8: The train has left the station, but we can change its tracks to some degree
Yes, the dissenting owners aren’t exactly sure what they want changed on the new car, but given some time and a willingness to be heard, they would come up with a list of ideas. That, my friends, is a guarantee. These are people who want to be involved and want to influence where the series goes.
Fair enough.
There are many aspects of the discord between the paddock and the series that involve cars and money, but the topic of if and how the existing 2012 plans can be modified to suit the owners’ wishes is all about power and pride.
Those two are a mother to overcome, frankly.
If the series bends to the will of the owners, they publicly admit they made the wrong choice, discredit their partners, including the State of Indiana, and give the appearance that they are not in control of their company.
The DeltaWing, despite not being chosen, still has a major influence on the 2012 discussions and disagreements. (LAT)
If the owners’ calls for changes aren’t heeded, a lot of zillionaires are made to look weak, to feel small, and will harbor great resentment towards the series. They also might pack up and leave, but I doubt that would happen.
In either case, someone is going home with a bloody nose and a bruised ego, plus a heaping dose of public humiliation. Knowing how both sides of the dispute operate, neither will allow themselves to be put in that situation.
The best manner of resolution is for mild changes to be made to the car or engine regulations. Even better, why not add options rather than change the fundamentals of whatever plans Honda is working from, or whatever framework Randy Bernard says Dallara has embarked upon.
The proverbial ship has set sail on a specific path, but if slight alterations to the course are allowed, the final destination might be a place that everyone is happy with.
As one engineer shared with me, he likens what the ICONIC panel came up for a new car with the ‘New Coke’ catastrophe in the 1980s.
“For those of us who are old enough to remember New Coke, this situation reminds me of it a hundred percent. Coke decided they needed something new to gain an edge on Pepsi, came up with the New Coke formula which nobody liked and nobody bought, but there was a significant difference in how they responded to it. They admitted they made a mistake, pulled the plug on New Coke, went back to what everybody liked, and put it behind them. I can’t see [IndyCar] throwing away their beloved 2012 concept this late in the game, but let’s hope they don't refuse to bend whatsoever. I think there are some compromises where everyone can save face.”
He brings up a great point. Coke’s flexibility to admit their mistake was alarming; nobody expected a corporate giant to abandon a failed plan so quickly.
It’s too early to say the same about the 2012 car, but at least for what we know during the 44 days since its announcement, other than Honda, there have been no takers in the engine or aero kit game. We’ve read about plenty of companies kicking the tires or window shopping, but all of the excitement that is spoken of about possible new engine manufacturers joining the series has yet to turn into signatures on the dotted line.
Let’s not go so far as to call the 2012 concept the ‘New Coke’ of open-wheel racing, but if we’re honest, there haven’t been any serious bites on the hook the series set six weeks ago. We need to let the bait soak a little while longer; having rules in place will increase the odds of signing manufacturers, but a three-month gap between the announcement and the formation of rules was another critical error.
This is the time when the interest of potential manufacturers should be harvested. Instead, they are forced to wait...and wait...and wait for rules to come out before they can make an educated decision on whether to join the series.
What has happened is like giving a child an amazing toy on Christmas, and then telling him he can't play with it until the end of March. He might dream about it for a few weeks, but before long, he'll forget about it and move on to a different toy. How the series thought they'd hold the interest of fickle auto manufacturers for months and months is beyond me. Let's also add this one to the pantheon of epic open-wheel blunders.
I learned this week that Audi, one of the marques considered as a strong candidate to build a 2012 engine, has chosen to go with a more familiar route with its North American racing activities in 2011 and 2012. Lotus is the most likely to become the first aero kit manufacturer, but until the rules are written, they are forced to sit and wait.
This all adds up to a series with new plans for 2012 and few takers who’ve started to produce their respective components. If three engine companies were far down the road on their designs and two aero kit manufacturers had already produced bodywork molds, I’d say the owners were too late to ask for any modifications.
The fact that Tony Cotman is less than two weeks into writing the rules tells me there is a short window for the owners to be heard.
9: Bring back Tony George. Then we’d have TGBB and TGTG
A select few members of the owners’ assembly would like to see Tony George restored to power. TG was, in the most general sense, someone that paddock could control. With Bernard in place, some feel that their issues won’t be resolved for a variety of reasons.
"Bernard is a neophyte," as one owner told me. "He’s totally out of his league" (a great play on words, actually) as another shared. "He’s made too many mistakes already," as one principal said.
Getting TGTG back in office won’t solve any of the problems the paddock has with the series. Adopting the Tea Party’s “throw the bums out of office” slogan isn’t the answer here. He might not look like it, but Bernard is a fighter. He’s mellow and speaks slowly, but those shouldn't be confused as signs of weakness.
Bernard has the full support of the Hulman-George family and a long-term contract in his back pocket. I’m sure he could get out of it if he wanted to, but the sense of duty he feels to turn the series around for the family cannot be underestimated. He agreed to go on this mission and refuses to fail.
All of that is worth knowing because fantasies of Tony George’s return or of TG buying the series and taking control on the owners’ behalf are wide of the mark. Learning to work and negotiate with Bernard is the smartest thing the angered owners can do.
And now we've returned to Oprah time again. Whether they like it or not, and no matter who’s right or wrong, both sides need to come to the table and work things out. The only other option is for owners to leave the series, which is nothing more than taking the easy way out.
10: What they do and don’t want
I’ll spare you a lot of repetitive quotes. We now know they want to see some changes with the 2012 car, but they haven’t formalized those thoughts. Of the ideas I listened to, here are some of the most common answers:
• Hold off on the new car until 2013 or 2014.
• Keep the current car and engine, but come up with a single update kit to make the car less ugly. Everybody uses that kit, so all the cars look the same, but at least they look different than what we have now.
• Skip the new chassis and engine, and just use the aero kit concept on the current car.
• Keep the current chassis, update the looks, but go to the turbo engine.
• Scrap the aero kit concept, build a new car and go to the new engine, but make sure the looks of the car are stunning.
• Start from scratch. No matter what you do with aero kits, the new car is still going to be ugly.
No one mentioned using the current V8 engine in the new chassis, which was the only major option that was left, I think.
Most wanted more relevant technology or innovation built into the car. Giving Dallara total control prevents that and thoroughly pisses people off. Leaving the future of open-wheel innovation to Dallara isn’t what most consider to be a wise choice.
For the costs, everyone I spoke to was pleased with the purchase price for the chassis and the lease price for the Honda. Until the owners are shown that Dallara’s parts prices are kept to reasonable rates, the distrust will only grow. Allowing teams to continue to manufacture their own parts or to buy them from specialist vendors to save money is another move that would go a long way to mending the relationship. It seems small, but this is a major stumbling block.
Announcing a deal with a SunTrust Bank (or similar) for friendly 2012 car loans would greatly ease tensions.
A few owners mentioned that they have seen enough of panels. “We don’t need any more damn ICONIC panels,” one of the more colorful owners said. “This one was a complete failure.”
Of the fluctuating number of dissenters, they want a vote for any major changes to the series. “We were bitten on the ass with the new car,” the same owner continued. “We’ve all said it one way or another…don’t reach into my pocket without asking. My wallet ain’t your wallet. Don’t confuse that fact.”
They aren't interested in a mutiny, as one of the most vocal owners told me. “We don’t want to run the series. Let’s kill that rumor immediately. All we want is competent people running the series who have our best interests in mind. At least we could talk to Tony [George] and he’d listen. We don’t have that at the moment. And trust me, if we wanted to be running the series, we’d be doing it right now.”
OK. Got it. Now let me answer a question that fell on deaf ears.
Why didn’t this revolt happen on July 14th when the ICONIC panel made their announcement?
The easy answer is that there is no easy answer.
This could scare a lot of people who lived through the CART and ChampCar nightmares of an owner-run series, but the lack of organization between the IndyCar entrants is the first issue to point out. If the owners had a coalition they belonged to, maybe they could have assembled faster and presented their concerns to the Series. But that didn’t happen.
Second, and take this with a 10-pound grain of salt, is that the majority of the paddock appeared to be in full support of the 2012 Dallara-Honda when it was announced. At least in terms of public perception.
The Series sent out a story with pro-Dallara quotes from a ton of participants, and it surely gave most fans the impression that everyone was on board, yet six weeks later, enough people want off the 2012 ship for the series to be concerned.
Hmmn.
I can see A.J. Foyt’s point that he shared with Robin Miller about his fellow owners, when he said “I don’t think most of them know what they want and you can’t change your mind every five minutes.” It sure looks like that to a lot of people outside of the series that I’ve heard from over the past 72 hours.
I love A.J. for all of his cranky wisdom, but as someone who’s tried to remain on top of the 2012 initiative from the outset, I can tell you that most of the Whine Country participants have been waiting patiently since the July 14th announcement for concrete plans, rules and prices to emerge.
“I’ll keep waiting…I can only hope they announce some details soon” has been the general spirit of what I’ve heard from countless members of the IndyCar community. The reason for the delayed revolt, based on my conversations since the launch, is more about people running out of patience than everyone waking up six weeks later and realizing they don’t want the 2012 Dallara-Honda.
But that assessment doesn’t apply to everybody. I know a number of the owners who met with Cotman last week hated the car, the aero kit concept and the engine plans the moment they were revealed. They could have cornered Bernard on the stage moments after the launch and told him they refused to buy the car, but they didn’t.
For those who took the ‘wait and see’ approach, I have no issue with them pushing back after giving the series what they felt was enough time to get their act in gear. For those who hated the 2012 concept from the beginning but chose not to plead their case right away, jumping on the ‘wait and see’ bandwagon seems rather fishy. Blame them for sitting down when they should have been standing up to have their voices heard.
You can blame it all on the series for a highly flawed ICONIC panel process; it makes no sense that fans watching the live 2012 launch on the web learned about the chassis and engine plans at the same time as the owners. Contracts should not have been signed in advance of the launch -- before the owners were consulted. Most of all, the series should have confirmed that enough owners were willing to buy the Dallara before signing an agreement for dozens of chassis to be produced.
Blame the series for assuming the bulk of their owners were on board and willing to spend money on whatever car they chose. They are currently experiencing the retribution for making such an error.
Or you can simply agree that both sides share varying portions of the blame for the Mexican standoff they've gotten themselves into.
In closing...
The reality is that the relationship between the series and the owners is more like a marriage than that of a customer and service provider. They need each other, they rarely see eye to eye, their finances are inter-related and there’s very little sex.
(No, wait, forget that last part, unless you know something I don’t. OK, never mind. Nothing to see here. Let’s move on.)
Threats of divorce won’t repair the relationship. Going back to an old flame won’t help, nor will waiting for one side to apologize and make everything better.
As more owners realize they need the IndyCar Series to keep their teams afloat, I expect the membership of the uprising to diminish, but it won’t disappear altogether.
No matter how many are left on the other side of the divide, the series needs to reach out to try and bring those owners back – at least half way. And the owners need to do the same – it’s only fair.
The series formed a union of their own with the ICONIC panel, and now a bunch of owners are organizing a union of sorts to protect their interests.
As Oprah would tell them, they need to stop trying to form separate unions, and look to form one big union – just like a marriage is supposed to work.
After all, can’t we all just get along?
Read SPEED.com's extensive coverage of the 2012 IndyCar:
Tony Cotman 2012 Q&A
Cosworth 2012 Q&A
Honda 2012 Q&A
2012 Car Reactions
2012 Car Has Manufacturers Listening
PRUETT: ICONIC Thud Or Thunder?
Randy Bernard 2012 Q&A
PRUETT: 2012
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com’s Auto Racing Editor, and also covers IndyCar and sportscar racing for the site. Pruett grew up at ‘Pruett's Olde English Garage,’ his father's shelter for abused foreign cars, and spent his childhood being dragged across the West Coast to help with his dad's amateur racing exploits.
Pruett spent 20 years working in the IRL, CART, IMSA, and most of the known open-wheel feeder series before retiring from active duty in 2001. And in case you were wondering, he isn’t related to Scott Pruett.
Marshall lives in Northern California with his wife Shabral, and can be emailed . He can also be harassed on Twitter .
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator
and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
