Tag: Indycar

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Ericsson considering IndyCar, Super Formula for 2019

Marcus Ericsson has said he is targeting a move to either IndyCar or Super Formula for 2019 following the loss of his Sauber Formula One race seat.

Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team

Ericsson will remain with Sauber next year as reserve driver and brand ambassador, but has said he is also looking to continue racing with a full-time drive in another single-seater category.

“I want to race at the highest level possible [next year] because I see myself coming back to Formula One in the future,” Ericsson said.

“To be able to come back to F1, I want to stay in single-seaters and fast cars. IndyCar is the best series to do that in.

“We’re talking to some teams there and I think it is a realistic target.”

Most of IndyCar’s 2019 drives have already been settled, although seats are still available at Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, Carlin and Juncos Racing.

Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team

Ericsson has also admitted Japan’s Super Formula is “also an option”, and that he would be interested in contesting the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

But despite insisting on a single-seater programme for 2019 to keep him prepared for an F1 return, Ericsson said that Formula E is not high on his preferences:

“It is interesting in many aspects but to stay in F1-type of driving it’s maybe not the best one.

“FE is more of a career move. There are some other options that you can keep on the F1 radar [to] come back.”

Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team
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Canadian GP Driver Ratings

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is one of the greats on the calendar. The last time Ferrari won in Canada was in 2004. Ferrari’s last pole in was 2001, but Vettel changed that.

Sebastian Vettel – 9.5

Faultless, the German had it covered all weekend. Pole position on Saturday and lights to flag victory on Sunday. Ferrari sand bagged like they do on Friday and just gathered information on the lower power settings. Vettel is a driver that likes his figures and stats, maybe a little annoyed he didn’t get the hat-trick of pole, win and the fastest lap though. Ricciardo set that on his final tour. He retakes the lead as we head back into Europe. 50 wins and counting.

Valtteri Bottas – 8

Not many would have expected for Bottas to come away with the bigger points haul for the Silver Arrows, let alone out qualify his team mate. A strong weekend for Bottas and retakes third in the driver’s championship. He showed a bit more resilience at the start keeping Verstappen behind something in previous races he lacked. Drove a great race, pretty boring for him though as wasn’t challenged throughout.

Max Verstappen. Image Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Max Verstappen – 8

Proved some doubters wrong this weekend, so hopefully no headbutting happens. Under fire for a string of mistakes the Dutchman had something to prove, which he did. He put that anger into the wheel of his Red Bull with a superb third in qualifying and race. Got close at the start but no collision with anyone. Held the pressure in the early stages and placed it late on. Very much a confidence booster for himself, Red Bull and indeed his fans.

Daniel Ricciardo – 7

Was a tenth or so behind his team mate all weekend. He missed out on quite a bit of action on Friday with an engine problem not related to his failure in Monaco. He tends to not run well around Canada on Saturday and was out qualified again by his team mate. A better Sunday as he finished two places higher than he started thanks to some great tyre management. Still a great win in Monaco but must look forward now as we re-enter Europe. 

Lewis Hamilton – 6

For a track where Hamilton took his maiden win in 2007, and has 6 wins at he was very off colour. Could only manage P4 on Saturday and with problems in the race resulted him finishing P5. A poor race from a man who has such high standards of himself. Has the excuse of a 6 race old engine whilst others had upgrades but Bottas was in the same situation.

Kimi Raikkonen – 6

Another weekend where in qualifying he blew it, when he ran wide at turn 2, flashback to Baku earlier in the season. The car had the pace to win as it did in Vettels hands. The Finn with fresher tyres after making the stop later than the others around him looked strong for a podium, but he never challenged. He faded to finish a lonely P6. 

Nico Hulkenburg – 8

144 races and counting for Nico and his quest for a podium. They should maybe create a space for the best of the rest after Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull as more often than not this has been the German. Qualified in P7 and finished P7. Not much else he can do really as his car restricts him to move higher up the field.

Carlos Sainz – 7

A solid haul of points for Carlos as Renault strengthen their claim as the best of the rest. Besides the collision at the restart with Perez he had a fairly quiet race. Did well to overcut Ocon at the pit stops.

Esteban Ocon – 7

Ocon had a great weekend considering his team made a mistake in the pits on raceday. The Frenchman battled back but it seems like most suffered from following a car.

Charles Leclerc – 9

This kid has talent, true talent. Charles bounced back from another disapointing home race where his brakes failed to score more points for Sauber. Had a great battle with Alonso and for a while kept him at bay. We are seeing a future Ferrari driver in him, it is only when now they decide, could it be next race, or 2019? 

Pierre Gasly – 8

A good recovery drive from Pierre as Honda’s power looks strong albeit still a little bit worrying with reliability. The Frenchman has used the most components out of the entire field. Was hampered in qualifying with the old engine at a power based track. Due to penalties he started on the back row of the grid. Avoided first lap and restart collisions to finish P11. 

Romain Grosjean – 8

The Groundhog’s revenge, Romain qualifying lasted seconds as his engine let go after exiting his pitbox. A poor groundhog was collected by the Frenchman on Friday. Romain started last but with a great stint on the ultrasoft tyre put him back amongst it all and finished ahead of his team mate. No points but did so well considering, good Sunday, needs a good weekend though, home Grand Prix up next.

Sergio Perez – 6

A great effort from Sergio to make Q3 on a track that suits the Force India better than Monaco. Overall though was off the pace on his team mate by 0.6 in the final session. An erratic restart caused him to collide with a Renault. Damage was never made clear but never recovered from it.

Kevin Magnussen – 6

Started in one of the best places on the grid P11, one up on his team mate due to his troubles but Sunday was a shocker. He was never at it, and finished a woeful P14.

Marcus Ericcson – 5

Leclerc is making Ericsson look a little bit silly now. Ericsson scored points in Bahrain but hasn’t seen any yet. He exited FP3 early after a collision with the wall, and never recovered from that.

Stoffel Vandoorne – 4

Wheres Stoffel? A quiet weekend once more for the Belgian. He was out qualified by his team mate and was nowhere on Sunday. The pressure continues to rise. I feel his future is dependant on Alonso’s decision.

Sergey Sirotkin – 5

Another lacklustre display as he finishes last of the cars to take the flag. A mistake in practice, he never got to grips with a track he’d never raced at. Kubica continues to look on in the background.

Fernando Alonso – 7

His 300th Grand Prix weekend and one in his collection to forget. A man who is in a fork on the in his career. He out qualified his team mate and was running well in the race to be best of the rest before the exhaust failure mid-race. Le Mans is next on the agenda which he hopes to win for the second stage of ‘The Triple Crown.’ Think the result there will give us a bigger idea of where the F1 great will be next year.

Lance Stroll – 5

The Canadian had a weekend in his home country to forget. The Williams is a bit of a dog this year. He hit the wall in practice and then exited again in Q1. Sunday didn’t last long after losing the rear and hitting Hartley. Claire Williams pinned the sole blame on Hartley. Looking at various camera angles and public opinion the blame swings back to Stroll. 91% of people blamed Stroll on our twitter poll. (@PitCrew_Online)

Brendan Hartley – 6

One of his best Saturday’s in the car, the Kiwi qualified ahead of both Mclaren drivers and wasn’t far away from the Q3. It was a shame that Sunday ended so early, going into the end of sector 1 he was outwide on the marbles alongside Stroll. He collected the Williams and lost control of his car. Poor placement you could say from Hartley, but unlucky at the same time.

Final Thoughts

Mercedes have an excuse with their engine not being ready but certainly did not expect Hamilton to finish as low as fifth at one of his favourite tracks and lose the lead. Vettel takes the smallest of leads to the next race.

F1 returns to Europe next time as we have a triple header! We return to France for the first time since 2008 at a track that hasn’t seen competitive action since 1990. The Paul Ricard circuit is a favourite for some to test at. It followed by Austria and then Britain the following week.

Will Mercedes have their engine ready for France? Do Ferrari have the better car again with their new bargeboard improvement?

Featured image courtesy of Ferrari.

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The Blueprint – Takuma Sato Explains How To Win The Indy 500 | M1TG

Check out the latest video from Mobil 1 The Grid. In this piece, the Japanese driver discusses his win in 2017, how he went about winning the race, whilst laying down a blueprint of the key to success at Indianapolis.

Takuma On Winning The Indy 500: “In my entire life, maybe the birth of my child, that is obviously an amazing day. But besides on that, [winning at Indy] was my significant moment in my life, and certainly the best day of my race career. And that changed so many different things. I just never forget the feeling of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has and how deeply I understood the history and the energy that the Indy 500 has. That was just an unbelievable, amazing, amazing experience for me.”

Takuma On How To Win At Indy: “The key is to stay out of trouble problem, because it’s just such a long race. Anything can happen. Just stay calm, because the race comes back to you.”

Indycar 2017 Round Six: Indianapolis 500, Indiana
Credit: hondanews.eu

Takuma On How Heartbreak In 2012 Prepared Him: “Going through all the preparation by yourself and as an athlete, you learn from your faults: What you didn’t go through, and what you know already. Then there is a great chance to learn new things. Moving forward, that’s the name of the sport. 2012 is obviously a bitter experience and but I really appreciate it because I’m proud that I was able to challenge for that. In the end, I failed it. But it’s really made me stronger. Going through every single year, there’s lots of ways you think about it, and of course, before the 2017 start, you’re going through 2012, saying ‘What could I have done? What should I have done? What we will need to do?’ And that’s exactly what I did. That was the moment I really needed.”

Takuma Sato On The Legacy Of Winning The Indy 500: “Indy 500 winner… we knew that’s a big deal. People say that it’s going to be forever, and then like almost every month there is some award or there is ceremonies and the events just it’s go on and on and on. When I go back to Japan, there was almost every week, an event or award. So it was an unbelievably busy winter, but it was a happy busy moment. The Indy 500 is beyond your imagination.”

Indycar 2017 Round Six: Indianapolis 500, Indiana
Credit: hondanews.eu

Takuma Sato On Indy 2018: “I can’t imagine how it’s going to be as a defending champion going to the Month of May. I think it will be so cool, so pressured and so busy. I can’t wait [to] go there. But, equally, I think that now everyone wants to win and beat me so, basically, I have to have a huge challenge to do back-to-back race wins. Nothing is impossible, but I think it’s going to be very tough but we will challenge for that anyway.”

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Halo Vs. AeroScreen – Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo & Scott Dixon On F1 Cockpit Safety | Mobil 1 The Grid

Check out the newest video from Mobil 1 The Grid in which Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo give their thoughts on what they call an ‘ugly’ Halo design, and the reasons behind its full-scale introduction, while Scott Dixon comments on IndyCar’s Aeroscreen alternative, which has been inspired by jet fighter canopies.

Max Verstappen on the Halo: “The car is very ugly with it. I’ll keep saying that for the rest of the season, because I really don’t like it. It’s a shame really for Formula 1. It’s a bit safer, but at the end of the day, you can never make it 100% safe anyway.”

Photographer Credit: Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Daniel Ricciardo on the Halo: “It’s visually not the most pretty thing, but it’s fine. I think people will just get used to it. It’s there for a reason; it’s there for those freak accidents and for head injuries. What the fans and viewers need to not get confused or get misled by is that it doesn’t change anything what we do… racing, attacking, defending, how much you’re willing to put the car on the limit – the Halo doesn’t change any of that. Is it attractive? No. But were the F1 cars in 2009 attractive when they went to the big front wings and skinny rear wings? No, they thought they were ugly as hell. But after a few races your eyes just get used to looking at them. Yeah, they’re ugly, but they’re not as ugly as they were a few months ago. If there’s a crash and a part comes flying in the air, if it is going to land in front of you, it could save a death, that’s really all it is.”

Scott Dixon on the Aeroscreen: “The Halo wasn’t something that was feasible for us [in IndyCar], mostly because of the ovals sight-line. You’re in a looking up position, so you’d be looking directly at it. I think the Aeroscreen, with the backing of PPG [Industries], with what they’ve done in the past with fighter-jets, they’d already had a good concept and a good idea of what works and what doesn’t work.”

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IndyCar Phoenix Report: Newgarden finally breaks his Phoenix curse

IndyCar got its first oval of the season done at Phoenix and, while Josef Newgarden was the one to take the win, it was rookie Robert Wickens who was once more grabbing headlines and stealing the show with a remarkable second place finish. Alexander Rossi was the big mover of the day, completing over 50 overtakes while Sebastien Bourdais’ race fell apart at the first hurdle.

After qualifying on pole, Bourdais’ race started with trouble after the Frenchman’s Dale Coyne was kept in the pits for the first formation lap to give the team time to restart his car. He joined the track in time to take the start on pole but his team soon reported that they’d lost all telemetry on his car however, that problem was soon negated when he came into the pits and hit one of his pit crew, giving him a drive-thru penalty and dropping him to last. Thankfully, the pit member involved was unharmed.

Another one to be compromised by the first round of pit stops was Rossi who, like Bourdais, hit his pit crew and landed himself a drive-thru penalty, Again, the crew members involved were fine. Rossi didn’t come back into significance until he assisted Will Power into the wall, ending the Penske driver’s race, before fully un-lapping himself under green flag conditions. When Ed Jones hit the wall with 21 laps to go, all the field pitted other than Wickens, James Hinchcliffe and Rossi; this gave the three track position over the fresh tyre runners but high degradation in the latter stages of the race cost all of them at least some positions.

Wickens was leading the race up until those final stops but was unable to defend from Newgarden who was flying on his new Firestones. Before then, Wickens had come to the front after pitting early at the second round of stops and passing teammate Hinchcliffe who’d gotten caught up in traffic. The Canadian dropped to third after the third stops but was propelled into first after Jones crashed out of second and leader Newgarden pitted; the win was not to be for Wickens but second place on his first ever oval race is outstanding achievement.

Josef Newgarden. courtesy of media.gm.com

Newgarden himself was relieved to break his unlucky streak under lights at Phoenix after failing to finish on the podium at any of his previous races here. The reigning champion worked out second after the first round of pit stops, something he attributed to team owner Roger Penske insisting that the team clean the pit boxes thoroughly. The second pit stops didn’t work out in the American’s favour but, with Power out, Newgarden was the first to pit at the next round, allowing him to take the lead. He took the risk to pit again when Jones hit the wall but that paid off when he was able to blast past Hinchcliffe and Rossi on the restart before getting Wickens with just four laps remaining to take his first win of his title defence.

A surprisingly low amount of cautions, despite numerous incidents, meant that once cars were lapped, that was pretty much it for them. This was the case for all the new teams, Carlin, Harding and Juncos, who all struggled for pace at their first oval and all ended up at least a lap behind the leaders. It wasn’t just the rookie teams who struggled, all the rookie drivers, other than the incredible Wickens, were off the pace, with some even ending in the wall. Pietro Fittipaldi and Kyle Kaiser both got too close to the wall while Matheus Leist’s race was ruined when he left the pit box with one wheel not attached.

This race was a large improvement on Phoenix last year for Honda who took positions two through to sixth however, it was still a Chevrolet that took the win, meaning that Penske’s Newgarden now leads the championship, five points ahead of Rossi.

Phoenix marked the first of three races in a row with IndyCar now heading to the streets of Long Beach before going to Barber Motorsports Park in two weeks’ time. IndyCar will not return to an oval until the 102nd running of the Indy 500 at the end of May so it’s street courses all the way until then.

 

Full race results:

1.      Josef Newgarden

2.      Robert Wickens (R)

3.      Alexander Rossi

4.      Scott Dixon

5.      Ryan Hunter-Reay

6.      James Hinchcliffe

7.      Ed Carpenter

8.      Tony Kanaan

9.      Graham Rahal

10.  Simon Pagenaud

11.  Takuma Sato

12.  Marco Andretti

13.  Sebastien Bourdais

14.  Spencer Pigot

15.  Gabby Chaves

16.  Zach Veach (R)

17.  Charlie Kimball

18.  Max Chilton

19.  Matheus Leist (R)

DNF – Ed Jones, Kyle Kasier (R), Will Power, Pietro Fittipaldi (R)

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IndyCar Phoenix Preview

IndyCar heads to Phoenix for the second round of the season after it kicked off with a bang in the opening round at St Petersburg. This will be the first oval of the season which means that there will be some driver changes which we’ll come to shortly.

Race 1 at St Petersburg was massively unpredictable, going down to a penultimate lap duel which ended in heartbreak for Robert Wickens after he was assisted into the wall by Alexander Rossi. This lead to Sebastien Bourdais taking his first win since his horror Indy 500 crash, repeating his stellar start to the season that he enjoyed last year. Honda locked out the top 6 while Penske and the rest of the Chevrolet’s seemed at a loss to explain their lack of pace, something that they’ll be hoping to reverse for Phoenix.

The rookies did well over the weekend as a whole; most lacked the final decent finishing result, Wickens and Matheus Leist for example, but they showed credible pace throughout practice and qualifying. However, Phoenix is going to be a whole different kettle of fish because, for the majority of the rookies, it will be their first experience of an oval weekend.

Phoenix was the fourth race of the season last year so is a bit earlier this year, meaning we have even less of an idea of the running order than when we were here last. The last running of Phoenix was won, in dominant fashion, by Simon Pagenaud in what was a Chevrolet whitewash while Honda struggled for pace and were unfortunate enough to have nearly half their runners wiped out in incidents. The main one of those incidents came on the first lap when Mikhail Aleshin, now in LMP1 with SMP, spun mid-corner and took out Marco Andretti, Bourdais, Max Chilton and Graham Rahal. Rossi and Takuma Sato also eliminated themselves in separate incidents to amount to a disaster weekend for Honda.

Ovals have a slightly different format to street courses, there are only two practice sessions for Phoenix and qualifying is done on a solo basis, the race itself will be run over 250 laps.

If you need a reminder, check out our guide to IndyCar by clicking here!

The driver changes between St Petersburg and Phoenix are as follows… Pietro Fittipaldi will take his first turn in the #19 Dale Coyne after Zachary Claman De Melo started off the season in their pre-agreed car share. Ed Carpenter will take the wheel of the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing car from Jordan King, he will also do this for all the remaining oval rounds. Kyle Kaiser will get his first taste of IndyCar in the solo Juncos car, taking over from Rene Binder who kicked the team’s first season off.

Trying to predict who’s going to be strong this weekend isn’t an easy task but you can be fairly sure that the more experienced oval drivers will be stronger than those who are seeing an oval for the first time. Penske and Chevrolet are expected to make an improvement on their substandard weekend at St Petersburg while Honda will be hoping to avoid a repeat of their awful Phoenix GP last year. Realistically, we won’t have a clue about the race until well, the race but qualifying on Saturday should give some sort of idea about the order, even if it is distorted by mistakes or crashes.

You can catch practice and qualifying on any of IndyCar’s streaming channels while the race itself will be shown on the BT Sport/ESPN channel in the UK. The timings, in UK time, are as follows:

Practice 1 – 10:00pm
Qualifying – 1:00am
Final Practice – 4:00am
Race – 2:30am

Given the rather unreasonable times, there will be no Twitter commentary from us for either qualifying or the race but there will be a race report and various follow up articles as usual.

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Heartbreak for Wickens as Bourdais repeats history: IndyCar St Petersburg Report

IndyCar returned in the most IndyCar way possible on the streets of St Petersburg, with eight cautions, multiple lead changes and a lot of crashes! Robert Wickens so nearly took what would’ve been a remarkable win on his debut but a tangle with Alexander Rossi left Sebastien Bourdais to come through and take his first victory since this time last year.

Up until the race, it had been the weekend for the rookies; Wickens, Jordan King and Matheus Leist all made it into the Firestone Fast Six, with Wickens snatching pole from Will Power in the dying moments of qualifying.

As series veteran Helio Castroneves gave the drivers the command to start their engines, the tension was tangible, could a rookie win in their first race or would the old guard put him in his place? After 110 laps, we would have an answer…

Wickens, despite all the pressure, kept his head at the race start and led; Power had started second but he spun in the opening corners – giving Wickens a decent lead by virtue of everyone having to avoid his Penske. The Canadian also survived his first restart, courtesy of Charlie Kimball spinning and stalling, and successfully negotiated his first IndyCar pit stop.

While Wickens seemed to have it all his own way at the front, Bourdais had already been in the wars. The Frenchman had picked up a puncture on the first lap and had to pit, dropping him down the order and putting him off-strategy.

When caution number two, brought out by Spencer Pigot, came to an end, it was Bourdais who was in the lead, albeit on much older tyres than the chasing pack. Bourdais continued to lead through the next two cautions and restarts, brought out by Leist and Sato respectively, but soon the older tyres came back to bite him. Wickens dived down the inside at Turn 1 to reclaim a lead which he held through the next caution and restart, this time caused by Jack Harvey.

Once the pit stops had cycled out, a new contender emerged in the shape of Andretti’s Rossi who’d been quietly going about his business up until then. Wickens led with Rossi in hot pursuit while Bourdais was all but out of it, now eight seconds back on the leading pair.

Wickens and Rossi traded fastest laps but it was clear that Rossi was catching the Canadian rookie – it was game on for the 2016 Indy 500 winner. However, when the pair caught traffic, Rossi ran too hot into Turn 4 and went wide; this mistake dropped the American nearly three seconds back from Wickens who now looked comfortable in the lead.

There was to be another twist to the tail though; Rene Binder was struggling with endurance because of the length of the race and subsequently hit the barriers, bringing out caution number six. This was a godsend for both Rossi and Bourdais who’d since lost touch with Wickens – the race was back on.

Wickens led off the restart with Rossi too busy sliding on his worn tyres to even think of a challenge. Just as Wickens looked to have it in the bag, Max Chilton put his Carlin in the wall to bring out the seventh caution of the race. On the restart, Wickens was slower than Rossi and the latter looked to take advantage of that into Turn 1 however, Rossi was struggling on his tyres, the overtake attempt soon turned into a crash. Wickens was spun around and put in the wall while Rossi was able to continue but it had done its damage to both their races because now, out of the blue, Bourdais was leading.

Wickens’ spin had brought out the eighth and final caution of the race which meant that it ended under yellows so it was a very emotional Bourdais who took an unchallenged victory from Graham Rahal and Rossi.

After the hectic nature of this weekend, all bets are off for the championship as the series heads to Phoenix in just under a month’s time.

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IndyCar Season Preview (Part 2)

Indycar, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Dixon, Kimball, Jones, Rahal, Chilton, Aleshin, , Action, Drivers

Following on from part one, here’s a continued look at what’s to be expected of the 2018 IndyCar season.

 

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

Schmidt enjoyed a relatively good season in 2017 but it was all a bit odd when Mikhail Aleshin was first benched for Toronto and then removed from the team altogether before Pocono.

On the other side of the garage, James Hinchcliffe successfully completed another season without nearly killing himself (see Indy 500, 2015, if that is lost on you). He finally scored his first win since his Indy accident at Long Beach – for someone who was told he’d never walk -let alone race – again, he’s come an awful long way.

Joining the Canadian is fellow compatriot Robert Wickens who has made the jump back over the pond after competing in GP3, Formula Renault 3.5 and more recently DTM. He’ll be looking to learn all he can from Hinchcliffe in his rookie season, although ovals are going to be a new experience for him entirely.

Dale Coyne Racing

Having started so well, 2017 was clearly a disappointment for Dale Coyne – one qualifying run wrecked their season, just like that. Credit where credit is due to Jones for holding the team together in Bourdais’ absence, the youngster didn’t win rookie of the year for nothing.

It was all going so well, Bourdais won the first race, was second in the next and was leading the championship for the first three races before two bad races dropped him down the order. However, all that became insignificant during Q1 at the Indy 500 when Bourdais lost control of his car at 227 mph, he broke his pelvis on impact and unsurprisingly, didn’t return until the third to last race. Clearly, the Indy 500 is going to be a hard one for Bourdais to return to but, like Hinchcliffe did in 2016, he’ll just get on with it and try to not think about the previous year.

Coyne have lost a number of sponsors over the off-season so they ended up splitting the #19 drive to allow for more driver money to come in. Pietro Fittipaldi, grandson of Emerson, and Zachary Claman De Melo will share that drive with Fittipaldi doing seven races, including the Indy 500, and De Melo the other ten. Both drivers will need to learn fast, given they haven’t got as much track time as other rookies but, with Bourdais in the other car, they’ve got a decent driver to learn from.

Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR)

ECR were about as anonymous as they always seem to be these days in 2017. JR Hildebrand had a very hit and miss season with two podiums but only one other top 10 finish while Carpenter and Spencer Pigot shared the other car, with neither finding much success.

For 2017, Hildebrand’s out and Pigot has been moved up to the full-time #21 car while ex-F2 driver Jordan King will fill Pigot’s space in the #20 alongside Carpenter. It’s, other than Carpenter, a fairly inexperienced line up and the drive share in the #20 car never seems to do much good for anyone but that’s the way it’s been for the last few years.

A.J. Foyt Enterprises

Foyt really struggled in 2017 with neither Carlos Munoz nor Conor Daly able to get anything resembling a decent result out of the car. With that in mind, Foyt are attempting to tackle 2018 from a different angle and with a completely new driver line up.

After his fall-out with Chip Ganassi, Kannan has joined Foyt; the IndyCar veteran takes a clear number one status with the team as he is partnered alongside rookie Matheus Leist. 2018 will be a true test of Foyt’s worth as a team with a driver of TK’s calibre on board – we all know what TK can do and soon, we’ll know if Foyt can live up to that.

Carlin

The first of the new teams for 2018 is Carlin; a well-known name in whatever European single-seaters series you look at, Carlin have made the jump over to America to put a top rung on their career ladder. F1 was never going to be a viable option for the British team so they’ve turned to IndyCar to provide their drivers with somewhere to go if they can’t get into F1.

Chilton will be reunited with Carlin after spending a sizeable amount of his pre-F1 career with the team. The Brit is yet to have his breakthrough season in IndyCar so, with a team of Carlin’s competence, 2018 might be just that.

Alongside Chilton will be his old Ganassi teammate Kimball. If there was trouble last year, Kimball always seemed to be in it – whether he found it or it found him, he got into a few too many incidents. Like Chilton, the American is yet to have his breakthrough season, if Carlin can pull it off, both drivers could get their wish.

Harding Racing

It’s been a long time coming but Harding have finally made the upgrade from being a come-and-go Indy 500 and a few others kind of team to a full-time IndyCar team. After running three races, including Indy, last year, Harding are doing the full season with Gabby Chaves who himself makes his return to full-time IndyCar.

They are a small team but, having had a few seasons on the edge of IndyCar, Harding know their way around the paddock and Chaves has been in and around the series since 2015. The playing field has been somewhat levelled with the universal aero kit so it’s a lot easier for new teams to come in however, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still going to be a struggle for all three new teams.

Juncos Racing

The third and final new team to IndyCar is Juncos who will field a shared car, driven by Rene Binder and their Indy Lights champion Kyle Kaiser. Juncos themselves make the jump up to IndyCar after multiple successful seasons in Indy Lights but, unlike Harding, they don’t have any experience of one-off races to help them.

Binder will participate in four of the street races dotted throughout the season while Kaiser will do the rest, including the Indy 500. Both are young drivers with amazing potential so this will be a good opportunity for them to show what they’re worth.

That concludes our team-by-team look at the season ahead. With the new universal aero kits coming in, the field should be closer than ever with more drivers and teams able to fight for wins and the championship. This should be a good one!

2018 IndyCar Calendar:

(O) – Oval, (R) – Road/Circuit

March 11 – St. Petersburg (R)

April 7 – Phoenix (O)

April 15 – Long Beach (R)

April 22 – Birmingham (R)

May 12 – Indianapolis (R)

May 27 – Indianapolis 500 (O)

June 2 – Detroit-Belle Isle (R)

June 3 – Detroit-Belle Isle (R)

June 9 – Texas (O)

June 24 – Road America (R)

July 8 – Iowa (O)

July 15 – Toronto (R)

July 29 – Mid-Ohio (R)

August 19 – Pocono (O)

August 25 – Gateway (O)

September 2 – Portland (R)

September 16 – Sonoma (R)

By Emily Inganni 20/02/18

Imagine courtesy of Honda Media Europe

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IndyCar Season Preview (Part 1)

The new IndyCar season is just a matter of weeks away and, with testing in full swing, here’s a look at what to expect in the season ahead.

Before we get onto 2018, let’s take a quick look back at 2017.

Four drivers dominated while Penske reigned supreme once more on the team’s front. Those four drivers were Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves (all Penske) and Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi) with the former being crowned champion after an edgy duel at the season finale at Sonoma.

The other Penske, Will Power, had horrendous bad luck all season long with bad result after bad result ruling him out of any chance of a performance to resemble 2016.

Elsewhere, IndyCar veteran Sebastien Bourdais started with a season that was almost too good to be true and, unfortunately for both the Frenchman and team Dale Coyne, it was. A monster crash at the Indy 500 left Bourdais with a fractured pelvis, all but ending his season.

Speaking of the Indy 500, a certain Fernando Alonso made a headline appearance only for his Honda machinery to let him down once more while it was ex-F1 driver Takuma Sato who took the victory.

Let’s have a look ahead at what the season has in store…

 

Team Penske

Penske come into 2018 as the team to beat after an incredibly successful past couple of years. Back-to-back titles with first Pagenaud in 2016 and then Newgarden in 2017 means that Penske have some living up to if they’re to top that.

For Newgarden, the golden boy of IndyCar, anything short of a title challenge will be considered a disappointment, following his remarkable 2017 season. Few would ever doubt Newgarden’s talents, he’s a driver who’s been looked at by multiple F1 teams and is widely considered to be one of the best on the IndyCar grid. However, very few people expected him to triumph in his first year at Penske; sure, he’d won a race at Ed Carpenter Racing the year previous but even so, a year of learning was expected from Newgarden. No one seemed to tell him that though as the young American gave his much more experienced teammates a proper wake-up call.

2016 champion Pagenaud will be looking to act upon that wake-up from Newgarden in 2018. Many expected the Frenchman to put a very strong fight for his title and maybe even retain it however, we expected him to be fighting against Power, Dixon, Castroneves and Graham Rahal – in other words, the old guard. Yet no, Pagenaud had to attempt to fend off attack after attack from his new teammate as well as all the older drivers. This accumulated to a blow out at Gateway where Newgarden infuriated Pagenaud by passing in very close quarters through Turn 3. Keeping his head wasn’t one of Pagenaud’s strong points in 2017 so that’ll defiantly be something he’ll want to change for the upcoming season if he’s to put Penske’s youngster back in his place.

Will Power was often forgotten during 2017; after a matter of races he became irrelevant to the championship following a streak of incidents and failures. After taking Pagenaud right down to the wire in 2016, this came as a massive disappointment to both Power and Penske but, given his clear talent, it’s a season that everyone expects him to come back stronger from. They call those tough seasons “character building” and they are needed every once in a while, to keep a driver in check – Power will be hoping that all that is consigned to the history books as he bids for his second title.

Penske is just three-man team in 2018 after Castroneves, as they did with Juan Pablo Montoya last year, was transferred to Penske’s sports car campaign. It was felt that Castroneves’ time in IndyCar was up and, unfortunately, the Brazilian leaves the series having never won a championship.

 

Chip Ganassi Racing

Ganassi has a fresh look to it for 2018 after Max Chilton, Tony Kannan and Charlie Kimball all parted ways with owner Chip following multiple high-profile fall outs. Their star driver, Dixon, however, is staying on for another year with Chip and his team. The title is very much on their agenda while the full support of the team is expected to be but behind Dixon, rather than Ed Jones.

Dixon comes off the back of a mixed but mostly successful season; his huge, aerial crash at the Indy 500 and subsequent ankle injury hampered his outings at Detroit and Texas – damaging his titles hopes as a result. Despite this, he found himself leading the championship for six races during the mid-season before being eventually passed by Newgarden. He’ll be hoping to keep his feet, well car, firmly on the ground this season while putting in a strong challenge for the title. The 37-year old is still looking for his record-breaking fifth title.

Alongside the vastly experienced Dixon will be 2017’s rookie of the year, Jones. 2017 should’ve been the year that Jones learnt his craft in IndyCar alongside Bourdais at Daye Coyne however, that all went a bit wrong, what with the Frenchman’s Indy 500 crash. Suddenly, Jones found himself having to lead a team with the merry-go-round of drivers in the #18 car; a hard ask for anyone, let alone a rookie. Nonetheless, Jones showed immense maturity and skill, delivering some very impressive results and landing himself a seat at Ganassi. 2018 should be a continuation of the learning with Dixon clearly the teams number 1 driver.

 

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL)

The once solo affair of RLL is expanding to two full-time cars for 2018 with long-time driver Rahal (his father Bobby Rahal co-owns the team, if you were wondering) being partnered by the 2017 Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato.

Rahal is a very respected figure in the paddock and it’s a wonder how he still doesn’t have a title to his name. He put in a relatively strong showing for 2017 with his only two wins coming at Detroit, a track that he’s dominated at for as long as anyone can remember. The car was just never quite there and Rahal got into a few incidents that he need of not. With another car to draw data from, the hope is that RLL will be much more competitive in 2018.

Alongside Rahal will be Sato who jumped ship from Andretti after the owners dithered around as to whether they were going to stay with Honda or not. Sato’s highlight of 2017 was by far and away his unexpected win at the Indy 500 over Castroneves. He’s expected to back up and maybe challenge Rahal for 2018, providing valuable data and track time for the team in the meantime.

 

Andretti Autosport

Andretti, if I’m being honest, were a bit of a disappointment last year; yes, they won the Indy 500 and yes, they ran Alonso but their highest placed driver in the championship was only seventh. Clearly, improvement is needed at Andretti if they’re to restore their place as title challengers, if not winners.

Alexander Rossi finally secured his second win in IndyCar in 2017 at Watkins Glen to go along with his rather fluky 2016 Indy 500 win. This was an important milestone for Rossi because it proved the doubters wrong, he showed that he could win a race purely on ability, rather than clever strategy and luck. This and more is expected of the ex-F1 driver as he looks to spearhead Andretti’s title challenge.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti will line up alongside Rossi again with both drivers hoping to keep Rossi in order, reminding the world that Andretti isn’t just a one-man band.

The RLL bound Sato has been replaced by IndyCar rookie Zach Veach who makes the step up after three seasons in Indy Lights. It’s expected to be a learning year for the young American and, with three experienced teammates alongside him, that should be easier for him than some.

 

Keep an eye out for part two with the second half of the teams…

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Project CARS 2 Review

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 Slightly Mad, Beautifully Authentic
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Project CARS 2 is a sequel to the original game released in May 2015. Once more developed and published by Slightly Mad Studios, the game doubles in car size, now boasting 182 cars from 38 different manufacturers with additions from Ferrari and Porsche. Electronic Arts lost their exclusive contract with Porsche recently, the manufacturer now appearing on all new driving releases, Slightly Mad used RUF in 2015.
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It now holds the record, taking it from the first edition for most tracks, 46 locations and 121 different formats, Knockhill in Scotland, Long Beach in America and historic tracks such as the high speed Hockenheim in Germany which you can see above.
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It is the first game in recent years to have secured a contract with Verizon who own Indycar, boasting the full 2016 car roster and liveries with the Indy 500 as an official event. This is a tier 1 category in career mode. All cars and tracks are available on single player and online from the start so no need to do any unlocking if you are a casual gamer.
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The weather/physics system they use, Livetrack, is in its third form a truly dynamic approach to rain, and especially to dirt and snow taking a leaf from Codemasters’ critically acclaimed DiRT series with Rallycross entering the fray.
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Because of such unique situations, where puddles form and dry out individually, the track never seems static, always evolving in the process throughout the race. A true challenge especially in the lower categories. As you can see below the spray in the Formula rookie series around Watkins Glen. You can also see from this the lovely graphics the game has and graphical interface of position on track, track map and speedometer.
The career mode which was such a success on the first game is just polished further, having the tiers of category, starting low down in tier 6 with Go-Karts or Formula Rookie, heading towards the heights of Indycar and the World Endurance series.
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Depending on your success, you will be invited to a series of invitationals, so much so you might do a Nico Hulkenburg or Fernando Alonso and attempt the historic events of the Le Mans 24 Hours and Indy 500, of which if you fancy can be the full duration, but shortened down to a smaller time if you wish.
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The most fine tuned cars on the gaming market. The noise and handing of them are so realistic, the way you could tune the setups for the cars is amazing. There are probably thousands of different setups, where a 0.1psi change on a tyre makes a huge difference.
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They have also got eSport interest and will be streaming events on the internet. Qualification for these events will begin shortly. For all you gamer nerds the achievements on Xbox and trophies on Playstation are a slight challenge, but doing these give you the full appreciation of the game.
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Project CARS 2 is everything you wish for a sequel to be, bigger, better and amazing. One of, if not the best driving simulator I have ever driven on! Further DLC is announced, so more tracks and cars to get aswell! Gaming at its highest level.
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Chris Lord
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Pictures are captures on a Playstation 4, from @C_Lordy91 twitter.  This game is out on PC, PS4 and Xbox One from 22/09/2017.
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