My colleague Nigel Roebuck provided some perspective on the appeal of today’s IRL and Champ cars while we were discussing the state of American open-wheel racing over dinner in Montreal earlier this month. “They look like nice, little cars,” Roebuck remarked about Champ Car’s Panoz spec car. “They look good, very tidy, but that’s the problem. They don’t look difficult to drive like the good old Lola.”
At breakfast the following morning we compared notes on watching the previous night’s Texas IRL race on TV after dinner. It turned out that both of us fell asleep, missing the finish. “They just drive around at the bottom of the track, protecting the inside, and nobody can pass!” Nigel shook his head. “I guess it’s better than when they were flying. But really, it’s pretty boring.”
I agree. My view is there’s not enough difference in cornering and straightaway speeds. Too many IRL tracks are run flat-out without lifting. Cornering speeds need to be reduced and acceleration and braking increased. That would make the cars more difficult to drive and also make for more passing and better racing. This is an old mantra, stated many times, but I believe it’s irrefutably true.
Roebuck aside, most people in
F1 lost interest a few years ago in seriously following Champ Car or IRL. Back in CART’s heyday many of them watched all the races, excited by the racing. “It used to be great!” grinned McLaren’s Steve Hallam. “There were so many guys who could win and every race was different. And of course, there was plenty of passing. We watched all the races. As pure racing, it was the best racing in the world.”
As we all know, aerodynamics is by far the dominant factor in modern race car design and there doesn’t appear to be any way to limit that influence other than banning the use of wind tunnels, which is not about to happen. So it’s critically important to get the aero package right for the F1 and Indy cars of 2011 so that they can race and pass and allow us to enjoy a show of driving.
