Wednesday evening saw the announcement of the car concept for the next era of the IZOD IndyCar Series starting in 2012, as decided after much deliberation by the ‘ICONIC’ committee.
Wednesday evening saw the announcement of the car concept for the next era of the IZOD IndyCar Series starting in 2012, as decided after much deliberation by the ‘ICONIC’ committee. This was a chassis announcement, engines were briefly discussed but they were not the focus of this decision.
The Committee
The qualifications of the committee seem to me to be unquestionable.
Gil de Ferran – Indy 500 winner, IndyCar and (former ALMS) team owner, former sporting director of Honda F1;
Tony Cotman – among many other things the man responsible for the Panoz DP01 project at Champ Car, also the chief steward of Indy Lights I believe;
Brian Barnhart – President of Competition at IndyCar;
Tony Purnell – founder of Pi Research, formerly ran Jaguar F1 and Ford’s Premier Performance Division;
Neil Ressler – former Chief Technical Officer at Ford Motor Company;
Eddie Gossage – President of Texas Motor Speedway;
Rick Long – Speedway Engine Development;
and of course the new superstar CEO of IndyCar, Randy Bernard.
It was chaired by retired General Bill Looney, apparently he was responsible for a major engineering project in the US Air Force.
I can’t think of a better driver to consult than Gil de Ferran, he’s won races in the current cars and the CART Lolas, and has management experience in three major championships. Cotman was the last man to bring in a new car to a budget in North American Open Wheel racing and he and his group learned a lot, it is good to see that knowledge being called upon. Purnell and Ressler have a close working relationship from their time with Ford and Jaguar. Gossage is perhaps the most creative track owner/promoter in the series at the moment. Continue reading “IndyCar – A New Hope”
Following my visit to the Cathedral Paddock and a quick stop trackside I made my way to the main paddock area, it is called the Formula 1 Paddock but actually is the home to a little more than that. I’ll recap my trackside visits in my next post, for now let’s take a walk around the Formula 1 Paddock to see what delights it holds.
Following my visit to the Cathedral Paddock and a quick stop trackside I made my way to the main paddock area, it is called the Formula 1 Paddock but actually is the home to a little more than that. I’ll recap my trackside visits in my next post, for now let’s take a walk around the Formula 1 Paddock to see what delights it holds.
This is a far busier paddock than the other one as it contains F1 cars, plenty of sportscars from Le Mans and elsewhere as well as various racing bikes, and these are all very popular. It means you can’t get a good look at the cars unless you are either very patient or you can push your way through.
If you’re approaching from the House (and the other paddock) you’ll first pass the ‘assembly area’ which is where cars and drivers form up before a run, unfortunately it was empty when I first came through so I made my way to the first row of cars.
Audi R15 Plus with the ugly tusks on the front (unusually for a car coming straight from Le Mans this one had been washed, normally they leave the dirt on); Next to it is the Audi R8 LMS which raced at the Nurburgring 24 Hours (with Marco Werner’s helmet on the roof – he drove at the Festival);
Next to the Audi R8 LMS was the BMW ‘Art Car’ from this year’s Le Mans, and you can see the other sportscars lined up in that row including the CRS Racing Ferrari from the Le Mans Series, at the very end of the row was the 1991 Silk Cut Jaguar XJR14 which is just gorgeous!
One of the great things about Goodwood is how you can walk alongside and behind the cars to get a good look at them, the by-product being you get to check out the rear view of the adjacent row such as with this 1954 Mercedes W196 sitting behind the Audis. Just around the corner you find other classic Grand Prix cars including the legendary Maserati 250F, and this BRM and Ferrari 246 Dino.
This is a Vanwall and a Brabham. Behind the Vanwall you can see a classic Lotus and the ‘new Lotus’ transporter. There’s a small Indy car presence too, the third shot here shows classic cars from 3 eras, the red car is a Maserati converted from Grand Prix racing.
One of the highlights of the entire day was this 1965 Lotus-Ford in which Jim Clark won the Indy 500, I saw it here last year mid-restoration as a static display and they promised to bring it back this year and run it up the hill, which they did all weekend.
They cars are exhibited in widely-defined collections, so you have a line of sportscars, a line from Lotus, a line from Williams, a line of pre-war GP cars and so forth. I really enjoy seeing the lineage and the development of a team’s cars over time particularly when they wear the same livery.
The Lotus collection including the 72E, 79 and 95T. In the middle photo of the 79 you can see some of the other cars lined up with the Indycar at the end, the car with the gold scheme is the 56B with a turbine engine.
Just as with the lower paddock, in the top paddock you can turn a corner just as an engine near to you is fired up. Here is what I believe is the Tyrrell 006, minus engine cover.
Ahh the sweet DFV. Sorry it is such a short clip and the camera is being waved around, better than nothing right?
A couple of shots of the 1994 Lotus because I’d never seen it before, it is quite a rare car to see in public nowadays. I’ve seen the 1993 Williams here several times but I never pass up an opportunity to take a look at my favourite-looking Formula 1 car of all time.
All that remained to be seen in this paddock were the contemporary Formula 1 cars. I’m afraid I skipped the motorbikes, I do watch MotoGP but I can’t say I’m a huge fan of bike racing in general and know little of its history.
Mercedes GP brought the championship-winning Brawn GP 001 painted in this year’s colours – I understand the PR reasons for doing so but really, a championship winner needs to remain in the original colours.. McLaren brought the MP4/23 from 2008 as well as a 1986 MP4/2C. Williams took Keke Rosberg’s FW08 which Karun Chandhok drove up the hill and what was reported as the 2010 FW32 which Sam Bird drove that day, though usually F1 teams aren’t allowed to run their current cars due to testing restrictions so I’m not sure how true that is. You can see members of HM Armed Forces having a quick tour at Williams.
I actually saw Chandhok and Bird while I was snooping around the Williams garage, unfortunately I only got the back of Karun and my shot of Sam didn’t come out well at all.
He did come back but I was too shy to say anything to the man or get a photo with him, I’m not very good with famous types when I’m on my own, not a clue what to say! Not sure why that guy is smirking at me..
One last thing in the paddock..
Red Bull RB5 being warmed up with the great juxtaposition of the music before and after! For those who have never heard a Formula 1 car in person, know that the music was fairly loud and the car really genuinely is that much louder. Apologies for two videos, I stopped it when the woman walked in front.
That about wraps it up for the content in the main paddock, I’ll be back in a couple of days with a report on another aspect of Goodwood!
This post is part of a series on the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed, you can read my previous updates here:
All images and the YouTube video used in this post were taken by Patrick Wotton. You may use them if you assign the appropriate credit and link to this blog.
I Watch Too Much Racing 