Five competitions in four weekends. Now race driver Marcus Ericsson can decide the title fight in IndyCar.
– Now he is very important with a good race and points, he says.
Thanks to his Indy 500 win, the former F1 driver is driving IndyCar with eight races now remaining. Five of them will be decided in one month and the first on the city’s fast track in Toronto where IndyCar is now back after two years of absence from the pandemic.
I had bad luck in this race and I got injured. Then I ended up four laps behind the leader because we had to fix the car, remembers Ericsson, who is on the champion team Chip Ganassi Racing.
– When I got out on the track, I was the fastest ever. I drove the fastest lap so I feel like a track where I was able to find my way around the end of that race fence. I’ll take that with me. I ran the simulator this week to get a feel of the track.
Racing driver Marcus Ericsson in a title race at IndyCar
Thanks to the top seven and a surprise victory in the classic Indy500 oval race earlier this year, where double points were awarded, Marcus Ericsson leads the FIA Formula One Championship. Points count is different from Formula 1. In IndyCar, all cars that finish in a race earn points and the race winner can earn up to 54 points, depending on whether he took first place and how many laps he drove in the race.
This means that 270 points are at stake over the next four weeks and will determine this year’s championship.
Ericsson drives IndyCar before making a decision
Before the competition in Toronto, Marcus Ericsson has a 20-point lead over Pinske’s Will Power team and a 34-point lead over Joseph Newgarden who also leads Pinske. Both drivers have championship-winning experience, while Marcus Ericsson may be the first Swede in 24 years to win the title in IndyCar.
Then the name of the winner was Kenny Brake.
We are entering a very tough time of the season with five competitions in four weekends. It is very important for the championship to have good racing weekends and to get good points. Erickson continues, so I’m very focused and focused.
– The city track in Toronto is typical of IndyCar, it is choppy and uneven. There are different surfaces with different curves and different curves (edges) all around. It’s a true classic IndyCar track that I love. Love this kind of challenge, I’ve enjoyed this type of city trail over the years and I think we have good chances as a team. Our biggest strength as a team is just jumping on city tracks. I think it will suit us well.
• Which of the competitors do you think is the strongest at the end of this week?
– As usual, Penske’s cars will be fast. Power and Newgarden are the closest behind me in the tournament and Scott McLaughlin won in the end. My teammates Scott Dixon and Alex Ballou will drive well. It’s going to be a tough weekend. Then Colton Herta is usually fast on the city tracks and I think it’s time for Felix Rosenqvist to take his first place on the podium at McLaren. I think there is a good chance for him. He’s been showing very good form here lately.
– I’m looking forward to it, this will be a fun weekend.
short news
What’s going on about Alex Palou? Where will he lead next year? Two teams claim to be ready for them. More about this week’s big IndyCar scandal and what it could mean for Felix Rosenqvist and the times of this weekend’s competition in Toronto can be found here.
We’ve printed Plattan i Mattan and like every week we talk about Formula 1 on Sportbladet’s F1 podcast. This week it’s about talking to Austrian GP, Sebastian Vettel, about roast horses and bull hunting. Easy enough to swing or walk. Follow us!
Aborop Sebastian Vettel. According to Germany’s “Auto, Motor und Sport”, he left the driver’s meeting before the Austrian Grand Prix because Fernando Alonso did not give in to his discussion of why he was being penalized during the Canadian Grand Prix. Alonso felt he was punished for moving past Valtteri Bottas in a fight for a place, but Charles Leclerc did the same against Lewis Hamilton, only to escape a penalty. According to veteran journalist Michael Schmidt, many drivers feel that race leaders Eduardo Freitas and Nils Wittich do not care about the drivers’ opinions. So Alonso has been trying to explain his view on the matter for a very, very long time.
Vettel didn’t think the discussion led to anything and it took a lot of time so he left the meeting. He was subject to a conditional fine of SEK 250,000 on the grounds that he was a bad example when he handled the situation in this way. If he does the same thing again this year, he will have to pay the fine.