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.
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