All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

I guess ESPN doesn't have time to update things like advertisements. Just saw the date on this ad on the Racing page.

 

Watched Indy last night after getting home. My thoughts:
1. Thank goodness ABC is no longer covering the Indy 500. I was never a fan of Paul Page back in the day, but at least he was surrounded by competent people who seemed interesting/likable. Eddie Cheever fits neither category. He absolutely sucks and singlehandedly drags the quality of the broadcast way down. ABC showing a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff was cool, and trying to show the human side of drivers with the Tweets was halfway decent. But the negatives far outweighed the positives. The lack of useful information previously mentioned was glaring. The fawning over Danica, while expected, was awful. Yes, she won one major race in her career, on fuel mileage and only after Castroneves slowed to nearly pace car speed. It was funny when Bestwick turned it over to Cheever to talk about how much Danica had accomplished. Cheever, who never stops talking, had nothing to say. The worst part of ABC's coverage, IMO, was the incredible number of ads.
2. Chevy's total dominance was a surprise, both in qualifying and especially in the race.
3. Unser's shouting of "You just don't know what Indy means" from 1992 perfectly sums up the importance of Indy in words. Will Power's jubilation at winning perfectly sums up the importance in photos.
4. Power is turning into Rick Mears on ovals, while still being a great road coarse driver. It'll be interesting to see how many more titles and Indy 500s he could win.
5. Rossi's passes on the outside on restarts were insane. To me, he was the driver of the race. He'll always be known as the winner of the 100th, but this was a far more impressive drive. Andretti seems to have the track figured out, but the Honda didn't have enough power this year.
6. What is the purpose of driving in the groove when 30 mph off the pace? Two years in a row such drivers have caused wrecks. With last year's aero kit, I'm thinking Sato would have gotten airborne, as those rear wheel guards seemed to act as ramps. Conversely, perhaps Dixon wouldn't have had quite the wreck last year with this year's kit.
7. Speaking of Dixon, that was one quiet third place run.
8. I kinda liked the challenge for the drivers with the aero package, as the old package reminded me of a Talladega made-for-TV artificial event. But most of the crashes were coming off the corners in single car incidents, so maybe slight tweaking is needed. It looked like Castroneves was just getting into position when he crashed. And bummer for Kanaan, looked so good before the tire problem.

 

1. The three-minute long shot of Will Power's wife chewing on plastic while the other 20-something cars were still racing sums up my thoughts of ABC's 54 years of coverage.
2. Chevy stepped it up, or their aero package last year sucked.
3. For me, it's been Christmas Day at 225 mph since I was a kid. It's my day to be amazed, thrilled and left wanting more.
4. I couldn't believe Goodyear said Power had to win Indy to keep his job. Really?
5. Rossi is the next superstar. He's got the aggressiveness of Sato and Servia, but with the abilty to avoid the red mist. (Of course, St. Pete comes to mind ...)
6. See No. 5, per Sato. Other than last year, dude can't seem to see past his own nosecone.
7. Dixon was in serious fuel conservation, running laps at 210 when Power, Carpenter and the other frontrunners were at 220. He was about to get freight-trained when that last caution came out. Aero push allowed him to hold off everyone but Ed.
8. The weather put this aero package right on the edge. When Helio and Tony loop it, you gotta wonder if the redesign took out a bit too much downforce. Still, every car has two pedals. And lots of less-talented guys made it to the checkered. Fun to see them lifting and working instead of just pointing the nose. Wonder what the 2.4-liter engine will add to the mix in 2021.

 

The Indy Lights race only had eight cars, but was perhaps the most entertaining hour of racing I've seen all year. The top five were using parts of the track where angels fear to tread (or run treadless). Maybe Cooper needs to supplant Bridgestone. Several drivers commented Sunday that they thought the tire compound was too hard and didn't marble up (which is also a good thing).

But with the exception of the apron era, Indy's narrow, low-banked corners have always been a matter of "one car at a time." Over the course of 500 miles, you will have faster cars closing on slower ones. Tom Sneva running over Eldon Rasmussen in 1975 was the first thing I thought of when I saw Dixon. Elisian and Rathmann were running for the same piece of real estate in 1958 and Pat O'Connor paid with his life. Little Al and Emmo did the same thing four decades later, but Al was able to walk away.

I know what you're saying, but once you put more than one car on the track, race drivers are going to race and damn the consequences.

Leist got pinched on a restart and guys went four-wide down the backstretch on either side. That's the one I thought was going to be a Turn 3 disaster, but somehow they all made it through unscathed. I was holding my breath for about 20 seconds.

 

During last Sunday's race, Danica Patrick was experiencing early problems with the car. IIRC, either Cheever or Goodyear referred to it as "under steering." TV switched to a shot of her cockpit and it appeared to my untrained eye she was really struggling to steer during turns. For those of you in the know, what is under steering? Or, what causes it? Thanks.

 

Understeer/oversteer is the same as NASCAR's tight/loose. It refers to what the car is wanting to do in the corners. A car that's understeering or tight means the front end doesn't want to turn. Oversteering or loose means the back of the car wants to spin out. Neither one is good. I can't remember who said it, but it's a matter of whether you want to hit the wall forwards or backwards.

In the case of understeer/tight, the car is "pushing" toward the wall and the only thing you can do is lift out of the throttle and hope the tires grip before you hit something. Some drivers, particularly dirt track racers, like a car that's a little loose. But you run the risk of using up the available grip on the right rear.

 

Good stuff. Thanks, man.

 

Hoping losing the WAG Cam is near or on top of NBC's to-do list. Even if she is provably and demonstrably hot.