Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren, has expressed his main worries about the Indianapolis 500, addressing everything from the series’ bloated fields to its subpar officiating.
This brings up the age-old “quantity vs. quality” controversy. Zak Brown disagrees with IndyCar’s assertion that its full fields and high overtake counts are signs of a strong series.
Zak Brown: quantity over quality and “poorly-executed” races
Before Sunday’s street race in Toronto, Brown spoke candidly with Motorsport.com about his thoughts on the IndyCar series, beginning with the idea that the officiating system has to be changed.
“These were badly executed races, if you look at Detroit and Laguna,” Brown remarked. “Those were bad races because we had to restart procedures and things of that kind, even though I know it was pre-hybrid.”
While he did commend race steward Max Papis and IndyCar president of competition and operations Jay Frye for “listening well,” he thinks that IndyCar’s failure to impose harsh enough penalties is the main source of the issue.
According to Brown, “it’s not really a penalty if you give someone a free shot at someone and their penalty is to just give the position back.” “Only careless overtaking and excessive driving are encouraged at times. “Hey, I just have to give it back if I get it wrong.”
Brown proposed using a Formula 1 strategy, in which drivers who receive penalties are given an additional five to ten seconds before their next pit stop, to stop “banzai” style racing. He contends that it would raise the standard of racing.
Regarding quality, Brown expressed his opinions regarding the wide fields in the IndyCar series in great detail.
“Quality must take precedence over quantity,” he stated to Motorsport.com. We frequently [prioritize] the quantity of cars. Our automobile count seems excessive to me.
“I don’t think 27 cars are necessary. 20–22–24 excellent cars, in my opinion, [is plenty]. I believe that we should establish a better balance between quantity and quality because we are concentrating too much on the former.
There is much to analyze in Brown’s remarks.
Primarily, it is evident that Brown is approaching IndyCar with a Formula 1-centric perspective, and the American open-wheel series has frequently made a significant effort to establish itself apart from its global competitors.
In fact, compared to Formula One, IndyCar’s “very simple” regulations have garnered praise from Formula One drivers like Kevin Magnussen.
But Brown’s F1 mentality might also be obscuring the recent past.
Even though American open-wheel has been around for more than a century, its past is full of drama, conflict, and almost failed attempts. Numerous splits in American open-wheel racing have resulted in series and sanctioning organizations that go by different names, including USAC, CART, the Indy Racing League, Champ Car, and more.
Reunited in 2008, primarily to escape bankruptcy, CART and Champ Car produced the current incarnation of IndyCar.
Thus, one of the simplest ways that IndyCar has been able to gauge its progress is by looking at large car counts in races. A competitive field was also observed in races with a large number of overtakes.
Given that IndyCar has seen significant change in the nearly two decades since its reunification, Brown’s worries are understandable. If anything, Brown’s depiction of the series’ evolution since 2008 is flawless.