Four races into the IndyCar season, and it looks like we all going to enjoy an ultra competitive season full of the usual twists and turns that we have come to expect from the pinnacle of American open-wheel racing. Perhaps more so this year with the new universal aerokit. But through the first three races, we have seen two drivers standout from a field full of young stars and wise old heads, that look to be the years two main title contenders; Robert Wickens and Alexander Rossi.
Wicken's has entered the series this year on the back of several years in the DTM category with Mercedes. During his six seasons there he took 6 wins, 15 podiums and 5 pole positions before the announcement that Mercedes would leave DTM after 2018 gave him the perfect oppurtunity to buddy up with friend James Hinchcliffe and form the 'Canadian Superteam' at Schmidt Peterson Motorsport. And what we have seen from the IndyCar rookie is nothing short of remarkable. He stunned us all with pole position in St Petersburg and should have walked away with the win after leading the majority of the race. He had held off Alexander Rossi for a long period, but a late race restart with two laps to go saw a lunge from Rossi go a bit wrong, which spun Wickens out and relegated Rossi to third, with Sebastien Bourdais and Graham Rahal passing them.
Wickens didn't deserve that end to his race, and both he and Rossi himself knew that. It was just an unfortunate end to a move that Rossi had to pull, it was for the race lead with two to go after all. No one forgot about it at Phoenix, but Wickens first oval race there did help to fade the memory somewhat. He qualified a superb sixth and again found himself leading the race with just a few laps to go.
This time, a late race restart saw a feisty Josef Newgarden on fresh tyres battle it out with the Canadian for the win. Wickens held on superbly and looked like he might pull off a remarkable oval debut win. Newgarden eventually swept past him but Wickens still came home second and took his first podium of the year. Ironically, Rossi was also on the podium in third and the pair even joked about St Pete in the press conference following the race. Clearly, there was no leftover tension.
Long Beach was a subdued afair for Wickens, he qualified tenth and was moving through the field nicely before gearbox issues scuppered his chances of a good result, eventually being caught up in a late race tangle between Bourdais and Jordan King. The rain hit Barber Motorsports Park race saw a much better result for Wickens though, as teammate Hinchcliffe took third with his best friend one spot behind in fourth. Wickens incredible run continued, he had adjusted back to open wheel racing perfectly and you'd think he was a series veteran and not a rookie in the championship. He is of course a vastly experienced race driver, but he has been nothing short of remarkable in his IndyCar career to date and surely will win a race if not more than one this year and potentially be a championship contender come Sonoma. His current series stats currently sit at one podium, and one pole. It could so easily have said one pole, two wins...
Wickens may have grabbed a lot of the headlines, but it is perhaps ironic that the man involved with him in the St Pete tangle, Alexander Rossi, is the other standout of this season. His results from the first three races are thus. Third, third, first, twelth. Of course the last result being at Barber, where he just lacked a bit of pace and then gambled on the late race rain on Monday not getting too heavy. Hey, you have to have at least one bad result a year. What makes Rossi's run this year so remarkable though is that, he could have won all three races.
The tangle with Wickens of course spoilt St Pete, but it wasn't all his own doing. Wickens move across on Rossi very late in the corner, putting Rossi onto the marbles which caused the slide into Robert in the first place. Let's not also forget that this podium finish came from 12th on the grid. He qualified in the top four at Phoenix, was running third at the start and looking like he had the pace on Simon Pagenaud and Bourdais ahead of him before a mess up coming in for his first pitstop dropped him back and earned him a drive through penalty. He then carved his way through the entire field from being a lap down, passing cars as if they were standing still to get back onto the lead lap and finish third, the late race restart that saw Newgarden win perhaps slightly stopping his progress. His pace was such that some calculated had he not had the pit error and drive through, he could have lapped the entire field.
Rossi finally managed to put it all into place a Long Beach, dominating practice, qualifying and the race to take the pole and win and leapfrog himself into the lead of the championship. The winner of the 2016 Indy 500 and Watkins Glen 2017 had now announced himself as a championship contender. Pundits including Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy were amazed at his Long Beach performance, some said they had not seen a driver dominate a weekend like that for a long time. It certainly was impressive and those performances in the first three races you could argue make him the star of the year so far, and not Wickens. Barber was just a blip on the radar, in a race where he probably should have finished in the top six, instead he was 12th and lost the championship lead to Newgarden, but being only 13 points behind means he can quite easily retake that lead during May.
No one could have predicted just what a start to the IndyCar season we'd have and how Rossi and Wickens could have starred. Both have shown what talent they have, Rossi really coming of age and flexing his muscles, and Wickens being one of the finds of the century. We don't know how the rest of their seasons will pan out. But from what we've seen so far, they look set to become even more spectacular.
Daniel Ricciardo's victory in Shanghai was more than just an incredible spectacle. It announced his 2018 world championship bid, and showed that Red Bull really do have the pace to win races and potentially the tile in 2018. It was also the perfect way to bounce back from a gutting race in Bahrain, in which we never saw what Ricciardo could have been capable of. And if his rivals didn't take him as a threat seriously this year, they will now. And they should.
Pre-season testing had us all worried that Mercedes may waltz into the distance with this years titles, but it has been anything but that so far this year. Ferrari have won two of the first three races and potentially have the best package. Meanwhile Red Bull showed in Australia there was pace in the car, but thanks to being stuck behind the Haas cars and then the double retirement in Bahrain, we never really knew how fast the RB14 was. Until Shanghai that is. Thanks to superb strategy and phenomenal pace, Ricciardo was able to fight his way from sixth to win the race and take his first win of the year and show us what he and his car will be capable of.
The car alone is one reason why Ricciardo is a serious threat this year. Hampered slightly by its Renault power-unit it may be, but the Adrian Newey designed chassis is once again a top quality machine, allowing the drivers to do exactly what they want to do, when they want to do it through the corners and across a lap. Compared to where the team were in 2017, Red Bull are in much better shape chassis wise and Shanghai saw them exploit its strengths beautifully despite the power sensitive nature of the track. 2017 showed us how good Red Bull's rate of development is. They turned a so so car into a genuine race winner. They already have that race winning car right now. So what can they develop it into throughout 2018? A championship winner? They could well do so!
But it's Ricciardo's daring skill and overtaking genius that will really make him a true championship contender for the first time in F1. China showed us what a class act he is behind a wheel. His move on Lewis Hamilton at the end of the back straight, braking from so far back without a lock up or running wide was sublime. His lunge down the inside of Valtteri Bottas, with all the aggression of a honey badger was a move that you very rarely see from anyone other than the Australian. It was simply magical.
You only have to compare it to his teammate Max Verstappen's ham-fisted attempts to get pass Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, the latter move spinning them both around and relegating Vettel to an eighth place finish. Verstappen is a fantastic racer and overtaker, but perhaps lacks the thinking that Ricciardo seems to put into his moves. Rarely do his moves not work out, at all. Ever since 2014, when he first joined Red Bull, Ricciardo's talent and class have been calling out for a title winning car. He may now finally have that machinery beneath him.
If Daniel Ricciardo wasn't to win a world title in F1, it would be a crying shame. Right now he is at the peak of his performance and more than ready to become a world champion. With the right car, skill and daring that he has this year he may finally have his shot. And he isn't letting speculation on his future get to hi either. So Hamilton and Vettel, you'd better watch out. Because there's a new championship contender in town. His name is Daniel Ricciardo, and he takes no prisoners.
The start of this years motor racing action has brought spectacular racing, drama and excitement. But it has also brought up a very important question. Which series has gone down the right route with its aerodynamics? I am of course talking about Formula 1 vs IndyCar, both of which have launched new cars these past two years and have gone down very different routes to provide what they hope is great racing. And what we have seen so far has been incredibly interesting...
At the start of 2017, F1's new high downforce monsters hit the track for the first time and instantly became the fastest race cars on the planet. Lap records tumbled, speeds increased and the visual spectacle of a car on a flying lap became something else entirely. These had really become the ultimate Grand Prix car. Over in America, IndyCar was gearing up to change its own chassis. The Dallara DW12 was set to lose its present, aerokit and high downforce configuration, for a lower downforce spec universal aerokit in 2018, but with a huge 60% of its downforce coming from underneath the car. Quite a change of direction for the series. And a bold step to take.
At the end of 2017, F1 had seen its overtaking figures slashed by half of what there was in 2016. The initial fears from late 2016, that the cars would diminish the racing spectacle thanks to the increased turbulent dirty air they'd produce was brought true. Some races were thrillers, like the Spanish and Azerbaijan Grand Prix. But too many races saw little wheel to wheel action in a season eventually won by Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, the Germans taking their fourth consecutive constructors title. IndyCar meanwhile saw a spectacular season close with a grandstand finish that saw Josef Newgarden beat out rivals such as Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud to that year's title. For IndyCar, things were looking up. For F1, everyone hoped that things would look up.
Flash forward to the present and both series have had their opening two rounds. F1 had a fairly quiet race in Melbourne before a tense strategic thriller in Bahrain. IndyCar had an incredible season opener in St Petersburg, with a solid showing next time out in Phoenix. The first two races with the new IndyCar had shown that the series had been absolutely right in cutting down massive aerodynamic parts and focusing and improving the racing. The cars had lost none of their speed, in fact Jordan King broke the St Pete lap record in qualifying. But with most of the downforce coming from underneath the car, the racing had improved immensely at a tricky street circuit as St Petersburg. Over 300 overtakes took place in that race alone. F1 could barely manage 15 in Melbourne. So of course, the debates begun...
IndyCar has clearly got it right for its own series when it comes to aerodynamics. The reduction in dirty air has allowed cars to follow each other much more closely than in F1. So that's settled then. IndyCar has won, right? Well it's not that easy. Because IndyCar features a spec car. Everybody has the same chassis and aero. The only difference is the engine. Some teams run Honda power, some teams run Chevrolet power. It's all down to recourses and how you set up the car, and of course the drivers. F1 of course sees everyone build their own chassis, design their own aero so every car is unique and of course four engine suppliers. Honda, Renault, Ferrari and Mercedes. Most definitely not a spec racing series. So how does F1 get a slice of IndyCar's action? How does it become so competitive that more than three teams can win races and the cars can follow closely?
Taking the 'ground effect' approach that IndyCar has taken would be a good start. Its clearly working. But we have to factor in the spec series nature of IndyCar. It allows for greater competition and more variety in winners, as no one team can steal a march on car design. This is something that is not in F1's nature or DNA, and no one would allow it to become so. The series has always been about designing the best car to beat your opponents. But is that providing the best racing in the world?
Right now, not its not. A middle ground must be found, but taking inspiration from IndyCar. Don't become a spec series if that's not what your series is about. But change how downforce is produced and what aero each car has. Minimise that top aero and allow that downforce to come from underneath the car. Exactly what IndyCar has done. Allow each team to build their own car. Yes, it may still reward the Mercedes and Red Bull's of this world. But it would make it a damn sight easier for smaller teams to win races, as there would be a lot less gains to be found. And it would cut costs too. If everyone has the majority of its downforce coming from underneath the car and it is all a fairly equal percentage across the field, then what gains can you find?
The aero debate is one that will probably rage on for a while. But what is clear is that some ways work better than others and produce spectacular racing. And right now it seems, IndyCar is ahead of the game. With regulation changes being mooted, it's now F1's turn to show us what it can do.
