McLaren's reliability problems and Andretti's driver war only widen the gap to Penske and Ganassi, who remain strong with drivers in the title race
Since 2013, several different drivers have won Indy, one of the most balanced championships in motorsports. Scott Dixon, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden, and Álex Palou all have one thing in common: they all won the Astor Cup for Penske or Ganassi. Even though it's a very even championship, these two teams grow whenever they can at the key moment, and therefore, they consecrate champions. The Mid-Ohio GP was a good example of this, especially by the meltdown of rivals McLaren and Andretti.
Yesterday, McLaren looked in a dream position at Lexington. It had Pato O'Ward starting on pole-position and ready to spice up the title fight seeing rivals Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden and Will Power starting outside the top-10. Felix Rosenqvist, who has had a very decent year so far, would start from fourth and could secure a huge result for the team. Both had the potential to share the podium and even win at Mid-Ohio.
Rosenqvist, in fact, was the highlight of the start, taking Colton Herta out of the lead and getting third, but the Swede's dream lasted only 9 laps, seeing his Chevrolet engine blow up, and saying goodbye to the chances of his first podium of the year. O'Ward started too well and had a comfortable lead over Scott McLaughlin, but his gearbox broke and he became a helpless creature on the track, plummeting down the field with no chance of a reaction.
Felix, who is a driver that depends on results if he wants to stay in Indy, saw reliability play against him. An unfair result for someone who managed to grow in the team, but even so he doesn't know if this is enough to guarantee a spot in 2023, or else he will return to Formula E. Pato, on the other hand, is one of the great drivers of the year so far, but it has already been two races with the team's reliability failures. The Mexican is 65 points behind Marcus Ericsson, and with the car like this, it is hard to think of any title challenge.
Andretti was completely inexplicable on Sunday. Alexander Rossi, who had been doing well this season, had a posture that would be unfortunate against any other driver on the grid, but against teammates Romain Grosjean and Devlin DeFrancesco, he bordered on the unbelievable. He threw both of them off the track without any necessity.
Grosjean, who already inherits some of his reputation in Formula 1, didn't help himself either. Even slowing down, he touched his teammate Colton Herta and caused him to spin on the final straight of the race. Despite a few high points here and there, it has not been a gigantic season for the Frenchman in his first year in a top car.
Herta, who by the way, would not have been touched by Grosjean if he had been at the bottom. In this case, the blame lies entirely with the team, which had the driver in position to fight for the win, but the delay in calling for the pit-stop at a yellow flag by Tatiana Calderon took the young American out of the front positions. Andretti's best driver in 2022 is still Rossi, 92 points behind Ericsson. The title drought is going on for 10 years, and it will only get longer.
Among the really big teams, Penske did very well. Scott McLaughlin won again in a great performance, starting from the front row, taking advantage of O'Ward's problem and having to defend himself against Álex Palou, who made a good strategic leap and returned to the podium. He didn't have enough pace for the win, but he was there again, which is important.
Will Power shone. Even after a bad qualifying and a spin on the first lap, he recovered very well, making use of the busy race and very important maneuvers throughout the race. He got ahead of Josef Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson, who also recovered well on Sunday, and the fight for the title remains tight.
In two weeks, comes the first Indy race outside the United States in three years. Toronto is a complicated street race, where qualifying will once again be a very important factor.