After a surely disappointing and exciting race, all spread out over the course of two hours, it's time for the first installment of the Monday Debrief, Indycar Edition. There's a lot to talk about after the first race of the season, with a variety of pissed off, content, and happy folks following an interesting Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. And if you want to see photos from the race weekend, click here.
The Cluster%&#@ery of Turn 1 and Double-File Restarts
Boogity, boogity, boogity. The jury is still out after Sunday's disastrous first 15 laps, which saw four caution flags eliminate most of the big contenders. The drivers had a variety of thoughts on the matter. Oriol Servia and Simona de Silvestro (a loser in the first turn and winner in the first turn, respectively) both came out in favor of it. Race winner Dario Franchitti was a more moderate voice, telling AUTOSPORT:
"Is the problem the double-file restart? Is it the late acceleration? Or, is it just people not paying attention? Not that they are not paying attention, but not respecting each other, just being crazy and going for gaps that aren't there. Which one is it; we have to figure that out. And then we can change it."
In theory, the double-file restarts could work. One of the problems I saw after arriving home and watching the race broadcast was the late acceleration point. What you ended up having was the back of the field come charging up to catch up to the pack and then getting on the brakes hard. So then the whole field was jammed together waiting for the green flag to fly. And then you had people flying up the inside from way back in the pack because they saw the tiniest sliver of space (I'm looking at you, Castroneves).
I agree with Dario and Oriol Servia on this one. They'll get it figured out. It may take some tweaks, and the drivers will have to learn how to successfully negotiate it, but they'll get there.
All of this consternation over the start reminds me...
Is this finally starting to feel a bit like the old CART days?
Let's flash back to a time like 1999 or 2000, the end of the glory days. Let's go to Cleveland 2000, where there was another big first lap shimozzle (this would be the first of the infamous Cone starts at Cleveland) that involved a certain Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, and about six other cars. These incidents weren't caused by ride-buying wankers plowing up the back of the field (see: Champ Car 2004-2007). People were getting together in the first corner because they all thought they had a chance to win and they were all relatively big name drivers.
Look back at the accident on the first lap, and who caused it? That's right, twinkle toes Castroneves himself, one of the golden boy big names of the series.
Now that the field is pretty deep this year (for the first time in a long time) maybe we're finally starting to get the quality back to where it was in the glory days. Maybe. But maybe I'm just being hopeful and longing for the days of old.
Simona de Silvestro vs. Michael Cannon
I'm a fan of interesting subplots. The subplot of the Simona vs. Tony Kanaan battle was one that I just couldn't get enough of. Michael Cannon, who is thought of so highly and was instrumental in helping develop Simona in her first season, abruptly left HVM after the Barber test to join the new Tony Kanaan entry at KV Racing. Of course, then Simona found herself locked in a battle all race long against the car that Michael Cannon now engineers.
Unfortunately, Simona wasn't able to squeeze past Tony, but she put on a helluva show. Getting as high as second, dropping to fourth, and then charging and closing the gap down to TK was impressive. Hopefully we'll see HVM get qualifying sorted out so that she can start further towards the front in future races. Also good to see Simona put everyone's favorite one-race winner to shame and successfully knife through the field rather than getting caught up in an incident and languishing back in the pack.
Andretti Autosport
Finally, maybe someone will be able to put some consistent pressure on Penske and Ganassi on the road courses. Who knows if Andretti will be able to keep up on the ovals, but we'll shoot for small victories. Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay looked impressive all weekend. Conway was a serious contender for pole position and RHR got knocked back by traffic and a yellow flag during his qualifying group.
KV Racing
While EJ Viso appeared determined throughout the weekend to change the name of his side of the team to KV Crashing Technology, Takuma Sato and Tony Kanaan finally put in some solid results for the team that crashed more times than one can count using their hands and feet. Viso crashed in the first three practice sessions, forced the team to roll out a backup car, then managed to crash again during the race. Kanaan and Sato, meanwhile, were steady all weekend and stuck around to benefit from the rest of the field forgetting how to use their brains. Kanaan wound up on the podium and Sato was a Indycar career best fifth place.
AFS Racing
Another beneficiary of the disaster at the front was AFS Racing's Rafa Matos, who hung on to finish in seventh place. I had a chance to speak to Neil Micklewright, who is now the team manager at AFS, early in the weekend. The team is right now planning to only run the road course races and the Indy 500 in preparation for next season and are hopeful to run Matos the rest of the year. Following a solid outing like they put in at St. Pete, hopefully that will garner Matos at least a part-time situation at AFS for the remainder of 2011.
Finally, Dale Coyne Racing and Sebastien Bourdais
A combination that was sure to produce some interesting results, DCR and Bourdais bounced around the leaderboard throughout the weekend. Bourdais was eighth quickest in Friday's second practice, before struggling Saturday and ultimately being wrecked out of qualifying and starting way back in the back. Well, if he'd started. Bourdais had a big crash in the fast chicane, bouncing off the inside wall before spearing head-on into the wall on the outside of the chicane. Bourdais' car was toast, and the DCR crew was left to scramble to put together James Jakes' car after he crashed at the same time.
I spent some time watching the DCR crew hustle between the warm-up and the race trying to repair Jakes' car. They were salvaging pieces off of Bourdais' car, including the floor and some of the suspension. DCR persevered and got Jakes' car out onto the grid shortly before the race began.
Both Sebastien Bourdais and his father spent a significant quantity of time sulking around the paddock following his accident. I'm sure this wasn't the way they had foreseen the 2011 season starting off, by not starting at all. Bourdais left his American hometown behind with no result. Next he moves on to Barber, a natural road course, and hopefully a place that he will do well at and improve upon the lackluster test results he and DCR put up a few weeks ago.
The four-time Champ Car champion will hopefully have a chance to shine on one or two of the road courses throughout the season. Maybe Mid-Ohio or a street course on which he has experience will let us see a glimpse of the speed that destroyed the Champ Car field.
