2016 Verizon IndyCar SeriesOpen Wheel 

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GOTMAXPOWER
Vegas has been dropped for 2012; http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96696

I can understand why but this could've happened at any of these type of speedways.
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Which is why, depending on the results of the ongoing investigation, they might abandon all high-banked ovals.

The racing is better on the shorter, flatter ovals as it is. I think they should see it this way... What works for NASCAR will not work for Indycar.
 
Newman/HAAS must be in dire financial shape to disband the team. I would have liked to see them pursue other venues (Grand AM, ALMS), but if there is no money, then there is no reason to race.
 
Must say, the cars look much better in liveries, still could use some visual improvement though.
 
I actually quite like how the new cars look. I'm not an Indy car fan, but I definitely like the new car over the old one. Maybe I'll catch a few races on TV this year to see them in action.
 
I don't love the Lotus Black/Gold, I liked the green better, but it could be changed from the test car.
Are Lotus & KV Racing Technology 2 different teams?
 
Any photos of the Lotus black and gold? I can't seem to find them.

To answer your question, yes: Lotus and KV are two separate teams. They were the one team in 2011, but Lotus delayed in getting the engine ready, and so KV opted for the Chevrolet engine for the 2012 season.
 
Lotus is not a team, its a sponsor and an engine supplier (or rather, a re-badged Judd supplier).
 
This is the black and gold Lotus-HVM car.

HVM.jpg


Found it on Lotus' Facebook page. 👍
 
So is on KV Racing? :boggled:

New cars look awesome though, better than the old ones, I feared they would be ugly! :scared:
 
I'm pretty sure if you waved enough money at almost any non-manufacturer team in any motorsport they would let you change the team name. Lotus have basically been doing this all over the place.

I don't consider a sponsor coming in and paying enough money to re-name the team as "owning" the team. Even if they bought out the team, is it really a "Lotus" team without any "Lotus" personnel beyond a common owner?

Anyway I digress, in the current situation, there is no "Lotus" team, only a team heavily sponsored by Lotus - which is HVM. The fact they've recently jumped ship from one team to another only cements further the idea that it isn't really much of a "Lotus" team so much as a "Lotus" sponsor.

To be fair, it is a pretty damn grey area though seeing as there are so few real manufacturer teams these days and the deals Lotus are doing are pretty typical these days. But to keep things less confusing when this happens, lets just refer to the teams by their independent names rather than sponsor names eh?
 
From Autosport forum:
John Oreovicz:
If Rubens Barrichello promised his wife he wouldn't race Indy cars, why is he reportedly doing a seat fitting today at KV Racing?

I'm kind of happy but slightly worried about this. I don't want to see another Wheldon accident and I'm not sure I want to watch Indycars anymore. But I want to see Rubens race and I'm sure he will do well.
 
Ardius
From Autosport forum:
John Oreovicz:
If Rubens Barrichello promised his wife he wouldn't race Indy cars, why is he reportedly doing a seat fitting today at KV Racing?

I'm kind of happy but slightly worried about this. I don't want to see another Wheldon accident and I'm not sure I want to watch Indycars anymore. But I want to see Rubens race and I'm sure he will do well.
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I can't imagine a better place for Barrichello to go, he's great friends with Kanaan they even swapped helmets once (I think it was 2006 at Monaco Rubens used Tony's helmet) Kanaan would show him how it works over in the states, IndyCar is pretty much as safe as F1, freak accidents could happen in any series.
 
He had already expressed interest in running the Indycar series, or at least the Indy 500, once his time in F1 was up. I think his wife was just concerned because of Wheldon's death.

But, as we all know, it was a freak accident and the chances of it happening again are extremely slim.
 
Ardius
I'm kind of happy but slightly worried about this. I don't want to see another Wheldon accident and I'm not sure I want to watch Indycars anymore.
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Indycar will no doubt be safer this year. The DW12 chassis was designed to improve safety; the cars cannot launch themselves off one another anymore.
 
prisonermonkeys
Indycar will no doubt be safer this year. The DW12 chassis was designed to improve safety; the cars cannot launch themselves off one another anymore.
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They can't take off over the rear wheels but it looks like the front wheels can still interlock, if I remember right Wheldons car took off after front wheel to front wheel contact.
 
Any news on who Jean Alesi is going to attempt to qualify for the Indy 500 with? I guessed at HVM as i'm sure he said he was going with a Lotus team, he is part of their staff after all.
 
prisonermonkeys
Indycar will no doubt be safer this year. The DW12 chassis was designed to improve safety; the cars cannot launch themselves off one another anymore.
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Its naive to think that simply by changing the car and various other regulation tweaks that safety has been improved adequately.
The investigation into Wheldon's accident and its research hasn't had time to be properly used yet.

I'm sure they won't run the same kind of oval racing again at such constant-high speeds. But oval racing will always have this very dangerous element to it for open cockpit cars.
Simply sticking some flaky bodywork around the rear of the car isn't going to stop cars going airbourne full stop - NASCARs have plenty of bodywork but still sometimes manage to get airbourne.

I already felt a little nervous watching Indycars on the ovals, now sadly I've had my confirmation of what I feared.

I will probably watch some of the road races but I don't think I can tune into an Indycar oval race again.
 
Ardius
Its naive to think that simply by changing the car and various other regulation tweaks that safety has been improved adequately.
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And it's cynical to think that just because a freak accident happened in one race, it is bound to happen again and that there is nothing that can be done to stop it - especially when the new cars were designed in response to many of the concerns raised about racing in such close proximity. Wheldon's death was a tragedy, but it was also a confluence of events that played out in a very specific way. There were, quite literally hundreds of variables involved in the accident, and if you changed just one of them, you change the entire outcome of the event. If Wheldon had been going a little faster or a little slower at the time of his first contact with another car, then his car could have landed in the catch fencing at an entirely different angle and he would probably still be alive today.

I'm not denying that driver safety is an issue here. You are correct in saying that you cannot assume that car and regulation changes have completely eliminated the problem - but at the same time, you cannot assume that they have done nothing to fix the problem.
 
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