Comments on: How Level Is The Playing Field?

By: Simon Garfunkel

Simon Garfunkel — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:06:22 +0000

It looks like your fears were confirmed when Bourdais showed up but had no engine to run today. You’ve turned out to be right saying that Lotus teams should have BIG concerns. Like the guy above said…I wonder if Lotus will last the year. This isn’t good.

By: james t suel

james t suel — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:47:44 +0000

I have to go along with [ cleanupcrew] an the lapper!

By: The Lapper

The Lapper — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:09:17 +0000

I was just getting ready to say…..the same thing. An excellent post Cleanupcrew.

By: Cleanupcrew's Spell Checker

Cleanupcrew's Spell Checker — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:17:41 +0000

LOTUS appears to be a complete farce. You only have one engine ready to go for your 5 teams? Ridiculous. How in the world are they going to be ready to go in 4 weeks? Or even if they are “ready”, how are they not going to be miles behind the Chevy an Honda teams?

At this rate, you have to wonder how long they even last in 2012. Will they bail after the Indy 500? Especially if they get their doors blown off and a few of their cars don’t make the race.

One thing for sure….getting to 33 cars at Indy could be a real chore this year with these stick-up-their-ass engine folks running the show again. Pretty sad to see the great Indy 500 get dragged down with the rest of this mess in AOW.

By: JohnMc

JohnMc — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:42:59 +0000

I am as stoked as ever this year and I am very excited about this week in Sebring. With that said, I think a lot of our questions will be answered this week in regards to engine performance. However, I do expect Lotus to be up for the task, but I think your suspicions on their limited engine supply and the engine situation with Dragon are correct. It will be interesting. I also want to see if there is any development between the teams regarding the areo package and how the big teams are going to seperate themselves. As for my take of sandbagging…maybe, but not as much as one would think because these cars/engines need some work up to the season and I don’t think a couple of months is all they have had to get ready with the new car. That is just my opinion and, of course, your mileage may vary.

By: redcar

redcar — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:10:21 +0000

Lotus may sandbag, since that’s what one of their cars will apparently have in place of an engine.

Looking forward to hearing about these tests though and then on to the Texas oval next week…uh…nevermind. Um. No test. Uh, equipment shortage or maybe lack of driver enthusiasm or, uh…whatever.

By: madtad1

madtad1 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:14:33 +0000

The teams will definitely be sandbagging in several areas: engine performance, settings for the new suspension componants, as well as settings for the aero kit. Since all aero kits are the same (grrrr), I’m sure everyone will be closely examaning the other teams setups there too. I fully expect to see the most competitive drivers just slightly edging up the speeds over their “rivals” as the practices go on.

Having seen part of the earlier work being done at Sebring, there will need to be s lot of tweeking before they can really put the pedal to the metal. Beyong what i listed above, they will also be playing with the gearboxes trying to find the right ratios. Dont forget too that this is the 1st year with the hand clutch for leaving pit row which apparently also takes some getting used to so you dont stall out. Plus, everyone has to learn/relearn left foot breaking as the pedals are configured much differently than before.

All in all the smaller teams who have not yet been able to perform much testing will have a steep learning curve to overcome in just two days work. Throw in the inevitable engine or mechanical failure or, God forbid, a wreck, and any team could be way behind the eight ball…