Sometimes it’s difficult to get excited about tests, but for so many reasons the one happening at Indianapolis today has the potential to change IndyCar’s future landscape.
Its favourite F1 convert Romain Grosjean makes two debuts – his first outing with his new #28 Andretti Autosport team and his maiden test on the Indianapolis oval as he looks to get ready for the 2022 Indy 500 with rookie orientation.
It’s almost time, @RGrosjean.
We know this isn’t your first visit, but today you get to meet her in a whole new way. Welcome to, @IMS.#IsItMayYet #AllAndretti@DHLUS #PoweredByHonda pic.twitter.com/XrHv93EocT
— Andretti Autosport / #AllAndretti (@FollowAndretti) October 6, 2021
Jimmie Johnson joins Grosjean on track ahead of what we expect will be a 500 entry next year – but that’s so far unconfirmed.
Here the two drivers will do the rookie orientation programme you have to complete to be able to participate in the Indy 500. It kicks off at 1030hrs ET (1530hrs BST).
Grosjean follows Marcus Ericsson as the latest F1 driver to try the 500, and while Ericsson has delivered impressive pace at Indianapolis, it’s taken him a while to adapt to racing in the States. That’s fine, given the competition here.
How quickly Grosjean has adapted to IndyCar feels more Fernando Alonso-esque in its explosiveness even if Alonso only did the 500. The Spaniard fought for victory on his debut before an engine failure in 2017.
In fact, this might be one of the most exciting factors in Grosjean agreeing to do the 500, that one of the main criticisms of Alonso’s attempts was that he needed to do at least more races or a full-season to have a better chance of success at the 500.
Grosjean has rocked up in IndyCar with a minnow team, scored a pole, improved almost every week and shown he will approach everything with an aggression that has a high upside but can occasionally land him in trouble.
With only Grosjean and Johnson on track tomorrow they won’t get a feel for the etiquette and skill in positioning your car and passing properly at Indy, but they can at least begin to settle in, understand the lines of the track, what happens when you’re too low or too high and the risk vs reward of being aggressive against tyre wear will impact things.
If the calendar works the same as this year the other thing is that neither driver needs to rush, with the traditional pre-Indy test usually taking place around March before a month of action in May leading up to the event. With the vaccine slowing the coronavirus down, we can only hope that the Indy 500 is back to normal in 2022 and that the extensive track time that comes with it will help get these drivers up to speed.
The Indy 500 is the fan event of the year, and Grosjean’s also endeared himself to a legion of followers through embracing his near-death experience at Bahrain in 2020. He’s regularly handed fire department t-shirts and has started referring to himself as the Phoenix on social media.
If the fans at smaller venues through the year have backed Grosjean in this way, imagine what the momentum is going to be like in 2022?
That could be massive for IndyCar as it welcomes an infrequent star name attempting the Indy 500 for the first time since Alonso in 2020.
It’s also perhaps a slightly unusual step in that Grosjean will work with his new team, Andretti, for the first time at the Indianapolis test which doesn’t usually happen, but this is the perfect scenario in which to do it.
Whereas at a full test there might be the temptation to follow team-mates data closely and also become overwhelmed by the Andretti engineering debriefs which will feature six driver and engineer crews in 2022, here it’s just Grosjean.
It should provide really intimate surroundings for Grosjean to get on first-name terms with his immediate crew and focus solely on honing his style at the speedway, which could be the perfect introduction to his new team – for his engineer Olivier Boisson too, as he joins with Grosjean from Dale Coyne.r.
Things will be different elsewhere on the grid at the test within Ganassi, where Johnson has a year of competing with his Ganassi crew under his belt, but hasn’t tested or raced on an oval before as Grosjean did at Gateway.
It’s a complicated situation with Johnson as the driver sharing his car this year and racing it on the ovals, Tony Kanaan, has a deal for 2022. So any potential for Johnson to run the 500 next year needs to be met with another car for Kanaan. That would mean Ganassi would have to run five cars, up from as few as two in 2019.
Assuming this all gets arranged and worked out which, given Johnson’s backing and popularity, it likely will be, his Indy 500 debut will be massive on multiple levels.
Of course, he’s a seven-time NASCAR champion and any opportunity to bring the two audiences of the respective championships together is a good thing.
It would have been more powerful as a promotional tool if Johnson had contested in his rookie year – which he was right not to if he felt uncomfortable – but it has allowed a growing number of the NASCAR fanbase to criticise and perhaps even lose interest in this move given the difficulty Johnson has faced in adapting.
Some people have been too critical of Johnson and some haven’t been critical enough. I’m somewhere in the middle in that I believe he could have done better at times and at some points he appeared to go backwards not forwards in his learning curve. But ultimately he was coming off very little road course experience and after almost 20 years of predominantly oval racing to one of the most competitive single-seater championships in the world. Considering that, he’s done well.
Given this was as much about Johnson enjoying new things and ticking items off the bucket list as much as anything, his move has certainly been a success. It might not have yielded tangible results but there’s evidence to suggest he’ll be closer to the pace next year.
The 500 provides an opportunity in this area too, as you would expect Johnson would be far more competitive in an IndyCar on the ovals than on the road courses given his experience.
This may well be the case but I hope it doesn’t lead to unrealistic expectations on him. He hadn’t won on a NASCAR oval since 2017, so to expect him to rock up and immediately win in IndyCar would be too much. There may well be similarities, but I’m sure there will be as many differences too.
Johnson isn’t taking a junior driver’s seat, this programme has been created for him off the back of a sterling career where he became one of the most successful NASCAR drivers of all time, in an era some would argue it was more difficult to dominate than when drivers who have achieved similar feats were racing years ago. He’s earned the chance to do the things he wants to do.
If he can have a good showing when he turns up at Indy it will be another big boost for IndyCar alongside Grosjean. It’s too soon to say yet whether word linking current in-form NASCAR star Kyle Larson to the Indy 500 is anything more than hopeful speculation, but if it doesn’t come off Johnson will be the one flying the flag and therefore the best chance of further uniting the two fanbases.
This test is the start of a very big 2022 year for IndyCar at the Indy 500. The event is huge and doesn’t need to rely on who enters to attract spectators, but to truly take it to the next level the storylines and the drivers coming in can make a big difference.
Grosjean and Johnson are certainly two drivers that can help with making that difference.
What exactly is an ROP?
The ROP is IndyCar and the Indy 500’s Rookie Orientation Program (ROP). In the rule book, it is defined as “a three-phase test, supervised by IndyCar, to demonstrate car control, placement and a consistent driving pattern by a rookie driver”.
The goal of the ROP is to get a rookie driver up to speed, to encourage safety and to make sure the driver understands what to expect when the event kicks off for real. With the high speeds at the Indy 500, the ROP is as important as ever.
As a minimum for the ROP, drivers must complete a chain of laps within a speed window. Currently the drivers must do 10 laps at an average speed of 205-210mph, then 15 laps between 210-215mph and finally 15 laps over 215mph.
Drivers are allowed time between each phase to prepare and practice, the 40 laps don’t need to be run consecutively.
IndyCar is also assessing car placement and interaction with other cars as part of the process.
For the ROP, drivers get three sets of tyres.
Speaking of tyres, this isn’t the only event at Indianapolis this week as on Friday, Meyer Shank Racing’s Helio Castroneves – this year’s 500 winner – and Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward will test for Firestone as it does work on the 2023 rubber to be used at Indianapolis.
With hybrid units set to be introduced that season, the expected added weight on the cars will be crucial on a high-speed oval like Indy, so the tyres must be up to the extra load.
