After Scott Dixon and the Chip Ganassi Racing team delivered their Texan coup, we delved deep into the season’s low-season engineering deck where Dixon’s racing engineer Chris Simmons was promoted to a new role as CEO. performance, and IndyCar veteran Michael Cannon was brought into the reins of the guy whose Twitter ID is pure engineering comedy.
In trying to understand how Dixon’s Honda 9th entry has gotten off to such an overwhelming start, there’s no need to repeat that angle, but it’s worth acknowledging how an abstract theme like ‘feel’ can play such a big factor in how the careers Teams evolve.
CGR could have left the Dixon team alone after the team had two wins, had an impressive 10 podium hits and finished fourth in the 2019 standings. It could have been ruled out as Team Penske’s year, and with solid work out of season to close the gap, there is every reason to believe that Simmons and former assistant engineer Kate Gundlach could have helped Dixon achieve the same victories at Texas and Indy in 2020.
But there was a general feeling within the team that it was time to try something different, and despite having no proof that it would work, that notion was recognized, respected, and applied. It was a brave move in that regard; nothing was wrong; The same engineering combo delivered the 2018 IndyCar title for Dixon and CGR, and nothing obvious leapt during 2019 to need a change. But there was this lingering feeling that a change was due.
Simmons was elevated to a larger role where his experience could benefit the entire team, Gundlach went to Arrow McLaren SP in a new and more important role as a performance engineer, and CGR acquired Cannon to fill Simmons’ role in the timing station. CGR veteran Ken Brooks, an old acquaintance of Cannon’s, stood next to him in the old Gundlach seat after Ganassi’s Ford GT IMSA program closed, and boom, you have two new faces positioned alongside Mike Hull , Dixon’s career strategist.
Was it change for the sake of change? Was not. They had a feeling, something that couldn’t be quantified or proven by data analysis, went with it and are reaping the rewards of the early season.
With the main theme explored, here are a bunch of random brain downloads from the event:
IndyCar has a screen cooling issue that can no longer be ignored. I have read the comments of some veteran drivers on social networks that say that today’s drivers should toughen up, and of course, extreme toughness never hurts, but that’s not the problem. Dragging a 1800 pound car with 5000 pounds of downforce, no power steering, while frying like an egg will make even the strongest beg for mercy. Let us return to the most recent scenario of the brutal heat of the cabin and its negative effects. I was covering the Grand-Am Rolex Series race at the New Jersey Motorsports Park in 5000-degree weather about a decade ago, and with Daytona closed-cab prototypes that had front-mounted radiators, drivers of all ages, strength, fitness, and resistance levels were declining with medical emergencies. With insane ambient heat flowing through water radiators in excess of 200 degrees, the booths became vomit induction furnaces. Emergency medical technicians walked the pit lane with a stretcher during the race when drivers were pulled from cars, brought to the call center, given IV fluids, and treated for heat exhaustion. It was sheer stupidity on the part of Grand-Am. Now, of course, we didn’t have such a situation on Saturday at Indy, but, according to several drivers, we were close to having serious issues with the side-mounted radiators and the lack of moving air in the cabins that turn cars into microwaves. on wheels. The memory of Grand-Am was not just to paint a worst-case portrait; It was also a turning point for the series, which refused to introduce air conditioning, as paying drivers began to shy away from DPs. Why spend obscene amounts of money to enjoy driving a fast race car, only to spend time behind the wheel in heat-related agony? DPs got a deserved bad rap for baking their controllers, and it wasn’t long before it started damaging the trade. More than half of the IndyCar network is populated by drivers who contribute funds to their teams. Hopefully IndyCar will act quickly and avoid the same mistake that damaged the now defunct Grand-Am series. The quality of Alexander Rossi’s early season fortune is found in the championship standings after two rounds. If you are currently 23rd On points is not bad enough, the 2016 Indy 500 winner sits directly behind two drivers, Tony Kanaan and Takuma Sato, who have each missed one race. In a Round 1 transfer in Texas, more trouble occurred in the pit lane than on the race track. Dropped, lost, or loose wheel nuts (Santino Ferrucci, again, Spencer Pigot) continue to be the problem, in addition to the stalls, and on Saturday we added dropping a car into a wheel gun. In a change from last year’s Indy GP, we had no refueling fires, so it was positive. But overall, pit lane hasn’t been a best friend to too many drivers in 2020. Don’t look now, but Colton Herta is fourth in the championship and hasn’t done anything spectacular yet. I can’t say if it’s a worthy concern, but when Will Power is doing very well in a race, there’s a little voice behind my head asking me when the transmission is going to break, or a pit lane accident, or something else will show up another road block and derail your day. After two races, he’s 15 years old.th on points, which seems unsuitable for the potential shown by the No. 12 Chevy. The combined margin of victory for Texas Dixon and Indy is a ridiculous 24.3578 seconds.
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