Mailbag readers are curious to know how the 2012 Dallara will advance the state of driver safety when it begins to race next year. (LAT)
Hello open-wheel types and thanks for all your questions. I intend to answer your questions every week during the season, so just email me at . Don’t feel left out if I didn’t directly respond. I appreciate your interest and passion.
~Robin Miller
Q: I have been watching IndyCar since the CART days of 900 HP and freedom in wings, etc. They actually had to lift on almost every speedway! Do you think they can work with the turbos to get at least 800HP so they have to lift at the end of the straight-aways and we can see some fun speedway races? How about letting them run whatever wings they want? Do they have enough time to change things around a little, and are they willing to listen to the many engineers and Mario Andretti that can help them? I'm really wanting to take this opportunity to "do away" with pack racing and get back to CART-type speedway excitement! I love both speedways, road and street courses, makes IndyCar unique.
Harvey & Gail Pelovsky, Payson, Arizona
RM: It sounds like the drivers told Randy Bernard exactly that (more HP, less downforce) and I suppose the good news is that it's a new car with five months before the first race so changing the aero package and upping the power seems doable.
Q: I have long been an advocate of reducing downforce, adding power and putting the responsibility for getting around the track in the hands of the drivers. To me it's such an obvious solution to the all too common complaint that people can't pass because being behind another car "ruins the downforce." Reducing downforce and adding power seems the obvious solution to reducing "pack racing" and the obvious hazards it entails. So what's wrong with me, am I missing something here that nobody.....NASCAR, Indy Car, F1.........sees this as a viable solution? Could it be that they've made the cars so safe that they need to create excitement by packing the cars all together? The appeal in motor racing has always been the danger and how the drivers manage that danger and while I am always quickly seduced by technical advances perhaps a less aerodynamically sophisticated car will put the thrill of a driver's skill back on the track. Oh yeah, might they not also be a little less expensive without fancy aero packages?
Andrew McDermott, Newark, DE
RM: Indianapolis still has the 3-2-1 braking markers on the front straightaway and it's about time they came back into play.
Q: Was last week’s IndyCar driver's meeting the first in a while? I'm trying to remember when I last heard of the drivers unifying to speak up and voice their concern in IndyCar. Seems like this meeting is way overdue. The fact that they want a safer, better sport is great. The fact that management is willing to listen again is awesome. Now, if the economy could just improve some more so the corporations would start loosening up the purse strings, then maybe we could see higher profile drivers and more innovation in American OWR. It just seems like IndyCar is on the verge of breaking out. Crossing my fingers. A plethora of questions before I go. From what I understand, in the early days IRL had to compete with CART and came up with their own format (high-risk ovals) to gain viewers as well as keep promotion costs down and attendance up. Now that the war is over, shouldn't IndyCar revert back to CART's formula that made CART CART? What are you hearing from the industry? What came out of the driver's meeting? Is there driver unity? Are the teams excited? What are Chip and Roger saying? Final comment, and I'm sure they are already looking at it, but the anti-wheel-to-wheel rear faring on the new 2012 cannot just be a pod hanging behind the rear wheel if they are intending to prevent "flip-ups." Geoff Bodine's accident quickly proved that there needs to be a robust support behind the rear wheel, or this faring will just break off and we will still see flying cars. Thinking back on CART again, I can only think of a few cars that got up in the air after wheel-to-wheel contact. Why?
Jeff S.
RM: Other than an annual winter meeting with INDYCAR, it's probably the first one that management called with the drivers. Tony George needed an ally in his war with CART and some tracks to race on so Bill France Jr. (who encouraged the split for obvious reasons) was more than happy to let the IRL be his lap dog. And the ISC tracks never drew anything compared to the old CART crowds. Let's say the drivers have a vested interest in the rules and what ovals are run in the future.
Q: I don’t use drugs but I wonder sometimes if I am high when it comes to IndyCar. It seems so simple, in terms of the formula, but yet IndyCar continues to confuse me. CART circa 1990-1995 was the greatest open wheel formula in the world, so why doesn’t IndyCar turn back the clock? I hear a lot lately about more horsepower, turbo engines, and less downforce—sounds a lot like the old CART. Bring back the DP01, rename it the DW01, cut and paste the old schedule and let’s race. I stopped watching the IRL when they looked and sounded like crapwagons and raced at places like Iowa and Kentucky, or Richmond. Where are the keys to the time machine?
Michael Panosh, Manitowoc, WI
RM: We can't snap our fingers and bring back V-8 turbos and four engine manufacturers but at least we've got turbos back and a couple of new players. As for restoring the drive in race driver, that would appear to be in the hands of INDYCAR's new tech staff, Dallara and Honda, GM and Lotus/Judd. But don't lump Iowa in with Kentucky because it's a racy little place.
Q: Alex Zanardi made a few goods points on IndyCar racing in a recent interview. He'd much rather have 1,000 hp with less grip where you have to properly set up and drive the car and worry about tire degradation than 650 hp where you go flat out. He also said the Hanford Device was a joke. No driving, just a strategy to try and be in the slipstream on the final lap. I'd much rather have a few tension-filled passes that demonstrate skill and patience than a 1,000 slingshots like NASCAR, IndyCar, and CART in the Hanford era.
Steve, Denver, Colo.
RM: I remember arguing with Alex after MIS. He was right, it wasn't pure racing but manufactured passing with the Hanford Device. But I told him it was good TV and good for the paying customers who saw non-stop passing instead of pack racing where cars ran in place, inches apart, lap after lap.
Q: I can't think of any crashes, other than Greg Moore's and Jeff Krosnoff, which was kind of a fluke, where the car flew into the air. But there are several IRL/IndyCar crashes where the car flew into the air. What's the reason - is it because the current Dallara's are flat bottomed? Is the new Dallara expected to be an improvement?
Tim Falkiewicz
RM: Actually, Greg's car tripped on the access road and flipped on its side and went into a concrete wall while Krosnoff climbed a wheel and launched into a tree. They didn't fly like Buddy Rice, Mike Conway, Mario or Dario or all those cars at Vegas but I'm no aerodynamicist so I have no idea how to keep the cars from flying. Hopefully, the new tech staff and Dallara will.
Q: Just read your 10-27 mailbag and just don’t understand everyone’s thinking that a roll cage or canopy would make an IndyCar so much safer. I am a huge IndyCar fan but also a racing fan and have seen several stock car crashes over the years that catch fences have completely destroyed a roll cage. I don’t care what kinda car you are running but if you’re going 150 mph + and you go upside down into the catch fence the fence is gonna win. A really good example of this is the crash that claimed the life of little known NASCAR sportsman racer Russell Phillips at Charlotte in the early 90s. The sportsman cars were older Cup/Busch cars with a smaller engine. He got upside down into the fence and it ripped the whole roof and cage top off the car along with the obvious. FENCE WINS!!!!!!. Racing will never be safe don’t care what anyone says. If it was safe everyone would do it. Also I’m sure with the new cars coming out that the aero drag issue has been addressed. It should be obvious there is a problem when you go to speedways and teams are using negative wing angle to take drag off the cars. It’s no wonder they lift off like airplanes once you get air under them. Ditch the 1.5 mile ovals and let’s have twin 125s at the Milwaukee Mile a week after Indy. (I can dream. Right?)
Justin Lindemann, Ixonia, WI
RM: Most of the drivers would vote for Milwaukee ahead of all those 1.5-mile tracks but, sadly, finding a promoter is next to impossible. A cage didn't help Shane Hmiel and Wheldon was going three times faster so not sure that's the answer either.
Q: Not to be disrespectful to Dan, but I know that he had signed to drive the Go Daddy car for next year. Trying to fill his place on the grid will be an impossible task. That being said, my question is who do they put in that seat now for next year? Is there any chance someone like Katherine Legge would get a shot? She has won in Atlantics, drove Champ Car's, and has been in the DTM the last couple of years. I would think that with the new car a driver with experience developing a new ride would be beneficial. Plus, she seems to be a classier version of Danica with better road racing skills. I would imagine the folks at Go Daddy wouldn't mind having another "pretty face" who can drive back in that seat again.
Brian from NY
RM: I think GO DADDY wants a high profile driver, not necessarily a female (and Katherine has blossomed nicely) but finding someone of Dan's status will be very difficult. Maybe now there is a rethink and Danica comes back with Andretti next May.
