Over half way into the thrilling 2014 IndyCar season we are beginning to see who are emerging as the championship favourites. As expected, those from Penske and Andretti are doing incredibly well, but it hasn’t gone to plan for Chip Ganassi Racing, the reigning champions, with just a trio of third places to their name between their four drivers.
2014 IndyCar Championship Race
Power leads the way
Despite a terrible weekend in Houston, Will Power has a healthy advantage at the top of the table. With wins at St. Pete and in Detroit, and three further podiums, it could well finally be Power’s chance to take the title. He has managed to throw away this sort of advantage before, however. Team mate Helio Castroneves also done just that last season. Compared to recent years though, Power’s performances on ovals have notably improved. He has, however made a few notable mistakes, usually in the pits or just after cautions. Mistakes like this could cost him yet another title.
Castroneves at the sharp end again
After narrowly missing out on the title last year, the Brazilian who is yet to win a title has remained at the sharp end, but has just the one win to his name so far this year at Detroit, but has picked up three other podiums and nearly won a fourth Indy 500. He is definitely picking up the points though, and is definitely pushing Will Power.
Mixed bag for Hunter-Reay
There have been moments of brilliance and moments of stupidity for the 2012 Champion. His win at the Indy 500 was absolutely superb as he beat Castroneves and Marco Andretti in that thrilling 200-lap duel, and he also won the deluge that was Barber following a mistake by Power. However, he did manage to cause a silly pile-up at Long Beach, taking several cars out including his team mate James Hinchcliffe. A huge chunk of his points came from Indy, but it definitely threw him back in the title hunt.
Pagenaud starring again
The brilliant Frenchman is the only driver not driving for any of the three main teams, Andretti, Penske or Ganassi with a realistic shot at the title. Driving for Sam Schmidt, he has taken two wins so far this season, at the Indy Road Course and again at Houston. In addition to this, he has several other top five finishes but none of those are podiums. He has shown himself to be more than capable on all types of circuit, and like last season, is well in the title hunt, despite not driving for a top team.
Can Montoya, Andretti or Munoz surprise?
Although neither of these drivers has won a race this season, they have still accumulated a decent amount of points to allow them to be in with a realistic shot at the title.
Montoya, on his return to open-wheel racing has already got two podiums to his name, and has been at the sharp end on many occasions, showing that he has lost none of his flair that he demonstrated earlier in his career.
It has been yet another mixed bag for Marco Andretti. Despite taking two podiums this season, one at Indy, he has also had a fair few races where he has either been anonymous, or he has gotten into trouble. He was fined and put on probation at Houston for ignoring blue flags, and is still waiting to win a race in this generation of car, but if he has an exceptional second half to the season, he could find himself in the Championship fight.
Despite being a rookie, Carlos Munoz, who stunned everybody last year by nearly winning the Indy 500, is in this championship fight too. Also with two podiums, he has shown flashes of that speed not only on the ovals but also on the road and street courses. He is more than likely going to take Rookie of the Year honours, but the Championship may be too much to ask for the youngster.
Dreadful season for Hinchcliffe, Dixon, Kanaan
James Hinchcliffe took three wins last season but has rarely looked like doing that this year. There were times were he was just plain unlucky, but there have been other times where the Canadian has made unforced errors, either ending his race or moving him well down the order. His best result this year is only a fifth place, despite running right at the front at quite a few events.
Reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon has had a disastrous season thus far. He took his only podium finish of the year early on at Barber and has just generally not been looking like winning many races as his team adjust to the loss of Dario Franchitti. He ran out of fuel at Long Beach, and crashed at Indy. This pretty much sums up his season.
One of Ganassi’s new drivers for this year is 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan. The 2004 series champion has hugely struggled to adjust to the team it seems, and like Dixon and Charlie Kimball, has just one third place to his name. Apart from that third place, Kanaan has barely looked like challenging the top five in most of the races. He was unlucky not to finish third in Houston though.
Ganassi’s other two drivers, Charlie Kimball and Ryan Briscoe, have also struggled this year, and also rarely look like challenging for podiums let alone wins.
Hawksworth, Aleshin, Huertas emerging as future stars
We all saw last year what Carlos Munoz was capable of, but we have three other rookies in the field with full-time seats. All four rookies achieved a podium finish at Houston, which was well deserved, with one of them taking a win.
Jack Hawksworth, the young British driver, has shown absolutely blistering pace this season, leading the most laps at the Indy Road Course, and has run at the front in many events. Getting the actual result though seemed tricky for him, until he finally achieved a great third place at Houston after an awesome battle with Montoya.
2010 Formula Renault 3.5 series champion Mikhail Aleshin, the man who beat Formula One star Daniel Ricciardo to the title that year has also shown some great pace at times. Considering he had never been to America before his first test, his speed has been phenomenal. He has made quite a lot of mistakes though, and that mainly comes down to inexperience.
Also coming from the Formula Renault 3.5 series is Carlos Huertas. The Colombian has also shown some great speed at times this year and took a brilliant first victory in the rain at Houston. He’s also only a handful of points behind his vastly more experienced team mate Justin Wilson at this stage.
Unlike this year’s Formula One season, this campaign seems incredibly open, with any one of seven drivers in with a realistic shout at taking this year’s title. The double-header races and the double points races can make or break a championship, as we saw last year with Helio Castroneves. With ten winners last year, and already seven this year; IndyCar is definitely unpredictable and very much open in this era. Will it be Penske or Andretti again? Or will Schmidt surprise the whole field? Will we have a rookie as a Champion or can Montoya take the title on his return? These were all questions we asked at the start of the year, and we have few answers at this stage of the season.
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