Pantano in for Wilson

[Anubis]

Haven't seen it mentioned and wondered what people thought?

Giorgio Pantano becomes the latest driver to stand in for the injured Justin Wilson - IndyCar news - AUTOSPORT.com

Pantano certainly has a huge amount of single seat experience and has raced in more or less everything from memory, so be interesting to see how he goes.

[Will Rogers]

The rapid turnover of replacement drivers at D&R shows how little interest they have in winning. I'm not sure, other than some behind-the-scenes funding benefits, what good comes of having new drivers in their seats nearly every race and finishing someone in the 12-15th place range. You'd think it would get harder to attract sponsors over time with this kind of nonesense.

[SoCalPVguy]

Haven't seen it mentioned and wondered what people thought?

Giorgio Pantano becomes the latest driver to stand in for the injured Justin Wilson - IndyCar news - AUTOSPORT.com

Pantano certainly has a huge amount of single seat experience and has raced in more or less everything from memory, so be interesting to see how he goes.

RBOTW. Ride buyer of the week

[Anubis]

May well be a ride buying arrangement, but I think it's harsh to be quite so dismissive, as he has a very similar career profile to Wilson, and I doubt many here would label him in that manner. Their careers are very, very similar. Both have second tier FIA titles (F3000/GP2), both have F1 experience and both have raced non-FIA "second tier" series (World Series, Superleague, A1GP etc) with reasonable success. Indeed, if we're going to indulge in a pre-Indycar (or CART) single-seat results "Top Trumps", both have markedly better CVs than Dario. I know people are hellbent on young talent, and that's fine, but you need teams for them to drive for. If that means taking cheques from people, I'd much rather they were the Pagenauds and Pantanos of this world than the Dunos and Visos.

[Anubis]

The rapid turnover of replacement drivers at D&R shows how little interest they have in winning. I'm not sure, other than some behind-the-scenes funding benefits, what good comes of having new drivers in their seats nearly every race and finishing someone in the 12-15th place range. You'd think it would get harder to attract sponsors over time with this kind of nonesense.

Might be easier with a sixth place finish behind the five strongest cars in the field though? Not convinced Wilson would've finished that high up in all honesty, so I think Pantano deserves a bit of credit.