So this race was back in March; first race of the season. Apparently three drivers -- Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power -- all from Team Penske, were just penalized for having...
So this race was back in March; first race of the season. Apparently three drivers -- Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power -- all from Team Penske, were just penalized for having circumvented "Push to Pass" rules in at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (Florida). Newgarden and McLaughlin were both DQ'd from the race for having used it illegally. This was just discovered over this past weekend during warmups at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
To stir some drama up...IndyCar is owned by Roger Penske. Though it probably was just an honest oversight by the team.
It sounds like an honest mistake having pre-season testing software loaded for the first race of the season and they're not trying to fight it. Hard to believe any team would think they could get...
It sounds like an honest mistake having pre-season testing software loaded for the first race of the season and they're not trying to fight it. Hard to believe any team would think they could get away with something like that for it to be intentional.
It's interesting to me that all three drivers had the incorrect software, but Newgarden and McLaughlin both used it to gain an advantage, while Will Power didn't. Did Will Power realize something was wrong, while the other two were on autopilot or something?
I did see someone on reddit say that some drivers sometimes press the P2P button out of habit, even if they know that nothing will happen. Not sure how true that is or not. The way they found this...
I did see someone on reddit say that some drivers sometimes press the P2P button out of habit, even if they know that nothing will happen. Not sure how true that is or not.
The way they found this was interesting:
During the Sunday, April 21 warmup session ahead of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, INDYCAR discovered the team’s possible rules violation.
So could the team have realized their mistake before the weekend, fixed it -- but without telling anyone -- and then the officials wouldn't have known? Because if that's possible, that's pretty damning on the officiating. Does race control not have live data on P2P usage during a race? Or at least full data after the race to show when drivers used it?
Though I suppose the violation of,
Rule 14.19.15. An indicator to enable Push to Pass will be sent via CAN communication from the timing and scoring beacon on board the Car to the team data logger. This signal must be passed on to the ECU unmodified and uninterrupted during all Road and Street Course Events.
could be the reason why the officials didn't see it at first. And maybe the officials thought something was fishy in St. Petes earlier than this past weekend, just that Long Beach was the first opportunity to check. Basically, they didn't just stumble upon it; they had reason to investigate. Either way, glad it was caught and that the team quickly took responsibility.
So this race was back in March; first race of the season. Apparently three drivers -- Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power -- all from Team Penske, were just penalized for having circumvented "Push to Pass" rules in at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (Florida). Newgarden and McLaughlin were both DQ'd from the race for having used it illegally. This was just discovered over this past weekend during warmups at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
To stir some drama up...IndyCar is owned by Roger Penske. Though it probably was just an honest oversight by the team.
The IndyCar official announcement with explanation.
It sounds like an honest mistake having pre-season testing software loaded for the first race of the season and they're not trying to fight it. Hard to believe any team would think they could get away with something like that for it to be intentional.
It's interesting to me that all three drivers had the incorrect software, but Newgarden and McLaughlin both used it to gain an advantage, while Will Power didn't. Did Will Power realize something was wrong, while the other two were on autopilot or something?
I did see someone on reddit say that some drivers sometimes press the P2P button out of habit, even if they know that nothing will happen. Not sure how true that is or not.
The way they found this was interesting:
So could the team have realized their mistake before the weekend, fixed it -- but without telling anyone -- and then the officials wouldn't have known? Because if that's possible, that's pretty damning on the officiating. Does race control not have live data on P2P usage during a race? Or at least full data after the race to show when drivers used it?
Though I suppose the violation of,
could be the reason why the officials didn't see it at first. And maybe the officials thought something was fishy in St. Petes earlier than this past weekend, just that Long Beach was the first opportunity to check. Basically, they didn't just stumble upon it; they had reason to investigate. Either way, glad it was caught and that the team quickly took responsibility.