MFW podcast episode 39
More Front Wing podcasts, Podcasts — By More Front Wing Staff on April 20, 2011 1:03 amOn this episode of the More Front Wing podcast, newly announced Indianapolis 500 driver Pippa Mann returns to the show to discuss her ride with Conquest Racing in the #36 entry for this year’s race. Also on the show, Versus.com blogger Jeff Iannucci, formerly of MyNameIsIRL.com, makes his first appearance to help Paul and Steph look back at a very controversial race last weekend at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
To listen to the podcast, click on the player below or search ‘More Front Wing’ on iTunes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Tags: Conquest Racing, EJ Viso, Helio Castroneves, Indy 500, Long Beach, Mike Conway, Pippa Mann, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Verizon IndyCar Series - Administration
Good show guys. Great to hear Pippa’s thoughts on the frustrations of trying to get a deal signed, and the relief when it happens! Great to have Jeff on too, nice input.
Kerfuffle is definitely a word! Surely there’s an e on poutine so it should be ‘teen’ not ‘tin’.
Race starts/restarts. How did they start the races in years past? Surely two wide for the first 3 or 4 rows at least, which is as much as you can hope for at Long Beach. To only form up the first row is…odd. I’m willing to say the original start was ugly and they didn’t want to waive off because Beatriz already caused a slight delay (maybe?). On the restarts, I do think it was deliberately done to avoid mass carnage at either turn one or at the fountain. In some respects I kind of agree with that call (if it was a call), sure it was embarrassing to be strung out but to a layman they won’t see that, it would FAR more embarrassing to have five or six cars in a pileup at the fountain because nobody would back off.
Turn 11’s “rule” should never have happened. Enforced no-passing zones should only ever happen if there is accident damage to the circuit, say the barriers have been hit earlier in the race and there’s no time to fix them without throwing a 3-hour red flag so you hold a static yellow there for the race. Or if the place is so so tight and narrow, like at Macau or Pau, that going two-wide means one car runs out of steering lock to make it around the corner. But everywhere else, to set it up before the race? Crazy.
Sato’s F1 pattern was that he crashed almost every week in his first year or two, then settled down to be fast with some crashes. He won’t ever stop crashing but he will settle down and put in good performances and I think we’re seeing that now. I am a bit of a fan because when he’s good, he’s very good… he just crashes way too much.
Btw I plugged you in the general discussion thread of an F1 podcast/blog which live-comments IndyCar: http://sidepodcast.com/post/daily-21st-april-2011/
By the way, Bourdais has been struggling with open wheelers lately. First with Toro Rosso, then with Superleague Formula (using Panoz/Elan chassis!). His Peugeot runs were much stronger. It was great to see him start to make some progress from his lowly starting spot and a real shame he was taken out.
Thanks so much, Pat! Poutine has French origins — hence the ‘tin’-sounding ending. I agree on all your other points!
[…] to a Twitter feed full of kerfuffle. It seems to have started with @99forever on the @MoreFrontWing podcast (it’s next in our weekly listening queue – you should make it a habit!), and spilled […]
Holy smoke, I’m only halfway through the ‘cast right now, but I’m hoping that Paul’s voice goes back down the two octaves that it went up while talking about the Helio non-penalty. “Take it easy, Champ. Maybe you should stop talking for a while.”
In all seriousness, great show so far.
Great show team! I loved the discussion about Helio’s non penalty; my first thought was “that’s criminal” and that he should be in Jail…. oh wait. He should be in Jail (there, I said it)
Great to hear Pippa’s interview, especially commenting on her style of driving. I think she can adapt to the more aggressive corners as well over time. That’s what has me excited to see her getting a shot to get into the mix.
One thing I haven’t seen addressed is that Bourdais had visible traffic in front of him in the pit. I don’t fault Marco as much as I think a pro driver like Sebastian had the opportunity to see that situation and did not predict Marco’s options as well as he should have.