The RACER Mailbag, September 14

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: Last week’s Mailbag featured "Steve from Chicago", aka "Mailbag Skynet" complaining about NASCAR and some other guy moaning about Ferris wheels and events. My question to all the Skynets out there is, are all the diehard fans being so negative on the series we all love part of the problem? Just saying it gets old.

David, Chattanooga, TN

MARSHALL PRUETT: Preaching to the choir, David.

Q: When should we expect the 2023 IndyCar schedule to be announced? I am assuming it is going to be very similar to this year's 17-race calendar. Thanks!

Eric in Mequon, WI

MP: Next week or two, I believe. Just a few final bits to button up, I’m told, with Texas and Toronto as the two main ones I’ve heard about.

Q: As great a drive as Newgarden put together at Laguna Seca, it would have been great for that to have been for the championship. Unfortunately, similar to last year, he came up short with a big part of it being a potential race win escaping him due to a car failure out of his control and him finishing at the back. Congrats to Power on his consistency and sealing his legacy with not only a second championship, but also surpassing Mario Andretti on career poles.

My question is, how was Palou not penalized for his unsafe release? He hit a car on his exit. Even the booth said he should be penalized. We’ve seen drivers get penalized for less than that in the past.

Chris, Michigan

MP: I’m thankful there was no action taken. The lightest contact possible was made, neither driver or car were hurt, and the race went on with no danger to the crews and no advantage gained or lost. If that’s the kind of stuff we’re going to penalize, the entire field will be penalized at most races. I blame Formula 1, where one driver sneezing near another is the subject of a penalty review by race control. It’s a terrible approach to the sport.

Q: I’m not sure if reading too much into this, but I am catching a bit of tension between Josef and Will. With Will winning, it’s seemed like Josef doesn’t have anything to say about Will and hardly cared to congratulate his teammate. I know he lost the race and the championship and had a up and down year -- is this a small sign of inter-team issues around who is the No. 1 at Penske? Have we seen a different attitude from Newgarden this season that we have never seen?

Tristan

MP: Dark Josef made a number of appearances this year, didn’t he, Tristan? He’s let the harder edge of his competitive spirit shine through this season, and I love it. As for a rift between himself and Power, I haven’t seen it, but knowing how much fire burns within him, I’d put good money on Josef being angry-mystified at how he won five races and lost the title while Power won one race and took the title home. As I witnessed his attitude in the post-race press conference, it was feelings of bitterness at coming up short more than negative feelings towards his teammate.

He may have been bummed after the race, but Newgarden was a human highlight reel at the Corkscrew on Sunday. And a five-win season is nothing to sniff at, either. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Q: The engine noise when the in-car cameras were on, in combination with the trackside background sound, completely overpowered the race commentary all weekend on NBC’s Laguna Seca coverage last weekend. Unfortunate, as those new to the sport were left in the dark without the benefit of what I assume was informative and insightful narration. Any idea if this sound mix was intentional?

Bill Branagh

MP: Did NBC intentionally drown out its commentators at the season finale? Come on, man.

Q: I know consistency matters, but one win in 17 races and you’re celebrating winning the championship? One win? One. Maybe a points adjustment would help make winning count more?

Jeff Brown, Bernardsville, NJ

MP: I hear you, Jeff; I’d have preferred to see Power have two or three wins, but every driver had an equal opportunity to win the championship and all but Power failed in their mission. More often than not, the IndyCar title winner is the person who was most consistent across the entire season instead of the person who won a ton but also had a ton of poor finishes. Power leveled the competition by taking nine podiums, which is remarkable.

Q: Before the season we wondered if the Big 3 teams would become the Big 4. Would McLaren solidify itself as a perennial threat? Then the top six in the championship were occupied by three Penske and three Ganassi drivers. Big 4? More like Top 2. Andretti has had its credentials revoked, and if it loses Herta (it should; he’s qualified for F1) I’d pick Coyne to have a better year than Andretti in 2023.

Ryan in West Michigan

MP: Such a weird year in that regard, Ryan. We’ve had the Big 3 forever and I’m not keen on expanding it to the Big 4 or Big 5; it needs to be a knockout scenario where someone’s always vying for P3 in the Big 3. But I am good with it being reduced to the Big 2, because that’s where we ended up this season.

Andretti Autosport needs to earn its way back into the Big 3, no doubt, and while AMSP took their spot for most of the season, they faded -- for the second consecutive year -- down the homestretch and watched as Penske and Ganassi created clear separation from the rest of the field. I can’t wait to see who tries to claim P3 in the Big 3 next season.

Q: After watching Will win in Laguna and then flipping over to see Bubba win in Kansas, my question is, where have the celebration donuts and burnouts gone in IndyCar? In the last two races Will and Scott went straight to victory lane, but in NASCAR they spend five minutes doing donuts and burnouts in front of the flag stand. I understand if they don’t want to tear up equipment and if it is related to a TV window, but I do love me some donuts!

Steve

MP: I’ve been wondering about the same thing, Steve. Knowing how it was the last race of the season for that engine, I did expect some tasty donuts from DJ Willy P, but he was decidedly mellow after clinching the championship. They’re all worried about damaging the motors, so I wonder if Chevy and Honda can develop a "Donut Map" where the engines are pulled down from a max of 12,000 rpm to 10,000 or so.

Q: Are testing dates per team or per car? I’m wondering if Ganassi could’ve sent two cars to test at Portland and two to Laguna?

Vincent Martinez, South Pasadena, CA

MP: No, a team, at a track, burns a private test day. Otherwise, Ganassi, Andretti, and all of the big teams would send individual cars to different tracks on the same day to exploit that possibility and get data at three or four tracks at once. Great idea, but it ain’t happening.

Q: IndyCar's in-car cameras present huge drag right on top of the roll hoop (and now that I've taken notice, they really look weird to me, natch). Perfect focal length, by the way. But those look like 20-year-old technology. I assume they carry heavy batteries for the whole race and have a little mechanism to clear the lens, too. Any plans to rework those with the new cars?

Gary Kellogg, Portland, OR

MP: Lots of assumptions here. They add drag, but it’s not huge, and yes, they add weight, but that’s equalized across all cars so camera users aren’t disadvantaged. Those are made and managed by the team at Broadcast Sports International, and as they’ve always done, if there’s something new or improved to try, they’ve never been shy in giving it a go. But spending a ton to re-do all overhead cameras just for the sake of looks would be a tough expenditure to justify.

Q: I understand why IndyCar would prefer not to compete with the NFL for TV ratings but I'm looking at the schedule today and IndyCar is competing with the NFL’s opening week and directly against the Indianapolis Colts in the largest IndyCar TV market.

Any insight why IndyCar would end the season on NFL opening weekend versus last weekend when the company line has been don't compete against the NFL? Did Roger Penske and team fail to look at the calendar, or are things changing?

Lou

MP: The calendar is set by available dates at the tracks and available dates by NBC to send trucks and staff to cover the events, and not the other way around where IndyCar sets the dates and the tracks and its TV partner falls in line. FWIW, the season ended this year on the opening weekend of the NFL and on the third NFL weekend last year.

Q: Felipe Drugovich won the F2 championship over the weekend. I think you mentioned his name in an IndyCar silly season report. Drugovich has become my wife's second-favorite Felipe (Nasr being No. 1). Formula 1 seats are slim pickings at the moment. Any chance he will be at CGR for 2023?

Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA

MP: That was the rumor I’d been hearing but was unable to verify. Heard an offer was made but was ultimately declined due to an F1 offer of some sorts coming through. [ED: He signed a reserve and development deal with Aston Martin earlier this week]. But now, with rumblings of McLaren backing away from Palou and leaving him on an island, a return to Ganassi -- unless he wants to sit out for a year or two on "gardening leave," as the English like to call it -- seems like the only path to continue his career in the short term, assuming the chatter I heard was accurate.

Q: I’ve always loved the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. Are there any other tracks around the world, aside from that Isle of Man or Dakar Rally insanity, where the drivers almost literally drive off a cliff?

Srephyp Llib, Southeast, NY

MP: Bathurst is the first track that comes to mind.

Take the Corkscrew, make it a bit tighter, replace the gravel trap on the outside with a concrete wall, give it an Aussie accent and voila: you have The Dipper, the sequence of corners that marks the start of the descent from the top of the mountain at Bathurst. Mark Horsburgh/Motorsport Images

Q: I heard lots of talk during the race that the Laguna Seca track will be resurfaced in the off-season. What does that entail? I would think they grind down the top layers and redo them, but not sure. When that happens, does Firestone and IndyCar do extensive testing there to get data on the surface?

Matt, Dallas, TX

MP: All-new surface applied, Matt, but I’m not sure on the method; I’d need to ask the vendor, assuming a company has been chosen. Barber and Road America were recently repaved; no extensive testing by the series or tire vendor took place, so I wouldn’t expect it here. IndyCar did name Laguna as one of its three official test sites next year, with teams having one day -- the Thursday of the race weekend – to test and learn the characteristics of the new surface.

Q: While I greatly appreciate your experience, I think your answer on battery-powered wheel guns was a little off-handed. Personally, I believe racing series still use air-powered guns mainly due to tradition. If the desire was there, companies such as Snap-on could easily produce battery-powered guns that are the equal to the currently-used gun.

Today, I can buy a Snap-on impact gun that has 1,000 pound feet of torque. Yes, the current wheel guns are custom-made and cost upwards of $6,000+ dollars, but that would not stop any manufacturer who wished to enter the market if the series would allow battery-powered guns. Who wouldn't want to get rid of multiple nitrogen tanks and hoses and replace them with -- pick a number -- of lithium batteries and chargers?

Chuck Genrich

MP: Thanks, Chuck. Most of what I say is off-handed. As I mentioned in my brief response last week, if teams felt electric wheel guns were ready to use on pit lane, they’d be using them. It’s just another way of overstating the obvious. But I didn’t say they’d never be used. Sometimes I’m not able to tell you everything I’d like to.

If and when the series or teams feel they will have an advantage by going electric, they will. Tradition means nothing in a sport where every open area of improvement is exploited.

Q: Why do teams take off the front wing and put them little further up the nose when taking cars between the garages and the pits?

Scott, Howell MI

MP: That’s done to make it easier to push or tow the cars without fear of scraping the front wing endplates on the ground. There are lots of seams and transitions and angled roads to navigate, often with the back of the car hiked up on a quick jack, so the nose and leading edge of the front wing end plates can be precariously close to the ground. Moving the nose up to the top mounting holes solves the problem.

Q: What are the benefits of starting a stint on scuffed tires? Do they come up to temperature faster? Grip better out of the gate? I heard about a driver at Portland starting a stint on scuffed tires, but the commentator said they probably wouldn’t last as long as stickered tires.

Sean Raymond

MP: No clue what the commentator was referring to; a scuffed set, also known as a set of heat-cycled tires, helps to cure the tires and get some extra life out of them.

Q: It seems that a potential F1 move by Colton Herta comes not only with pressure on him personally, but on all of IndyCar as far as IndyCar’s relevance as a top global racing series. If he is successful that would be amazing; if not, it would bring all the "I told you so" camp to the forefront. Also, if Colton is successful, do you see Michael having a clause to get him back if Andretti F1 ever happens?

Dave in JC

MP: True on the Colton/I-told-you-so angle, Dave, but that’s no different for any of the Americans, from Scott Speed to Michael Andretti to Eddie Cheever, etc., from decades prior. Just the latest example. His IndyCar contract runs through 2023, but has an out-clause if an F1 opportunity comes along. Can’t see, though, how he could sign to drive for an F1 team while having a future driving contract with his former team. That seems like something that would make an F1 team balk at signing him.

Q: Would an IndyCar race at North Wilkesboro be entertaining?

Kyle

MP: I’d be there in a heartbeat, Kyle. As fast as these cars are at Iowa on a 0.875-mile oval, I bet they’d be a thrill on something even smaller.

Q: We hardly ever see Sam Schmidt anymore. What is the status of he and Ric Petersen? Has their ownership percentage changed? Will it be Arrow McLaren racing soon?

Mike DeQuardo, Elkhart Lake, WI

MP: Saw Sam a few times last weekend. He’s been pretty busy with business and family matters -- all positive -- away from the IndyCar circuit at times this year. Not sure if I saw Ric in Monterey, and when I asked about ownership percentage changes earlier this year, I was told no. Haven’t asked recently. The name you’ve suggested is one I’ve heard rumored before.

You can still spot Sam in the paddock. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: Herta to AlphaTauri. Malukas to the 10. Rosenqvist to the 26. Palou with AMSP. Lundqvist to Coyne/HMD. On the hot/cold scale, am I ice cold or scalding hot?

Andy Brumbaugh, Columbia, SC

MP: In order, Andy: Sounding less likely for 2023 and if it’s not 2023, I’m told that AT door likely closes for 2024 and beyond. Nope on Davey to the 10. If Colton leaves and McLaren’s silly enough to let Rosenqvist go, it would make a lot of sense. All parties definitely want Linus in a DCR w/ HMD car. They need to figure that out soon because the new Indy Lights champ is getting new looks elsewhere in the paddock.

Q: Just read the articles about Juncos moving to two cars for 2023, and Honda speaking about engine availability for 2023. Based on what you know so far, I have a few questions I’m hoping you can answer: Is Foyt going to field two cars in 2023, or will it try again for three? Do you think Ganassi will have four cars or drop to three, and do you think Coyne will get an engine for a third car?

Also, with ECR fielding the car for Paretta Autosport, do you see any chance of a full season between Ed on ovals and Simona on road and street? It looks like there will be 27 cars on the grid now with Juncos, so what do you think the car count will be for 2023?

Rod, Fresno, CA

MP: Two cars for Foyt. The rest of your questions involve answers that could only be provided with a time machine where I’d have to go into the future to learn what decisions have been made. I’d guess Jimmie’s thinking about returning for the ovals. Linus could be in the 51 car if Sato steps back and could be in a third if he doesn’t. Beth’s found sponsorship to do four races in 2022; tripling that amount to do all the road/street courses would be amazing, but would also be incredibly hard to achieve. Less than 27, for sure.

Q: I have a few concerns with the Herta-to-F1 scenario. 1) I don't trust Helmut Marko any further than I could throw him. 2) I hate to see him get Michael Andretti-ed. Not to take anything away from his skills, but I'd have to hypothesize that much of the interest in him is that he's American. "Drive to Survive," other than being mentioned 152,000 times here in the Mailbag, has grown interest of F1 in the States -- a primo market. What remains to be seen is when DTS goes off the air, how many F1 racing fans are left after the soap opera stops? Nationality matters not to me, but to marketers it seems to.

My point is, they're taking this kid and putting him in an unfamiliar car, unfamiliar series, system and tracks with high expectations in the impatient pressure cooker of Red Bull Racing. All just to get people to care about the flag on his helmet? On that note, will U.S. audiences ever get fully invested until there's an American driver with an American power-unit manufacturer in an American car (not an English-staffed Italian franchise)?

Shawn, MD

MP: I’m not sure there’s enough of us to truly care about being flag-waving supporters of Colton, Chevy/Dodge/Ford, or a true American-built car/team in F1. I know diehards will get behind such things, but not enough for it to be a big nation-wide thing.

Q: I was watching the replay of the 1987 CART race at Laguna Seca and during the race Mario made a three-tire change in one of his pit stops. Maybe I just haven’t paid attention too closely, but does something like that still happen in the IndyCar series? Also, why would it be a better option to only change three tires and not four?

Matthew Houk, Columbus, OH

MP: It doesn’t these days, Matthew. 1987 was the last of the Laguna races on the original layout where it was almost one big left-hand turn. I’m guessing they changed all but the left-rear tire, which would have been the freshest of the four. Lots of reasons why -- could be a sticking wheel hub/nut issue to slow the stop; could be a bad day for that tire changer; could be a shortage of fresh tires to use; could be a desire to get more rotation out of the car, which you’d get by having an older tire on the left rear, etc.

Q: In the previous Mailbag you said something to the effect of, "why can’t Penske Entertainment commission an engine and make a deal to badge it with a manufacturer.” And this is what I've been talking about all along -- why couldn’t they get Cosworth or some other engine maker to come out with an engine and ask a manufacturer to badge it? IndyCar would probably have better chances with attracting manufacturers to badge it; it’s probably easier than the manufacturer getting involved and developing an engine from scratch. What is preventing IndyCar/Penske Entertainment from pursuing this option?

Shyam Cherupalla

MP: I’d say the hold-up is the desire to spend tens of millions on an engine program without having a manufacturer committed to pay for some or all of it up front. One thing R.P. does not do is spend a lot of money and then search for someone to help justify the expenditure.

My note in that Mailbag was one of changing the approach from waiting for someone to call and commit to forking out $50 million to join as a manufacturer to going out and actively seeking to partner with a manufacturer and shouldering some of the costs under the name of marketing and promotions. R.P. co-founded and co-owns Ilmor Engineering, makers of Chevy’s IndyCar engines. If he’s going to spend some of his own money on a new engine, I’d guess it would be with his own company.

Q: So, a couple of Mailbags back you dropped a hint on news about the proverbial third engine supplier for IndyCar. If I recall, in one of your responses to a question, you said that there may be some news forthcoming, but you wouldn't announce or report on it in the Mailbag forum and that it would definitely be a standalone story. I don't want to be thrown into "Lucy and the football" comparisons, but I'll ask anyway: If there is nothing to report (yet), can you tell us if there are at least interesting rumors afloat? There’s still time to develop that hybrid engine. So there, I bit again, and asked the question.

Jim, Indy

MP: Wrote a story last week on Toyota taking its name off the table in the coming years, so that’s the big news. We’ll open the new 2.4L formula in 2024 with Chevy and Honda, only. I’ve heard there’s another brand that’s sniffing around, but I don’t have a name to share here quite yet, Jim.

Q: Should Kyle Busch go to RCR, does that mean Tyler Reddick is released early/gets a third car/Kurt’s out? If Tyler goes to 23XI early, does Denny Hamlin give him a car? Lastly, is there a dark family secret around why Austin seems to be the favored grandson over Ty? 

Bernardo, Canyon Lake, TX 

KELLY CRANDALL: Those same questions were on the lips of a lot of people in the paddock over the weekend, but they’ve now been answered by Tuesday’s confirmation that Busch is going to RCR, which will expand to three cars and retain Reddick. The only lingering question is what Reddick’s team will look like, since it won’t be the No. 8 with Randall Burnett.

As for the grandsons, Austin is older than Ty and, as such, has been the first to come through the ranks. Austin made it into each series before Ty and has had more success winning both a Camping World Truck and Xfinity Series championship. Perhaps you could say that Austin has had the better opportunity being the first one to get there, so to speak. Ty has also spent time away from the family and tried to do his own thing, both on and off the racetrack. He’s wanted to carve out his own identity, whereas Austin has always been tied to the family business, speaks about the family business, and hasn’t hidden that it’s his future. So, in that sense, it’s easy to think there is a favorite.

He knows where he stands in the Dillon grandchild pecking order. Motorsport Images

Q: I try not to get caught up in the whole "is IndyCar better than F1" silliness. They're different series and I enjoy them both. But I think it's embarrassing for F1 to regularly have amateur hour every time a safety car comes out and safety workers look like a cartoon trying to get the track cleared, particularly when time is of the essence. F1 loves to boast about how it’s the pinnacle of motorsport, but with no dedicated safety team that travels week in and week out, I can't help but face palm when a car is stranded on the side of the circuit with no debris and five-ish laps to go and they can't get the race green.

With the ridiculous money F1 has, this shouldn't be an issue. IndyCar has had a dedicated team for decades, and while cautions can take time, I always know that if a race finishes under yellow, there probably wasn't much more that could have been done. I don't feel that same about F1.

Michael, Halifax, Nova Scotia

CHRIS MEDLAND: I agree to an extent Michael -- F1's processes take too long. At most venues, the safety team is perfectly good enough (but not all, I admit), but the current desire to ensure the safety car has picked up the right car and then bunched the pack up before you allow a crane on track etc can be very slow. It's coming from the right place after Jules Bianchi's accident and a number of near misses before that, but it should be quicker.

It takes too long to deploy the safety car in the first place sometimes, and ironically in Monza it was actually the permanent dedicated safety car team that made an error, picking up George Russell rather than the race leader Max Verstappen and waiting too long to release the queue of cars so Verstappen was at the head. By the time it did that, you had cars scattered all over the place and needed the final lap to group them all up again.

Q: Why does F1 seem to have such a thing for always removing dead cars (intact but with no drive) with a crane? Assuming the car is intact and can be put in neutral, a flat tow with almost any vehicle is far quicker

Doug Farrow, Plymouth, MN

CM: You've answered part of the question yourself, Doug -- it's when it can't be put in neutral. That's what happened with Ricciardo's car, otherwise it would just get wheeled back into a gap in the barrier by the marshals. But it was stuck in gear (which happens relatively often, given the complexity of the transmissions and PUs), so needed lifting. As we saw with Vettel's car earlier in the same race, that could go into neutral and so was pushed away easily and quickly under VSC, which is quicker than hooking it up to a tow truck.

Q:  When did McLaren decide to move on from Daniel Ricciardo? If they signed Oscar Piastri in July, my estimate is that it was after the first series of races. Did they realize that the McLaren is not meeting expectations, so a comparison was made between Lando Norris and Danny?

Or, did they decide to move on after the last few races in 2021? It seems to me there was some form of buyer's remorse.

Steve

CM: It was as early as Monaco that McLaren was really starting to worry and look around at other options, with the first hints being given to Daniel that partners and team members weren’t happy. But the actual decision was made at the British Grand Prix on July 3, where Daniel was 13th of 14 drivers and appeared to be getting further from Lando than closer.

That was the last race before McLaren had to officially sign Piastri and it felt things were not turning around with Daniel. The call wasn’t made before this year, though, as the team had been hoping the 2022 regulations would provide a reset for him.

The 2022 British GP. It's fair to assume that McLaren doesn't expect to see its drivers getting owned by Lance Stroll. James Sutton/Motorsport Images

Q: In the September 7 Mailbag, you said the current rules for obtaining a Super License for F1 drivers, was to prevent guys with lots of money and low on results from securing an F1 ride. Although I don't disagree entirely with that, what you say is actually a byproduct of why we have the current Super License requirements today.

The current requirements, which were put into effect in 2016, were created to prevent an F1 team from fast-tracking a young and inexperienced driver to F1. This became known by some as the "Max Verstappen Rule." Remember that Red Bull and Toro Rosso signed Max to an F1 contract, in 2014, when he was 16. Max also had less than a season of F3 when this happened. The current requirements say a driver must be at least 18 years old, hold a valid driver's license, and race in a single-seater series for at least two seasons while competing in 80% of those events.

The points system for all of the various junior categories and other series (i.e. IndyCar) was put in place to create a higher expectation of driving ability for anyone wishing to race in F1. The fact that F1 has Nicholas Latifi and, last season, Nikita Mazepin shows that the rich guys will always break into the sport, regardless of their perceived talent level. Despite all the criticism those two have received, and rightfully so in many cases, they still got a Super License because they met the criteria and got the 40 points required to compete in F1!

I agree that IndyCar is undervalued severely when it comes to getting a Super Licence. However, you said that you didn't want to see the Super License process undermined by having the FIA give Colton Herta an exemption or properly adjust Super License points, where IndyCar be weighted the same as F2, and award those points retroactively (in that event, Colton would have received the necessary 40 points from finishing third in the 2020 IndyCar championship).

My take on this is that the Super License system has had the opposite effect of what was originally intended. If the system is keeping good drivers out, doesn't that mean the system is inherently flawed or broke? If that is the case, does it really matter if the Super License system is undermined or not? A lot of things went down in order to put Colton Herta in this position, involving a lot of different teams and players. Red Bull, Alpha Tauri, McLaren, Alpine, Michael Andretti, Zak Brown, and Helmut Marko. It will be a real pity if the FIA bureaucrats deny Herta his F1 chance in '23, especially with a guy like Nicholas Latifi on the grid.

Paul, Mansfield, Ohio

CM: You’re right in a sense about Max, Paul, but that was not only based on age and experience, but also on how it could have set a precedent for other drivers to skip straight from low categories and inevitably get burned. More importantly for the FIA though (who wanted a ladder they control) it would have destabilized that ladder as it could have led to many drivers skipping F2 and they want them to go through it.

I agree with you about Latifi and Mazepin. They’re proof that money will still get you to F1 because it pays for the best seats and testing, but these drivers have to use that to their advantage. Lando Norris did loads of single-seater testing as a kid thanks to the finances available and it led him to honing his skills impressively -- you only get better with practice and the richest get to practice the most.

But if they were truly useless they’d never get the required points. They still have to be good enough, and it has raised the minimum level so we don’t have embarrassments at the back of the grid, they’re just the slowest of a strong bunch (as someone has to be).

It’s not just related to the Super License that there could be an issue though if you choose the exemption route -- it then opens the potential to selectively apply any rule at any time. The Super License points system needs changing, and I really wish they’d changed it quickly enough to open a door for Colton, but it might have to be next year now.

Q: I figured I'd throw in my two cents on the Super License issue since so many people have some... questionable takes on the system. For starters, last week there was a letter that noted a bunch of F1 drivers who would not have qualified for a Super License had the current system been in place, but in reality about half of his list actually would have qualified quite easily.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'd like to point out that when you think about it, the IndyCar points allocation would actually be the best way to do things for series at that level. F2's points allocation is, frankly, rather crazy and is causing a bloated driver market that's costing good drivers potential race seats. Keep in mind that even Nikita Mazepin legitimately earned the necessary 40 points thanks to the overly generous F2 points allotment. (And that statement is the extent of the positive things one can say about Mazepin).

Brief aside, if one thinks the FIA screwed IndyCar with its points allocation, then one should take a look at Super Formula -- a class that uses the same chassis as Formula 2, with changes that make it debatably faster than F2, and it gets less points than Formula 3. In fact, it gets less than Formula E -- the points allocation for Super Formula is the same as the Formula Regional European Championship.

At least IndyCar's champion automatically qualifies. The treatment Super Formula gets from the FIA is legitimately what people think IndyCar gets. IndyCar, Super Formula, and Formula 2 should all use IndyCar's points allocation. There should, of course, be an exemption clause for special cases, and that exemption should specify that any driver that exceeds 30 points within the timeframe can earn an exemption via testing mileage -- the closer to 40, the less mileage required to earn exemption.

Oh, and get rid of the idiotic "champion cannot race the subsequent season" rule in F3 and F2. The best way to keep talented drivers ready to go is to let them stay in the series, even as defending champion, if a higher seat is not quite ready for them. This would also be good for other prospective up and comers to be able to prove themselves against the reigning champion.

End rant.

PS: Fun fact -- winning the NASCAR Cup championship awards 15 points. Three Cup titles in a row qualifies a driver for a Super License!

FormulaFox

Naoki Yamamoto, Sacha Fenestraz and Tomoki Nojiri celebrate on the Super Formula podium at Motegi last weekend. You can tell by the smiles that nobody's looped them in on the Super License scenario yet. Yasushi Ishihara/Motorsport Images

CM: That’s a fair point on Super Formula, but we tend to focus on IndyCar given the audience here! That said, I think you bringing Super Formula up helps me make the point that I don’t think F2, IndyCar and Super Formula should get the same points.

F2 is the right number of points as it’s mapped out as the clear feeder series to F1 and prepares drivers for it. But IndyCar and Super Formula are not feeder series, they are not junior categories, they are the top level in their respective countries and should be rewarded as such. You’re not racing against juniors trying to hone their craft on the way up, you’re racing against much more established and experienced drivers that build and spend a career in that category.

That’s why I also disagree with changing the F2/F3 champions rule. It’s not for drivers to sit in forever, it’s a junior category to move through. I hate it when the champion doesn’t get a seat in F1 or elsewhere but that’s more on the teams hiring them and the timing of the calendar (it should end earlier to make them part of the driver market -- having a finale in Abu Dhabi for F2 means they’re often far too late to earn a seat).

I think the main issue I have is that some drivers have their paths blocked even if a team wants to sign them based on talent and potential. There’s no perfect route for anyone to follow, but if they impress an F1 team and that team wants them in a race seat then there should be an avenue open, so your exemption plan isn’t a bad one by any stretch. Drivers using that to buy a seat is going to be less of a concern with F1 in its current state, as teams don’t need to rely on pay drivers to survive anymore.

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, 10 September, 2013

Bob Thibault

ROBIN MILLER: That would be true but, of course, I didn’t let him drive (he spun out on dry pavement at 30mph in 1968) and he screamed like a little girl as we went into Turn 3. A lot of people used to drive their passenger cars around IMS back in the day because there was no security, especially at night.