The crew kicks things off with petty Uber ratings, customer-service rage, and a superstition about a lucky $2 bill. The conversation then shifts to motorsport: a detailed take on Sebring’s unusually one-sided endurance race, plus F1’s early 2026 racing debate after China—more overtakes, but “yo-yo” energy management and overly telegraphed passes. They debate whether F1 should optimize technology/strategy or pure on-track action, and discuss upcoming IndyCar at Barber, including Barber’s legacy after George Barber’s passing and IndyCar penalty controversy from Arlington.
Tim and Hinch both had rough days. Hinch thinks F1 may not be as doomed as some people think with the new cars, but thinks it's too easy to know one way or another, while Rossi disagrees. Plus, Barber's coming up this weekend, and more!
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Off Track is part of the SiriusXM Sports Podcast Network. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please give a 5-star rating and leave a review. Subscribe today wherever you stream your podcasts.
"Yeah, I've only ever given a one-star Uber review. I've gotten a few one-star Uber reviews as a result of having you in the car."
Uber is an app you use to request rides. After the ride, people can leave ratings for each other.
Uber is a ride-hailing platform that uses in-app ratings and feedback between riders and drivers. The episode references how rider behavior can lead to low ratings being left by drivers.
"if you are donating blood at Cedar Sinai, valet parking is free. And so I took advantage of the valet parking, but I didn't have anything to tip the valet guy, except for the $2 bill."
Valet parking means someone else takes your car and parks it for you. Usually you tip them for the service.
Valet parking is a service where an attendant parks your car for you, typically in exchange for a tip. For drivers, it can matter because it changes how the car is handled (parking location, how it’s moved, and whether it’s exposed to curb contact).
"[482.8s] We're going to cover a seabring.
[485.0s] Did you watch the seabring 12 hour at all?
[489.4s] I didn't even know it was happening.
[491.4s] Wow."
The “12 Hours of Sebring” is a race that lasts 12 hours. Teams have to stop for things like tires and driver changes, so strategy is a huge part of winning.
The “12 Hours of Sebring” is an endurance format where cars race continuously for 12 hours, typically with driver changes and pit stops. Strategy—tire wear, fuel, and avoiding incidents—matters as much as outright speed.
"[537.3s] Porsche Pansky just like for a series with BOP, it's insulting what they did.
[548.7s] Like they were just so much, but like they've, they've either figured out how to just like
[555.9s] trick the BOP formula or they're just so much better.
[562.7s] It doesn't matter what you do.
[565.3s] And I feel like you've been in this situation before when you were running with Wayne Taylor
[570.1s] and you guys were just executing at a high level and they kept BOP in the car."
In some racing series, organizers use BOP to make different cars race more evenly. They may limit power or add weight so one car doesn’t automatically win just because it’s faster on paper.
BOP (Balance of Performance) is a rule used in sports car racing to equalize different cars’ performance. Race organizers adjust things like weight, engine power, and sometimes fuel capacity or restrictors so no single manufacturer dominates purely due to hardware advantages.
"But apparently there was some like team order not respected, I guess. Okay. Between the two."
Team orders are rules the team tells drivers to follow during the race. Sometimes it’s basically “don’t pass” or “stay in your spot” to help the team overall.
Team orders are instructions from the team to drivers about how they should behave on track—often to maintain position, protect a points outcome, or avoid jeopardizing the car. In endurance racing, this can include directives like “hold station” behind a teammate.
"They were supposed to just like hold station or something. And in a press conference, so they're sitting next to each other."
“Hold station” is a common endurance-racing instruction meaning a driver should maintain their current position relative to a teammate. It’s often used when the team wants to avoid unnecessary battles that could cost time, damage cars, or upset strategy.
"The same team still kind of dominated with a one-two finish. There's a lot of things that were similar, but it seemed a lot easier to manage energy."
That’s when one team’s cars finish first and second. It usually means the team had the fastest cars and best strategy that day.
A one-two finish is when the same team places both its cars first and second in a race. It’s a strong indicator of team dominance and car competitiveness over a full race distance.
"No, it doesn't take effort to deploy a little hundred more horsepower than the car in front
of you and drive by them."
Horsepower is how much power the engine can make. More horsepower can help you go faster, but you still need traction and the right timing to pass.
Horsepower is a measure of engine power that affects acceleration and top speed potential. In racing, having more horsepower can help you exit corners and close gaps, but passing still depends heavily on grip and aerodynamics.
"...I know where 85 to 90% of the passes in this race are going to happen... you're still within that one second, you get that extra bit of power."
In F1, there’s a rule about being close enough—often measured as a one-second gap. If you’re within that gap, you may be allowed to use the passing aid (like DRS) in the right spot.
The “one-second” reference is a common F1 overtaking condition used for DRS eligibility—drivers must be within a one-second gap to activate DRS in the designated zones. That timing constraint strongly shapes where and when overtakes tend to occur.
"What makes it Formula One? Right, because it's always been an entertainment property, which it still has to be. But part of that sales pitch is that it's the pinnacle of technology."
Formula One is the highest level of open-wheel racing. It’s known for very advanced engineering, and people also watch it for the racing and entertainment.
Formula One (F1) is the top tier of open-wheel racing, defined by strict technical regulations and a focus on cutting-edge engineering. The discussion frames F1 as both a technology showcase and an entertainment product, with its “pinnacle” status tied to how advanced the cars are.
"But part of that sales pitch is that it's the pinnacle of technology. And like, dude, they used to have active suspension and ABS brakes and traction control."
Active suspension is a system that automatically changes how the car’s shocks behave while you’re driving. The goal is to keep the tires planted and the ride controlled, especially when the track surface is bumpy.
Active suspension uses sensors and actuators to adjust damping and/or ride height in real time. In racing, it helps keep the car stable and the tires working consistently over bumps and during braking/turn-in.
"...cornered every corner flat out because they had tons of downforce."
Downforce is the aerodynamic force that pushes the car toward the track, increasing grip for cornering. More downforce can improve cornering speed, but it can also increase drag and affect straight-line speed.
"No, but they'll just regen at full throttle through all of the S's."
Regen is how the car recovers energy when slowing down. Instead of wasting it, it stores some of it back in the battery.
“Regen” (regenerative braking) is the process of turning braking energy into electrical energy for the battery. The discussion implies regen is being used strategically to keep energy available while still maintaining high speed through corners.
"For example, with DRS and the hybrid systems, you could choose to, all right, I know this car is within a second of me. I'm going to make sure that I turn off or I don't deploy through two-thirds of the lap and blow all of my battery down the back straight in this DRS zone"
DRS is a Formula 1 system that reduces drag so the car can go faster in a specific passing area. It’s only usable when the rules say you’re close enough to the car ahead.
DRS stands for Drag Reduction System, a Formula 1 feature that temporarily reduces aerodynamic drag to help cars overtake. It’s typically available only in specific zones and under certain conditions, which is why it creates predictable passing windows.
"Has that been decided that it's going to be the street course thing for the whole season? Yeah. Okay. Yeah."
A street course is a race route that uses regular city streets. Because it’s not a purpose-built track, it can be rougher and more unforgiving if you make a mistake.
A “street course” is a race track laid out on public roads, usually with temporary barriers and tight corners. It tends to be harder on cars because there’s less runoff and the surface can be bumpy or inconsistent.
"You simmed there yesterday? I did. Yeah. Just pounding around virtual rock?"
“Simmed” means they practiced using a racing video game/simulator. It helps them learn the track and how the car should feel before going out for real.
“Simmed” means the driver practiced in a racing simulator rather than on-track. Sim practice helps with learning braking points, corner entry/exit, and car behavior before the real session.
"So you guys have made big steps on street courses. You've made steps on short ovals."
Short ovals are smaller oval tracks. Because the turns come more often, the car has to handle cornering and stability a lot during the race.
Short ovals are oval circuits with relatively small lap lengths, which typically means more frequent turns and braking compared with superspeedways. Cars often run higher cornering loads and need setups that balance traction with stability through repeated laps.
"Some of the stuff applies on the road courses and that's why we're excited to get there? Or is it excited to find out?"
A road course is a type of race track that’s more like a winding road than a big oval. It usually has lots of turns and braking, so setup and driving style matter a lot.
“Road courses” are race tracks built around a road-course layout with lots of braking zones, turning, and varying grip. In motorsport, they’re often contrasted with oval tracks, where cars run mostly in sustained turns at high speed.
"Dixon's best average finish of any track that IndyCar races on. He's never won there, but he's had nine podiums and 15 starts."
An average finish is just the typical place a driver ends up in over several races. It’s useful because it shows the overall trend, not just one good or bad race.
An “average finish” is a statistical way to summarize how well a driver performs across multiple races at a given track. It helps predict future results by smoothing out one-off bad luck or standout performances.
"He's never won there, but he's had nine podiums and 15 starts. Six second places."
“Starts” means how many races the driver has actually competed in. It helps you judge whether results are based on a few races or a longer track record.
“Starts” refers to how many times a driver has begun a race at that event or track. It’s used alongside podiums and average finishes to show sample size and consistency over time.
"He's never won there, but he's had nine podiums and 15 starts. Six second places."
A podium is when you finish in the top three—usually first, second, or third. More podiums generally means the driver is often running near the front.
A “podium” is finishing in the top three positions in a race. When teams cite podium counts, they’re highlighting consistent competitiveness rather than just occasional wins.
"Six second places. And Palo won twice. So are Gennasi not good there?"
“Second place” means the driver finished just behind the winner. If someone has multiple second-place finishes, it usually means they’re consistently very fast.
“Second places” means finishing runner-up in a race. In performance discussions, repeated second-place results can indicate strong pace and strategy even if a win hasn’t happened.
"I don't want to say it just in case like we're going to test it for sure in the background and if it works, we'll put it on there. [2113.0s] But TBD on that we shall see."
“TBD” just means they don’t know for sure yet. They’ll decide after they test it and see how it goes.
“TBD” means “to be determined.” In this context, they’re saying the exact plan for what they’ll test (and whether it will make it into the May content) isn’t finalized yet.
"...a place that deeply cares about IndyCar and has been there for IndyCar during very challenging times and has been a staple of the calendar..."
IndyCar is a major kind of race series in the U.S. for open-wheel cars. It races on different types of tracks, and Barber is described as a track that supports IndyCar.
IndyCar is the premier open-wheel racing series in the United States, run on a mix of oval tracks, road courses, and street circuits. When the hosts say Barber “deeply cares about IndyCar,” they mean the track has a long history of hosting IndyCar events and supporting the series.
"due to the stewards. So pretty crazy news there. That was sarcasm."
Stewards are the officials who decide whether drivers broke the rules. If they think a rule was violated, they can add penalties after reviewing what happened.
Stewards are the officials who enforce the racing rules. They review incidents and can apply penalties (time penalties, grid penalties, disqualifications) based on evidence and regulations.
"...like you're getting a grid penalty or they're sitting you for some time in practice for something that you've done..."
A grid penalty means the driver starts further back than they earned. It can make the race harder because they have to overtake more cars.
A grid penalty is a penalty that moves a driver back on the starting grid for the next race. It’s commonly used when a driver violates rules during qualifying or race weekend procedures, and it directly changes race strategy.
"But for a retroactive penalty on a race that has been done for over a week to come out, that seems a little bit bizarre."
A retroactive penalty is punishment that gets decided after the race is already over. It can change the results even though everyone already raced.
A retroactive penalty is applied after the event has already taken place, often after additional review or confirmation of rule violations. It can change the official classification after the fact, which is why fans may call it “bizarre” or “comical.”
"Felix got a penalty for passing a car before the restart line that has been in place now for over a year... And so there was kind of a driver suggested rule that goes into place that we can't pass, even when the green comes out, we can't pass until a restart line..."
When the race restarts, there’s a specific spot on the track where passing is allowed. If you try to pass before that line, it can cause crashes because everyone is still getting up to speed.
A restart line is a designated point on the track where cars are allowed to pass once racing resumes. In series that use it, passing before the restart line is treated as a rules violation because it can trigger immediate pileups and blockages as drivers accelerate back to speed.
"...into turn 11 at Laguna, you had guys because there was such a big checkup effect and it was a slow corner. You had guys just piling into each other..."
A pileup is when multiple cars crash into each other, usually because traffic suddenly compresses and drivers can’t avoid the cars ahead. The episode says restarts can create that risk.
A pileup is a multi-car crash where cars collide in a chain reaction, often because of sudden braking or congestion. The segment ties pileups to restart behavior and “checkup effect” at slow corners, which is why restart passing is restricted.
"[2608.8s] Some of the breaking zones were so challenging that I just was like, it doesn't matter if people
[2613.6s] are being conservative. Like it was still easy to get it wrong."
Braking zones are the parts of the track where drivers have to slow down for turns. If you brake a little too early or too late, it can throw off the whole corner.
“Breaking zones” are the specific areas where drivers brake to slow down for corners. In F1, braking zones are critical because small errors in braking point, braking pressure, or tire temperature can lead to missed apexes, lockups, or contact.
"Look no further than go-to bank. You'll get 20% off turbo tax when filing your 2025 taxes."
“TurboTax” is a website/app people use to do their taxes. The “turbo” word is just part of the product name here, not anything related to cars.
“TurboTax” is a tax-preparation software brand, mentioned here as part of a promotion. It’s not an automotive product, but the word “turbo” is what makes it stand out in a car context.
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Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter?
Right, and the best part? They accept Discover.
Accept Discover? In a little place like this?
I don't think so, Jennifer.
Oh, yeah, huh. Discover's accepted where I like to shop.
Come on, baby, get with the times.
Right, so we shouldn't get the parachute pants?
These are making a comeback.
I think.
Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide.
Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.
This is Off-Track.
So, Tim, petty king. Petty king.
Yeah, well.
That's what the kids are calling it these days.
Oh, yeah.
Interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah, I mean, in so many words, yeah.
I feel like I didn't do anything you guys haven't done,
or similar to what you guys have done.
You want people to just roll over here?
I'm cutting all this, by the way. I don't want anybody to know.
Yeah, I've only ever given a one-star Uber review.
I've gotten a few one-star Uber reviews
as a result of having you in the car.
Oh, no, is Alex tagged your Uber?
Yeah, you're in.
Toho?
No, but that sounds awesome.
I do.
Yeah, I mean, that's the day I dropped from a 5.0 Uber rating.
I had a 5.0, and then Becky had access to my account
when we were living in LA for Dancing with the Stars.
And evidently, she was not a great passenger a couple times,
because my rating went down to like a 4-6.
And I've been working hard to get it back.
I wonder what it is now.
This is a fun, this is always a fun thing.
Who do you think amongst the three of us who has the lowest?
Definitely me.
This will surprise you guys.
I've never had five stars.
No, that does not surprise me.
I was going to say, now I feel better, actually.
I'm a 4.78.
A 4.92.
Oh, damn, that's really good.
Oh, shoot.
I'm 4.90.
I'm working my way back up.
I'm working my way back up despite his best efforts.
Whatever you guys.
So how's everybody doing?
Again, better, because I'm not as petty as you.
I mean, I'm fine.
Yeah, see, Tim's in a lucky situation where there's a lot.
Like it's a buyer's market in LA right now.
And so he's got a lot of options.
You're not buying, you're renting, right?
But still, there's a lot of rental options out there.
So he could afford to be super petty on this one deal.
They started it.
They started it.
I'm just kidding.
I actually agree with you.
I think they were not very forthcoming and they were ill-intentioned.
And I don't like that.
After having just had, I was just telling Tim, Alex,
I had a very unfortunate exchange with a customer service
representative from Best Buy after a big screw up on their part.
So I was talking about this with somebody else.
We're so set up for failure because the people who are making the policies
that are infuriating are not the people you deal with.
So it's like you're just, it's like impotent rage.
And you're mad at somebody who's not the reason why you're mad, right?
And then you just feel like...
Look, I wanted to offend myself a little bit here because,
you know, I would never get mad at a check-in agent
because of a flight delay or something like that, right?
I'm very acutely aware of whose responsibilities are what in a situation, right?
Why I got frustrated in this particular one
is this person could not understand even the scenario.
I'm like, this happened.
Not your fault.
I get that.
But like, this is this and this is that.
And she goes, so this.
No.
Okay, let's try again.
And we had to go through this eight or nine times very patiently before I was like,
I just don't know how to discuss this with you any further
because you clearly are not getting the scenario at all.
Like I get, I'm not blaming you for anything
other than having no concept of what I'm asking at this point.
So, but yeah, best of all, I can go **** itself.
Yeah, we're all having days.
We're all in good moods today.
We're all in good moods.
You know what I attributed to?
I keep it and I know I'm not a superstitious person.
And I know you're not either, James.
Hell yeah, I Wednesday afternoon.
I keep a $2 bill in my wallet.
I don't know why it's just always kind of been there.
Okay, because that's all you had.
I had to, I had, I was running late to an appointment on Monday.
And this is a weird thing, but if you are donating blood at Cedar Sinai,
valet parking is free.
And so I took advantage of the valet parking,
but I didn't have anything to tip the valet guy,
except for the $2 bill.
I gave him the $2 bill as a tip and I was like,
sorry, that's all I got.
Everything's been **** since.
It turns out that was a low bearing $2 bill in my life.
Everything's kind of falling apart.
It's weird.
It's weird because $2 bills are really a thing.
The value is probably like, is this fake?
Like is this a real?
I'm going to the bank after this to go get a $2 bill.
You better hope they have one.
I just feel like, has your life been that lucky?
To warrant that you think of a $2 bill.
I've had some good luck.
I was on a good streak the last couple of weeks, I feel like.
All right, all right.
Interesting.
Yeah, look, it's all relative, right?
I mean, very, very, very lucky compared to a lot of people in the world.
So yeah, a few.
I'm not complaining.
I'm not complaining.
Few minor roadblocks, but like, you know, that's part of it.
Hey, Tim, what are you, what's on your wrist?
Nothing.
What are you wearing there, pal?
Is your hospital bracelet?
No, it was a watch.
It's a Rolex.
What are you talking about?
That was, why are you, I love watches.
I am so happy to see you wearing that thing.
I know that you have it and I know that you don't often wear it.
And I'm like super excited that you are wearing it.
I might be, I might be touring, I might be touring apartments
that are a little outside of my range and I'm trying to project.
I absolutely love that.
I want to cut so much of this.
So where?
No, you can't do that.
You can't do that.
I'm so proud of you buddy.
You wear that thing.
That is, you, that is your watch.
You own that thing.
Alex, you feel like, I feel like you've got something to say about this.
You seem perturbed.
Speechless.
Not perturbed, just jaw on floor speechless.
Incredible.
Alex, you were, look, so before we get into your day.
I don't have anything anywhere near
interesting compared to you two idiots.
Well, that's why we don't need to talk about my day.
What about your, but you're, you weren't,
weren't you in the sim yesterday?
I was.
Okay.
We'll talk about that when we're getting to Barbara,
but we're not getting to Barbara yet.
We're going back in time.
We're going to cover a seabring.
Did you watch the seabring 12 hour at all?
I didn't even know it was happening.
Wow.
Wow.
So.
Wow.
Okay.
Well, that's fair.
You, I was kind of busy.
You were busy on the weekend.
That is totally fair.
You were out of town.
I do want to fill you in on something.
So I was, I was home, not at seabring for the first time in a couple of years,
which was, you know, it's unfortunate, but it was nice.
It was, you know, they're pros and cons.
I do love driving race cars, but I got a lot of it down on the weekend.
So it was really nice to be home.
But because I was just working around the house,
I literally had either like a TV in the room on or my iPad, you know, with me,
basically watching the entire, I watched almost the entire seabring 12 hour,
like on in the background.
Loser, right?
And I got to say, it was, it was the most boring seabring 12 hour, I think, in history.
Porsche Pansky just like for a series with BOP, it's insulting what they did.
Like they were just so much, but like they've, they've either figured out how to just like
trick the BOP formula or they're just so much better.
It doesn't matter what you do.
And I feel like you've been in this situation before when you were running with Wayne Taylor
and you guys were just executing at a high level and they kept BOP in the car.
And it's like, no, it's not the car.
We're just doing a better job.
They did such a good job.
Like you watch the on boards from that race, man.
Like, so they just ran one to the whole day.
They just ran nose to tail the whole day, right?
Unchallenged at any point after like hour two, the amount of fuel and energy they were saving
for an entire stint and still just pulling away from people.
And if they then had to actually push for a lap or two,
like the pace that they had in hand was comical.
So there was even a late restart and it didn't matter.
It did nothing.
It was, there's nothing fun about it.
There's nothing cool.
None of the normal drama you used to seeing at Sebring.
So congrats to Porsche Penske because it was an absolute thrashing.
I haven't seen anything like that in an endurance race in a long time.
However, I don't know if you read up on it afterwards, which I know you didn't.
But apparently there was some like team order not
respected, I guess.
Okay.
Between the two.
So like, I guess Nazar pulled off a pass in the last stint that he wasn't supposed to do.
They were supposed to just like hold station or something.
And in a press conference, so they're sitting next to each other.
I forget who was driving at the end in the other car,
but basically called him out just being like, yeah,
there was an order from Pillay and that was completely ignored.
And then I didn't have a chance to like fight him back or whatever, whatever.
And Nazar was just like, well, I'm not going to get into what was said, but
I'm here to race and I won, you know, I'm here to win.
And that's what we did for the team and for the manufacturer.
Interesting take.
But you don't know any, like it wasn't like some lunge.
Like it was, it was Nazar, right?
So like, it was, it was, yeah, he went for it in a way.
But it was just interesting that, that two teammates had some sort of team orders rule
that was broken.
It would seem, but obviously the team's not made any statements on it, but
you didn't watch that.
So not much you can add.
I don't know.
Did you watch China last weekend?
Did I watch China last weekend?
Or like the recap post our Arlington weekend?
Which China and Arlington?
Yeah.
So I did watch, I watched the sprint race and qualifying.
I didn't watch the race race.
Okay.
Makes it hard to get too deep into that.
Even though he said we're going to talk about that.
Yeah.
I mean, you know what?
Just tell us about it.
Just, just educate us.
No, the big thing is, is like, it was nowhere near as stupid as Australia, right?
So, so the new cars were not as bad as, as everybody was afraid of?
Correct.
The racing was still a little bit of the, you know, they called the yo-yo racing, right?
Like one guy uses all his energy on one straight and then the other guy uses on the next
straight to get them back and whatever, whatever.
The same team still kind of dominated with a one-two finish.
There's a lot of things that were similar, but it seemed a lot easier to manage energy.
And you didn't have as much of this like weird derating and super clipping at the end of the
straights.
You still had to do in qualifying, which is something they have to address for sure.
But I think a lot of people left that race with not as bad a taste in their mouth as Australia.
Guys like for Stappen are still like, if you think this is real racing,
you don't know what real racing is or you're not a real fan of the sport.
But it begs this question, right?
If there were 120 overtakes compared to like 42 overtakes the year before,
at what point is it we have to listen and let's say the fans like it, right?
Let's say the fan base has evolved in a way that they want to see more action.
They want to see less stagnant processional races.
Who's right or the drivers right because like 18 out of 20 of them right now are like, yeah,
these rules still kind of suck and need some tweaking.
Or is it the tens of millions of people tuning in that are like, no, we like this action.
It's fun to watch our tens of millions of people saying that because I don't think that's the case.
I think that after China, look, in my opinion, it's too early to make a decision either way,
right, to like say whether it's good or it's bad.
Like we've had two races.
That's not anywhere near enough of a sample size to really get a sense of things.
But I think there are die hard fans that kind of think it's stupid in the way that drivers do,
but then I also think that there's a not insignificant number of fans that are kind
of like digging the back and forth a little bit.
I don't know that I've seen anything on the internet that suggests that that is true,
because the back and forth as we've talked about is so artificial.
It's not even like it's not even interesting.
It's not even like a mist like the whole concept of why motor sports is entertaining to watch
is you get to see like someone really expose themselves in dirty air and like generate a run
and then like have to make a committed move to pass someone in a braking zone or
around the outside of a high speed corner or something like that.
And these moves are telegraphed so early that it's not even like something that's worth defending.
So I don't think that people are enjoying that because it's not.
It's like people only watch hockey and soccer, not only, but people,
the excitement of hockey and soccer is the moments where a goal happens, right?
The rest of the match in the game is like a lot of like back and forth.
If those goals were like just in quick succession back and forth,
then it would take the joy out of it.
So what if people watch basketball?
Well, it's a very different sport.
It's a fast paced sport that is you score to 130 points.
Yeah. So then why is it exciting if everybody's just getting baskets all the time?
I don't think you can compare a five on five person
ball sport on a small court to motor sports.
You just compared it to hockey.
I see your point, but I'm just trying to think of the other side of it, right?
I mean...
Because it takes effort to score baskets where it doesn't take effort to score goals?
No, it doesn't take effort to deploy a little hundred more horsepower than the car in front
of you and drive by them.
Okay. So yes, I get that, but don't disagree.
The thing about China was what you saw was a few examples of where
because of the ability to just hit a button that gives you an insane amount more power,
drivers were using it in places that you weren't expecting it.
And you could look at the last 15 years or whatever we've had DRS
and basically be like, all right, I know where 85 to 90% of the passes in this race
are going to happen.
They're going to happen at the end of one of those straights.
Now that's not necessarily the case.
Like, yes, if you have a guy that's got less energy and you're in the boost mode or overtake
mode range, whatever, you're still within that one second, you get that extra bit of power.
Yes, you're going to do yo-yo on the straights for sure.
And the closing rates are insane if it's like that.
And so yes, it's not a difficult pass.
But there are other times where like you're coming out of a corner in a sequence of corners
and if you just squeeze the trigger at the right time, you get a run that
the guys are expecting and all of a sudden it's an interesting battle.
But that's not how it works.
No, but that's what we saw a bit of in China is what I'm saying.
I don't think that is.
Grants, I didn't watch the race, but the boost, no, but I understand how the regulation works.
The overtake boost mode is not effective until you're at 280 kilometers an hour.
And then every kilometer pass side, it starts derating the car in front,
whereas the car behind doesn't get derated.
So if there's a pass going from, let's say at China turn three to turn four,
that's not because someone had boost mode or not.
That's just because they got a better run and they were a better car,
just like you would have in normal racing.
So like the overtake mode, the DRS replacement is still only effective in those exact places
because even if you press it out of a slow speed corner, there's no difference in power.
Okay, but there is boost mode, which is accessible at any point during the lap.
So you can use it.
Yes, there's overtake mode and there's boost mode.
They're different things.
Again, we're getting into an even bigger problem, which is the rules are too complicated.
But this does lead to some interesting places where guys can try to make passes that you
wouldn't have otherwise tried to do it.
So then okay, you're a twisty bit and you think you're hard,
like you're like, that's a good point to harvest because no one's going to make a pass here.
And while you're harvesting, some guy squirts his button and boom,
he's right beside you going into a corner you weren't expecting him to be at.
Like Hamilton did this in China.
It was pretty fascinating to watch.
So the real question at the end of the day becomes, is Formula One about being the pinnacle
of technology, which it kind of always has been, and the best team driver combination
finding a way to exploit those rules and that technology to the greatest degree
and cross the finish line first.
Is that the goal?
Or is the goal for it to be the quote, unquote, purest form of racing, is the goal
to have the most overtakes and have it be the most exciting?
What is the goal?
What makes it Formula One?
Right, because it's always been an entertainment property, which it still has to be.
But part of that sales pitch is that it's the pinnacle of technology.
And like, dude, they used to have active suspension and ABS brakes and traction control.
And that was in the heyday.
That's when you had Prost and Senna and Mansel and all these people who were considered legends.
And the cars almost drove themselves.
These things are hard to drive because they're so complicated and complex.
Is that better or worse?
I guess when you compare Formula One and its current state to all other forms of motor sports,
it is in every which way still the pinnacle and still the most technologically advanced cars,
fastest cars, coolest tracks, best manufacturers and drivers and everything.
And what goes along with that, regardless of the regulation, is the highest level of the sport
is achieved at Formula One, where I think this current state is a difficult pill to swallow
is because Formula One of the past five years, albeit for four of those five years, fairly boring,
you had like such an incredible level of car and performance that
when you take a step down from that, it feels like a massive regression.
But in the broader terms of motor sports, it's not.
But I think it's just this is, everyone is missing, not everyone.
There's a big chunk of people that are missing what Formula One used to be because again,
I don't know that we've made the racing particularly any better.
There's potentially more action is going to say what defines better, right?
Is more passes better? I'm not saying one way or the other.
I'm saying these are the questions that need to be asked.
And like to your point about performance, right real quick,
Google what the difference in the pole time was between the Chinese Grand Prix
in 2026 versus 2025. Do you know the answer?
I'm pretty sure I know the answer. I think I read this somewhere, but I want you to double check.
Okay, what do you think it was? I think it was less than two seconds.
Yes, it was. Yeah, one and a half seconds.
So for the difference of a second and a half, we're not talking about a visual difference
in performance, right? They're doing it differently. They're going faster in the
straights and slower in the corners, but the lap time is pretty cool.
Like a second and a half could be a bit of track temp in some crosswind in a Formula One car,
right? Like we saw six, 10, so difference between Q2 and Q3.
You don't think it looks visually different? It looks visually different because they're
going slower in the corners, but they're going faster in the straights, right?
So, I mean, we could have cars that just Vmaxed it 300 kilometers an hour and cornered every corner
flat out because they had tons of downforce. Is that visually better? Like is that a better race?
Right? This is the debate. And look, I think the one thing everybody universally agrees on
is that having to lift and coast and qualifying is garbage, right? It's absolutely garbage.
So, they have to figure that out because qualifying is supposed to be driving on the
absolute limit and like lifting and coasting in a corner doesn't really...
Yes, you still have to take your package and get it around the track faster than anybody else.
I get that, but that's not what drivers want to do and I don't think that's what fans want to see.
So, that one there seems to be a bit of a, you know, some unity on. The racing itself,
I feel like is a harder one to figure out. Now, again, I'm still of the opinion that we are two
races into a now 22 race schedule. There's a lot of places that we have to go to, I think,
before you can make a really educated decision on what to do about these regulations.
Are they perfect as they are? No, I don't think anybody thinks that. But how much
they want to change them, I think, is still very much a big topic. So, as we go to...
If they've got Suzuki coming up this weekend based on that track layout,
is that... There's not a ton of big braking opportunities there.
No, but they'll just regen at full throttle through all of the S's.
All the fast stuff, yeah. So, then if everybody's kind of close on energy,
it'll just come down more to car performance and less power unit performance in theory.
Except for when you have 400 more horsepower than the car in front of you going into 130R.
Could you imagine? That would be bad. That would be very bad.
That's what's going to happen. Yeah, you're going to want to not do that.
You're going to want to save a little bit of juice before you get to 130R.
But you can't. So, that's what's so dumb. That's what I hate. I hate how it's such a big difference
as the velocity of the car goes up. That's what I just, I guess, which changed.
How do you mean? The biggest power delta difference is at the highest speed in overtake mode.
Oh, yes. Sorry. Yeah.
And so, that I think is just why this looks so silly is because it's,
and I'm not exaggerating when I say 400 horsepower. It's like 360 horsepower difference.
Yeah. No.
And so, it's just like that's where there's not even, there's no strategy to that.
You just drive around the car. You can't defend it. You can't just drive around them.
The strategy is in having more battery than the other guy.
It's not like the traditional racecraft sense of car placement. And yeah, how do you defend?
But you don't have more battery.
Well, you still have to because you can be within the overtake mode range,
but if you haven't saved enough battery to use it...
No, I understand. But my point is you would never use it when you're within a second,
because you know that you're going to have this.
Like, that would never be the case, which is why you see so much flip-flop back and forth.
Because the car in front is not going to try and defend against a 360 horsepower deficit,
and the car behind isn't going to use the battery prior to that point,
knowing that they're going to get a 360 horsepower advantage, which is the problem.
So there's no strategy to that. I guess there's some strategy to the boost mode,
as you talked about. I didn't realize there was that aspect of it as well.
For example, with DRS and the hybrid systems, you could choose to,
all right, I know this car is within a second of me.
I'm going to make sure that I turn off or I don't deploy through two-thirds of the lap
and blow all of my battery down the back straight in this DRS zone,
which is the number one passing opportunity,
and you would potentially have a sliver of an opportunity
to defend yourself against the DRS.
As it is now, you don't have a sliver of opportunity,
and you wouldn't defend yourself against it anyways,
because you know on the next straight, you're going to have that 360 horsepower advantage,
so why would you bother? So then that's why you get this dumb yo-yo effect of,
there's no strategy to that. It's literally mushrooms in Mario Kart,
which is what I think is the problem.
So how do you make the gap? Maybe this is all solely a difference of just
reduce the performance advantage that overtake provides, instead of being whatever it is,
the 280 kilowatts, 300 kilowatts, make it half that.
And so then there is maybe some incentive for the car in front to deploy some energy
to cover them off at the end of the straight, or the car, the closing rate comes at the end,
and they have to make a bit of a lunge, right? Why does it have to be such a massive margin?
Because you want to have some level of defense available to you for the car in front,
which is what makes good racing. It makes car placement important. It makes
deciding to use a little bit here to hopefully cover yourself off by the end of the straight.
But as it is right now, I just don't see that happening. So that's my issue with it.
It's just, you know, I'll end on this. You know that if you're within a second of the car in front
of you, you've got the pass done, you don't have to do anything else. Like your job's done.
And that's what's done. At least with DRS, they tried to make the zones
a length that it was still, you know, you weren't just driving. You had to have some
talent to work for it. You had to execute to make it happen. Now you can literally
sip your espresso and just blow by the guy. And it's like, that's stupid.
Well, we'll see how the race turns out in Japan. See if it's any different.
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Unfortunately, there's no IndyCar races coming up to talk about.
Well, relax, Tim. We're going to cover Nashville. So Nashville, no, actually,
in a way, there's Barber. Shoot, I forgot. So yeah, Barber's coming up.
I guess we'll have to push Nashville to next week.
Alex, your favorite tracks coming up. How are we feeling?
Hold on. We're not going to Portland yet.
Oh, okay. Is Portland officially replaced Barber?
Oh, yeah.
Okay. Okay. That's good. So your second favorite track?
Second favorite track. Yeah, I'm excited to get to the first road course of the year.
I'm a little over the street course red tire and the red tire rule,
even though we've only done two of them. It's a little annoying.
So yeah, I'm excited.
Has that been decided that it's going to be the street course thing for the whole season?
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah.
I mean, it could change it if enough people complained, but...
That's true.
I don't know if people are complaining though.
I don't think enough to change it.
So anyways, looking forward to getting...
Maybe if you were as petty as James or I.
Maybe. Maybe.
Looking forward to getting to a road course, I think that we were pretty strong there last year.
Finished eight, maybe could have been a bit higher.
There's some things have gone differently throughout the race.
So we've got a good car. The weather looks beautiful.
So yeah, that's all I really had to say about Barber.
You simmed there yesterday?
I did. Yeah.
Just pounding around virtual rock?
Pound and many rock.
Pound and pound and many pixel pixelated rock?
Yes.
So you guys have made big steps on street courses.
You've made steps on short ovals.
Do we think some of this still applies?
Some of the stuff applies on the road courses
and that's why we're excited to get there?
Or is it excited to find out?
I don't know that we've made big steps on road courses.
I just know that this was one of our better road courses last year.
So I think we'll still be strong, like nothing's changed.
And hopefully we can go a bit better than ninth and sixth,
which has been our last two results.
But who knows?
Your last two results at Barber?
Of the year.
Of the year.
Yeah. So you just said eight.
Who do we think is going to be strong other than Palo?
Because let's tell a spade a spade.
Who do I think will be strong other than Palo?
Andretti historically has been pretty good there.
Gennasi aside from Palo has not really been good there.
You say that, but it's good.
Dixon's best average finish of any track that IndyCar races on.
He's never won there, but he's had nine podiums and 15 starts.
Six second places.
And Palo won twice.
So are Gennasi not good there?
I don't know.
I guess compared to everywhere else,
you just don't circle this one as like a Gennasi track.
And Pensky strong there.
And Pensky has like seven wins or whatever.
Right.
So I think big shocker, I think Pensky, Gennasi and Andretti are going to be the best cars.
Do McLaren have a shot?
I mean, Paddo did win there in 23, whatever it was.
Renus was on pole.
It was kind of a strange year.
But I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I think McLaren is really hit and miss there.
They have years where they nail it and it really suits their car,
which is a very particular car.
And then there's other years where they go there with that car that was on pole or won the race.
And it's like V13, so.
So no.
So no.
Too much of a shot in the dark.
Anything else to expect new from Fox?
Not this weekend.
A lot of our efforts are already kind of gearing towards May and the 500.
And some of the whole stuff we've been working on.
Which 500?
Sorry, the one in Indianapolis.
So like the one at IU, like the...
Yeah, it's called a little 500.
Oh, the bike thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the big one.
The big one.
Greater Indianapolis area.
Yeah.
There is one thing though that we're hopefully going to test this weekend that
is a bit of a preview for something we've got coming in May that's super cool.
I don't want to say it just in case like we're going to test it for sure in the background
and if it works, we'll put it on there.
But TBD on that we shall see.
But it could be super cool if it all comes together.
So excited to get to play with that potential toy.
And honestly man, like it's going to be...
I'm not going to lie, it's going to be kind of weird.
I'm just going to say this sounds dramatic and Alex you might
do what you do when I say this, but like it's going to be kind of weird going there with no Mr.
Barber.
It's like super sad that Mr. Barber passed away.
We always got to see him and hang out with him a little bit on the weekends,
you know, since I've been on the TV side and what he's built there and, you know,
what he's done for the sport and what he's done for the area and, you know,
his incredible collection and just, yeah, just everything, man.
It's, he is left behind a hell of a legacy in motorsport sense and, you know,
luckily I feel like he's one of those leaders that the people that worked with him,
you could see how they looked at him, how they talked about him, how they talked to him.
They really, really respected and idolized this guy and I think a lot of what made him so good
at what he did and made him so successful.
A lot of those traits have really bled into the people that he works with.
So it's not one of these situations where you sometimes, you know, a person who built something
moves on or passes on and the thing starts to change and kind of fall apart.
I really don't see that happening with Barber.
I think the ethos that George Barber kind of lived by and built that place with lives on and
hopefully continue to be phenomenal, phenomenal racetrack for Alex to go driving circles around.
What's 24 of his best buds?
I mean, regardless of my opinion of the place, as we mentioned last week,
it's one of the most beautiful facilities we go to and obviously
a place that deeply cares about IndyCar and has been there for IndyCar during very challenging times
and has been a staple of the calendar for a very long period of time, which is
always an A plus in my book.
Two IndyCar news related items today, Wednesday, March 25th.
Number one is Ed Carpenter.
His car was revealed for this year's Indy 500.
He's in the slim, fast ECR Chevy, which is incredible.
Oh my God, I got so many jokes lined up already.
And then, Kiffin Simpson, nine days after the fact was given a pretty severe penalty
for his contact to end the race in Arlington, where he dropped from 19th to 20th position
due to the stewards. So pretty crazy news there.
That was sarcasm.
How do you guys feel about penalties well after the fact though?
That far after the fact?
Very bizarre, very bizarre.
Okay, unless there's new information.
Which there is not.
I feel like the information was pretty available at the time because there's
literally all over the Twitters.
So I know that sometimes when it's a technical infraction or if a driver's taking an engine
too soon and has an engine penalty, they won't announce that until the Wednesday before the
following race, even if it's known Sunday of the race prior.
I know in some of those cases, or if it's something that's going to affect your neck,
like you're getting a grid penalty or they're sitting you for some time in practice for something
that you've done, maybe that doesn't come out until the week of the race that it affects.
But for a retroactive penalty on a race that has been done for over a week to come out,
that seems a little bit bizarre.
It's also just kind of comical because it happens to be the most redundant penalty ever.
Yeah, thank you.
Inconsequential is one position, so it's like, okay.
But yeah, penalties are penalty.
Yeah, I don't know.
I guess they were too busy dealing with the frozen situation that they overlooked this one.
There was a lot, I want to talk about that just to end because I saw a lot of comments online
from pretty regular IndyCar Twitter fan users, ones that I enjoy following a lot.
These aren't some of the ones that I don't enjoy following.
And they were kind of expressing their, I don't want to say displeasure, but surprise,
I guess, for the magnitude of the penalty that occurred based on what happened.
And I was a little surprised to see that reaction because for those that don't know,
Felix got a penalty for passing a car before the restart line that has been in place now for
over a year that really came off the back of Laguna Seca in 2023, where on restarts,
previously the rule was you could pass on green and that is still to be clear the rule on all
ovals. And into turn 11 at Laguna, you had guys because there was such a big checkup effect and
it was a slow corner. You had guys just piling into each other and we could never get the race
going green. Similar situations happened at the Nashville Street course race two years in a row.
And so there was kind of a driver suggested rule that goes into place that we can't pass,
even when the green comes out, we can't pass until a restart line, which was usually at
the exit of the final corner, a little bit of the ways down the front straight, let's call it,
to prevent kind of these pileups and track blockages occurring immediately going green after
a restart. And so this has been in place for a while. This isn't a new rule and this was a rule
that was driver suggested. And I'm not criticizing Felix, because in his defense, we had just come
from Phoenix, which was pass on green. And you get into that rhythm. And it's an easy mistake.
It's an easy thing to forget, let's say. So it wasn't an egregious, he wasn't being a
wasn't egregious, egregious thing. He saw an opportunity and took it and just forgot the rule,
essentially. But the fact that people were like, oh, how is the penalty so severe
for this when there was no contact? Shouldn't he just give the position back? And it's like,
no, this was a driver suggested rule that has been in place for a long time to prevent
accidents from happening at restarts. And the penalty, had it not been the end of the race,
is a drive through. Like that's, that is the deemed penalty. So the fact that you got moved back
to the back of the field, because we never went green again, because of the incident with
Kiffin and Stingray and company, it's like, that is the correct penalty. So I think that just needs
to be put out there for those that care, which is zero, that it wasn't, this wasn't too aggressive
of a penalty. The penalty is drive through and that's only fit the crime. So that's all I want to
say. It wouldn't matter if he, if he passed, because I think it's because he was running
sixth or whatever, and he ends up P 20. It doesn't matter if he was running 19th, it would be the
same penalty, right? The penalty is either drive through or if after the race, it's tail under
the lead lap. So right is what it is. Yeah, well played by any car. Again, easy mistake to make
in a sense for Felix is what it is. We didn't have a lot of yellow in that race. So I was
surprised. Surprisingly. Yeah, I was stunned. I think it's one of those things that how many
times have we had it where you go through practice and it's like three, four red flags of practice
and everyone's like, Oh, this race is going to be a complete disaster. All green. The only, the
only reason that you're, you're right because that is usually how it goes. It was so hard.
Some of the breaking zones were so challenging that I just was like, it doesn't matter if people
are being conservative. Like it was still easy to get it wrong. Right. And I just goes to show
how good we all are, man. Like we're just, we're some of the best race car drivers out there.
And when it's time to get it done and points on the line, we pull our together and just get
it done. And that's, that's what you do. But it's true. Like in practice, you're supposed to push,
that's when you're supposed to make mistakes. But I thought for sure, like turn one was going to
catch somebody out, turn five was going to catch somebody out. The only like, yeah, I mean, like
I went down, bro, I went down so many access roads through two practices and qualifying. It's
ridiculous. Like I, I visited them all. I could give you reviews on all of them. Right. All great.
I look forward to reading your Yelp reviews. Yeah. Four to five stars every single one.
All right. Well, it is Barbara this weekend and we're excited to get back there. I love it there.
I got a sick restaurant recommendation for my buddy Jim. Everyone want to go check out?
What is it? Excited for that. It's called fish and fish, fish and hot fish club. Not going there.
It doesn't sound great. I don't know if that's part of it. Is that what it's called? It's called
no. Sorry. It's called hot and hot fish club. Fish and hot fish club.
Hot and hot fish club. It sounds kind of gross, but the menu looks pretty good.
It's hilarious that when you Google it, the first thing that comes up is steak and pork.
Yeah, exactly. Like I looked at the pictures and I didn't see a whole lot of fish, but
the food all looks pretty banging. So I'm going to give that a give that a whole roll this year.
Alrighty. James Beard Award winning. There you go. See? There you go. Look.
Don't judge a book by its color cover unless it's Tam with his role.
I only trust tire companies for restaurant recommendations.
No, no. Alex missed that. That's James's Beard Award when it's totally different.
I created something just to really throw people off,
so it's James's Beard Award winning restaurant. Okay.
Well, we're out of time, so we'll get to Nashville next week. Thank God.
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