[Indy 500] #39 Indy 500 zonder Alonso

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[img=650,407]https://i.imgur.com/frZ87ca.jpg[/img]
De IndyCar Series is de belangrijkste Open Wheel raceklasse in de Verenigde Staten en gaat dit jaar zijn 24ste seizoen in. Het is ook het 98ste seizoen van het Amerikaanse Open Wheel kampioenschap. In het voorprogramma van de IndyCar Series rijden ook nog andere klassen zoals de US F2000, Pro Mazda en de Indy Lights (met de Nederlander Rinus 'VeeKay' van Kalmthout).

[img=308,49]https://i.imgur.com/CPsu1ny.png[/img]
Tussen 1905 en 1955 werd het Amerikaanse Open Wheel kampioenschap georganiseerd door de AAA (American Automobile Associaton), waarbij het tot 1937 gebruikelijk was om met twee-zitters te rijden, waarbij een mechanicien meereed. Gedurende beide wereldoorlogen waren er geen officiele kampioenschappen.

Tussen 1956 en 1978 nam de USAC (United States Auto Club) onder leiding van Indy 500 baas Tony Hulman de organisatie over. In deze periode veranderden de wagens van de traditionele roadsters met de motor voorin naar de Formule wagens met de motor achterin zoals wij die nu kennen. Daarnaast werden naast de traditionele oval en dirt track races er steeds meer races gehouden op straten- en permanente circuits.

Na de dood van Tony Hulman in 1977 en enkele belangrijke officials in een vliegtuigongeluk in 1978 was er een breuk in de organisatie en begonnen enkele teamowners hun eigen organisatie CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) en organiseerden hun eigen kampioenschap, waarbij de Indy 500 nog steeds door de USAC werd georganiseerd. Deze situatie duurde tot 1995 waarbij de CART het kampioenschap organiseerde en de USAC de Indy 500.

In 1996 had Tony Hulman's kleinzoon Tony George hier genoeg van en richtte de IRL (Indy Racing League) op met een eigen kampioenschap met de Indy 500 waarvan de organisatie werd overgenomen. Hierdoor ontstonden er naast elkaar twee kampioenschappen, de Champ Cars georganiseerd door CART en de IndyCars onder leiding van de IRL. De Indy 500 was onderdeel van de IRL maar er deden wel Champ Cars teams en coureurs aan mee. Deze situatie duurde tot 2008, toen de Champ Car World Series (een doorstart van CART, dat in 2003 failliet ging) samenging met IRL en de huidige IndyCar Series voortbracht.

[img=307,47]https://i.imgur.com/OKle3Ag.png[/img]
Er wordt gereden met de Dallara DW12, een wagen die mede is ontwikkeld door wijlen Dan Wheldon en na zijn dood de initialen DW kreeg. De 12 staat voor het eerste seizoen waarin deze wagen gebruikt werd. De wagen wordt aangedreven door een 2.2 liter V6 twin-turbo motor van Chevrolet of Honda en gebruikt ethanol als brandstof.  Afhankelijk van de turbo-boost levert de motor tussen de 500 en 700pk bij 12.000 toeren.

Het bodywork dat wordt gebruikt is een standaard 'Universal Aerokit', waarvan er twee versies zijn. Eén voor de permanente-, stratencircuits en short ovals en één voor de high speed ovals, zoals Indianapolis.

[img=650]https://i.imgur.com/r6Ngea2.jpg[/img]
[i]Aerokit voor de permanente-, stratencircuits en short ovals[/i]

[img=650]https://i.imgur.com/Z4XU1Sn.jpg]afbeelding[/img]
[i]Aerokit voor de high speed ovals[/i]

[img=166,100]https://i.imgur.com/3MCKILZ.png[/img][img=276,39]https://i.imgur.com/PAtDUtG.png[/img]
Dit jaar wordt de Indianapolis 500 (ook wel Indy 500 genoemd) voor de 103de keer gereden. Het is de belangrijkste race van de IndyCar Series en wordt ook wel [i]"The Greatest Spectacle in Racing"[/i] genoemd omdat er op de wedstrijddag ongeveer 300.000 bezoekers aanwezig zijn. Deze wedstrijd wordt altijd gehouden op de zondag voor Memorial Day, een Amerikaanse feestdag op de laatste maandag van mei. Hierdoor valt de race samen met de Grand Prix van Monaco.

Tussen 1950 en 1960 telde de race mee voor het wereldkampioenschap Formule 1, maar behoudens een enkele uitzondering, deed er in die periode geen enkele Formule 1 coureur aan mee. Dat gebeurde vooral in de jaren '60 toen coureurs als Jim Clark en Graham Hill, die beiden de race een keer wonnen, de oversteek waagden. De Nederlander Arie Luyendijk won de race twee keer, in 1990 en 1997 en heeft nog steeds het ronderecord in handen met een tijd van 37,895 seconde (382.182 km/uur). De Australiër Will Power won de race vorig jaar.

[img=650,365]https://i.imgur.com/DstC5od.jpg[/img]
[i]Indy 500 winnaar Will Power[/i]

De huidige kampioen in de IndyCars is Scott Dixon

[img=650,390]https://i.imgur.com/3YSi50M.jpg[/img]
[i]IndyCar kampioen Scott Dixon[/i]

[img=321,54]https://i.imgur.com/xNMbgpn.png[/img]
Dit jaar bestaat de kalender uit 17 races waarbij er in Detroit een double header (twee races in één weekend) plaats vindt.
[img=650]https://i.imgur.com/Zy7BVnA.png[/img]
De tijden zijn de Amerikaanse tijden waarop de NBC uitzending begint. Voor Nederlandse tijden moet je er 6 uur bij optellen.

[img=296,50]https://i.imgur.com/SQrNyvE.jpg[/img]
Dit jaar doen er 22 fulltime coureurs mee aan het IndyCar kampioenschap, waarbij sommige wagens door meerdere coureurs gedeeld worden. Voor de Indy 500 worden er 34 tot 37 wagens aan de start verwacht.

[u]Fulltime[/u]
[code]
#2  Joseph Newgarden           Team Penske (Chevrolet)
#4  Matheus Leist              A.J. Foyt Enterprises (Chevrolet)
#5  James Hinchcliffe          Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (Honda)
#7  Marcus Ericsson (R)        Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (Honda)
#9  Scott Dixon                Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)
#10 Felix Rosenqvist (R)       Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)
#12 Will Power                 Team Penske (Chevrolet)
#14 Tony Kanaan                A.J. Foyt Enterprises (Chevrolet)
#15 Graham Rahal               Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)
#18 Sebastien Bourdais         Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)
#19 Santino Ferucci (R)        Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)
#21 Spencer Pigot              Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)
#22 Simon Pagenaud             Team Penske (Chevrolet)
#26 Zack Veach                 Andretti Autosport (Honda)
#27 Alexander Rossi            Andretti Autosport (Honda)
#28 Ryan Hunter-Reay           Andretti Autosport (Honda)
#30 Takuma Sato                Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)
#59 Max Chilton                Carlin (Chevrolet)
#88 Colton Herta (R)           Harding Steinbrenner Racing (Chevrolet)
#98 Marco Andretti             Andretti Herta Autosport (Honda)

Parttime

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#3  Helio Castroneves          Team Penske (Chevrolet) (Indy GP + Indy 500)
#20 Ed Carpenter               Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet) (ovals)
#20 Ed Jones                   Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet) (niet-ovals + Indy 500)
#23 Charlie Kimball            Carlin (Chevrolet) (5 races incl Indy 500)
#24 Sage Karam                 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Chevrolet) (Indy 500)
#25 Conor Daly                 Andretti Autosport (Honda) (Indy 500)
#31 Patricio O'Ward (R)        Carlin (Chevrolet) (13 races incl Indy 500)
#32 Kyle Kaiser                Juncos Racing (Chevrolet)
#33 James Davison              Dale Coyne Racing (Honda) (Indy 500)
#39 Pippa Mann                 Clauson & Marshall Racing (Chevrolet) (Indy 500)
#42 Jordan King                Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda) (Indy 500)
#60 Jack Harvey                Meyer Shank Racing (Honda) (6 races incl Indy 500)
#66 Fernando Alonso (R)        McLaren (Chevrolet) (Indy 500)
#81 Ben Hanley (R)             Dragonspeed (Chevrolet) (5 races incl Indy 500)

_{(R) = Rookie}

Meer informatie over de IndyCar is te vinden op IndyCar.com en meer gedetailleerde informatie op IndyCar 101.

[/code]

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The comedy of errors that doomed McLaren’s disastrous return to the Indianapolis 500 began months before Fernando Alonso failed to qualify for the race. How bad was it? A week before Alonso’s first test in the car, the team realized it didn’t even have a steering wheel.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown acknowledged Monday the team was woefully unprepared and small oversights snowballed into the final result. Bob Fernley, the head of the operation, was fired hours after Alonso missed the race and Brown returned to England to digest the embarrassment of his venture.

Brown on Monday provided The Associated Press a detailed timeline of the bloopers and blunders that led to Alonso missing the race, the last piece the two-time Formula One champion needs in his quest to win motorsports’ version of the Triple Crown.

“I don’t think we came into this arrogant, I think we were unprepared,” Brown said. “We didn’t deserve to be in the race and it’s our own fault. It’s not like we showed up and gave our best. We defeated ourselves.”

The path to missing the 33-driver field began when the car was not ready the moment Texas Motor Speedway opened for the April test. Brown had personally secured a steering wheel the previous week from Cosworth to use for the test, and the mistakes piled up from there.

“We didn’t get out until midday, our steering wheel was not done on time, that’s just lack of preparation and project management organizational skills,” Brown said. “That’s where this whole thing fell down, in the project management. Zak Brown should not be digging around for steering wheels.”

A cosmetic issue at the Texas test haunted McLaren deep into last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

McLaren purchased a car from technical partner Carlin, and though the car was orange when McLaren received it, it was not the proper McLaren “papaya orange.” It had to be repainted after the test, and that still had not been completed when Alonso crashed his McLaren-built car last Wednesday.

The Carlin spare was in a paint shop 30 minutes from the track, more than a month after McLaren complained about the color, and it ultimately cost McLaren almost two full days of track time. The team looked foolish as other teams were able to move into backup cars in mere hours; James Hinchcliffe crashed in Saturday qualifying and was back on track in his spare that afternoon.

Carlin was a two-car team when McLaren made its alliance but expanded to three for the Indy 500. Once Carlin took on the extra work, Brown said, the team had few resources to give McLaren.

“It was clear they weren’t capable of running three cars and serving us,” he said. Carlin entrants Max Chilton and Patricio O’Ward were the two other drivers who failed to qualify.

McLaren’s poor showing is one of the biggest failures in Indy 500 history. Roger Penske missed the show with Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi in 1995, a year after dominating the race. Reigning CART champion Bobby Rahal missed it in 1993, and two-time Indy winner Rodger Ward never got up to speed to make the 1965 field.

The McLaren budget for this Indy 500 was strong, every sponsorship opportunity had been sold and the venture was a guaranteed commercial success for McLaren. Brown was somewhat hands-off and focused on the critical rebuild of the Formula One part of the program. He now laments waiting too long to become heavily involved with the Indy 500 effort. He also believes he was too slow in assigning McLaren sporting director Gil de Ferran, a former Indy 500 winner, oversight of the program.

“I should have been closer to Indy but I could never compromise Formula One,” Brown said. “At 9:01 in the morning when we weren’t on track at the first test, that’s when we failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. We didn’t ring the fire alarm quick enough because we could have recovered after the first test.

“I am angry at myself because I was uncomfortable all the way up to the first test and I should have followed my instinct to get more involved.”

Many of the issues were beyond Brown’s control.

The car had an electrical issue in last month’s test at Indy and an employee was taken off the team for the error. Alonso had another electrical issue on opening day for the 500 and the alternator and wiring loom had to be replaced. Alonso crashed on the second day, and McLaren missed all of Day 3 rebuilding the spare from Carlin that was finally the proper shade of orange.

Fast Friday showed the car still needed speed, and Alonso went into qualifying on shaky ground. His first qualifying run was sabotaged by a tire puncture — which wasn’t detected beforehand because Brown said the team had purchased incorrect tire sensors.

Alonso wound up one of six drivers in the “Last Row Shootout” on Sunday and the panicked McLaren team begged and borrowed across the paddock for any assistance available. Alonso went out to practice Sunday with an entirely new setup, but in the frantic changeover a mistake was made in converting inches to the metric system the English team uses and the car scraped and sparked on his first lap. It had to be fixed and Alonso got in just five more laps before rain ended the session.

When it came time for Alonso to make his final last-gasp qualifying attempt late Sunday afternoon, the Spaniard was given a car that Brown and de Ferran were concerned might not perform.

“Gil and I went to the motorhome and told Fernando: ‘We are going to try this, but this could go well or really wrong. Are you comfortable?’” Brown said. “And Fernando said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”

Alonso agreed that he never backed away from the challenge.

“We went out with an experiment that we did overnight. We changed everything on the car because we thought that maybe we need something from the mental side different to go into the race with some confidence,” Alonso said. “We went out not knowing what the car will do in Turn 1, but you’re still flat. So we tried.”

The new setup and assistance from other teams indeed got the car up to speed, but Alonso was knocked from the field by 23-year-old Kyle Kaiser of tiny Juncos Racing. McLaren discovered after the qualifying run that the car had the wrong gear ratio setup.

“We actually had a 229 (mph) car but we had 227.5 gearing, so we beat ourselves again while we almost made it,” Brown said. “We really did put it all on the line and you could feel the anxiety. There was some real heroism in that. I don’t want the world to think McLaren is a bunch of idiots because while we did have a few, we had some real stars.”

Alonso has rejected an offer from the team to purchase a seat in the Indy 500 field for him.

What’s next is a careful lookback as Brown figures out McLaren’s future at both the Indy 500 and the IndyCar Series. He still wants to field two full-time entries in the series but isn’t sure yet how much of a setback this has been. He believes McLaren will be back next year at Indy for a second chance.

“I feel an obligation to the fans and sponsors, we let them down. We didn’t fulfill our promise and I think they need more than just an apology,” Brown said. “There will be repercussions for those who don’t deserve to work for a great team like McLaren. We will look at what we learned here and the list is a mile long. I hope people appreciate that we go for it, we are racers, and Fernando is a star and we are not quitters. We want to come back.”

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