Oilpressure

I have been away from this site for two weeks now. If you read my last post, you know that I took off to have a procedure done on my eyes, correcting a droopy eyelid on my right eye. They did both eyes to keep me symmetrical, since the left eye had begun to droop too, Such are the maladies of old age.

I am happy to report that the procedure seems to be a success. I can see much better out of my right eye. It’s amazing how much brighter my office at work seems to be. The eyelid was encroaching on my pupil, clouding my vision and making everything seem darker. I also see much better driving at night. So far, my recovery has seemed much easier than what I anticipated. I say “so far” because it isn’t complete yet.

Most of the stitches have popped out, but I can still feel the stitches underneath my eyelids. The bruising and black-eyes have completely gone away, but my eyelids are still swollen, puffed up and still a little tender. I go back for my follow-up appointment this Friday, but I’m assuming everything is on schedule. Hopefully, they will give me the green light to start wearing my contacts again. I’m getting tired of the glasses that I seldom wear under normal conditions.

I won’t show the “after” pictures yet, because the eyes are still swollen and there are still scabs where the stitches are/were. You will see the finished product soon enough.

It doesn’t seem like I missed very much. I believe the only driver news that occurred during my sabbatical was that Sting Ray Robb has been confirmed at Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR). This move makes sense for both sides. Robb needs a team that he can grow with, and JHR needs his cash, which is rumored to be quite substantial.

Much like last year, with Santino Ferrucci at Foyt – it is believed that Robb brings enough cash to fund his car, as well as another car and driver. It is believed that Conor Daly will get the other seat, but others are still in the running. Some believe that Romain Grosjean will end up back at the team he carried to new heights last season. I tend to think that he may have burned a couple of bridges with them with his fully candid comments about IndyCar. He wasn’t wrong, but sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth shut – especially while seeking employment.

I am more bullish on Sting Ray Robb than most people. Of the drivers that are known to bring a ton of cash to programs (Robb, Kyffin Simpson and Devlin DeFrancesco), I think Robb is the most talented of the three. The jury is still out on Simpson, and DeFrancesco didn’t show me a thing in his two years with Andretti.

Earlier this week, we learned that David Brown has been hired by JHR as Technical Director. I’ll be honest, I was not familiar with Brown until I saw the press release and learned that he had worked with the likes of Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Ayrton Senna. That’s quite a list of Who’s Who in F1 over that past forty years. The question is, how does his expansive knowledge of setting up cars for road and street courses translate to the Indianapolis 500.

There is nothing in Formula One that can prepare an engineer for the Indianapolis 500. I once again go back to the comment I overheard from the McLaren garage in 2019, when a crewman said “It’s four identical corners. How tough can it be?” They found out a few days later when Fernando Alonso and McLaren were bumped by (ironically) Juncos Racing.

Aside from that major question mark that also applies to all of the other ovals, I think Brown certainly brings the credentials to succeed on the non-ovals on the schedule.

Another engineering move occurred during my absence. Michael Cannon had already left AJ Foyt Racing, before I took off – but no one knew where he was going or what he was going to do. Now we do – he is going to PREMA to work with Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman as Head of Engineering.

One other development occurred while I was away – the selection of the Pace Car driver for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500. I have much more to say on that, but I think I’ll save that for Friday. It’s good to be back.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on December 4, 2024 at 4:01 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.