Formula E: Sam Bird soars to victory in Putrajaya ePrix (VIDEO)

By Nov 22, 2014, 2:33 AM EST
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A nifty early move for the lead and masterful power conservation was the formula for success for Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird, who took tonight’s FIA Formula E race in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Bird hounded Dragon Racing’s Oriol Servia for the lead following the end of a safety car period at Lap 4. A short time later, Bird made a strong inside cutback on the IndyCar veteran coming out of Turn 3 to get position and take the lead at the right-hand Turn 4.

Another safety car at Lap 9 for an incident involving Andretti’s Franck Montagny and Venturi’s Nick Heidfeld slowed the race once more, but when the green came back out at Lap 12, Bird stretched his lead over TrulliGP’s Jarno Trulli to more than seven seconds and was able to make his power last until Lap 19, when he pitted to swap cars.

When the cycle was complete, Bird found himself second behind Audi Sport Abt’s Daniel Abt, who had a horrible start and swapped cars himself at Lap 12.

At a considerable disadvantage on power, Abt could only hold onto the point for so long and with five laps to go, Bird seized P1 for good. Abt ultimately faded to 10th having to nurse his car home.

“That was mega,” Bird said following the race. “The guys did an amazing job this weekend. We’ve really turned it around from pre-season, and I’ve got to say thanks to these guys for giving me what was an unstoppable car today.

“The first stint, we did the damage, and the second car, I just got it around really – there was no real need to push. I just conserved the energy and I knew other people were pushing and getting closer, but we had it well under control.”

Following Bird in second was Beijing winner/Audi Sport Abt driver Lucas di Grassi and in third, e.dams-Renault’s Sebastien Buemi. di Grassi and Buemi both had to start from the rear of the field; the former for not setting a time due to a qualifying crash, the latter for being penalized (underweight).

The runner-up finish enables di Grassi to keep hold of the points lead by three points over Bird, 43-40, going into the next race in Uruguay on Dec. 13.

“I did a much better race than Beijing,” said di Grassi, who had the September season opener fall into his lap after a last-lap crash involving Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost. “The car performed really well. I had a lot of fights from the beginning of the race to the very end, and to finish second from last is something unbelievable…Coming out as championship leader is a great feeling.”

Prost won the pole for tonight’s race but had to start from 11th place due to a 10-spot penalty for instigating the aforementioned Beijing crash. But like his teammate Buemi, Prost had a good recovery drive to fourth. Ditto for Jerome d’Ambrosio, who also started from the back because of a penalty – in his case, exceeding the maximum power usage in qualifying – but finished fifth.

Karun Chandhok, Oriol Servia, Antonio Felix da Costa, Jaime Alguersuari (who earned bonus points for fastest lap), and Abt rounded out the Top 10. Despite involvement in several incidents during the race, Indy Lights pilot Matthew Brabham gutted out a 13th-place finish for the Andretti camp.

The hard-luck award of the night goes to Bruno Senna, who had passed Prost late for fourth place but then had a big crash at Turn 9 on the final lap of the race. Senna was shown walking away from the accident, but a solid result went by the boards for him; he ended up 14th.

Also being done wrong was Nelson Piquet Jr., who was knocked out at Lap 22 after Trulli pushed him into the wall near Turn 1. This came shortly after Trulli was penalized for energy infringement, for which he had to serve a drive-through (he finished 17th).

Will Power says IndyCar field toughest in world: ‘F1’s a joke as far as competition’

By Jun 4, 2023, 1:46 PM EDT
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DETROIT – With the 2023 Formula One season turning into a Red Bull runaway, Will Power believes the NTT IndyCar Series deserves respect as the world’s most difficult single-seater racing series.

“It’s so tough, an amazing field, the toughest field in the world, and people need to know it, especially compared to Formula One,” the defending IndyCar champion told NBC Sports during a media luncheon a few days ahead of Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. “Formula One’s a joke as far as competition, but not as far as drivers. They have amazing drivers. And I feel sorry for them that they don’t get to experience the satisfaction we do with our racing because that is the top level of open-wheel motorsport.

“I think Formula One would be so much better if they had a formula like IndyCar. I love the technology and the manufacturer side of it. I think that’s awesome. But from a spectator watching, man, how cool would it be if everyone had a Red Bull (car)?”

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

It probably would look a lot different than this season, which has been dominated by two-time defending F1 champion Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman won Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix from the pole position by 24 seconds over seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. It’s the fifth victory in seven races for Verstappen, whose 40 career wins are one shy of tying late three-time champion Aryton Senna.

Along with being a virtual lock to tie Senna’s mark for titles, Verstappen is poised to break his own record for single-season victories (15) that he set last year.

“You simply know Max is going to win every race if something doesn’t go wrong,” Power said. “Imagine being a guy coming out as a rookie, and you probably could win a race. It would be really cool to see. But you know that would never happen with the politics over there.”

Verstappen’s F1 dominance has been a stark contrast to IndyCar, where Josef Newgarden just became the first repeat winner through six races this season with his Indy 500 victory.

Team Penske (with Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin), Chip Ganassi Racing (with Palou and Marcus Ericsson) and Andretti Autosport (with Kyle Kirkwood) each have visited victory lane in 2023. Arrow McLaren (which has past winners Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist) is certain to join them at some point.

Meanwhile, Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez (two wins) have won every F1 race this season with the two Red Bull cars combining to lead more than 95% of the laps.

The primary differences are in the rulesets for each series.

While F1 teams virtually have complete autonomy to build their high-tech cars from scratch, IndyCar has what is known as a spec series in which the cars have a large degree of standardization.

IndyCar teams all use the Dallara DW12 chassis, which is in its 12th season. The development of the car largely has been maximized, helping put a greater emphasis on driver skill as a differentiator (as well as other human resources such as whip-smart strategists and engineers).

Alex Palou, who will start from the pole position at Detroit, harbors F1 aspirations as a McLaren test driver, but the Spaniard prefers IndyCar for competitiveness because talent can be such a determinant in results.

“Racing-wise, that’s the best you can get,” Palou said a few days before winning the pole for the 107th Indy 500 last month. “That’s pure racing, having chances to win each weekend.”

Of course, F1 is the world’s most popular series, and the 2021 IndyCar champion believes its appeal doesn’t necessarily stem from being competitive.

Though the ’21 championship battle between Hamilton and Verstappen was epic, F1 has grown its audience in recent years with the help of the “Drive To Survive” docuseries on Netflix that has showcased their stars’ personalities along with the cutthroat decisions of its team principals (IndyCar started its own docuseries this year).

“I don’t think the beauty of F1 is the race itself,” Palou said. “I’d say the beauty is more the development that they have and everything around the races, and that they go different places. But when we talk about pure spectacle, you cannot get better than (IndyCar).

“You can feel it as a driver here when you first come and jump in a car. When I was in Dale Coyne (Racing), we got a podium my rookie year. It wasn’t the best team, but we were able to achieve one of the best cars at Road America (where he finished third in 2020). It’s not that I was driving a slow car. I was driving a really fast car. I think we can see that across all the teams and the drivers.”

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who will start second at Detroit, is in his third season of IndyCar after winning three championships in Supercars.

The New Zealander said recently that IndyCar has been “the most enjoyment I’ve ever had in my career. I had a lot of fun in Supercars, but there were still things like different uprights, engines, all that stuff. (IndyCar) is spec. Really the only things you can change are dampers and the engine differences between Honda and Chevy.

“I have a blast,” McLaughlin said. “Trying to extract pace and winning in this series is better than I’ve ever felt ever. I’m surprised by how satisfied it feels to win an IndyCar race. It’s better than how it ever has felt in my career. I’ve always liked winning, but it’s so satisfying to win here. That’s why it’s so cool. There are no bad drivers. You have to have a perfect day.”

Qualifying might be the best example of the series’ competitiveness tightness. The spread for the Fast Six final round of qualifying on Detroit’s new nine-turn, 1.645-mile downtown layout was nearly eight 10ths of a second – which qualifies as an eternity these days.

Last month, the GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course produced a spread of 0.2971 seconds from first to sixth – the fourth-closest Fast Six in IndyCar history since the format was adopted in 2008. Three of the seven closest Fast Six fields have happened this season (with the Grand Prix of Long Beach ranking sixth and the Alabama Grand Prix in seventh).

While the technical ingenuity and innovation might be limited when compared to F1, there’s no arguing that more IndyCar drivers and teams have a chance to win.

“The parity’s great, and no one has an advantage, basically,” Power said. “The two engine manufacturers (Honda and Chevrolet) are always flipping back and forth as they develop, but we’re talking like tenths of a second over a lap. There’s not a bad driver in the field, and there are 20 people all capable of being in the Fast Six every week. Maybe more. It’s incredibly competitive. There isn’t a more competitive series in the world. I’m sure of that.

“If you want the ultimate driver’s series, this is it I’m from a big team that would benefit massively from opening the rules up, but I don’t think (IndyCar officials) should. I think this should always be about the team and driver getting the most out of a piece of equipment that everyone has a chance to do so. That’s the ultimate driver series. Who wants to win a championship when you’re just given the best car? It’s just ridiculous.”

Power believes the talented Verstappen still would be the F1 champion if the equipment were spec, but he also thinks there would be more challengers.

“There’s got to be a bunch of those guys that must just be frustrated,” Power said. “Think about Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Lando Norris, (Fernando) Alonso. Those are some great drivers that don’t get a chance to even win. They’re just extracting the most out of the piece of equipment they have.

“All I can say is if everyone had a Red Bull car, there’s no way that Max would win every race. There are so many guys who would be winning races. It’d just be similar to (IndyCar) and different every week, which it should be that way for the top level of the sport.”