After almost a month since the season opener at St. Petersburg, the IndyCar Series comes back to action this weekend with its second-most prestigious race of the season, the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Situated on the picturesque southern California coast, the temporary street course in Long Beach has been the site of yearly celebrations of speed since 1975.
North American open-wheel racing initially raced at Long Beach in 1984 after the takeoff of Formula 1, with the occasion a staple on the schedule for CART, Champ Car and now IndyCar in the course of the last three or more decades.
Indycar Series This Weekend In Sunny Long Beach:
1. Bourdais’ Quick Begin
The vibe great story of the season up to this point has been Sebastien Bourdais, who went from most exceedingly terrible to first at St. Pete with Dale Coyne Racing, the little team that could.
The 35-time open-wheel race victor exploited the cutback between St. Pete and Long Beach to partake in testing, including at Sonoma Raceway recently where he was best on the speed charts of 13 members.
Bourdais has had a vital accomplishment at Long Beach, winning the event three successive times from 2005-07 with Newman/Haas Racing.
With the rejuvenation encompassing Bourdais and his engineer Craig Hampson, reunited after together ruling CART in the mid-2000s, the upstart team could be one to watch this weekend.
The most recent two years saw Bourdais complete 6th and ninth in the event with KV Racing.
2. Pagenaud’s mission to begin a run
A year ago, consecutive runner-up finishes beginning the season by Simon Pagenaud drove into three straight victories, setting the phase for the Frenchman’s first IndyCar Series title.
Subsequent to completing the second step of the platform at St. Pete, Pagenaud is hoping to utilize Long Beach as a comparative springboard.
Last season at this event, Pagenaud could hold off Scott Dixon by 0.3032 seconds, the nearest finish in Long Beach history, to win his first of five races in 2016.
Presently in his third season with Team Penske, Pagenaud has turned out to be a standout amongst the steadiest racers in the series. The 32-year-old has only one DNF in the last 28 races going back to 2015, an eighteenth place at Pocono last August.
3. Honda resurgence
The vast majority that took after IndyCar anticipated that Honda, would see an uptick in performance in 2017. Even the freezing of aero kids if just for one reason — Chip Ganassi Racing.
Be that as it may, if St. Pete showed us anything, it was Honda that has made progress over its whole steady, not simply with its new-for-2017 team acquisition in the venerable Ganassi outfit.
The main 10 finishers in the primary race of the season included seven Honda drivers from four distinct teams. Curiously enough, only one of those seven was a member from Chip Ganassi Racing, Scott Dixon in third.
Aside from its victory at the Indianapolis 500 with Alexander Rossi, it was a battle for Honda Performance Development last season. Its only other win came at Texas, another rapid oval. The producer attempted to find strong air setups on short ovals, road courses, and road circuits, with results mirroring those issues.
While it is hard to make judgments on an entire season after only one race, Honda unquestionably must like 2017 up to this point in its fight against Chevrolet.
4. Significance of starting position
While the win by Bourdais at St. Pete was great, it would not have occurred without a convenient alert at the privilege time…or the wrong time contingent upon your allegiance.
Such is the situation at a circuit with a premium on passing, with Long Beach comparative in that vein.
It wasn’t generally that way, with the times of CART seeing a course layout enormous on rapid straightaways, combined with hard braking zones.
Be that as it may, because of Long Beach advancement driving reconfiguration, the course of today is additionally streaming and smooth, with the only moderately generally safe passing zone, being toward the finish of the primary straight heading into turn 1 onto Aquarium Way.
Three of the last four champs of the Grand Prix of Long Beach have originated from the initial two starting rows, including Pagenaud a year ago, who started third.
Notwithstanding, an alert flying amidst a pit stop cycle, drivers who anchor themselves towards the front in qualifying on Saturday, are in all likelihood the ones to vie for a victory on Sunday evening.
5. The issue with brakes
All the discussion in the enclosure at St. Pete was the vulnerability of the new brakes being used by the IndyCar Series this 2017.
That discussion may proceed into this weekend.
It is not the product that is essentially failing as much as the cross section of parts between two makers. IndyCar declared a year ago that it was changing from Brembo to Performance Friction Corporation as its brake provider, however later chose it would keep the Brembo calipers for 2017 while using PFC brake pads and rotors. That blend did not get along at St. Pete, bringing about some few drivers and teams battling issues with overheating brakes.
While both Brembo and PFC have defended their products, the IndyCar Series has overwhelmingly hunted down a long term answer for a formerly unexpected issue. Endeavors to cool the brakes had mixed results at St. Pete, although catastrophic issues were to a great extent kept away from.
Will IndyCar’s luck hold through Long Beach?