IndyCar 2013 season preview: Power’s year at last?

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With two races to go in last year’s IndyCar championship it looked like Will Power was finally going to lift the crown after two consecutive near-misses.

But when rival Ryan Hunter-Reay won a topsy-turvy race in Baltimore, Power’s victory chances suddenly looked more vulnerable.

IndyCar demands versatility from its drivers – the ability to compete on narrow street courses, undulating road tracks and ovals that run the gamut from tight bullrings to howling fast superspeedways.

It was on the latter that Power came unstuck, and not for the first time.

He spun into the barrier while passing Hunter-Reay – if the Penske had collected his rival Power would have been champion – and not even the sterling work of his crew to get him back onto the circuit could prevent the title slipping from him for a third year.

Drivers and teams

It would be wrong wrong to portray last year simply as a championship Power lost. Hunter-Reay put himself on course for the crown with a mid-season hat-trick of victories.

The defending champion will sport the number one on his car for the first time since his boss Michael Andretti used it in 2006.

As well as stiff opposition from fellow Chevrolet user Power, Hunter-Reay can expect competition from Honda-powered Ganassi duo Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, who have six titles between them.

Power’s championship hopes will be bolstered by the slimming down of the Penske operation to just two cars following the off-season ejection of Ryan Briscoe. But Power and Helio Castroneves will be joined at Barber and Indianapolis by AJ Allmendinger.

Allmendinger is returning to open-wheel racing following a spell in NASCAR. He joined Penske’s team last year but was suspended for failing a drugs test, then returned to racing in the category in October.

James Hinchcliffe, Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden and JR Hildebrand are among the emerging talents who showed promise last year and are looking for their maiden victories.

Despite ending his first season of IndyCar racing with two top-five finishes in the last three races, Rubens Barrichello has not remained in the series for a second season.

That removes a point of interest for crossover F1 fans though there is still Takuma Sato, Sebastien Bourdais and Justin Wilson to cheer on.

Series veterans Tony Kannan, Oriol Servia and Alex Tagliani all remain while just one new driver enters the fold: Tristan Vautier, the French driver who won the Indy Lights series last year.

On the engines front, Lotus withdrew from IndyCar during the off-season despite having four years of their five year contract left to run. Their 2012 campaign was a disaster, the highlight being the races where the cars they ‘powered’ weren’t black-flagged for being too slow.

NumberTeamDriverEngine
1AndrettiRyan Hunter-ReayChevrolet
25AndrettiMarco AndrettiChevrolet
27AndrettiJames HinchcliffeChevrolet
3PenskeHelio CastronevesChevrolet
12PenskeWill PowerChevrolet
4PantherJR HildebrandChevrolet
5Venezuela/Andretti/HVMEJ VisoChevrolet
6DragonSebastian SaavedraChevrolet
7DragonSebastien BourdaisChevrolet
9GanassiScott DixonHonda
10GanassiDario FranchittiHonda
11KVTony KanaanChevrolet
78KVSimona de SilvestroChevrolet
14AJ FoytTakuma SatoHonda
15Rahal Letterman LaniganGraham RahalHonda
16Rahal Letterman LaniganJames JakesHonda
18Dale CoyneAna Beatriz/Stefan Wilson*Honda
19Dale CoyneJustin WilsonHonda
20Ed CarpenterEd CarpenterChevrolet
22Panther DRROriol ServiaChevrolet
55Schmidt Hamilton PetersonTristan VaultierHonda
67Sarah Fisher HartmanJosef NewgardenHonda
77Schmidt Hamilton PetersonSimon PagenaudHonda
83GanassiCharlie KimballHonda
98Bryan HertaAlex TaglianiHonda

Changes for 2013

Following a major overhaul of the technical rules last year, continuity is the name of the game this time around.

One of the biggest changes is a controversial plan to use standing starts for one of the races in each of the three double-headers – eschewing the rolling starts that are a traditional feature of IndyCar racing.

The push-to-pass system was the focus of some tweaking last year in an effort to make it harder for drivers to use it defensively.

This year instead of having a set amount of time they can use it for, drivers are limited to ten ‘pushes’ per race, the duration of which is either 15 or 20 seconds each depending on the track.

IndyCar will also use heats to set the grid for the Iowa race although the plan seems excessively complicated.

Calendar

The 19-round calendar certainly looks better on paper than last year’s 15-race schedule (following the cancellation of the Chinese round). However it has been expanded partly by the addition of three double-header races.

As these all take place on street courses they have the effect of tipping the balance of the championship towards these temporary venues. However the dwindling contingent of oval events has been bolstered by the addition of a race at Pocono.

The dauntingly fast tri-oval was last used by IndyCar (CART at the time) in 1989. It was deemed to unsafe for the cars after that but has been renovated and resurfaced since.

Together with the Indianapolis 500 and season finale at Fontana, it reinstates the Triple Crown of superspeedway events which featured in the series from 1971 to 1989. The championship organisers have put up a special $1 million prize for a driver who can win all three.

The other new addition to the calendar is the revival of the street race in Houston formerly on the Champ Car calendar. Together with the oval event IndyCar has three races in Texas but is not visiting the home of the United States Grand Prix, the Circuit of the Americas.

Finally, the loss of the Edmonton round means the Toronto double-header is the only venture north of the border to Canada.

The green flag will drop for the first time at the St Petersburg street circuit in Florida:

RoundDateVenueTypeLength (km)
124th MarchSt PetersburgStreet2.89
27th AprilBarber Motorsports ParkRoad3.83
321st AprilLong BeachStreet3.17
45th MaySao PauloStreet4.08
526th MayIndianapolis Motor SpeedwayOval4.02
61st June (Saturday)Belle Isle Park Raceway, DetroitStreet3.78
72nd JuneBelle Isle Park Raceway, DetroitStreet3.78
88th JuneTexas Motor SpeedwayOval2.41
915th JuneMilwaukee MileOval1.61
1023rd JuneIowa SpeedwayOval1.41
117th JulyPocono RacewayOval4.00
1213th July (Saturday)TorontoStreet2.82
1314th JulyTorontoStreet2.82
144th AugustMid-Ohio Sports Car CourseRoad3.86
1525th AugustSonomaRoad4.05
161st SeptemberBaltimoreStreet3.28
175th October (Saturday)Reliant Park, HoustonStreet2.46
186th OctoberReliant Park, HoustonStreet2.46
1919th OctoberAuto Club Speedway, FontanaOval3.22

Television coverage

The broadcasting rights for IndyCar in the UK have changed hands with ESPN taking over from Sky.

ESPN have not confirmed whether they will continue to broadcast every race live as Sky did. “ESPN in the UK and Ireland will bring fans live televised coverage of the season-opening race in St Petersburg this weekend as well as live or as-live coverage of each IndyCar race through July, including the Indianapolis 500,” a spokesperson told F1 Fanatic.

And they are making no assurances about what will be broadcast in the second half of the year: “Details of race coverage from August will be confirmed at a later date,” they added.

Details on how to add ESPN to your television package can be found here.

In America IndyCar is broadcast on NBC Sports Network and ESPN. See the IndyCar website for details.

IndyCar on F1 Fanatic Live

As last year we’ll be following every IndyCar race on F1 Fanatic Live. Look out for the links on the home page during each race weekend.

Over to you

Will you be following IndyCar this year? Who’s your tip for the title?

Have your say in the comments.

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Images © Chevrolet, Ron McQueeney

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “IndyCar 2013 season preview: Power’s year at last?”

  1. Thanks, Keith. Great preview. Really looking forward to more racing!

  2. Thanks, Keith!

    You know, I started watching IndyCar just last year, despite being in North America, because of Rubens Barrichello. But I found so much to root for, and I’m really excited for this season!

  3. The race is in St. Petersburg not Miami.

    1. @mikemat5150 Have changed that.

  4. I can’t help but feel Powers success is tied to Webber’s starts.

  5. If Will Power has the willpower to win, he will win. But if Will isn’t filled with the will to win, there will be no willpower to help Will Power win.

    1. As a geordie, me head hurts.

  6. 2012 was the first time I followed IndyCar (having been introduced to it by F1F). I really enjoyed the close racing and the fact that the focus was not on technological development amongst teams, but rather driver skill and car setup. (Note that I do NOT want this to happen to F1!) I enjoyed the fact that it tests drivers on conventional circuits, street circuits and ovals since you then get the feeling that the person that wins the championship is a true all rounder. I supported Power (since he is the closest to a local driver for me :P) and he was mighty at the start of the season, but his best oval finish was 8th at Texas. Ryan Hunter Ray on the other hand was steady at the start of the season (couple of podiums) and got the hat-trick of wins in Milwaukee, Iowa and Toronto which coincided with Power’s slump. But he ended the season with 4 wins: 2 on ovals and 2 on street circuits. Versus Will’s 3 street circuit/roadcourse victories. Judging by his previous seasons (which I did not follow), it does seem to be the pattern. So unless Will can perform better on the Ovals, I think he might struggle again this year.

  7. I’m interested to know how De Silvestra will fare alongside Tony Kanaan. Last year Kanaan did not have a consistently great season, but he did impress me with some great stints on occasion.

    The calendar is a little disappointing. Street courses are fun, but I would like to see the Indy Cars take to some more dedicated venues, like CotA for instance (is there still some kind of agreement between Bernie and whoever is running Indy Car that they don’t run on the same circuits?).

    1. @adrianmorse Very cool that De Silvestro appears to have a decent ride, which I think she deserves, and I’m hoping she has a good year. It would be great to have a female driver garner some attention based on good results as opposed to just being a media darling.

  8. I certainly hope it is Power’s year. He’s a much more likeable guy than Franchitti and Hunter-Reay.

    Wouldn’t mind seeing Castroneves win either. He’s been a front-runner for over a decade, it’s hard to believe he’s still not a champion.

  9. Thank you for posting this article. I might go to the Long beach street circuit. I just started watching since last year

  10. Can’t wait for the Indy Car this season, I’ll be so gutted if Power manages to lose it again.

    As for the ESPN deal I’m a little worried with it going to BT that they’ll just buy all the football and not bother with any motor racing.

  11. KV looking strong in practice, both Kanaan & de Silvestro mixing it with the big teams. Sato & new man Vautier also consistently quick. St. Pete’s a tough course to pass on, but if they keep it clean through the first lap I think the result might be a complete toss-up.

    *grin*

  12. I’m still iffy on whether or not I want to get back into it. There’s still a lot of the same petty politicking – as bad as any you’d see in F1 – that soured me on American open-wheel racing in the past, I still feel that the wrong series won out in unification – but at least the league has come to its senses by not staging needlessly dangerous superspeedway races and cutting down on serious driver injuries.

    I am at least interested to see how AJA does in his open-wheel return. He was my favorite back in Champ Car.

  13. I’ve been watching indycar since 2007 when i went to a friends birthday night out as i knew the nightclub would have the championship decider, where apparently a Scotsman could win. With no volume i had my eye on the race but not full attention and remember noticing the championship was Dixons with 2 laps to go so was ready to turn away from the tv when suddenly Dario Francitti was celebrating. Eh what! Scott Dixon had ran out of fuel on the last lap of the championship. After this i was hooked. Got sky sports and never missed a race. Even the Brazilian race that wasn’t available on Sky i followed the lap chart on Indycars web site. Sadly that is as close as i’ll get to the 2013 season as there move to ESPN is a move beyond what i can afford. The Huge bill for sky is enough without a extra £10 for ESPN so sadly like Rally and Italian football i predict my support of the sport will slowly fade as i see less of a motorsport i love available on TV.

    Anyway onto this season I’ve never liked Power, As a Dario fan you can understand. I Hope Honda get there act together and give Ganassi a better engine so he can regain the Championship. Dont think Hunter-Rey is on the level of Dario or Will Power but did so well to take the title last season. Another season like last year and i’ll be convinced on him,

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