Round 10: Honda Indy Toronto. Exhibition Place, Toronto. July 14-16.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Penske managed to have 2 different strategies and get them both wrong.



I understand it's hard, but this IndyCar - not a little middle of no where series. Palou in the post-race interview said his team made awesome strategy calls and that's why he's leading the championship. I raise the idea that they made competent strategy calls, not awesome ones.



You won't win titles when you make strategy calls like McLaughlin and Power had today.

Scotty's pit box calls were bad, when you're the only one staying out maybe that's a sign.

Will Power you have to wonder what happened. But it seems Ericsson had the same issue and that's not only 2 teams but engines. I think there was much more deg than expected and the fuel burn wasn't expected.

But they also don't run 3700 versions of pot strategy back at the factory. Something to be said for making them make the call on the box without a great book and 8 million sensors. And often you'll see the team who gets it wrong today be dead on next race. And they never cry and whine about it on the radio like another series

[bjohnsonsmith]

Race Result

Alex Palou didn't get his 4peat but finished 2nd and extends his championship lead to 117 points over team mate Scott Dixon.

Great result for RLL going into the Hy-Vee double header next weekend. However, that was a bad result for Chevrolet.

[joeb]

I think the varied strategies today are what makes IndyCar great. Sometimes you make a call thinking there's going to be more yellow, but there isn't, sometimes you make a call based on what the other people's tire strategy is in front of you. But that can change as well. This was not a very predictable race, who would have thought Palou wing was going to stay attached and not cause a caution? And who would have thought he could maintain that to finish second?

I think a lot of people ended up short filling on their stops and that's what caused the massive savings people had to make, or the last second pit stops. Full greens are easier to strategize for, but street courses with an unknown number of yellows coming are what is really difficult, but also really fun to see play out.

I'm just glad Lundgaard got his first victory and was able to turn his actual pace advantage into a win despite all the chaos in strategies.

[Adam43]

Quite often the strategy calls are boom or bust. The calls rarely mean the difference between something like 5th and 6th, they are often something like 1st or 14th!

And some make the call because others aren’t. They aren’t racing for the championship so a one off big win is more important. That is when the low chance, but big pay off calls win.

But sometimes it is just dumb.

Other times they go through the motions and randomly get you second and you make it work despite a wing hanging on by a thread. Still not sure how that worked. No where in the build up, race ruined by the Helio spin and then suddenly leading!

[fieldodreams79]

Nicely done Christian!!

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Scotty's pit box calls were bad, when you're the only one staying out maybe that's a sign.

Will Power you have to wonder what happened. But it seems Ericsson had the same issue and that's not only 2 teams but engines. I think there was much more deg than expected and the fuel burn wasn't expected.

But they also don't run 3700 versions of pot strategy back at the factory. Something to be said for making them make the call on the box without a great book and 8 million sensors. And often you'll see the team who gets it wrong today be dead on next race. And they never cry and whine about it on the radio like another series

For sure the Power and Ericsson ones can be caused by unexpected fuel burn. But as you said, Scott McLaughlins pit call was just bad. In fact, it was beyond bad - it was so bad that the commentators couldn't even work out how it could possibly work, even with mad yellows in random places.

I'm beginning to question the quality of work Penske is putting out there at the moment. Their IndyCar season has been that of a mid-field team. At Mosport, they were beaten by the privately entered JDC car. In WEC they are not out-preforming the pirvately entered Jota car.

Penske needs a shake up. They are better than what they are producing at the moment.

[broadrun96]

There is a bit of the well I'm Tim Cindric in his interviews with why they went with X when everyone else went Y, and fair enough to him it works a decent amount of the time. But they feel like McLaren often when there's more than one program going, at least the current McLaren guys know F1 needs to stay F1 and bring in guys for the other programs. Penske might just have more irons going than even he can keep hot

[NaBUru38]

Congrats to Lundgaard!

Canapino had its first IndyCar wet driving in qualifying! He did pretty well.

Fun fact: Rahal did four stops, yet finished 9th in front of all three-stop drivers.

Originally Posted by fergus_r

He should be called in at this point, imo.

I totally agree, Palou should have been given the meatball flag. We could have had a repeat of Justin Wilson.

[Mogster]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Congrats to Lundgaard!

Canapino had its first IndyCar wet driving in qualifying! He did pretty well.

Fun fact: Rahal did four stops, yet finished 9th in front of all three-stop drivers.


I totally agree, Palou should have been given the meatball flag. We could have had a repeat of Justin Wilson.

Yes, it looked very dangerous.

Palou is driving very well, no argument, but he’s also being a very lucky boy. Sold his soul to the devil lucky

[Adam43]

How is the nose mounted? And how is the mould formed round the nose bit?
I have no idea. I’d love to see. Looked unlikely, but maybe they were confident it was OK?

It was certainly mad that it looked like it was ripping. Normally when these things are damaged it is the actual wing bits.

He was very lucky. Especially as it only lost him a little time too.

[broadrun96]

I was hoping someone would have posted pictures in pit lane post race with the car but I'm guessing it was covered quickly or broken off the rest of the way

[mstets]

Originally Posted by Adam43

How is the nose mounted? And how is the mould formed round the nose bit?
I have no idea. I’d love to see. Looked unlikely, but maybe they were confident it was OK?

It was certainly mad that it looked like it was ripping. Normally when these things are damaged it is the actual wing bits.

He was very lucky. Especially as it only lost him a little time too.

I would like to know more about the cars as well. They have been around forever, it's not like there are so many changes that the "journalists" that cover the series couldn't keep up with them.


I have never seen the DW12 up close but it looks to me that the nose cone might be held on with a four point attachment. Likely two pins at the bottom and two camlocks at the top. There might be two pins at the top as well. The way I picture it the nose cone slides onto the pins which are parallel to the road surface, then the camlocks are engaged to keep the cone attached to the tub.



It appeared to me that the pins and camlock on the right side of Palou's car were broken by the impact and the nose stayed attached solely by the fasteners on the left side. The nose cone appeared to be stiff enough to remain intact for a long time but as the race went on it broke down, causing the wing to drag lower and lower.


I do think it was a possible hazard to other drivers. Considering how things have gone for RLL this year I expected the wing to fall off into Lundgaard's path before he got around Palou. Luckily that didn't happen. I don't know what the rule book says but if I was in charge and the call was within my discretion I would have black flagged Palou at least by the point that the nose cone was visibly disintegrating.