2024 NTT Indycar series - News, rumours and hijinx

[MonteCristo]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Nice. Good luck to him.

[Everso Biggyballies]

This P2P scandal will go away. Penske, well, egg on face, they will lose integrity and know they have done wrong... it does seem that whatever mistakes and lets call them oversights they (and the organisers) made have been picked up and dealt with swiftly. In itself Indycar authorities have been put somewhere between a rock and a hard place given that they are having to deal with an issue such as this with the Penske set up.... the fact that Penske owns the series and the Team at the centre of it..... the 'oversights' relate to his own team within his own championship. There can be no perceived collusion. Eyes have been opened.

I have to say that the Indycar side of things have deatl with the happenings swiftly, effectively and with no sweeping stuff under the carpet because they are dealing with their boss / owner. Kudos to them. They put a hefty (but neccessary) DSQ, $75K fine and loss of any winnings, all of which has given the Penske Team not only the embarrassment but also taken them from Championship leaders to at best midfield status. Yes they will fight back but it has firmly said regardless of who you are you are not beyond the law.

Having said. that clearly Penske are covering up what happened and how it happened with simplistic "it was an accident / we didntr mean it" type crap. Cindric spoke of them running hybrid testing codes that allowed for P2P to be available at all times. Fine. No problems there. But to then try and hide behind saying that they just 'mistakenly' copy pasted codes with those testing changes into their race set up which is what allowed that error to happen. Sorry that doesnt fly. They knew they had to modify the codes to run the test. Yet the same guys then just forget they changed the ECU coding for that testing and did a quick copy paste to return to race parameters?. These are top of the game programmers who dont overlook things like that. They earn a living coding stuff with infinite changes covering dozens of parameters.and cock ups like a blanket copy and paste of a test ECU set up to a race set up. And no one picked it up from testing through two or three races. No way. Im calling bullshit.

Also some of their drivers statements, or specifically Joe New's words, suggest not the whole truth has been said or admitted. I think JoeNew simply saying "I thought the rules had change is a load of bollocks. They all know the rule book backwards and such a change to rules that JN is trying to hide behind just would not happen without being mentioned in every driver's briefing or official document sent to teams. JN knew he had something he shouldnt have and used it more than once. I have no doubt he knew it as was a gift he shouldnt have had, but used it regardless. I can believe ScottyMacs story of it pressing pressed the once by habit..... he held the button for just 1.9 secs and then released nd never used it again as has been verified. It is clear to me Scott realised as soon as it kicked in it was wrong and released. This guys know intimately the effect of a few klms of tailwind change. Dont tell me they dont feel a 50/60 bhp kick in the pants. Scotty knew immediately he had a gift he shouldnt have had. When told he accepted what happened and hads moved on. Will didnt even use it or try, not expecting it.

JoeNew acted dishonestly. No question about it. (My opinion)

Zak Brown had some words which suggest yes it was dealt with well, but he doesnt buy the Penske team / driver's excuses. He also wants stuff put it place to ensure any future trangressions are transparent and easy to pick up at the time. I Cant argue with any of that.
From Monaco E Prix he said, and othere, drivers and owners / TPs, have echoed those thoughts.

Brown – who oversees the Arrow McLaren squad whose driver Pato O'Ward inherited the race win – said he was content with the way IndyCar officials handled the situation, as team founder Roger Penske also owns the IndyCar Series.

"I'm comfortable with that but ended up disappointed in the various excuses or explanations that the team and drivers have made because they don't make a lot of sense," said Brown.

"I think champion drivers know exactly what the rules are, they know exactly what they have in the car.

"A team of that caliber to have an oversight of that magnitude doesn't seem right. The team and the drivers are too good to say we didn't know the rules, we didn't know it was there, it was an oversight…

"None of that I think stacks up and when something like that happens, I think you just need to own it."

While he was happy with the way that IndyCar carried out its investigation – which only became apparent during warm-up at Long Beach last Sunday – and the sanctions handed down, Brown hopes that it might shine more light on when push-to-pass is being deployed, to avoid any repeat in future.

"I think the series demonstrated it had the integrity," he added. "They found out there was an issue and dealt with it swiftly.

"I would like to understand and make sure if in the future how we all kind of missed push-to-pass being deployed when it shouldn't, like on the spot. So what technology, or data, or stewards and teams do we need to have…

https://www.autosport.com/indycar/news/ ... /10604001/

[John]

McLaren has sacked Malukas.

[Everso Biggyballies]

McLaren has sacked Malukas.

He never got to race with them even! Mind you if you go and damage yourself off season riding mountain bikes and are medically unfit, it isnt the strongest way to bond with a new team, especially as a rookie trying to prove your worth.

So who gets the gig? Pourchaire has done a couple but he primarily is the Sauber first reserve so when GPs clash might cause issues. I dont think Pourchaire is going to walk away from his pre-existing F1 commitments. Would Sauber be keen for him being effectively tied up for the month of May?

Illott filled in but I think he has Sports Car commitments I think in IMSA and maybe WEC as well.

I guess we will know before to long.

[John]

Ya, suppose so. I think Ilott can be bought out from his WEC deal - besides, didn't they want him at first anyway? He only got shafted because Juncos was dragging their heels on his contract extension.

That team is a dumpster fire at the moment though. They should never have moved to three cars.

[Vassago]

Curious how Jenna Fryer said a clause was triggered after Malukas missed four races (they obviously counted the Thermal non-points race too) to allow the contract to be terminated. That must be quite unique even by modern standards.

Overall Arrow McLaren have faceplanted ever since they believed they could basically replace Andretti as the 3rd best team on the grid and take it to the Penske & Ganassi powerhouse. O'Ward has had one season where he was a genuine title threat and he's stalled in the last 18 months. Rossi has completely regressed but will become the next RHR so he'll be on the grid many years past his prime.

[Cheeveer]

Harsh, but then he was like plan D for them.

[MonteCristo]

Ooof. Sucks to be him.

HMD enter stage right?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Pourchaire set for first oval test with Arrow McLaren

Arrow McLaren is accelerating Theo Pourchaire’s IndyCar Series education plan by sending him to the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway oval on Monday.

The hope is for Theo to pass his oval rookie test, which would allow him to race the No. 6 Chevy at the ovals following the Indianapolis 500.

Ilott tipped to drive the #6 at Indy

No surprises here, with Callum Ilott, who raced from 28th to 12th at the 2023 Indy 500 while driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing, tipped to lead the No. 6 entry once official Speedway practice starts on May 14.

[MonteCristo]

I'm sure it's not his dream. But great to see a top young European talent seriously engaging with Indycar.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Push-To-Pass-gate. Stage 2.

PENSKE SUSPENDS CINDRIC AND OTHER SENIOR STAFF

Roger Penske has suspended four senior members of his IndyCar team operation and apologised for the “errors that were made” in the recent push-to-pass scandal.

They include his right-hand man, Tim Cindric, who is the president of all his racing operations, along with long-time managing director Ron Ruzewski. In all, four individuals have been suspended for the next two races, which include the Indianapolis 500.

Newgarden's race engineer Luke Mason, the man that he gave much credit for his 2023 Indy 500 success, and a senior data engineer are also suspended for two races. He will be without both of them as he bids to defend his Indy 500 crown. In addition to serving as Team Penske president, Cindric is also Newgarden’s race strategist and considered one of the best at calling a race in IndyCar.

Also Robbie Atkinson (Senior Data Engineer) will be suspended for two races.

[Senna4ever]

Push-To-Pass-gate. Stage 2.

PENSKE SUSPENDS CINDRIC AND OTHER SENIOR STAFF

Roger Penske has suspended four senior members of his IndyCar team operation and apologised for the “errors that were made” in the recent push-to-pass scandal.

They include his right-hand man, Tim Cindric, who is the president of all his racing operations, along with long-time managing director Ron Ruzewski. In all, four individuals have been suspended for the next two races, which include the Indianapolis 500.

Newgarden's race engineer Luke Mason, the man that he gave much credit for his 2023 Indy 500 success, and a senior data engineer are also suspended for two races. He will be without both of them as he bids to defend his Indy 500 crown. In addition to serving as Team Penske president, Cindric is also Newgarden’s race strategist and considered one of the best at calling a race in IndyCar.

Also Robbie Atkinson (Senior Data Engineer) will be suspended for two races.

Oh even four people are suspended

[Everso Biggyballies]

Team President Tim Cindric responds and adds apologises for what he didnt do.....

[DoubleFart]

Sounds like there's more shady shit and this is an attempt to put out the fuse.

[MonteCristo]

Ouch. At least they're not sweeping it under the rug. Well, not fully anyway.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Ouch. At least they're not sweeping it under the rug. Well, not fully anyway.

Be interesting to see given they have specified suspended for the Indy 500, as to how that affects the team. Be intersting to see whether Cindric and co are barred from attending or just barred from attending in an official capacity. Will Cindric be on the blower, not in pitlane, but telling someone the strategy calls to make for JN and the banned engineers there to 'suggest' things to do in an off the record manner.