In the round-up: Romain Grosjean will start today’s IndyCar round on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grand prix course from pole position.
In brief
Grosjean grabs first IndyCar pole
Grosjean saw off two-times IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden and the rest of the enlarged, 25-strong IndyCar field to take his first pole position at the third time of asking. The Coyne/Rick Ware driver, who qualified seventh and 18th for his first two starts in the championship last month, headed the field with a lap of 1’09.4396.He admitted some nervousness about leading the field around for a rolling start for the first time in his career, 10 years since he began his GP2 title-winning campaign with pole position at Istanbul Park.
Jack Harvey and round one winner Alex Palou will share the second row of the grid, followed by Grosjean’s fellow rookie Scott McLaughlin and Conor Daly. An incensed Will Power remonstrated with his race engineer on the pit wall after missing the cut for the Fast Six, and will start 12th. Reigning champion Scott Dixon fared no better in 16th.
Juan Pablo Montoya, returning to the series for the first time in four years, will bring up the rear of the field in McLaren SP’s third car. His two fastest lap times were deleted after he was ruled to have blocked Palou.
Two-year deal for Herta
“Colton has already shown so much potential in the short time he’s been in the series and having a great partner like Gainbridge recognise and support that potential is great for everyone,” said Michael Andretti. “If the start to the 2021 season is any indication of the future success for the 26 car’s program, I think we have a lot to look forward to over the next few years.”
Herta lies seventh in the championship after winning at St Petersburg but retiring from the first and third rounds. He will start today’s race from eighth on the grid.
Chilton misses Indianapolis Grand Prix
IndyCar should have had 26 cars on the grid this weekend, but Carlin driver Max Chilton is not present after being unable to travel to the USA in time for the race. The team expects to participate in the Indianapolis 500 later this month.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Gracias @dpkracing1 por la emotiva sorpresa. Este fin de semana en Bélgica, en el mismo circuito que hace 25 años conseguía el campeonato del mundo de karting , el equipo correrá con la misma decoración de aquel día! Mucha suerte chicos! A por ello 💪💪💪#karting #FAkart pic.twitter.com/cYq93misrT
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) May 14, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Road to Indy adjusts 2021 schedule, adds new season finale venue (Indy Lights)
"Following today’s announcement by organisers of the Indy Toronto and IndyCar that the July 9th-11th event on the streets of Toronto has been cancelled due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions in Ontario, Andersen Promotions has revised its 2021 calendar. The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will now host the season finale for the Road to Indy on October 1st-3rd."
‘I saw death coming’: Grosjean pushes on in IndyCar after F1 wreck (The Guardian)
"In IndyCar, it’s much more healthy. You actually fight 23 other drivers, whereas in Formula 1 because only your teammate has the same car as you most of the time you only fight that guy."
Ricciardo believes Formula Ford relevant for Australia (Speedcafe)
"The best thing Formula Ford’s for is just kind of getting you out of a go-kart and getting you into a single seater. As far as the downforce and all the other kind of techniques that you learn to drive, like a formula car with, I’m not sure how relevant it is to kind of chase the Piastri path and the F3, F2."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Comment of the day
Did F1 really need to replace its lost race in Turkey?
Typical quantity over quality Liberty Media. Heaven forbid they have one less race in a season.
It was a good compromise under Covid restrictions last season but nobody wants a double-header at the same circuit.
Roth Man (@Rdotquestionmark)
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Jonny!
If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.
Don
15th May 2021, 0:19
Wow FANTASTIC! He just rung his cars neck to get that pole. Sliding everywhere. Can’t drive an F1 car like that. What a qualifying drive. Congrats Romain!!!
Tristan (@skipgamer)
15th May 2021, 2:05
Eh what? No need to glorify it. Sliding everywhere? Far from accurate.
anon
15th May 2021, 9:18
@skipgamer he does have a tendency to sing the praises of IndyCar extremely enthusiastically, to the point that he has often tipped into hyperbole or outright exaggeration (such as the crowd figures he claimed were present at the Indy 500, where he was claiming crowd figures that were in excess of the capacity of the circuit).
Exediron (@exediron)
15th May 2021, 10:11
The unofficial crowd figure for the Indy 500 almost always *is* in excess of the capacity, as a matter of fact. People sit on grass and walk around the infield without a seat. It’s very common to see a figure of approximately 300,000 for attendance when there are only 250,000 seats.
As for Romain’s lap, I didn’t see a lot of sliding — unsurprisingly, since the lap was quick.
anon
15th May 2021, 11:09
@exediron the figures that he was claiming were significantly in excess of the total capacity of the circuit including the general admission areas (i.e. including all of those individuals walking around the infield areas) – he was claiming crowd attendances could be 400,000 or more.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
15th May 2021, 11:54
Sounds like Romain. It’s Indy’s cringe now not f1’s.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
15th May 2021, 13:16
@peartree I’ve no idea what you’re trying to say here.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
15th May 2021, 13:19
@peartree so the dude puts it on pole, on merit, against a talented field; and you still can’t give him credit for it. Wow. I pity you.
Dave
15th May 2021, 19:55
Chill pill delivery! XD
Calum
15th May 2021, 0:42
Well in Romain. All successes after the large crash in Bahrain will be such a feel-good story that they were allowed to happen!
Hope we see F1 cars race on (any variant) of that track again.
davidhunter13 (@davidhunter13)
15th May 2021, 0:54
Fantastic. I still think he should have just retired after that escape. Indycar has taken several victims the last few years. Why risk that? Sorry to be grim but I don’t trust Americans at safety, which is self evident.
Victor (@mrmuffins)
15th May 2021, 1:08
Your “concern” is appreciated.
Eathan
15th May 2021, 1:15
Well this clearly isn’t based on fact, given that IndyCar hasn’t head any fatalities since 2015, so “several victims in the last few years” is completely poppycock. I’ll also add that the vast majority of IndyCar fatalities happen on ovals, which Grosjean isn’t participating in this year.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
15th May 2021, 2:07
Eathan I think the victims being referring to were not necessarily fatalities. Robert Wickens springs to mind, but there have been some other nasty crashes with serious consequences in the last 7 years. Complete poppycock, indeed.
Bryan (@ruz234014)
15th May 2021, 1:25
AWESOME! So happy for Romain! I always thought he was faster than he was able to show in his F1 cars. After the near death experience he had last year, he earned and deserves this.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
15th May 2021, 2:06
Good for Grosjean, but the broadcast was lacking. Didn’t even get to see his pole-setting lap, just the commentators guessing why he gained/lost time.
Bradders (@bradders)
15th May 2021, 9:39
Not that much different to Formula 1, really. Repeatedly watch the final sequence of corners for the main runners, other than the final/likely top two.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
15th May 2021, 2:32
Good for him indeed, this shows why f1 isn’t that good to gauge performance, grosjean had speed sometimes but made a lot of mistakes, and was heavily criticized during his time in f1 but in reality, aside from the lotus, he never had a competitive car, and the haas in recent times was so bad (still is) that very few drivers would’ve emerged from that pit.
Just look at the fact williams was on average 3 seconds behind the fastest qualifier this year, that’s insane, on the other hand, mazepin aside, which doesn’t seem a proper f1 driver, there’s probably only 1 second between the best and worst driver, so the team impact is way too high in f1, and this also leads to disputes such as people saying hamilton is the best ever and others barely considering him in the top 10 of all times and wanting to see more of him with big competition or a true underdog car, not just pretending like mercedes does.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
15th May 2021, 2:32
Ops, guessing it’s haas, not williams, that was 3 sec behind on average.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
15th May 2021, 4:13
Yeh but that’s part of the sport. The competition has always been about who can develop the best car within the regulations. The best drivers usually make it to the most competitive cars to maximise the package. Why would Mercedes for example hire a driver who is consistently 1 second a lap slower than the benchmark? Being the best driver is also more than just being quick. Someone like Lewis has maintained a healthy relationship with his team and as a consequence, he’s consistently been in a competitive car. Plenty of drivers have fallen out with their team which has arguably cost them more success (I’m thinking Prost, Lauda and Alonso as the first that come to mind).
ColdFly (@)
15th May 2021, 7:14
It’s of course very good to gauge performance of the car developers, which it was designed to do first and foremost. @esploratore
Maybe it’s a bit too much based on the car as you mentioned, but it’s difficult to find a good compromise between an empty drawing board and a spec series. The tyre part has been ‘spec’ed’ already.
At least we now get 10 parallel driver championships, one within each team.
I’ve always argued that F1’s main roster should be the WCC/team, and the tiny side one for the driver. This will make it clearer for the short attention span fans that F1 is not only about the driver.
They might even go one step further and have 10 small winner podiums on the side; one for each inter team battle.
Tango (@tango)
15th May 2021, 8:12
Not that bad though. Grosjean has 10 podiums in 3 different cars and was the 7th or 8th best paid driver on the grid. F1 knew.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
15th May 2021, 12:13
I think it’s quite the opposite. It’s the ultimate performance gauge and by quite a margin to other series. The fact that drivers that barely made it to F1, retired F1 drivers and others that didn’t succeed for whatever reason are doing extremely well in Indycar and other series speaks volume about the level of competitiveness in F1. When you see a driver of Fernando Alonso’s class struggling a bit in his return to F1 though he was absent for two years, you realize how much fast F1 is evolving.
I don’t think for a second that Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton can’t make the difference in Indycar and can’t replicate the level of driving that they are operating with in F1. I’m extremely curious to see how Bottas will do if will leave F1 in the future for Indycar or other series.
pastaman (@)
15th May 2021, 13:50
Yes, Mazepin and Latifi are the ultimate performance gauges. And you can see that Chilton and Ericsson are absolutely killing it in Indycar. Oh wait…
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
15th May 2021, 19:42
@pastaman
Mazepin, Latifi, Chilton and Ericsson are all pay drivers. They have no business in F1 if it wasn’t for Williams, Haas, Marussia and Sauber financial struggles.
pastaman (@)
15th May 2021, 20:24
Agreed, and therefore F1 is not the ultimate gauge of performance. Good F1 drivers do well in Indycar and average drivers do not.
pastaman (@)
15th May 2021, 20:38
Did I just contradict myself lol
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
15th May 2021, 2:33
I bet Sergio Perez would do pretty good in Indycar.
F1oSaurus (@f1osaurus)
15th May 2021, 9:43
Exactly he should have gone there instead. Little point in having your career ruined by a #2 slot in essentially a one driver team.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
15th May 2021, 11:55
he was never good enough.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
15th May 2021, 7:09
Very happy for Romain, nice headline to wake up to this morning.
Qeki (@qeki)
15th May 2021, 8:20
I didn’t expect him to get pole on his 5th race!
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
15th May 2021, 8:36
@qeki Me neither, I kind of expected it to be something of 2-3 year ‘journey man project’, (and it still might be), but the fact he seems to be competitive so early, I guess is good. It’s not that he’s an ex-F1 driver, or because of the crash that I’m happy for him, just it’s nice that someone tries something new and is seemingly good at it. Especially since he’s spent the last few years aiming for 16th and the side of Kevin Magnussen’s car.
This just seems a happier life for him, he is competitive at what he loves and can presumably do his cooking and hang out with the kids in a less pressured work environment.
Qeki (@qeki)
15th May 2021, 21:46
@bernasaurus One of the feel good stories that will last long.
Choo choo
15th May 2021, 8:18
All aboard on the grosjean hype train!
Dave
15th May 2021, 9:41
I’m still thinking of Elio.
Derek Edwards
15th May 2021, 10:26
Me too – I have a lovely framed photograph of him testing a Lotus at Kyalami on my wall.
The second race I watched was his maiden victory at Austria in 1982 and he was always one of my favourite drivers. By all accounts he was a thoroughly decent person and a delight to be with and I remember that 1984 season when he came in third beihind Lauda and Prost, also that period of races in 1985 when he led the championship.
The move to Brabham was clearly a step back after his time at Lotus, shifting to a team that was on the way down, but he was still only twenty eight, so there would probably have been time for some more opportunities.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th May 2021, 14:14
Also, on this day in F1: Max’s maiden F1 win in the 2016 Spanish GP.
Dave
15th May 2021, 19:57
…when the two Mercedes came together.
JimG (@jimg)
17th May 2021, 10:04
@Dave And? “To finish first, first you must finish.”
Facepalmer
15th May 2021, 14:20
He overtook the whole field of F3 drivers! Yay!
Proteus (@proteus)
15th May 2021, 18:20
It would be interesting to see what times could he do in a Merc car, driving in full anger. Romain, with all his flaws was still a decent F1 driver, and it is a shame Haas destrroyed his racing career with subpar machinery which they were actually not producing after 2018.
Iori
18th May 2021, 9:18
3 races in, a pole position and second place finish for Grosjean shows us why there are no American drivers in F1. In F1 Romain was at best a mid field player, got a few good results, but even had he been in one of the better cars I don’t think he would have been championship material. To me it shows that there is a huge difference in driver ability between F1 and Indy. And Scott McLaughlin who has practically no experience of open wheel racing coming from the Australian Supercar series finished second in only his third Indy race whilst Jimmie Johnson a multiple Nascar champion is struggling with a best finish of 19th.