Final pre-season test: Team-by-team guide - MotorSportsTalk

As the Formula One teams reassemble in Barcelona in time for the final four days of pre-season testing, here’s a view on each of the teams so far.

Red Bull

Red Bull have taken their usual secrecy to new heights: media were forbidden from photographing the RB9 at its launch and the team have hidden it behind screens during testing runs.

Ferrari

The F138 is clearly a better starting point than last year’s F2012. But team principal Stefano Domenciali doesn’t expect Ferrari to start on top despite some encouraging times.

McLaren

The MP4-28 looks quick out-of-the-box but Jenson Button says the team are behind with their testing programme. They had some reliability problems in Jerez and some of their planned tests took longer than expected.

Lotus

Technical problems including a gearbox problem and a telemetry glitch has limited their running but the car looks reasonably quick.

Mercedes

While Nico Rosberg has hailed the team’s progress it’s telling that Lewis Hamilton, who drove last year’s quickest car, has been more restrained in his praise.

Sauber

The C32 has covered more mileage in testing than any other car: Sauber have completed over 2,100 miles and rookie Esteban Gutierrez has 416 laps on the board.

Force India

Remarkably the team which almost won the last race of 2012 still hasn’t finalised its driver line-up for this year. Adrian Sutil and Jules Bianchi are in the frame.

Williams

The only team not to bring their new car to the first test. Both drivers were very positive after their first taste of the FW35.

Toro Rosso

The drivers are encouraged by the STR8, which offers more versatile set-up options than its troublesome predecessor. It’s run well, too.

Caterham

The CT03 bears a close resemblance to its predecessor and so far does not look likely to trouble the midfield.

Marussia

New driver Max Chilton did all the running in Barcelona last week, raising questions over team mate Luiz Razia’s place at the squad. All Marussia have said so far about their plans for this week is that Chilton will drive on day one.

For more on testing so far see Will Buxton’s view from the track.

Keith Collantine is the editor of Formula One blog F1 Fanatic. Follow F1 Fanatic on Twitter.

INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports