The RACER Mailbag, August 5

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 12pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.
**When Formula 1 takes its summer vacation, so does our F1 writer. Chris Medland is on a well-deserved break for a couple of weeks, but keep sending your F1 questions in and he'll answer them when he returns.**

Q: I love the new IndyCar. I understand the call for something more dramatic; as well as the request for not letting a decade plus pass until the next chassis. But doesn’t the almighty dollar dictate some of the options here? We know the teams will be financially pressured for the purchase of the new chassis.

Isn’t the need here to have the updated car and racing product increase eyeballs; therefore increase sponsorship; and therefore allow the teams to semi-regularly purchase a new chassis design? 

Also, I’m thinking Firestone needs much data from the tests to max out the performance of a new tire. What are they going to test on in the meantime?

Lastly, FOX, You own a third of the series – we couldn’t do the reveal two weeks ago at some point during the World Cup Final?

King  Jude, Lord of the Speedway Realm

MARSHALL PRUETT: Most of earth tends to like new things. Same with race cars. Let’s not wait until 2050 to replace the IR28, I say.

The IR28 is meant to perform in a similar window as the DW12, and with less weight, so using the current tires isn’t a concern at the moment on a road course. As one IndyCar insider said in a semi-shout, imagine having the car ready to unveil at the White House a little while ago and using a big national media hit to capture the kind of attention that goes far beyond niche sports outlets.  

Q: You obviously knew that the IR28 launch was pending. Does Penske Entertainment tip off media outlets when an announcement is coming? Or did you know from your own research? It seems that they would notify ‘friendly’ media sources, and I hope this shows signs of marketing scope improvements. I saw a lot of coverage of the new car yesterday.

Tom Pate, Macomb, MI

MP: There’s a select group that is kept up to date on some things, but it’s not a situation where we are always told things in advance or invited into embargoed news. I’d replace the term ‘friendly’ media sources with ‘professional’ media sources.

I’d learned about the testing plans while in Nashville, wrote about it during Nashville, and it made sense for the unveiling to happen prior to the test. Nothing remarkable on that front.

Based on what I expected to be shared, I wrote the reveal story a day or two before it happened, then saw it under the group embargo, tuned up a couple of things, corrected some errors, and deleted an item or two I wanted to save for a follow-up piece, and was ready to file it shortly before the embargo broke.   

There's usually an element of co-operation between professional media and racing series when a major development - like a new car launch - is on the horizon. James Black/Penske Entertainment

Q: Are you hearing any rumors about a third engine manufacturer?

Why would Chevrolet and Honda agree to redevelop so much for seemingly nothing? Could the decision to redesign the existing 2.4-liter engine – everything outside the block – be a sign that IndyCar, Chevrolet, and Honda are trying to accommodate a potential third manufacturer?

Am I reading too much into the tea leaves? Or is the ‘nothing’ simply about improving durability and longevity with the lower power output?

Derek, Perry, GA

MP: Chevy and Honda wouldn’t agree to near total do-overs with the 2.4L TTV6s because a new manufacturer, with no skin in the IndyCar game, said it was needed for them to come in. Chevy and Honda are the decades-long drivers of the IndyCar Series, so any new manufacturer coming in would need to fall in line with what the committed brands want and have agreed upon with IndyCar.

A lot of time has passed since they made the first-gen 2.4s, and both brands have gone through major growths with their racing divisions – wholesale changes, new facilities, or new design and manufacturing technologies at their disposal – and wanted to start fresh with the formula.

Q: Has Cosworth ever been approached as a full third engine supplier to IndyCar? Possibly with manufacturer support, i.e. Genesis-Cosworth? (I realize Cosworth has been a component supplier, and apparently this continues with the new car). 

Viper, Sussex, WI 

MP: Maybe. We’d need to know who approached them to answer the question, and since nobody has made engines other than Chevy and Honda since 2013, we have no public knowledge of this, nor do most service providers like Cosworth openly provide info on which car companies have placed calls.

We do know Cosworth said it had the interest to supply TTV6 IndyCar engines; late owner Kevin Kalkhoven was open about that with me and others who asked in the second half of the 2010s. But I haven’t heard anything since he passed.