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

Grosjean getting roughed up like a first-grader on the sixth-grader playground.

And that locked-wheel drift save by Colton Herta early on was a thing of beauty.

If it's Indy, it's gotta rain eventually.

 

Jimmie is really bad at this, isn't he?

 

I genuinely don’t understand why he is still doing it.

 

He's not the only one who has looped it with the slick conditions, but yeah, he's still way out of his league. And I just think the learning curve -- at least for road courses -- is still too steep for a guy who didn't run single-seater cars his entire career like all these other kids have.

Now, the 500 may be a different story because Danica Patrick has proven that's more of a "point and shoot" style of driving, where you just hold the accelerator to the floor and the setup of the car dictates your race.

 

I mean, if he can keep all four tires on it, there's a chance he could steal a fuel-mileage race or a weird pit stop strategy one of these days. Worked for Danica and Alex Rossi. Maybe he just likes going fast.?

 

It's just hard to imagine it's that fun for him to tool around at the back every single race, this far into the Indy experiment. He's gone from seven-time NASCAR champ to being a notch above the Racing Dentist.

It made sense for the team and the series a year ago when every single commercial break was filled with Jimmie Johnson endorsements. That's over.

Honestly, I'm not sure a crazy fuel mileage race or pit strategy could get him into the top ten.

 

I stumbled upon a taped race airing on FS1 the other day that was some sort of 21st Century IROC with a bunch of rally car drivers on a snow course in Norway…and Jimmie Johnson won the race. I was like, WTH is he doing there???

I half expect to see him in a Red Bull air race sometime soon.

 

Jack Harvey was quite the punter yesterday, as Newgarden found out the hard way.
And totally agree on the Herta drifting.

 

Fascinating Fast Friday at Indy.

It's sunny, hot and extremely windy -- steady 20-25 mph with gusts up to 35 -- which is creating serious havoc for everybody. Only a handful of guys have been able to complete four consecutive laps, let alone stay in the throttle the whole way around.

Jimmie just white-walled (actually, yellow-walled) the rights in Turn 2, where the wind creates serious push. On the other hand, Ericsson just turned a 242.4 mph trap speed downwind into Turn 3.

Going to be almost the same tomorrow, with the exception of some cloud cover and perhaps the wind will die down some. And then Sunday for the fast 12 will be 65 degreees.

 

Max's temper tantrums with the DRS flaps not opening were fun to watch. Nice win for him, but have to feel for Leclerc.

 

Johnson with a massive save on the opening lap of his Fast 12 run at Indy, but will roll off on the outside of Row 4 next Sunday.

Moving into the final six: Power, VeeKay, Palou, Ericcson, Carpenter, Kanaan. Ganassi vs. Carpenter for the pole.

The difference between first and sixth over 10 miles: 0.3 seconds. All six averaged over 233 mph for their runs, which would be in the top 10 fastest time trials in the history of the 500.

 

First half of the race was a lot of fun. Second half was less interesting but for Barcelona I’ll take it.