With the Verizon IndyCar Series and Mazda Road to Indy now off until the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend May 12-14 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it’s a break for Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist.
Not so, a break for Stefan Johansson, the F1 veteran-turned their driver manager and also the sporting director for Scuderia Corsa.
The Los Angeles-based sports car team heads up the California coast to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race in Monterey, where once again the team’s Ferrari 488 GTE and GT3 variants will compete in separate GT Le Mans and GT Daytona class races.
Johansson has checked in with Jan Tegler for a catch-up following F1’s Chinese Grand Prix, and the last two IndyCar races of the year in Long Beach and Barber.
While the racing is part of Johansson’s latest blog entry, the majority centers on rules, regulations and recent comments from F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone about whether female drivers could make it in F1.
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Although the first round of 2017 regulations have been confirmed with today’s earlier news that new engine regulations have been signed off on for a four-year period from 2017 to 2020, Johansson is skeptical that as long as the teams are involved, there won’t be a consensus when it comes to the new technical regulations.
“I don’t think we’ll see anything of any substance,” Johansson writes. “I’ve been saying it for three years now but it will be the same old thing. You have to get the teams out of the decision making process or nothing will happen. They can’t agree on anything.
“If something does come out the meeting it will be a half-baked compromise that will drive costs even higher and make the racing even more complicated. There won’t be a simple solution. It will be something so convoluted and expensive that it would be better if they did nothing.”
Johansson added that rules stability is needed more than a shakeup; inevitably the more rules change, the more costs increase to keep pace with the changes.
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Officiating was in the crosshairs at Long Beach, when an official warning was assessed to Simon Pagenaud rather than any sort of official penalty – drive-through or otherwise – for when Pagenaud violated the Lane Usage rule in INDYCAR’s rulebook.
While Johansson disagreed with what Pagenaud was assessed, he also said INDYCAR Race Control was almost put into an untenable position anyway because of the way the rulebook – and INDYCAR’s new-for-2016 Penalty Guidelines sheet – is written.
“Long Beach was interesting and confusing,” Johansson admits. “I ended up having a long conversation with Max Papis (one of the three stewards along with Arie Luyendyk and Dan Davis) about it because no one could understand their illogical decision.
“As stupid as it may sound, I think the bottom line is that they’ve been handed such a convoluted set of rules that they just couldn’t act because there wasn’t anything in the rulebook that applied to this particular situation. Which is totally bizarre as this must be one of the easiest rules of all to enforce.”
Like others within the INDYCAR paddock, Johansson argues a clearer, more black-and-white form of rules will be a better way towards officiating in the future.
“I just wish they could make decisions and then stand behind them rather than the wishy-washy situation we have now. No one knows where they stand,” he writes.
He did give credit to Race Control for staying out of the way at Barber, as Pagenaud and Graham Rahal enjoyed a spirited battle for the win in the final 10 laps.
“The racing between Pagenaud and Rahal was just that, hard racing. To me, their contact was a racing incident. In this case, I’m glad IndyCar didn’t issue a bunch of penalties. You have to let drivers race sometimes,” he writes.
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When it comes to female drivers in racing, Johansson says it isn’t gender that’s holding them back: it’s pure numerology.
“I don’t know the exact number of professional drivers worldwide right now but let’s say there are at least 2,000 each year. How many of those are females? Ten maybe? What are the chances that one of those ten is going to be competitive with the best of the rest? Sheer statistics are against it,” he notes.
Johansson writes that he thinks a woman driver could make it to F1 based on physical ability – he says the cars aren’t nearly as hard to drive as they used to be. But whether any female driver makes it, or similarly any males with similar record, comes down to results.
“I don’t think it would difficult for a woman do to the physical training required to get to that level but the point is that motor racing is a fairly pure culture. It’s survival of the fittest. If you’re not good enough, you won’t make it,” he says.
“My point is that once there is a female good enough they should and will have to prove themselves. There are many men who are very good but not good enough. There is a lot of noise being made about female drivers but if you look at the results, the facts… that’s all you need to see. You’re not entitled to something until you prove yourself. May the best driver win, independent of gender.”
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Those thoughts, as well as Johansson’s take on the Chinese Grand Prix, the crazy first lap there, Dixon’s own tough luck at both Long Beach and Barber, an update on how Rosenqvist did in his first U.S. road racing weekend (as opposed to ovals and street courses) and thoughts on the FIA WEC opener from Silverstone are also included in Johansson’s blog.
Previous linkouts to Johansson’s blog on MotorSportsTalk are linked below:
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Additionally, a link to Johansson’s social media channels and #F1TOP3 competition are linked here.