The hosts kick off the new racing season with lively banter about an AI-generated photo of themselves and dive into the latest IndyCar testing updates. They discuss the strategic decision by ECR to skip driving at the Sebring test in favor of rookie Hunter McElrea gaining experience, emphasizing the team's focus on tracks that better benefit their 2026 campaign. The conversation covers the upcoming busy race schedule, testing formats, and driver lineups, including speculation about who will drive the mysterious number 19 car. The episode blends humor with insider insights on testing strategies and team preparations.
With testing in Sebring and cars on track between now and St. Pete, we're calling it: the off season is done! Hallelujah! Tim's getting his daughter ready for school while we record so he's gone, so the guys cover AI images of Off Track, what testing in Sebring means or doesn't mean, a possible new qualifying formate, and more!
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""James Indy cars are back on racetracks and it's awesome. Finally. Thank goodness we made it. It is. And like, it's now what, five consecutive weeks that Indy cars are on racetracks.""
Indy cars are special race cars that compete in fast races mostly in the U.S. They look different from regular cars because their wheels are outside the main body, and they race on different types of tracks.
Indy cars are open-wheel race cars used in the IndyCar Series, a premier American open-wheel racing championship. They are known for high speeds and racing on a variety of tracks including ovals, road courses, and street circuits.
""Sebring test, uh, if you're listening to this on Thursday, has just wrapped up. We're recording before it happened, so we're gonna have to cover that next week...""
The Sebring test is a practice event where race teams try out their cars on a race track before the real races begin. It helps them get ready and fix any problems.
The Sebring test refers to pre-season testing sessions held at Sebring International Raceway, where teams prepare and fine-tune their cars before the racing season starts. It is an important event for gathering data and making adjustments.
"And how many, just so everybody at home understands how many test days are you granted a year outside of the official test?"
Test days are special times when race teams get to try out their cars to make them better before real races.
Test days are scheduled periods when racing teams can practice and develop their cars outside of official race events to improve performance and reliability.
"Well, that, that's a hard question to answer 'cause it depends on indie lights and what, okay. So, so, okay. You guys don't have any lights team, right? Yes, we do. Let's Say what? Yes, we do. Is that new?"
Indy Lights is a racing league where new drivers race smaller cars to get ready for bigger races like IndyCar.
Indy Lights is a developmental racing series that serves as a stepping stone to the IndyCar Series, featuring open-wheel cars and young drivers.
""What BR is used for is, like I said, reps for everyone. Um, you sort through breaks, you try some new development parts for the first time to see like, are they gonna be reliable enough that we can actually use them and, and that sort of thing.", "
'Reps' means doing the same thing over and over to get better, like practicing driving laps again and again.
In racing, 'reps' refers to repetitions or practice laps that drivers do to gain experience and improve performance on a track or with a car setup.
""...is the difference between a 2025 and a 2026 tire, right? Because you, you get four sets, tires two or 20, 25, 2 or 2026. That being said, it's only the primary. So everyone's gonna see the alternate for the first time.", "
Tires are the rubber parts on the car's wheels that touch the road. New versions each year can change how well the car sticks to the track and how fast it goes.
Tires are critical components in racing, with yearly updates (e.g., 2025 vs 2026 tires) potentially affecting grip, durability, and overall car performance.
""We have a two day test, serious test, as you mentioned in Phoenix where yes, that's an oval, but you're still in the car, you're still getting reps in, pit crews are still getting stops in Yeah.", "
An oval track is a race track shaped like a big loop or oval, where cars mostly turn left and go very fast.
An oval track is a type of racing circuit shaped like an oval, typically used in American motorsports, emphasizing high-speed left turns.
"'cause Seabring kind of used to be what that Phoenix test is, right? Phoenix or Seabring often was like the official preseason test on the way down to St."
Before the racing season starts, teams test their cars on the track to see how they perform and make changes if needed. This is called a preseason test.
A preseason test is a scheduled practice session before a racing season begins, allowing teams to evaluate cars and drivers under track conditions similar to upcoming races.
"'cause Seabring kind of used to be what that Phoenix test is, right? Phoenix or Seabring often was like the official preseason test on the way down to St. Pete. And it was always kind of a running joke that like whoever was fastest at Seabring was probably not gonna be quick at St. Pete."
Sebring is a race track in Florida where cars race and test their speed. It is known for being tough on cars because of its bumpy surface.
Sebring International Raceway is a famous racing circuit in Florida known for its rough surface and challenging layout, often used for endurance racing and testing.
"Phoenix or Seabring often was like the official preseason test on the way down to St. Pete. And it was always kind of a running joke that like whoever was fastest at Seabring was probably not gonna be quick at St. Pete. 'cause a good car at Seabring is not a good car at St. Pete. Mm-hmm. There are some very distinct differences between those tracks that you have to account for."
St. Pete is a race track made from city streets in Florida. It is different from normal race tracks because it uses real roads with tight corners and different surfaces.
The St. Petersburg Street Circuit is a temporary street race track in Florida used for professional racing events. It has a very different layout and surface compared to permanent tracks like Sebring.
"TWG ai, the primary on Will's car, uh, as well as now prominently featured on the side of a Cadillac Formula One car, as we've now seen after delivery launch."
Cadillac is a car company that makes fancy cars and has started racing in Formula One.
Cadillac is a luxury automobile brand owned by General Motors, which has recently entered Formula One as a manufacturer and team partner.
"TWG ai, the primary on Will's car, uh, as well as now prominently featured on the side of a Cadillac Formula One car, as we've now seen after delivery launch."
Formula One is the top level of car racing in the world, with very fast and special cars.
Formula One is the highest class of international single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the FIA, featuring the fastest and most technologically advanced cars.
"You've got big teams, you know, whether it's Penske, whether it's Andretti, whether it's McLaren, whether it's Ed Carpenter, whether it's, you know, all Ray Hall, like there, people are spending big money."
Penske is a famous racing team that competes in IndyCar and other races. They are known for being very successful and having a lot of money to support their cars.
Penske is a prominent racing team and automotive company known for its success in IndyCar and other motorsports. They are one of the biggest and most well-funded teams in the series.
"You've got big teams, you know, whether it's Penske, whether it's Andretti, whether it's McLaren, whether it's Ed Carpenter, whether it's, you know, all Ray Hall, like there, people are spending big money."
McLaren is a well-known racing team that races very fast cars in different types of races, including IndyCar and Formula One.
McLaren is a famous racing team originally known for Formula One but also competes in IndyCar. They are a global motorsport and automotive brand with a strong racing heritage.
"You've got big teams, you know, whether it's Penske, whether it's Andretti, whether it's McLaren, whether it's Ed Carpenter, whether it's, you know, all Ray Hall, like there, people are spending big money."
Ed Carpenter Racing is a racing team in IndyCar owned by a driver named Ed Carpenter. They race special fast cars on oval tracks.
Ed Carpenter Racing is an IndyCar team owned by driver Ed Carpenter. The team competes primarily on oval tracks and is a recognized competitor in the series.
"We don't have budget caps like Formula One does. And well, not every team has, you know, unlimited funds."
Budget caps are rules that stop racing teams from spending too much money to keep races fair. IndyCar doesn't have these limits, but Formula One does.
Budget caps are limits set on how much money racing teams can spend in a season to promote competitive balance. IndyCar does not have such caps, unlike Formula One.
"There is a need, there is a supply and demand issue for good people in pretty much every position on an IndyCar program. So, um, it is a, it is a seller's market, so to speak."
A seller's market means there are more people who want to buy or work than there are jobs or things available. So, workers can choose the best jobs.
A seller's market is an economic condition where demand exceeds supply, giving sellers an advantage. In this context, it means skilled racing team personnel are in high demand with limited availability.
"Your take on, you know, 27 cars full-time last year, the two prema cars were the only ones without a charter. There's 25 charters in IndyCar, 27 spots allowed to start each race."
In IndyCar racing, a charter is like a ticket that guarantees a team can race. There are 25 tickets but 27 cars can race, so some teams don't have a guaranteed spot.
The charter system in IndyCar is a method to guarantee starting spots for certain teams in races. There are 25 charters for 27 available starting spots, meaning most teams have secured entries while a few spots are open.
"his open wheel career kind of ended in a way, um, in 2024 after the McLaren kind of thing didn't come to fruition."
Open wheel cars are race cars with wheels you can see on the outside, like Formula 1 cars. Racing in these is called an open wheel career.
Open wheel racing refers to motorsport categories where the wheels are exposed outside the car's main body, such as Formula 1 or IndyCar. An open wheel career means competing in these types of series.
""You mentioned McLaren. They did their livery unveil. They what? They showed us pictures of their cars for this year. But, but what did, what did you call it A livery Unveil?""
A livery unveil is when a race team shows off the new colors and designs on their cars before the racing season starts. It's like a new outfit for the car.
A livery unveil is an event where a racing team reveals the new paint scheme and design of their race cars for the upcoming season. It often includes sponsor logos and color changes that reflect the team's branding.
"But this is the most F1 example of things that they do."
Formula 1 is the top kind of car racing in the world where the fastest and most advanced race cars compete on special tracks.
Formula 1, or F1, is the highest class of international single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the FIA. It features cutting-edge technology and the fastest racing cars competing globally.
"Ultimately, at the end of the day when it is an oval rookie evaluation, I feel like they should just give them unlimited tires."
An oval rookie evaluation is a test for new race car drivers to see if they can safely drive on oval-shaped race tracks, which are different from normal tracks. It helps make sure they are ready to race.
An oval rookie evaluation is a process in motorsports where new drivers are assessed on their ability to handle oval tracks, which are typically high-speed, banked circuits. This evaluation ensures drivers are safe and competent before competing in oval races.
"On that note, we promised you on Tuesday that we talk about my idea of single car qualifying and why it needs to happen Yes. For the fast six."
Single car qualifying means each race car goes out on the track by itself to try to get the best lap time, instead of racing with other cars at the same time.
Single car qualifying is a motorsport format where each car runs alone on the track to set its fastest lap time, rather than competing on track with other cars simultaneously. This format can reduce traffic and give a clearer measure of each car's performance.
"My reasoning is because one of my favorite things to watch in all of Motors sports is the top 10 shootout at the Bathurst 1000."
The top 10 shootout is a special part of qualifying where the ten fastest cars each get one chance to drive alone on the track to see who is fastest.
The top 10 shootout is a qualifying format used in some motorsports, notably the Bathurst 1000, where the fastest ten cars from earlier qualifying sessions each run a single flying lap individually to determine their starting order.
Select text to request an explanation
This is off track.
Hello guys, and welcome to another beautiful episode of Off Track with Hinch Rossi.
I'm super happy to join you today with my good buddy, James Hinchcliffe and Tim Hamme here.
So is that why you're super happy?
Just joyous all around, Joyous and triumphant.
Mm-hmm. So, Tim sent , Tim sent us a photo the other day,
or yesterday, I think, when he was Okay, sure did.
If you listen to Tuesday, you heard that he had a slight flight delay coming back from his trip in Florida.
And while during waiting during his flight delay, he got on chat GPT and asked it to generate an image of the three of us, the, the hosts of Offtrack with Hinch and Rossi.
And what came through was like, yeah, like a, an AI version of me, an AI version of Alex, and then an absolute Spitting Image of Tim.
Like there, there is like, there is now a doubt in my mind that that wasn't like a real photo of him.
And he was like, Hey, add James and Alex to this.
Yeah. It's the only, the only reason
that I know it's fake is 'cause like, his skin looks too good.
He's wearing a suit and the tie is done up all the way.
No, he wears a suit a lot. He just, he looks put together,
which his hair looks done, his beard as well, whatever.
Um, groomed, he looks moisturized, his eyebrows are sorted out.
Like he, his eyes aren't bloodshot, you know, I, I'm saying all this because while Tim's not here, he can hear in his AirPod .
So, uh, it's really fun for me. Okay.
Pump the brakes. as I get
Hazel's lunch ready?
Super rude. Uh, although now you mentioned it. Yeah.
You do need a shave. You do need a little bit
of a shave. Yeah. Eyes are a little,
Yeah, Yeah, yeah. Botox should,
I need to do anything to my eyebrows.
But Tim, um, not that you are and not that you ever will be again, but if you were to return to a dating app, you could use this and people wouldn't question it when they might in real life.
You should. Yeah, you should, you should cut yourself out
of that and use that as your profile pick. Yeah.
Good to know. I gotta get Hazel's lunch ready. But
Yeah.
What, what do we having chime? What's lunch today?
I dunno. , while you're there,
throw some like keels on or something. Sort yourself
out. ,
he doesn't know what he's making the lunch.
Doesn't know what she's getting for lunch anyway.
That's, uh, either here or nor there.
I thought that was, uh, kind of funny though.
That was a nice, pretty funny.
Tim will show the picture, uh, if you're watching on YouTube mm-hmm .
Which you should, you should watch on YouTube and you should like, and subscribe and do all those great things.
And thanks to everybody that subscribed last week after Tim made you feel bad about making us sad.
I wasn't here last week. I apologize. Um, all right.
So racing stuff. Big, big week.
James Indy cars are back on racetracks and it's awesome.
Finally. Thank goodness we made it.
They we made it out of the end of the tunnel.
It is. And like, it's now what, five consecutive weeks
that Indy cars are on racetracks.
Oh, I didn't even think about that.
Yeah. Yeah, because it's, there's a
Duck. I mean, it's, it's
Hazel.
Is that your duck?
It's uh, it's Hale showing us times to seven weeks.
So I mean, that's also awesome. So
Sebring test, uh, if you're listening to this on Thursday, has just wrapped up.
We're recording before it happened, so we're gonna have to cover that next week, which would then also lead nicely into the Phoenix Open Test, which is full series test.
Everybody there, which leads nicely into St.
Pete, which leads nicely into Arlington, which leads nicely into Phoenix Race.
Then we have a week off and then we go to Long Barber, long Beach. Barber,
Barber, barber, The bail, the bail.
Hmm. Uh, see Yeah, guys like it's, we're done.
We, we made it. We survived the frozen hellscape
that was winter and cars now on track, Alex.
Yeah, we're gonna cover CBR next week 'cause it hasn't happened yet.
But you are actually not technically driving in Sebring, is that correct?
Uh, I'm not technically and not realistically.
Literally physically and physically and hypothetically and physically. 'cause I'm so
In no way you're driving, you're not even mentally driving.
You're not emotionally driving.
Right. Um, so ECR decided, um,
we're we, we made the collective decision, Christian, myself, ed, the technical team, Ted, that we don't get a lot out of Sebring.
Um, Sebring is a great, come out a winner, get some reps in that sort of thing for everyone.
But in terms of actually benefiting our 2026 campaign, it does absolutely nothing.
And how many, just so everybody at home understands how many test days are you granted a year outside of the official test?
Well, that, that's a hard question to answer 'cause it depends on indie lights and what, okay.
So, so, okay. You guys don't have any lights
team, right? Yes, we do.
Let's Say what?
Yes, we do. Is that new?
Mm-hmm . Oh, okay. Who are you doing it?
Do you, are you doing in-house? Are you doing
it like an association with Somebody?
No, it's with j Howard. So we get an extra test, eh. Right.
Which is great. Does that
Have to use a lights kid?
Nope. Okay. Um, it's your your incentive.
Yes. As a indie cartoon team
Team, yes.
As it should be. They used to do this, they
stopped doing it for a while.
I've always thought this should be back, so I'm glad it's Happy.
So essentially, essentially we will have four days. Okay?
Okay. That doesn't mean everyone has four days,
but everyone is around four days.
Let's call, let's put it that way.
So we didn't want to use one of our four days at a place that does not benefit us.
What BR is used for is, like I said, reps for everyone.
Um, you sort through breaks, you try some new development parts for the first time to see like, are they gonna be reliable enough that we can actually use them and, and that sort of thing. Some
Correlation, you know, a little bit Of correlation stuff.
You see the one, the one benefit you see, um, that we're gonna miss out on admittedly, is the difference between a 2025 and a 2026 tire, right?
Mm-hmm . Because you, you get four sets, tires two
or 20, 25, 2 or 2026.
That being said, it's only the primary.
So everyone's gonna see the alternate for the first time.
It St. Pete anyways.
So we didn't feel that that was enough of a reason to give up one of the testing.
So what we did is we're still going, but Christian and I aren't driving.
We are having, uh, hunter Mray drive, um, which is going to be able to accomplish pretty much everything that we would want to accomplish, but without using one of our team test days.
So this would be a, a rookie evaluation day.
Um, and it's only obviously one car versus two.
But we just, we were like, why, why are we just rinsing and repeating, like, we all hate going to Sibr.
We all, we all do Sebring.
And then leave there being like, well, how much of this is really gonna apply?
It tracks X, Y, and Z And how much of this was, well, Sebring was in really, there was a lot of rubber and it was cool today, like how you, you leave there sometimes with more questions than answers.
So we were just trying to remove that variable.
We have a two day test, serious test, as you mentioned in Phoenix where yes, that's an oval, but you're still in the car, you're still getting reps in, pit crews are still getting stops in Yeah.
You're still going through all of the process and procedure, right?
So we didn't feel like we are giving anything up by, by missing this.
And, and, um, I'm glad that we had the, honestly, to not just follow what the group does and, and do something different.
I, I love it. I I love it.
I think it's a, I think it's a really cool concept, right?
It's, um, like you say, it, it, it gives you a day with both cars at track track at a track that you actually track we're gonna race at.
Yeah. And so you can focus on,
and I assume that you guys are going to try to go to tracks where you've struggled historically, correct?
Yep. So it's, um, yeah, dude, I'm, I'm with you.
I think it's great. I mean it was always, you know,
it was always one of the things, you know, tested.
'cause Seabring kind of used to be what that Phoenix test is, right?
Phoenix or Seabring often was like the official preseason test on the way down to St.
Pete. And it was always kind of a running joke
that like whoever was fastest at Seabring was probably not gonna be quick at St.
Pete. 'cause a good car at Seabring is not a good car at St.
Pete. Mm-hmm. There are some very distinct differences
between those tracks that you have to account for.
And so you would also like, so then you would try to be disciplined and you would drive around and not try to tune for Seabring.
Like that was always, we're not trying to tune for sea ring.
We're trying to go through our run plane for St. Pete.
Exactly. And like sometimes
that worked, but sometimes it didn't.
'cause it's not St. Pete. Exactly. So I, I get it.
I think that's a great idea. I wish we knew
while we were talking to you guys.
Right now what happened in that test? We don't,
But like we said, if you're fast, I dunno if that's a good thing.
Right? So, so I mean there's,
there's really just one big question, uh, surrounding the test from where we sit today on Monday.
And that is, uh, the number 18 car.
Do you, do you know, that's A great point.
Do you know anything? Like, have we seen on the internet?
Who is, who is there?
Like someone's gonna be driving it, right? It's
A great point.
We're sitting here. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. I
Don't know.
Not well is it? Oh, I don't know. . I am,
I mean we all know places on the Twitter's right now.
So again, for reference, we're recording on Monday and there's nothing announced on Monday.
I misspoke. The 18 we obviously
know is Dennis Hogger, right?
So it's the Yes, the 19, right, which is the question mark. Sorry.
Yes. So Dale Co only has
one car there, but there you go.
One Dennis Hauger and Roma Rojan are there, They are both on the west and On Dennis Hagar's Instagram, there's a picture of him on Pit lane taking a picture of the 18 car with another driver in it and tagged as Roman Rojan. So,
Well, there you go.
That is likely to believe Deductive reasoning That, uh, Rojan iss gonna be in the 19.
The question is why is he not in his own car? Well,
So it is po So the way this two day test is, has, is structured for some reason, is each driver gets one morning and one afternoon session.
So you can actually get away with two drivers and one car.
'cause one will do the am the first day and the PM the second day.
The second, second one will do the pm the great point, second, first day.
So they don't need two cars.
So I'm sure it's a bit of a cost saving thing.
I remember when this kind of first happened, I think it was still a series test.
This one's not a series test.
Why have they opted to still do that format?
Does it then count as just one day for each driver? And that's why
It definitely only counts as one day.
So the reason, so why not they did it.
The reason they did it for the series test when the Sebring test was a mandated like spring training event was because they didn't want the people that were assigned to day one complain that they had a disadvantage to the people on day two.
'cause the track conditions were different. Right.
But now that it's not a mandated test and teams can choose their days, I don't really know why it was kept the same.
It was probably somebody like, well that worked, so let's just do that.
Yeah. Maybe. Although it, it adds a lot
of expense for the teams.
'cause it is, I mean, yeah, it is An extra night night there for two days rather than, yeah.
Yeah. Um, anyways, so it'll be interesting.
Uh, the, the big, the big storylines obviously besides that is, um, Lucas is gonna be in a Penske car and Will is gonna be in a 26 in, in an energetic car.
Sorry. Um, but that leads me to a question.
So I saw a picture posted of all of the trucks, um, and you might have some knowledge of this, uh, seemingly all of Andretti global branding is gone and it's basically TWG motor sports.
Is that, is that, are the, are we go, are we referring to them as what, what are they? The, the,
Is my question.
The, the team, the team is still Andretti. Okay.
Uh, is still Andretti.
It might be Andretti Indy now or something.
I don't, I don't know. I don't know
the answer to that fully.
Okay. I do know that it's, it's not, yeah,
it's still Andretti for sure.
Okay. On maybe car side. Got it.
Um, but obviously TW G's got a, a huge presence.
Um, TWG ai, the primary on Will's car, uh, as well as now prominently featured on the side of a Cadillac Formula One car, as we've now seen after delivery launch.
Mm-hmm . One thing that we don't see at Sebring is prema,
ah, there are no prema cars at Sebring. Mm-hmm.
There's no little Italian flags rolling around.
There's not, uh, there's no Cal Milot or Robert Schwartzman's floating around, or S Or was he associated with Prema?
I think so. who isn't. Mm-hmm.
Um, so I mean, what do you, what do we think, what are you hearing?
What, what do we know? Is there a chance that they're in St.
Pete? Is it a 0% or greater? Well, so
Here's, here's the thing, James.
Um, and I don't know, I don't know what I'm at liberty to share, probably nothing if I'm questioning it.
Let me put it to you this way.
ECR along with other teams, you know, had to acquire personnel, right?
Mm-hmm . And that was, that's the focus of a lot
of teams off seasons is is bolstering the engineering groups and mechanic groups and, and bringing new people in and it gets more and more competitive every single year.
Well, it's, uh, it's a pretty incestuous industry, right?
And there's a lot of people that switch teams and organizations and, and all that sort of thing.
Just 'cause it's, it's quite a small sample size of people that unfortunately want be involved in IndyCar currently.
And so, uh, there were, there were Prema people that, that we hired, um, along with other teams hired Prema people because quite frankly, they were told like, please, like, we don't wanna hold you up.
Right? If you have a job
opportunity, go take your job opportunity.
Take opportunity. Which I think is,
is the right way of doing things. It's a
Noble way to do it. Yes, for
Sure.
But because of that, there's a lot of people that are no longer at premise.
So even if, and this is not saying this is an easy thing to accomplish, but even if funding and, and all that sort of thing becomes resolved, let's say today, like how do you, how do you staff an IndyCar team for two cars in, in 20 days?
Like, that's the, that's the thing they're up against.
Right? It's money's really the easy part at this point.
Yeah. Yeah. You could get the financial commitment
and have that sorted, you know, very quickly.
Mm-hmm. But like you say, I mean, this industry,
for anybody listening that's keen to go motor racing, we need people, right?
Well, now's your time. We need mechanics because
you can almost engineer your price Engineer truck drivers a hundred percent.
Like, and you've got, you've got big teams, you know, whether it's Penske, whether it's Andretti, whether it's McLaren, whether it's Ed Carpenter, whether it's, you know, all Ray Hall, like there, people are spending big money.
We don't have budget caps like Formula One does.
And well, not every team has, you know, unlimited funds.
There is a, there is a need, there is a supply and demand issue for good people in pretty much every position on an IndyCar program.
So, um, it is a, it is a seller's market, so to speak.
Timing is good if it's something that you want to, uh, you want to explore.
But this actually kind of brings up a, a topic that I'm curious.
Your take on, you know, 27 cars full-time last year, the two prema cars were the only ones without a charter.
There's 25 charters in IndyCar, 27 spots allowed to start each race.
Is this kind of the first sign that there is some true value to having a charter?
Because you gotta wonder if part of the lack of financial investment, you know, if, again, I don't know the details, I don't know what premise's been trying to do.
I don't know what's going on behind the scenes over there.
But you would think that if, if funding was the issue, selling a charter or having somebody invest in the team knowing that they had a charter may have made those conversations easier and without that less so, and is that kind of proving the, the value and the worth of having these charters?
Well, I don't think you needed this to happen for that to be the case.
Ultimately, what a charter is worth is only what someone will pay for it.
Right. That being said, it, it adds value
because in the IndyCar team, without a charter system is equipment at 40 cents on the dollar.
Right? So yes, there's value in trucks
and tools and whatever.
There's not much value in cars. There's no engines.
Um, there's not much value in IndyCar specific damper parts and components and engineering.
So it's really in, in the, the trucks, the tools, the, the dinos, the paint shops, that, that sort of thing.
If you have the charter, it's, it's, all of those things are incorporated to have a value of pretty much what you paid for, plus some, because it is how you can go racing and are guaranteed an opportunity to go racing.
Other than that, you're just buying, you're just buying equipment that looks pretty mm-hmm .
Um, so I don't think that this, I think that the value came once, immediately after it was implemented.
Like I, I don't wanna speak for Ted, but um, I know that, that he was exponentially more interested in getting involved in IndyCar once the charter system became a thing.
Because again, he, he doesn't wanna buy Indy cars.
He wants to buy a stake in the value of a sports property.
So, but he did it with a team that has charters, right? He wasn't looking at
Sure.
For sure. Exactly. But
that's why I'm saying like the charter added value mm-hmm .
Instantly when it became a thing. So
'cause because the, the fear is always for these, these companies and sponsors, and I've heard some of these stories, right?
It's, well, yeah, we could go racing, but if one more car shows up, we now have a chance of not making the race.
And that's just not a risk that people wanna take.
Which is kind of, kind of Interesting.
I, I wonder, I wonder, and I have no inside knowledge to this, so this is purely speculation on my part, but I wonder if Prema and the ownership group thought that even though they knew they were coming in without charters, like I wonder if they thought, oh, if we, if we show in the investment and if we should kind of like the, the beginning of the Andretti F1 Cadillac F1 approach, right?
Yeah. Yeah. If we show the commitment
and we by the, the, the, the people and the building and all this stuff and, and we show our desire to be here, maybe that'll move the needle in, in one direction to help our cause.
And I wonder if they were hoping in the back of their mind that maybe they would get charters because they did X, Y, and Z and they were gonna take the risks the first year.
And then when that became a reality that that didn't happen, it's like, well now why are we just going to continue spending this money for ultimately what is nothing except the marketing exercise, which they are not obviously a manufacturer and they're not anything, they're just a race team.
So I wonder if behind the scenes that had maybe something to do with it. Yeah,
Yeah.
Could be. That makes a lot of sense. Neither
Here nor there, they're not in Sebring.
It's gonna be very hard for them to be in St. Pete.
And you just racing is a very vulnerable sport for drivers.
And like, I feel very bad for Callum.
Not that I don't feel bad for Robert, but I don't, I don't know Robert on a personal level.
Right? But I do know Callum quite well, um,
with his short stint that he had at McLaren.
And man, he's had a, he's had an unfortunate run of events, um, Timing, bro.
It's, yeah. It goes back to
that timing conversation. Talked. He goes back to
That on Tuesday.
You're a hundred percent right. But what really makes me sad
for him is, you know, his, his open wheel career kind of ended in a way, um, in 2024 after the McLaren kind of thing didn't come to fruition.
And he had an incredible opportunity back in Europe, right, to race in WEC in the top class with Joda, which is a probably the lead customer team, um, in the, in the, in the p one category of the world Endurance championship, Porsche customer team.
Now a Cadillac customer team.
And, um, but his heart was in IndyCar and he loved the sport and he loved the 500 and, and everything that came with that loved living in America.
And so he, for he, he gave up an opportunity, um, to continue that relationship, which was a, a great job, right?
He was getting paid, well, it's a global championship, you go to cool places he could live back in England.
Like, lifestyle's pretty good.
And he gave that up because this new team, which had the pedigree of, of some of the best teams in the world was coming to IndyCar.
And it was an opportunity for him to get back to the place that he loved.
And, and now here we are 20 days from the first race of, of what would be his second season and there's all this unknown surrounding it.
Yeah. And I just feel, I feel for him as a, as a friend
and as a competitor. 'cause that just, that sucks.
Really sucks. It does suck, man. It's, this is a,
this is a brutal sport.
It's a brutal business. There's uh, there's plenty
of stories out there just like this, but it, it is, it is unfortunate that he kind, you know, he bet on indie car, he wanted that to be his future.
You know, he believes in the product and in the racing and whatever.
But, uh, at least for now, that opportunity looks like it's, it's gone the other way.
Now he did a good job, started to say that there's not gonna be opportunities for him in the future, but who knows what 2026 looks like.
You mentioned McLaren. They did their livery unveil.
They what? They showed us
pictures of their cars for this year.
But, but what did, what did you call it A livery Unveil?
Yes. Oh, veil. Mm. What do we, what what?
So this is this, this is why I bring it up. Mm mm-hmm .
So Alex is humming and hawing.
'cause he's like, yeah, it's the same cards that we've seen for the last however many years.
Right? Nothing's changed. What are we unveiling at this
Point? Yeah.
Yep. So this, this is exactly why I brought it up.
'cause I knew that that was gonna be your reaction.
Well, my question is, is it, is it cool that they still are making the effort?
No. Or
Not, because I do, one of my favorite people in the IndyCar paddock, it was a guest of the show, is, um, the VP of McLaren IndyCar and the head of communications Lauren.
Yes. Right. This is nothing against her.
And I don't even know that this is necessarily her idea, right.
But this is the most F1 example of things that they do.
And it's just like, I, I don't, it looks like a cool event.
Like it was obviously very well done.
It was in the new shop, which the new shop can we just say looks incredible.
Like that's the old Andretti building.
And the pictures that I've seen, I don't even know where the front door is compared to It's un unrecognizable.
Like it's, it's unrecognizable. It's incredible.
Tony went a little overboard with a papaya bidet toilet .
So, but that's Tony, please Tell me that. Not
True.
Oh, it's a hundred percent true. Yeah. It's like a, oh boy.
It's like a $25,000 throne for him. Incredible.
Anyways, um, back to delivery unveil.
I just, I, no, I don't think it's cool that they put the effort in.
Um, that's just my take.
If they were unveiling something new, yes.
Sick. But, but, but see here's,
but see, this is the point, right?
Is if you only do it when you're, if you only pick and choose to do it when that's like a big difference.
So I guess my point is, in F1, every team does it every year.
And most teams deliveries don't change that much year over year.
Like guess what? No, but the cars are new.
It's gonna be red, the cars are new, but like, they never show the actual car delivery launch.
Right. It's always like a dumbed down version without the
real parts and with fake things to mislead the competition.
So like, no, only the track is when you're really seeing the car.
Sure. Okay. Okay. Right.
And over an entire rule cycle, it's probably the same <inaudible> roller chassis that they're using, you know, at delivery unveil, they just painted different colors.
But it's, it's part of the process of starting a new season, right?
Because if one year there is some big thing, like the event's already there, it's already assumed it's already whatever.
And I'm not saying it has to be like necessarily a big in-person event, but like, it should be something there should be like, Hey, this, this is our, you know, like it's, you guys did like a big digital thing because you were rebranding the team and it has a different look and whatever. So we
Changed, we changed everything though. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, no, no, no. Okay. But I'm saying like, that kind
of thing should still be done next year if the cars look exactly the same for you guys.
I'm not gonna, I'm not saying it has to be a huge event in person, all that stuff.
If McLaren wants to do that, cool.
If another team wants to do that, cool. Mm-hmm.
But like, it should be more than just like a Twitter post with the three Penske cars, you know, at the shop.
I think, I think it's, I think it's a good thing to be like, making it seem like a big deal.
Indy car's a big deal, man. It's a big deal.
Let's start acting like it's a big deal.
Let's have like, oh, the cars are the same this year.
We'll just show up to the Phoenix Open test so people can see the cars there.
No, let's make it cool.
Let's make it something that people get excited about, even if it looks the same.
Right? Let's find a way to tell the story
and get people excited and make it, make it something.
Okay. . Next topic. .
No, I mean, okay. I, I get, I get
where you're coming from And I get where you're coming from.
I guess my, my hope is, so they do an incredible job with the, or they did an incredible job with like, the buildup to it and the promotion and the countdown and everything, right?
Mm-hmm . And in my, in the back
of my mind I was like, they're gonna be the same.
But because the buildup was so big and because it was like an invited like ticketed events and it was catered and like people were dressed up nice.
And like, I just was like, man, they're, they're gonna do something cool here.
And so I think my resentment towards it is more that like, I built it up in my mind that they were gonna like unveil something. They do you. Awesome.
They Got you. And it just like, it's,
that's the car I drove .
So It has that changed?
Yeah. Yeah. Sweet. Um, anyways, so whatever.
Um, good for them.
Uh, what else can we talk about Indie car wise? James? Um,
So Mick Schumacher did his first OV test.
He did, Which is, you know, I mean the, the quotes were everything that you would expect.
I haven't spoken to anybody from the team and you know, we're still gonna, we're trying to get Mick on the show.
Uh, would love to hear it from the horse's mouth, but seemed to go well.
Mm-hmm . Uh, did it down at Homestead.
Honestly, what I hope comes outta this is that there's like an interest maybe in running homestead again.
'cause I think that would be awesome.
Okay, here's a question though.
So they said that his day kind of got not cut short, they had to end it earlier than like the end of track time because the, with the track being kind of green and nothing running on there for a while, the tire deck was quite high, right?
So they weren't getting as many laps out of a set of tires as they would've liked.
And so they ended up burning through their tires quicker than they were expecting and they had, you know, not enough tires to match the track time.
Ultimately, at the end of the day when it is an oval rookie evaluation, I feel like they should just give them unlimited tires.
Like if the goal of this is to get a driver up to speed and comfortable on an oval, like let's just, let's give them the day because yeah, there's no, there's no like, can the team do a little extra arrow testing?
Sure. But like a guy
or girl, like a driver doing their first lapse on an oval is not gonna be able to give you like meaningful feedback on development.
Let's call a spade spade. Sure.
It's just about getting them comfortable, letting 'em try different things.
Maybe try and mock qualifying run at the end of the day, you know, work on different lanes, but let's just give 'em as many tires as they need so they can use the whole day.
Use all that time and get as up to speed as possible.
Because ultimately that's better for everybody.
What do we show up to the first oval race and they're that much more comfortable 'cause they had that many more laps Again, added to the list James, of uh, the change.
That's another rule. Another needs to change changed.
On that note, we promised you on Tuesday that we talk about my idea of single car qualifying and why it needs to happen Yes. For the fast six.
Okay. So explain your reasoning.
My reasoning is because one of my favorite things to watch in all of Motors sports is the top 10 shootout at the Bathurst 1000.
Okay? And it is something
that V eight supercars does at every event, but let's be honest, I'm not gonna watch every V eight supercar event because why would I, You're not watching sand down, Right?
But it is so cool to watch a car leave pit lane, go through their own.
Every team and driver has their own idea and procedure for what they think tire warming should look like.
And you get as a driver, as a team, and as a sponsor, three and a half minutes of in uninterrupted TV time showing what you are as an organization.
And you deserve that because you are six of the 27 to make it to this point.
And for you as the commentator and as the TV crew and, and everything to be able to follow along with that driver and point out, oh, okay, they're they're really trying here because the last sequence of corners wasn't good enough or they made a mistake here, or this just looks perfect and impeccable and all this sort of thing.
And you can fall that and and play by play it right for six cars.
It doesn't add any time.
It's an awesome challenge for the drivers to leave pit lane and have to go out and get one shot or you get one opportunity to do it.
There's none of this, you know, IndyCar qualifying is an hour long or TV block, right?
You can't argue that there's only four minutes that are exciting, right? There's the Yeah,
The last, yeah, There's the, the last transfer spots And group one, group two, Q2 And Q3.
Yeah. And then you're waiting until the last 45 seconds
of the fast six because the beginning of the fast sixes Honda cars in particular will leave pit lane on a, on a used set of tires and they will kind of do a, a cool down lap to get the turbos in the engine in the right temp range.
Other cars will, will try and do, you know, two push laps on a set of tires and then one push lap on the next set.
And so it's like every, everything's a little disjointed.
You don't really know what's going on.
It's not that exciting, right?
It's exciting when you know a lap time finally gets laid down then you know, okay, person X is probably the guy that can beat it and you're kind of watching that, but that's so short.
If you've got 10 minutes, no, it'd be 18 minutes of excitement, right?
I just think that would add a huge amount to the broadcast and it would just make indie car qualifying cool again, cooler again.
Okay, so I have two, I have three points.
No, I have a couple points. One point is that F1 used
to do this, IndyCar used to do this.
F1 used to do it for the whole field though.
Yes. Fair, true.
Um, and to be fair, even when IndyCar did it, I'm not sure if it was, I think it may have just been like the top 10 as well.
I don't know. I don't remember, but I know they did used
to do it at some point and nobody still does it.
So why was it really, was it not actually as exciting as we think it sounds on paper and that's why we kind of all shifted away from it.
Moving on to the competition side, right?
So I assume you would do reverse order in the Q2 standings, right?
Mm-hmm . So you're inherently giving more of an advantage to
the car that's going last because of, you know, rubber on the track, but also more time to cool things.
So our team's going to think that that's unfair.
Look, you were, you earned it if you were quickest in Q2, right?
You earned, that's like the same v ovals if you're, you know, in de qualifying you get to go last if you were fast state, like that's how it works.
You earned that, right?
But on on any track you could say like, oh well you know, somebody held me up on my lap and I made it through to the fast six, but I should have been way faster than that and now I'm disadvantaged because this car gets an extra six minutes to cool down.
Is there gonna be pushback there procedurally speaking?
'cause in bath yes, Alex, On that logic, you're gonna have a penalty slightly from an engine standpoint, you're gonna have an advantage from tire standpoint.
So I think that balances out.
I think that's a moot point. How?
Sorry, explain. Well 'cause if it's one lap, right?
The guy that is sixth in round two is gonna have a chunk more tire temp than the guy that's waiting 15 minutes. Well
You, your tires in the fast six now, right?
Since we went to five sets of reds, everyone uses a, a new set. That's
True.
That's true. I made it to three of 'em, so I forgot. .
Touche, touche. My bad, my bad.
Um, I didn't frequent the fast six .
Don't worry. 26 is new year.
So then procedurally speaking in Bathurst, if I remember correctly, they send out the next car when the guys like halfway through their lap, right?
Yeah. But it's a big lap so you have to do that. Yeah.
You wouldn't have to do that at St. Pete.
Yeah. 'cause that's, that's what I was gonna say, right?
Like if you're on an L, so if you did it that way, 'cause again, because you're only doing six, it doesn't actually, you're right, it doesn't only add much time at all.
It'll add a little bit because the fast six is only six minutes or whatever.
But like it's not a ton.
No, But let's say Andy Carr wanted to do it that way to try to keep it as condensed as possible.
And you're fourth in line, the guy that's third in line is out on track.
They go by to start their lap, they count to 30, send you on your out lap, right?
And then that guy stoves it in the wall, red flag, you've gotta come back in.
But now it's like, oh, well I've half a lap, you know, on my tires now and it's a disadvantage.
Like would you, But how is that, how is that any different James than that happening to you with all other five cars on track?
A hundred percent. So
Yeah, I'm just trying to throw out Yeah, I'm just trying to throw out things that people can, but that can happen If, if you wait, if you're, if you're trying to wait till the end for like the track evolution, right?
And you leave pit lane and, and someone stoves in the wall, Right?
But then the series can say, well you waited, that was your choice.
Where in this scenario the team's gonna be like, you told us when to go and a guy crashed in front of us. Yeah.
I'll get my tiny violin out.
'cause the worst you're gonna start is sixth. There
You go.
All right. I'd be, I'd be willing to try it.
I'd be willing to. It's like, you know, well
Good news James.
I think we are. Yeah.
Yeah. At all at all.
Road street or just like, we're gonna try it at one like we did with the, We're gonna try it at one Rule are are you allowed to share which one?
Not to the audience, but I will tell you later.
Okay. Just saying Tim can bleep it out just
to really make the audience mad that they're that close to hearing it. Oh, cool.
Yeah. That'll be interesting. Hmm.
That'll be interesting. Mm-hmm . Uh, yeah. Good.
And then if it works, awesome. But that's the thing.
But this, so I know I kind of laid out all those points, right?
The one for me that is the, is the reason I've always like thought twice about this is we used to do it and F1 used to do it and everybody went away from it.
Because for me, like from the TV side, right? You create that. We also
Used to drink while we were pregnant. Don't do that
anymore. .
Right? But I'm saying we went from the current format to
that format and went back to we're not drinking while pregnant again. You know what I'm saying?
Good point. Good point. Good
point. .
Yeah. I missed that step. Yeah,
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, you, you gotta go back one more. Right? Right.
And then it makes more sense. Okay.
But 'cause like yes, it's those last, it's those four minutes are the only exciting minutes, right?
But those four minutes are really exciting. They sure are.
And I think my worry with a single car qualifying is if like someone goes out and just lays down a time that's outrageous and for three more cars, you by sector one, you know, you're like, oh, he's not climbed back four and a half tenths here.
So you just watch a car drive around by itself and finished third and then another guy finished fourth.
And like, it's when it's, when it's at the end, like you always have the fastest lap set within the last minute of the, of the session the way it is now.
Like al almost always mm-hmm . Right?
Whereas in this case, you could have a 10 minute window for the fast six and the fastest lap gets set two minutes in and for eight minutes you're watching everybody else struggle to catch that time.
You can still admire the, the job that the person who set the time did, but it takes a little bit of that like cinema away from it.
Interesting. But we'll see, we'll see, we'll see.
If the fastest guy goes last, it's gonna be <inaudible> banging, right?
It's gonna be great. Yep. Yep. But if, all
Right, the last topic I wanna cover, and I don't know if you guys did last week, um, DC did you guys talk about that at all?
We did. Yeah. We, yeah,
will and I talked about it a little bit.
Okay. Well, I I just wanna give a little bit of insight,
um, because I was, because you were there.
Yeah, I went there. Tell us about it.
I can't share a whole lot of details, but what I will say is there, I there's a lot of concern.
I think there's a lot of concern for a lot of various reasons, but I think the, the one that makes the most sense is, oh, well how, how on earth is IndyCar gonna do this in six months?
Right? How can you, how can you build a track
and make it safe and all this sort of thing?
And like that's crazy. And while their build time
is six months, this is something that's been in the works for over a year.
And so this is not something that was dropped on IndyCar's lap out of the blue.
And it's like you have now six months from zero to build this right event.
This plan has been in place for a quite a long period of time and was not passing through certain, uh, channels of approval for a load of various reasons.
And, and this is, um, a, a lot of people default to political reasons and, and this sort of thing and, and really the one that didn't surprise me but made the most sense to me that I didn't think about is the, the, the, the major hurdle was on certain government land advertising is a problem, right?
Right. And so there was a really big roadblock of, okay,
well you can have your event, but the cars can't be branded because this is a historical site.
We can't change the precedent of what's been set because, and for future events, if protests or rallies or whatever happens, like we can't have branding.
So that's a, that that's a hard no-go.
Um, so there, there was, there was blocks and, and pushback for reasons like that.
Not for any other reason that people seem to create in their mind on the internet.
And then the other thing is that I thought was very interesting is a lot of the landmarks slash buildings that a proposed track would go around, they were concerned about the percussion coming off the cars, right?
It wasn't a decibel thing per se, right?
Like noise wasn't the problem.
It was vibrations was what is the vibration and harmonics gonna potentially do to archives and windows and buildings and, and all this sort of thing, which is like, oh that's , the Lincoln Monument just crumbles.
Like these are things you don't think about, right?
Yeah, for sure. Like are very real concerns
that then there had to be study groups and there had to be things that are done in order to, to meet all of the criteria for an event to happen.
So what I will say is the people that were involved in this was a very small group, but they have been feet, boots on the ground for a very long period of time.
So this event is going to be as exact of an IndyCar Street course event that we've ever had.
Like it's not gonna be some shell of what a street course event should be like.
It's gonna be the same as what you would expect at a Long Beach at a St.
Pete, at a Detroit a Markham or whatever, right?
This isn't, this isn't something that's just happening overnight.
So I, I wanna put that concern out of people's minds because, um, that's just not the reality.
The, the parts that I can't share are kind of the layout and, and what's going to go into the event.
Um, but what I can say is it's incredible and like whether or not you are a fan of Washington currently, that shouldn't be enough of a detractor from what is an insanely cool opportunity for the entire series, um, around a celebration of this country, right?
You know, this, this country has been around for 250 years, right?
Give or take people, give or take not very old, but still 250 years people that you do or don't like, they only last four to eight years, as Kelly can tell you on her, um, immigration civics test , right?
So the percentage right, is still quite small of the 250 years.
So guys, it's gonna be awesome. So don't be
Yeah.
I think, and this is, you know, one of the things that Will, and I were saying last week was, uh, we've been asking for more races on the calendar and street races are obviously East coast races, in Particular East coast races in particular street course races are popular.
That's why we have Arlington coming on board.
That's why we have a new facility in Markham that we're doing it at.
So, you know, that's why we did it in Nashville originally as a street circuit.
Um, and the hope is that this is a race that's gonna be around for 50 plus years. So, uh,
And, and that was the other, that was the other thing that was um, really exciting for me to hear is the people who are in, in charge of promoting this event, they own the Wizards and the capitals right?
To Major N-B-A-N-N-H-L teams.
Um, and they also have their own media company and they love, they love everything about this event and they want this to be an event.
This isn't a one and done nec.
There's nothing committed past this year, right?
We have to get through this year first.
That being said, they're not viewing this as a Oh, just a flash in the Pan exhibition thing, right?
They love IndyCar, they love the coast market. Yeah.
They want to build out the fan base in that location because they believe they can do it.
So this is what we've been asking for and it's really cool that it's happening in a, in a, on a stage that's gonna have a lot of eyeballs on it.
And it's free for the public, at least in year one. It's free
For the public.
There you go. Alright. That's the time.
I know we, again, we didn't talk about track cars on track 'cause they haven't happened yet, even though they have.
By the time you're hearing this, we will cover that next week and Nashville among the other tests and eventually we'll get to Nashville.
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