OT: Sebastien Bourdais!!

[oliver1850]

Robert Wickens dominated the race in St. Pete and deserved to win, but it was great to see Bourdais come to the front after a solid drive and leading 30 laps. I can't imagine what the last 10 months have been like for him after his horrific crash at Indy. Only knock on the race would be that I'd like to see Rossi in 18th and Wickens 3rd rather than the reverse. Can't blame Rossi for going for the win, but Wickens suffered much more from the attempt than Rossi.

[Bruce K]

While Rossi overdid it a little, Wickens gave him zero room for error.

If he had still been in a touring car it would not have mattered, but open wheel is very different. He paid a price for his decision.

That said, he will win one this season for sure.

It looks like Indy Car is off to the start of an interesting and exciting season with lots of new faces who possess excellent skills.

BK

[soulspinner]

tough to see Wickens have such a great day in the car and come up empty....

[Plum Hill]

My biggest disappointment was not getting to see Sam Schmidt in the winner’s circle.

[oliver1850]

Sam certainly deserved to be there, and will make it there this year I think. The team looked to have given both cars everything possible. I didn't realize he has the spasm attacks, one of which occurred during his interview during the race. What he has been through is amazing, as are his post-accident accomplishments.

After watching the incident again, I can see Bruce's point. It looks like Wickens closed the door on Rossi at the last moment. That's evidently how Rossi sees it as he stated that given a bit of room they would have finished 1-2 instead of 3-18.

Will be interesting to see if the same folks are contenders at Long Beach a month from now.

[cfox]

I was crushed for Wickens and Schmidt. Wickens is a baller, he'll be back. I love the new cars; not only are they beautiful, they really level the playing field. The new guys have no legacy skills to unlearn with the old cars. I was snobby about spec racing at first, but I've now fully embraced it and prefer it to F1. It's like karting, cars are fast through setup and tuning, not hundreds of millions of dollars in development. Should be a really exciting season.

OT on OT: I certainly understand the rationale of the F1 halo, but jeezus it is ugly. It looks like a giant sausage wrapped around the driver's head.

[cal_len1]

It was a racing incident, both will be back in the winning circle before the season's over. I'm going to the Indy 500 this year, so the start has me super excited.


OT on OT: I certainly understand the rationale of the F1 halo, but jeezus it is ugly. It looks like a giant sausage wrapped around the driver's head.

If you haven't seen it, the halo testing is super cool, kinda like the frozen chicken jet engine test. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XG0GjJLboQ

[oliver1850]

I was crushed for Wickens and Schmidt. Wickens is a baller, he'll be back. I love the new cars; not only are they beautiful, they really level the playing field. The new guys have no legacy skills to unlearn with the old cars. I was snobby about spec racing at first, but I've now fully embraced it and prefer it to F1. It's like karting, cars are fast through setup and tuning, not hundreds of millions of dollars in development. Should be a really exciting season.

OT on OT: I certainly understand the rationale of the F1 halo, but jeezus it is ugly. It looks like a giant sausage wrapped around the driver's head.

I agree. I think the veterans had a harder time adjusting to the new aero package than the rookies. Just too used to what the old cars could handle, used to established braking points, etc. Also with you on the aesthetics of the cars, the current Ferrari is perhaps the ugliest F1 Ferrari ever. We will get used to the halo but they can work on the rest of the package.

I wouldn't say I'm snobby about spec racing, but I would like to see more than one chassis in Indycar, and more engine manufacturers - which is probably more likely. The first year I went to Indy, four different chassis and three engines made the race, and there were about an equal number (33) of cars that didn't qualify (a multitude of wacky cars, but it was fun to see). If they want to limit costs, it seems they could do away with some of the electronics. I would like to see wings confined to no more than two elements, perhaps even one.

All wishful thinking aside, the racing is great in Indycar.

[FL_MarkD]

I spent Fri/Sat at the race. Wickens was quick all weekend and so were other rookies. Should be an interesting year. Stayed home Sunday and gave my turn 1 tickets to a friend and his buddy. They captured some great shots of the carnage. Great weekend in St Pete and really happy for Bourdais (adoptive St Pete resident) for his win and recovery.

[cfox]

I spent Fri/Sat at the race. Wickens was quick all weekend and so were other rookies. Should be an interesting year. Stayed home Sunday and gave my turn 1 tickets to a friend and his buddy. They captured some great shots of the carnage. Great weekend in St Pete and really happy for Bourdais (adoptive St Pete resident) for his win and recovery.

Awesome. My son and I were at Pocono last summer. One benefit of Indycar's relative lack of popularity is they bend over backwards to make their events fan friendly. We stood in the garage and watched Penske mechanics replace Will Power's (soon to be race winning) engine. So cool.

Another seldom mentioned aspect of Indycar is that they have partnered with Mazda and have created the only true ladder system in open wheel motorsports. As I've mentioned 9,000 times before, my son races karts. It's really fun to see kids we've raced with for years moving into cars with a legitimate shot of making it to Indy Car. One driver in Pro Mazda (2 steps down from Indycar) is a kid named Oliver Askew. He's a low budget kid from Florida who was a freak in a kart. He's won scholarships through the Mazda program that has payed his way into cars. He won a scholarship for USF2000, won that last year which led to another scholarship for Pro Mazda. If he wins Pro Mazda, he'll get a ride into Indy Lights. It's awesome that there exists an actual system that rewards talent with a well defined path. The European formula car circuit is a byzantine mess that requires massive funding and a .00000001% chance of getting into F1. You can be a dominant formula car driver in Europe and watch on the sidelines as some state funded kid from an oil-rich country gets an F1 seat. There is a lot of interest from overseas kids in Indycar now, and the young talent pool for Indy will just keep growing.

Sorry to ramble, I love this stuff...