Danica Patrick's Indycar: horsepower advantage?

Originally Posted by IMSA_Racing_Fan
Although she was clueless towards basic race engineering I admired Danica Patrick for her fearless driving in her early years but figured out soon she may have been helped by her height. (she lost that blind courage after her teammate died in a practice session and moved on to NASCAR).

Back in that time the Indy Racing League used naturally aspirated engined and two chassis, the Dallara and G-Force/Panoz. The second had a triangular airbox intake as opposed to the oval on the Dallara.

It is my guess at 200+ mph her height at 5' 2" sat her so low in the car her helmet didn't obstruct or disturb airflow into the sealed airbox.

What do you think?


Actually, back in the beginning of her career the rules were different. The car's minimum weight did not include the driver. Being 20 or 30 pounds lighter than other drivers gave her a HUGE advantage. It was under these rules when she was most successful. When they changed the rules to factor in the driver's weight, that is when her career waned.

Scott

PS She won just one race in IndyCar. Motegi in Japan, when on the very last lap Castroneves mysteriously ran out of fuel on the last lap while leading. It has long been thought this was done to boost IndyCar television ratings.
 
I remember that Motegi controversy.
On Trackforum I caught the IRL overlook aero cheating by Penske on Castroneves's car during pole day and man the thread blew up! Never seen anything like it, even in the most partisan political boards.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by sloinker
Fact is she ismore skilled than most and certainly better skilled than all on this and other boards that have slammed her. If nobody has noticed ,the trend for many decades is for smaller and smaller drivers. Even where weight rules are in effect the smaller driver allows you to place the weight more advantageously. I attend many races of differing series, and if they turn, invariably the winning drivers are smaller people nowadays. No more Jimmy Spencer's I'm afraid.


There doesn't have to be turning involved, for physical stature to be a factor.
 
Originally Posted by 02SE
Originally Posted by sloinker
Fact is she ismore skilled than most and certainly better skilled than all on this and other boards that have slammed her. If nobody has noticed ,the trend for many decades is for smaller and smaller drivers. Even where weight rules are in effect the smaller driver allows you to place the weight more advantageously. I attend many races of differing series, and if they turn, invariably the winning drivers are smaller people nowadays. No more Jimmy Spencer's I'm afraid.


There doesn't have to be turning involved, for physical stature to be a factor.


Makes little difference in tractor pulling or top fuel cars.
 
In an extreme example, I remember an interview with Rico Abreu's crew chief when he ran the NASCAR K&N series. The CC said that due to Rico's size, car setup was a lot easier and they could run a lot more ballast than with the previous driver.
 
[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
Originally Posted by vw7674
I always thought her lack of male upper body strength was why she hit the wall so many times as well in nascar races.........
those who dared race along side her were truly Fearless.


If anything it would have been more of a disadvantage in IndyCar. The Cup cars have power steering, and when you look at the company who supplies most of the teams, Turn One, you can customize the level of assist. Now there were a few races where her power steering did go out and she couldn't really cope, where Ryan Newman barely noticed.


Talking about the cars with fenders & full roll cages.

Just figured she couldn't leverage the wheel all that much to turn out of those wall-kissers....??
 
Over a seven year period she drove in 191 NASCAR events, never won a race, never finished in the top five and finished in the top ten only seven times while driving top shelf equipment. She was a novelty to draw fans in Indy car and NASCAR. Richard Petty famously said the only way she could win a race would be if she was the only car on the track.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by CT8
Danica drives better than i could imagine ever driving. I am more impressed with Airline pilots though. They go much faster much longer .


Or my favorite aerobatics pilot, Svetlana Kapanina. 52 years old and still at it.
 
Originally Posted by gman2304
Over a seven year period she drove in 191 NASCAR events, never won a race, never finished in the top five and finished in the top ten only seven times while driving top shelf equipment. She was a novelty to draw fans in Indy car and NASCAR. Richard Petty famously said the only way she could win a race would be if she was the only car on the track.


One thing about Danica is she opened the sport up to a whole new group of fans. I would go to races and the longest lines at the merchandise haulers in her time were for Dale Sr and Dale Jr as expected. But the next longest line was for her and the people in the line were all younger girls and their parents, not who you would normally expect at a NASCAR race.

Same with females in the NHRA. When I was going to college and taking automotive, 01-05ish, the people with daughters or younger sisters were all huge fans of Angelle Sampey and Ashley Force.
 
When IROC went to all superspeedways the NASCAR drivers would shut the European road racers out of the draft. Not like there was a good ol' boy club or anything affecting the results of outsiders or anything.
 
LMBO... Danica couldn't drive to save her butt! She was a political ratings stunt and thats all she ever was. Her years in NASCAR were all a joke, no driver would get near her for fear of being wrecked. She was a showboat.
 
Originally Posted by racin4ds
LMBO... Danica couldn't drive to save her butt! She was a political ratings stunt and thats all she ever was. Her years in NASCAR were all a joke, no driver would get near her for fear of being wrecked. She was a showboat.


She once tried to wreck a fellow driver and ended up crashing her car. What a joke.
smirk.gif
 
Originally Posted by racin4ds
LMBO... Danica couldn't drive to save her butt!


Don't recall which Indy 500 race it was, but remember her in the lead with not many laps left, she make a pit stop and then stalled the car (not enough revs) pulling out ... probably cost her the win.
 
Originally Posted by double vanos
Or my favorite aerobatics pilot, Svetlana Kapanina. 52 years old and still at it.


She really knows how to work a stick.
grin2.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top