Yet again, IndyCar heads into a season boasting the largest field of full-time competitors since the reunification of American open-wheel racing in 2008. And that’s only a good thing for a series that isn’t making any sweeping changes in 2023, and has had an off-season littered with negative headlines.
It’s not something to be expected from a championship whose on-track product is very good to excellent almost every weekend, and whose centrepiece race – the Indianapolis 500 – has delivered extraordinary racing that fits its elevated stature. But there have been truly discouraging developments.
When IndyCar introduces hybrid powertrains next year, it won’t be accompanied by a new generation of internal combustion engines as originally planned. The 2.2-litre turbocharged V6 engines that have been the standard of the series since 2012 will remain in use going forward. Nothing is fundamentally wrong with the current batch of ICEs supplied by Chevrolet and Honda, of course. But while the company line pins the indefinite delay of the new engine on the ongoing supply chain shortages which have impacted every corner of motorsport, you don’t have to read too deeply between the lines to see that it’s more a product of a continued fruitless search for a third engine supplier.
IndyCar is jumping in with its own behind-the-scenes reality television show. A great idea on paper, but centred around the one race on its calendar that doesn’t need the extra push in publicity. The series’ rights for racing simulations were strong-armed into an unpopular exclusive contract with a company that has produced almost nothing but assets for a title that they never developed, shutting out a major avenue for younger fans to engage with IndyCar.
On top of all this, one of the series’ most accomplished teams – Andretti – is in an ongoing dispute with Formula 1 just to get into the world championship, where seemingly no amount of financial backing or OEM alliances they’ve put together will overcome the series’ opposition to new competition.
IndyCar has struggled to escape niche status in the American sporting landscape at large, the split of 1996 having long kept it in NASCAR’s shadow, and now F1 has captured the nation’s imagination to a degree never seen before.
And yet, there is still reason to be optimistic that the series that can seemingly do nothing right lately can treat its fans to another…
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