Round 16: GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma. Sonoma, CA. 29th - 3Oth August, 2015.

[Nikki Katz]

Originally Posted by FLGTFAN

Where is Sage Karam, and who is driving his car? Saavedra?

After he trashed several cars at New Orleans he didn't have enough sponsorship for the repairs bill, so he dropped a few rounds in favour of saavedra. He wasn't scheduled to take part in this race since April. I think he's at the track though.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Nikki Katz

After he trashed several cars at New Orleans he didn't have enough sponsorship for the repairs bill, so he dropped a few rounds in favour of saavedra. He wasn't scheduled to take part in this race since April. I think he's at the track though.

He never had a full time ride. It had nothing to do with NOLA.

[canamman]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I think there have been some unnecessary cautions this year and the one given for Luca Filippi slowing down on the track yesterday, is a good example.

Sometimes I wonder if the tower throws the caution
just to keep themselves awake at times. There were some
dull periods in that race. I don't know , it may have just
been me after watching the xfinity and truck races at their
venues which I thought were more entertaining. The Indy race
did get interesting there toward the later stages. Penske
needs to figure out why the team seems to throw it away
at the end of the season. That's a crazy stat how many
times they were leading the points on the last race and
not close the deal.

[JacobP]

Originally Posted by Nikki Katz

I think that the series needs to rethink the safety car rules on road and street courses. The Filippi thing shouldn't have been a safety car anyway, but even if it was, was it really necessary to close the pits? The results are random too often. Ovals need as many cautions, if not more.

I have been making this point for the last five years. Where is the fun in watching a road course race that has consistently 5-7 full course cautions? How can you judge how good of job each driver did with all that randomness going on? We literally see winning car bouncing from the front to the back and back to front many times in the race in very unpredictable circumstances. Many IndyCar races have terrible fluidity because of this constant green-yellow-green succession. Why can't they run the whole race under green?

How to deal with it? Just like in formula 1, if any car is stuck in kitty litter or with a stalled engine, this has to be the end of race for this car. It must be evacuated under a local yellow caution if possible to do so safely IMHO. If there is an incident, the entire peloton mustn't have to go around in circles under safety car waiting until the injured car can join the field in the back. It's hard on drivers and it's hard on spectators.

[JacobP]

Originally Posted by canamman

Sometimes I wonder if the tower throws the caution
just to keep themselves awake at times. There were some
dull periods in that race. I don't know , it may have just
been me after watching the xfinity and truck races at their
venues which I thought were more entertaining. The Indy race
did get interesting there toward the later stages. Penske
needs to figure out why the team seems to throw it away
at the end of the season. That's a crazy stat how many
times they were leading the points on the last race and
not close the deal.

Penske failed as a team. They should have given Will Power and his engineer very clear instructions what to do when Montoya's car is nearby. Double points issue had little to do with this fail. They screwed up. Montoya could have finished fifth or better.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by JacobP

Penske failed as a team. They should have given Will Power and his engineer very clear instructions what to do when Montoya's car is nearby. Double points issue had little to do with this fail. They screwed up. Montoya could have finished fifth or better.

It's partly down to the team and partly down to Montoya for clipping Power but something like this will inevitably happen if there are no team orders and both drivers are racing to win.