Oilpressure

David Malukas has had a nightmarish start to his career at Arrow McLaren. His cycling crash in the offseason that required surgery t his left hand prevented him from driving in the season-opener at St. Petersburg. Before the opener, we learned that he would miss today’s scheduled test at Barber, as well as this weekend’s non-points exhibition race at The Thermal Club.

Callum Ilott filled in at St. Petersburg, starting sixteenth and finishing thirteenth. While that may sound somewhat forgettable – keep in mind that that weekend was the first time Ilott had driven the car in that configuration. When he was in the car earlier, it was for the hybrid test which is a much heavier configuration. What he drove in St. Petersburg is some thirty pounds lighter than the car he drove last season for Juncos.

Ilott will surely get more comfortable in the car as the day goes on at Barber. That can do nothing but help him when he gets back in the car this weekend at Thermal. There are no championship points up for grab, but Ilott can use this weekend to build his resume for whatever comes open next season or possibly as early as next season.

This can’t be setting well with David Malukas. I’m not suggesting that Ilott is going to take his seat in the No. 6 McLaren, but Malukas needs to get back into the car. His time to settle in with his new team is quickly evaporating. Yes, there is a four-week stretch until the series resumes at Long Beach on April 21, but remember – there is the Open Test on the IMS Oval on Apr 10-11. If Malukas isn’t in the car by then, he will be even further behind by not getting any seat time for the 500 before Indianapolis 500 Practice begins on May 14.

Rinus VeeKay, Lance Stroll in Formula One and now David Malukas have all suffered injuries on bicycles, just since 2021. Quite honestly, I’m surprised there is not something built into a contract preventing a driver from mountain biking or other similarly dangerous activities. In my opinion, a driver should have enough common sense to not partake in such activities. There are other ways to get exercise than subjecting yourself to catching a rut wrong.

In 1969, Al Unser took advantage of some down time during a qualifying rainout at Indianapolis. He was showing off his motorcycle skills to his fellow drivers and a few pretty girls who happened to be nearby. He was jumping the creek that ran through the inside of turn one. The creek is still there, but it has been routed through underground piping. Things didn’t go so well. Unser ended up breaking his leg and he missed the 1969 Indianapolis 500.

I know drivers can’t wrap themselves in bubble-wrap. I also realize that drivers lead very active lifestyles that can be pretty adventurous. That’s part of their makeup. But in going on a bike ride, because it’s fun – David Malukas not only put himself out of commission, but he has let down his team, his crew and his sponsors.

I don’t pretend to know how each team compensates their crews. But I’m guessing that if the team places higher in a race, the crew shares in some sort of increased payout. They at least share in the Leader Circle money and get a bonus based on the team’s finishing position at the end of the year. That would be my guess. Chances are, no matter how good a substitute driver is, they will probably not perform as well as the regular driver for a team. That means the crew is probably not earning as much because Malukas wanted to go bike riding. I’m not picking on Malukas, but he is the most recent example.

Remember, Malukas is a paid driver for Arrow McLaren. Does he get paid even though he is missing the first two races? I don’t know, but I’ll bet he is. That means his team has to go out and pay another driver to come in and do the job you were supposed to be doing before you got hurt. Of course, many drivers have insurance against injury – but does that cover mountain biking injuries?

Unfortunately, Malukas is probably going to be playing catch-up for the rest of this season. I understand that the McLaren cars drive different than the rest of the cars on the grid. They just set them up differently, to where there is a period of adjustment. Malukas didn’t get much pre-season testing (if any), and will be just settling in when others are already figuring things out. I hope that he can salvage something out of this season, so that he can make it to next season. Remember, this is a team that has high expectations and little patience.

Something tells me that David Malukas now realizes how many people and entities have now been affected by his decision to go mountain biking on the eve of the new season, when he was to debut with his new team. I have an idea that he has learned his lesson. The question is, will others learn from this? He just has to make sure that he out-performs Ilott when he returns to the cockpit.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on March 18, 2024 at 4:02 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.