wigglesforonce

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If the drivers weren’t banned from smoking weed who do you think would be the biggest stoner?

easy. bottas

#real tbh

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#lmao

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Simi | La Partita del Cuore | 2017

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i hope williams keep inviting oscar to team torque every week until alex gets us a definitive answer on whether logan and oscar have fucked or not

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上海大奖赛 ！ 小周加油！

Shanghai Grand Prix! Go Guanyu!

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Lewis x Mercedes x Failing and Flying (Jack Gilbert)

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— The Machinist, Teaching His Daughter to Play the Piano. by B.H. Fairchild

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hey maureen how can roger penske even own indycar in the first place my researches have been inconclusive and I trust you for storytelling of historical narratives better than anyone whether they're a century old or not

hi anon, I'm so glad you asked! buckle up while I give you the briefest, most straightforward history of sanctioning bodies for American Open-Wheel motorsport and you'll definitely be like "why is this even relevant" but it (mostly) is, I promise (the stuff that isn't relevant is just interesting and makes you realize that motorsport history does generally just operate on a time loop basically) (Adding this: I do talk about motorsport deaths in here so if that’s something that bothers you, pls keep scrolling. Fwiw, I do stay as vague as possible)

So in the very beginning, (1899!) a group of rich men formed a little club called the Automobile Club of America (otherwise known as ACA). Now don't let the name fool you because it was more or less, a small, local organization. The ACA was a founding arm of the American Automobile Association (otherwise known as the AAA), which happened in 1902. The AAA formed a contest board and sanctioned the Vanderbilt Cup (which was like The Big Race at this point).

Well, in 1907, AAA raised their dues and that pissed the ACA off so their response was essentially, "I see your Vanderbilt Cup and we're going to do the American Grand Prize" which pissed the AAA off and there was a Whole Thing that eventually ended up with an agreement that AAA would sanction all American races while the ACA would sanction all international events held on American soil (think like modern day F1 type races).

SO that essentially meant that AAA was in charge and oh boy, they were IN CHARGE. Bless their hearts, if a driver did a non-AAA sanctioned race (like say, a local dirt track race or a hill climb), the AAA would SUSPEND the driver from all AAA races, often for a full year (which was a big deal because it would prevent that driver from participating in the Indy 500 and if they continued to participate in 'outlaw' races, the AAA would just straight up revoke the driver's racing license). Essentially what started to happen is that young drivers would start to race on the local dirt tracks, gain 'outlaw' status and when they were ready, they would ask AAA for forgiveness and to gain their racer's license because AAA was more lenient to drivers who didn't already have a license.

Anyway, alls that to say is that the AAA was completely separate from everything, including (and especially) the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

So what changed?

Well. 1955 happened.

I am not even being dramatic when I say that it is no less than a miracle that motorsport as a whole survived 1955.

May 1955 saw Manny Ayulo die in a crash while practicing for the Indianapolis 500 (mind you, he was found to not be wearing his seatbelt), then ten days later, Alberto Ascari, Ferrari F1 World Champion was killed in a test session. AND THEN, Bill Vukovich, defending two-time Indy 500 champion (he had won the two previous) was leading the race and he was involved in a chain reaction crash that killed him and that -- listen, I think there is a misconception that in the past when drivers died, there was no backlash but there absolutely was and the public was horrified that this had happened.

And then -- because things weren't going badly enough -- approximately two weeks later, the racing world turned to watch Le Mans and at approximately 6:20 pm, at the end of the 35th lap, there was a (admittedly much smaller than Indy) chain reaction wreck that launched Pierre Levegh and his Mercedes towards the crowd. The car slammed into an embankment and there was so much force that a lot of the pieces of this car just kept going... right into a stand of spectators, killing at least 80 and injuring at least 120 more. I can talk more at length about the Le Mans disaster (which is what it's generally referred to as) but I do want to caution everybody because there are gruesome pictures on the internet, including ones where Pierre Levegh's body is more or less visible.

This triggered a whole chain reaction of events that had (and in some cases continue to have) long lasting impacts on all motorsports (which again, I would love to dig into if people are interested but for the sake of this essay, I will be brief and focused -- two things I'm really good at LMAO).

But the impact that I'm going to highlight here is that the AAA decided that at the conclusion of the 1955 racing season, they would no longer sanction any events.

WELL that is a Big Problem because AAA didn't only sanction the Indy 500, they sanctioned A LOT of races of various motorsport disciplines (not NASCAR though, they are completely separate). So Tony Hulman, owner of IMS, along with other midwest promotors formed what was initially called the "Temporary Emergency Committee" which ultimately ended up being called the United States Auto Club (USAC). And guess who owned it? Tony Hulman!

So USAC essentially becomes the be all, end all of what they called "Championship Car Racing" which is now what we think of as IndyCar. So USAC and IMS are owned by the same person. What could go wrong?

Well obviously lots go wrong and really the main reason that there even is the IndyCar Split (and the reason things got so bad) was because the same people owned IMS AND the Sanctioning Body. There are other things at play including Tony Hulman's sudden death and Elmer George's justified homicide and a plane crash but the core issue did ultimately boil down to the fact that the same person owned IMS and the sanctioning body and the Indy 500 was being placed above everything else to the detriment of everybody else (basically)

Anyway so like when Tony George forms the IRL (Indy Racing League), that takes over as the sanctioning body for the Indy 500. When IRL and Champ Whatever it was called by then merged back together in 2008, it was all done under the IRL stuff which meant the Hulman-George family still owned IndyCar, the series, as well as IMS/the Indy 500.

So in 2019, they sold both IMS/Indy 500 AND the IndyCar Series to Roger Penske. I wish they would have not done that because I think it would be better for American Open Wheel Racing if there was somebody independently looking out for their interests BUT things are so intertwined and the Indy 500 is such a powerful chip to have, I guess I don't know if it would ultimately matter who owned IndyCar?

So yeah, that is how Roger Penske could even buy IndyCar.

I hope this is clear enough and as always, I am willing to clarify anything/everything!

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Norris on Sprint Races

"I don't think it's too bad for us as drivers, honestly. I don't think we can be the ones to complain at all.

"It's the hundreds of mechanics and engineers that have to travel so much. It's not healthy for them. It is not sustainable.

"So, the problem is not with us. People should look out more for the rest of the team."

[X]

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What happened in the early/mid 2010s that’s similar? (I only started watching a couple of years ago so no clue what it was like back then!)

Tbh I don’t know what in particular it is, just similar vibes.

I’d say it kind of feels like 2013 esque

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Fun Fact:

Hulkenberg is the first Haas driver to get a drive with another team afterwards

#lmao

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reddit user PradaAndPunishment gets it

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i actually think that the driver to break the ferrari curse and become the first ferrari champion since kimi raikkonen should be kimi antonelli. his father, an italian man, an italian racing driver at that, saw through the ferrari mirage and was so moved by the artistry of a finnish mclaren driver that he named his only son after him. 16 days later kimi raikkonen signed with ferrari. a year later he won his championship and became ferrari's last world champion. kimi has only one heir. his name is kimi

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#someone disinterested #i can train them to like the sport and support my favs

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Hulkenberg has had such a weird career path, and out of all the drivers you could predict would be in F1 nearing his forties I don’t think he’d be one (he’ll turn 39 in 2026)

Like he joined F1 in 2010, didn’t have a drive in 2011, then got a seat for 2012, moved around a bit and then lost his seat at the end of 2019. Had a couple of reserve appearances, comes back in 2023, and now in 2025/2026 he’ll be at a proper world team