Contemporary off a commanding victory on the Grand Prix of Portland, reigning and four-time IndyCar Collection champion Alex Palou and his race strategist, Barry Wanser, disregarded calls from rival drivers to overtake IndyCar’s longstanding blue flag rules.
The protection from the Chip Ganassi Racing pair is available in direct response to post-race frustrations voiced by podium finishers Felix Rosenqvist and Will Energy, who each focused the sequence’ dealing with of backmarkers after ending second and third, respectively.
Rosenqvist voiced sharp criticism following the race, urging IndyCar to “develop up” concerning how lapped visitors is managed after each he and Palou misplaced essential time caught behind Louis Foster previous to their closing pit stops. Energy echoed these frustrations following his personal visitors nightmare. After a radio communication difficulty left him out on observe an additional lap on fading tires, Energy was held up massively by Sting Ray Robb, dropping almost three seconds whereas battling the backmarker side-by-side into Flip 10.
A annoyed Energy slammed the protocol, calling for driver intervention if race management refuses to behave.
“It is sort of ridiculous we’ve a 1970’s rule happening: ‘However we have at all times carried out that’. Yeah, it is somewhat bit totally different now. Drives me loopy all these automobiles,” Energy mentioned. “If IndyCar will not do something, I believe all of the drivers get collectively and have a gents’s settlement. ‘IndyCar: We do not make the foundations, we hold the identical ones because the ’70s.'”
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Nonetheless, Wanser pushed again in opposition to the notion that the foundations want updating, emphasizing that drivers battling to stay on the lead lap are absolutely inside their rights to combat for observe place.
“I believe we have established with IndyCar that so long as you’re battling to remain on the lead lap, even while you come a lap down, when you’re not a lap all the way down to your entire area, you are not blue flag eligible,” Wanser defined. “You will have the proper to be there and combat. A yellow can provide you a chance to be again on the lead lap, then you definitely’d be combating for a better place.
“That is simply a part of IndyCar. We have been caught behind lapped automobiles earlier than. I am certain it would occur once more sooner or later. That is simply a part of how we race.”
Palou, the 29-year-old Spaniard who continues to solidify his dominant period within the sequence, firmly backed Wanser’s sentiment. Quite than altering the rulebook to accommodate main automobiles, Palou pressured that officiating consistency throughout all occasions is the one requirement that really issues.
“I agree,” Palou mentioned. “I believe so long as we hold it constant, it is the identical for everybody. We had races the place the visitors damage us lots and sort of allowed everyone to shut the hole. We had Portland final 12 months the place that slowed down Energy and (Christian) Lundgaard in entrance of me. I used to be capable of shut a 10-second hole.
“Yeah, so long as we hold it constant, I am completely happy. Similar for everybody.”
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