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IndyCar
FRANCHITTI: Down To The Wire
With just days to go before the IndyCar Series finale at Homestead, Dario Franchitti files a column that catches up on a very busy few weeks in his life.
A close second in Japan has Franchitti in title contention this weekend at Homestead. (LAT)
Life has been a wee bit hectic for me lately, but its been a pleasure, not a frustration.
To start, I went back to Scotland for about 10 days before the race in Japan. And then I met Dixie in London. He was dropping off his wife Emma and daughter Poppy in London and then we flew right to Tokyo. There’s a couple of schools of thought. There is the school of thought of getting there really early and trying to get on the time zone. But we took the other school of thought, we got in Thursday morning and didn't get on the time zone at all. That seemed to work pretty well for the two of us.
The first practice we struggled a little bit but felt we knew what the problems were. Sure enough, by the second practice we were doing pretty well. In qualifying I thought I did a pretty good job, but Scott just went out and blitzed us. He did a hell of a job and his car was obviously working well, but he did a good job. Moraes ended up qualifying second, and he’s getting better and better.
Scott and I managed to line up one, two for the first corner and then we took off to a fairly decent lead. He was definitely better at the start of the runs, and towards the end of the runs I would start to come back to him, especially in traffic where I was better. I managed to go one lap longer on the first run and passed him in the pits. It got really close down in turn three. He was at speed already and I was on cold tires but I managed to hold him off going into three and pull a fairly sizeable gap and that would last during the second stint of the race. I was quite surprised, we were putting a lot of fast cars a lap down, so our pace was fairly strong. We managed to go one or two laps longer at the end of that stint too, and then I came into pits right by Matos and we went out again and I was right behind him.
Coming through three and four I got a good run on him and I tried to pass him going into one and he blocked the inside, he obviously didn't want to go a lap down and blocked me. So I went to the outside and had momentum and he just kept driving me up to the point where I hit a bump -- I was on cold tires and low pressures so the ride height is lower than normal -- and I ended up in the marbles. Sorry to say, but it was another example of him driving over his head with no regard for anybody else on the track. He’s done that a number of times to a number of people this year and I’ve had enough of it.
The amount of times I've been down to talk to him about it this year, it’s getting kind of boring. Most of the time he's clueless to it or he pretends to be clueless to it, so it’s frustrating. And I'm not the only one. Sometimes there’s a queue of people that are wanting to have a word with him so at Japan I just let it go; it's obviously not going to change so you just change the way you drive with him accordingly. So that was that.
Back to the action. I was down in second gear – and that’s a six gear corner -- trying to keep the thing out of the fence, managed to avoid the fence, got back onto the power and almost spun the thing up there in all the dirt. I got back on the track coming down and Scott just managed to get by me, into three he had a head of steam going and I was still recovering. And after that we were just too equal, we were too close in performance, I couldn't get a run on him. And again, at the start of the run he was a little quicker.
What we actually needed at the last stop was to probably add a turn of front wing or a half turn, but my guys made the call that we were going to try to beat Scott back out of the pits so we didn't put the wing in, but he managed to get us anyway. That was the end of that.
Dixie did a great job. Both cars were very, very close, and that's the way it should be.
After the race, Dixie and I and the Target boys went out in Tokyo on the Sunday night, so I certainly slept the whole flight home, which was good. I went with the wife to see U2 play the night I got home, they were amazing as usual. Then it was off to Atlanta where, obviously it had been raining like crazy the whole week before. It was really strange to see the roads washed away on the way to the track. It was bizarre.
It took some time getting used to the P1 car again. It's such a strange, different car to drive, it feels different than anything else I've ever driven. Dixie and I were talking about just how different it does feel and how laps definitely get you more comfortable with it. Unfortunately, I think I had seven laps including in and outs, that was my total before the race. So I wasn't feeling too comfortable!
We were planning to do more running for me on Thursday. I was putting my helmet on and [team manager] Robin Hill had just pointed and said, “Three laps until you're in,” so I was starting to put my gear on. I was standing on the timing stand and had just literally put my helmet above my head to slide it on and I see this almighty crash on the TV and I thought, “There’s going to be a red flag here, because somebody’s just had the biggest crash I've ever seen.” I put my helmet down and I then saw a bit of bodywork that had that very distinctive Patron green on it and I said, “Oh crap, it’s us.”
I don't like to watch accidents but I looked up and I just caught the replay and when Sharpie popped himself out of the car, I just couldn't believe it. He took out a bunch of catch-fence and the car was absolutely destroyed so he's a very, very lucky guy. We were standing there in the pit lane and at that point I think we thought that there was only two tubs in existence. So if the tub was damaged that was it because it was definitely destroyed. It did a hell of a job saving Sharpie but it was done. Then we found out there was a third tub in California so that was when it all went into high gear. They got it freighted over and the Highcroft boys did their usual job to rebuild that car. And just to work as they did at the track and the attitude that they had, it was quite impressive.
You watch that time lapse camera and you just marvel at what they were doing… I went down when I got back from Homestead and watched them work and it was just incredible. That’s the thing, when you work for teams like AGR, with the Target boys and with Highcroft it makes you realize how lucky you are. You get a glimpse into how these teams work, and it’s unlike what most people can fathom. I think a lot of it is attitude.
They fired that car together and Brabs took it in warm up and then we did a half race with it and there was a couple of small problems, but that is the most complicated car to work on, and they built it in that short space of time. That was incredible and a testament to a great group of people.
Meanwhile, on that Friday, Dixie and I headed off for Homestead for the IndyCar test. Me, him, and Briscoe and were the only three cars at the track so it was quite bizarre. I think everybody else tested this week but for some reason we tested last Friday, mostly to keep an eye on each other. It was the Target boys and the Penske team seeing what each other was doing. It was a pretty good test; Scott was looking really good and we all learned a lot. We’re limited in mileage just now, having those testing rules so we pretty much ran the thing down to the last lap that we could just learning stuff. So we finished the test, jumped onto the plane, and headed back to Atlanta.
The race at Atlanta started off wet. I was in the car third in rotation -- while it was spiting rain -- and we were on slicks. One lap it would be raining harder, the next lap it would be less. And I'm thinking, “These are really strange conditions to be driving a car that you're so unfamiliar with.” So I was being very, very cautious. I didn’t have a dashboard so I didn’t know how fast I was going. I didn't have a radio. So I was just in my own little world there and trying not to make any mistakes especially as the Patron Highcroft boys are going for the championship and have the points lead, that really wasn’t the time to a hero…
To start, I went back to Scotland for about 10 days before the race in Japan. And then I met Dixie in London. He was dropping off his wife Emma and daughter Poppy in London and then we flew right to Tokyo. There’s a couple of schools of thought. There is the school of thought of getting there really early and trying to get on the time zone. But we took the other school of thought, we got in Thursday morning and didn't get on the time zone at all. That seemed to work pretty well for the two of us.
The first practice we struggled a little bit but felt we knew what the problems were. Sure enough, by the second practice we were doing pretty well. In qualifying I thought I did a pretty good job, but Scott just went out and blitzed us. He did a hell of a job and his car was obviously working well, but he did a good job. Moraes ended up qualifying second, and he’s getting better and better.
Scott and I managed to line up one, two for the first corner and then we took off to a fairly decent lead. He was definitely better at the start of the runs, and towards the end of the runs I would start to come back to him, especially in traffic where I was better. I managed to go one lap longer on the first run and passed him in the pits. It got really close down in turn three. He was at speed already and I was on cold tires but I managed to hold him off going into three and pull a fairly sizeable gap and that would last during the second stint of the race. I was quite surprised, we were putting a lot of fast cars a lap down, so our pace was fairly strong. We managed to go one or two laps longer at the end of that stint too, and then I came into pits right by Matos and we went out again and I was right behind him.
Coming through three and four I got a good run on him and I tried to pass him going into one and he blocked the inside, he obviously didn't want to go a lap down and blocked me. So I went to the outside and had momentum and he just kept driving me up to the point where I hit a bump -- I was on cold tires and low pressures so the ride height is lower than normal -- and I ended up in the marbles. Sorry to say, but it was another example of him driving over his head with no regard for anybody else on the track. He’s done that a number of times to a number of people this year and I’ve had enough of it.
The amount of times I've been down to talk to him about it this year, it’s getting kind of boring. Most of the time he's clueless to it or he pretends to be clueless to it, so it’s frustrating. And I'm not the only one. Sometimes there’s a queue of people that are wanting to have a word with him so at Japan I just let it go; it's obviously not going to change so you just change the way you drive with him accordingly. So that was that.
Back to the action. I was down in second gear – and that’s a six gear corner -- trying to keep the thing out of the fence, managed to avoid the fence, got back onto the power and almost spun the thing up there in all the dirt. I got back on the track coming down and Scott just managed to get by me, into three he had a head of steam going and I was still recovering. And after that we were just too equal, we were too close in performance, I couldn't get a run on him. And again, at the start of the run he was a little quicker.
What we actually needed at the last stop was to probably add a turn of front wing or a half turn, but my guys made the call that we were going to try to beat Scott back out of the pits so we didn't put the wing in, but he managed to get us anyway. That was the end of that.
Dixie did a great job. Both cars were very, very close, and that's the way it should be.
After the race, Dixie and I and the Target boys went out in Tokyo on the Sunday night, so I certainly slept the whole flight home, which was good. I went with the wife to see U2 play the night I got home, they were amazing as usual. Then it was off to Atlanta where, obviously it had been raining like crazy the whole week before. It was really strange to see the roads washed away on the way to the track. It was bizarre.
It took some time getting used to the P1 car again. It's such a strange, different car to drive, it feels different than anything else I've ever driven. Dixie and I were talking about just how different it does feel and how laps definitely get you more comfortable with it. Unfortunately, I think I had seven laps including in and outs, that was my total before the race. So I wasn't feeling too comfortable!
We were planning to do more running for me on Thursday. I was putting my helmet on and [team manager] Robin Hill had just pointed and said, “Three laps until you're in,” so I was starting to put my gear on. I was standing on the timing stand and had just literally put my helmet above my head to slide it on and I see this almighty crash on the TV and I thought, “There’s going to be a red flag here, because somebody’s just had the biggest crash I've ever seen.” I put my helmet down and I then saw a bit of bodywork that had that very distinctive Patron green on it and I said, “Oh crap, it’s us.”
I don't like to watch accidents but I looked up and I just caught the replay and when Sharpie popped himself out of the car, I just couldn't believe it. He took out a bunch of catch-fence and the car was absolutely destroyed so he's a very, very lucky guy. We were standing there in the pit lane and at that point I think we thought that there was only two tubs in existence. So if the tub was damaged that was it because it was definitely destroyed. It did a hell of a job saving Sharpie but it was done. Then we found out there was a third tub in California so that was when it all went into high gear. They got it freighted over and the Highcroft boys did their usual job to rebuild that car. And just to work as they did at the track and the attitude that they had, it was quite impressive.
You watch that time lapse camera and you just marvel at what they were doing… I went down when I got back from Homestead and watched them work and it was just incredible. That’s the thing, when you work for teams like AGR, with the Target boys and with Highcroft it makes you realize how lucky you are. You get a glimpse into how these teams work, and it’s unlike what most people can fathom. I think a lot of it is attitude.
They fired that car together and Brabs took it in warm up and then we did a half race with it and there was a couple of small problems, but that is the most complicated car to work on, and they built it in that short space of time. That was incredible and a testament to a great group of people.
Meanwhile, on that Friday, Dixie and I headed off for Homestead for the IndyCar test. Me, him, and Briscoe and were the only three cars at the track so it was quite bizarre. I think everybody else tested this week but for some reason we tested last Friday, mostly to keep an eye on each other. It was the Target boys and the Penske team seeing what each other was doing. It was a pretty good test; Scott was looking really good and we all learned a lot. We’re limited in mileage just now, having those testing rules so we pretty much ran the thing down to the last lap that we could just learning stuff. So we finished the test, jumped onto the plane, and headed back to Atlanta.
The race at Atlanta started off wet. I was in the car third in rotation -- while it was spiting rain -- and we were on slicks. One lap it would be raining harder, the next lap it would be less. And I'm thinking, “These are really strange conditions to be driving a car that you're so unfamiliar with.” So I was being very, very cautious. I didn’t have a dashboard so I didn’t know how fast I was going. I didn't have a radio. So I was just in my own little world there and trying not to make any mistakes especially as the Patron Highcroft boys are going for the championship and have the points lead, that really wasn’t the time to a hero…
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