(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Marshall Pruitt podcast and your week in IndyCar listener Q&A show. Oh boy, uh, hey, we got more stuff to talk about in a silly season that never stops being silly. (laughing) I'm really truly serious when I say this. I just can't just have like a whole week, just one. It's all I'm asking for, just one. Yeah, I know in theory, someone in my role in the media these days wants all kinds of drama and whatever and I don't know. Sometimes when we have extended periods of boredom, sure, a team do something silly. Driver do something silly. It just comes a point, right? Or like, you just want to get back to boredom, I do at least, so anyways, it's not a real complaint. The world has real problems. This isn't one of them, but nonetheless, here we are, yet again, with more instability? Is that what we call talk about? Or I don't know what we're doing, but anyways. Hey, big thanks to y'all for sending in all kinds of questions. I am thoroughly exhausted, it's just 'cause, although I'm not done with any of it, I, yeah, I probably put in, what, Thursday, Tuesday? I don't even know what day it is. Tuesday evening at 6.40, something. I think I have been working at least 12 to 14 hour days since like last Thursday, all on a bunch of IndyCar hybrid content. It's not done yet, I'd hope that it would be, but I have what is starting to feel like a bomber manifesto. IndyCar hybrid Q&A document, where I've tried to come up with all the questions I can think you might have, and then provide quick informative or whimsical answers. And I don't know how many questions I have come up with, but I can tell you that as of just a moment ago, when I decided to stop writing and record the podcast, Microsoft Word tells me that at Calibri font, 11 point size, we're up to 5,037 words and 11 pages. So, yeah, and I'm also trying to knock some videos out too. So, yeah, none of this is bad, but which things had been just a little slower in calmer in life, 'cause I probably would've been able to get started on this stuff much sooner. But nonetheless, y'all sent in a bunch of questions, which we greatly appreciate, I'll put together by someone who greatly appreciate that being Jerry Sitteth. And Jerry, as he's been doing lately for us, sends along this info to share upfront to give you a primer of what we're about to get into. So, as we had about 55 questions and over 2,000 words of submissions this week, and as expected, the McLaren signing in departure, it has dominated the questions, and here's how they break down. The first group start off with the McLaren signing, Christian Lindgaard, McLaren Stability and McLaren Environment, Alexander Rossi, what happened to those contract negotiations and where he may go. Third item, what Ray Hall that had been landing in might look like in 2025. Spent about a half hour on the phone with Bobby Ray Hall this afternoon, by the way. Try and get that tuned up and turn into a story here ASAP. At number four, Midohire Predictions, now the repave and the hybrids will impact the race. And then fifth, we have hybrid questions. Then there's a second group, schedule questions, coin crew member, t-set question, and then there's even a third group. If there's over time, which I doubt, I don't even know if we're gonna get to the second group, but that third one is evergreen questions and comments. So, let's run our little super extra appreciation clip here, and then let's get rolling with the show. Time to say a big thank you to our show partners on the Marshall Prote podcast, starting with FAF Technologies. Build to print composites manufacturing company. They're specializing in medium to large scale automotive, motor sports, and military applications. Visit FAFtechnologies.com. It's P-F-A-F-F, technologies.com, to learn more about their services and how they can benefit your business. Next, it's the Justice Brothers. Makers of premium additives, lubricants, and cleaners, and servicing the automotive and motor sports industries for more than 85 years. With victories in all the biggest North American motor races, including the Indianapolis 500, the 24 hours a day tona, the Justice Brothers products are truly race proven. Learn about their vast history and range of offerings at justicebrothers.com. If you're fond of awesome motor racing collectibles, including FAF motor sports McLaren gear and goodies, pay a visit to torontomotor sports.com. And finally, you have a new online merchandise home for the podcast, thepruitstore.com. For all the show stickers, models, racing memorabilia, trying to sell, and put towards our fun to buy a house, is now live and rocking, thepruitstore.com. We open the show with @formula_nerds. And we've got a couple here. One only question, what's happening at Air McLaren with the constant driver rotation? And our friend Lance Snyder, the show's Minister of Mirth, says is McLaren the Red Bull of IndyCar. They seem good at spitting out drivers. Also asks with a disusual bit of humor, is Rossi even safe for the rest of the year? Or is there potential possibility he could be sacked as well? And is there a theme song for drivers? Queens, another one bites the dust. Oh boy. All right, thank you for the contextualization there. Lance Snyder, our Minister of Mirth. And yes, indeed, formula_nerds. What is, what is happening at Air McLaren with the constant driver rotations? So we often open the show with a little bit of a deeper dive, so that's what we will do here. Let me do a wind back to almost a month ago, early June, just leading in the week of the road America race, had a catch up with the team on a lot of things, looking to the future and said, "Hey, realize that we have two of the three seats "that are still open, right? "Pato awards signed through, I think, like 2028 or something, "26, 27, whatever it is. "Pato was signed for a good old long time, "going nowhere." But that number six Chevy, once upon a time occupied in theory by David Maluchas, but then taken over by Callum Eilot, Teopore Cher, that certainly had no driver signed for 2025 or after. And then the number seven, Air McLaren Chevy, that being driven by Alexander Rossi, also no one signed to it for next year and beyond. But the team said, told me directly, working on contract extension, things are going really well, not sure if it'll get done by the end of June, could be early-ish July, but that's the direction we're headed in with the number seven. So I'll start there, since that's obviously with Rossi departing the big point of interest, then I'll come back to the six car. So heard that, was told that, and had that confirmed from the team side, but again, that's the team. Wanted to reach out, spoke with Alexander's manager, happens to be his father, and said, yep, everything you've been told aligns exactly with where we are at. Feel really, we wanna stay, they want us to stay, we are working towards that. Both sides said, totally confident, it's gonna happen. Cool, great. On that lead-in to Road America, cool. Sounds like we've got Pato Ward, his teammate Alexander Rossi now of a year and a half, finish out that second year, and sounds like he'll be here for probably another couple of years at least, cool. Was also told that in the number six car, which that was Teopor's share at the time, absolutely in love with him, the guy is just a revelation as a human being, full of love and light and positivity, and just like truly, could not love someone that you just met more than this guy, and phenomenally talented, crazily talented, was told, no guarantees of course, but was told what you're looking at in terms of the lineup as we come out of Detroit, go into Road America, that is what we're looking at for our future lineup. Now here's just a little sidebar, very quick one, which might be amusing. It's been a little while since I've done a silly season update, and I had one almost ready to go here in early June. This call to the team and the catch up on, again, unquestioned, unequivocal input on thoughts of where things were going, catching up, again, background to inform what I was about to write, silly season piece, things went a little haywire, canopino stuff coming out of Detroit, and Porsche obviously caught the crossfire, and yada, yada, yada. Didn't get the silly season update done, was hoping to get it done soon after, busy with other things didn't happen. I just tell you. Leading into that event, I was like, cool, let me try and get this done, some other notes as well. And based on all of that direct intel about a month ago, the silly season story would have said, which would have been accurate at that point in time, but dreadfully inaccurate today. Award, Rossi, Porsche, look for that to be, the lineup in 2025, probably 2026. We'll see how much longer it goes from there. What you got now is what you're gonna get off we go. I am so thankful I did not manage to write that because it would again have proven to be totally wrong and despite all of that, the thing that stands out is so interesting since then, and even during that conversation, admittedly a conversation prior to that, probably in May, maybe, was Rossi doing great, really having his resurgent year, fantastic, obviously went on to have real good month of May. He just, he's been doing wonderful, hasn't won a race yet, get that, but still just really strong. Did hear, was told that, Christian Lundgaard for sure on the radar, but assuming everything goes forward as expected with that award, Rossi, Porsche, roster, nothing there. And the other thing that I might have written in a racer mail bag in a response to something, but I know for sure I'd put into that silly season piece that I never finished was as it's being described and as I understand it right now, it looks like there's no bigger destination for Christian Lundgaard to land at. If those two open seats at Aaron McLaren R&D going to be taken by those who are currently in them, there's some other possibilities in the paddock for where Christian could go, but I don't see anything that says it is a definite step up from where he is at Ray Hollerman land again, racing. So again, you will have talked about swings and a miss, not single swing, but swings and a miss. So my how things change. We know what went down ultimately with that number six car with Porsche, who was stood down, deal was done with Nolan Seagull multiple years, number six taken off the table. Where did things go sideways with Rossi over the last week and a half, two weeks? I don't know. I've yet to speak with him due to do that early tomorrow morning and maybe try and find out some other things. I do know that I was told they kept trying to come to terms but were unable to and so an amicable decision to split at the end of the year as it was described to me was taken, no ill feelings, there you go. The part that stands out is not so long ago, this seemed like effectively everything, but a signature on the contract is where we're at and definitely believe that that's where it's headed. What I wonder, and I don't know if I've got an answer on this, but what I wonder is with the team in the midst of a victory drought, fully understanding that with the disqualification at St. Petersburg, Pato was elevated from second to first and awarded the win and it's just as much of a win as any other victory, but in terms of we went out we led the race and we crossed under the checkered flag before anyone else and drove into victory lane. The team is 23 months out from the last time that happened. Think July 24th, 2022 at Iowa. So again, we're just a couple of weeks shy of two full years since an Aeroma clarin car went to victory lane. Noting that Pato has been the only driver to win for the team since he signed with them in 2020. Noting that the number six, which hasn't been around for super, super long, but noting that the number six has yet to win in this Aeroma clarin era and noting that the number seven, which has been around since 2014 has never won. I do wonder if the signing of Nolan Siegel, someone who the team hopes and I'm confident he will become genuinely good as an IndyCar driver in the future, but not expected to be that person now. Does the somewhat delayed the extended expectation for Nolan to become a serious and consistent contributor to the team's success? Did that change the perspective on holding on to Rossi? So knowing that Alex went many years without a win, then Juan, I believe in his final season, 2022 with Andretti Global, it's awesome. Obviously though, hasn't Juan while at Aeroma clarin, has two podiums. Like I said, this year has been really strong. He's right behind Pato and the standings holding seventh right now, Pato being sixth obviously. I do wonder though, okay. I think with a lineup of award and a young, seemingly ready to go, I don't know if win, but like more turnkey driver and tail poor share, reigning formula two champ. I wonder if with those two in place, the holding on to Rossi makes total sense because even if Alexander isn't winning or isn't a routine winner, probably two others that could fill that void and he could be the anchor there among, again, hopefully whatever number of wins he might be able to start contributing. I do wonder if signing Nolan led team leadership to say, feels like we need a little more horsepower, little more oomph right now. And I realized Lundgaard has all of one win, less than Rossi, for sure. But I do wonder if there's a feeling of, you know, I wonder if we could get into victory lane faster with him and more frequently with him. So I don't know if any of what I just offered is accurate, but those are the things that tumbled around in my head when I started hearing about something like this a little while ago. So as I wrote, when we get to next year, Aaron McLaren will have the youngest lineup in IndyCar, I believe, unless I'm totally forgetting things. Potto will be 25, Lundgaard will be 23, and Nolan will turn 20 by the time we go live next year. Very young team, Potto obviously a young veteran, multiple race winner, frequent contender for championships. Lundgaard is done exceedingly well at Ray-Holettoman-Lanigan Racing, not a team that has been capable of vying for championships for a little while. But I think what we are seeing is the team saying, we know what we would have if we stuck with the award Rossi Seagull roster in 25, and maybe even 26, maybe need to be a little bit more aggressive. And so let's make a change now. I hope to learn I'm wrong. And for whatever reasons, the terms being offered just didn't meet Alexander's needs and desires, but noting the question here about what's up with all the constant driver rotation, the answer to that is super, super simple with any team. You do not make changes like this. If you believe you have everything you need to succeed. It's the same in any other sport, right? American football, maybe you have an amazing quarterback, but you don't feel like you have the right head coach to get the most out of that quarterback and get to the Super Bowl. Cool, so you're keeping the star player, but you're changing personnel. We see this all the time. Team manager, managing director, team president, whomever fired, released, whatever. Race engineer moves on, gets fired. Like you don't see these changes unless one or two things happen. Better opportunity emerges elsewhere. That happened for Nolan Segal. That's why he's driving the six car. It's the best opportunity they were presented. They took it. Situation with Alexander Rossi, there would be no reason for him to leave this seat in this team because there are no other teams that can offer him a better and more competitive car. Not based on the results we have seen so far this year. Could a team he might go to in the future be better than Aaron McLaren? Absolutely. But in terms of I am facing a big decision and whether I should stick with what I have or leave for somewhere else. Chip Ganassi wasn't calling. Roger Penske wasn't calling. Michael Andretti wasn't calling. Those are the three teams better than Aaron McLaren right now. It's not a matter of opinion. You look at the standings and go, "There you go." Ganassi's leading. Penske's right behind. And Andretti's right behind them in terms of their drivers. And then Aaron McLaren's stacked forth. So you make the changes to get better because you don't feel you're good enough. You take the opportunities that are presented to you that are better to level yourself up. I would say we have one example with Nolan and what could be the belief that they needed to find something better or more that they were incomplete or not capable of achieving all they wanted to if they stuck with Alexander. Again, I'd love to learn. And I hope to learn from Alexander. You said, "No, I'm leaving." Okay, cool. Your decision. Don't know if I would make the same, but we'll find out. Chris McCarry asks, "How many hours until the next Aaron McLaren bombshell?" Which I can only assume will be Zach Brown and the boys announcing a high-carb program for Daytona piloted by Teo Rossi, Hinchcliffe and Kyle Larson. You know, we can always expect humor here on the good old podcast. I think, I do think, I think we might be done with the driver bombshell stuff. I think, don't hold me to that though. 'Cause I'm not in charge of any of it, but I can tell you this, if I have learned anything that I didn't know beforehand or should have never let go of, yeah, take things with many grains of salt. So, yeah, allowed myself to believe what I was being told a little too much, yeah, a little while ago. So, that's on me, but again, y'all know I'm an idiot, so it's not a big revelation here. Andrew Miller, you're up next, yeah, falling, I guess, into the similar amount of thinking that I had had. You say, "A few weeks ago, Rossi seemed to be "in the glide path to re-signing with McLaren. "Recent performances on track have been good, "except for mechanical issue at Road America." Say, "Did Teo for no one's walk trigger second thoughts "or was the glide path for Alexander, "not the glide path we thought there was all along." Yeah, I hope to get an answer to the thing that you're thinking that I'm thinking as well, but yeah, we'll see if and what happens there. Outcast of life, is this your first submission? If so, thank you. And if not, I apologize for forgetting. MP&E insight into why Lindgaard left the safety of RLL for at best a multiple year contract, or at worst, half a year contract with Arrow, who loves to change drivers, it seems, every week. So here's what I have known. I think I included this in a silly season story at one point in time. I don't remember when, early this year, maybe. Maybe mid to late last year. It's not super often when a driver comes straight out and tells you, "I don't like where I am. "I am unhappy. "I want to leave." Where you tend to learn these things is from the teams that they're speaking to. So just sharing, all y'all may know this. Maybe some of you don't. Teams know a lot of things. People who run the teams, who are at the teams, know a lot of things. Idiot reporters like myself also tend to know a lot of things. It is totally normal practice for us individually, collectively, however, to huddle up. Whether it's talking at the track, or phone call, or whatever else. Hey, what do you see? What do you know? What have you heard? Hey, have you heard? This is going down. Or, hey, you might look into this, and I'm not the one telling you, but so-and-so is calling around, looking for something. Looking for whatever. And then you'll ask the question of, would you know this because the person you're telling me is calling around, also called you? And then they often say, no comment into which you go, thank you. Now I know that they call you as well. Anyways, it's pretty common to share information. Because one team, for example, that is searching for a driver, reached out today, and said, hey, potentially interested in driver X, what have you heard? Have you heard of any other teams who are going after driver X? And I told that team owner, yes, I have heard. But I don't think you're in any jeopardy. Because an offer from you would probably be more well received. So just sharing, these things are kind of normal. Just to get to the point of, started hearing whenever I heard, I know definitely again this year for sure, that as described to some teams by Lundgaard's representatives, is looking for something new and different, determined to find something new and different. Speaking with the RLL team, they'd say for sure, very confident we'll be able to hold on to him, and come with upon us to offer him as good a car and good chances as possible, and give him no reason to wanna look elsewhere. Fair enough, I think there might've been a little bit of over-optimism in that situation from RLL. They're big on loyalty, big on loyalty, and having given him his shot, and obviously gotten him into pole positions and one race win, I think there might've been a belief that loyalty would be repaid when it came time to execute a contract extension. At least for the vibe that I was hearing from elsewhere in the paddock, from those who received outreaches, there was not the same feeling of loyalty. Again, I don't wanna say a driver leaving a team is some sort of great indictment of their character and a lack of loyalty, it happens all the time. Just there's some teams who have a stronger loyalty vibe and feel like that shooter will be reciprocated. In this fairly volatile world of racing and drivers moving around in particular, I understand the desire for loyalty. I am never surprised though when it does not manifest. So on that hearing things, trading information, holding secrets and whatever else, the topic of Lundgaard searching, but Lundgaard's rep or reps, saying feeling like it's time to go somewhere else, no question in what I was hearing from some that were involved in conversations. So that's what we get to the answer here. Christian having shown very well within a team that hasn't been capable of vying for podiums and wins on any kind of regular basis, peak the interest of some team owners, Daryl McLaren for sure as we now know and reached a stage where he felt he would be doing the best for himself if he moved to a team that was above the one he's currently at. On the topic of stability, it's been obviously a super volatile month too. However long it's been just a season to date for our McLaren. In theory, with three drivers signed to multi-year contracts, we should now enter a new phase of the year for era McLaren, where? I hope for all of our sakes. There's no more talk of driver roulette and who might be in what and when. So totally get the reason for Christian wanting to move. It's something you tend to see in young drivers who show well with a midfield or slightly better than midfield team. Keep in mind, Indy 500 winner, double Indy 500 winner Joseph Newgarden, double champion Joseph Newgarden, raced for the Sarah Fisher Hartman team, which then morphed into carpenter, Hartman Fisher, you name it team. Did that for what 2012 through 2016? Longer than Christian was at RLL for sure, but Joseph for sure demonstrated he was capable of being a champion, potential champion at least, not with his current team. Off to team Penske, he went and proved in year one, winning his first title in 2017, another title in 2019, Indy 500, 2023 and now in 2024. It was the right move for him and it unlocked his full potential. Am I saying if he stayed at RLL, Christian would never unlock his full potential? No, I just don't know if he would get to unlocking all of that as quickly if he'd stayed. So, and if there is volatility there, we can certainly say he knew it going in, there should be no complaints, no anything. If Nolan or certainly now Christian, heck even Pato, if anything happens where they are sideline, cut, whatever, I don't know if any of us would want to hear a single peep about it because we have seen there is a willingness to turn everything upside down, if there's a belief that that's what should be done. Vincent 1701 says as a Monday quarterback, looking at McLaren's IndyCar program, I say it's a toxic work environment and feels sorry for the HR and PR departments. PR department certainly been busy, a lot of press releases to write, a lot of things to do there. I don't know if I'd call it a toxic work environment for sure. The upheaval we've mentioned, the volatility we've mentioned, those are things that are absolutely felt throughout a team. In the team's first year of existence, 2001, which is when I worked for them, which also was my last year working in IndyCar, worked as assistant race engineer. We had a bad, bad, bad life altering crash by our full time driver, Davey Hamilton. We then afterwards, I think for the rest of the season, I don't remember the exact numbers, a number of drivers, but by the end of the season, I think we'd been through including Davey five, maybe four, five, could even be six, I don't even know. Richie Hearn was in there, Anthony Lazaro was in there, Alex Barron, Jacques Lazier, and I might be forgetting someone else. It was a constant pummeling, and again, this is just because of a bad accident, not Davey's fault smashed his feet in lower extremities into just grotesque things, but someone blew an engine in front of him, hit the oil, went up and crashed, tore the front of the car off, all kinds of crazy damage, brutal. So there's the big punch to the soul of that, and then there's the, well, this driver's available, and okay, now let's try someone else, and we're getting someone else from another series, and we can have them for a little bit, and then Jacques Lazier ended up being like, "Wow, okay," and now we're competitive, and we're doing super well and feeling good about ourselves, and finished, I think third, we were on pole at Richmond with Jacques, and then I think what did we do? We finished third at Nashville, I believe, and I think it was a race-by-race deal he was doing with us. Sam Schmitt Motorsports was the name of the time, and after showing himself to be doing well, Jean Menard stepped in and hired Jacques, and so we went from having a terrible season and losing Davey, who we loved, to kind of constant, "Oh, hello new driver, let's get you fitted, and let's get a seat made, and let's get the pedal set, and let's, and you like what, where, and how, okay, right?" Oh, and here's the next three, hi new driver, right? A lot of peeling of names off the car and installing different ones on, happened upon Jacques, who had never driven for a better team, and he took that opportunity, ran with it. It was a great little team, a race engineer, Tim Neff, really good, team managers, Larry Nash, Leanne Nash, really good, so on and so forth. And, I guess you could say, first year new team owner, made a bit of a mistake, instead of some sort of contract that bound the driver to the team, or gave the team first rider refusal, or something, a bigger, billionaire, entrant team owner, and John Menard said, "Hey, this kid's looking really good." Snapped 'em up, so from the high of our first ever podium, two, got to find a new driver, and that's not even like cutting drivers, like they've been dealing with these days at the team, but just sharing, I know what it feels like to ask the awkward question, "Hi, do we know who's driving for us yet?" Or, "Hi, we like this one, can we hold on to the," no, okay, we can't, oh, hey, we like this, oh, no, okay, we can't, like, even with great managers and leaders, and I rate Aaron McLaren, team principal, Gavin Ward as a very kind soul, with a huge heart. There is no way frequent turnover and volatility like this does not trickle down, and unsettle folks a bit. Just to close here, and we're gonna move on to some non-Aero McLaren things, kind of sort of. I'm hoping for their sake, even if some of y'all are angry at Aaron McLaren for what they've done, and I'm not saying I've been a huge fan of every move they've made, but for the people who make up the team, 99% of them are just phenomenal men and women who show up and do their jobs super, super well for everybody there. I truly just hope this weekend, like I said, should and could be the first post turmoil event for them with all three drivers locked in for 2025 and 2026, at least, if not more, and just settle things down. Let's see. We go to Dave, also known as Mr. Geek, apparently. I'm sure everyone is asking, but with the Alexander Rossi News, what does 2025 look like for him? Prema, perhaps, also says kindly as many of you do and have, your openings or closings, but I try and pick one per episode. Dave says, "Best to you, your wife and the cats." Thank you. Just had Rosie in here a moment ago. My first question for Alexander on our 6.45 AM interview, tomorrow morning is this, what do you wanna do next? I assume it's staying in IndyCar, but I don't wanna assume. I know that he has had and continues to have interest from other teams, didn't just start today, as a free agent, of course, been talking to other teams. The ones that stand out as possible destinations, if I'm using the mindset of what is the next best? Drawing back to my point that there are no other options I can find that are equal to what he has right now with Aaron McLaren. I have to look down the entrance and say, AJ Floyd racing could have one seat open, maybe two next year. That would not be an upgrade at the moment necessarily, but that number 14 car that Santino Frucci's in, that's actually sitting what, 12th in the standings, granted, I wouldn't take Santino out of that car. That guy has been doing a phenomenal job for a team that just as of last year was basically welded to last place, seemingly almost everywhere they went, or similar enough, he's at least with a 14 car, thanks to their great work and also Team Penske's technical collaboration, they're in the game. I don't know if I'd take him out of the game though. Dreddy Global's got nothing. Chip Ganassi Racing got nothing they've had. Folks inquiring, there's nothing there, including a driver from Formula One currently looking for somewhere else to race next year. They've got no openings. Dale coin racing. This is no disrespect to Dale's team. But that's not the right destination for Alexander Rossi right now. Coin team is a proud one and a race winning one. It is just not at the stage. It needs to be right now as they're rebuilding. So two openings, for sure, neither that I would want Alexander to be in. After that, you have Ed Carpenter racing. Don't know exactly what is going to happen looking to the future with rookie Christian Rasmussen, reigning any NXT champ. Hope he's back. Can't say whether he will or won't. And we know that now, Rina's VK certainly jumps towards the top of the free agent list. Will he be back? Is there another team, a better team for him to go to? Just like Alexander. I'm not seeing a lot of wiggle room there. Who goes hauling or racing? I feel like my memory is telling me Romaz there on a multi-year deal. I don't know if Augustine's going to be back. I hope that he is, but I don't know if he will just because they continue to struggle to find funding for that car. So that to me is just a question mark in general, if there'll be a vacancy there. Myerschank racing, that's one that stands out. Felix Rosenkfist obviously has had a couple of tough races in a row. Doing better little earlier in the season has fallen back to 10th in the championship, but we're talking about Myerschank racing 10th in the championship, that's meaningful. That second entry, that's got David Malukas in it right now. Also a free agent for next season. Really impressed the team on debut. Feel like he's going to continue to impress the team. Nothing is signed with the team beyond 2024. So that second Myerschank racing entry is indeed open for next year. Could that be a destination for Rossi? Possibly, would say that if things go well with Malukas for the rest of the year, no promises, but if things go well, I feel like that might be his seat to keep. Could that be a seat for Teo Porsche possibly? Could be. I don't think there's going to be a lack of really good options for that second Myerschank racing entry. What I am comfortable saying is I don't think Alexander would be at the top of their shopping list. And then the last, since we know that Team Penske has no openings, would be Ray Hall, Letterman, Lanigan racing. Might say, hey, it's a perfect fit. Maybe it's a driver swap almost. Christian over there, Alexander coming back. It's possible for sure. As Team Coener, Bobby Ray Hall told me though, in the interview that I'll be putting out here shortly, they have Yuri Vips under contract and they love themselves some Yuri Vips. So not saying that a Rossi or a Teo Porsche or whomever else wouldn't be considered to replace Christian Lundgaard, but I would say look first more than any other driver to Yuri Vips to be the recipient of that opportunity. If for whatever reason that doesn't happen, then it means the team feels that they got a better option. Can also tell you, which again, I feel like I might've mentioned in one of the last podcasts, the day of, I think, the official announcement that Siegel was taking the number six seat and Porsche was out, reached out to Teo, spoke with Teo for a while, but regardless reached out to Teo, helped him with a number of contacts for team owners and team managers and such the ones that he needed. I think having to speak with Bobby Ray Hall the next day, one of the folks that I told Teo to call for sure, was Bobby not being sure where Lundgaard was going to end up or could any of the other drivers in the team possibly not be back next year, so said please, please, please, here's two teams, three teams for you to call right away. Don't disregard the others, but call these three ASAP. Happened to speak with Bobby the next morning, and I think interviewed him for something else and just in the preamble before we started the interview he mentioned he had heard from Teo. So yeah, the day that this went down for Teo with Aaron McLaren, yeah, definitely did as suggested and reached out and so been talking with the RLL for sure for what couple of weeks now. So I feel like whomever the next Christian Lundgaard is in that number 45, hi-v Honda. Bobby also says, don't believe all the rumors you hear about sponsors going away. I feel like they're gonna be in a really good place with whomever replaces Christian and if we're talking a Vips or potentially a Porsche type realize they both have a lot to learn. Most of the tracks would be new to them. Both of them know nothing about oval racing. I realize that Teo's done a little bit of oval testing and such, but the learning curve would need to start in the same way that it had to start for Christian back when he started full time and what 2022? But I'm not feeling like RLL unless they choose a strange driver that isn't amazing. I don't know if RLL comes out so much losing in this proposition. I think they might have some other talent they can develop in that 45 that we might look back in a couple years and go, yeah, that worked out well for everybody. So I don't know if Alexander is the top choice at RLL, the Prema note, and look, I have one thing that comes to mind and I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it 'cause sometimes things fall out of my brain and this is nothing new. Prema and Rossi have been linked for months and months and whatever is potential destination. Signing Rossi would be an instant cheat code for Prema's competitiveness, period. Please sign him. (laughs) I don't know if that's where he wants to go, but please sign him. They have proper funding. They are doing things properly. Have an interview I did with a team that I need to get turned around here, surely ASAP as well. This is a team that I don't think is going to come in and win in their first year or maybe even in their second, but they are doing things in a way so far that really impresses me. A lot of their competitiveness will also be dictated by their engineering roster. And you can hire Max Verstoppen to drive if you do not have the right people in the timing stand to give Max a race winning car, even the reigning Formula One World Champ isn't going to get it done. Assuming they can put hardcore talent on those timing stands, Rossi is just that instant cheat code. Oval expert, what's the thing, new teams, especially European teams struggle at coming over here? Obviously it's ovals, a thing they've never done, know nothing about. Alexander massively skilled on the technical side has developed a great relationship with Chevrolet as well, which Prema will be powered by. Road course, street course, ovals, this guy can get it done everywhere. Indy 500 obviously can get the job done. I don't know if it will be the best fit for him and what he wants, knowing it would be a startup team, but just for the startup team itself, getting their hands on Alexander Rossi would knock two years, if not three, off of their growth arc and learning curve to become truly competitive. Mike Christoff, you mentioned the same thing about it being a natural destination for him. And let me get into the last couple of questions here above the good old red line of death and then let y'all and myself get back to work. Let's see, Idris, what are the chances of Vips at R-L next year and his Pietro seat safe for next year? So the Vips part we already covered off, I think he is the instant front runner, Pietro. They're able to bring some decent funding to that seat. If that is able to continue, then I would say his seat will probably be extremely safe. It's one of the things about entries that have really good drivers, I really like Pietro. I think he is very talented. When you have someone who also is bringing half or more of the budget, you do kind of step away from the, will they keep the driver or won't they? Unless they have other people lined up who are better and bringing the same amount of money, if not more. So I know they would like to keep Pietro 'cause Bobby Rehal has told me that and I take that on his word. So yeah, I think Pietro should be good. Lin, formerly the Spurs fan. Why formerly by the way? I mean, Gold State Warriors are my favorite team, but I mean, I love the Spurs and granted, I'm assuming we're talking basketball. Not the, is it Tottenham? I don't follow that, but San Antonio Spurs, NBA. Yeah, huge, huge fan of the whole Tim Duncan era with him and David Robinson and everybody else. But anyways, MP, do you think a team or driver will have an advantage with the hybrid package at Mid-Ohio? Teams, yes. There are four teams among the 10 full-time that did the vast majority of testing. This is on behalf of their respective manufacturers, which were doing the testing not only for themselves, for the manufacturers, but also for IndyCar. And Dreddy Global, Chip Ganassi Racing, those were Honda's Designese and Team Penske and Aaron McLaren were Chevy's Designese. Between the two, Chip Ganassi Racing was doing, I think the most on the Honda side and Team Penske the most on the Chevy side. Coincidentally, the top two teams in IndyCar happen to be Ganassi and Penske already. They also happen to be the two teams that no more and were involved in more of the development of the system than anybody else, even back when it was bad and clunky and weighed a million pounds and changed vendors and all kinds of like, they've just been in it for a long time. They're full engineering and technical teams, mechanic like up and down, same exact thing for Penske. So I will be shocked if those two teams don't end up winning the race in Dreddy Global as well, even possibly Aaron McLaren. One of those four, because they tend to do pretty much all of the winning hybrid or non-hybrid/filling out the podiums, I'd expect those four to be the best 'cause they know the most, have the least to learn. Between those four? Yeah, if it ain't Palau or Dixon or New Garden or Power or Scotty Mac, I'll be super surprised. That's assuming we don't have MGU failures energy storage system failures, overheating, assuming there are no reliability issues to take those teams and drivers I mentioned out, those are the ones who should win. The question mark though is, hey, reliability. That's a real question. I don't know if we saw a lot of things happen in recent testing at Iowa, at Milwaukee and wherever else that said, hey, these energy recovery systems are just blowing up left and right. So I think going into the first ever hybrid IndyCar race, there should be a high state of reliability. That's what testing has suggested. Famous last words, so we'll see. But yeah, we'll see. Mark Morgan, this is with a new pavement, extra grunt from the power plants. Is this going to be a young gun or a veteran's game to get the balance right? Hmm. I don't know if I am thinking in that direction, Mark. I think we're going to come back to everything I just mentioned. They're the four teams that have proven to be the best in IndyCar based on the positions that they have and the standings right now, who also coincidentally are the ones who have done the most hybrid testing. I think they're going to get the balance better than most. It'll be a surprise for sure if name, a team that wasn't a big part of all this is able to nail the setup of their car better or faster on the newly repaved Mid-Ohio circuit. So, yeah, I don't know if I see any big wild cards here, Mark. Ben Allen, this is MP with a hybrid system. Is it possible to select a lower level of deployment to have almost a permanent small boost instead of all the power for a few seconds? Says thinking like short oval with lots of acceleration and deceleration. I know there are grades and levels of power deployment for the motor. There are multiple map positions that can be used to throttle mapping, for example, engine mapping, where you can go from I want full raging monstrosity. The minute I even look at the throttle pedal to, hey, we got lots of wheels span. The tires are worn out or the balance is way off and I really want to soften the throttle response, the engine response. I admittedly don't know how much of that can be done on the energy recovery side in terms of softening, the deployment if needed. To my knowledge, and obviously I've just told you as limited here, pressing a button, you get the power. 60 horsepower, 33.19 pound feet of torque is the maximum the energy recovery system is allowed to give this season as dictated by IndyCar. Knowing that, I'm not aware of drivers being able to say, well, we want less power specifically from the energy recovery system. I do need to ask about that though, because I just don't know. We know that that can be done on the internal combustion engine, but this is a really good question that I'm glad you asked it 'cause I hadn't realized I didn't answer that in the Q&A. So I'm just making a note here to detune ERS. Question mark, thank you. I'll get an answer and put it in the manifesto, hybrid Q&A thing coming to racer.com. Let's see, Tyler Russell, curious about the headroom of the system built into it. What would the timeline look like for turning up that power? They're sticking to that 60 and 33.19 for the sake of reliability, not wanting to overtax this brand new configuration. Been told for a little while now, the peak horsepower it can deliver is 150. I don't know what the peak torque would be. Will we get to 152 years from now? It feels like that might be a bit adventurous, but the plan is if everything goes okay this year and we're not exploding MGUs to definitely dial up that horsepower. That's possible with the MGU. What I don't know if we can do, I don't think we can do is dial up the energy storage for the ESS, meaning can the MGU hit harder and deploy harder and right, yes. Is it going to make quote more energy that can be used for a more sustained hit of big horsepower? I don't believe so. So harder bursts of acceleration, yes. Definitely that is what they plan to do in 2025. Don't know what that number would be, 80 horse, 100. Again, we'll see, hopefully that happens. But it would still, as I understand things, be confined to that same kind of maximum deployment time of four and a half seconds for a full charge. So you've got 60 full volts energy storage system that is charged to the brim. You hit that deployment button. There are other regulations here that limit how much energy you can deploy per lap. It's going to change from track to track. But if we're just talking about, we got a crazy long straight away and we got a maximum charge and we hit the throttle 100% and then boom, hit the deploy button. You get four and a half seconds until the battery, skeleton supplied super capacitors were out. So there's that. Impsas, for example, things I learned. When I mentioned I've been doing like 12 to 14 hours a day for like the past five plus days, I'll try to get a lot of hybrid knowledge. The Impsa lithium ion battery based system at a full charge and it is a big old battery and holds a big old charge. I was told by the series and its horsepower cap is 67 horsepower compared to the 60 and IndyCar. But it's big old battery. If it had a 100% state of charge and we were at a track where it could be used, no braking, no any, just go, go, go, it would take 80, eight zero seconds to deplete that thing. So, and that's not criticizing IndyCars at all. IndyCars is a, I'll keep saying this over and over again, a marvel of packaging. They had a super tiny space to work within. So they ended up having to make a relatively tiny energy recovery system to work in that space. Impsa building brand new GTP cars, hybrid cars said, hey, we can design this into the thing from the outset. So they made themselves a whole heck of a bunch of space to fit a heck of large lithium ion battery. And so that's why one with the super capacitors which charge super fast and also deplete deploy super fast. Max charge in IndyCar, four and a half seconds of anger. Max charge in Impsa, 80 seconds. Again, if we found a track where they would be full throttle for 80 seconds uninterrupted, yeah, that's what it would do. Let me see, what else do we have? Tyler also says are we looking to verify reliability? First before unleashing the full potential, which you already answered and also says, what a more robust and higher capacity energy storage system need to be developed. This is where we're going in the future. I am confident of that, no decisions been made, but I just have heard keep hearing. Feel like I might have said this before. IndyCar is doing what it can with what it has. They chose not to do a new chassis where you could like Impsa say, hey, we're going to make the new carbon fiber safety cell, the tub, we're going to design it from the beginning to carry a battery lithium ion. And like this whole thing is going to be designed from the ground up to carry a bigger battery and pack more of a punch, bigger everything energy recovery system. This is where the series and the manufacturers think they're going to end up going here in the future. We've heard the series say thinking about a new chassis for 2027, I hope they do, I hope they do. If not 27, maybe 28. I have a strong feeling based on what I've heard for those who know that there is a desire to go to that bigger high voltage system like they have in F1, in Impsa and so on. And so just that's where you could have that higher capacity ESS, like I mentioned, maybe not as big as Impsa's, but that's where these things become possible. Carl Anderson, I think you have, you might have the last question of the show. Yeah, you do. You say did hybrid testing include contact from behind or side such as rear wheel contact with a wall? I know that not every hybrid test got away with completely clean running, but in terms of like, hey, let's go crash a car with a hybrid in it or with the hybrid system, as it's referred to by some, I don't know of that happening. So I think the answer is no. Got some great questions here afterwards. Let's do this. Try not to make these shows too long. Obviously we've got a lot of stuff to talk about with going hybrid, which you just did in the Rossi and Lindgaard stuff and whatever else. Let's say farewell now. There's some other really good questions here. I got a feeling we're gonna have a lot to talk about after Mid-Ohio and the first hybrid race. So the show next week might already be chock full of questions we can see coming in, but some of the questions here that are after the cutoff mark might be worth revisiting Jerry next week. So if I can ask, let's see what we get next week. And since I will be traveling next week, I think, possibly staying over between Mid-Ohio and Iowa. Since, yeah, back-to-back races and flying all the way to the west coast from the Midwest and then being home for like two days and then going back to the same spot more or less in the Midwest, yeah. So I might be staying over next week and if so, might have the ability to do a slightly longer show. And so maybe Jerry, we've been rolling some of the questions in blue and below. That you happen to like. All right, y'all, thanks again for listening. (upbeat music) Look forward to seeing how this weekend goes. We're gonna pray for everybody at Aaron McLaren. Drivers included. Current drivers, recently former drivers and soon-to-be drivers. And yes, may peace and calm be the new way there. Thanks once again for all the questions you sent in, the kindness that so many of you extended myself, my wife, and our cats. And also to our great partners at FAFF Technologies, the Justice Brothers in Toronto Motorsports.com. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
