re: IndyCar 2021 Season Thread

Before we get too deep into Indy 500 pole/bump week, a quick recap of the season so far:

1. Five different winners (and nationalities) in the first five races!

Barber: Alex Palou (Spain)
St. Petersburg: Colton Herta (US)
Texas Race 1: Scott Dixon (New Zealand)
Texas Race 2: Pato O'Ward (Mexico)
Indy GP: Rinus Veekay (Netherlands)

2. Youth brigade and first-time winners!

Four out of the five winners are 24 yrs old or younger. Three out of the five are first time winners! Awesome.

Alex Palou - 24 yrs old - 1st win
Colton Herta - 21 yrs old - 4th win
Scott Dixon - 40 yrs old - 50th win
Pato O'Ward - 22 yrs old - 1st win
Rinus VeeKay - 20 yrs old - 1st win

I think both F1 and IndyCar fans get a little tired of some of the old-timers who race for 10 years but never distinguish themselves. It's great to find new young talent. It seems like there are more young guys now who are both fast and mature by the time they get their opportunity at the top level.

As far as these young IndyCar stars and the possibility of switching to F1, (1) Herta just re-signed with Andretti so he's committed to IndyCar; (2) O'Ward would sign with McLaren F1 in a heartbeat if given the opportunity—I think both he and McLaren are taking the test at Abu Dhabi seriously even if Lando and Daniel are locked-in for the next few years; I don't think O'Ward would sign with a backmarker team just to be in F1; (3) I wonder if Alex Palou is already too old at 24 for F1 to give him a serious look; (4) VeeKay is only 20 yrs old! If he continues to win races, I think he'll get some attention from Europe.

3. Dixon is still King until further notice.

Dixon has finished in the top 5 in four of the first five races. Relentless, boring consistency has always been his MO. Not exciting for fans, but he's a huge thorn in the side of any championship hopeful. The top 10 is a nice mix of veterans and newcomers. Aside from Romain Grosjean (who won't show up in the top 10 because he is not running ovals this year) another notable newcomer is three-time V8 Supercar champ Scott McLaughlin, who is racing well and is on Team Penske so he should have a good season (all four Penske drivers are in the top 10).

Standings
1. Scott Dixon (Ganassi)
2. Alex Palou (Ganassi)
3. Josef Newgarden (Penske)
4. Pato O'Ward (McLaren Schmidt Peterson)
5. Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan)
6. Rinus VeeKay (Carpenter)
7. Simon Pagenaud (Penske)
8. Scott McLaughlin (Penske)
9. Will Power (Penske)
10. Colton Herta (Andretti)


Now, onto Indy...

Although they run at Texas in the superspeedway aero configuration, the track is way too different from IMS for it to have much bearing on Indy 500 preparations. So we can't really make any Indy 500 predictions based on how the Texas races went, other than we can expect Dixon to be strong as usual.

Aside from expecting Ganassi, Penske, and (maybe) Carpenter & Andretti to be strong, last year's P1, P3, and P4 finishers (Sato, Rahal, and Ferrucci) are all on the same team this year, so I'm curious to see if RLL can show that they can be consistently strong from year to year.

The drivers said yesterday was cool, and they are expecting much hotter conditions this weekend, so it sounds like we have yet to see who is going to be strong for qualy.