(Photo: Chris Owens / INDYCAR)
By Aaron Bearden
After each NTT IndyCar Series race, Motorsports Beat will share a piece breaking down the stories and takeaways from the weekend. This is a report on the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg from the streets of St. Petersburg.
NTT IndyCar Series
Who Won?
Colton Herta, and it wasn’t close. He led almost the entire race in a dominant display from pole.
Top Stories
A star in the making
Colton Herta and his father Bryan Herta stand together on the NTT IndyCar Series wins list with four wins apiece after the younger driver’s victory this weekend at St. Petersburg.
The difference? Bryan needed 158 starts to reach that point at age 29. Colton’s there in 34 starts at the bright young age of 21.
That’s not to knock the elder Herta – a memorable veteran of American open wheel racing in his own right. It’s to showcase just how meteoric Colton’s rise to the upper echelon of the IndyCar ranks has been.
The 21-year-old put together perhaps his best weekend yet in St. Pete, claiming the pole and dominating the field in a suffocating performance where he led 97 of 100 laps. Even two-time champion Josef Newgarden couldn’t faze him with an attempted late charge, falling more than two seconds off-pace at race’s end.
It was a statement drive from a rising star, showcasing how complete he is as a driver despite his young age. Neither father (race strategist) nor son (driver) showed any weaknesses, with Bryan answering an NBC question over who was more nervous during Sunday’s race by saying “neither of us.”
Herta’s potential been strong enough for the legendary Marco Andretti to offer him the ultimate praise, telling the Indianapolis Star that Herta is :”he most most complete race drive as anyone I’ve ever known at his stage of his career.”
Mario’s son Michael Andretti understands, too. Herta’s Andretti Autosport team owner knows that runs like Sunday’s could be enough to get the attention of F1 teams, something that happened to Andretti himself in the 1990s.
To his credit, Michael vowed not to stand in Herta’s way should a top team shows interest, telling RACER “if a team like Ferrari calls him, I’m not going to stand in his way on it.”
Whether Herta will ever make such a leap remains to be seen, though runs like Sunday’s make it a tantalizing option. It’s been many years since American race fans had a driver at a high level Formula 1 team.
But in the short term he’s still running in IndyCar.
After a result like Sunday’s, that may be a problem for the rest of the field.
Team Penske finds form
Team Penske teammates Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud made their way to the podium after Sunday’s IndyCar showdown and enjoyed the complimentary drinks, pomp and circumstance that come with it.
Neither driver found themselves on the top step, but both were content with their days.
In most weekends coming so close to victory without reaching it would be a letdown for members of Roger Penske’s illustrious organization. Penske drivers have made habit out of winning any and everywhere over the years, and particularly at St. Pete. But after the disappointing runs both drivers had endured at Barber Motorsports Park, they were both happy with a finish in the top-three.
Newgarden found himself in desperate need of a bounce back, mired deep in the points after setting off a massive crash on the opening lap of the Barber race. So while he was obviously eager to win, a second-place result did the two-time champ’s title ambitions a world of good.
“We were in the mix today without a doubt,” he said afterward. “We were in the fight, just came up a little bit short. But I think a lot of the work from all the people at Team Penske is paying off, and it’s good to get a podium finish for team Chevy and Hitachi.”
Pagenaud hadn’t endured a crash at Barber, but had struggled in that race and entered St. Pete with a trend of poor form on road and street circuits dating back to 2020. So a third-place result was enough for the 2016 champion to build on moving forward to Texas Motor Speedway.
“I think the street course package is very satisfying,” Pagenaud said. “I think we’ve made big improvements, especially since we were here last year. We had a good understanding what we needed from the car, and we found a really good package for my style. So very excited about street course racing.”
They didn’t get the top results of their teammates, but Will Power and Scott McLaughlin were also left with things to be proud of leaving Florida.
Power was able to overcome a rare miscue in qualifying to salvage an eighth-place result, closing to within two points of Alex Palou for the championship lead after the Chip Ganassi Racing star had a difficult outing.
“Inside the top 10 was our goal starting the race,” Power said. “Obviously qualifying was pretty disappointing, but yeah, solid pit stops today. We tried to catch a few yellows and finish in the top five but it just didn’t work out.
“We passed a lot of cars on track and the car did really well. Really good day.”
McLaughlin’s run was a quiet one amid challenging conditions, but he braved them to lead the rookie trio in 11th, a respectable result given his lack of experience.
Sunday wasn’t a bad day overall for Team Penske. Now they’ll try to build and reach for their first win of 2021 in Texas.
Hot and heavy
Sunday’s race was the first hot one of the year for the IndyCar field, adding extra challenge to an already difficult street circuit event.
The end result was a brutal race for many of the drivers that left a few questioning what can be done about the intense heat moving forward.
“Have never been hotter in a race car in my life,” Conor Daly tweeted after the race, sharing a photo showing that his heart rate has nearly maxed out for over 45 minutes. “Struggled to breathe about halfway through the race till the end. Hope we can figure out a way to fix that.”
Have never been hotter in a race car in my life. Struggled to breathe about halfway through the race till the end. Hope we can figure out a way to fix that. Strategy was working for us and had some good pace until the end. Tough day, we’ll be better at the next one. #aimhigh pic.twitter.com/XXWVcWbXw8
— Conor Daly (@ConorDaly22) April 25, 2021
Formula 1 crossover Romain Grosjean called the race ‘the hardest thing I have ever done physically” in a post-race tweet. His fellow rookie McLaughlin shared a photo of the blistering on his left hand while calling it “by far the hardest race I’ve ever done physically.”
Even race winner Colton Herta asked for cold water while saying he was “dying from the heat.”
The heat isn’t new to IndyCar competitors at this point. Implementation of the aeroscreen cockpit safety device has shielded drivers from debris and their competitors’ tires since the start of the 2020 season, but the device encloses the majority of the cockpit and can make for a hot time behind the wheel compared to the open air cockpits of the past.
Heat was a significant issue last summer in the July race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as a few other tracks as IndyCar worked to remedy the situation.
There were fewer complaints about the excessive temperatures as the season went on, but Sunday’s hot show in Florida indicates that there still may be work to do in order to keep drivers from enduring risk of heat exhaustion during some of IndyCar’s hottest, most physical races.
Notes
- It was a quiet day for second-place starter Jack Harvey, but also a successful one. The Meyer Shank Racing ace completed his entire run near the front of the field, falling only behind Newgarden and Pagenaud to score the team’s second best result to date in fourth. Something to build on.
- Andretti Autosport and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing couldn’t get away from each other at St. Pete, with a pair of run-ins that Andretti drivers got the worst of each time. James Hinchcliffe suffered a flat tire after contact with Takuma Sato, with Alexander Rossi suffering the same fate in a collision with Graham Rahal later in the race.
- Jimmie Johnson’s learning curve continues to be a difficult one, though there have been a few signs of promise. Johnson closed the gap to his competitors down to roughly 1.5 seconds per lap in St. Pete, but suffered a pair of spins in a difficult street course debut. NASCAR fans tuning in just to watch him are going to need to be patient this year as Seven-Time learns and tries to grow.
- Scott Dixon looked like his usual championship self on Sunday, quietly slotting fifth after a difficult day to keep the points lead within reach. He sits two points below teammate Palou leaving Florida.
- Speaking of Palou, he had an atypically difficult day. The Barber winner seemingly regressed, dropping from 10th to 17th in a challenging afternoon.
- Dalton Kellett suffered engine woes and pulled off-track on Lap 67. The caution flag never came for it, leaving him to go sit in a nearby pace car and wait for an opportunity to return to the paddock.
- The quietest of the Ganassi gang so far has been Marcus Ericsson, but that’s not to say the Swedish sensation has ran poorly. Ericsson’s put together clean races in eighth and seventh so far, leaving him ninth in points and within four points of a spot in the top-five heading to Texas. If he can stay issue-free in the Lone Star State then Ericsson might be able to put something together this year.
Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Results
- Colton Herta
- Josef Newgarden
- Simon Pagenaud
- Jack Harvey
- Scott Dixon
- Takuma Sato
- Marcus Ericsson
- Will Power
- Rinus Veekay
- Sebastien Bourdais
- Scott McLaughlin
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Romain Grosjean
- Ryan Hunter-Reay
- Graham Rahal
- Conor Daly
- Alex Palou
- James Hinchcliffe
- Pato O’Ward
- Ed Jones
- Alexander Rossi
- Jimmie Johnson
- Dalton Kellett
- Max Chilton
