Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers will be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embody a query usually tend to be printed. Questions obtained after 3pm ET every Monday shall be saved for the next week.
Q: I do know it sounds fickle, however after watching Method 1 fumble throughout itself to all of a sudden speak to Normal Motors now that Michael Andretti has stepped down, I’d like to see a complete energy transfer from GM as soon as negotiations are full:
“After cautious consideration we have now determined Method 1 wouldn’t deliver sufficient worth to the Normal Motors model to warrant the upheaval of its addition to the collection.”
Third provider in IndyCar engines as a substitute?
Brad, Seattle, WA
MARSHALL PRUETT: I’ve heard the GM-to-IndyCar rumor since 2010 however can’t discover any proof that claims it should occur. Fingers crossed.
Q: The announcement that Wayne Taylor Racing will function the Cadillac GTP program in IMSA for 2025 didn’t point out Andretti World as a companion. The RACER.com article famous that Wayne Taylor stated the workforce title was modified from WTRAndretti to WTR on the request of Cadillac. Is Andretti World nonetheless concerned? Looks like there’s extra to this when a major companion’s title is faraway from the workforce title.
What’s the newest beyond-the-scenes developments with Andretti World/Cadillac’s efforts to get into F1? Is the Andretti World F1 facility actually persevering with to workers up and work on a 2026 automotive? I’ve learn hypothesis that with each Michael Andretti and Greg Maffei out of their respective roles, together with the U.S. Dept. of Justice investigation continuing, that there could also be a compromise within the works to permit an eleventh workforce on the grid. Feedback attributed to Mario Andretti and Eddie Jordan not too long ago suggest one thing is within the works sooner somewhat than later.
David, Danville, CA
MP: You despatched this previous to Monday’s formal affirmation of the Cadillac F1 program being accepted for 2026, however as I wrote within the first Mailbag after Michael was uninstalled at his personal workforce, all of my sources positioned this as a high-level transfer to weed out the problematic features of Cadillac’s efforts to succeed in F1.
Liberty Media had main points with Andretti. And Normal Motors, as I used to be instructed, additionally took subject — far an excessive amount of drama and public-facing instability for its liking — and an initiative to maneuver ahead with out the Michael Andretti distractions was hatched to get Cadillac into that eleventh F1 entry slot.
Every thing we’ve seen since then has fallen in step with what these sources spelled out in September as a result of that’s exactly what’s been unveiled.We additionally famous how, in all the pieces previous to Michael’s exit, the F1 workforce was introduced as Andretti+Cadillac, and the way in a post-Michael world, the brand new positioning was of Cadillac because the entrant, minus the Andretti title. However that by no means meant the Andretti workforce went away.
Consider the Sauber F1 workforce, which glided by Sauber or some model of Sauber ceaselessly, and the way it fell again and renamed itself Alfa Romeo Racing from 2019-23. All of us knew it was Sauber making the automobiles and operating the workforce, but it surely was introduced as Alfa. That’s what’s happening with the elimination of Andretti from the now-it’s-Cadillac-F1 routine.
On the WTR facet, Andretti World is concerned, however principally by title via possession of WTR as a substitute of being intermingled within the workforce’s day by day actions. Andretti utilized a major layer of oversight and involvement of their first season collectively in 2023, and the result was removed from harmonious. Andretti pulled again and let WTR be WTR in 2024, which was tons higher, and that’s the way in which it should doubtless keep.
Regardless of being glorious in sports activities automobiles for a short interval from 2007-08 within the former American Le Mans Sequence, Andretti World will not be consultants in IMSA or hybrid GTPs, whereas WTR are among the many finest, making the latest shift in direction of being a standalone operation a sensible one by its mum or dad firm.
If GM joins IndyCar as a producer, I’ll rejoice by carrying one thing fancy like a bowtie to the press convention. Matt Fraver/IMS Photograph
Q: I’ve been to the Roush Automotive Assortment a few instances every time there was an open home when NASCAR got here to Michigan. There’s a Whistler Mercury Cougar IMSA GTO automotive, and shut by is Tommy Kendall’s All Sport Mustang that he raced in Trans Am. Simply by wanting on the our bodies, it appears to me the IMSA GTO and Trans Am automobiles from the late ’80s and early ’90s look fairly related. What are the similarities and variations between IMSA GTO and Trans Am from that period, and will automobiles from these rivaling sanctioning our bodies compete in each collection?
Brandon Karsten
MP: Roush routinely rebodied his Bob Riley-designed tubeframe Ford/Lincoln Mercury/Merkur GTO and Trans Am automobiles to make use of in each collection. Engine displacement and configuration have been the principle differentiators, however the automobiles — minus paint and stickers — have been largely similar.
Q: In your podcast two weeks in the past you stated that when a brand new chassis comes on the market shall be solely 25 automobiles, not 27 like IndyCar has now. Why is that, and which groups will lose a automotive?
Paul, Indianapolis, IN
MP: It’s not official, however each workforce proprietor I’ve spoken with relating to charters has stated in some unspecified time in the future that they count on the discharge of latest automobiles to coincide with Penske Leisure trimming the sector from a max of 27 automobiles to 25.
As for the place the 2 deleted automobiles would come from, there’s no reply, because it hasn’t been formally adopted. However I’d begin with the three-car groups (Andretti, Ganassi, McLaren, RLL and Penske) as the primary candidates to cull one automotive. The opposite choice to deal with is whether or not model 2.0 of the constitution, assuming the 25-car restrict is applied, would permit extra non-charter entries to attempt to qualify for these 25 spots.
Would a type of three-car groups trim to 2 chartered automobiles and attempt to bump their method into the races with a 3rd and newly unchartered automotive, supplied it was allowed?
Q: Good on FOX for not solely getting one in every of their extra in style personalities into the five hundred Tempo Automobile, but additionally utilizing chunk of prime NFL pregame present to announce it to the midday Sunday NFL viewers. Now, possibly Michael Strahan might have been higher knowledgeable about a few of the particulars of the job forward of him, however to have Will Energy’s automotive and the tempo automotive there within the studio with them and to spend that a lot time on it — these are good indicators.
Aitch, Richmond, VA
MP: It’s the most recent instance of how the FOX deal is the most important achievement by Penske Leisure because it purchased the collection. The NFL pre-game present on FOX is sponsored by Verizon, so utilizing Energy’s Verizon-sponsored automotive through the shoot was a sensible and apparent selection.
However I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t inform you that in a paddock that’s at all times on excessive alert for issues that might be a battle of curiosity in a collection owned by Penske the place Penske additionally competes, not each response to this has been optimistic.
A name from one individual requested why Penske was utilizing the chance to profit himself with one in every of his automobiles on a giant nationally televised present, as a substitute of serving to one of many different IndyCar groups — probably one which isn’t as financially safe — to make use of the hit to land a large sponsor. I can see how Penske-helping-Penske was the takeaway for some, and if the present wasn’t sponsored by Verizon, I’d doubtless agree. However this made sense to me, so I don’t agree.
