On tap this week:
- IndyCar's terrible timing
- Daly likely not in
- Hamilton gets more mileage
- Renault gets more power
- Quote of the Week: Ricciardo's hopes for 2015 car
- F1's new dating show?
There may be an old saying about timing being everything in racing, but it seems IndyCar's brass is completely unaware of it.
Despite having the benefit of a six-month off-season to help fans forget a controversial decision, IndyCar waited until a few weeks before the 2015 campaign was set to begin before announcing last Wednesday that Brian Barnhart — an official almost universally loathed by fans — would be back in the race director's chair.
In many ways, whether or not IndyCar feels Barnhart is the right man for the job is almost irrelevant here. Unless it's completely tone deaf to its fan base, the series ought to have known the decision would bring harsh and sustained criticism. And when you are running a series that has struggled to stay relevant, taking advantage of a long off-season and giving fans time to accept — or at least forget — an unpopular decision is the only smart way to go, said one IndyCar insider.
"Delaying the Brian Barnhart announcement until now was a terrible idea," he said, adding that IndyCar made the decision to bring Barnhart back last September after its previous race director, Beaux Barfield, told the series he would not return in 2015.
"They said they knew the day after Beaux left that it was going to be him. You knew the announcement was going to draw criticism, so they left it to right before the season rather than do it in September and let people get over it by now?"
Barfield replaced Barnhart in 2012 following several poor decisions, including ignoring driver protests and restarting an oval race in New Hampshire in a drizzle that ended in a five-car pile-up.
Random thoughts
Much has been made of U.S. Driver Conor Daly testing for the Schmidt Peterson Motorsport (SPM) team alongside Canadian James Hinchcliffe on Tuesday at Sebring International Raceway. The son of former formula One and IndyCar driver Derek Daly, the 23-year-old would be a nice addition to the IndyCar line-up, but it may not be with the SPM team. It is thought that former IndyCar racers Simona de Silvestro has the inside line to be Hinchcliffe's teammate in 2015.
By the numbers
Pirelli released some interesting numbers last week about tire use for the 2014 F1 season when it came to specific compounds. It turns out the 2014 world champion, Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes team, was the driver who put the most kilometres on three different types of tires: the medium (8,230 kilometres), intermediate rain (1,142 km) and full wet tires (469 km). Hamilton's total on the mediums was also the most of any driver on any compound used in 2014. Force India's Sergio Pérez was the best on the supersoft, clocking 2,846 km, while Esteban Gutiérrez of the Sauber team topped the soft runners at 7,011 km.
Technically speaking
After falling behind rival Mercedes in the engine department, Renault hopes a myriad of changes to its 2015 F1 engine will get it back in the game. The engine has a new combustion chamber, compressor, and exhaust system while the energy recovery system has also been beefed up. The changes are designed not only to up performance — Renault claims that the motor and its energy recovery system can now produce 850 horsepower — but also to improve the motor's reliability. "In short, there are very few carry over pieces between the 2014 and 2015 power units," said Rob White, Renault's chief technical officer.
Quote of the week
"I hope it's going to be a beast."
— F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo explaining his hopes for his 2015 Red Bull Racing car.
The last word
Listening to Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button talk about the upcoming 2015 F1 season is reminiscent of the "Lowered Expectations" the dating service parody from the comedy show Mad TV where the prospective suitors were not exactly prime catches. With teething problems continuing to plague their McLaren's new for 2015 Honda power, there's no doubt both need to keep their targets low.
After completing only six laps and putting up a best time that was 18 seconds off the pace in his only day behind the wheel during a two-day test that began in Jerez, Spain, Alonso was trying to make the best of his situation: "Obviously, I don't really have a feeling for the car yet – I only did a handful of laps, and most of those were at slow speed, conducting preliminary checks – so I need a bit more time to be able to speak accurately about it."
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Jeff Pappone