Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

Jakes (sunglasses, next to Justin Wilson) and Saavedra (red and yellow suit) make the 2013 grid, while TrueCar appears to have turned its back on Katherine Legge. 

What’s happened this offseason isn’t new, but instead the latest chapter in a vicious cycle that seems to play itself out every year in IndyCar.

The business model needed to put together a viable operation requires millions upon millions on an annual basis, and every year catches a handful of decent, above average drivers out. Those who have mastered the game have rides more often than not; it’s to their credit that they’ve figured it out consistently year-on-year.

Most have to bring some amount of money, either via a personal services contract, personal sponsor, manufacturer support or B2B deal to an operation. Rare are the days a driver can be hired solely on his or her talent alone without the need of any financial assistance.

Since sports car racing allows for two or more drivers per car, the story is slightly different. There, a gentleman driver can bring the majority of the budget to a sports car team and allow for a pro co-driver; it’s part of the sport and has been for decades, and particularly in recent years since sports car categories around the world have implemented pro-am driver lineups in certain classes. Many open-wheel drivers have tended to migrate to the sports car ranks in recent years to continue their careers, and some have thrived.

With IndyCar, the same need for the driver to bring a portion of the budget to the operation has arisen. It was never particularly prevalent outside of a handful of drivers until the infamous open-wheel split of 1996, but slowly but surely each year, from Dennis Vitolo’s SmithKline Beecham rides, to the Herdez years of Michel Jourdain Jr. and Mario Dominguez, to the last CART year of 2003 when teams were supported by the series, to the gluttony of seemingly fly-by-night sponsors and drivers that appeared throughout the Champ Car World Series years from 2004 to 2007, the number has grown. There’s countless more in that same time frame but those are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head at the moment.

It’s now the case, even since IndyCar’s unification in 2008, where the definition has shifted from “pay-driver” to “bringing money.” A “pay-driver” is generally bemoaned as someone only racing on the grounds of their money (think Milka Duno), where “bringing money” is more often accepted as a relatively talented shoe adding some commercial value to a program that might not otherwise exist (say, either of the two at Chip Ganassi Racing’s satellite team the last two years, Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball).

So it appears E.J. Viso, Sebastian Saavedra and James Jakes will have rides this year, and barring any late changes Ryan Briscoe, Rubens Barrichello and Katherine Legge will not. On talent alone that’s unfortunate, but also speaks to the reality of their situations.

Viso enters his sixth season in IndyCar, in each having been backed by the Venezuelan company PDVSA (and its CITGO brand last year), but has made significant strides year-on-year. Originally an exciting but crash-filled driver, Viso matured thanks to tutelage and race strategy called by Jimmy Vasser a year ago, and had a solid turn of speed at the start. The hope is he grows further at Andretti Autosport this year, reunited with some former HVM staff including his then-engineer Michael Cannon.

Beyond his native country’s support, Viso’s also invested in the future of the series by establishing “Team Viso Venezuela” as a way to create awareness and opportunities for his younger countrymen. Bruno Palli and Diego Ferreira are the first two in this program, each having run full Star Mazda seasons in 2012 with Palli stepping up to Indy Lights for the season finale.

Saavedra, say what you will about a lack of results, but has also grown thanks to a step down to Indy Lights after coming up to race with Conquest a year earlier. That level-headedness and renewed relationship with mentor and team principal Gary Peterson provided him another chance to regain confidence and further track time. He made three IndyCar starts and punched above his weight in each, a last-minute day one qualifying attempt to make the field at Indianapolis followed by a respectable practice and qualifying weekend in Sonoma.

Jakes – persistent and reliable if not particularly quick – finds himself in a similar situation to other drivers with sponsorship that have advanced into Bobby Rahal’s team from a lesser squad. If he can emulate a Jourdain, a guy who was not thought of highly in his formative years at Coyne but morphed into a race-winner and potential championship threat, he would be less maligned than simply being known as the guy with Acorn Stairlifts support.

Legge appears to have gotten the short end of the stick more than the others – Briscoe’s status has been impacted by Roger Penske shuttering his third car full-time while Barrichello had one of his 2012 backers pull out, thus prompting a trip back home to Brazil. Legge’s TrueCar program activated and made her the front person of its six-driver “Women Empowered” campaign in 2012, but the deal was through her Dragon Racing team rather than her personally, it so appeared. The late decision to take her out may have shuttered her last best big chance.

Are any of these three future champions? Most likely not. They could be potential race winners or podium finishers if they play their cards right. Where they have succeeded is in mastering the game as it exists now, and it’s a message to those who want to stay involved that a mix of talent, backing and figuring out how to lock in deals is required for further series participation.