The RACER Mailbag, December 10

On Dec 11, 2025

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.

Q: Another ride buyer chosen over a proven racer. Conor Daly is head and shoulders better than Sting Ray Robb. Robb is one of the worst, if not the worst, talents in the IndyCar paddock. I guess the series likes the moving chicanes rather than a fan favorite like Conor Daly. Dave O’Neil should be ashamed!

Preston Proctor, Muncie

MARSHALL PRUETT: Robb had an enforceable contract and held the team to the agreement. The team tried to negotiate their way to an early divorce out of a desire to become more competitive. Meh.

Juncos Hollinger Racing had one open car to fill with Daly or another driver, and it opted to cut Conor. That’s on the team, not on Sting Ray.

I’d wager the go-away figure was too painful for the team to swallow, so it chose to ride the final season out with Sting Ray instead of paying him a portion (or all) of the rumored $9 million he brings, to vacate the seat. He wants to be an IndyCar driver and has some amazing backers who facilitate that dream. If he wanted to race in IMSA GTP or LMP2, he’d already be there in a full-time capacity, and that might be where Robb’s long-term future lies, but at least for 2026, he’ll be an open-wheeler.

If Robb took the buy-out, he’d be gone from IndyCar in an instant, and since there’s only one seat left (at Coyne) and Dale has different plans for the car, the second year of his two-year contract is a lifeline to remain in the series. I respect a guy who fights like hell to hold onto a thing he’s chased for most of his life.

As long as he can qualify for the races and doesn’t make an ass out of himself by constantly crashing or hindering the faster drivers, I have no issue with the Sting Rays being in IndyCar. He seemed to blend in rather well last season in that regard, and that’s about all I can hope for.

But I get it. It’s easy to hate on the paying drivers, especially when they run towards the back.

We can ask IndyCar to broom them from the series, plus the ones who’ve never won, and those who’ve won before but won’t win again unless a miracle is involved, and that leaves us with the seven drivers from 2025 who qualify, and a handful of others who can still get the job done. So, do we cut bait with the 17 others who, like Sting Ray, also can’t get to victory lane?

Q: Recently, Arvid Lindblad was announced to replace Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull. Will Buxton then invited Yuki to IndyCar.

I can appreciate wanting talent in IndyCar, and I don’t care per se if the talent is sometimes comprised of former F1 drivers. I love IndyCar and the 500 in particular. My great-grandfather raced and became an officiant at IMS. I’ve been a yellow shirt for 30+ years alongside my dad and brother. I’m in hook, line and sinker, but can’t help but feel a little off about the perception of continued F1 has-beens being invited to IndyCar. Yes, I know, it’s a conflicting viewpoint.

They can’t make it in F1 and won’t regress back to F2, but hey, give IndyCar a chance? From their view, it makes sense.

I want the best racing, but also feel IndyCar comes across as the first stop towards an F1 driver’s retirement. Does the seemingly constant intake of F1 has-beens diminish the reputation of IndyCar and its talent? Sure, not every current driver is Tier 1, but still….

Your thoughts?

Dave, Milwaukee area

MP: It has been IndyCar’s reality since the 1980s, so I’m somewhat numb to the negative connotations with IndyCar being the landing spot for former F1 drivers. Same reality and perceptual challenge for sports cars, which has long been the retirement home for ex-IndyCar and F1 drivers.

He wasn’t the first, but Emerson Fittipaldi really stood out as a big F1 name to make the IndyCar switch and find success. Lots more were in similar positions, but arrived with much smaller F1 careers and profiles. Roberto Guerrero. Jan Lammers. Derek Daly.

Some, like Teo Fabi, had experience here in other series before going to F1 and quickly returning for CART IndyCar opportunities. Danny Sullivan came up here, hit F1 for a little bit, and was back home, pursuing IndyCar. And that’s just a small sample size from the 1980s.

Yuki would be a perfect fit in IndyCar with the right team. He’d be a riot at Foyt next to Santino, where you’d have the two most outspoken drivers as teammates. I’m more interested in his profile and what it could do for IndyCar.

It wasn’t lost on anyone that Mick Schumacher, in signing with RLL, became IndyCar’s most popular driver in terms of global social media followers. And no disrespect to Mick, but he last raced in F1 in 2022. Yuki has a huge following, and that spotlight is something I’d love to have placed on IndyCar.

Has helmet, can’t travel: Tsunoda says Red Bull pit the kibosh on him doing any racing next year. Jayce Illman/Getty Images

Q: I sure hope that Penske Entertainment saw the Eddie Cue interview following the Apple F1 rights announcement. He referenced Apple using iPhones to capture unique camera views during MLB games to create different viewing experiences. In this case, an iPhone was strapped to the foul pole and provided a completely new viewing angle for foul balls.

Additionally, iPhones were used to obtain special angles for the F1 movie from inside locations on the car. The tiny packaging requirements for an iPhone or its components give teams and producers a lot of room for experimentation.

The costs for creating exciting, special viewing experiences are coming down and IndyCar should take notice.

Some of the TV production suggestions from Matt’s letter in the 12/3 Mailbag could be addressed by using off-the-shelf technology in creative ways.

These opportunities seem like low-hanging fruit for Indy Car to bring some new spark into the viewer experience for 2026.

Shaun, Berwyn, IL

MP: All true. It’s one of my old rants that gets shared with IndyCar every year or two and goes nowhere. Open the rules to allow the Apples and Googles and Samsungs and other tech-making companies to get involved in the series by bringing their phones/tablets/screens to cockpits and wherever else. Let teams go out and sign deals with them.

Allow a paddock starving for money to profit from opening up the electronics side. Nothing against Cosworth, which makes the data systems and steering wheel displays, but Cosworth being a spec supplier does nothing to help anyone other than IndyCar.

LG, Panasonic, Sony and so on, all able to do business with the series and its teams to showcase existing or new and custom tech, instead of selling the sales rights to a single vendor with no commercial profile.

Streaming in-car footage via iPhone 18s in Palou’s car as he races into Turn 1 next to Pato O’Ward streaming in-car from his Google phones… while getting their dash info from cool screens supplied by both brands. Makes no sense for this to be banned.

Q: How about a Mount Rushmore of the worst funded drivers? No? It’s the holidays and we are being kind and not mean? Sounds good. Foyt, Mario, and Mears all seem like a given and all were before my time. I find Scott Dixon to be dry (except for his fuel tank which never empties) and boring, but I can’t deny the idea that he probably belongs on IndyCar’s Mount Rushmore. Ask me again in a few years about Alex Palou.

Ryan, West Michigan

MP: Jean-Pierre Frey is a worst hall-of-famer. The Dr. Jacks and King Hiros and Milkas are in there as well – at least in the modern wing.

If it was the Mount Rushmore of public driver personalities, you might not include Dixon, but once he’s retired, I’d bump Montoya from P4 on my list for the Kiwi. Since he isn’t done, and we don’t yet know how to contextualize the complete greatness of his career, I’ll happily wait.

And Palou certainly has the runway to earn his spot on the mountain.

Q: I’ve driven IH-35W from Fort Worth to Denton regularly since 2010, when there was nothing but Alliance Airport, a Marriott, TMS and a truck stop along the highway. Today, there are thousands of McMansions, hundreds of McWarehouses (logistics centers, excuse me)… and TMS.

I got to wondering: Auto Club Speedway was set in the same general demographic, and it’s not there anymore. Replaced by logistics, warehouses, etc. How long before a developer makes Speedway Motorsports an offer for TMS that they can’t refuse? Keep the condos, build a pond for lakeside living, and flatten the rest.

What say you?

Damon Hynes

MP: Welp, that’s a depressing dose of reality. I found a bunch of old event programs last weekend, and within the stack was the inaugural IndyCar/Truck track launch program from TMS in 1997. Fond memories.

Looking at its current calendar of major events, it’s a huge place being used at a bare minimum. Having been to TMS before everything sprung up around it, yes, the vast outgrowth of stuff encroaching the property is hard to ignore. I wouldn’t pretend to know how its finances work, but if the headlining visit from Cup in May and whatever else every few months stops being enough to make a profit, I imagine it would be razed for a AI server farm or similar. The era of double NASCAR and double IndyCar races feels like it existed a lifetime ago, which is sad.

As long as no real estate developers realize how many tract homes, strip malls or data centers you could get in there, we’re all good. James Gilbert/Getty Images

Q: Reading how many drivers are glad to be done with ground effect cars in F1, I have been thinking about the problems they have had during this era of IndyCar. As I recall, the Dallara DW-12 was designed to rely on ground effects to enable closer racing. That seems to have worked and I don’t recall problems with porpoising with the Dallara. Why has IndyCar not had the problems that F1 has had? A) the Dallara generates less downforce via ground effect than F; B) IndyCar teams are so restricted in what they can do to a car that they have not created problems for themselves with additional aerodynamic bits; C) something else; D) all of the above?

Paul Lewis, Macon, GA

MP: Almost every Indy car for the last 45ish years has made use of ground effects with underwings that generate significant downforce. Porpoising was an issue at points in the early 1980s when CART IndyCar designs used skirts to seal the sidepods, but those were soon deleted by the rules.

You can have porpoising with any car that uses ground effects; open-wheel, sports cars, etc. It’s a function of low ride height, controlling that ride height, and the air feeding the underwing being starved as the front ride height dips too low, which kills the downforce, causes the front of the car to spring up, which starts feeding the underwing again until it’s pulled down again, gets starved, and you get the bucking bronco routine going. It has nothing to do with a Dallara having more or less downforce.

Ten teams make their own F1 cars using 10 completely different aerodynamic designs. Their performance is governed by running incredibly low ride heights. Many F1 cars had porpoising problems when the new formula debuted in 2022, but some did not. Given time, and a crazy amount of money, those teams solved their aero problems. Dallara makes a single IndyCar model. It runs at a low ride height, but wasn’t designed to perform in a tiny ride height window that lives on a knife edge where porpoising could become a problem.

Q: Is Dale Coyne’s long delay on naming a second driver due to waiting to see what Yuki Tsunoda status was with Red Bull? Can we expect an announcement that Yuki will be named to that position? I don’t imagine he has any options to stay in F1. Will Honda play a factor in this decision?

Dave

MP: No. Dale was never waiting on Yuki. That was the latest garbage rumor came into existence on social media that too many people ran with because who doesn’t love rumors with zero veracity? Tsunoda was confirmed as a Red Bull reserve and said his contract never allowed him to leave.

Q: Last week in response to the Tsunoda question, you said that Honda would not be spending $8-$10 million on a new driver in the last year of its engine contract. Is that to suggest that Honda is done after 2026, or were you referring to the final year of the current engine contract?

Bob

MP: Apologies, Bob. I should have ‘splained myself in a more complete manner. The answer was unrelated to whether Honda will or won’t stay beyond 2026.

Honda’s talking to IndyCar about staying and bringing costs down in order to stay, which would make forking out a ton of money to sponsor a driver both a bad look and a terrible negotiating strategy.

Hard to be taken seriously if you’re spending freely on frivolous things that aren’t needed, and despite loving Yuki, he isn’t needed. If Honda’s driver stable was weak, I could see the company wanting to come out of pocket to improve the situation, but it just finished P1, P3, P4, P6, P7, and P8 in the drivers’ standings – six of the top eight – and ran away with the manufacturers’ title. Of all the times to throw money at a driver, this isn’t it.

Q: What is the thought process that goes into pit box selection? I have seen some series use loss of pit selection as a penalty. Is there really that big of an advantage to be gained from pit selection, or does that just end up being a minor penalty?

Steven, Las Cruces, NM

MP: Depends on the series, but yes, in general, it’s a beneficial thing to be able to pick your pit stall. Whether it’s being the first (closest to pit-out) and having nobody in front of you so you can fire straight away without having to turn hard and lose time trying not to hit crew members and tires, or pitting coming into an open spot – the first box after a break in the pit wall – or simply being in a location that’s among the best teams in the pits, which usually means you have better odds of not being impeded by parking errors or crew mistakes on either side of you, there’s a real value in having a say in where you do your work on pit lane.

There are definite benefits to being able to choose your pit stall. Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment

Q: How is the energy and (more importantly) ticket sales heading into the Arlington Grand Prix in four months? Is there any likelihood that you’ll be writing the phrase “the ill-fated Arlington GP event” in your columns within the next few years? I’m wondering if Midwestern fans who are considering making a trip to a new IndyCar race in the western U.S. might actually choose to travel to Phoenix over Arlington. I for one am leaning that way. What are your expectations for “Jerry’s race” at this point?

Mark Founds, Mason, OH

MP: I spoke with Arlington GP president Bill Miller last week and he said they expect to sell all 35,000 regular tickets and hope to get that up to 50,000 total with all of the guests in hospitality suites.

There’s great energy behind the event because it’s new and interesting. The answer to your question of whether it will go the way of the Baltimore GP, which was effing amazing but crashed and burned after three runnings, isn’t something I can answer today. Profits are needed through ticket sales and hospitality suite sales. Corporate support needs to not just be there in the first year, but on a continual basis. If those dip, it will eventually die.

I expect the first edition to be great and for overwhelming positives to emerge. But that’s the first date. It’s whether the energy and passion is still there by the city, the Cowboys, the Rangers, the fans, and the sponsors, by the third, fourth and fifth installments. Been to far too many big/new/amazing venues that disappear. Hoping this one has some permanence.

Q: Two quick questions for you. First, does Will Power attend the Andretti Global Christmas party or the Team Penske Christmas party? Second, the longer that there’s no announcement about Honda staying, the more it has me worried. Do you think that negotiations still on going so there is nothing to announce, or has the decision been made and Honda and IndyCar are wanting to get to 2026 and then make the announcement?

Chris F, Charleston, SC

MP: Do you celebrate Christmas with your ex-wife or spend the holidays with your new wife? I sure hope it’s the latter because the new wife might become the next ex-wife if you make that mistake.

Chevy has yet to say it’s staying beyond 2026, so it’s Chevy and Honda in need of either announcing they’re staying or going, or signing deals to stay if that hasn’t already happened.

IndyCar needs Chevy and Honda more than they need IndyCar. Smart business play is for one or both to let this grind on and try to get the most favorable terms. Can’t say if that has anything to do with the wait, but they gain nothing I can think of by rushing to sign.

Q: What are the legit possibilities of IndyCar ever making a return to Pocono or Kansas? I just hate to see the low-downforce setup get used only once a year. Also, what about the possibilities of the Freedom 100 returning?

Austin

MP: The Freedom 100 is as dead as dead can be. Blown to smithereens. IndyCar has returned to all kinds of places that disappeared from its schedule, so I’ll never say never, but I’ve yet to hear of plans for returns to either of those ovals.

Q: One story that seems to have faded away is the departure of Michael Andretti from the team that bears his name. The details of what led to his exit seemed to be a closely guarded secret at the time, with a very limited amount of information trickling out to create a positive image for all involved. It’s hard for me to believe that Michael left without being pushed.

Now that some time has passed and maybe some additional leaks have slipped out inside the paddock area, can you lend any insight into what really happened behind the scenes?

John, Visalia, CA

MP: Nothing beyond what we all wrote extensively about when it happened. As was chronicled a year ago, Michael exited the team and shortly after Andretti Global/TWG Motorsports/Cadillac’s F1 entry was accepted.

Q: I’ve been reading about changes coming to the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. GM is in the process of moving its headquarters to the new Hudson’s Detroit tower. Also, in the spring of 2027 the city will begin demolition of the two towers closest to the river at the Renaissance center. The current Grand Prix track runs behind these two towers. Does this mean they will have to build a new circuit somewhere else in downtown for the 2027 race? And is it possible they may return to Belle Isle?

Rick Schneider, Charlotte, NC

MP: I asked about this a few months ago and it was something that needs to get closer to happening to create hard answers on whether the race will be impacted.

Q: If PREMA does not return to full-time IndyCar racing in 2026, do you see teams bringing back part-time entries? Would this happen immediately, or would the upcoming season just have the 25 chartered entries, with part-timers coming in for 2027? Would the teams try to coordinate somehow so that combined they did not bring more than the two extra entries for each non-Indy 500 race?

Steven, Las Cruces, NM

MP: Through the charter program, IndyCar capped the starting field at 27 at every race outside the Indy 500, so if PREMA folds, yes, those spots would be open to fill, but only if Penske Entertainment wants them to remain open. That’s the main question, since Penske is known to want a smaller grid, and many teams want a smaller grid, to try and drive up the value for their charters by creating more exclusivity.

Otherwise, if starting positions 26 and 27 are open for business, I can think of a few teams who would want to fill those slots with extra cars.

Q: Is it things as usual at DCR, with one driver to be announced a month before the first green flag of the season?

Dino, New Hanover, PA

MP: I don’t think so. As we’ve said for a while now, Romain Grosjean is understood to be on pole position for the seat and there are others who are possible. More of an extended timeline needed to get some big-picture business items done before completing the puzzle with a driver announcement.

Q: I’d love to see your list of top 10 active drivers in any form of motorsport. (Let’s keep it to four wheels.) Come to think of it, I’d love to see yours, Chris’s and Kelly’s, just to see how much (or little) overlap there is…

Randy, Milwaukee

MP: Kyle Larson, Alex Palou, Max Verstappen, Nick Tandy, Isack Hadjar, James Calado, Shane van Gisbergen, Antonio Garcia, Kyle Kirkwood, Oliver Bearman. And I’m taking an 11th to include Tony Stewart.

Most of mine are versatile – monsters in more than their main series – and all charge forward. Can’t take your eyes off of them.

CHRIS MEDLAND: I genuinely could spend days deliberating over this, but apparently we actually need to file the answers to publish the Mailbag…

OK I’m naturally going to lean towards F1, but hopefully not completely. I’d say: Verstappen, Larson, Palou, Alonso, Dixon, Norris, Rovanpera, Leclerc, Hamilton, van Gisbergen.

It’s so hard to actually put that in an order, but it’s the versatility for most that get them in here – not only what they do in their main series, but the fact they’ve shown what they can do elsewhere. And for quite a few that includes wins or very competitive running outside of their first/full-time category.

I will admit, Verstappen is clearly top of the list in my book (I’d love to see him go up against some of the non-F1 names in their categories), but beyond the first three on this list it feels very interchangeable right now, with a lot of high-quality drivers.

The fact that I so nearly didn’t put Hamilton in here speaks volumes for the season he’s had, and it may well be that I’d not include him in six months’ time. But I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that it’s a blip in a new environment and not a decline.

KELLY CRANDALL: My list is in no particular order: Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Scott Dixon, Max Verstappen, Austin Prock, Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Palou, Doug Kalitta, Christopher Bell, Connor Zilisch.

[ED: So for those keeping count, that was three votes each for Verstappen, Larson, Palou and van Gisbergen, two for Dixon, and lots and lots of single vote-getters]

Q: Full disclosure: Never have been a Sir Lewis fan, but for what he was making at the Scuderia this year with the net result of one Sprint race win, well I believe his Best Before date has expired ! Might it be time to let young Bearman have a go?

Yanie Porlier

CM: I think Bearman is doing all the right things to be a future Ferrari driver, but I also think 2026 is too soon for that. It has been a very tough season for Hamilton, but he also showed some strong form mid-season that hints at what is possible if he and Ferrari click.

The biggest problem for Ferrari is that Hamilton’s victory in the Sprint in China is its only P1 finish of the season, and it had zero wins in a grand prix. If next year is bad for both parties then I can see Hamilton leaving at the end of the year – or if it’s a strong car and he really doesn’t perform – but I still expect him to get good results if the car is competitive.

For Bearman, one more year of development at Haas would be good, as he’s been excellent at times this season but also still made a few mistakes and had the odd down weekend, too. Before stepping up to Ferrari, ironing some of those wrinkles out would be ideal.

Q: In light of Toyota Gazoo Racing picking up the title sponsorship reins at Haas, is Toyota getting in position for team ownership, or are they satisfied with getting brand exposure? (Not that they need it).

MJW

CM: I would say Toyota is getting in position for team ownership, but that doesn’t mean it would definitely happen. The greater involvement and investment is helping it understand what it would take to become a full constructor team again in future, and it puts it in pole position (pun intended) to discuss such a move if Gene Haas ever wanted to sell.

But Gene has never said he wants to sell – quite the opposite – and it might be that Toyota sees title sponsorship as the best place to be. To become a full constructor would likely mean power unit too, otherwise it would be odd to see a Toyota powered by a Ferrari engine, so I do think we’re some way off that actually being seriously explored.

Toyota might be interesting in buying but Gene Haas doesn’t seem interested in selling. Andy Hone/Getty Images

Q: I’m writing about the F1 Apple TV deal, and something I don’t think I’ve seen adequately acknowledged in any publication when analyzing how good/bad the deal is. And fair warning: I’m firmly in the bad camp on this matter.

But I will start with acknowledging the unequivocal good: If one used F1 TV to watch F1, this is a good deal for you whether or not you had Apple TV already. Apple TV subscription is (at time of writing, though I imagine it won’t be long before this changes) is $12.99 per month, same as F1 TV basic, but you’re getting F1 TV Premium for the price tag.

The problem is the ESPN viewers. Sure, even the TV over internet services are far more expensive than Apple TV, but the thing not being talked about, and which I’m sure Liberty doesn’t want us thinking about, is that next to nobody has bought any cable, satellite, or TV over internet service soley for F1 on ESPN/ABC. The overwhelming majority of the TV viewership are not going to dump their service, giving up everything else they enjoy on it, to jump to Apple TV just for F1. Even fewer are going to want to add the expense to their existing TV/streaming packages.

The big problem is that Apple TV is the lowest-subscribed mainstream streaming service available in the U.S., with an estimated 10 million subscribers fewer than Hulu, which happens to have TV over internet options.

And to clarify, by “mainstream” I mean anything that has a wide array of programming with potential mass appeal, as opposed to niche streaming services with very narrow or singular focuses like FloRacing or Crunchyroll.

What’s more, Apple had trouble getting people to sign up for Apple TV when they offered it free with any Apple device. And then there’s viewership (and transparency) concerns causing MLS to get an early termination of their Apple TV contract sorted out.

When you look at everything about the deal, not just the truly excellent deal it is for F1 TV users, it’s really tough to find a reason to be positive about it. My own brother has F1 TV Pro and Apple TV already, so he’s benefiting from this to the maximum possible degree, and even he can’t bring himself to be excited about it because he saw the same issues I did. I strongly doubt he’s the only one benefiting who’s noticed this. To quote him, “All their momentum just went full throttle into the wall. And they forgot to install the tire barrier.”

I may be more an IndyCar fan than F1, but I do have a lot of love for F1 and seeing them throw everything away after finally cracking the code to getting it to grow in America is just sad.

FormulaFox

CM: On the whole, I agree with your point. Another aspect is you’re not going to get F1 just randomly on in cafes or bars that all have ESPN but don’t have Apple TV. So the secondary/passive audience just isn’t going to be there.

But the coverage itself could level up with more investment, and unlike the MLS contract there’s no extra cost to be able to watch F1 on Apple TV, so there are some other benefits. I do also expect the partnership to be leveraged far more away from the broadcast – through the app, on Apple devices etc – but have to admit I don’t see that outweighing the lost viewership from ESPN.

As I’ve written before, one of my other frustrations of both the ESPN deal and now the Apple one is a lack of bespoke coverage for the market. There should be proper investment in high-quality coverage, and hopefully that will come in 2027.

Q: Stefano Domenicali was talking about having more Sprints in the future. That made me wonder

– couldn’t they hurt F1 pretty hard? The norm in F1 is a dominant car/driver, not close championships. What happens if you have five years of a dominant combo again while having more racing?

I get his point and I even agree with him. But F1 could be seriously damaged by the extra racing, unless they make sure they have a closer grid more often. The DTS-ification of F1 brought the celebrities, and turned the drivers into celebrities. But it didn’t bring the close racing. F1 should be more careful about these ideas.

F1 numbers clearly grow after a close season. But when that is not the case… ’23 felt really long with 24 rounds and six sprints, you know…

I’ve been watching since 1995; I can endure boring seasons as long as the cars sound and look good (but then we haven’t had good-looking cars since ’09 and good-sounding cars since ’14, and seasons were shorter). But my concern is due to the ’26 momentum. We got one more team and more manufacturers after almost being left with Mercedes and Ferrari only. As a F1 fan I’m very happy with that. And I’m also concerned it won’t last long. I know to keep this momentum going we need close racing to be the norm. But what can F1 do to reach that?

One idea that could fit the F1 development war would be to adapt the development tokens from ’21. Call them upgrade tokens. After round three or five, teams start getting them after every race. The more in the back the more tokens they receive. All championship based. To add an upgrade, you spend a token. That way teams keep working on the cars all year anyway.

I mean, ATR is already like that, giving more to teams in the back. But it’s not working that well. DRS (and MOM in ’26) also work like that, giving some advantage to the ones behind. Why not expand it?

The grid is closer, no doubt. But in the race and at the end of the year, it’s still the same old history. F1 needs to do more. Especially if they’ll expose themselves with more racing.

William Mazeo

CM: I’m with you on not wanting too many Sprints, William, but I’m not concerned about a future loss of momentum. The big reason more manufacturers and teams want to be involved is because now – unlike in the past – they get a return on their investment. Teams are profitable, and worth billions of dollars, because of the cost cap. And we still get high-performance cars that are closely matched as you say.

I also think the signs are good with what we already have. The cost cap hadn’t fully had an impact when the 2022 cars were developed (it had started but was so new and smaller teams still had plenty of infrastructure to invest in), so we’ll see more of the impact of that in 2026, plus ATR definitely helps prevent the gaps getting bigger during a season.

My expectation is for a closer field at the start of regulations than we usually get next year. Not the entire field, but at least nearer the front, and from there it should only get better.

How many Sprints are too many? Kym Illman/Getty Images

Q: In hindsight the McLaren decision to have Oscar and Lando switch positions at Monza due to a bad pit stop won them (Lando ) a world championship. It was controversial at the time but now looks like the best-case scenario. Do you think McLaren will take that into consideration with Oscar next season?

JC Dave

CM: I don’t see McLaren taking that into consideration over and above the fact it was vindicated and will stick by its approach. Both drivers will get equal chance to win the title again (assuming that’s a title-contending car) and Norris won’t get priority just because he’s the defending champion.

I’m glad you flagged this, though. It shows how close it was to getting away from McLaren, but also how there are so many moments that add up that mean you can’t put it all on one incident. Kimi’s mistake in Qatar got a lot of focus but that wouldn’t matter if McLaren didn’t swap drivers in Monza, or didn’t get the strategy wrong earlier in the Qatar race, or didn’t get a double-DSQ in Vegas, or Max didn’t drive into George in Spain… You get my drift!

Q: “Hamlin and Jenkins have testified it costs $20 million to bring a single car to the track for all 38 races. That figure does not include any overhead, operating costs or a driver’s salary.”

$20 million for 38 races equals a $526,317 average cost to get a single car to a race. Is there a breakdown of this number somewhere? What is in the overhead and operating costs budget?

Phil Thomas
KC: I don’t believe that a complete breakdown was given, and of all the numbers that were given the other day, I don’t see anything more than what you already stated. For example, they shared about how much they lost in a year and things like that. The teams have been repeating the $20 million number, and claiming how expensive the car is. I’m wondering if we’re going to get those numbers somewhere along the way here. But I will say that there really isn’t a budget for a race team, at least not set. All teams decide what they want to spend to be competitive, or how much they are capable of spending.

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, December 11, 2013

Q: So, I guess Bryan Clauson’s foray into IndyCar was all of one race. He is the type of driver who this sport DESPERATELY needs. (This is when you explain that he lacks sufficient road racing prowess to catch on in the current IndyCar world, which is true but is also an indication that your sport is fatally flawed to begin with when it leans so heavily to the road/street racing side of things).

Clauson is young, very talented and very accomplished. He’s won multiple championships against other very high-level racing talents and won them racing in front of actual American open-wheel racing fans (many of whom live within driving distance of IMS). He got a huge audible response at Indy two years ago from the paying customers (which tells you that Randy Bernard had the right idea and there is a craving out there by many folks to root for someone like this). And for some odd reason the kid actually still aspires to race IndyCars and make it his destination series.

The fact that we don’t have room for someone like Bryan and seemingly have zero interest in anyone from the AOW oval genre, is sad, pathetic and inanely stupid. We don’t have room for just a couple of AOW oval grads in the biggest AOW oval race in the world? Think how stupid that sounds. We are ignoring real talent and also ignoring our real heritage in this sport. And most real Americans are sick of it and have moved on and aren’t coming back. The folks running the sport (CEOs, owners and engine manufacturers not necessarily in that order) aren’t smart enough to figure out this is a major reason why so few people are still watching or caring? This sport and the Indy 500 wasn’t built on F1 washouts and wanna-bes. It was built on the top-tier American oval racers and top- tier American road racers and a handful of top-tier foreign born drivers. Now it’s completely reversed and screwed up (and its arguable how many of the current drivers are “top tier” to begin with…).

There is much more to the racing product then how many cars are on the lead lap at Indy or how many different winners you have or how entertaining the racing is. And, sadly, it appears nobody in the IndyCar world is savvy enough to figure that out. And if they do, they simply don’t care. I want to see Conor Daly battling Bryan Clauson on the track in an IndyCar. Just like I want to see Austin Dillon battling Kyle Larson in Cup. Those are drivers and potential rivalries that could interest fans and Americans to pay attention. One sport usually gives Americans what they want and what they can get interested in. One sport is clueless and has been for a long time.

Bill, Maplewood, IN

ROBIN MILLER: When I took Randy Bernard to his first USAC sprint race in 2010, he wondered why none of those drivers mastering 900 hp were at the Indy 500. I explained they used to be but that all changed in the USAC/CART war. I told him it was criminal that some of the best oval-track racers in the country couldn’t even compete at Indianapolis and he immediately began working on the USAC/IndyCar initiative that got Bryan to IMS in 2012.