Racing lines: cockpit safety will always count for more than good looks in racing
Designers may have taken a back seat to safety regulations, but that's not a bad thing in our view
Do aesthetics count for anything with modern single-seater racing cars? Adrian Newey certainly cares how his Red Bulls look but, in truth, form must always follow function when you’re chasing tenths of a second.
Anyway, increasingly restrictive regulations have come to define the shape of racing cars more than a designer’s eye, throttling creativity and leading to a high degree of homogeny. Can you remember the last time you saw a really good looking new single-seater racing car? I’m not sure I can.
Earlier this month, the Indycar Series broke the 2020 racing hiatus for single-seaters – or open-wheelers as they’re known in the States – when the rescheduled season kicked off at the Texas Motor Speedway near Fort Worth. This was a big moment for Indycar under Roger Penske’s new ownership and, with the eyes of the racing world trained on the 1.5-mile Texas oval, the onus was on ring-rusty drivers to put on a decent show and race safe around one of the most fearsome tracks in America.
The 200-lap race turned out to be devoid of too much incident – both good and bad, if we’re honest. Rather than anything unpleasant, the main talking point was the brilliance of Scott Dixon, the veteran New Zealander dominating to take his 47th career victory and equalling Texan legend AJ Foyt’s achievement in winning at least once across 18 different seasons. Like Tom Kristensen, how Dixon never got a chance in Formula 1 is one of the weirdest racing anomalies of the past 20 years.
*AERO SCREEN DEFLECTS CRITICISM*
The Texas Indycar race was so tame that even the most obvious and significant development was barely a factor. While F1 has pioneered new levels of cockpit safety with its controversial ‘halo’ bars, Indycar has persevered with extensive testing of aero screens – and this race marked the first time they had been used in the white heat of competition. The good news was concerns about visual impairment for drivers appeared largely unfounded. The bad news was just how ugly they made the cars look.
Now, modern Indycars haven’t been a thing of automotive beauty for a long time, and the new screens, which wrap around the cockpits but fall short of a full aircraft-style canopy by remaining open at the top, certainly don’t make them look any better. But when it comes to safety in motorsport, there’s never any going back once something is introduced that might well save lives. Just ask the families of British Indycar heroes Dan Wheldon and Justin Wilson, both killed on US ovals, how important improved safety is over racing car aesthetics.
Like the halo in F1, Indycar fans will just have to get used to it – because there can only ever be one answer to that question. Forgive me, it’s the most used cliché of 2020, but aero screens on Indycars are the ‘new normal’.
*FERRARI EYES INDYCAR ENTRY*
The Texas race also marked the opening salvo of McLaren’s first campaign in a full Indycar season since 1979, as rookie Oliver Askew finish ninth and Mexican Patricio O’Ward 12th for the team known as Arrow McLaren SP. The removal of McLaren’s F1 blinkers under Zak Brown’s watch has been refreshing as the company has looked to expand its racing enterprise.
Mass redundancies and the crippling pressures of Covid-19 must clearly be the priority right now, but hopes remain high that McLaren will one day soon also return to the Le Mans 24 Hours, a race that it conquered back in 1995 with its F1 GTR.
But the British company isn’t the only one looking beyond F1 for the first time in years. Ferrari, too, is openly considering an Indycar entry and might also be tempted back to Le Mans for its first bid for an overall win since the early 1970s. As far as Indycars are concerned, Ferrari has a limited back story. In the 1950s, when the Indianapolis 500 oddly counted as a points-scoring round for the new F1 World Championship, Alberto Ascari made an unsuccessful trip to the Brickyard in 1952.
Since then, a switch to Indy only ever raised its head when Enzo Ferrari wanted to rattle F1’s cage by threatening to quit over whatever political row was raging at the time, most famously in 1986 when Ferrari even built and tested a car it named the 637. It eventually pulled the plug on a campaign that was earmarked for Bobby Rahal and the US Truesports team.
But this time an Indy bid isn’t being kicked about as a political football. Instead, team boss Mattia Binotto has made it clear that F1 and Indycar campaigns could run in parallel – and it’s all a consequence of the new budget cap set to be introduced to F1 next year.
The plan has been confirmed to limit team spend to $145 million (£114m) in 2021, excluding driver contracts, with further year-by-year reductions to come. Ferrari was long opposed to such restrictions, not simply to protect its competitive edge above all bar Mercedes but also to avoid downsizing its bloated team and being forced into a raft of politically and socially troubling mass redundancies.
Now, instead of forcing its staff out of work, Ferrari is considering a redeployment in other areas of motorsport. Formula E is said to be of little interest, but a US foothold in Indycars and a return to Le Mans with a new hypercar makes much more sense. Mercedes, too, has admitted an expansion into other series could also be on the cards for its racing staff, having already embraced Formula E. F1’s budget cap was certainly not designed for the greater good of world motorsport, but removing the grand prix blinkers could turn out to be an indirect, wholly unexpected and welcome benefit.
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