Oilpressure

This may be an unpopular take, but I was a little disappointed in the Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) driver announcement this week. First of all, we got word on Twitter late last week that JHR would be making an announcement to their driver lineup on Tuesday. It didn’t happen.

I figured they were either confirming that Callum Ilott was returning for another season in the No. 77 car, or that Romain Grosjean would be joining the team. It had been somewhat of a foregone conclusion that Argentinean driver Agustin Canapino would not be returning to the No. 78 strictly due to lack of funding. I was anxious to see who would be joining the two-car team, and I was hoping it was Grosjean.

Don’t get me wrong – Canapino far exceeded expectations this past season. Having never driven an open-wheel car or experienced an oval, most expected Canapino to not even be competitive last season. Given the fact that he was driving for a very under-funded team, he did very well to finish twenty-first out of twenty-seven fulltime cars for the season. He didn’t set the world on fire, but the wheels never came off either. Three twelfth-place finishes were his best results, against four twenty-sixth place finishes. Best of all, he rarely crashed and as far as I can remember, he never took anyone else out.

I wasn’t wild about his fans from Argentina getting carried away with death threats against his teammate on two separate occasions, but I found Canapino’s season in the NTT IndyCar Series to be one that was mostly pleasant.

But mostly pleasant doesn’t really move the needle.

When I heard it looked as if Canapino would probably not be returning to JHR, it didn’t really upset me. I figured it was a nice way to introduce a driver from Argentina, where Ricardo Juncos is from, into an extra car for the team. Now that the team had experience running two cars, my thinking was that a more accomplished driver would be more appropriate to run as Ilott’s teammate.

When it was announced a couple of weeks ago that JHR had entered into an alliance with Arrow McLaren, I figured a big named driver, like a Romain Grosjean would fill the seat in the No. 78 car. It makes sense. Like him or not (and I do), Romain Grosjean is a driver with a worldwide following.. He has 1.4 Million Twitter followers. For comparison sake – Helio Castroneves has less than 170,000 Twitter followers, which is about 40,000 more than Tony Kanaan. Two-time champion Josef Newgarden has less than 100,000 Twitter followers, Scott McLaughlin and Alex Palou have fewer than that. Without going down the roster of the past Indianapolis 500, I would guess Grosjean easily surpasses every driver in the IndyCar paddock. You might total up every other driver and that figure may not equal Grosjean’s followers. For the record; Agustin Canapino has 121,000 Titter followers.

You might read that and think “Who cares about Twitter followers?” Well, I can tell you – sponsors do. They want a driver with a world-wide reach. You may or may not be a fan of Romain Grosjean, but I can promise you – he brings eyeballs to our sport.

I had heard from more than one person that Romain Grosjean was headed to JHR. Personally, it didn’t seem like a great fit to me, but I was happy that it looked like Grosjean would be returning to the NTT IndyCar Series in 2024.

Grosjean moves the needle. In his first year at Andretti in 2022, it was quite obvious that Grosjean did not mind being in the role of the villain. Many IndyCar fans quickly grew to despise Grosjean, especially when he tangled twice with Graham Rahal at Barber. But as the late Robin Miller used to point out – hate is not a bad thing.

Just like in a relationship; the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. Whether fans love a driver or can’t stand them, there are passionate feelings either way. It’s indifference that kills relationships and racing series. This is why I was happy that all signs pointed to Grosjean going to JHR and staying in the series.

When the JHR announcement didn’t come on Tuesday, it didn’t strike me as odd. This is the offseason, and things get pushed back for whatever reason. But on Wednesday we learned that Agustin Canapino was returning to the No.78 Chevy for a second year. Wednesday night, I was reading Marshall Pruett saying that he does not see a landing spot in IndyCar for Grosjean in 2024.

I’m sure that some last-minute budget from Argentina came through for Canapino, since I’m sure he was the first choice for Ricardo Juncos. I don’t begrudge Canapino returning to the car he drove this past season, and as I said earlier – I don’t think that seat would’ve been the best spot for Grosjean. But I strongly feel that Grosjean and IndyCar would both benefit by Grosjean being in the series next season. After seeing Pruett’s comments, I’m afraid that Grosjean will slip through the cracks and his time in IndyCar will come to an end.

I am holding out hope that there will be room from Grosjean at Dale Coyne Racing, but Coyne has gone silent as he usually does at this time of year.

I’m sure many reading this are thinking “Let him go”. I disagree. Not only does Grosjean bring a huge fan base to anyone that signs him, but there is something to be said about the perception of a ten-year Formula One veteran, not being able to win a race in IndyCar after three years. Remember the Lewis Hamilton reaction after Fernando Alonso showed up and dominated the Indianapolis 500 in 2017, before his Honda engine let go late in the race? Having a longtime F1 driver come over here and struggle helps squash the perception that this is much harder than Formula One.

No disrespect to Canapino, but losing Romain Grosjean for Agustin Canapino is not a good trade for most IndyCar fans or the NTT IndyCar Series as a whole. Unless Grosjean is signed, IndyCar loses a drier with a huge and marketable fan base. IndyCar also loses a perfect villain that many fans would love to hate. They would also lose a very talented and experienced driver that has more potential to bring a team wins and podiums, than Canapino.

So while everyone is talking what a big plus it is that Agustin Canapino will be returning for a sophomore season in IndyCar – I’m seeing it as at the expense of Romain Grosjean. That doesn’t seem like a fair trade to me.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on October 20, 2023 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.