IndyCar

[Chrill]

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/dixon-rosenqvist-this-years-wickens/4336061/

Rosenqvist spoke:
"The Swedish fanbase is really growing high on IndyCar coverage," he confirmed. "When Marcus quit F1 there was a lot of negativity in Sweden in the racing community, and then at the same time I signed with Ganassi, and then two or three weeks later Marcus signed [Schmidt Peterson], and suddenly everyone who was sad then got overexcited. Now everyone has forgotten F1 and they are full-on IndyCar! So yes, it is a good time."

It is true. ish. We haven't forgot about F1, but we're all excited to follow IndyCar this year.

[Matt]

If you?re looking for IndyCar coverage, the best site is probably Racer.com. I know they did a video interview with Ericsson at the COTA test yesterday.

[Chrill]

Great link, thanks! I've been relying on Swedish media and word of mouth so far.

[Chrill]

After two days of CotA testing.

Combined times (all four sessions):
1. Colton Herta 1:46.6258
2. Alexander Rossi 1:46.8535
3. Will Power 1:47.1044
4. Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:47.1757
5. Simon Pagenaud 1:47.2116
6. Felix Rosenqvist 1:47.2941
7. Graham Rahal 1:47.3662
8. Scott Dixon 1:47.3684
9. James Hinchcliffe 1:47.5379
10. Santino Ferrucci 1:47.5970
11. Josef Newgarden 1:47.6625
12. Helio Castroneves 1:47.6949
13. Takuma Sato 1:47.7183
14. Marcus Ericsson 1:47.7958
15. Jack Harvey 1:47.8892
16. RC Enerson 1:47.9094
17. Marco Andretti 1:47.9993
18. Sebastien Bourdais 1:48.0166
19. Matheus Leist 1:48.1485
20. Zach Veach 1:48.1888
21. Ed Jones 1:48.1955
22. Max Chilton 1:48.3640
23. Spencer Pigot 1:48.3987
24. Tony Kanaan 1:48.5553
25. Kyle Kaiser 1:48.8496

[Penfold]

For my reference, the 2019 calendar:

Rd.   Date         Track                                              City
01    March 10  (S) Streets of St. Petersburg         St. Petersburg, Florida
02    March 24  (R) Circuit of the Americas             Austin, Texas
03    April 7      (R) Barber Motorsports Park          Birmingham, Alabama
04    April 14    (S) Streets of Long Beach              Long Beach, California
05    May 11    (R) Indianapolis Road Course         Speedway, Indiana
06    May 26    (O) Indianapolis Motor Speedway  Speedway, Indiana
07    June 1     (S) Belle Isle Park                           Detroit, Michigan
08    June 2      As above
09    June 8     (O) Texas Motor Speedway            Fort Worth, Texas
10    June 23   (R) Road America                           Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
11    July 14    (S) Exhibition Place                        Toronto, Ontario
12    July 20    (O) Iowa Speedway                       Newton, Iowa
13    July 28    (R) Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course      Lexington, Ohio
14    Aug 18    (O) Pocono Raceway                      Long Pond, Pennsylvania
15    Aug 24    (O) Gateway Motorsports Park       Madison, Illinois
16    Sep 1      (R) Portland Int. Raceway              Portland, Oregon
17    Sep 22    (R) Laguna Seca                             Monterey, California

[Penfold]

I see the cars will soon be sporting a three-inch piece of titanium in front of their cockpits: https://racer.com/2019/02/19/indycar-moving-forward-with-advanced-frontal-protection-device/

Expected to be replaced with something else for 2020 - presumably the windscreen they tested last year, or a tweaked version thereof.

[Penfold]

Sky has snapped up the UK rights to IndyCar.  I'm now expecting IndyCar's YouTube channel (with its heavily delayed race replays) to be blocked in the UK... because anything else would be out of character for Sky.

[Matt]

Given the new TV deal with NBC in the US, it is mostly assumed that the race replays will not be on YouTube anymore anyway. NBC has a paid streaming service in the US that includes the replays.

[Penfold]

Fair enough.  Didn't know about the new NBC deal.

[Chrill]

Well, as a Swede I was hoping for Felix in victory lane yesterday and it looked possible for a while before he dropped off.

Altogether, IndyCar feels more amateurish than F1 and it does so in a bad way. The racing wasn't better than F1, perhaps owing to the circuit layout. Very few overtakes, trouble with the camera feeds, absolutely zero information on pit stops and tactics employed. I felt like I was in the dark most of the race. Also, these races are LONG and this one was unusually smooth I suppose with only two cautions. Had it not been for Swedish success, I'd rate this as a rather poor racing series.

Really looking forward to my first oval race though, that will be exciting.

[Chrill]

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/rosenqvist-sensational-debut-one-armed/4350907/
Crazy Swede.

[Matt]

There are increasing rumors that Nasr is both focused on moving to IndyCar and that there's team interest in him. He has been great in IMSA, winning the championship last season and winning Sebring last week.

So we might finally get the Ericsson/Nasr grudge match everyone has always wanted.

[Chrill]

Really bummed out by the COTA race yesterday. Ericsson was up into P5 before his pit stop, then pitted and the team sends him out into someone's arms. That was no good. Penalised, moved to the very back of the grid. I spoke about this with Matt, I think the penalty itself is absurdly hefty. Bill the team, or add a 5 second penalty to his time, but sent to the very back? Absurd.

Also, Rosenqvist was simply shunted off the track by Hinchcliffe who was not penalised and ended up finishing ahead of Marcus despite suffering a puncture. Smooth.

I'll keep watching this series for the time being, but the first two races have come across as messy and amateurish compared to F1. The production is poor, often missing the battles that are going on around the track.

[Penfold]

Finally got round to watching the race.  Like you say, Mr/Mrs director seemed to jump around an awful lot between the cars; just pick a fight and stick with it for a few laps, it's not that difficult.

Eric's dad will not be happy about the punishment meted out to his lad.  Also, I was not a fan of the decision to allow drivers to ignore track limits.

[Chrill]

I say we should just leave a strip of gravel outside the track, some 3 feet/1 meter wide. That will deter you from going wide, but if you accidentally do so you'll hurt your tires without actually coming to a fiery halt. Someone inform Charlie. Oh...