Overheard in Long Beach – Saturday (Update)
04/18/15 Another great day in Long beach is over and there's a lot of scuttlebutt to cover so let's get right into it. Two important dates are coming up for this race and Bernie Ecclestone still wants an F1 race here. The Grand Prix's contract with IndyCar expires after this year and their contract with the city expires after 2017. While the contract renewal with IndyCar is of course a given, Bernie is known to work behind-the-scenes, so he may still try and pry the race away from IndyCar.
With that said, GP president Jim Michaelian told me that their political hand has been played and he's not worried. He fully expects the city to renew with them. Kevin Kalkhoven said Friday was a record crowd so everything is looking up in Long Beach.
Conor Daly walked into the Honda hospitality area this morning for breakfast with Dario Franchitti. While buttering his bagel his cell phone rang, and it was Dale Coyne on the line. Coyne asked Conor, "do you have your stuff with you (helmet, suit, etc.)?If so get on over. Rocky Moran's thumb is broken and I want you in the #18." Daly was here driving the 2-seater for Honda, a job he picked up for most of the races this year. Conor told us he hopes to drive more races this year and he's been talking to Coyne about the Indy 500.
I talked to Conor after today's qualifying session, his first ever in an IndyCar on a road course, and this is what he had to say:
Did you catch the F1 and GP2 action this weekend in Bahrain? You might have noticed that the top-10 GP2 cars were faster than the last 2 or 3 cars on the F1 grid. It's silly enough that the GP2 cars are faster than the F1 cars, however when you consider they are 1/100th the cost of F1, you see how ludicrous the situation in F1 has become.
Clearly, F1 is broken. Costs are out of hand, teams are going bankrupt, fans are growing disenchanted and the cars sound awful.
Speaking of costs, there was talk in the IndyCar paddock about how expensive the new aero kits really are. The announced price was $75K for each car. We were told, that the real price is more than double that and over $150K per car. Why you ask? Because the new kit requires:
1) New underbodies at $10K each
2) New exhaust pieces
3) New carbon fiber air intake and other internal ducting pieces
4) Upgrade suspension pieces due to the higher download forces
5) The turbos had to be relocated and require new mounting bits
6) Fasteners for the aero kits were not included and an extra charge
7) Labor to install some of the aero kit pieces – they had to be done at the factory
8) The main plane of the front wing had to be strengthened
While the kits have given the series and the manufacturers a lot of good press, and we saw the track record broken here at Long Beach today, the fact remains the teams have had to absorb the extra cost. The side effects of the fragile kits have thus far been more debris, without any real improvement to the quality of the on-track product.
Although Francisco Dracone's contract is for 4 races (thru Barber) rumor has it he may also drive in the GP of Indianapolis. While he is still slowest of the regular drivers, and had the unfortunate pit road accident last week which injured crewman Todd Phillips, team and driver are getting on well. The team told us today that Dracone's times are improving, and that while last week was a difficult one for everyone, the Italian has support within the team.
Although AJ Foyt is not here this weekend, he is getting better and plans to be at Indy for the entire month of May.
It was nice to see former IndyCar driver Adrian Fernandez in the paddock this morning. He was in town doing some work for Tecate. He said, "I still read AR1.com every day. It's still the best place to get my racing information." Fernandez isn't doing much driving these days and he's enjoying his time with his family. We asked him if IndyCar is dead in Mexico and his response is no, as long as you get some good Mexican drivers in the series. F1 has Sergio Perez, plus Esteban Gutierrez waiting in the wings at Ferrari, but IndyCar has zero Mexican and four Colombians, yet no race in Colombia.
We spotted some NHRA stars in the paddock Saturday. John Force was here along with his daughter Courtney, who is engaged to Graham Rahal. We also saw Don 'The Snake' Prudhomme checking out all the action in the Ganassi compound.
Ryan Hunter-Reay told us the Honda drivers are still struggling to figure out the Honda aero package. "The cars goes from oversteer in some corners to understeer in others," said Hunter-Reay. "It's still a work in progress but we are gaining on it." Mark C. reporting from Long Beach.