IndyCar – Wilting Lotus?

By: Kevin Neely It’s official. Team Barracuda-Bryan Herta Autosport and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing are no longer Lotus powered teams. The official release came from Lotus PR this morning. “Lotus has taken the decision to reduce the number of cars it runs from five to three for the remainder of the season. As a consequence of this decision, Lotus has made offers to Bryan Herta Autosport LLC and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing LLC to end the agreements with them. Bryan Herta Autosport LLC will not participate in any further races…

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IndyCar – Chevy is Back! Momentum Baby!

This past week has been a mounting crescendo of articles coming out from increasingly reliable sources making the claim that GM would be back in IndyCar for 2012. Autoextremist, Autoblog, Speed, Autosport and now Curt Cavin at the venerable Indianapolis Star have all weighed in. The rumor can be put to bed. There will be an announcement made at the IMS Hall of Fame Museum on Friday at 10am EST welcoming Chevy back into the fold for 2012. Other parts of this rumor have indicated that Chip Ganassi will be…

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Innovation, Spec Racing & GP2 Cars Outclassing Their Big Brothers

GP2 Cars Faster than the Cosworth End of the F1 Grid A curious thing happened today in Monaco. Several of the GP2 cars put in faster laps than some of the new F1 teams. F1 is the undisputed pinnacle of modern motorsport with fantastically large budgets, while GP2 is a spec feeder series. As eloquently put by Flavio Briatorre, “There are teams in F1 who are only two seconds quicker compared to GP2 teams and they are spending 60-70 million while GP2 costs three million. Something’s wrong there.” Just imagine…

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IndyCar – Bad News from the VW Conglomerate

The VW group has indicated that they will not be providing an engine for the as yet undetermined new specifications for 2012. Autosport quotes VW Motorsports Director Kris Nissen regarding a new IRL program, “I am not 100 per cent sure of the latest status. But I think it is not realistic for the moment that the VW group will do it.” Kris goes on to indicate that the whole US market needs to stabilize and the IndyCar series needs to grow and develop before they would be interested in…

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F1 – FIA OK with Re-Homologation

Engine homologation in F1 has been a bit of a black art. The teams were allowed to make ‘reliability upgrades’ to their cars, but those upgrades have increased engine performance. So much so that Renault was allowed to make special engine upgrades during the offseason to catch up. New concerns over the performance level of the engines have come up, with many in the paddock saying that the Mercedes engine is at a very clear advantage, especially after their performance at Monza. The FIA has responded to requests from FOTA…

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