The season opens this Sunday on NBC at 3:30 EST.
Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

Barber Motorsports Park, maybe my favorite venue. A beautiful facility, nice elevation change, looks fast, is fast and a history of good races.

Look for Jimmie Johnson driving for Ganassi; JP Montoya at Arrow McLaren; and Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne racing (Haas reserve Pietro Fittipaldi will take his place on the oval courses).

Grosjean has noted it is “more physical” to drive an Indycar compared to the Formula 1 cars he has raced for the past decade. “I would say the biggest difference between Formula 1 and Indycar is the lack of power steering. It gives you a rather different feeling,” the Frenchman told Canal Plus.

“I find the Indycar is even more physical than Formula 1, both on the arms with the heat in the cockpit,” Grosjean added.

“Obviously it’s a little easier on the neck, because the G-force is a little less. But the car moves more – I am quite impressed with the tyres, actually,” he explained.

“You can really attack and have fun and don’t have to be exercising restraint all of the time,” said Grosjean.

I give Jimmy credit for trying at this point in his life but it isn't going to be easy.
He's in with one of the top teams but I'll be really impressed if he qualifies or finishes in the top half of the field.

Race is on NBC right now at Barber. Pato O'Ward on pole for McLaren.

It is an interesting rookie class to say the least.

Yes. An interesting race. I was surprised that JJ lasted all 90 laps.

Romain qualified 7th and came in 10th. JJ did well enough, but RomainG may be able to make this path stick. Palou drove an awesome race.

quote:

Originally posted by FlyingScot:
.. RomainG may be able to make this path stick...

I hope so for his sake. I always had a soft spot for RG, he was very good for a short time. We'll see how he handles actual dog fights in IndyCar, his history precedes him.


BTW Newgarden in practice session

It was not Newgarden's weekend, that's for sure. What happened to Rossi? While Pato didn't get the pit strategy right, at least he stayed in the Top 5.

Bourdais made 5th Place in an A.J. Foyt car! That was impossible for Foyt last year.

Lastly, doesn't it feel great not talking about Marco Andretti underperforming in one of the best teams on the grid?

quote:

Lastly, doesn't it feel great not talking about Marco Andretti underperforming in one of the best teams on the grid?

Transfer that honor to JJ. His inexperienced new teammate wins in his first race with the team (and on merit, not luck), Dixon is a close third, Erickson wasn't much further back and Jimmy is a solid second from last all weekend.
He seems like a nice guy and has had a great career but this won't do his legacy much good. He should have taken a crack at it a decade ago when testing was pretty much unlimited and he was younger.
Grosjean looked decent all weekend and stayed out of trouble.
I don't understand why the three stoppers made that decision so early when the race was their's to loose as they were mostly the quickest guys up to that point all weekend. Maybe take that gamble a bit later in the race if the yellows started falling that way and you're stuck in mid-pack but not when the race is your's to loose. That's exactly what they did.

I'm not ready to throw out Jimmy Johnson after one race. He's never going to win a championship on a Road Course only schedule, but of all the places he could have started, Mid-Ohio maybe is the only worse place to start. Both of those tracks are exhausting g-force roller coasters in a car with no power steering, and he wasn't doing horrible until he spun out.

^^^
Define horrible.

Clearly JJ has racing talent, no matter what one thinks of NASCAR it's a competitive difficult racing series, long races, lots of different tracks, road courses and good drivers.

I doubt many drivers would translate into winning their first race or even winning in the first year moving from any other racing type into another.

Not Like Juan Pablo tore up the NASCAR races moving from F1, well, he did tear up one NASCAR Dryer Truck on the backstretch of Daytona......

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
^^^
Define horrible.

He was in the top half until he spun out. Losing aero at the front isn't something that's easy to practice.

Help me. I can't stand another season of Townsend Bell blabbering. Hinchcliff was so much better when he was filling in.

Colton Herta and Josef Newgarden bounced back from a shit Barber for a great qualifying. The big shocker is that Will Power didn't make it out of Q1. The man might as well own that track for as good as he's been there.

I didn't watch the Saturday Texas race but the Sunday one was pretty good.
A bit hard to pass due to the NASCAR traction stuff on the outer line.

RIP, Bobby Unser.

https://racer.com/2021/05/03/bobby-unser-1934-2021/

Can't tell if the PJ1 stuff on the track is a good or bad thing, but both races were pretty good.

In other good news:

https://racer.com/2021/05/03/w...it-return-this-week/

Wickens Expected To Make Cockpit Return This Week
Marshall Pruett May 3, 2021 4:17 PM

Robert Wickens is expected to make a return to the cockpit this week and turn his first laps at speed since suffering injuries to his spinal cord and other areas in a 2018 crash at the Pocono NTT IndyCar Series event. IMSA has scheduled a press conference with the Canadian ace on Tuesday, and no additional details have been offered.

Wickens has been actively pursuing the chance to resume his driving career with the use of hand controls, looking to open-wheel and sports cars as options while he continues the rehabilitation process aimed at regaining full use of his legs.

Prior to the Pocono crash, Wickens was on his way to stardom in IndyCar, having qualified on pole for his first race, earned two second-place finishes, and seven runs inside the top five from 14 starts as a rookie with what is now Arrow McLaren SP.

Wickens spent the years preceding his IndyCar move working up the junior open-wheel ladder, winning the Formula BMW USA championship in 2006 and the European Formula Renault 3.5 Series title in 2011. With no options to continue moving towards Formula 1, he shifted his attention to the DTM from 2012-2017, earning a best championship finish of fourth in 2016 as part of Mercedes’ factory line-up. Wickens also made one IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship start with Starworks Motorsport in the LMPC class in 2017 at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

^^^^

Thanks, DanH, as I watched IndyCar this past weekend and the wealth of talent showing now --Scott Mclaughlin in particular - I was talking to the wife about Wickens and wishing he was in the mix.

Pato O'Ward also earned his McLaren F1 Test in only 4 races.