The RACER Mailbag, April 5

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: The 2023 IndyCar season has begun, and the countdown to the Indy 500 has also started. My last Indy 500 was 1995, and I will be returning this year with my adult son (his idea). It will be his first Indy 500!

We’ll be in Indy from Wednesday to Tuesday. Wondering if you’d be kind enough to assist with our itinerary to maximize our Indy experience? We already have our Bronze badges, and tickets to the museum, Kiss the Bricks Tour, Carb Day, Legends Day, and race day. But what about places to eat, to run into retired drivers/legends, team factory tours, and anything else you might think of?

Rich & Vance in Missoula, MO

MARSHALL PRUETT: Charlie Brown’s in Speedway is a perfect place to catch a few legends having breakfast. The Foyt Wine Bar, on the same Main St stretch, is worth a visit. Across the street is the Dallara factory, so I’d pop by there as well. Get a burger at the legendary Workingman’s Friend, get in line for breakfast -- and bring cash -- at Long’s Donuts. There’s sure to be some racing going on at Indianapolis Raceway Park. There will be a racing memorabilia show somewhere -- details to follow -- but wait until I get there first to get the good stuff, and downtown, there are some staples like St. Elmos’s and Prime 47 that should satisfy any carnivorous needs.

Q: As I age my memory isn't what it used to be. Am I wrong that Texas Motor Speedway was supposed to undergo a rebuild?

Shawn, MD

MP: I had a similar thought last year, asked, and was told no.

Q: Please clarify the rule for lanes on pit road. 

Luke Spencer

MP: Give this a read, Luke.

Q: Is there any rule for entering your pit box from the outer pit lane, or is it just a guideline that you should be in the close lane if you are entering your box, and outside lane if you are done? Rossi, Hinch, Townsend Bell, the RACER comment section and myself all feel that Rossi's crew did nothing wrong in releasing him as there were no cars in the close lane. 

Beyond that, what a banger of a race! Attendance looked up, too. 

Tyler in Milwaukee 

MP: I’m guilty of being led down the same incorrect path on the yeas and nays of pit lane procedures, which was dumb on my part. Breaking the situation down, the three drivers pitted directly behind Kirkwood’s pit box -- Alex Palou was closest, then Scott Dixon, then Rossi -- stopped in line and left in line, which made for a tough situation for Kirkwood who needed to start turning to make it into his box.

He didn’t know those three stopped at the same time and were leaving at the same time, and with no opportunity to start his turn-in process early due to cars being in their boxes, he had to go father down the lane before cranking the steering wheel to the left. On the path he was on, he would have slotted in directly behind Dixon as Dixon charged away, but he couldn’t see Rossi and didn’t know Rossi was charging away as well. But, as I wrote in the story that’s linked above with Luke’s question, IndyCar’s rules give the driver in the fast lane -- Kirkwood in this example -- all of the importance and priority.

In other words, if the outside tire changer or car controller knows a driver is due to turn in momentarily from the fast lane, that person must, by rule, give way to that driver and wait to send their own on their way. The rules stipulate nothing about teams being free to send their drivers if the closest lane -- the transition lane -- is clear, so on that basis, IndyCar penalized Rossi.

Now that we've had the pit box entry rules clarified, the real surprise is that collisions doesn't happen every race weekend. Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment

Q: I'm sure you'll receive a lot of comments on the Rossi incident and resulting penalty, but Kirkwood was 100% at fault.  If I'm Rossi's right-front tire changer and I look up pit road and see a car in the outside lane, I would assume they are leaving, not entering the pits. That was not an unsafe release. Why was Kirkwood in the outside lane so close to his pits?

The fact that Rossi's race was ruined and Kirkwood got away with no penalty is just not right.

That said, it was one hell of an exciting race and finishing the last lap under yellow did not distract from the show. 

Jim Doyle, Hoboken, NJ

MP: Thanks for sharing your thoughts, but as I wrote in the last response, the rules -- even if they could use some improvement -- made it easy for IndyCar to find Rossi at fault. I’d have been happier to see the referee’s whistle go unused.

Q: I have seen NASCAR's "Lucky Dog" rule get a lot of criticism from racing purists over the years, but rarely see anything about IndyCar's wave-around rules which are much more egregious. If the drivers a lap down want to get the wave-around, they should not be able to pit during that caution. In the case this week, the wave-around drivers were in a better fuel situation than the leader. Pato and Josef would have been better off waiting until the last caution lap to pit.

Brandon, St. Peters, MO

MP: Agreed.

Q: I hope this question is taken as just curiosity and not as a knock against Graham Rahal. I was wondering if Graham’s record over the past few years will hurt his chance of being a successful owner? I grew up about 15 miles from Mid-Ohio, so I have always been a Rahal fan, starting with Bobby, and then Graham when he started driving. I got the chance to meet and have my picture taken with Graham a few years ago at spring training at COTA, and my wife can’t seem to understand why that picture is the wallpaper on my laptop and PC. But anyway, my question has more to do with how his declining record affects getting sponsors, drivers etc. Is it time for Graham to retire from driving and start taking on an owner-type role?

John F

MP: Graham’s among the only current IndyCar drivers who stand out as ready to lead a team. Make no mistake, he’s going to continue his father’s legacy by moving from the car to an executive role within RLL, and with his well-known business acumen in mind, Graham will continue to be one of the financial engines that power the team. It’s been five years since he won a race, and yet, his car and all of the sister cars are overflowing with sponsors. He’s not the only one responsible for that, but if winning was the only value he and the team offered to sponsors, they’d be in a hard place, along with most teams in the series that aren’t named Penske or Ganassi.

So, no, I don’t foresee Graham’s years-long pursuit of another win as a limitation that would keep sponsors or quality drivers from wanting to be part of RLL. Every team goes through a lean patch; although I didn’t think last year’s would continue into 2023, they’ll soon find the target. And while I don’t think we’ll see Graham going full-time for more than a couple of years, I wouldn’t want to see him stop without getting another win. It’s there. He’s more than capable. And as the son of a guy with a big legacy, he also knows that hanging up his helmet while frustrated is not something you want to have following you for the rest of your life.

Q: Would it be possible to find out who was shown on NBC talking to DeFrancesco after his shunt and what was being said? Looked intense.

David S

MP: That was Buckshot LeFonque, Devlin’s personal shopper and massage therapist. They were discussing the Air Jordans Buckshot got for him on the SNKRS app during the race.

Q: The racing at Texas was phenomenal, even better than last year. That being said, I found myself watching the onboard cameras on my phone instead of the NBC broadcast. Love those guys, but I feel they missed most of the strategy going on between the No. 2 car and the No. 5 car towards the end of the race. Didn’t paint a great picture of the real-time race. Cindric and the No. 2 crew is so good making decisions on the fly with yellows, and seemed to be one step ahead of the 5 car on the last stint.

Seeing the race between the 2 and 5 on the onboards, especially after they both stopped for the second time for new boots and fuel when the 10, 9, 28 and others in that group didn’t, was incredible. Show anyone who doesn’t have a racing IQ that sequence and lay out how they got there, or better yet, just air Cindric’s radio comms to the 2 car and that would be the best marketing for IndyCar you could ask for. 

Great that we have NBC as a partner, but the amount of commercials -- which everyone complains about -- and also when the leaders are side by side and Diff is talking about a backmarker or a driver’s off-track story just doesn’t work. Our product is so good right now, let it speak for itself. On the commercial front, I don’t understand why they can’t stream an uninterrupted broadcast behind the Peacock paywall. I think I saw the numbers aren't good there at the moment? This might fix some of that.

Heliofor5

MP: Streaming numbers for almost every racing series are terrible, so that won’t solve any problems at the moment. Like the old saying goes about "To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man," a head-to-head strategy battle between Newgarden/Cindric and Scott Dixon/Mike Hull is about the only fair fight you’ll find in IndyCar. Pit Cindric against anyone else, and yeah, I’m putting my money on Newgarden until the O’Wards and others prove they can beat the No. 2 Chevy in a straight battle of strategy.

Q: Do you know if Michael Shank has spoken to the other GTP owners?  Is the Rolex violation something the other owners would get past because "if you ain't cheating you ain't trying"? Or is this something the owners will hold onto because the violation crossed the line? Any impact with the IndyCar team, such as more scrutiny?

I attended Sebring, and have another question. I'm 71 and remember when open-wheel and sports cars hit the curbing, suspension would fail, etc. Drivers tried to avoid the curbs. Today, drivers cut across the curbing with regularity with no apparent damage. Are the suspensions and cars that much stronger, or the curbs lower or less severe? Has IndyCar considered a virtual safety car for road/street courses? 

Rick, Florida  

MP: From those I’ve spoken with, nobody is brushing this off as a "if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying" episode. If anything, they’ve all raised the question of how long the low-pressure cheating was going on, and all said they don’t believe it started in January of 2023 at Daytona, and have, in their own ways, questioned whether the practice was part of MSR’s DPi championship efforts in 2022.

Crack the door open on the topic of cheating, and rarely do people limit their imaginations to the specific time and place the person or team got caught.

Sports car manufacturers use Sebring as the ultimate test of whether their new cars are capable of surviving 12 or 24 hours of punishment, so every car you saw in the 12 Hours have been intentionally abused in super-long tests to ensure their GTs and prototypes can handle the bumps and curbs without breaking.

I’d expect IndyCar to work towards VSCs with their new EM Marshaling System in the next year or two. Hoping IMSA buys the same system and uses it in the same manner.

The win before the asterisk was added. Mike Levitt/IMSA

Q: Is the flag man at the start/finish line for all IndyCar races the same gentleman for every race? Possibly employed by the series?

I was wondering because he is awesome! If anyone has ever noticed, he’s a true maestro with the flags. No race series has a better guy, IMS. A pro’s pro. Thanks!

Bradley J, Sussex, WI

MP: Yes, that would be the ace known as Aaron Likens.

Q: I really enjoyed the Texas race. Kudos to IndyCar for taking a big swing at the downforce levels. The crowd looked better on TV than recent races, although there were clearly plenty of available seats. Is the quality of racing and crowd size enough to make you feel optimistic about the Texas race in the future?

Kyle 

MP: Most definitely. I hear every excuse each year about how the date is wrong, the time is wrong, there’s too much traffic, not enough tickets, and so on. Here’s the deal: If you love IndyCar racing, and a race is happening nearby, you’ll go to an IndyCar race, provided it’s affordable. Well, the tickets were affordable, with exception of the garage passes, which cost a fortune when compared to how little time they got you in the garage, but other than that, the weather was pleasant, the racing was amazing, and if there are any lapsed local fans who were looking for a reason to return, or non fans who were curious about the event, Lord, Sunday’s race was the best reason to attend next year’s race that the track and the series could hope for.

And I hope they take a page from Pato O’Ward’s amazing efforts to pack suites and give tickets away. If there aren’t fan packages for Romain Grosjean, Alexander Rossi, Colton Herta, Scott Dixon, and whomever else -- they have all the "most popular" driver data to inform their decisions -- then some people need to get fired. And that special driver-fan ticket package needs to become a thing at all the other tracks.

Q: The aerokit/tires/and everything were amazing for Texas, and kudos are deserved for those who helped put that together. However, there seems to be a lot of frustration over the penalty given to Rossi for an unsafe release. Hinch on the broadcast put the blame squarely on Kirkwood for coming into his box from the fast lane rather than the transition lane. Would it be possible to get clarification on what the rules are? I know someone pulled up the rulebook and it just talks about the fact that there are two lanes, but doesn’t add any clarity to what is expected or required.

Ryan in West Michigan

MP: We’ve covered off the rules in the aforementioned story link, and in a visit to my Monday Racing Family Twitter Spaces show, Kirkwood said Hinchcliffe found him after the race and apologized for pointing folks in the wrong direction on the broadcast and explained how they intended to clean that up on air but ran out of time.

Q: We were at the 12 Hours of Sebring. After looking at the cars during the grid walk, we went over and looked at the pit boxes. As we walked past the MSR pit box I saw a race engineer reviewing some data. I just happened to have a tire pressure gauge with me, so I placed it on a laptop computer and told him that the team needed it more than I did. He gave me a dirty look, but they must have used it during the race because I never read anywhere that they had any tire pressure issues. There’s a sense of satisfaction knowing I did my part to protect the integrity of the sport.

Anyway, during the race on Saturday, on more than one occasion a team was penalized for spending less than the required time refueling. I saw your pre-Rolex explanation of this and I get it, but I don’t totally get it.  In this day and age of fuel efficiency, fewer carbon emissions, green this, green that, etc., it seems to me that the less time a team spends refueling, the less carbon-based energy they are using. Isn’t that one of the main things that makes racing relevant to the manufacturers? Finding ways to be more efficient?  

It seems to me that as cars use hybrid systems more and more they will consume less and less carbon-based fuel. Imagine if a manufacturer got to the point where they were using half the amount of carbon-based fuel as they otherwise would because they have designed such an efficient hybrid system? I would think that sort of technology would eventually make its way to street cars. If efficiency is going to be penalized, why bother spending the money to develop the technology? And ultimately, don’t they run the risk that manufacturers will say “why bother spending the money at all?”

IndyCarFan

MP: The tire pressure gauge gag was savage.

Efficiency isn’t being penalized. IMSA has come up with an equivalency construct for all aspects of the GTP formula: ICE power, ERS power, downforce, drag, weight, and more. Every GTP manufacturer opted into this formula willingly and with enthusiasm. They agreed to run under an equivalency formula for pit stop durations as well, but there’s no restriction on how long teams can stretch their stints and that, not pit lane stationary time, is where manufacturers are looking to demonstrate their efficiency.

Q: I'm emailing just after reading about the McLaren Path to the Pits program. Why do the race teams keep pushing these initiatives to find people from diverse backgrounds (or women) to work in racing? It's frustrating when I email teams with no response, or I form a connection with an individual only for nothing to happen, and then I turn around and see these portals for the diverse initiatives which simply exacerbates my problem.

I've put in a considerable amount of work over the last several years just for a chance to break in. I wish more racing teams would have a dedicated "young person" portal rather than just for the diverse groups. To be clear, I have nothing against women or underrepresented people working in motorsport -- in fact I encourage them to pursue motorsport, especially as someone who spent a considerable amount of time overseas. It is just frustrating that I run into wall after wall after wall and then a door is set up for other people. Good news is, I will be volunteering throughout May for IndyCar Ministry, so maybe an opportunity to work in engineering will open up from that.

My apologies for the little rant. I simply don't know what to do because I have tried everything, even going as far as to buy a pit pass for the expressed purpose of forming connections (which worked but then the connections lost interest and I can't figure out why).

Jack

MP: I would hope that in 2023, I don’t need to explain why creating inclusionary programs in motor racing is a good and long overdue thing. When IndyCar’s pit lane is 97 percent white and male, complaining about an initiative like the one aligned with Arrow McLaren to improve that three percent is everything I wouldn’t expect from someone affiliated in a ministerial capacity.

If we’ve learned one thing in recent years in IndyCar, it’s that every team is starving for talent. If you have racing experience, you’re almost guaranteed to get a job. And if you don’t, but you have the training or degrees in a field that they need and can be taught, you’ll also get a look from teams.

Making connections will get you nowhere if you lack job-specific talents that are needed. Might be worth focusing less on who you’ve met and more on finding out why nobody will hire you and improving your employment worth. The three percent are the problem? Come on, man.

Inclusivity programs are valuable for all sorts of reasons, but talent and experience are still reliable tickets to a life on pitlane. Penske Entertainment

Q: Looking at the 3/29 Mailbag, you mention not having heard anything about IndyCar trying to find a Northeast U.S. location. I have a suggestion:  a spring or fall race at Pease Tradeport, the old SAC base in Portsmouth, NH. Sure, it would be an airport circuit, but we all miss the good racing at Cleveland. If a layout could be developed, it would make sense and not have the local noise and community disturbance issues that sunk Boston a few years back. Pease is located almost directly adjacent to I-95, has multiple access roads, abundant nearby lodging, food and culture options, and is well under an hour from Boston.

Compared to essentially rural locations like Loudon (I was there for the test day in 2010), Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, etc., it offers better proximity to large population centers and popular nearby vacation spots.  With the Atlantic seacoast just a mile or two away for sponsor hospitality events, it seems like it might be a good fit for the series.

Fred in NH

MP: Sounds like someone needs to create a sim racing track layout for folks to give it a look. Thanks for the idea, Fred.

Q: It is rare to be able to see two different series with somewhat identical cars, running at the same track, a day apart. Sebring is one of those tracks. Makes for some great comparisons.

One thing I noticed is, Sebring is a tough track, no matter what you drive. It really can make you pay for mistakes, especially mistakes made by the other racers. I also noticed that the WEC does a far better, and quicker job, of returning to green after a yellow. It is the wave around and closing pit lane aspect that does takes so long to do in IMSA. Closing the pit lane for a few laps results in so much additional time to allow the for pit stops and the wave around and re-ordering of the classes. Not so bad during an endurance race, but it can take up so much time out of the IMSA sprint races.

I know that IMSA has five classes to get set up, which is more than the WEC, but it still takes a long time. I would be interested to know if anyone was able to time the yellow flags laps in the WEC race as compared to IMSA, and is there anything WEC does that IMSA can draw from?

Paul Sturmey, Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada

MP: You’ve highlighted the one aspect of IMSA’s endurance races that I loathe. The Code 60 slow zones are brilliant and would be a wonderful adaptation for IMSA to make. Not everything requires a pace car and running through a 20-minute pit cycling procedure. IMSA also has its "fast yellow" process, but even that could be used sparingly if a stalled car, debris, or other non-crash scenarios were managed with slow zones prior to and shortly after the problem area.

Q: I appreciated what Robin Miller said about Gary Bettenhausen in last week's Final Word. My home track of Toledo Speedway often hosted USAC sprint cars two and three times a season as our hometown guy, Rollie Beale, was a front-runner in the division and eventually took the title in 1973. Anyway, I was present for a number of episodes of the Gary and Larry (Dickson) Show and they never failed to disappoint.

I’ve been watching all kinds of motorsports events since the ’60s and I often listen for the point at which someone gets off the gas before a turn. When Bettenhausen and Dickson were running nose to tail, it was very difficult to tell as they sounded like one car! I was also at MIS for the ’81 Michigan 500 when Pancho Carter took his only win and Tony had his best finish of second. As was mentioned, tragedy seemed to follow that family in much the same way as the Kennedys. However, rest assured that when the Bettenhausens showed up, they came to race!

Regarding NASCAR at Chicago, I hope to be there! We’ll see how it goes, but to me, this is important: “If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got!” Positive thoughts to NASCAR for stepping outside of its comfort zone. However, one thing seems appropriate to me. It would make sense to me that the districts represented to aldermen who are not on board with the race not benefit in terms of tax revenues. That only seems fair.

I’m still not pleased by the reception of Andretti Global by the F1 community. Funny how “We want races in the U.S.” translates into “…but we don’t want another U.S. team; particularly one that might be the best of the rest in a few years and push us down the order.”

Don Hopings, Cathedral City, CA

MP: Thanks for sharing, Don.

Q: We’re interested in attending the open test for Indy Car at IMS in April. Where would one find a schedule for the two days that testing is held to allow us to plan our time at the track?

Chris Graue

MP: It’s usually scheduled for two days with the second as a fallback in case it rains on the first day. Running starts in the morning -- it can be delayed if track and ambient temperatures need to come up -- and goes until early evening. If you’re wanting to spend time on one of the viewing mounds next to the IMS Museum, plan on being there all day.

Q: Larry Miller was asking in the Mailbag about listening to radio from his iPhone. There are a couple of apps that allow one to listen to live radio.

The Web Audio Player app receives all three stations by WIBC “The Fan” (93.1, 93.5, and 107.5). It requires what is known as an Audio Unit host like the app AUM. Radio Unit is another app which works in the same manner, and also receives WIBC.

I haven’t used them at a race, but I often listen to football games with it while watching games on TV with friends, and the iPhone audio is typically 45 to 50 seconds ahead of the TV broadcast.

Scott

MP: Thanks, Scott. I might need to do some app downloading.

Lewis making sure his radio apps are on point before qualifying starts at Mid-Ohio. Steve Etherington/Motorsport Images

Q: Not really sure which of the three contributors are better served to answer this one, but I wanted to get some opinions on the state of officiating within motorsports, mostly due to this weekend’s F1 race. It seems like in IndyCar, F1, and to a lesser degree NASCAR, complaining about the stewards/race officials is a favorite pastime of fans and drivers, alike. Yet if I look across other sports -- basketball, football, etc. -- I hear similar comments. The refs are biased, they have a favorite, so-and-so always get the call. So, I have two questions: Is the officiating really that bad compared to other sports? Or is it more of a situation where, we fans have more access, more TV views, and more pundits to tell us what we want to hear?   

Chuck Parsons

(ED: We weren't sure which of the three contributors would be best-placed to answer this one either, so we threw it open to all of them.)

MP: Next to racing, the NBA is my favorite sport and the incessant complaining to the refs by players and coaches -- more often about the penalties that aren’t called than the ones that are -- quickly kills my joy. That’s the big difference in what I see across IndyCar, F1, IMSA, and NASCAR.

In F1, and IMSA, to a lesser degree, it’s constant whining from drivers, teams, and some fans about the need for every little item to be penalized. It can be exhausting. And when we do have a penalty, especially in F1, Sweet Baby Jesus, enough global energy is invested -- largely on social media and fan vlogs in assigning blame or proclaiming innocence -- to power New York for a year.

Barring Michael Masi at the 2021 F1 title decider and IndyCar throwing the green flag in the rain on the Loudon oval in 2011, plus IMSA getting the outcome of the GTD race at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in 2014 completely wrong, the mind-blowing mistakes are the exception, not the rule.

CHRIS MEDLAND: I think you’re right, Chuck; I think it’s just like any other sport in that sense. From an F1 point of view the number of camera angles and radio channels etc that fans can get means they can spot so much more during a race than people at the track might, and they are effectively as close to the action as the stewards because they’re all watching on screens.

With the continuous running in racing, you don’t get the natural breaks you have in other sports to review incidents, so that’s a difference that makes it harder to make quick calls that don’t have unintended or unwanted consequences. And I also think the officials being faceless and hidden away in race control rather than on the field or court -- as in many other sports where people can see just how tough their job is -- doesn’t help the situation.

KELLY CRANDALL: Not having covered any other sport at a professional level, I can’t answer where NASCAR stacks up with officiating in the sports landscape. And when I watch other sports, I’m watching purely as a fan and not thinking about the rules and the procedures of the event. So, in my case, I hardly get caught up in complaining about the officiating. (Unless something seems completely egregious and my bias for my team comes out.)

In the case of NASCAR, fans are too smart. That’s not an insult. Fans are very well-informed about the sport and aren’t afraid to take the sanctioning body to task. There are a lot of NASCAR executives on social media -- or there were, but some have given up because of the vitriol. A NASCAR executive is also on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio every week. So fans are exposed to the rules and regulations and hear about them every week, and they feel they know how things should go.

I think you make a good point that fans have a lot of access and aren’t watching just to enjoy the event anymore, they are invested in what happens, and that includes how they view the way rules are enforced. Plus, let’s not forget that drivers and teams talk about them all the time, and those individuals have the loudest microphone, so by and large, NASCAR will always be viewed as the bad guys.

Q: I can’t say I’m a huge NASCAR fan, but the Xfinity and Cup races at Road America and Watkins Glen are just good racing by any standard. Having said that, the Cup race at COTA was more demolition derby than a race. While it always comes down to how hard the drivers are willing to race each other, I think there is another factor that makes this type of racing inevitable -- the track.

Austin is a beautiful city and COTA is a great location, but it is a Hermann Tilke track designed for F1. For Cup cars (any cars for that matter), it is an oversized go-kart track. It needs to be reprofiled. As is, it just invites desperate, dive-bomb moves. With just a few tweaks (elimination of Turns 7, 8, 9 and make Turn 12 a fast left-hander into what is currently Turn 17) COTA could be right up there with Road America and Watkins Glen. The change would benefit all the series that race there, not just NASCAR.

I do not condone cheating, but MSR's "tiregate" is hardly the first time a team has fudged tire pressures. If memory serves me correctly, there were a number of catastrophic tire failures at the British GP a few years back. Pirelli determined that in addition to curb strikes, the tires were intentionally under-inflated. I think NASCAR has had its tire scandals as well. Perhaps MSR's penalties will put the entire racing industry on notice.

Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA

KC: It's not the racetrack. If it was the racetrack, then every lap would have been a demolition derby, but the Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series races at COTA were fantastic, and most of the Cup Series race was. So, it can’t be the track. It’s the drivers -- who also admit it -- making the decisions to run someone else over before they get run over. Whenever races come down to late-race restarts, whether it’s on a road course or oval, the expectation is that it’s going to get stupid. COTA got stupid.

Q: Now I know why I can’t watch a NASCAR road race involving F1, IndyCar or sports car aces with any hope of seeing any one of them do well. If you call what I see at the end of every NASCAR road race "racing," then I have some land in Russia I would like to sell you. When crashing and intentionally running into people is a strategy and not an accident, someone needs to take a hard look at what these guys are doing.

William Schleif, Hales Corners, WI

KC: Someone does need to take a hard look -- the drivers. I wrote that last week here on RACER, and drivers also admit they are the ones responsible. They are making those decisions. The belief from drivers is that if they aren’t aggressive then someone else is going to use them up. There has been chatter about single-file restarts at road courses or some other way to save the drivers from themselves, because nothing is going to change unless the drivers put into a box by NASCAR.

Q: Jenson Button was a welcome change in the F1 coverage this weekend, but there was no race day mention of his NASCAR adventure during the pre-race show or the race itself. Was there a gag order from Sky or F1? 

Eddie F., Dover Plains NY 

CM: There was no gag order when it comes to talking NASCAR, it’s just about at which point during the broadcasts they felt it was the best time for it.

It seems Sky just didn’t want to spend too long chatting about it on race day when it felt most people wanted F1 content, but did discuss it earlier in the weekend with Jenson on its coverage (It's also worth noting Sky isn’t the NASCAR broadcaster in the UK -- that’s a rival in the form of ViaPlay).

It would be cool if there had been some sort of gag order conspiracy, though. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

Q: In the cutthroat of world of Formula 1, is Zak Brown on borrowed time? His tenure at McLaren has been a disaster, and yet there is another technical reshuffle and he seems as secure as ever.

I appreciate he’s very good at bringing sponsors to a race team, but he’s CEO of the entire racing company, and the McLaren Formula 1 team is in terrible shape. Additionally, why would McLaren get so involved in various spec series with minimal brand exposure (IndyCar seems to be a Zak Brown personal pet project), zero brand exposure (Formula E, Extreme E) when its crown jewel (F1) is floundering? 

McLaren is an iconic team; here’s hoping they find their way back to competitiveness soon. 

John

CM: No, I think Zak’s pretty secure given how he’s moved that broader racing team forward and made the F1 team profitable. It’s a supercar manufacturer with its biggest market in North America, which is why he entered the team in IndyCar to fill a gap that F1 didn’t hit at the time. Also, it takes a long time to get to the front in F1, whereas he was able to rapidly make McLaren title contenders in IndyCar for positive brand association.

Formula E and Extreme E also fulfil sustainability targets that are important for the McLaren Group, but when you have a budget cap that means you can’t spend more on F1, is it really a bad thing to have other racing teams racing more?

In terms of the F1 team, I think it’s too early to judge the shape it’s in. McLaren was unlucky in the first two races, and could easily have scored points -- the pace was there, despite the team talking itself down so much -- and then Melbourne showed it with Lando Norris’ performance even before the red flag helped both drivers score.

Fifth seems a stretch right now, but if the B-spec car delivers what the team claims it will then fifth could be realistic by the season end -- if not higher during such a competitive season.

Add in the new wind tunnel and simulator coming online this year and there’s real optimism that McLaren is getting closer to having everything in place to become a top team again over the next few years (which is how long it will take to actually show an impact). The F1 team’s certainly in better shape than it was when he took charge amid the Honda years.

But all that said, Zak’s not got any excuses left now if the team doesn’t move forward in the next three or four seasons. Drivers, resources, facilities and team personnel are all in place according to the latest restructuring.

Q: After the completely unnecessary and expensive chaos caused by the red flags in Melbourne, surely the FIA need to stop using Netflix as a guide to writing their rules? 

The red flag is meant to be used as a safety measure, not for manipulation of a race to manufacture entertainment. If the incident is serious enough, then fair enough. But both of those red flags needn't have happened because debris can be cleared behind the safety car. 

Nothing good came of this, and it needs to be sorted out. 

Jordan, UK 

CM: You’re not alone with your viewpoint, but I totally disagree about the second one, and the Netflix part. The amount of debris for that late red flag meant cars shouldn’t be running through it and risking punctures and further damage. A little bit of that flicking up even at relatively low speed could still find its way though a driver’s visor.

The first red flag was borderline, but the barrier did need repairing too. The bigger issue there was waiting too long to make that decision, meaning some drivers had made pit stops under safety car that then became red flag. I would certainly not say that was manipulating a race to manufacture entertainment as it screwed race leader George Russell and made life much easier for Max Verstappen.

To address the problems with the first red flag, I say either don’t allow car changes under red flag conditions, or call it immediately.

The other thing to note is teams say they don’t want to end under safety car (like Monza last year – they asked for red flags after that) or the rules to be played with like Abu Dhabi in 2021, so it’s a simple, clear approach that it will be red-flagged if there’s a level of doubt that the clear-up can happen in time. There’s no perfect scenario, but at least everyone knows what they’re dealing with, and I’d rather see top level drivers tested under pressure on the rare occasions this happens, rather than the race essentially called off at that point and everyone just rolling over the line after a number of safety car laps.

Even with just a two-lap shootout, you’re asking drivers to use their skill, handle the situation, perform when there’s both loads to gain and loads to lose. It does massively increase the chances of something going wrong -- and you're right in saying that needs to be balanced -- but to me, that’s still a sporting challenge that should separate the best from the rest more often than not.

Q: Do you think that after F1's attempt at a NASCAR-inspired green/white checker in Melbourne that maybe they should take a page from IndyCar and employ a full-time and permanent race control that travels to every single race? No more part-time and rotating steward groups? I think this would help with consistency with officiating races, as well as, giving the drivers a little more confidence that the right calls are being made. Right now, the current model that F1 uses is a bit of clown show. In American racing, we say "cautions breed cautions." In F1, at least in Melbourne, we can say, "Red flags breed red flags!" I find it ironic also that Michael Masi was in town for this race.

Paul Oehling, Mansfield, OH

CM: F1 does employ a full-time and permanent race control that travels to every single race. Niels Wittich is the race director and he is assisted by Herbie Blash as the permanent senior advisor. The only thing that changes in the way you mean is the stewards (although that’s from a select pool, including a small number of former F1 drivers to provide that perspective).

It’s race control that make the decisions about safety cars and red flags -- the running of the race -- and the stewards who then are asked to review incidents and hand out penalties. That’s the bit that can get frustrating about rotating stewards is a lack of consistency in penalties, but then in so many other sports there are multiple referees who change for each team so I don’t think there’s a perfect solution on that front.

Q: With the F1 teams incorporating a significant percentage of black (bare carbon) in their car liveries to save weight, have you heard any discussion in the paddock regarding the FIA/F1 mandating a minimum painted surfaces coverage of car body panels and wings in the coming seasons? I'm afraid it won't be long until all the cars on the grid will be black liveries with touches of color here and there to distinguish them as unique all in the name of saving on weight. If the choice is truly a black livery, then it shall be painted black.  

Andy R., Brighton, MI

CM: This was an idea that cropped up pre-season but I don't think it has been discussed as a mandate yet, mainly because the cars are all still easily identifiable out on track. The belief is also that teams will find further weight-saving gains as time goes on with these regulations, and that will reduce the pressure on liveries. Then it comes down to how much they value the income from the sponsorship that defines the livery -- and the performance that money could lead to down the line -- over the small weight-saving gain.

There are also advancements in paint technology that will likely lead to lighter solutions further down the line. I’d say at this point it’s all just being monitored in case it reaches a point the FIA feels it needs to take action.

Black is the new black. Mark Horsburgh/Motorsport Images

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, 8 April, 2015

Q: I don’t understand how you do it. You read so many complaints about the sport you love each and everyday. It just makes no sense why everybody puts down the sport. They say they want more fans but yet they openly complain and say everything they think is wrong or they don’t agree with. That is very hypocritical.

I stopped reading the Mailbag because I couldn’t take it anymore. You want to help IndyCar? Let’s do an experiment. Go out and bring a friend to an IndyCar race or bring them over to watch the race and be sure to tell him all the horrible things or what you think is wrong with the sport. Don’t forget to mention how ugly the new cars are (I’m guessing you think they are ugly). I personally think they are freaking awesome, but hey, I’m a short-attention-spanned teenager, so what the heck do I know? Tell me how that goes and if they want to come back for the next race.

Now for part two, do the same thing except let what you say involve all the cool technologies even if it’s been around for a while (they don’t know that). I told someone about how they raise the car with the air hose and how the car has four pegs that come down and raise the car up into the air and were they amazed. Go ahead and mention the cool intricate parts of the cars and add that the drivers have NO POWER STEERING unlike their road car. They soon might think drivers are actually athletes or maybe be less convinced to say they aren’t. Go ahead and say they lose 6lbs on average every race. Tell me how that goes and if they want to come back for the next race.

Hunter Smith, 19

ROBIN MILLER: It’s not all negative and some good ideas are derived through anger on occasion. Like an earlier reader said, it’s easier to bitch than compliment (or at least, it’s more popular) but I don’t know how anybody that enjoys racing could have watched the past three IndyCar seasons and not been entertained. I admire your passion and it’s good to know there are young fans out there that feel the same way. Are you sure you don’t want a job in IndyCar PR?