feature-rich second-generation model proved to be a constant problem. I would love to see the series put out a bid for something new and different -- how about a full OLED panel that shows car position, serves ads, and shows team-selected tweets -- during the race?

Q: I realize that Devlin DeFrancesco is a rookie in IndyCar and that rookies make mistakes. That being said, he’s made a few enemies including Will Power, who wants IndyCar to park him for a while. We’re used to Power sounding off, but do you think he’s right in his assessment? How does the rest of the paddock feel about DeFrancesco? While I take forum posts with a grain of salt there seem to be plenty of people who think that both he and Dalton Kellett shouldn’t be in the series. I don’t think that’s too fair with Kellett, but he does have a lot of one-car off-track incidents.

David Colquitt

MP: Will Power had every right to be angry. Devlin’s nerf-from-behind was inartful, at best. Power had a terrible time in qualifying and was buried in the back of the pack, and this exact scenario -- getting knocked about by drivers the (now former) championship leader rarely encounters -- was the big concern. I’d say that if this was DeFrancesco’s first big mistake of the year Power would be just as angry, but it wouldn’t venture beyond that anger -- no threats of retaliation, etc. The fact that Devlin’s Texas mistake was sitting there over the plate for Power to swing on and knock out of the park is where his condemnation was made easy.

As for the folks who say Devlin and Dalton don’t belong, it’s nothing new. The same thing’s been said for decades across all forms of racing. It’s the laziest take to make. Every sport has its highest achievers and its lowest achievers; the common thread is they’re all in the top one-percent in the world in their profession. There’s always going to be someone -- or a small cluster -- of those who frequently run last, and they catch hell from fans. Meh.

Two other things get forgotten. The first is how the money brought by the DeFrancescos, Kelletts, Latifis, Strolls and so on, are what place or keep teams on track and employ tens to hundreds of people. The second is that if a team had the budget to hire a better driver it would, but in most of these cases, it’s a situation where the team needs the money and whomever is in the car is the best option it could find. But those are nuanced things, and nuance is rarely involved in the "they don’t belong here" comments.

Better the Devlin you know than the Devlin you don't. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: Will Power, talking about Devlin being parked, needs to take a hard look at himself. He crashed out his teammate at Nashville, and there are lots of other times he’s taken out other racers with boneheaded moves. Iowa 2011 in pit lane comes to mind.

Mark, Pasadena, CA

MP: Thanks, but none of those past instances matter or have any bearing on what’s taking place in 2022. Never understood the "You hit people before, so you shouldn’t complain about being hit" line of thinking. I rear-ended someone at a stop light many moons ago in my old 250,000-mile Volvo From Hell, so if I understand this correctly, if I get hit from behind by someone today, I’m supposed to just sit there with no anger and nothing to say because I once rear-ended a car? Who on earth would hold themselves to that unrealistic standard? And if none of us would behave that way, why would we expect racing drivers to be any different?

In the context of a rookie taking out a veteran at Road America and veterans -- plural -- at Texas, it’s not exactly a surprise to hear Power drop the hammer on Devlin. The hope would be for DeFrancesco to take the heat and put more thought into his racecraft and get through the rest of the year without earning a third strike.

Q: While looking online at older Indy cars during a lull in business, I came across the BLAT Eagle again, Dan Gurney’s 1980-81 Eagle. I knew about this Eagle but I could never figure out how it stayed on the ground, because it either had no wing or just a tiny rear wing, and no skirted side pods. It was quite different for its time. Nothing like the F1 Lotus 78 or the "Yellow Submarine" Penske.

So I started digging into the BLAT theory -- Boundary Layer Adhesion Technology – and found it quite mysterious, until a blogger I read mentioned that the Eagle was similar to current F1 cars in that air entered through two small areas behind the front tires and close to the bodywork, and then ran through two tunnels under the chassis, around the drivers compartment and the engine compartment, to exit under a very large diffuser. These channels grew larger as they ran from the middle of the chassis to the rear of the car.

Was Dan Gurney ahead of his time? Is this what current F1 cars are using?

Sean Raymond

MP: If we’re giving credit, it goes to Lotus and 1978’s 79 chassis (also, the yellow submarine was a Chaparral Racing product, not Penske) for using the sides and rear of an open-wheel car to generate crazy downforce with large and long wing profiles built into the sidepods. All American Racers’ 1981 Eagle Indy car chassis took the Lotus 79’s ground effects concept in an entirely different direction, but it was the same general principle of utilizing the sides and rear of the car to make big downforce.

Where BLAT was an advancement was in the removal of most of the sidepods — creating a smaller and narrower shape to cut through the air — as Dan and John Ward, the car’s designer, sought to exploit the lower cost/lower weight option in the rules for stock-block non-turbo V8 engines.

The best thing to know about the Eagle and its BLAT innovation is the whole thing came from a vast lack of budget. AAR had no real sponsors at the time, couldn’t afford the standard-setting Cosworth DFX turbo V8s, and had to go to the alternate formula where overcoming the lack of horsepower through a radical approach to the chassis was a necessity. That’s why we have this arrow-like car that stood out visually and in its performances. Today’s F1 cars are direct descendants of the Lotus 79, not the Eagle.

Q: Back in May, Autoblog's Kirby Arnold published an article about the feasibility of an electric Indy 500. J.R. Hildebrand said that such technology is not ready now, and instead proposed an experimental event. Then I thought: what would happen if a Formula E or an equivalent electric car had a try at the Indianapolis oval?

Here's my math: an electric car can do 50mph with four miles per kWh. If air resistance is quadratic, then doubling the speed increases energy consumption by four, so we get 200 mph at 0.25 miles per kWh. The Gen3 Formula E has around 50 kWh battery, which means that a full charge would be good for just 12.5 miles or five laps.

So here's my idea: use two cars, like with the Gen1 car, and double the battery capacity to 100 kWh, so cars alternate every 10 laps. Recharging 100 kWh in six minutes should be no problem.

Are you in?

Ignacio, Uruguay

MP: Twenty-plus years of the Mailbag and I’m confident in saying this is the first appearance of the word quadratic! If we’re in a place where internal combustion engines are going the way of the dinosaur and electric propulsion is the new world standard, I’d love to see the Indy 500 feature an all-electric field because that would be the global state-of-the-art.

Until we get near to that point, farting around with underwhelming Formula E cars on the Speedway holds no interest for me. I’ve seen LMP1 Hybrid prototypes race at Le Mans with upwards of 700 electric horsepower being added to 500hp from ICE units, and they were mind-bendingly fast. That’s my standard. I love racing for maximum competition and the advancement of technology. When it’s half measures of either, I lose interest almost immediately.

Q: Kyle Kirkwood recently sampled some Road America track food and gave what I thought were harsh reviews of the Egger and also the bratwurst. Thoughts?

A fan

MP: I’ll take this as confirmation that Kirkwood has no taste and no taste buds. He might be good at driving race cars, but clearly, he’s a terrible human being.

Q: Well it's been a few weeks since Indy and I haven't seen any letters about this, but I was sitting in the Southeast Vista and at the start I looked back towards Turn 1 and saw somebody had let some balloons go from outside of the track. There were about eight to 10 of them, and they flew over the south chute and over the infield.  I salute you, whoever you are, and yes some of us did see it. Who knows, maybe more of us can join in the "tradition" next year.

Keith A., Indianapolis

MP: “Rogue Balloon Release Makes Indy 500 Fan Really Happy” is the headline I didn’t expect to write, Keith.

Q: Having seen several complaints from a few fans about the 500, I’d like to share a positive. Having arrived at my seat before 8:00am in Section 01, Row FF, of the paddock, I noticed a leaking pipe from the old press boxes and falling onto seats in the Paddock box area. I saw a young yellow shirt lady and mentioned it, saying that when the ticket holders for those seats arrive they will not be happy. She then told someone in charge, and within five minutes an older man arrived with a walkie-talkie. There was evidently a water build-up in the overhead press box and he had some in that area empty the water onto the lower paddock seats, which stopped the leak. Five minutes later, three maintenance people arrived and mopped the entire area clear of water.

At a time when everyone was extremely busy, the Speedway staff acted quickly to solve the problem in an extremely fast manner. It was quite impressive by all the people involved, and Doug Boles and Mr. Penske should be proud of their people.

Indy Jerry

MP: Great to hear, Jerry. RP takes great pride in the customer service side of all he does, so it’s not a surprise.

Q: How come IndyCar teams disappear when their owners retire whereas F1 teams stick around? For instance, Newman/Haas and Patrick Racing didn't outlast their original owners whereas McLaren and Williams in F1 have done. And do you think the Penske, Ganassi and Foyt teams will keep going when Roger, Chip and A.J. eventually retire?

JC, England

MP: You’re citing two examples from a decade ago or longer as examples that aren’t necessarily relevant today. The bigger difference is Formula 1 teams have a massive revenue-sharing agreement with F1, making those businesses insanely valuable to sell. Not the case in IndyCar. Also, citing McLaren and Williams is great, but how many Caterham F1s have there been over the last decade that have disappeared? Eddie Jordan’s team debuted in 1991 and is on its fifth different owner with the Stroll family, so there’s lot of former F1 team owners in this one instance who’ve retired and disappeared as well.

Yes, I expect Penske, Ganassi and Foyt to continue; they all have deep infrastructures that will allow the businesses to continue.

McLaren bridged the gap between "race team named after some guy" and "standalone brand" decades ago. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images

Q: The products made by Huski Chocolate are only available in Sweden and Norway. It seems odd to me that a company would spend the money for a major sponsorship of a team in a country where the products are not sold. In your opinion, what have been the most head-scratching sponsorships?

David, Waxhaw, NC

MP: Marcus joined me on my podcast last week and shared that Huski was set to launch in the U.S. right as COVID hit, so those plans went awry. He also said the company, which is owned by his longtime backer, is readying a new launch here. All that being said, having a highly visible European driver with a strong European following representing a European product in America can certainly be used for promotions wherever Huski is sold.

Q: I have a comment and a question: My comment is concerning your statement in last week's Mailbag about WRC drivers being the bravest/craziest in motorsports. Well, I'll see your WRC drivers and raise you with the riders/maniacs that ride in the Isle of Man TT. Considering how little they make even if they do win (or should I say, survive), their "attachments" must be made out of titanium.

My question is concerning the new IndyCar. Have you heard of any discussions/plans for a new tire for the new car? Maybe the F1 20-inch (?) tire or maybe the F2 18-inch tire? They have been running the 15-inch tire for decades now, maybe it's time for a change.

Walter from Flemington

MP: No argument there, Walter. But if we’re upping the ante, a once-a-year event like the Isle of Man versus a full calendar with thousands of opportunities to get things wrong on snow, dirt, mud, ice and tarmac is why my vote goes to WRC drivers.

I’ve heard of people starting rumors of IndyCar following F1’s move to bigger wheels and shorter sidewalls, but I’ve also heard nothing credible to suggest this is on the series’ top 100 list of things to do. As recently mentioned here, most teams have invested a fortune into sets of those wheels you mention. Asking them to burn more cash just for the sake of it is where problems would start. F1’s change came with the introduction of a new car and formula. If it were to happen here, that would be the only timeline that makes sense.

Q: I have seen lots of complaints about long lines at the Indy concession stands. I haven’t been to IMS since the last F1 race, but I want to offer some info that might be of use to hungry/thirsty race fans. When I ordered tickets for the Indy F1 races there was an option to order a food/drink package. It included two pieces of fried chicken, a choice of lunch meat sandwich, chips, cookies, an apple and two drinks (one of which could be beer). As I recall, it was $20. You were given a ticket to display at the dedicated booth when you were ready to pick up your lunch box. It was very convenient, very reasonably priced and no long lines. I don’t know if this option is available for the 500, but if it is, there’s your answer.

Gary Valente

MP: Thanks, Gary. In a world where everything is customized to the consumer’s desires, I don’t know if a preset food solution is the answer, but who knows, maybe taking a page from the 2000s could work for some folks. I think the main solution, though, is to over-staff on race day and make sure the problem doesn’t happen again. Thankfully, this is one of the easiest problems for Penske Entertainment to solve.

Q: I think I have a solution to get more people to watch IndyCar, at least in a dream world. Put Kimi Raikkonen in an A.J. Foyt car and do a behind-the-scenes reality series. Those two would either get along great, or into arguments every two hours. Onto my question: I know The Captain has tested sports cars at Indy. Is there any indication or rumor about bringing WEC or IMSA to Indy? I think a 12 Hours of Indy in late July/ early August would be brilliant.

Homer in Fort Worth

MP: My favorite part is that you think it would take two hours for arguments to happen between these two! I’m confident in saying A.J. was the original DGAF racing star and there’s no question Kimi is this century’s king of DGAF drivers. I absolutely love the idea. Super Tex and Super Finn, berating each other without mercy, all for our entertainment. That show would destroy "Drive To Survive" for however long it lasted.

Yes, we’ve been talking about a late-season six-eight hour Indy road course IMSA race since Penske bought the track. I’ll be surprised if it isn’t on the calendar for 2023 at the earliest,  2024 at the latest.

Q: With GTE cars being phased out over the next two years, what will that mean for Le Mans and other races that depend on those cars, since GT3 cars have taken over by storm in other series and races that are enduro and sprint based?

Matthew Marks

MP: Should be one of the least complicated formula changes on record, Matthew. The world is filled with hundreds of GT3 cars that have run to the same regulations in almost every instance, so just as we’ve seen IMSA take the lead in trading GTE for GT3 within its former GTLM class, we can expect a range of new GT3 cars being built for use in the WEC and others being moved over from wherever they’re racing now. It’s the most popular and successful GT formula ever created, which makes it a perfect choice to soon become the single formula adopted by IMSA and the WEC.

Q: I have done some research over the last two weeks. We are cord-cutters, so I watch all of my IndyCar through Peacock on replay. Is it the best? No. Is it anywhere near the worst? No, sir! The number one thing I looked for was the number of commercials. Detroit had 17. They ranged from basically 30 seconds to 90 seconds. Road America had 11. Commercials cannot be fast-forwarded through. I watched some of the practice and qualifying. It seemed as though they cut out the commercial time on the replay, which was nice.

Detroit seemed over the top at 17. I know most hardcore fans want to complain about this. All streaming has its drawbacks. I watch a lot of events on FLO sports throughout the week. Most of the broadcasting is the track announcer. The bigger series (ASCS or USAC) have traveling announcers that cater a little more to the TV audience. Only the big series have a position tracker or lap tracker. If it’s a dirt race, they play commercials during track work. The big events have commercials pop up during the racing with no transition.

I do feel like NBC is giving us a good product -- good enough that I pay each month. I really enjoy Hinch in the booth. Dare I say he might be a better broadcaster than racer? Don’t hate on me for that. I was a big fan of Hinch as a driver.

Cloyd Rouse

MP: Thanks for the read-through, Cloyd; we get plenty of folks who offer TV criticisms, but rarely do they come with cool research like yours.

Isn’t it possible, however, that James is excellent in both disciplines? Any idiot can win a single race -- I speak from experience, having won one and only one open-wheel race (there were two cars in my class and the other car broke -- not a joke) -- but Hinch won six in IndyCar and stood on the podium 18 times. Six and 18! No hate to be had on Hinch!

I can't summon the willpower to go looking for a photo relevant to a letter about commercials during broadcasts, so how about this instead: Bryan Herta singing Anarchy in the UK in 2003, with Eddie Jordan on drums. Motorsport Images

Q: I’m one of the few people who liked the factory aero kits. I liked being able to tell the cars apart at a glance. What are the positives and negatives if IndyCar were to allow individual teams aero freedom? It’s sure sexier than dampers.

Lew

MP: I’m with you, Lew. I liked them -- not because they were beautiful, but for their insane road/street course performance and the visual creativity.

There would be no positives if aero was opened up for teams to play with simply because it would double or triple their annual budgets. When Chevy and Honda created their custom kits, the annual costs were said to be in the eight-figure range, and while I’d love to go back to a time where each team could do its own aero, it would kill the series due to the pandora’s box of spending that would be created. It would also create a greater divide between the haves and have-nots, which would become a huge conflict with the ideology of using spec cars, tires, etc.

Q: I saw the Mailbag question on sponsors for different teams. I want to say at some point in the early '90s Emmo ran for Patrick and Mears for Penske and both were Marlboro. Not sure if that is correct or not.

jeguedel1

MP: It was Marlboro funding an all-red entry for Emmo with Hogan Racing at the end of his career and Marlboro funding his Patrick Racing entry, as you mentioned, years before he joined Penske. Go back to his days at Lotus with JPS sponsorship and Mr. Fittipaldi spent a lot of time and made a lot of money representing cigarette brands.

Q: I feel Ericsson clearly had the corner and Palou is just butthurt that he got put out of the race. Given your experience, what is your opinion of their coming together? Thanks.

John

MP: It was nothing more than a verbal pillow fight, John. A big nothing burger. Given some time to cool down and review the footage, Alex agreed.

Q: I see the end of the Indy 500 a little bit differently than many of the Mailbag writers. I don’t think the gap Marcus Ericsson created was due to being significantly faster. I think it was Pato O’Ward being unable to pass someone who was saving fuel/running slower lap times. I forget who it was, but I believe there were two or three cars on a Hail Mary (41 lap) fuel strategy. Pato and Felix both stalled behind those cars for a couple laps. That’s when Ericsson built a big enough gap that Pato was unable to close up.

Ryan in West Michigan

MP: Here’s what Pato said after the race. As we know, drivers never hesitate to blame slower rivals for their misfortune; Pato makes no mention of them:

“When we got done with that last pit stop, Felix undercut us, then when I pitted and started catching up to him, then Marcus out of nowhere just came out with insane speed. Got by me like I was standing still. Got up to Felix I think within two laps, passed him like he was standing still, left him. I got to Felix finally. I passed him. I had nothing for him. I said, I need a yellow to try and have a shot.

“Tony was also really quick coming behind me. I know he was catching me faster than what I was catching Marcus. When the restart happened, I said, I have one shot, I have to go flat, and still wasn't enough.

“Sadly, they have the faster car. We need to do a better job. We need to come back next year and give it hell again. I'm proud of the job we did today. It's my best result in the 500. It's a bit of a tough pill to swallow after such a long race, doing everything correctly.”

Q: My motorsports wish is for Colton Herta to go to Formula 1 next year. The way I figure it, he needs to finish third in the championship to earn enough super license points. It's not looking too good for that. How would you rate his chances of moving from 11th to third this season? Is there any word on when he might be testing for McLaren?

Ken, Lockport, NY

MP: If it were all down to Colton’s talent, I’d say being top three isn’t impossible, but his team has rarely looked like it’s capable of winning, so that’s the greater concern. Herta won in the changing conditions on the Indy road course with ease, and Rossi was a strong second at Road America, but the Andretti group has been rather hit-or-miss this season, and Colton has made a surprising number of errors in his fourth full season that really weren’t part of his first three -- Nashville aside.

More than almost any other driver in the series, the second half of the season is crucial for Herta to lock into his 2020-21 form and prove the first half was an aberration. Who would have believed he’d get through eight races and have a single podium so far?

Q: Having attended every IndyCar race at Road America since the mid '80s, I have to express my displeasure with the over use of full-course yellows, so I ask why don’t they use local yellows anymore? With a four-mile track, why do they have to throw the full-course yellow the second an issue occurs? As a fan I’m pissed at the racing I was robbed of seeing. If I’m a driver, let me compete for position instead of going around in a parade.

The ultimate example of this was with about six laps to go when Helio looped it coming out of Turn 14. It sure seems like they could have let the race run under green through at least Turn 8, let the fans in Turns 1-8 see some great racing and let the drivers have a go at it. The awesome AMR safety team got Helio going very quick and they could have probably stayed green, or at minimum a local yellow but no, since they went full-course yellow we had to spend two or three critical laps to get going again from that minimal incident.

I guess the full-course yellows wouldn't be half as bad if it didn't take them so painfully long to get green after each one. I have know idea why it takes three laps (12 miles) to get the set. My local 1/4 mile short track can do it in a few laps -- if they needed 12 miles they would have to go 48 laps to get set.

Craig C.

MP: I hear you, Craig, but that’s no longer the officiating style in IndyCar. On a more practical level, the call to go away from having local corner workers go running out to a car like Helio’s is something I welcome; I’d rather have the dedicated full-time AMR team, with their safety/response vehicles, get to the car and driver and manage the situation. Granted, if the car was on fire, and the SCCA volunteers were close enough, nobody would want them to stand idly by, but the days of the men and women in white uniforms running out to an IndyCar first are mostly gone.

Only other point I’d mention is thanks to the cautions at Road America, we had a lot of strategy options and a lot of restarts, which is where the action tends to happen. Sure, pace laps at a four-mile circuit take longer than almost every other track IndyCar visits, but I can’t say the race suffered for quality as a result of the way the series handles its local incidents.

Q: When watching Indy 500 qualifying, it appeared that everyone was driving what seemed like a unconventional racing line in terms of coming toward the inside of the track off of Turns 2 and 4 and setting up wide for Turns 1 and 3 very late. Why don't they stay near the outer wall for the straightaways given that would be a shorter distance (read straighter line)? Are they avoiding bumps on the straights? Are they avoiding dirty air created by the car bouncing off the wall/fencing which disturbs the air more?

Of course I tried Googling this info and was not successful in finding a good answer.

Loren, Monterey Park, CA

MP: The cars are set up to turn left, so rather than fight the steering wheel on the long straights and scrub speed from the friction it causes, drivers give the cars their head and let them pull to the left as they are set up to do and then turn right -- keeping the friction to a minimum -- and navigate the corners.

Q: When in the name of mercy is Latifi going to be replaced? Obviously he is not qualified to be in Formula 1. Week after week he is last, has unforced errors or is completely uncompetitive. I know it is money, but enough is enough. F1 currently says safety is a high priority. Is this guy safe? Not in my opinion. Comment if you want, but it is not needed. Just venting.

A week ago in Baku Lewis Hamilton could barely get out of his car. I recall the announcer made a comment that no one wanted to assist him until he officially weighed out. In Canada, as well as many other races, the top finishers emerge from the car and immediately jump into the arms of their team crew. What are the facts here? Rules, if any?

Zortman from NW suburbs of Chicago

Q: Chris, I would like to follow up about women marshals at Baku. Can you provide more insight into the F1 tweet and the use of women marshals? Women are one of the groups underreported an/or misrepresented in motorsports. Myself and some friends thought the pictures in the tweet did not meet their intent. Not to get into a lot of specifics, but one example is their uniforms did not appear to meet standards. It looked like a photo op of putting a "pretty face" in front of the camera. While maybe not the planned message, the message received from the tweet was to objectify the woman either by the choice of women or by taking pictures in way that objectifies. Motorsports needs to do a better job with PR about current women in motor sports.

Jamie Carr

I agree a better job needs doing, but actually would disagree it needs to be around marshaling. There are so many female marshals that it is completely the norm now and a great way of promoting inclusion in motorsport. That's probably something that isn't championed enough. But the FIA's PR needs to improve full stop, and I believe changes are being made to try and make that happen.

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, June 25, 2014

Q: Robin, you were quoted several times in the book “Beast” about the development of the Penske/Ilmor/Mercedes pushrod CART engine. Excellent read, by the way. Do you know if those three cars still exist with those engines in them, or did they use the chassis with other engines after they banned the pushrod engine. By the way, why did the Indianapolis Star gas you?

Gary, Anza, CA

ROBIN MILLER: I’ll ask Jade Gurss, the author. I believe one of those cars is in Roger Penske’s museum in Arizona but have no idea what happened to the engines. I imagine Mercedes proudly displays one of them somewhere. The Star claimed it was because I used vulgar language in e-mails (really?), helped Kenny Brack start his website and borrowed money from Tom Sneva, but the real reason is that they wanted to be business partners with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Which they’ve been since a couple days after I was fired.