The RACER Mailbag, September 20

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to [email protected]. Due to the high volume of questions received, we can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.

Q: I know I will not be the only one disgusted not only by the hate being sent to Callum Ilott by “fans” of Augustin Canapino, but also the complete public silence from JHR and Canapino himself. It was not helped by Ricardo Juncos himself in an interview he gave, insinuating that Ilott was to blame for the incident and questioning his place in the team. It makes me wonder if Juncos’s view of Ilott may be one of the reasons the rumored alliance between McLaren and the No. 77 are now seemingly not going ahead?

Chris Donati, Bristol, UK

MARSHALL PRUETT: I have a ton of respect for Ricardo Juncos, but the way his team handled the April attack on Ilott, now with the new one on Ilott added in, was pathetic. When you wait more than 24 hours to post a response, and that response is weak as hell, the actions speak to a team’s intent.

Here’s the greater issue: If Canapino returns, he’ll tangle with someone at another race, and maybe it will be a Colton Herta, or Josef Newgarden, or Scott Dixon. If this is the snap response Agustin’s most passionate followers are ready to uncork whenever they perceive the other driver to be at fault, IndyCar has a big problem to deal with. So far, all the hate and threats have been fired at Callum, but this blowtorch could just as easily be turned on any driver in the series.

IndyCar needs to take control of the matter, meet with the Juncos Hollinger team, and put an action plan together if Canapino will be back in 2024. The team has shown it either lacks the skill or interest in handling such things swiftly and credibly, so the series needs to intervene and create an emergency plan that it enacts and manages for its next appearance.

Q: Talk to me about online abuse. Callum Ilott is again receiving threats and abuse from Argentinian fans. So much, in fact, he has privatized his accounts. What concrete steps has IndyCar taken to protect Ilott? What concrete steps has Juncos-Hollinger taken to protect their driver?

We have a bland statement from Juncos-Hollinger which in no way, explicitly or specifically, condemns the behavior of Argentine fans towards Ilott. Canapino has liked Tweets making fun of the situation. This is unacceptable. Ilott’s partner is afraid of visiting Argentina. Why should others feel safe?

Kristopher, Seattle, WA

MP: Let’s not limit this to people from Argentina, because you don’t have to be Argentinian to be a fan of Canapino and you don’t have to be Argentinian to make vile threats online.

IndyCar was motivated to push back in April, but I didn’t see anything similar this time around. The team clearly feels Callum is to blame and clearly doesn’t take the hostilities aimed at him as something to worry about. It is unacceptable, and this seems to me like the perfect scenario for IndyCar to step in and handle the situation moving forward.

As for the last question, you’d need to leave the U.S. if you feel unsafe when social media threats are made. You might need to leave Earth, for that matter, so let’s not be precious here and do the fear-mongering thing on an entire country because some people said nasty things on Twitter and IG.

Q: Why can’t IndyCar grow? Why does the series have to live off a decade-old car, one TV partner, one race (Indianapolis 500) and one city (Indianapolis)?

Kurt Perleberg

MP: To be fair, it is growing, but at a slow rate. NBC’s TV ratings report last week was a perfect example: there’s been growth, but the year-to-year increase in viewership was two percent. We’d rather see 12 than two, but it’s not zero, so that’s good. In 2022, we had 24 full-time entries. In 2023, we had 27, and had a new entrant in Abel Motorsports make its debut at Indy.

But to your point, if IndyCar wants to pursue bigger ratings and bigger audiences, trying something new would be the way to go. Otherwise, this march of small, incremental gains will continue.

Q: Has IndyCar ever considered using the GT500/Super Formula engines? If they could get Honda, Nissan and Toyota to agree and then convince Chevy to build one, it’d be great for the series. Even without Chevy, three is better than two, isn’t it?

William Mazeo

MP: The “why doesn’t IndyCar use someone else’s engine formula” debate never ends, but the one place it doesn’t happen is inside IndyCar’s offices. Nissan and Toyota have had the green light to join this new formula since 2012 but they have passed. If they want to be here, they can. IndyCar doesn’t need to change its formula to make it match another series; doing that might drive Chevrolet and Honda others away, and there’s no guarantee Nissan and Toyota would jump in.

Q: Thank you for answering my question in a recent RACER Mailbag. I had wanted to know what to do when you can’t send an SASE for driver autographs if not from the U.S. You mentioned that one squad pays $90 for belts and surely teams could afford postage and need to keep international fans. In the response to my query, you mentioned that you wanted to wait and see if any teams or IndyCar reach out about this.

It may be early, but I am wondering if any have on your end? I realize the season just ended and it’s musical chairs with drivers and teams right now, but I was hoping we could get their overall stance on international fans. Keeping that policy for the U.S. only makes a heck of a lot more sense to me when other countries don’t have access to outgoing U.S. stamps.

David Colquitt

MP: Hi, David. I heard from zero teams about this. Sorry, man.

Q: Is it possible that Andretti pulled back on Grosjean’s contract because they found out they’re losing DHL? Or is there something else sinister within their relationship that hasn’t been heard yet?

Bill, Fresno, CA

MP: The team is rumored to have received $250,000,000 in funding from its new partners in 2022. Money ain’t the issue.

Full Story »