Pato O’Ward’s refusal to apologise for crashing into Scott Dixon at Long Beach and Dixon’s “gloves are off” retort shone a light on how drivers are approaching IndyCar racing.
Is there a lack of respect among younger drivers coming into the series, or does Dixon need to race more like them?
The move in question was a complicated one because O’Ward came from very far back and ultimately crashed Dixon into the tyres. O’Ward also made the corner and there was a gap Dixon had left open.
It’s debatable whether Dixon could have backed off and lived to fight another lap, but he did leave a gap open, which is in part down to the wide line taken in that corner – the Turn 8 right-hander.
It’s clear few have the experience of Dixon, who started in IndyCar back in 2003.
However, there’s no doubt that the competition in the series is as good as it’s ever been and a long stint on this rules cycle means each top team has one or two drivers fighting for the championship.
The Race’s IndyCar Podcast host JR Hildebrand wonders if this is leading to more aggression in fighting for every last point, and in turn encouraging the kind of late braking move we saw O’Ward try on Dixon.
Hildebrand has raced in IndyCar since 2011 himself, and feels there is a divide in how drivers approach overtaking moves like O’Ward’s depending on their experience.
“Every position has more value basically now than it did 10 years ago, five years ago,” Hildebrand said on this week’s episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast.
“The difference that I see, in terms of the way the racecraft has evolved, is that 10 years ago, it was very rare that you put guys in positions where even if you were going to make the corner, that for sure they wouldn’t.
“Like that was kind of just generally a no-no and so it very rarely happened. You would have a Dario Franchitti up in your face after the race, if you had done that.
“And so I think what’s happened is you have a younger crop of drivers that didn’t really grow up with that being the case, they’re just hammering for every position, they’re running qualifying laps everywhere, every lap of the race.
“I think Pato is basically looking at that scenario, seeing Dixon slowing a lot to the apex to try to get the shot off, he knows that he can fill that gap.
“A little bit like Felix [Rosenqvist] on Alexander Rossi at Toronto last year, he just knows that he can brake deep enough to get to the apex basically at the same time that Dixon is going to get there.
"He just shoved me off."@FRosenqvist and @AlexanderRossi collide while battling for P4.
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