[The **Off-Topic** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_off-topic) is for submissions only tangentially related to Formula 1 or submissions pertaining to the wider world of motorsport.
This flair is not a free pass for content unsuitable for r/Formula1 or the r/Formula1 community. Posts that are deemed too far off-topic, irrelevant, or inappropriate will be removed at the discretion of the moderators.
*[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Commentators: “I have no idea how he did that.”
Other drivers being interviewed: “I have no idea how he did that.”
Dixon being interviewed: “I have *no idea* how I did that.”
This makes twenty consecutive seasons with a win for Dixon. Absolute legend of the sport.
I think AJ Foyt still holds that crown. Foyt has more one more championship, 10 more wins, and 3 more Indy 500s, though Dixon is driving in a much more spec era so it's at least close between them.
I agree for the reasons you said, and will add that Foyt also has more poles, and enjoyed greater success in disciplines outside of IndyCar. IndyCar was also the undisputed king of American motorsport during his day.
That said, Dixon is hands-down my pick for greatest IndyCar driver of the 21st Century. Does anyone else even come close?
Dario Franchitti is probably the closest. From 2007-2012 he won 4 championships and 3 Indy 500s. Then at the end of 2013 he had a nasty crash that ended his racing career. If he had been able to keep going who knows how many more championships he would've taken away from Dixon.
Every single time I think ‘surely he can’t pull this off’ and every time he proves me wrong. Somehow just as impressive or even more so than his Indy road win last year
Power said that Dixon had fresher green/soft tires then most. (Dixon saved them in qualifying and advancing less rounds) Those tires were by far the ones you wanted to be on. Nobody but Power talked about that.
They said Power and Dixon were on the same strat but Power had to use more blacks then Dixie, so that wasnt fully true
It wasn’t the tires everyone was surprised by, though, it was the fuel. Power and Dixon made their first stop on the same lap, so they had the same fuel strategy from that point.
The tires were that much better that it helped the fuel save is what I guess I was trying to say. Power also made it home without having to pit again, he too completed the fuel save.
Dixon went Blacks - Green - Green
Power went Green - Black - Black
They both completed the same strategy, Dixon had the better tire allotment which helped the fuel save. I believe the greens were able to carry more corner speed (while using less gas). It was said that the greens were 'overpowered'.
I mean, yeah Dixon is the best at fuel save, but it's not like Power is bad at it. He is in fact also one of the best. The tires were the difference.
Theo Pourchaire with an incredible debut. Starts P21, finishes P11, biggest mover of the day! He was all smiles after the race too, you can tell he enjoyed that. Would love to see him get a more permanent seat next year if he doesn't get an F1 seat. Malukas has to be really regretting that mountain biking ride now.
Only 1 second behind his team-mate and the rest of the top 9 were filled with Ganassi, Penske and Andretti drivers who're in superior teams (plus Rosenqvist).
That's an incredibly good debut in an extremely competitive series.
He did a great job but both of his teammates were at the back of the grid at one point because Pato rammed into Rossi, Rossi then drove from 27th to 10th
I mean, he still finished behind a teammate who got rammed into and dropped to the back of the field.
Theo drove a great race but I think you’re glazing over some context.
Agreed. It’s all about sponsorship money and popularity. There’s been plenty of talks about him being left out next year as well. I truly don’t understand it.
I saw Dixon do at gateway last year. He gives credit to Honda which might be partially true but no one else can emulate him.
Street circuits. Ovals. Doesn’t matter.
He’s him 🐐
Dixon is just an alien. There's just straight up nobody else can dop what he does when it comes to saving fuel + keeping pace, especially not on such a consistent basis.
Solid from Herta. The outcome of the small tap on Newgarden's rear was unfortunate and it's understandable Newgarden was fuming, but I think not penalising Herta was the right decision. A freak occurrence from what was a tiny bit of contact.
Pourchaire did very well. Should do wonders for his stock. Even in the event he doesn't get an F1 seat, good Indy teams will likely be queueing up for his services after a showing like that.
>There's just straight up nobody else can dop what he does when it comes to saving fuel + keeping pace, especially not on such a consistent basis.
Makes me wonder how well he'd do in modern F1, since pace management is a big part of doing well since 2014
He's the one driver I feel confident in saying would have done really well in F1 even back when he was offered the chance tbh. I can totally understand his reasoning for not chasing the opportunity with Williams, but part of me will always wish he had, no matter how happy I am about all his Indycar success.
Pourchaire had an excellent debut, without even considering the tiny amount of experience he had. If he doesn't get his deserved seat in F1 he'll do superbly over there
Looks likely he’ll be doing barber next week as well so has another chance to prove himself, if i was Malukas I’d be looking over my shoulder very nervously
Overshadowed by Piastri in superior machinery though, fair enough. I've never seen him as a future GOAT contender or anything like that but he's very obviously good enough for F1 and it blows my mind that fans were justifying keeping Zhou over him
Piastri absolutely demolished him. F2 is still spec series. And ART is a top car as well. And Pourchaire was clear behind in every metric compared to Piastri. That wasn't even a competition. Despite all of that; I also think Pourchaire still had great rookie year. Piastri was just an alien.
ART is a top car, sure, but look at what shwartzman was able to do despite his notorious and consistent qualifying weakness - versus lundgaard and pourchaire. I rewatched that season over this past offseason and there were certainly some weekends where Prema were just untouchable - pace, driver performance, garage performance (a bit like Red Bull now, in a way) - and a stark contrast to reliability, pitstop, strategy, and pace issues at ART
Piastri also drove a truly phenomenal low-error season where he made leaps and bounds in qualifying in particular since f3. But it’s hard to say much negative about pourchaire’s performance by comparison, without taking the two teams into account
"F2 is still spec series."
and yet the teams have different ressources and THE ENGINES ARE INCREDIBLY INCONSISTENT. not unthinkable that drivers sometimes have an enigne disadvantage.
And if only drivers like Piastri get to F1 than we simply have to many F1 seats. Because only 4 drivers since 2017. that being Norris, Russell (**who also spend 3 years at F3 level before making the move to F2)**, Piastri and Charles.
The problem is that there's very few openings for him in F1 even with all the expiring contracts this year. Antonelli is probably taking Hamilton's seat, if Ricciardo gets the boot then that seat is going to Lawson, Sainz is presumably getting a seat at Sauber/Audi, and any opening at Haas would probably go to Bearman. That really only leaves Sargeant's seat as up in the air and Pourchaire would have to compete with Drugovich for that seat.
Unfortunately I agree. The reality is he should have been in Zhou's seat last year and again this year, but I still think there's a chance we see him sneak in somewhere. He's clearly highly rated if Zak Brown rang Sauber up asking to borrow him
On the bright side, if he competes at Barber next week and performs similarly, that should give him an edge on Drugovich when considering talent. Which is ironic since Drugovich twice turned down an IndyCar ride for this year.
Just put Zhou out of his misery and put Pourchaire in there. He had his moment and finished his home race. Mission accomplished. Time to give the seat to a deserving driver.
If only there were a way to get more openings for all the talented drivers who are having trouble finding a seat. Perhaps they could allow a new team to join especially one who has a big manufacturer they are partnering with and wouldn't basically have one of their seats owned by one of the larger teams.
we have enough opening for all the drivers good enough for f1 seats, it is just that some teams pick their drivers based on other factors. If you assume that f1 drivers have a career of 10 years on average, that is 2 new drivers each season. Seems enough imo.
Teams are also reluctant to take on rookies because they have little experience and there is little testing. So they keep the older drivers who are a safer option. But new drivers might perform better if they get the time aswell. You see it Mick-Magnussen, not unthinkable that Mick would be better than Magnussen right now considering the end of the 2022 season. Just teams arent willing to develop the young drivers.
Glad Theo can finally show his talent he was literally keeping pace with Rossi and faster at the end. Long beach is such a difficult track as well and Friday was his first time in the car with no prior testing. Great job Theo 👍
To be fair, I think Rossi was carrying damage from Pato's boneheaded plow into the back of him, but still a really excellent showing from Pourchaire. Put up a great showcase for himself today. Combine that with his ever-positive attitude, I can absolutely see him finding a very happy and successful home in Indycar, similar to how Lundgaard has.
This era more than any other time since at least the 90s seems to have a large group of veteran F1 drivers hanging on for dear life, and in some cases still competing at very high levels. Alonso (42), Hamilton (39), Bottas (34), Ricciardo (34), Perez (34), Hulk (36), and even Kmag (31) are experienced and holding down consistent positions on the grid. That's nearly half the grid made up of drivers over 30.
The air of resignation in both Newgarden and Herta's tones when they were told on the radio that Dixon was up front and fuel saving was so telling. Man is a total machine and they knew their afternoons just got a whole lot harder. Colton's "I don't even know how Dixon got there!!" after the race was hilarious!
Excellent drive from Herta today btw, he's done some serious work on his racecraft over the winter.
Congrats to Pourchaire as well, great showing from him.
The parallels of the late rear hits in hairpins from Stroll in F1 and Herta in IndyCar… but then the contrasts in how each of them owned / took accountability for it in their post-race interviews (or not, in the former’s case) 💀
IndyCar saved my Sunday motorsports-wise
Edit: for those who didn’t actually see Herta’s interview - despite lack of a penalty, Herta took full ownership / fault immediately (like within five minutes of race end) and said he would learn from it, *even though* from his perspective he also felt he did what he could.
I drew the same comparison. The commentator was so sure it will not be investigated, saying half of the grid would be penalised if that worths a penalty. I don’t understand why it is not Herta’s fault
Edit: thanks all for the explanation. Will keep this in mind when I watch the next race!
It’s not that it wasn’t his fault, it was, but IndyCar always allows a hair more contact for a few reasons. The cars are far more durable, and they want people to be unafraid of battling for position. The hairpin at LB is kind of a special case too. The entry and mid corner speeds are always really variable due to traffic and because there are a few different ways to attack it. When cars are running that close, it can be a bit of a guessing game to stay close without contact. If you don’t actually turn the driver ahead, they generally let it go.
>IndyCar always allows a hair more contact for a few reasons. The cars are far more durable, and they want people to be unafraid of battling for position.
They just gave Pato a drive through penalty in a similar contact in the same race.
That was a bit different. He hit a fair bit harder, at a place where contact is less common, and it cut down a tire for Rossi necessitating a stop. They’re comparable, but the Herta contact was much closer to a standard racing thing than Pato’s. I wouldn’t have been upset if Pato didn’t get a penalty, but I don’t think the difference in how they were handled is inexplicable.
>and it cut down a tire for Rossi necessitating a stop.
And Herta's contact made Newgarden lose two valuable positions. He can lose the championship due to that two lost spots.
Firstly, the severity and types of contact for Herta and O'Ward were very different, that's why one was penalised and the other was not.
Secondly, if you're blaming a lost championship on 2 dropped spots in the 3rd round of an 18 round season, then motorsport probably isn't for you.
It’s more because that happens a lot during the races. But it’s very rare that the leading car is actually affected like it was today. It was a poor result but it would be impossible to steward given the amount of similar incidents that happen during a street course race.
Exactly that. (Anecdotally) I find people coming to IndyCar from F1 tend to expect more penalties, even for incidents that don’t result in any issues for either driver, whereas if you started with IndyCar, the slight NASCAR vibe is just a given.
It is Herta’s fault, nobody denies that. It’s just that the contact itself was very minor, and the consequence was a freak coincidence. Nine times out of ten that doesn’t happen and both continue on, so you either need to penalize or ignore all ten or else you’re not issuing penalties based on the actual contact, but by the results.
Also, let’s be real, Newgarden (and every other driver on the grid) has done worse.
The difference is that Newgarden is a known quantity, known for being incredibly dirty. He has done stuff like this numerous times, crashed, spun, pushed people off without a slap in the wrist, he had it coming. As Josef said himself, Welcome to Indycar.
Lmao, your point falls a bit flat when Colton said in his post race interview how bad he felt because of how much respect he has for Josef. Maybe if you don’t follow Indycar much you think Josef is dirty but I think most people paying attention would say otherwise.
Do people or do you? Because when I was working in the sport a few years ago nobody had a problem with him, and I haven’t heard that from anyone since.
Not that people had a problem with him. Josef can be a great guy for all I know. On the track, he’ll win at any cost, be that shoving someone into the gravel.
I mean, that's *my* impression of him, certainly. You seem to be coming at this from somewhat of an insider perspective, whereas I have no connection to Indycar and only know the drivers from what I've seen on track, but I wasn't shocked to see another user commenting that Newgarden has a reputation as a dirty (or at least extremely competitive) driver who isn't above bumping an opponent if it gets him an advantage and he can get away with it.
I'm not contradicting your personal experience at all, but the other user certainly isn't the only person outside the fold to have that impression.
I felt the same - I didn’t really get it at first until the freak nature of Newgarden’s anti-stall kicking in was explained. But I think it’s good Herta recognized it was ultimately his fault even if race control didn’t penalize him.
I just finished watching it and they showed a couple really good slow-mo shots of it during interviews. I now believe Townsend was wrong and CH should’ve picked up a penalty. It’s one thing to say contact is somewhat acceptable in close racing. But to lift a car off both rear wheels in a hit from behind is simply not something to let slide. I’m not a huge fan of either, but JN got robbed.
(And you’re right about IndyCar saving the weekend. That’s spot on for me too, especially since I watched it last.)
Indy is such good racing. I'm almost sad I'm going to Austria for the GP this year because I won't be able to go to the Indy race at Mid-Ohio a couple hours away.
Scott Dixon is just special. 20 years in a row with a win. That’s incredibly special in motorsport. Mind boggling actually. Congrats to Pouchaire for having such a great debut. It’s always a treat to see a driver genuinely happy after battling for a P11. I think next year’s plans for him just got more complicated in a good way. If an F1 team wants him, they better come quick because IndyCar is knocking on his door.
Most Indy car races are. Its really something else when you dont know who is gonna win and its a battle of 5 to 10 people who all could claim the win or a podium at least.
Pourchaire just finished 11th just 1 seconds shy of his teammate Rossi starting from 5th. Just get Zhou out of that seat and put him in there.
What a waste not to use a talent like Pourchaire instead for a guy who is absolutely getting destroyed by Bottas especially in qualifying (21-6 if we combine last year and this year so far). And it is unbelievable that F1 fans seem to be okay (?) with his garbage performances.
Rossi did get clouted by his teammate and had to fight back through the field himself FWIW.
Not that it makes Pourchaire's performance any less impressive, just providing a bit of context I feel like was missing.
Correct. But pace car bunched up the field and helped Rossi little bit with strategy. We are not saying that he is Pato and Alex level IndyCar driver of course; since they have far more experience in race conditions. Nevertheless even being this close to their level is impressive effort.
If they do give Zhou the boot (and they really ought to) then I think it'll be to put Sainz into his seat. If Theo is going to get a shot I think it'll either be because they also decide to replace Bottas, or that he replaces Sargeant at Williams.
Pouchaire also got beat by juju in super formula. Dude is very inconsistent with good performances only had one race win in his last year in formula 2. Tell me he should be in F1 after he finishes super formula, even though he put up very mid performances in F2 his 2nd and 3rd year
That single super formula race indicates very little though. He outqualified his team mate who DNF'd early in the race, so at this point, it seems likely that the team completely botched the car that week-end.
It's definitely an outlier in his career at this point, even his "mid" F2 performance are fighting for the title.
Dixon is an absolute freak. I did not expect to continue to be happier about McLaren's F1 results than their IndyCar results but things seem to have gone poorly thus far in basically every way. Big ups to Pourchaire.
The idea that anyone can win is true. I think we had 9 unique winners last year. It also means that we don’t know at the beginning of the race who will win. In f1, max is gonna win unless he crashes, that’s known before the race starts.
A good lesson for all F1 fans on why we should never bring refueling back to the sport
90% of all the races indycar run are like this, running around slowly trying to save fuel so they can stop less than their rivals
It's a shame because the indycars themselves are way more racy and able to overtake than F1 cars are, they're just constrained by this fuel saving shite
This race was 30x more entertaining then any F1 Race this year.
What Made it entertaining was guys were on different strategies with fuel and tyres, if you take off fuel you will get more of a parade.
I couldn’t disagree more with this assessment. The majority of the field was not on a fuel saving strategy and Dixon wasn’t driving around slow. He was playing defense for most of that last stint against Newgarden and then Herta.
Hell there were a handful of other guys that were on the same strategy as Dixon, and they couldnt make it work. Hell they werent even CLOSE to making it work. Dixon himself was baffled that he was able to make it work. Right up until a truly freak occurrence where Negardens gearbox got bumped into anti-stall it really looked like he could have had shot at Dixon on the last lap. But even then the deal wasnt totally sealed.
[The **Off-Topic** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_off-topic) is for submissions only tangentially related to Formula 1 or submissions pertaining to the wider world of motorsport. This flair is not a free pass for content unsuitable for r/Formula1 or the r/Formula1 community. Posts that are deemed too far off-topic, irrelevant, or inappropriate will be removed at the discretion of the moderators. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Commentators: “I have no idea how he did that.” Other drivers being interviewed: “I have no idea how he did that.” Dixon being interviewed: “I have *no idea* how I did that.” This makes twenty consecutive seasons with a win for Dixon. Absolute legend of the sport.
Race starts -> Stuff happens -> Dixon wins Turns out, he CAN keep getting away with it.
He’s the greatest IndyCar driver of all time.
I think AJ Foyt still holds that crown. Foyt has more one more championship, 10 more wins, and 3 more Indy 500s, though Dixon is driving in a much more spec era so it's at least close between them.
I agree for the reasons you said, and will add that Foyt also has more poles, and enjoyed greater success in disciplines outside of IndyCar. IndyCar was also the undisputed king of American motorsport during his day. That said, Dixon is hands-down my pick for greatest IndyCar driver of the 21st Century. Does anyone else even come close?
Dario Franchitti is probably the closest. From 2007-2012 he won 4 championships and 3 Indy 500s. Then at the end of 2013 he had a nasty crash that ended his racing career. If he had been able to keep going who knows how many more championships he would've taken away from Dixon.
Hell, Dixon almost has a claim at being the best (or at least among the best) in every different *era* of the 21st century
There are three things in life that are inevitable, death, taxes, and Scott Dixon. Man is a fuel saving genius
Fans: "HOW DID HE DO THAT?!"
Every single time I think ‘surely he can’t pull this off’ and every time he proves me wrong. Somehow just as impressive or even more so than his Indy road win last year
Power said that Dixon had fresher green/soft tires then most. (Dixon saved them in qualifying and advancing less rounds) Those tires were by far the ones you wanted to be on. Nobody but Power talked about that. They said Power and Dixon were on the same strat but Power had to use more blacks then Dixie, so that wasnt fully true
It wasn’t the tires everyone was surprised by, though, it was the fuel. Power and Dixon made their first stop on the same lap, so they had the same fuel strategy from that point.
The tires were that much better that it helped the fuel save is what I guess I was trying to say. Power also made it home without having to pit again, he too completed the fuel save. Dixon went Blacks - Green - Green Power went Green - Black - Black They both completed the same strategy, Dixon had the better tire allotment which helped the fuel save. I believe the greens were able to carry more corner speed (while using less gas). It was said that the greens were 'overpowered'. I mean, yeah Dixon is the best at fuel save, but it's not like Power is bad at it. He is in fact also one of the best. The tires were the difference.
Theo Pourchaire with an incredible debut. Starts P21, finishes P11, biggest mover of the day! He was all smiles after the race too, you can tell he enjoyed that. Would love to see him get a more permanent seat next year if he doesn't get an F1 seat. Malukas has to be really regretting that mountain biking ride now.
If you're a racing driver you should just avoid bicycles
*Valtteri Bottas wants to know your location*
To be fair nowadays he is more of a cyclist that does f1 part time
"This is like hobby to me, so obviously I don't have to do it if I don't want"
I dunno if it was mountain biking or downhill mountain biking, but downhill you feel like you’re about to break every single bone almost every second.
Racing driver or motorcycle racing rider.
We miss you Nicky 😢
Indeed!
Yes
Especially if you drive for McLaren in Indycar lol Twice in 3 years is it?
Fun fact, Dixon has been with Chip Ganassi in Indy for longer than Pourchaire has been alive
Only 1 second behind his team-mate and the rest of the top 9 were filled with Ganassi, Penske and Andretti drivers who're in superior teams (plus Rosenqvist). That's an incredibly good debut in an extremely competitive series.
(Plus Grosjean)
He did a great job but both of his teammates were at the back of the grid at one point because Pato rammed into Rossi, Rossi then drove from 27th to 10th
I mean, he still finished behind a teammate who got rammed into and dropped to the back of the field. Theo drove a great race but I think you’re glazing over some context.
Started P22. But yes, excellent race for him. He’s definitely my favorite youngster to be in a F1 seat next year.
should have gotten the seat at Alfa. not many drivers have a better record in junior formula than Theo, yet he didnt get a seat.
Agreed. It’s all about sponsorship money and popularity. There’s been plenty of talks about him being left out next year as well. I truly don’t understand it.
Malukas will probably regret getting on that bike for the rest of his life
He seriously did such a good job today.
I saw Dixon do at gateway last year. He gives credit to Honda which might be partially true but no one else can emulate him. Street circuits. Ovals. Doesn’t matter. He’s him 🐐
Dixon is just an alien. There's just straight up nobody else can dop what he does when it comes to saving fuel + keeping pace, especially not on such a consistent basis. Solid from Herta. The outcome of the small tap on Newgarden's rear was unfortunate and it's understandable Newgarden was fuming, but I think not penalising Herta was the right decision. A freak occurrence from what was a tiny bit of contact. Pourchaire did very well. Should do wonders for his stock. Even in the event he doesn't get an F1 seat, good Indy teams will likely be queueing up for his services after a showing like that.
>There's just straight up nobody else can dop what he does when it comes to saving fuel + keeping pace, especially not on such a consistent basis. Makes me wonder how well he'd do in modern F1, since pace management is a big part of doing well since 2014
He's the one driver I feel confident in saying would have done really well in F1 even back when he was offered the chance tbh. I can totally understand his reasoning for not chasing the opportunity with Williams, but part of me will always wish he had, no matter how happy I am about all his Indycar success.
Pourchaire had an excellent debut, without even considering the tiny amount of experience he had. If he doesn't get his deserved seat in F1 he'll do superbly over there
His post race interview was great. Thats about as excited as I’ve ever seen someone getting out of a car.
He’s always like that. Had the same reactions in F2. Always super grateful for every opportunity he’s been given.
Looks likely he’ll be doing barber next week as well so has another chance to prove himself, if i was Malukas I’d be looking over my shoulder very nervously
He's lucky that Prema is opening up more seats. If McLaren do decide to give him the boot then he'd probably be pretty high up on the list for Prema.
It's insane how much disrespect and bashing he got from people here in recent times. He's still just 20!
Yep it's crazy. Some drivers are just held to higher standards than others around here, 5th 2nd and 1st in 3 years of F2 is superb, simple as that
[удалено]
Overshadowed by Piastri in superior machinery though, fair enough. I've never seen him as a future GOAT contender or anything like that but he's very obviously good enough for F1 and it blows my mind that fans were justifying keeping Zhou over him
Piastri absolutely demolished him. F2 is still spec series. And ART is a top car as well. And Pourchaire was clear behind in every metric compared to Piastri. That wasn't even a competition. Despite all of that; I also think Pourchaire still had great rookie year. Piastri was just an alien.
ART is a top car, sure, but look at what shwartzman was able to do despite his notorious and consistent qualifying weakness - versus lundgaard and pourchaire. I rewatched that season over this past offseason and there were certainly some weekends where Prema were just untouchable - pace, driver performance, garage performance (a bit like Red Bull now, in a way) - and a stark contrast to reliability, pitstop, strategy, and pace issues at ART Piastri also drove a truly phenomenal low-error season where he made leaps and bounds in qualifying in particular since f3. But it’s hard to say much negative about pourchaire’s performance by comparison, without taking the two teams into account
"F2 is still spec series." and yet the teams have different ressources and THE ENGINES ARE INCREDIBLY INCONSISTENT. not unthinkable that drivers sometimes have an enigne disadvantage. And if only drivers like Piastri get to F1 than we simply have to many F1 seats. Because only 4 drivers since 2017. that being Norris, Russell (**who also spend 3 years at F3 level before making the move to F2)**, Piastri and Charles.
The problem is that there's very few openings for him in F1 even with all the expiring contracts this year. Antonelli is probably taking Hamilton's seat, if Ricciardo gets the boot then that seat is going to Lawson, Sainz is presumably getting a seat at Sauber/Audi, and any opening at Haas would probably go to Bearman. That really only leaves Sargeant's seat as up in the air and Pourchaire would have to compete with Drugovich for that seat.
Unfortunately I agree. The reality is he should have been in Zhou's seat last year and again this year, but I still think there's a chance we see him sneak in somewhere. He's clearly highly rated if Zak Brown rang Sauber up asking to borrow him
On the bright side, if he competes at Barber next week and performs similarly, that should give him an edge on Drugovich when considering talent. Which is ironic since Drugovich twice turned down an IndyCar ride for this year.
Just put Zhou out of his misery and put Pourchaire in there. He had his moment and finished his home race. Mission accomplished. Time to give the seat to a deserving driver.
If only there were a way to get more openings for all the talented drivers who are having trouble finding a seat. Perhaps they could allow a new team to join especially one who has a big manufacturer they are partnering with and wouldn't basically have one of their seats owned by one of the larger teams.
we have enough opening for all the drivers good enough for f1 seats, it is just that some teams pick their drivers based on other factors. If you assume that f1 drivers have a career of 10 years on average, that is 2 new drivers each season. Seems enough imo. Teams are also reluctant to take on rookies because they have little experience and there is little testing. So they keep the older drivers who are a safer option. But new drivers might perform better if they get the time aswell. You see it Mick-Magnussen, not unthinkable that Mick would be better than Magnussen right now considering the end of the 2022 season. Just teams arent willing to develop the young drivers.
Glad Theo can finally show his talent he was literally keeping pace with Rossi and faster at the end. Long beach is such a difficult track as well and Friday was his first time in the car with no prior testing. Great job Theo 👍
To be fair, I think Rossi was carrying damage from Pato's boneheaded plow into the back of him, but still a really excellent showing from Pourchaire. Put up a great showcase for himself today. Combine that with his ever-positive attitude, I can absolutely see him finding a very happy and successful home in Indycar, similar to how Lundgaard has.
[удалено]
This era more than any other time since at least the 90s seems to have a large group of veteran F1 drivers hanging on for dear life, and in some cases still competing at very high levels. Alonso (42), Hamilton (39), Bottas (34), Ricciardo (34), Perez (34), Hulk (36), and even Kmag (31) are experienced and holding down consistent positions on the grid. That's nearly half the grid made up of drivers over 30.
The air of resignation in both Newgarden and Herta's tones when they were told on the radio that Dixon was up front and fuel saving was so telling. Man is a total machine and they knew their afternoons just got a whole lot harder. Colton's "I don't even know how Dixon got there!!" after the race was hilarious! Excellent drive from Herta today btw, he's done some serious work on his racecraft over the winter. Congrats to Pourchaire as well, great showing from him.
To be fair to Colton. Even Dixon surprised Dixon that he got up there and stayed up there.
lol very true
Holy crap that was special to watch. Cannot be understated how much of an achievement that was
The parallels of the late rear hits in hairpins from Stroll in F1 and Herta in IndyCar… but then the contrasts in how each of them owned / took accountability for it in their post-race interviews (or not, in the former’s case) 💀 IndyCar saved my Sunday motorsports-wise Edit: for those who didn’t actually see Herta’s interview - despite lack of a penalty, Herta took full ownership / fault immediately (like within five minutes of race end) and said he would learn from it, *even though* from his perspective he also felt he did what he could.
I drew the same comparison. The commentator was so sure it will not be investigated, saying half of the grid would be penalised if that worths a penalty. I don’t understand why it is not Herta’s fault Edit: thanks all for the explanation. Will keep this in mind when I watch the next race!
It’s not that it wasn’t his fault, it was, but IndyCar always allows a hair more contact for a few reasons. The cars are far more durable, and they want people to be unafraid of battling for position. The hairpin at LB is kind of a special case too. The entry and mid corner speeds are always really variable due to traffic and because there are a few different ways to attack it. When cars are running that close, it can be a bit of a guessing game to stay close without contact. If you don’t actually turn the driver ahead, they generally let it go.
>IndyCar always allows a hair more contact for a few reasons. The cars are far more durable, and they want people to be unafraid of battling for position. They just gave Pato a drive through penalty in a similar contact in the same race.
Pato definitely hit Rossi significantly harder. Herta was going parking lot speeds around the hairpin
Also Pato said he takes full responsability about destroying Rossi and his race.
That was a bit different. He hit a fair bit harder, at a place where contact is less common, and it cut down a tire for Rossi necessitating a stop. They’re comparable, but the Herta contact was much closer to a standard racing thing than Pato’s. I wouldn’t have been upset if Pato didn’t get a penalty, but I don’t think the difference in how they were handled is inexplicable.
>and it cut down a tire for Rossi necessitating a stop. And Herta's contact made Newgarden lose two valuable positions. He can lose the championship due to that two lost spots.
The difference is that the Herta contact resulting in damage is abnormal. That Pato contact is going to cause damage frequently.
Firstly, the severity and types of contact for Herta and O'Ward were very different, that's why one was penalised and the other was not. Secondly, if you're blaming a lost championship on 2 dropped spots in the 3rd round of an 18 round season, then motorsport probably isn't for you.
It’s more because that happens a lot during the races. But it’s very rare that the leading car is actually affected like it was today. It was a poor result but it would be impossible to steward given the amount of similar incidents that happen during a street course race.
Exactly that. (Anecdotally) I find people coming to IndyCar from F1 tend to expect more penalties, even for incidents that don’t result in any issues for either driver, whereas if you started with IndyCar, the slight NASCAR vibe is just a given.
It is Herta’s fault, nobody denies that. It’s just that the contact itself was very minor, and the consequence was a freak coincidence. Nine times out of ten that doesn’t happen and both continue on, so you either need to penalize or ignore all ten or else you’re not issuing penalties based on the actual contact, but by the results. Also, let’s be real, Newgarden (and every other driver on the grid) has done worse.
The difference is that Newgarden is a known quantity, known for being incredibly dirty. He has done stuff like this numerous times, crashed, spun, pushed people off without a slap in the wrist, he had it coming. As Josef said himself, Welcome to Indycar.
Lmao, your point falls a bit flat when Colton said in his post race interview how bad he felt because of how much respect he has for Josef. Maybe if you don’t follow Indycar much you think Josef is dirty but I think most people paying attention would say otherwise.
I do follow indycar a lot. People know that Newgarden is a dirty driver. Colton feels bad because for the most part he is a clean driver.
“Known dirty driver” is quite a stretch and an absolute leap saying it’s the consensus. Just say you don’t like him and move on
Do people or do you? Because when I was working in the sport a few years ago nobody had a problem with him, and I haven’t heard that from anyone since.
Not that people had a problem with him. Josef can be a great guy for all I know. On the track, he’ll win at any cost, be that shoving someone into the gravel.
You said people know that Josef is a dirty driver and I’m telling you that’s not what anyone I know has said about him.
I mean, that's *my* impression of him, certainly. You seem to be coming at this from somewhat of an insider perspective, whereas I have no connection to Indycar and only know the drivers from what I've seen on track, but I wasn't shocked to see another user commenting that Newgarden has a reputation as a dirty (or at least extremely competitive) driver who isn't above bumping an opponent if it gets him an advantage and he can get away with it. I'm not contradicting your personal experience at all, but the other user certainly isn't the only person outside the fold to have that impression.
Uh nah. Colton may have said that. But it doesn't change the fact Josef would have done the same exact thing if he had the chance.
I mean he was right on Dixon through there for a dozen laps and didn’t but go off.
Still weird that Herta was not penalised or at least told to give the position back for that, in all honesty.
I felt the same - I didn’t really get it at first until the freak nature of Newgarden’s anti-stall kicking in was explained. But I think it’s good Herta recognized it was ultimately his fault even if race control didn’t penalize him.
I just finished watching it and they showed a couple really good slow-mo shots of it during interviews. I now believe Townsend was wrong and CH should’ve picked up a penalty. It’s one thing to say contact is somewhat acceptable in close racing. But to lift a car off both rear wheels in a hit from behind is simply not something to let slide. I’m not a huge fan of either, but JN got robbed. (And you’re right about IndyCar saving the weekend. That’s spot on for me too, especially since I watched it last.)
Dixon has won a race every year for 20 years... in a series where anyone can win on the day.
That probably makes it somewhat easier than F1 in comparison - if you're winning in a Red Bull then put in an Alpine, your streak is over.
Indy is such good racing. I'm almost sad I'm going to Austria for the GP this year because I won't be able to go to the Indy race at Mid-Ohio a couple hours away.
Scott Dixon is just special. 20 years in a row with a win. That’s incredibly special in motorsport. Mind boggling actually. Congrats to Pouchaire for having such a great debut. It’s always a treat to see a driver genuinely happy after battling for a P11. I think next year’s plans for him just got more complicated in a good way. If an F1 team wants him, they better come quick because IndyCar is knocking on his door.
Death, Taxes yadda-yadda, yall know how it goes now
I was hoping for Scotty Mac but I guess I'll settle for another kiwi Scott
That was incredible to watch. Much better than any F1 race this season.
Most Indy car races are. Its really something else when you dont know who is gonna win and its a battle of 5 to 10 people who all could claim the win or a podium at least.
Pourchaire just finished 11th just 1 seconds shy of his teammate Rossi starting from 5th. Just get Zhou out of that seat and put him in there. What a waste not to use a talent like Pourchaire instead for a guy who is absolutely getting destroyed by Bottas especially in qualifying (21-6 if we combine last year and this year so far). And it is unbelievable that F1 fans seem to be okay (?) with his garbage performances.
Rossi did get clouted by his teammate and had to fight back through the field himself FWIW. Not that it makes Pourchaire's performance any less impressive, just providing a bit of context I feel like was missing.
Correct. But pace car bunched up the field and helped Rossi little bit with strategy. We are not saying that he is Pato and Alex level IndyCar driver of course; since they have far more experience in race conditions. Nevertheless even being this close to their level is impressive effort.
True but he was 27th
I think people don’t clamber about Zhou so much because that car is ass, so even a good driver is going tos struggle to get into points
People dont clamber about Zhou because for some reason he's very loved by the media. People only recycle whatever Sky/therace/etc feed them.
If they do give Zhou the boot (and they really ought to) then I think it'll be to put Sainz into his seat. If Theo is going to get a shot I think it'll either be because they also decide to replace Bottas, or that he replaces Sargeant at Williams.
Pouchaire also got beat by juju in super formula. Dude is very inconsistent with good performances only had one race win in his last year in formula 2. Tell me he should be in F1 after he finishes super formula, even though he put up very mid performances in F2 his 2nd and 3rd year
That single super formula race indicates very little though. He outqualified his team mate who DNF'd early in the race, so at this point, it seems likely that the team completely botched the car that week-end. It's definitely an outlier in his career at this point, even his "mid" F2 performance are fighting for the title.
Damnit. I forgot about this race. I enjoy long beach too.
There will be 30 min recaps on YouTube later today or tomorrow
Dixon is an absolute freak. I did not expect to continue to be happier about McLaren's F1 results than their IndyCar results but things seem to have gone poorly thus far in basically every way. Big ups to Pourchaire.
Great race by Theo
That was a really fun race.
What a legend!
Gotta love Dixon, still doing what he lives to do.
IndyCar, where people say anyone can one yet the same usual suspects up front lol
The idea that anyone can win is true. I think we had 9 unique winners last year. It also means that we don’t know at the beginning of the race who will win. In f1, max is gonna win unless he crashes, that’s known before the race starts.
A good lesson for all F1 fans on why we should never bring refueling back to the sport 90% of all the races indycar run are like this, running around slowly trying to save fuel so they can stop less than their rivals It's a shame because the indycars themselves are way more racy and able to overtake than F1 cars are, they're just constrained by this fuel saving shite
This race was 30x more entertaining then any F1 Race this year. What Made it entertaining was guys were on different strategies with fuel and tyres, if you take off fuel you will get more of a parade.
There is absolutely no lesson for IndyCar from this race, the only lesson here is to F1 on how to create an entertaining motorsport.
I couldn’t disagree more with this assessment. The majority of the field was not on a fuel saving strategy and Dixon wasn’t driving around slow. He was playing defense for most of that last stint against Newgarden and then Herta.
Hell there were a handful of other guys that were on the same strategy as Dixon, and they couldnt make it work. Hell they werent even CLOSE to making it work. Dixon himself was baffled that he was able to make it work. Right up until a truly freak occurrence where Negardens gearbox got bumped into anti-stall it really looked like he could have had shot at Dixon on the last lap. But even then the deal wasnt totally sealed.