sucker punch or fight of the century?
F1 has had its Senna/Prost and Schumacher/Villeneuve championship prize fights, and now MotoGP has its Rossi/Marquez mayhem, paving the way for Rossi’s Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo to claim a controversial third title.
Multi-titled Valentino Rossi and
outgoing champ Marc Marquez had been
engaging in a war of words for much of
the year, but their dispute took a bitter
turn following Rossi’s claim that Honda’s
Marquez was trying to help countryman
Lorenzo. Rossi and Marquez then clashed
The simmering issue of Honda’s IndyCar
aero-kit performance gap was resolved, at
least in the short term, with confirmation
that it would be permitted to significantly
revise its package. IndyCar rules allow such
development if any manufacturer’s aero
deficit is deemed detrimental to the series.
Mark Miles, president and CEO of IndyCar,
said full-scale wind tunnel tests conducted
at Windshear in Charlotte clearly showed a
discrepancy in performance between the
two makes – but only in road course/short
oval configuration, meaning speedway aero
kits for the 100th Indianapolis 500 will be
unchanged from ’ 15, bar tweaks in a limited
number of pre-agreed development areas.
“Next step is that Honda has to present to us the parts they’d like us to consider and then we’ll take those parts back to the wind tunnel,” Miles said. “We’ll examine the data and determine what changes we might approve. This gives Honda a chance to close the gap before we go into the next year of aero kit competition.”
Lorenzo was largely a spectator to the Marquez/Rossi feud, but even his faultless ride to victory in the Valencia finale stirred conspiracy theories.
Chevrolet, naturally, bristled at the
news. “All manufacturers received the same set of aero regulations and subsequent updates,” noted Jim Campbell, Chevy’s U.S. vice president of Performance Vehicles & Motorsports.
Honda-aligned team owner A.J. Foyt had mixed feelings. “I want to be competitive and I do feel like we had our hands tied, but you hate to see everything equal because racing’s always been about trying to get an advantage,” mused Super Tex.
in Malaysia, and the Italian started the season finale at Valencia from the back of the grid after he was determined to be at fault. Lorenzo took a relatively easy win there over Marquez – too easy, said Rossi, who claimed the Spaniards had colluded.
The whole affair pitted teams, fans and even media against one another, souring what had been one of the most entertaining championship battles in MotoGP for years. How it all effects the relationship of teammates Lorenzo and Rossi may be of more lasting significance. IndyCar returns to more traditional open-wheel strongholds for 2016 with renewed races at Phoenix (LEFT) and Road America. A street race in downtown Boston in September will lift the unpopular Labor Day curfew.
for speedways
IndyCar addressed propensity for cars to get airborne at Indy (ABOVE, Ed Carpenter) and the danger from flying debris with new rules specifying a domed underbody skidplate to improve yaw and spin characteristics, rear-wing flaps that deploy if a car spins and travels backward, and Zylon tethers to restrain significant bodywork elements in an impact.
Honda gets a do-over for its problematic IndyCar aero kits
boost phase for aeronauts
Honda-kitted entries like Ryan Hunter Reay’s will get a breath of fresh air for IndyCar 2016.
s/Go
Marquez ( 93) was out of title contention, but his war with Rossi ( 46) still held center stage.
sucker punch or fight of the century?
F1 has had its Senna/Prost and Schumacher/Villeneuve championship prize fights, and now MotoGP has its Rossi/Marquez mayhem, paving the way for Rossi’s Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo to claim a controversial third title.
Multi-titled Valentino Rossi and
outgoing champ Marc Marquez had been
engaging in a war of words for much of
the year, but their dispute took a bitter
turn following Rossi’s claim that Honda’s
Marquez was trying to help countryman
Lorenzo. Rossi and Marquez then clashed
The simmering issue of Honda’s IndyCar
aero-kit performance gap was resolved, at
least in the short term, with confirmation
that it would be permitted to significantly
revise its package. IndyCar rules allow such
development if any manufacturer’s aero
deficit is deemed detrimental to the series.
Mark Miles, president and CEO of IndyCar,
said full-scale wind tunnel tests conducted
at Windshear in Charlotte clearly showed a
discrepancy in performance between the
two makes – but only in road course/short
oval configuration, meaning speedway aero
kits for the 100th Indianapolis 500 will be
unchanged from ’ 15, bar tweaks in a limited
number of pre-agreed development areas.
“Next step is that Honda has to present to us the parts they’d like us to consider and then we’ll take those parts back to the wind tunnel,” Miles said. “We’ll examine the data and determine what changes we might approve. This gives Honda a chance to close the gap before we go into the next year of aero kit competition.”
Lorenzo was largely a spectator to the Marquez/Rossi feud, but even his faultless ride to victory in the Valencia finale stirred conspiracy theories.
Chevrolet, naturally, bristled at the
news. “All manufacturers received the s
ame set of aero regulations and subsequent updates,” noted Jim Campbell, Chevy’s U.S. vice president of Performance Vehicles & Motorsports.
Honda-aligned team owner A.J. Foyt had mixed feelings. “I want to be competitive and I do feel like we had our hands tied, but you hate to see everything equal because racing’s always been about trying to get an advantage,” mused Super Tex.
in Malaysia, and the Italian started the season finale at Valencia from the back of the grid after he was determined to be at fault. Lorenzo took a relatively easy win there over Marquez – too easy, said Rossi, who claimed the Spaniards had colluded.
The whole affair pitted teams, fans and even media against one another, souring what had been one of the most entertaining championship battles in MotoGP for years. How it all effects the relationship of teammates Lorenzo and Rossi may be of more lasting significance. IndyCar returns to more traditional open-wheel strongholds for 2016 with renewed races at Phoenix (LEFT) and Road America. A street race in downtown Boston in September will lift the unpopular Labor Day curfew.
for speedways
IndyCar addressed propensity for cars to get airborne at Indy (ABOVE, Ed Carpenter) and the danger from flying debris with new rules specifying a domed underbody skidplate to improve yaw and spin characteristics, rear-wing flaps that deploy if a car spins and travels backward, and Zylon tethers to restrain significant bodywork elements in an impact.
Honda gets a do-over for its problematic IndyCar aero kits
boost phase for aeronauts
Honda-kitted entries like Ryan Hunter Reay’s will get a breath of fresh air for IndyCar 2016.
s/Go
Marquez ( 93) was out of title contention, but his war with Rossi ( 46) still held center stage.