Drivers and teams were warned about the track limits penalty which Alexander Rossi called “weird” in a post-race critique after the first Indianapolis road course race of this weekend’s double-header.
Rossi scored his best ever result on the Indianapolis road course with second, continuing a three-race podium run. Before that run, usual title contender Rossi was 17th in the points after a disappointing season.
He eventually finished 14.2 seconds behind winner Josef Newgarden, but the penalty for going off-track passing Scott Dixon at Turn 6 earlier on cost him not only in time giving the place back but also as he was later narrowly caught in traffic which he had to work his way through.
Interviewed by NBC following the race, Rossi asked how far behind Newgarden he finished, and when he was told, he said “yes, most of that was because of the officials”.
He also said “two times at Indianapolis, weird penalties”, referring to an unsafe release penalty in the Indy 500 where he bashed into the side of eventual winner Takuma Sato while racing him out of his stall. It mired Rossi back in the pack and he crashed shortly after.
“I did two wheels over the white line,” Rossi said when asked what he was displeased with.
“I didn’t go over our talked-about reference point and still got a penalty. Two times at Indianapolis, weird penalties, I don’t know what to say.
PENALTY for an unsafe release for @AlexanderRossi!
Last year's #Indy500 runner-up will try to charge through the field NOW on @NBC: https://t.co/THKlb49aWT pic.twitter.com/ha8dhLe1Bl
— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) August 23, 2020
“The car was great. Hats off to the Napa Auto Parts AutoNation Honda boys.
“We’ve never been good here (on the IMS road course), so to get on the podium is fantastic. Great testament to Honda, proud to be powered by them.
“It’s been a huge effort for the team to find some sort of pace here. The fact that we did that is good.
“Disappointed because it’s weird that these penalties just seem to keep happening. Not a lot of explanation on our side.”
Drivers were warned specifically that left-side tyres over the white line of the curbing was a violation in the drivers’ meeting and in a document sent to teams before the event.
The Race understands that the Andretti team did not contact race control following the race to discuss it although the team did debate the penalty during the race.
Simon Pagenaud was pinged for a similar instance in the race while Sage Karam was also penalised in the first Indianapolis road course race of the season for the same reason.
Rossi’s official post-race quote released by IndyCar hours after the race also contained mention of the unfair penalty.
In the Zoom press conference following the event, The Race asked Rossi about the penalty and he talked about the need to assess whether in-race penalties was the correct way to do things.
“It’s something we need to look at,” he said.
“There’s no room to assess. Other series assess time penalties at the end of a race, which gives you time to discuss it, argue it.
“Giving penalties mid-race for very minor things – if there’s contact where you’re taking someone out of a race, if you’re hitting people in pitlane, personnel, and for major issues, I understand it.
“But for little ticky-tack things, would time penalties be more appropriate? I don’t know. We’ll have to talk about it.
“At the end of the day, maybe that’s not written in the rulebook, so maybe the officials’ hands are tied in terms of how they can dish out penalties – I don’t know.
“We need to talk about it, learn from it, understand why that happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Rossi added in the press conference that he believes he could have fought Newgarden for the win without the penalty.
Without it, he may well have joined clear of the four cars he had to use valuable time passing on track to reach second, when he could have been eroding Newgarden’s lead.
“I think we would have been close,” he added to The Race.
“Here is the thing. The penalty cost us a lot of time, track position, then also we were stuck behind lap cars there. I think that was really where Josef was able to do the big gap on us. He ended on blacks, we were on reds.
“I’m not saying we would have won, but we at least could have given it a fight. We need to discuss that, get to the bottom of it.
“It’s a shame that happened. I’m happy we were able to recover to second. Definitely, if we look back at the race, there was a lot that was taken away from us and left on the table.”
