2024 R1: St Pete

[John]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Linus clobbered. Damn it.

[Vassago]

Grosjean punts Lundqvist into the wall. Sigh.

[John]

Grosjean punts Lundqvist into the wall. Sigh.

Death, taxes and RoGro with poor racecraft.

[Cheeveer]

Skitrace

[Cheeveer]

I noticed that when Kirkwood was in 12th or 13th position in the middle of the race, he did his utmost to lift-and-coast to save fuel. He did great at driving slowly to finally finish in 12th position.

What a great race.

[erwin greven]

I always watch the opening race of the Indycar season. Don't know why. A shit race any how. A good reminder to skip the rest of the season.

[MonteCristo]

HIghlights:


Doesn't sound like a barnstormer.

Penske almost got the lock-out.

[Vassago]

I always watch the opening race of the Indycar season. Don't know why. A shit race any how. A good reminder to skip the rest of the season.

IndyCar has become somewhat predictable and it's the product of using old equipment package. Of course if they finally had a new car the usual suspects would eventually restore order most likely but there could be some transition period. The fuel saving stuff is common place and since they extended race distances it usually goes that way. St. Pete is actually one of the longer races on calendar anyway.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Why was St Pete a bit of a borefest? Read on for a clue

Tyres made for hybrids that didnt happen. And no one told Firestone soon enough to stop them manufacturing more durable stiffer tyres designed / suited for heavy hybrids.

There’s no blame to point in Firestone’s direction here. It did as it was asked in developing harder tires to deal with the big increase in vehicle weight with IndyCar going hybrid to open the season. With the heavier full-hybrid cars due to race at St. Petersburg and all of the races on the 2024 calendar, Firestone made harder tires that would survive while being punished by that extra mass. And then IndyCar pulled the plug on going hybrid for the first half of the season, but it was too late for Firestone to help.

That decision was made after Firestone produced its tires, meaning teams spent the weekend with lighter cars — about 31 pounds below last year’s specifications, due to new lightweight components that are meant to offset some of the energy recovery system’s bulk — on tires that weren’t designed for the lighter machines.

The mismatch of lighter cars on harder tires made it more difficult to get those tires to “turn on” during the start and restarts, and that made passing a serious challenge for those who were on the hardest tire, Firestone’s primary. At the most opportune point where firing down the inside of Turn 1 or Turn 3 to make a pass was presented, drivers often found there wasn’t enough grip to get aggressive.

Thats just an extract from 'MP's' race debrief here: https://racer.com/2024/03/13/pruetts-co ... ersburg-2/

[MonteCristo]

FYI @Everso Biggyballies

Just spotted this on the TV guide for today on 9 GO

IndyCar Highlights Grand Prix of St Petersburg
12:00PM - 1:00PM

The 2024 NTT IndyCar Series is set to be the 113th official championship season of American open wheel racing and the 29th season under IndyCar Series sanction.

SPORT | USA | 2024 | NC

https://www.yourtv.com.au/program/indyc ... ts/386150/

Also on tomorrow afternoon.