Yeah, retirements are a killer in fantasy. I have been reminded of that weekly this season.

Not a super race if I'm honest, but I didn't really expect it here. Good result for Max, who despite all the praise he does get, still feels underappreciated for how amazing he is. Like its easy to say, well, Max has the best car so what do you expect? But his consistency, relentless pace and ability to never make mistakes is unparalleled in my lifetime. Schumacher, Prost, Senna, Hamilton, all of those guys and more were amazing drivers, but all of them had more mistakes and mishaps in them than Verstappen does. He really is one of the greats. Top five all time at this point I'd say. Remarkable.

Had a good result in fantasy finally. Every single race rollnloop had extended his lead so I needed to hit back. And this time it took a while before my drivers started taking each other out, rather than crush my hopes on the first lap, so thanks guys. Rolled the dice on Ocon for some reason and that worked out. Fate is fickle.

Good race in Long Beach yesterday, did you see it Jens? Scott Dixon, man. What can you say? Just keeps driving at an elite level even after all these years. What a driver. Newgarden got screwed by Herta. That has to be so frustrating.

Pourchaire impressed, crossing 11th in his debut and having only taken his first Indy car lap Friday. Long Beach is not ideal for a debut but he passed with flying colors. Indy car is hot right now. This should be a good season.

That was 13 intense laps at the end of the Indycar Long Beach GP. I was thinking that if ever I met Scott Dixon I would ask him how is it possible to save so much fuel as he did, even allowing him some brief applicaton of the push to pass button? It is insane and almost like he generates fuel and can just spit it into the tank. He was probably slightly aided by Colton punting Josef in the gearbox. So O´Ward was penalized for getting into someone on the first lap, Lundgaard was penalized for holding his line out of the pits while Kirkwood didn’t yield, but Herta wasn’t called out for moving Newgarden out of the way? Good luck, Indycar, ruling on similar situations In future races.

Agree on Puchaire. Very impressive debut from the F2 champ with so little time to prepare.

I also thought, how much I want Long Beach in Raceroom. And an Indycar game. Now! Please!

Yeah, I expected a penalty for Herta. How can you just ram someone out of the way, and nothing happens?

BMP up next, and that's always a good race. A track in the mold of Road America and Mid-Ohio.

Now the races ar coming fast and hot!

In more Indy car news, Newgarden and McLaughlin's results from St Pete were thrown out and Pato O'Ward declared the winner. It is against the rules to deploy push to pass on the restart before the line and both were found to have done so, which wasn't discovered until Long Beach I guess. That's a killer penalty, but you gotta play by the rules, and it looks like Penske purposely cheated, so reap what you sow.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/penske-newgarden-loses-st-petersburg-indycar-race/10602791/

I think it shows intent and culpability beyond excuse. The drivers pushed the button before push to pass should be available so they clearly knew the capability was there and used it. It wasn’t a case of Penske looking to utilize the unfair advantage but a blatant violation of the rules, and they were rolling up to the Long Beach race with the same scheme. Will Power either wasn’t told or elected to not engage the cheat mode.

I have a lot of respect for Josef Newgarden.

Recounting the events from his perspective and as I understand his statement, apparently there is no check nor technical preventative measures to ensure that push 2 pass can only be activated when and where it is allowed, ie the system works on Gentleman’s honour.

This could as far as I know be plausible and certainly this could be checked and corraborated.

Somehow his garage had convinced themselves that p2p was allowed where it was in fact not.

Why Indycar would not ensure technical measures or at least clear concise documentation at drivers’ meetings to prevent such misunderstandings ocurring might be an area to investigate and improve upon. Additionally, the team ought to have this information at hand; pit speed limits, tires that must be used and crucially; when application of p2p is allowed.

I can totally see why Scotty Mac would emulate his Bus Bro Newgarden if he had access to that erroneous interpretation of the rules, and also why Power would perhaps have his own interpretation of the rules, while not knowing about what Josef and possibly Scotty Mac were thinking.

Typing it out here intending to convince myself that is was all just a massive mistake, a faux-pass and a gargantuan brain fade, I must admit that I’m not really successful in doing that.

On to Barber!

Yeah, I get it but I don't buy any of what they are saying, which is a shame because Newgarden is one of my favorite interviews in the series. Really like that guy.

But this was cheating pure and simple as far as I am concerned. I don't buy any of it, that they somehow "thought" the rules were changed at Thermal or something. I mean, come on. At top level motor racing you don't operate because you 'think' something, you have directives, and official notifications, and it would have been drafted and handed out to all teams, here is the change we have made to the rules.

I would much rather they say, we got caught looking for an advantage that was against the rules, we accept our penalty and will ensure it does not happen again. Instead they are giving interviews saying we didn't mean to cheat. No way. This makes it worse for me and I've lost a lot of respect for Penske after this. In my opinion they knew exactly what they were doing and thought it would not be detected, I guess. Not sure what they were thinking, but posing as if it was all an innocent mistake is insulting, to me. And I am sure it is to every other team and driver on the grid.

And my understanding is the push to pass system is enabled/disabled on a signal from race control. Penske modified the software to ignore this. So if I am correct, it's not a thing where everyone can deploy PTP before the line and don't because it against the rules, but rather they are prevented from deploying until the race control signal, it is disabled, except in those three cars where the system was circumvented (though Power did not use his)

Wow what a crazy race at BMP. Can't recall the last race when so many drivers just drove off the track. It's a tough circuit, demanding physically and has lots of turns going up or downhill. Good track.

I wish Penske hadn't won this one if I'm honest, but Scotty Mac had a bit in his teeth and drove the wheels off that car.

That was pure action all the way! Santino Ferrucci was on fire and I kind of wished he could have won. Pato O’Ward could learn a thing or two from Santino about how to execute bold and agressive manouvers cleanly. And I gotta hand it to Scotty Mac as he was unbeatable.

A lot of argy-bargy - ‘scuze me, I’m coming through, which livend up the race.

Barber is a strange track, if the various sim renditions I’ve driven are accurate, I think I understand why so many drivers were caught out by driver error. It is really a tricky one to get right with long long turns, many of them blind going over crests, and odd lines like turn 5.

I must admit I was not able to see the humour in Georgina the mannequin falling off the bridge and nearly getting on the track. Stupid idea having something like that being able to fall close to where the drivers are going although the slightly misleadingly named “aero”screen would probably ensure protection against injuries.

Yeah, there can be nothing loose like that on an overhead walkway. Could have been way worse. Lesson learned I reckon.

Malukas has been let go as his recovery is taking longer than expected. Not sure who will get his seat, or if they will run a platoon. McLaren's not off to a good start and need to get it right.

Back at it this week boys, Miami is the venue and it's a good track in my view. A nice mix of high and low speed. In the inaugural race I was critical, which in retrospect I think was mainly the result of poor camera positions and angles. Once the track was released in the sim and I drove it I had a much better opinion of it. If we ignore all that surrounds the event, like the celebrity walk and the fake marina, we are left with a good racing track. Overtaking spots in to turn one, down the back straight and at the end (turn 11), and at the end of the next backstraight (turn 17) before the final corner. The turns 5-8 complex is also a battle ground if anyone gets off line through here.

Weather can be a factor of course. Get your fantasy sorted and good luck

Danny ric shone in sprint quali, and a nice livery for those white bulls too !

It's quite suspicious Lance outqualified Nando ?

He sure did. What a remarkable session, the drivers were really struggling and few ran a good lap. Max's bobble in the last chicane should have dropped him to fifth or something, but instead he sits on pole. No one could take their chance.

So many mistakes in practice and qualifying I am thinking we could see some action-packed racing out there. Track has low grip? Sure looked like it but the evolution should come in during the Sprint. Probably not much in the way of support races this week?

What do you mean about Aston, like they conspired to have Lance finish ahead of Fernando?

They don't need to conspire about it, Nando throws some glory scraps at him every now and then, just to secure more love from Big Daddy Stroll.

He does do that lol. But I can't believe they would compromise anything to elevate Stroll. Words, sure, but qualifying? I think it just worked out this way and nothing planned. Stroll's actually been fast all week so far.

But you might be right!

Fookin' Stroll. Good grief man.

Good job by Danny Ric. I made two changes, bringing in Gasly for Albon and Danny Ric for Ocon. Good moves, and then Stroll screwed me. DNF's are a killer

KMag was a wild man out there today, he kind of screwed me too because the Haas were running 7th and 8th but KMag was piling up the penalties.

I think we will have a fun race tomorrow

KMag is probably running shotgun for Hulk, attempting to secure the points for the team by becoming the mobile roadblock for any pursuers. In my opinion it is not pretty, potentially damaging to his reputation and also possibly inviting some future pay-back by drivers he has frustrated.

Did Danny Ric grow a sleazy moustache? It appears so on a youtube thumbnail I’ve seen.

Stroll

Danny ric

Haas have two drivers, the Hulk and THE WALL