This for that for team orders

The F1 beauties grid up on the Nurburgring this week for the German Grand Prix and among other topics of discussion along the garage is the rekindling of the team orders debate. Of course last year’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim gave us indelible images and sounds of Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley telling Felipe Massa, “Fernando is faster than you,”an euphemistically veiled message that translated to effectively to “let Fernando Alonso pass you and win the race.”

Then, at the last race, the British Grand Prix just two weeks ago, team orders again came into the news as Red Bull management instructed Mark Webber, running third at the time, to “maintain the gap” to teammate Sebastian Vettel as he was clamoring all over him for a late-race overtake.

Now, when Massa was instructed to let his teammate Alonso pass last year, “team orders” were banned by F1’s sporting regulations, put into place after Ferrari made a shambles of team orders in Austria in 2002, having Rubens Barrichello, who had led every practice session, qualified on the pole, and led every race lap, give up his position to Michael Schumacher in the final stretches of the last lap to ensure Schumacher got maximum points in his quest for another World Driving Championship. That was a total mockery of sport, and even Schumacher acknowledged as much as he grabbed Rubens and drug him up to the top step of the podium. While last year’s orders weren’t quite such a slap in the face to fair play - in fact, Alonso just nearly did win the title due to the orders - Formula One nonetheless decided to ease the controversy by allowing team orders again, as its fairly obvious to race observers that it’s a regular occurrence.

Team orders have been around in motorsport since the advent of multi-car teams. You see it in every series and in every class, and there’s not really anything wrong with them when applied with a bit of common sense. For example, in NASCAR, you’ll see a driver give up the lead for a lap to ensure his teammate gets a bonus point for leading a lap; then, the next lap, take the lead over again and get the race a-going. Additionally, a team wants to make sure its often overly zealous and competitive drivers don’t take each other out of the race and give the boys back the garage two wrecked cars to re-build before the next race - see Vettel's run in with Webber in Turkey just last year.

In the big-money, big-pressure world of Formula One, teams and drivers battle for two championships – the constructor’s championship and the driver’s championship. For some teams, like Williams, it’s simple: Drivers drive for the team and the only championship that matters is the constructor’s championship. If you take care of that, you’ll likely take care of the driver’s championship as well. Of course, not all drivers see it so clearly.

The aggravating part for race fans come when team orders are unnecessary, like 2002 in Austria and two weeks ago in England. In 2002, there was little to no chance that Schumacher wasn’t going to win the title, the same with Vettel this year. That horse has left the barn, and the rest of the grid knows its racing for second place.

Likewise, the constructor’s title is not in doubt this year either – c’mon, we know Red Bull is the car both to be beat and ones that can’t be consistently beaten, at least not this year, and certainly not with its already huge points lead. Close racing and overtaking is something that is often very difficult to find in Formula One – please, fellas, please be very thoughtful and careful when taking away our long-awaited head-to-head duels.

So, let the team orders fly. Give one driver preference when new equipment is scarce and when race strategy calls for different calls. Even let one driver pass the other. Just do us three favors: 1) don’t insult our intelligence, 2) do it when only absolutely necessary, and 2) do it for the right reasons.

Remember when Aryton Senna let Gerhard Berger pass on the last lap of the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix to reward Berger with a race victory for being such a great teammate during the course of Senna’s championship season? Well, that’s one of the right reasons.

Give your team orders on Twitter @RayHartjen

When the marathon becomes a sprint

Last week at the greatest of all sports car races, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Audi celebrated its triumph with a dramatic release of raw emotion, not just at winning the race, but rather surviving, literally, an unforgiving day and night of racing that saw two of its three entries disintegrate in spectacular crashes. The celebration of the win was sweet, but not so much as knowing that their two drivers and teammates emerged essentially unscathed from horrific accidents.


First up, in the fist hour of the race, former F1 pilot Allan McNish, while battling for the lead, tangled with a slower car and careened into the barriers, going airborne, and somehow, someway not plowing into the photographers pit or the grandstands. That no one, no one, was injured is almost unbelievable when watching the replay.

As night fell on the race and the teams, announcers, and spectators settled in for the long haul of a cold, dark French night, the second Audi driven by Mike Rockenfeller was clipped by a slower car when overtaking on one of the speediest approaches on the circuit. While the dark night negates the video, the pictures of the aftermath show the effects of a cataclysmic impact with the Armco barriers. Perhaps both shaken and stirred, Rockenfeller escaped the crash without serious injuries.

Both accidents involved slower traffic, the root of many bent and twisted race cars in sports car races around the globe. It’s dangerous, but it’s an unavoidable, albeit risky, necessity inherent with multiple classes of entries all competing on one circuit and the same time.

Governing bodies should continue to monitor and impress upon the slower classes – watch your mirrors and keep to your lines. Ultimately though, it’s the responsibility of the drivers of the faster cars, the prototypes, and those doing the overtaking. Learned from motorcycle racing, let it known – if you’re passing on the high side, know that all bets are off. Hold your breath and hang on.

One topic missing from the conversation of the accidents last weekend is the aggressive, no-time-for-patience moves taken by both McNish and Rockenfeller. Of course, hindsight is 20-20, but a little lift here and there, a little more caution, and both incidents might have been avoided. So, why not lift?

Sports car racing has become incredibly competitive in the past decade. It wasn’t that long ago that 24-hour titles were won through reliability and durability, with attrition taking down one top contender after another until only a few were left. There would be ample time to pop into the pits and clean up the car, scrubbing the bugs, oil, rubber, and grime of 24 hours off so the victory lane photograph would shine with a well-deserved brilliance. In fact, teams could take the luxury of gathering its cars together for the final laps, driving in parade formation, nose-to-tail, capturing the perfect photo opp to appear in marketing materials for the next year.

Those days are gone. This winter at Daytona, the top four cars, from three different teams, finished on the same lap, within seconds of each other. At LeMans last week, the top six cars were separated by half a second in qualifying. Yes, no big surprise at a NASCAR event on a 1.5 mile oval or even the IndyCars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But, remember, the LeMans circuit is over 8 miles long! A half a second over eight miles is as close to even as it gets.

24-hour races aren’t really approached as endurance events anymore, not by the top teams. They are year-around efforts and are approached as the longest sprint races on the schedule. To compete and win, drivers have to go 10/10ths the entire time.

There’s no time in a 24-hour race to wait, to be patient. A driver has to seize the opportunity at the moment it’s presented, for there’s the likelihood it won’t come around again. So, seize they do, consequences be damned.

We can all be grateful that the consequences last weekend weren’t more severe.

Hot lap on Twitter @RayHartjen

So nice they raced it twice

IndyCar series officials went back thirty years last night in an effort to spice up the Texas race and the annual post-Indy hangover – a doubleheader of twin 275 Km races. Give them an ‘A’ for effort, but in the end, there wasn’t much intrigue, excitement, or, oddly, racing. It was a parade, albeit a high-speed parade, and despite attempts to market it as otherwise, it fell short of even a typical 1.5 mile race, despite the number of time Dan Wheldon tried to convince us that it was “intense.”

Since the formation of the Indy Racing League, IndyCar has made a distinct effort at building an audience for the sport, starting with the casual fan and hoping to convert them to hard-core fans with a trip to the track and the sensual overload of sight, sound, smell, feel and taste that is a major league motorsport event.

The staple of casual fan-friendly efforts has been the short oval, of which the 1.5 quad-oval at Texas is exhibit one. A seat along the front-stretch gives visibility to the entire track, it’s relatively easy to light, and it’s banked turns provides the promise of the much coveted – in America – side-by-side racing. For the casual fan, it’s worked. Of the 21 IndyCar races held before Saturday night at Texas, 14 have had margins of victory of less than one second, and seven have been decided by less than a tenth of a second.

But, have you noticed the number of empty grandstands at Texas the past several years? The races have featured tight finishes, but the miles of racing to get there has been a bit on the monotonous side. The drivers won’t say that, to be sure, because thirty cars all with 15 seconds of one another on a lightning fast, banked track makes for one white-knuckled trip. For the fans though, there’s a bit of a déjà vu, a ‘haven’t we seen this before’ kind of feeling.

In a spec-series on a relatively short track, the speeds are too high and the cars too closely matched for racing and overtaking in a sprint race format. Without an ability to work on the cars during pit stops and make the subtle adjustments necessary to moving along with changing track and racing conditions, a sprint-type race comes down to setting up the car with an educated guess in the garage. You hit it right, you run up front. You hit it wrong, you run in the back. With only one opportunity to make changes, you’re stuck playing the hand you drew at the start.

So, Saturday night came and went with an interesting novelty. Will novelty attract the casual fans and turn them into life-long devotees? Maybe, but probably not. Will the life-long devotees get tired of pro wrestling style of promotions and become casual fans? Maybe, but hopefully not.

It’s appropriate to give kudos to IndyCar and Texas promoter Eddie Gossage for being willing to experiment and switch things up. But, novelties like twin sprints and a lottery for starting positions aren’t going to address the roots of IndyCar’s struggles, but rather provide just a temporary salve for the symptoms.

We’re seeing IndyCar evolve from its ovals-only roots as the IRL, which is a positive step. Thanks, Tony George for setting the stage to get us back to exactly where we were in 1994. The promise of a new car and new development packages are due to arrive next year – halleluiah. Now, we just have to figure out how to keep our enthusiasm up this year, and Milwaukee and Iowa aren’t likely to do that.

We’re hotlapping on Twitter @RayHartjen

Spelling “Overrated” J-U-N-I-O-R

NASCAR continues its left-turn parade this weekend with the STP 400 on the 1.5 mile oval at Kansas Speedway. Fans will undoubtedly pack the track and cheer their favorite drivers and teams on, coupled with their fevered jeers against the perceived evil villains of their favorites’ arch rivals. NASCAR has seemingly become what it aimed to become – the motorized version of the WWE.


The driver who will garner the biggest of the cheers, and very nearly nary a jeer, is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who has won the fan voting for NASCAR’s most popular driver award eight consecutive years. It’s a title that is understandable, as Dale Jr. is certainly a legacy of stock car racing royalty. What’s not to be confused is the word ‘popular” with “best,” for Junior is rapidly cementing a reputation as the most overrated driver in motorsports.

Since the end of the 2006 season, Junior has won once - one solitary victory, the result of winning on fuel strategy determined in the pits, and, to be fair, a masterful drive to conserve – literally – every last drop of fuel. June 15 will mark the three year anniversary of that trip to victory lane in Michigan, despite driving for the marquee team of NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports. With each passing lap, each lost race weekend, and each empty season of dashed hopes, Earnhardt’s legion of fans cheer louder and buy more 88 gear. He’s become an industry into himself, the “lovable loser,” the Chicago Cubs of Sundays in the south; 1,081 days and counting. That is, if anyone’s counting.

Did you hear the fans scream as Junior jumped into the lead with two laps to go in Charlotte last weekend? Hope; eternal optimism; the folly of fools. One minute later, did you hear the groans as he ran out of gas on the back stretch and coasted home in 7th place? The cheers and groans were easily audible, even over the roar of 30-plus 700 horsepower engines circling the track.

The winless efforts weren’t always the norm. Junior started racing full-time in the Sprint Cup series in 2000, resplendent in his Budweiser livery. He managed two victories in his maiden campaign, and followed that up with at least two victories each of the next three years. Then, in 2004, he had a breakout campaign, winning a career-high 6 races and contending for a championship.

Oddly enough, 2004 was also the year Earnhardt was burned severely in a sports car accident at Infineon Raceway, where we was moonlighting during a rare weekend off in NASCAR’s nearly year-around schedule. Coincidence? Some think not, feeling maybe he lost his nerve. I won’t go that far, for it takes a lot of nerve to buckle into a hunk of metal and drive 200 miles per hour 6 inches away from three other cars in the draft on the high banks of Talladega.

What can’t be mistaken is the opportunity bestowed on Junior every season. Perhaps in no sport is money better equated with success than motorsport. Simply put, speed is expensive, and the more money you have, the faster you will go. No one, no one, benefits from sponsorship greater than the series’ most popular driver, Junior.

Additionally, no one prepares better cars than Hendrick Motorsport, the organization behind the 5-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, as well as stable mate and 4-time former champion Jeff Gordon. Since 1995, Rick Hendrick-owned cars have won 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup championships. Since 2008, Hendrick has fielded a car for Junior. The results: 120 starts, 2 pole positions, 15 top-five’s, and one victory.

In terms of “return on investment,” that equates to what is known in NASCAR circles; and, oddly and perhaps polar oppositely, Jewish delicatessens; as “bupkis.”

Be it spread too thin over commercial shoots, side businesses in restaurants and clubs, or ownership of his own JR Motorsports team, or age or talent or some other reason, the fact is that Earnhardt Jr. has under-performed for the past several years. With each passing race, the pressure mounts, despite the affection of his growing army of followers.

It’s time. Time to distinguish between royalty and reality. Time we stop referring to Junior as a real contender and an elite driver in NASCAR’s highest series. Time we recognize the proof points lie in his average finishes the past two years of 22nd and 21st.

Three years. It’s time for Junior to show fans he’s not overrated.

Swap some paint on Twitter @RayHartjen.

The Day After: Indy 500 Recap

Slipping in and out of the draft:


Thumbs up, JR Hildebrand. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard spot. After navigating 799 turns and through strokes of perseverance, strategy, and brilliant fuel conservation, he was seemingly on the way to winning Indy as a 23-year old rookie. Then, entering the final corner with faster cars catching him quickly, he stumbled across a considerably slower car – decision time. In 1989, Al Unser Jr. backed off slightly in Turn Two due to traffic, allowing Emerson Fittipaldi to catch him and ended his race famously in Turn 3. With his foot firmly on the throttle, Hildebrand tried the pass on the high side, caught the grey of the marbles and ended his Cinderella story alongside the Turn Four wall.

In hindsight, not the right move. In the moment, absolutely the right move. Use your bullets and fight going forward. Here’s hoping he overcomes this disappointment and moves forward.

Thumbs up, Dan Wheldon. What can you say about Wheldon? I’m not sure if he knows much; in fact, after countless interviews, I’m certain he doesn’t know much. But I’m convinced that he certainly knows how to get around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is always fast and always a contender, and Sunday was no exception. He wasn’t the fastest car all day, but he was always very close, and when opportunity knocked, he answered. At midnight, his contract with Bryan Herta racing expired. I wonder what his plans hold for the remainder of the season?

Thumbs down, ABC. While the thumbs might be down, another digit might be raised. ABC managed to deliver a brilliant telecast interspersed very infrequently between a merciless onslaught of commercials. Once, within the final 100 miles, ABC returned to the telecast, whereupon host Brent Musberger encouraged us to come back to them after another commercial break. What? A commercial break as a follow-up to a commercial break? While that was the most egregious example, ABC routinely went to commercial after within 5 minutes of a previous commercial break. “Side by side,” or not, in the age of the DVR, you’re playing with fire. Sponsors beware: frustrated viewers are learning their lessons.

Thumbs down Target Chip Ganassi Racing; Thumbs up Panther Racing. Target Chip Ganassi had the fastest cars off the trailer when the Speedway opened for practice, had the fastest cars most of the entire month, had the fastest cars on race day, and had the fastest cars loaded back onto the trailers last night, all to finish just 5th (Scott Dixon) and 12th (Dario Franchitti). We saw the team conserve fuel early in the race, through most every stint, only to seemingly abandon the strategy for the final stint.

While the seat here is much different than the seat on pit wall, it would appear that the book on fuel strategy has been written by Panther Racing. In each of the last two years, they’ve had their driver conserve fuel early in the final stint, knowing two things: 1) if a yellow flag comes out, they’re right there in it at the end, and 2) if a yellow flag doesn’t come out, they’re one of the very, very few right there at the end. They narrowly missed last year with Wheldon and were even closer this year with Hildebrand.

Thumbs up, IndyCar officials. Still think the double-wide restarts are unnecessary, as we’ve seen loads of action over the years. However, if double-wide you must, having drivers start accelerating in Turn 4 is the right call over the front straight, just 900 feet from the start finish line. That Saturday decision proved to be the right one, and I’m certain the majority of the shops are thankful that their cars came back straight, with all four corners on them.

Interesting thought turns to next year and the reintroduction of turbos and “turbo lag.” Hammering the throttle at low speeds brings an uneven power band and torque path, resulting in peculiar handling characteristics in a car set up to turn left. One need only to ask Kevin Cogan about the 1982 race to learn about the dangers.

Thumbs sideways, the IndyCar season. The Indianapolis 500 is the crown jewel of the IndyCar series and, as such, is a much needed catalyst to build fan interest in the rest of the season. ABC did the sport no favors with the commercial-thon on Sunday. But, maybe the series, its teams and drivers did? Does attention wane toward NASCAR and Formula 1, or, even worse yet, baseball? Time will tell, although this morning I can tell you I’m more interested in the Formula 1 circus returning to Canada in two weeks hence than I am about the IndyCar traditional follow up at the Milwaukee Mile.

Thumbs up, Indianapolis Motor Speedway ticket renewal process. Online ordering made easy. Just hate spending my $600 for 4 Paddock Penthouse seats 364 days in advance. If there’s one thing the Hulman George families know, it’s good cash flow management. Touché.

Throttle down on Twitter @RayHartjen.

Watchful Eyes on the Indy 500

The 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 begins with the wave of the green flag on Sunday, and while this year’s race is looks on the surface to be a wide-open, competitive affair, there are, as usual, a few things to keep a keen eye on. Between drivers, teams, and new rules, there’s a little bit of something, from casual fans to the hardcore.

Double-file restarts
From the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” department might come one of the most bold – and baffling – rules changes in recent memory. Indy Car officials, in a bid to make the racing more exciting have instituted two-wide restarts coming out of yellow flag caution periods. So far this season, the result has been a bunch of twisted race cars.

This is for sure – restarts will be more exciting. They’ll likely be very expensive for car owners too. In NASCAR, a two-wide start is an entirely different beast, and a function of cars with fenders and an extra thousand pounds or so coming to grips with the bumping and grinding. For open wheel cars, it’s something else entirely. When cars come together at speed, there’s very, very little chance of both cars coming out unscathed; expect suspension and wing damage at the least. More likely, expect heavy contact with the Turn One wall. The last two years have seen terrifying accidents at the speedway as a result of wheels “tripping” over others. Let’s hope in the bid for excitement, IndyCar officials don’t have to face the effects of serious injuries like Vito Meira’s (2009) or Mike Conway (2010). Or, face up to worse.

Plenty of time to get snacks
There’s an old saying in motorsports, “cautions breed cautions.” The double-file restart will make sure the yellow flags come in bunches this year. But, compounding that, yellow flags will last longer. What’s the point of going double file if the track suffers from tire marbles and clag from degradation? As defending race champ Dario Franchitti said on Friday, “The marbles are what makes the double-file so tough, unless they clean them up very, very well in Turns 1, 2, and 4.” Look for the track to be swept during every caution. It will take time; perfect for restroom and snack runs, bad for on-track action. On the plus side, as every sofa-sitting fan can attest, “beverages breed bathroom breaks,” so maybe there’s a symbiotic relationship born.

The favorites
Target Chip Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Franchitti - Both are past winners (Dixon with Ganassi in 2008; Franchitti with Andretti Green in 2007 and Ganassi last year) and have the experience of setting their cars up for race traffic and changing track conditions as the race grinds on. Their teams are battle tested and rarely make mistakes. With the way Dixon carved up traffic during Carb Day on Friday, look for these two cars to be pushing the pace all day.

The not-to-be-discounted-too-early
Dan Wheldon – Wheldon has won the 500 before (2005, with Andretti), and always finds a way to run up front, either by pure speed, wily experience, or stones the size of Stonehenge. Wheldon will likely be fast, but as he tends to fly under the radar, you will likely get great odds on a wager.

Tony Kanaan – Always a crowd favorite, fans might have thought his best chances were dashed with his divorce from Andretit Autosport over the winter. Well, the month of May has shown that to be a not-so-bad thing, at least for Kanaan. Always a wizard on starts and restarts, look for Kanaan to rapidly shuffle his way upwards at the wave of every green flag. If ever the restart rule was perfect for one driver, it’s tailor made for this one.

Danica Patrick – Granted, Patrick has never won at the Brickyard, and for that matter holds only one career victory in IndyCar. Plus, she and her entire Andretti Autosport team have struggled mightily this month to find pace. However, if there’s one track that Patrick knows how to get around, it’s Indy, where she consistently runs up front. With her growing emotional maturity honed through experience and her time struggling during cameos in NASCAR’s Nationwide series, look for Patrick to run a steady, if unspectacular, race and find herself in the mix by halfway.

Team Penske – Since when has a 500 been run without a strong focus on a Team Penske team driver? Both Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe have had challenging months at Indy, but Will Power has maintained team pride with a solid fourth in qualifying. Regardless of performance thus far, expect one, if not all three, to make a solid run into the top five with 100 miles to go. Of course, as long-time track observers know, those last 40 laps are when the real race begins.

The dark horses
Ed Carpenter – Carpenter doesn’t have a full time ride in the series, and probably shouldn’t, as his strengths on ovals is overshadowed by his limitations on road and street circuits. But, Carpenter does excel on ovals and there’s a bit of karmic return as the driver for fan favorite Sarah Fisher's team, as well as his being the stepson of IndyCar founder Tony George. Then again, there might be a karmic backlash instead, as a payback for George dealing a nearly fatal blow to open wheel racing in the United States in the early 90’s with his CART-crushing founding of the Indy Racing League.

Townshend Bell – I know what you’re thinking. Who? Race fans will know Bell,, who finished a career-best 4th in the 2009 Indy 500, and was running fourth last year until he was penalized, questionably, for blocking. Bell is a driver who’s never really had a great opportunity to run full seasons, either in the U.S. or in Europe. But, with limited seat time in a variety of open-wheel formulas, he usually finds himself on the point edge of the field.

Follow the race on Twitter @RayHartjen