The 2013 Silly Season Thread

[GRW1983]

I figured I'd start this thread, given the fact that the schedule is already out so we don't need to speculate on that. We can start to speculate on where drivers are going to be next year and whether or not there will be an increased car count as well. It seems likely that Lotus will leave IndyCar, leaving Honda & Chevrolet as sole engine suppliers. Based on a 25 car field, like in 2012, both suppliers would be expected to provide engines for up to 60% of the field meaning they would have to provide up to 15 engines at least. This could give us around 30 cars next year, providing sponsorship could be put together. Rahal, Schmidt, Foyt, & Dragon want additional cars, plus AFS & Shank want to join full-time as well. Although it seems KV Racing will only field 1 car in 2013, with a merger with Ed Carpenter Racing still possible. HVM need a new engine supplier, and a move to either Honda or Chevrolet will finally give Simona a decent chance to move up the field. So, let the Silly Season begin!!!

My own personal take on how the 2013 line-up COULD look like:
HONDA
Ganassi (4 cars, Dario, Dixon, Kimball & either Briscoe or Barrichello)
Coyne (2 cars, Wilson & Jakes)
Rahal (2 cars, Rahal & Sato)
Schmidt/Hamilton (2 cars, Pagenaud & possibly, Barrichello or Vautier)
Foyt (2 cars possible, up to 20 drivers (according to SPEED.com) have been linked with Conway's seat. A 2nd car shared by Conway on road/street & Cunningham on ovals has been rumoured as well)
Herta (1 car for Alex Tagliani)
Fisher (1 car for Josef Newgarden)
HVM (1 car for Simona De Silvestro, if they do sign with Honda)

CHEVROLET
Andretti (4 cars, Hunter-Reay, Hinchcliffe, Andretti & a link up with AFS to run Saavedra as the 4th car)
Penske (3 cars, Power, HCN & Briscoe, providing sponsorship is found. Can't see "Dinger" racing here next year)
KV (1 car for Tony Kanaan)
Carpenter ( 1 car for Ed Carpenter)
D&R/Panther (2 cars, Servia & Hildebrand)
Dragon (2 cars, Bourdais & Legge)
Shank (1 car for whoever brings the most $$$$$, although they will have some IndyCar experience)

WHO KNOWS???
Coloni (Rumours that this ex-GP2 team want to join the series. They would benefit from the series going to Mugello. Pantano & Filippi would be obvious choices)
Newman/Haas (Rumours that they want to return in 2013 as a 2-car team. Doubtful at best)
Viso (EJ Viso has plenty of backing & could even start his own team)
Fan Force (Indy 500 only at best)
Conquest (Indy 500 only at best, linking up with Andretti again)

So that's my take on things. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out over the coming months.

[GRW1983]

Actually, almost forgot that SPEED are no longer covering F1 in the USA after 2012, so Bob Varsha could soon be available for commentary duties. Given that Paul Page has ended his association with Drag racing and wants to return to IndyCar before he hangs up his mike, both ABC & NBC Sports Network could do themselves a favour by taking these guys on. As a UK Indycar fan, I'd be very happy to see Bob Varsha take Bob Jenkins place at NBC & Paul Page replace Marty Reid at ABC. I live in hope!!!

[GRW1983]

First bit of Silly-Season to comment on with the news that Simona De Silvestro will test for KV Racing at Barber on Monday. It seems that Simona will sign for KV, as Tony Kanaan's teammate, & take the Nuclear Energy sponsorship with her from HVM. Jimmy Vasser has said that his plans are for KV to be a 2 car operation next year (with a 3rd entry at Indy), but he stresses that this is NOT a link-up with HVM. It will be interesting to see what plans HVM have for the current season, given that they are losing their driver & main sponsor & still haven't secured a new engine deal for 2013.

[GRW1983]

Simona De Silvestro has now joined KV Racing as a teammate to Tony Kanaan for 2013 & she is taking her Nuclear Energy sponsor with her as well as some staff from HVM. Also, Seabass has now been confirmed to a "multi-year" deal at Dragon Racing with McAfee as his sponsor. Although Katherine Legge still has TrueCar sponsorship for another season, at least, her fate is still to be decided.

[loowisham]

Who will cover F1?

[loowisham]

Hasn't McAfee been charged with murder?

[GRW1983]

One of the worst kept secrets of IndyCar is now official as Graham Rahal has joined Daddy's team RLLR.

[p1bump]

i threw together the article about the no silly season link... i guess it's up now. I hope something happens that re-piques my interest... topless racing and lower cockpit sides perhaps? Hooter's girls join the drivers ranks? what's next?

[FIAT1]

Indycar silly season with same spec cars is as silly and boring as the series now days.

[Blancvino]

Indycar silly season with same spec cars is as silly and boring as the series now days.

Should be "If-There-Is-A-Season".

[heliocastroneves#3]

A series which produces good racing doesn't need different cars, than you get the same as F1 where always the same cars and drivers are driving up front.. The Silly Season of IndyCar is always interesting since there are some drivers changing teams and of course the schedule changes every year as well, which is quite interesting. The series being boring? There's a lot more on-track overtaking and action in common than in that other motorsport which they call the pinnacle of racing..

[FIAT1]

A series which produces good racing doesn't need different cars, than you get the same as F1 where always the same cars and drivers are driving up front.. The Silly Season of IndyCar is always interesting since there are some drivers changing teams and of course the schedule changes every year as well, which is quite interesting. The series being boring? There's a lot more on-track overtaking and action in common than in that other motorsport which they call the pinnacle of racing..

Yap, and whole 1% of 0.2 agrees with you.

[jarrambide]

A series which produces good racing doesn't need different cars, than you get the same as F1 where always the same cars and drivers are driving up front.. The Silly Season of IndyCar is always interesting since there are some drivers changing teams and of course the schedule changes every year as well, which is quite interesting. The series being boring? There's a lot more on-track overtaking and action in common than in that other motorsport which they call the pinnacle of racing..

I went to Austin this past weekeend and I can tell you that not watching more than 1/3 of the race with a SC was great, I remember watching a couple of IC races in which half of the race laps had the SC, also watching probably some of the best drivers in the world, not to mention watching cars that are improved every year also helped.

I came back thinking that it was money well spent, I am still thinking about buying tickets for the Houston race next year and they are way cheaper.

I appreciate that racing is a subjective sport, you surely have great reasons to find IC the most exciting series today, this weekend, after watching lots of fans that came from so many different countries, I was reminded of how F1 has great ratings around the world (the US being the exception, but IC would kill for those ratings) and IC is not even on the radar on its own country.

[anthonyvop]

A series which produces good racing doesn't need different cars, than you get the same as F1 where always the same cars and drivers are driving up front.. The Silly Season of IndyCar is always interesting since there are some drivers changing teams and of course the schedule changes every year as well, which is quite interesting. The series being boring? There's a lot more on-track overtaking and action in common than in that other motorsport which they call the pinnacle of racing..

Name me one major series that is popular and also Spec.

F1 No
WRC No
NASCAR No(I know they practically are but the series goes out of its way to emphasize that they are different)
Le Mans/WEC/ALMS No
NHRA No
DTM No(See NASCAR)
V8 Supercars No
Super GT No

[Wasted Talent]

name me one major series that is popular and also spec.


gp2


wt

[jarrambide]

gp2


wt

How is GP2 a major series when it is a support series?

[gm99]

A series which produces good racing doesn't need different cars, than you get the same as F1 where always the same cars and drivers are driving up front.. The Silly Season of IndyCar is always interesting since there are some drivers changing teams and of course the schedule changes every year as well, which is quite interesting. The series being boring? There's a lot more on-track overtaking and action in common than in that other motorsport which they call the pinnacle of racing..

Your view of F1 is out-dated and probably based on the Schumacher/Ferrari dominance of the early 2000s. This year, there have been the same number of different winners (eight) in both F1 and IndyCar. And while there are naturally more passes on ovals, on the road and street courses there may well have been more passes in F1 than IndyCar this season.

As to the ever-changing schedule: First of all, I'm not convinced this is necessarily a good thing. However, F1 has also introduced at least one new circuit for the past four seasons or so.

[zako85]

Isn't DTM based on a spec chassis? I personally found the DTM series boring when watching the 2011 reruns on Speed during off season. They are just about to start to air the recap of 2012 DTM races, but I think I'll pass.


Anyways. Who needs different competing chassis now? Indycar 2012 was great. I would have no problems if they keep it this way. IndyCar has a fundamentally good show now. The problem is with marketing necessary to attract more viewers.

[Nikki Katz]

IndyCar teams are struggling for money as it is. I don't think that chassis competition would really improve the show, I have no problem with it being a spec series (though they need to make sure they're not getting ripped off on repair bills). I do see why they needed a new car last year though. I wasn't really in favour of the engine diversity either - whenever one got ahead of the other they allowed the other to catch up for parity, and with the old engines they would have had a couple more cars on the grid, and the Lotus runners wouldn't have been so ridiculously uncompetitive.

[GRW1983]

IndyCar testing this week will see Conor Daly drive for AJ Foyt & Tristan Vautier drive for Sam Schmidt. Also, confirmation from Rubens Barrichello that he WON'T race IndyCar in 2013. Lotus pulling out of IndyCar should mean that both Honda & Chevrolet can provide enough engines to anybody who wants one in 2013, as both manufacturers could expect to supply up to 15 cars each.