The 2013 IZOD IndyCar season unfolds this weekend at St.Petersburg Florida.
If it’s anything like last year, we are in for some very good shows, with the competition the deepest its been since the heydays of the ’90’s with healthy car counts.
Driver lineup changes this year? A few.
I remember talking to both Graham and Bobby Rahal numerous times about father and son working together one day.
That day has arrived. Graham Rahal has joined his father’s team, where they will field a two-car operation with James Jakes.
With the unfortunate departure of former F-1 legend Rubens Barrichello due to lack of sponsorship, Simona de Silvestro will try and forget a terrible 2012 and the Lotus disaster with a fresh start this year teaming up with Tony Kanaan at KV Racing Technology.
Sam Schmidt’s team has brought in rookie Tristan Vautier to work with fellow Frenchman Simon Pagenaud.
AJ Foyt has hired Japan’s Takuma Sato, with Jay Penske’s Dragon team going with Sebastian Saavedra and Sebastien Bourdais. Sabby’s times two!
EJ Viso has swelled the ranks of Andretti Autosport to four cars along side defending champ Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Toronto’s James Hinchcliffe.
The first order of business for Hinch is to nail that first IndyCar win. Michael Andretti helps the effort bringing in Hinchcliffe’s former engineer Craig Hampson, one of the best in the paddock.
Montreal’s Alex Tagliani carries on with Bryan Herta’s Barracuda Racing. If Tag can translate all that excellent qualifying from last year into better race results, this just might be the best single-car team in the series.
Penske is still a top pick, back to two cars for Helio Castroneves and Will Power, with AJ Allmendinger given another chance to work for the captain after those drug problems in NASCAR. Allmendinger just has Barber/Alabama and the Indy 500 on his race list for now but there could be more.
Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon will continue to wield the big stick for Ganassi, to form the other side of the big three: Penske, Ganassi and Andretti. Michael will need much better results from son Marco, and Chip Ganassi needs Dario to get back to form despite the Indy 500 win. Dixon needs to step it up too!
The schedule is another headline into the new IndyCar season.
I’m thrilled they’re going back to Pocono, but I am still not sure how the drivers and teams are going to handle three double header weekends at Detroit, Toronto and Houston. And from the few I have interviewed on Raceline, the drivers aren’t sure how they’ll tackle the twin-bills either.
Rookies? We mentioned Vautier, but also include Allmendinger despite vast experience in ChampCars, and fresh-face Carlos Munoz.
The IndyCar Series will continue to have some of the best racing in the sport.
James Hinchcliffe told Bob McCown and Prime Time Sports they just need to find a way to tell more fans about it!
The Mayor of Hinchtown is right!