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We’re four races – St Petersburg, Long Beach, Barber Motorsports Park and Phoenix – into the 2017 IndyCar Series season, and about to jump head-first into the Month of May, which culminates with the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500.
As we head to the speedway and get set for the drama it routinely provides, I thought it would be a good time to look back on what’s happened so far this year with my IndyCar talking points
Fernando Alonso
By far and away, the biggest motorsports story in the world this year. If you picked that the two-time Formula One world champion would skip that sport’s biggest event, the Grand Prix of Monaco, to race for McLaren and Andretti Autosport at the 101st Indianapolis 500, you’re a better judge of things than me.
I think the announcement of Alonso’s appearance at Indy came as a surprise to most of us. He’s a hardcore racer, is Alonso, and he clearly wants a shot at the iconic Triple Crown of motorsports, Monaco, Indianapolis and Le Mans.
Plus, when you think about the way things are going for him in the Formula One world, trading in a miniscule chance at one or two points in a car with a drastically underperforming Honda engine for a shot at the world’s biggest race, in a Honda-powered car that will be competitive – the Andretti squad always is at Indy – it’s pretty much a no-brainer.
If he goes well, I expect we’ll see him back in future years.
Genius work from IndyCar, who needed a big story to captivate the world a year after the hundredth running of the May classic. They’ve got it now.
Simon Pagenaud
Despite winning last year’s championship and a bunch of races, the knock on Pagenaud was that he hadn’t won an oval event. Well, that’s out the window now, after out-duelling Team Penske stablemate Will Power to win at Phoenix on Saturday night, which also gifted him the points lead.
Confidence is high in that squad, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Frenchman win back-to-back championships. Oh, and there’s the small matter of the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500, too. In Penske machinery, Pagenaud will be among the favourites there, too.
Sebastien Bourdais
When the veteran Frenchman headed to Dale Coyne Racing in the offseason, he basically put together an all-star team around him, many of whom, including engineer Craig Hampson, were with Bourdais during his Newman-Hass Racing days, when they dominated the ChampCar series, and it seems an inspired move now.
After going last to first to win the season-opening race on the streets of St Petersburg, he finished second at Long Beach, and became the first Dale Coyne Racing driver to lead the points. A respectable eighth at Barber saw him retain the lead, but being caught up in the first-lap crash at Phoenix put an end to what was a dream start to the season for the little team who could.
They may be overmatched on the big speedways, but the Bourdais/Hampson combination is going to give them great hope for further success on short ovals and road/street circuit events.
Josef Newgarden
It took the new Penske recruit just three races to record his first victory for the famous team, and you get the feeling that with the combination of Newgarden’s immense talent and the Penske equipment, which is always top-notch, it might become a regular occurrence. The Tennessean won at Barber, where he scored his first career win two years ago.
Newgarden shapes as the Great Hope for IndyCar racing, and his off-season move to the best squad in the sport is looking like a much-needed winner for the sport. Nothing gets eyeballs in America like an American winning races, and him winning a championship would be monumental.
Phoenix
The current short-oval package just isn’t working at Phoenix. We saw a 250-lap race where passing was at an absolute premium. Tony Kanaan said it best: the fans deserve better. Ultimately, it’s up to IndyCar to determine the best package, but, clearly, what they’re running at the moment isn’t setting the world on fire.
Will Power called for road course-type power on ovals, a return to low downforce, high horsepower and superspeedway wings. I doubt we’ll see IndyCar go that far, but there has to be a change because Saturday’s crowd was surely disappointed heading for the exits.
Honda’s resurgence
After being belted around the last few years by the Chevrolet brigade, Honda is back with a vengeance in 2017. The Japanese brand won the first two races of the year at St Pete and Long Beach, and generally have shown increased speed compared to last season.
The real Test will come at Indianapolis, of course, and the defection of Chip Ganassi Racing to Honda has definitely helped the engine development. Early doors, of course, but IndyCar must be happy with the levelling of the playing field.
James Hinchcliffe
The affable Canadian nearly died in a practice accident at Indianapolis two years ago. He came back to win the pole at Indy last year, and dominated at Long Beach this year for a memorable victory that warmed the hearts of everyone in the paddock because the man best known as Hinch is universally liked and respected.
Here’s hoping that Long Beach isn’t the last win for the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver. Wouldn’t a win at Indianapolis bring the house down? I reckon it’d be the biggest crowd-pleaser at the Brickyard since Tony Kanaan won for Jimmy Vasser a few years ago.
ESPN International’s IndyCar coverage
The coverage of St Petersburg was, in a world, abominable. For some reason, the so-called international coverage features different graphics and replay vision to the American broadcast on ABC.
It made for some frustrating moments when the announcers would be talking about a graphic or replay to what we were seeing on our screen. Incredibly disjointed broadcasting. Why ESPN International persists with a separate coverage, featuring graphics that are ten years old, is beyond me. More, it’s a slap in the face to international fans of IndyCar.
We saw exactly the same broadcast as North America for the first two NBCSN races – at Long Beach and Barber – before the decade-old graphics and other rubbish returned for the Phoenix event. I have grave fears that coverage of the Indianapolis 500 is going to be as incoherent and disjointed as what we’ve seen at St Pete and Phoenix.
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