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Andretti hoping new aero won't derail team's Indy 500 form
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Brant James / Image by LePage/LAT




Michael Andretti likes the new IndyCar universal body kit. He likes the look. He expects it will eventually save Andretti Autosport money, although the start-up costs have been "so expensive," he said, for his four-car team.

But how the first-year application will impact the most important race of the season concerns him, and he won't be able to alleviate his concerns until cars begin practicing for 102nd Indianapolis 500 in May. Andretti hopes the switch from Chevrolet- and Honda-produced bodywork to a uniformity won't sour the very special recipe his team struck upon in winning three of the last four 500s with Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014), then-rookie Alexander Rossi (2016) and Takuma Sato (2017).
 
"I'm very worried," Andretti said during a break in testing on Wednesday at Sebring International Raceway. "Whenever you change anything and you don't know what you have, until you're out there, yeah, I'm worried. We've had such a good package since 2012 at least, so... I don't see how it can be any better than that, so that's what worries me."

Rossi, perhaps buoyed by having won half of his Indianapolis 500 starts, seemed confident his manufacturer and team would adjust.

"Honda had an advantage, but we were beating other Honda teams, so you'd like to think the package that we have is good there," Rossi said. "They've proven that over the past five years. You obviously have to work very hard to make sure you stay in that window and are still executing at the level you need to win, but I don't see any reason why we couldn't go back to Indy and have the same kind of opportunities we had there in the past."

Andretti won't be placated until he sees his Hondas maneuvering to expectation in traffic around the 2.5-mile speedway.

"There's nothing we can do. We don't know if we'll be able to draft off the car in front or we're going to be able to pass them, are they going to take all the air off the car," he pondered. "We don't know. Until we get there, we're not going to know. You can't simulate another car front of you. By yourself, it's fine. It's when you have other cars."

Andretti's Hondas were particularly foreboding in 2016, when Rossi won on a fuel gambit, with teammate Carlos Munoz second and the cars of Ryan Hunter-Reay and one-off teammate Townsend Bell dominant early before they collided on pit road on Lap 117. Sato passed Helio Castroneves with five laps left to win the race for the first time last May.

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IndyCar rules direction influenced by possible new manufacturers
By Tom Errington
Published on Thursday January 25th 2018]



 
IndyCar president of competitions Jay Frye says the championship's direction is being influenced by manufacturers who could potentially join the series in the future.

Frye has revealed IndyCar's current regulatory path was set between 2015 and '16 in collaboration with non-series manufacturers it had been in talks with, as well as current competitors and partners.

Senior IndyCar figures are known to have spent time travelling and meeting with potential third manufacturers in the 2017 off-season, and removing aerokit development from the rules was said to have been greeted positively by potential future entrants.

The series has now launched its new 2018 car complete with the new universal aerokit as part of its five-year plan, and Frye told Autosport last month that adding a third manufacturer alongside Chevrolet and Honda was a "massive priority".

"[In] the winter of 2015 we started talking about the aerokits and the future and where we wanted to go collectively as a group," said Frye.

"Simultaneously we started talking to some other OEM prospects and based on all those conversations we really got to this point. So in March of '16, we came up with a vision of what it could look like.

"The vision was through collaboration with our OEM partners, our teams, our paddock, and the fans.

"I think this will be the centrepiece of this five-year plan that we have in going forward."

Chevrolet took a "leap of faith" to join IndyCar



Chevrolet has admitted it had to take a "leap of faith" to join IndyCar for 2012 (St Petersburg season-opener pictured above) given the series' struggles in the final years of its previous rules package.

Honda had been the only supplier before Chevrolet joined, while Lotus managed only a single season in 2012 after a dismal campaign.

Chevy and Honda signed long-term commitments to IndyCar last year, and president of General Motors North America Mark Reuss said it validated his company's earlier risk.

"A few years ago when we sat down and put this engine programme together again to get back into this sport, it was a little bit of a leap of faith," he said.

"But I can tell you that the new crew here with Jay, CJ [O'Donnell, chief marketing officer] and Mark [Miles, CEO] have done a great job of growing the sport.

"The twin-turbo V6 is something where we take that technology - like the fuel injection piece of that and the direct injection - and take it right into our passenger cars and crossovers, so there's a great engineering technical exchange.

"There's a great fanbase we reach, and it's in a place that's now growing again, and I couldn't be happier for American motorsports and open-wheel racing."

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Andretti Autosport paces Wednesday Sebring test
Thursday, 25 January 2018
By Marshall Pruett / Image by IMS Photo




Although the lap times were unofficial, most in attendance on Wednesday at Sebring positioned Andretti Autosport as the fastest team among the sizable group of drivers to lap in optimal afternoon conditions.

Of the 13 drivers in action, Andretti's Ryan Hunter-Reay reportedly led teammates Alexander Rossi and Marco Andretti by two tenths with a lap of 51.1s, Graham Rahal was fourth in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda four tenths back from Hunter-Reay, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' Robert Wickens was fifth a half-second behind, and they were followed by Dale Coyne Racing's Sebastien Bourdais, Andretti's Zach Veach, SPM's James Hinchcliffe, RLL's Takuma Sato, Carlin Racing's Max Chilton, A.J. Foyt Racing's Tony Kanaan, DCR's Zachary Claman De Melo and Foyt's Matheus Leist.
 
"It was day two for me with the new car, were able to iron out some kinks from the first test we did here in the new bodywork, and I was in the car pretty much the whole day," Hunter-Reay told RACER. "We found good changes that put us in the right direction on a lot of things, but the underlying characteristics people talk about with the new car is still there; it's still on top of the track without all the downforce we had last year. That still takes some getting used to."

The lower downforce and rear ride height sensitivity with the UAK18 bodywork has made for exciting times in the brake zones and while turning after braking, which Hunter-Reay believes is a reality that cannot be overcome with normal setup changes.

"It's a busier time behind the wheel, especially with a full stint on tires," he said. "Our goal needs to be to make it as tied together and balanced as possible through the different phases of a corner, but that more lively rear end could be here to stay. I'm a fan of the direction we're going, back to the lower downforce days of 2012-2014. It's a good call by IndyCar."

Rahal got to grips with the new bodywork and a different seating position on Wednesday.

"We tried to stick to a list and work our way through it, and by the end of the day, I felt like we got to where we wanted to be; I really enjoyed it, and the Andretti cars were quick, but they already had a day there so there's no surprise they went fastest," he said.

"I started the day with a different seat that had me a lot lower in the car, so that was visually different and took a while to adjust to, but I like the car a lot. It's really fast; it accelerates like crazy. It brakes really well. It's fun."

Rahal spent the day working with Tom German as his new race engineer, and made sure to give IndyCar's Holmatro Safety Team some input on the car as well.

"I saw the Holmatro guys and told them to be ready because they're going to be very busy this year with all the spins and stuff I think we're going to see," he said with a laugh. "The car's a blast, but it's also a handful, so it's going to be exciting everywhere we go. And working with Tom was great. He's very direct; he doesn't want to know too much – just the most important things that are going to help improve the car – and I like that approach. I'd say we got off to a great start together."

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F1's top three teams are reportedly not on board with plans made by Liberty Media to change how merchandise is sold at grands prix.

Until now, teams have sold from individual stalls, but Liberty Media is now adopting an approach pioneered but then abandoned by Nascar in which merchandise is all sold under one single 'tent' roof.

"We have done extensive research and all the race promoters support the plan," Liberty Media's F1 commercial boss Sean Bratches is quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper.

However, the Finnish publication says Mercedes and Red Bull, but crucially also F1's most famous team Ferrari, are not happy with the plan.

"Throughout history, Ferrari has sold more merchandise than any other team and they have no trouble finding the red of what they are looking for," a unnamed source said.

"If the fans are impatient, they will not go to a big hall where they have to go a long way to find where they want. I believe we will lose revenue with this new structure."

 

Ovo sto Liberti predlaze tako radi Indikar. Ima 2-3 lokacije u okviru staze gde se prodaju suveniri - recimo kape, majice i slicno u jednom satoru, modeli i makete u drugom, sitni suveniri (solje, naocare za sunce, privesci, pizdematerine) u trecem - svi timovi i vozaci zajedno, jedan do drugog. Nije nikakva komplikacija pronaci ono sto trazis, sve je lepo jasno izlozeno. Satori su locirani strateski gde najvise mase prolazi i nema sanse da ih neko ne vidi.

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https://www.instagra.../p/BeYahE-FW2G/

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Iz Kojna porucuju da ocekuju resenje situacije oko angazmana vozaca u drugom bolidu pre narednog testa u Finiksu. Iako bi bilo idealno da nadju jednog vozaca za kompletnu sezonu, za sada se pokazalo nemoguce sklopiti finansijsku konstrukciju za tako nesto. Trenutno najizgledije resenje deluje angazman dvojice vozaca za po pola sezone a imena koja se pominju kao najozbiljniji kandidati su rukiji Kandadjanin Zak Klaman Demelo i novi izdanak dinastije Fitipaldi, Emersonov unuk Pjetro.

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Srecan 41. rodjendan!

 

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Roger Penske: 2018 IndyCar aerokit will prove who best drivers are
By Tom Errington
Published on Wednesday January 31st 2018



 
Team owner Roger Penske says the 2018 IndyCar season will show who the best drivers in the series are because the new car package relies less on downforce.

IndyCar officially launched its 2018 car in Detroit earlier this month, with the new universal aerokit that will replace Honda and Chevrolet's designs on show.

Chevrolet had a clear advantage over Honda between 2015-17 and the significant aerodynamics made overtaking harder to achieve.

In a bid to improve racing and lower costs, IndyCar's new package is a far simpler design that will reduce downforce with the aim of improving racing.

Penske believes the changes will highlight IndyCar's best drivers.

"What they've done from a competitive standpoint, and also when you look at it from the driver's standpoint, it puts the driver back in the car," he said.

"It's a whole different driving technique. It's going to be interesting to see which drivers adapt to it quickly.

"[Before] the downforce made the car easier to drive because the car was so stuck to the ground.

"Now, with the high speed and [less] downforce, getting into the corners the car will be freer and they're going to have to really be on top of it. "It's going to bring the cream to the top, for sure."

New package helps smaller teams



Penske also said the changes to the car will help entice smaller teams to compete in IndyCar.

The series has added a two-car entry from Carlin, as well as single entries from Harding Racing, Juncos Racing and Michael Shank Racing across the upcoming year.

While the outgoing manufacturer aerokit era was seen as financially prohibitive to new teams, Penske argued that would no longer be the case.

"What I like about it is we can sell our older cars and buy new ones and teams can buy a used car and go get the new aero kit and compete," he said.

"That's what's nice about it from a cost perspective. That, to me, is what we need to have in this sport.

"With the escalation of technology tying into these race cars, the cost has just gone out of sight. What they've done at IndyCar is bring these costs back.

"The aerokits are the same, we all buy it, they're supplied by one supplier, so we don't have costs that are out of sight. That, to me, is some good rational thinking that's gone into it."

Penske added adapting to the new aerokit would require his team to make only "minimal" changes.

"This kit is an evolution of the race car over a number of years," he said.

"The costs are down and today we're looking at that in racing because they've been escalating so much over the past several years.

"The changeover will be minimal for us. It's a matter of [adjusting to] the new look and the new aerokits.

"It's an evolution of the existing car, but it gives us a different product for the drivers and the teams."

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Novi sponzor za Rehola, i to kakav kapitalac!

 

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Castroneves vows to race in Indy 500 “for next few years”



By: David Malsher, US Editor
Co-author: Jamie Klein, News Editor
Yesterday at 6:54pm


Helio Castroneves says the drive for his fourth Indianapolis 500 win will ensure he keeps returning to IMS in May, despite his fulltime role now being in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship.

The three-time Indy 500 winner was one of the stars of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, despite hitting trouble on the debut of the Penske-run Acura ARX-05. But although he is relishing the challenge of sportscar racing, he says his plan is to continue running in the 500.

Whereas teammate Juan Pablo Montoya last year had a “bonus” GP Indy/Indy 500 ride with Team Penske after his fulltime IndyCar career ended at the end of 2016, Castroneves suggests he will be making repeat runs at IMS.

“We gotta get that fourth win!” he said. “Hopefully this year we’ll make it… then we gotta talk about five!

“Right now, for the next few years for sure [I will race at Indy].”

Asked if he could confirm that meant at least two more years, he replied, “Yeah.”

Although he will arrive for the GP Indy this year lacking experience of the radically new 2018 aerokit when compared with the majority of his rivals, Castroneves says he is confident he can adapt swiftly.

Indeed, he cites his latest sportscar experiences as a potential aid.

“I feel being in sportscars right now could help me [adapt to the ’18 car] because I’ve got to adapt quick,” he said. “It doesn’t need to be the same car all the time, and this is perfect timing.

"I will do the Indy GP, so I can get familiarized a bit with the car, and also the mechanics who will do the 500 can get the rhythm back and everything.

“It’s a great opportunity, and I also have my teammates to rely on. There are a lot of ways I’ll probably be able to adapt quick, but this is a great way to start it.”

On the subject of why he made the switch to sportscars, despite finishing in the top four in the 2017 IndyCar championship and achieving a win and three pole positions, Castroneves bluntly said his decision was about career longevity.

“It’s an opportunity that Roger [Penske] gave me to be here in sportscars. I couldn’t pass it on,” he said. “To do one or two more years in IndyCar, we talked about it. But I could see a longer future here and that’s why I decided to take it.

“At this stage of my career, a lot of people might say, what the heck am I doing? To be honest, I think it rejuvenates because you start all over again.

"I have a [driver in his 20s, IMSA partner Ricky Taylor] telling me and I’m asking for his opinion, because he has the experience. We’re doing things that I never did before.

“Even the team is actually doing things they never did before. I think it’s great momentum for Team Penske. We’re going to translate it to the NASCAR side, to the IndyCar side. Everything is brand new.”

Asked if he foresaw maybe five or six more years in sportscars, the 42-year-old Castroneves said, “Ten, hopefully!

“Scott Pruett [57] is finishing his career now. I admire drivers that keep going that long. I want to keep competing and challenge for wins. That will be the goal.”

Castroneves, former class winner at Petit Le Mans in the Penske Porsche RS Spyder, scored pole on his return to sportscars last year, driving the Penske Oreca-Gibson at Road Atlanta.

He qualified second for the Rolex 24 last week before dropping out of contention for victory after contact with the Action Express Cadillac of Felipe Nasr.

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Novi Indikar tim Majk Senk Rejsing koji ce ucestvovati na 6 trka ove sezone sa Dzekom Harvijem za volanom objavio je prve fotke svog bolida:

 

 

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Vikensov bolid u SPM timu:

 

 

Boja i sponzor ne iznenadjuju, ali broj da - umesto ocekivane sedmice "Viki Bobi" ce voziti br. 6.

Hinc ostaje u zlatnom #5, kao i do sada.

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New SPM engineer Leena Gade thrilled to know nothing about IndyCar
Jim Ayello, jim.ayello@indystar.com
Published 11:46 p.m. ET Jan. 31, 2018

 

INDIANAPOLIS— It’s Jan. 22, two days before Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ first test of the new year, and Leena Gade is, admittedly, close to clueless. The new lead engineer for James Hinchcliffe’s No. 5 Honda has not only never worked on an Indy car before, but the Briton had never even been to a speedway for a race. She remembers watching the Indianapolis 500 on TV and visiting Indianapolis Motor Speedway nearly two decades ago, but outside of that, the ins and outs of ovals are a foreign language to her. In fact, she’s never seen a majority of the tracks the Verizon IndyCar Series will visit this year.

But Gade laughs as she's confessing all of this. Honestly, she’s saying, being behind the 8-ball with less than two months to go before the first race of the season is sort of thrilling.

“It’s a totally new challenge,” explains Gade, who arrived at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in mid-January with credentials highlighted by a whopping three victories as a lead engineer at the world-famous sports car endurance race, 24 Hours of Le Mans. “I think there are a lot of people who would get intimidated by getting out of their comfort zone like this, but at the end of the day, it’s probably the most fun there will ever be. I like being on the edge (laughs).”

Don’t misunderstand her. The 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship “Man of the Year” and first woman to be a lead engineer in the history of the Verizon IndyCar Series is very aware she has a lot of catching up to do before March 11 at St. Petersburg, and she’s not taking that responsibility lightly. But Gade can’t help but chuckle at how little she knows about Indy cars on her first days on the job. She’s beyond excited to be a tackling a challenge so alien to her. Especially after her last job.

Gade was bored at her off-the-track management position within Bentley. After spending six successful years as an engineer at Audi’s World Endurance Championship team, she quickly discovered she wasn’t ready to live a life away from the track. She missed diagnosing problems and making snap judgment calls. She craved the thrill of race weekend and the sweet taste of victory. She longed for pit lane and wanted a way back on it.

That’s where Piers Phillips, SPM General Manager and a longtime friend of Gade, comes in.

Phillips was hired three years ago by team owners Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson to change the culture at SPM. They wanted him to transform a good IndyCar program into a consistent championship contender. And don't be afraid to get creative, they told him.

“We want to take this team to a different level and get away from not necessarily an insular way of thinking, but bringing people into IndyCar who stick their head above the trench and look in a different direction — trying to look for different working methods, different protocols, different engineering solutions, so hiring her was ideal, really,” said Phillips, who has overhauled SPM’s IndyCar program during the offseason. “A perfect fit for us.”

In other words, rather than being scared off by Gade’s inexperience with Indy cars, Phillips embraced it. While Gade has never worked within the American open-wheel circuit before, she spent years working on LMP (Le Mans Prototype) race cars, known to be among the most technically complicated cars in motor sports — far more so than Indy cars. With that type of expertise and her lengthy resume of sports car successes on street and road courses, Phillips added, the highly sought-after Gade was at the top of his list to fill the spot at lead engineer. Actually, Phillips said, he had hoped to bring in Gade sooner. Not long ago, he had reached out to her about running SPM’s third car at Indianapolis but scheduling conflicts kept Gade from making her IndyCar debut in the states this past May.

As disappointed as Gade was about not being able to cross the 500 off her bucket list, she was all the more delighted when Phillips called her in the offseason about taking on the No. 5 car full time.

“I was jumping up and down in my kitchen when I spoke with Piers,” said Gade, who first realized she wanted to be an engineer as a teenager when she and her sister became entranced by Formula One races on TV. “This is what I wanted to do.”

Along with her enthusiasm and expertise in the field, Philips said, there were a couple of other reasons Gade was his top choice to captain the No. 5 team. She’s known as an excellent communicator with drivers — she and Hinchcliffe already seem to have clicked, Phillips said — and she’s has proved time and time again that she’s at her best with her back against at the wall.

Gade has never learned more about herself or what she was capable of than she did seven years ago, her first year as lead engineer Audi Sport Team.

“Everything that could go wrong went wrong,” Gade recalled with a somber chuckle. It was one mistake after another, and as the errors compounded, Gade remembers, she began to feel that she was in over her head. She started talking too fast over the radio, confusing her crew, and her panic began to permeate throughout the team.

At the low point of the season, Gade’s car ran out of fuel in consecutive races.

“I probably should have been fired,” she said.

She wasn’t, and after a bit of soul searching and the support of her crew, Gade helped turn around a team that once couldn’t get out its own way into the champion of the biggest endurance race in the world: Le Mans.

“It was just an awful, awful experience to go through because you’re out there in the open and you’re reacting to it, and everyone sees it,” Gade remembers. “But it helped build me up to being the engineer I am today. I think it really helped to get things wrong at that stage and to know that you make can make it out on the other side.”

Phillips remembers those times well, too. Along with being Gade’s friend, he was the technical director of Strakka Racing, a fellow participant in endurance car competition. He never forgot what he saw Gade overcome that year and said that anyone who can fight through adversity like that is exactly the type of person he wants to helping him change the culture at SPM. And he’s not the only one.

“She has a history of being thrown into sink-or-swim situations, and she’s still breathing” said Hinchcliffe, who first met Gade in Europe during their days in the A1 Grand Prix Series. “When her name came up in the conversation, it was a pretty quick yes.”

Both Hinchcliffe and Phillips are confident Gade can help lift SPM into the elite class of IndyCar — and stay there. While the team enjoyed some exciting highs last season, topped by Hinchcliffe’s win at Long Beach, there were far too many lows, particularly in May, Philips lamented. With many new faces around the shop, including Gade, Phillips and Hinchcliffe, expect a few speed bumps early in the season before the team takes off and begins producing consistent top-six qualifying runs and equally successful results on race day.

Gade said she is more than up for that challenge, daunting though it may be.

“When I thought about all (the things I didn’t know) ... and looked at what I wanted out of the next stage of my career, it was about having a brand new challenge and it was about learning something new and really pushing myself to my limits,” Gade said. "Putting myself outside my comfort zone of what I knew, what I was used to, what I was good at doing and trying something new.

"So I’m really looking forward to the challenge and right now I’m thinking: ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve got a lot to do.’ ”