Simona De Silvestro drives her number 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy HVM Racing Dallara Honda during the IndyCar Series Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 27, 2011 in St. Petersburg, Fla.Jonathan Ferrey
Maybe "Simona-mania" doesn't have the same ring, but life after Danica Patrick just might not be terrible for the IndyCar Series.
While sophomore HVM driver Simona de Silvestro benefited from some carnage to move up the field, her fourth-place finish in the season opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg bodes well for the open wheel series that looks set to lose Patrick - its top marketing property - to rival NASCAR next year.
The 22-year-old de Silvestro showed poise and determination as she took advantage of others' troubles to move into second early in Sunday's 100-lap street course event. In the final stages, she also displayed some grit as she tried to wrestle the final podium position from veteran Tony Kanaan, 36, who threw just about everything he had in her path defending third place.
In the end, the young Swiss racer was all smiles about the result and also showed some personality as she cheekily stressed the honour she felt racing a driver she watched growing up.
Bottom line is that having a talented woman in the field who can deliver results can only be a positive for IndyCar, which used Patrick as a key marketing tool in the past five years. Unfortunately, Patrick's off track appearances in magazine swimsuit editions and showering in commercials have been much more successful than her performances on asphalt. So, perhaps the time is right for de Silvestro to grab the spotlight from Patrick since the media darling, who turned 29 on Friday, hasn't really delivered much in top finishes anyway with only one win, three poles, and seven podiums in 100 starts.
The Andretti driver had another day to forget in St. Pete's, finishing 12th despite several top contenders being knocked out in a first lap pile-up, as Patrick continues to seem completely distracted by her NASCAR experiment. The part-time move to NASCAR's Nationwide Series in 2010 coincided with a drop from fifth overall in IndyCar two seasons ago to 10th last year.
In the 2010 Nationwide season, Patrick raced 13 times with top team JR Motorsport and struggled to make the top 20. She did take fourth in Las Vegas earlier this month - her first top 10 in 17 starts - which she followed with a 33rd in Bristol a week ago when she crashed out late.
As Patrick dabbled in stock cars, rookie de Silvestro finished 19th overall in IndyCar and took 2010 rookie of the year award at the Indianapolis 500 for her 14th-place performance driving for the one-car HVM team which has scarce resources to complete with the bigger outfits.
Nevertheless, her opening salvo in 2011 indicates that she might be able to take some of the sting out of losing "Danica-mania" circus to NASCAR, something that might happen when Patrick's contract with Andretti expires at the end of the year. Moveable wings not much of a factorThe jury is still out on Formula One's new Drag Reduction System, known more commonly as the moveable rear wing, which didn't really have much influence in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. While mostly due to the fact that Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel ran away and hid from the rest of the field in a dominant win, the Melbourne Circuit's short straight also didn't lend itself to taking advantage of the system.
For example, McLaren's Jenson Button could not get by the Ferrari of Felipe Mass, even with the DRS deployed. Late in the race, Button again challenged Massa and got by, but it had more to do with Massa's difficulty getting grip under acceleration rather than the moveable wing. But it did seem to work when top drivers were overtaking midfielders.
The longer straights at the next two races in Malaysia and China should give fans a better idea of how the new system will change the complexion of races.
One dose of bad news was the performance of the Pirelli tires, which lasted longer than they did in pre-season testing. The fact that Sauber rookie Sergio Perez swapped his hard tires for softs on Lap 23 and then drove to the end of the race can't be good news.
While he admitted he wasn't pushing the rubber as hard as he could, they lasted 35 laps, which means drivers may be able to conserve their tires and avoid pitting, which would still be quicker than stopping for new boots. This was one of the problems with the Bridgestone tires last year, which lasted too long and allowed drivers to go almost a full race distance without worrying about tire wear.
It was a stark contrast to testing where the drivers found the option tires lost grip dramatically and showed a difference of about five seconds per lap from the beginning to the end of stints - something which would thrown some unpredictability into the mix and made things more interesting.