21 year old Mexican Patrico O'Ward wins Texas Indycar, hopes for
F1 test.
He has been doing quite well at Indycar, but this was his
first win.

from
https://racer.com/2021/05/01/brown-wants-rules-encouraging-teams-to-give-herta-and-oward-a-shot-at-f1/

By Chris Medland | May 1, 2021 10:20 AM

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown wants regulations brought in that would
increase the chance of rookie drivers getting a chance in Formula 1,
saying he would love to see Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward make the switch
from IndyCar.

O’Ward took pole position for Arrow McLaren SP for the opening race at
Barber and then Herta impressed on his way to victory at St. Petersburg
last weekend, igniting the topic of IndyCar and F1 crossovers. Brown
says not enough IndyCar drivers get a chance to impress in F1 machinery,
and believes all young prospects would benefit from a change in regulations.

“I think that now we have such limited testing that it’s very difficult
to take a risk with bringing on a driver that you think could have the
caliber to be a Formula 1 driver but doesn’t have the time or track
knowledge,” Brown said. “So if I look back and put my fan hat on, I was
excited when Michael Andretti came over, when Jacques Villeneuve came
over, when Juan Pablo Montoya came over.

“I think IndyCar is recognized as one of the best championships in the
world, and so when you see a talent like Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward who
drives for us in IndyCar, I’d love to see those drivers get a shot to
compete in Formula 1. But I think we need to give them more seat time.

“One of the things I would like to see — and I don’t have a set number
in mind, I don’t know if it’s three times a year, maybe it’s five times
a year — mandatory Free Practice 1 where you have to put in a young
driver. Maybe every team has to go to the same circuit; maybe every team
has to do it four or five times a year and you can pick your circuit; I
mean, those are details to be worked through. But if we could get
someone like Colton Herta or Pato O’Ward some testing time, some Free
Practice 1s, then I think you could better take decisions which would
create new opportunities.

“So younger, exciting drivers would help… and it’s not just in the North
American marketplace, but IndyCar obviously breeds extremely good racing
drivers, and I think that creates excitement, it would help with the
U.S. market and the young driver market.”

While Brown acknowledges more teams might provide more opportunities for
young drivers, he insists that wouldn’t solve the problem of teams
needing to take a risk if those prospects haven’t been able to prove
themselves at all.

“I would love to see a day when we have 11 and 12 teams, and I think if
you look at the wealth in this sport from an ownership standpoint I
don’t think the sport has ever been stronger. We no longer have — to my
knowledge — any teams with any sort of financial risk to them, when
(before) I think the sport has always had two or three teams on the
brink at any one time.

“I think because of the budget cap coming in and the fact that the sport
is so much healthier now, I’m hoping that we’ll see some more teams come
in. If we could get back up to 12 teams you’ve got four more seats; but
I also think that sometimes teams don’t change drivers because they
don’t know where to go without taking a bigger risk.

“So I think what you might see is a higher turnover in drivers if teams
went ‘Actually, I’ve got more opportunity.’ If you look at Red Bull and
AlphaTauri as an example, they’ve bounced drivers back and forth a
handful a times, and if there was someone else waiting in the wings
that they felt they had seen enough of, maybe it wouldn’t have been
moving drivers back and forth, it would have been, ‘We gave you an
opportunity, it didn’t work, we’re moving you out because we’re bringing
in another driver.’

“So I think the seats are there, and I think the talent’s there but the
talent has not been able to show its talent for a team to be able to
take enough risk.”

also worth viewing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_IndyCar_Series

On 3/05/2021 11:37 am, a425couple wrote:

So after Indycars get the hard sell in this group I decide to start watching a few races (delayed
because ... reasons) then you post spoilers? Thanks, you've saved me a few hours and reminded me
not to have my judgement swayed so easily.

--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed self-promoting software.

On 5/2/2021 7:08 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
> On 3/05/2021 11:37 am, a425couple wrote:
>
> So after Indycars get the hard sell in this group I decide to start
> watching a few races (delayed because ... reasons) then you post
> spoilers? Thanks, you've saved me a few hours and reminded me not to
> have my judgement swayed so easily.
>

Right.

After years of constantly criticizing Indycar,
(and generally disagreeing with me about most everything)
you really, honestly, and truly were going to try
it, , , ,
Until I ruined it all for you.

Right.

Were you ever willing to take responsibility
for yourself?

a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/2/2021 7:08 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
>> On 3/05/2021 11:37 am, a425couple wrote:
>>
>> So after Indycars get the hard sell in this group I decide to start
>> watching a few races (delayed because ... reasons) then you post
>> spoilers? Thanks, you've saved me a few hours and reminded me not to
>> have my judgement swayed so easily.
>>
>
> Right.
>
> After years of constantly criticizing Indycar,
> (and generally disagreeing with me about most everything)
> you really, honestly, and truly were going to try
> it, , , ,
> Until I ruined it all for you.
>
> Right.
>
> Were you ever willing to take responsibility
> for yourself?
>

Eh? Bit difficult to “take responsibility for yourself” when the spoiler is
in the header isn’t it?