IndyCar Season Review: Mario Moraes

Mario Moraes hit a wall in more ways than one in the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season.

After a stretch of strong finishes to close out the 2009 season, Moraes looked like an up-and-coming hot property in IndyCar with KV Racing Technology. In fact, before the season, many were saying that KV had, as a team, surpassed many others in the garage, and were poised for a strong run with Moraes this year.

But Moraes was initially not brought back by KVRT, replaced in the team's flagship No. 5 with ex-Formula 1 pilot Takuma Sato. Much of Moraes' family backing, coming from of Brazilian conglomerate Votorantim, was lost with the death of his father in the middle of the 2009 season. When the team finally brought him back in a third car, the No. 32, it was only days before the season opening race at Sao Paulo.

Moraes had not tested an IndyCar all offseason, and his rust showed in a spectacular first-corner wreck. As the field kicked up dust and bunched in the first corner, Moraes misjudged the braking zone, lost control of his car, and landed on top of Marco Andretti.

That event proved an omen for the rest of the season. Moraes wrecked six times this year, up from only four in 2009. Five of the six came in the first half of the season, all but killing any chances of a solid season.

Notable incidents included wrecks on the fourth day of practice for the Indianapolis 500; an accident 17 laps into that race; a frontstretch crash with Helio Castroneves at Texas; and a hard crash at Motegi that sent Moraes to the hospital with back pain. It was part of a nightmare season for KV, which saw its three full-time cars fail to finish 21 times in a combined 51 starts.

His season-ending DNF at Homestead, coming off the hard Motegi wreck, was attributed to mechanical failure, not a surprise given the amount of damages the entire KVRT team accrued over the course of the year. The final two races were especially disappointing given that Moraes had finished fifth and seventh in the same two events last year.

Worse, his third place finish at Chicagoland in 2009 would remain his career-best performance. In 2010, Moraes could muster no better than a fifth place finish at Watkins Glen, though he also had top-10s at Long Beach, Kansas, and Edmonton. It all amounted to a 15th place run in the final standings, down one position and 17 points from last season.

It was far from the 2010 season that many were expecting Moraes to have. Granted, it wasn't his fault that he wasn't able to test before the season, that his team may have over-expanded, or that his teammates had similar problems staying out of the garage on race day. Nonetheless, had Moraes continued progressing as in 2009, a top-10 finish in points should have been attainable.

Opinion: Andretti Going Out on a Limb for 2011 and Beyond

Ryan Hunter-Reay chose to break the news on Twitter.

"Thanks to all of you! Very happy to continue with a great team. Lots of work to do now, we're up for it," Hunter-Reay tweeted to his nearly 10,000 followers, after signing a two-year deal to remain in the IZOD IndyCar Series with Andretti Autosport, the team that picked him up at the beginning of this season.

Hunter-Reay will look to improve on a 2010 season that saw a victory in the prestigious Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and a career-best seventh place points finish. To that end, he will spend time testing at Barber Motorsports Park for the next couple of days. "Testing in October is a first for me," he joked, referring to his longtime career path of signing one-year contracts just before the season's start.

But as Andretti retains one of its top two drivers from the previous season, the other one says farewell. After eight years spent driving the No. 11 7-Eleven Dallara-Honda, Tony Kanaan will say goodbye to the team. Kanaan leaves behind a record of 14 wins, over 100 top-10s, and the 2004 IndyCar championship.

Kanaan was, for the past few years, the undisputed leader of the four-car Andretti brigade, at least as far as seniority was concerned. His help with car setups proved immensely valuable to his teammates, and he is perhaps the best mid-pack starter in the sport, frequently passing half a dozen cars on the first lap after subpar qualifying runs.

This year, however, was an unpleasant one to say the least for the Andretti brigade. After a winless 2009 season, an offseason restructuring was designed to strengthen Andretti's racing operations. The team scored two wins, but as had happened for the past few years, driver infighting threatened to tear the team apart.

The Andretti dream team of 2005 they were not. Kanaan, Marco Andretti, and Danica Patrick once again proved that they were an unstable combination prone to feuding on the track and off. Kanaan's frustrations with Patrick - and vice versa - were well-documented all season. Only Hunter-Reay really managed to keep out of the mess and go about his business while maintaining solid relationships with all of his teammates.

That's why he's back for 2011 and beyond. Unfortunately for Kanaan, he became a victim of the money in racing. Despite being the bottom two performers on the Andretti team, Patrick and Andretti have two of the biggest sponsorship contracts in the sport tied to them.

Hunter-Reay, like Kanaan, went into the offseason with no sponsorship, with both of their 2010 primary backers shifting their marketing dollars to Patrick's car, allowing them greater exposure at a lower price. But at a similar level of performance and assumedly a much lower price, Hunter-Reay was easier to retain.

Therefore, it was easy to figure out whose $3 million contract was going to be terminated.

Now Kanaan becomes the most coveted open-wheel free agent in years. Just about every mid-level team in the sport is looking at him with designs on how he can take him to the next level. Kanaan is a warrior that knows how to set up a racecar, weave through traffic, and take a car to the end. Plenty of teams would love to have him to mentor their young drivers.

He'll be in IndyCar in 2011, undoubtedly. KV Racing Technology has two fully-sponsored seats open for next year, carrying the Lotus backing, and after this season's crashfest, owner Jimmy Vasser would certainly love to have a driver that doesn't tear up equipment in one of his cars. Brazilian countryman and Kanaan's former CART rival Gil de Ferran, who leads de Ferran Dragon Motorsports, would love to have Kanaan to mentor another young Brazilian, Raphael Matos, who could really use a teammate. The possibilities go on and on.

The real question is, what will Andretti do without a bona fide lead driver?

Let me rephrase. Performance-wise, Hunter-Reay is lead driver-caliber. He's a proven race winner and will be a championship contender for years to come. But he doesn't quite fit the leader role the way that Kanaan does, in that he's not at the stage of his career where other Andretti drivers are going to look up to him as their mentor. He's been at Andretti the shortest amount of time, for one, and he's also only been in IndyCar about as long as his teammates.

But Andretti doesn't look likely to find a replacement for Kanaan in the fourth car. There is no setup driver anymore. There's one championship-caliber race car driver and two decent drivers that have less than stellar reputations with the IndyCar faithful. Marco still gets criticized from time to time about his level of commitment to the sport. Danica gets it no matter where she turns, especially with her NASCAR experimentation.

Simply put, team owner Michael Andretti has a lot of guts going with the team he has right now for 2011 and beyond.

Perhaps it won't matter. Perhaps with less infighting, the entire team will take its performance up a notch. Kanaan was a different breed of driver than Patrick and Andretti. He was undoubtedly the best driver, statistically speaking, on the team. But he had different expectations and needs than everybody else. Not that those needs were any better or worse intrinsically than those of his teammates, they just didn't mesh.

And perhaps, as the undisputed leader on another team, Kanaan will take somebody else to the upper echelons of the sport, or at least a top-10 spot in the final standings. Maybe Raphael Matos, Mike Conway, or some other up-and-comer will benefit far more from Kanaan's advice and leadership. Maybe they'll be more patient and easier to work with than Patrick and Andretti were.

It's always sad when any sort of long-term relationship ends. But maybe, just this once, things will work out better for both sides. Maybe the current Andretti trio will mesh beautifully. Maybe Kanaan will be more appreciated elsewhere.

And maybe, we'll see one of the best rivalries that IndyCar has had in a long time next year.

Kanaan Officially Out at Andretti

Tony Kanaan and Andretti Autosport announced today that they have agreed to conclude an eight-year relationship in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

In 131 starts with the Andretti team, Kanaan scored 14 IndyCar victories, the most recent coming at Iowa this year. Over that eight year span, Kanaan and Andretti never finished worse than sixth in the season standings, owing to by 102 top 10 finishes and only 18 DNFs.

Their best year together came in 2004, as the pairing won the title. That year, Kanaan won three of the 16 races on the schedule, and scored top five finishes in all but one of the other events (the season opening Homestead race, where he finished eighth).

2007 was another high watermark year in Kanaan's tenure with Andretti, as the pairing scored five victories, more than any other team in the series. Kanaan finished third in the championship standings that year, behind teammate Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon.

Kanaan remained loyal to Andretti and sponsor 7-Eleven in late 2008, when he spurned Chip Ganassi Racing to remain the driver of the No. 11 for Michael Andretti. Instead, Franchitti, returning from a rough time in NASCAR, took over the second Ganassi car and has won the past two championships.

Meanwhile, things had been rocky at Andretti the past two years, especially for Kanaan. He has had difficulty working with teammates Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti, with issues dating back to 2008. Team owner Michael Andretti has often compared running his team to babysitting feuding children.

This year, Kanaan and Patrick did not get along so well, with the climax coming in a heated battle for second place in the closing laps of this year's finale at Homestead. Patrick won the battle, and then the war - 7-Eleven announced they would be scaling back their IndyCar commitment and moving to Patrick's car as a major associate sponsor, leaving Kanaan without a ride.

Fans have made motions to help, and Kanaan worked to promote for the Mars candy corporation as he drove a Pretzel M&M's-sponsored two-seater at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this month, but no sponsors stepped up.

Thus, the second longest-tenured driver and team combo in the sport, behind only Helio Castroneves and Team Penske, has decided to call it quits.

Kanaan's options are plentiful, however. Few drivers are able to win consistently in IndyCar, and Kanaan is one of them. He's one of the most coveted free agent drivers in years, so he's been rumored to join just about every team in the garage that could use a veteran driver to take them to the next level.

KV Racing Technology is looking for a driver that won't tear up equipment; de Ferran Dragon Racing, led by Kanaan's countryman Gil de Ferran, is looking for somebody to mentor Raphael Matos and take him to the next level; Dreyer & Reinbold Racing may be looking to replace Justin Wilson if he departs. All are strong possibilities for Kanaan in 2011 and beyond.

Andretti, meanwhile, will likely let the No. 11 fade away unless a talented pay driver shows up with major sponsorship money. Graham Rahal, one of the few drivers that fits that bill right now, looks poised to join Ganassi in a third car, and few other options have been suggested. It's more likely that Andretti will shrink to a three-car stable, with Patrick, Marco Andretti, and Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Interview: Sebastian Saavedra - IndyCar's Next Big Thing

For the past two years, Sebastian Saavedra has been establishing himself as one of the brightest young talents heading up the Road to Indy ladder.

Since coming stateside in 2009, joining the illustrious AFS Racing program in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, Saavedra has posted two wins and two top-10 finishes in the championship, coming third in 2009 and eighth this year. This year's finish was even more remarkable considering the fact that he missed the final two races of the season after leaving Bryan Herta Autosport.

Saavedra made his IndyCar debut in the 2010 Indianapolis 500 for Herta's team, and returned to the series at the end of the year with Conquest Racing. After a strong American debut in 2009, Saavedra spent much of 2010 assembling a strong team of advisors; his new manager in America is longtime IndyCar mechanic and team owner Derrick Walker, while two-time Indianapolis 500 runner-up and Colombian countryman Roberto Guerrero serves as a driver coach.

Saavedra is currently home in Colombia relaxing after a hard-fought 2010 campaign, while also attempting to put together a program that will see him compete for IZOD IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year honors in 2011. In between travel obligations, Saavedra agreed to an interview with us, and we're happy to provide the transcript below.

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First things first: how and when did you get your start in auto racing?

SS: I started when I was 8 with an uncle who bought me a go-kart. My dad wasn't very into the idea of racing so I needed to wait couple of years before he got the bug. I did the racing school and surprised many heads around so my career started right away here in bogota, colombia.

You’ve taken wins in Formula BMW, Formula 3, and Firestone Indy Lights cars. How do these very different cars compare to one another? Was one type of car easier to drive than the others? Faster?

SS: I would say there's no easy car to drive. They all have their secrets and their way to be driven. Of course the speed changed with each class cause of the HP but they all had their charm. I really enjoyed the F3 as it was the nicest, lightest and with more Down-force.

You drove for Andretti Autosport in 2009 before moving to BHA this year. How were the two teams different from one another? Did you have to work with one team differently than with the other?

SS: They were both very professional teams with a particular goal in hand. Win. As a driver you need to change with the situation and scenery. Andretti was a very interesting experience in every way.

By now everybody knows that your season with Bryan Herta Autosport in Indy Lights did not end as well as either side would have hoped. Can you explain why things went downhill, and how your relationship with the team ended?

SS: The relationship never ended, things happened and were unfortunate. We were more focused on the IndyCar program than Indy Lights and sometimes it hurt but I enjoyed driving for a great driver I followed when i was younger and he gave me the opportunity to do the Indy 500 which I will never forget.

Do you have any regrets about the way that things ended with BHA?

SS: Not at all. This is a very professional bussiness and we both understand the paths we need to take to keep our success. Bryan is an amazing guy with lots of future, maybe not with me.

After that, you worked with Conquest Racing and Derrick Walker for this year’s season finale at Homestead. Were you pleased with the way things went at Homestead? What was it like working with a new team for only one race weekend?

SS: Was by far the nicest experience I've had in a long time. Was very risky as we left it all in the table but thank god all went our way. Conquest Racing gave me the right material and engineering to show all my potential which I'm very thankful. Derrick Walker managing me from now on is a big honor aswell as I admire his working scenario and ethics.

Do some of the things you learned driving in Indy Lights translate to the bigger IndyCars, or are they completely different?

SS: I got to say that the Firestone Indy Lights was the best school possible to move up into the IndyCar. It's very close on the way of driving the cars and gives you a very good idea on how its going to be when you get to the big cars. So yes it does translate many things.

Looking forward to next season, you have said that you will be racing full-time in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Do you have sponsorship lined up already? Can you give us any insight on which team you might be driving for? Are Conquest and Walker options for next year?

SS: Mr. Derrick Walker is not part of Conquest Racing, he is my manager. We are still working very hard on getting the right sponsorship and we have good team options that we are already finishing with but thats as much as I can give you right now ;)

Growing up in Colombia, I’m sure you had some different racing idols growing up than some American drivers did. Who are some of the drivers that have influenced you?

SS: For sure Montoya was one of the big drivers I followed since I started as he put the sport on the map here in Colombia. I've always been a big fan of TK and as I lived in Brasil for cuople of years he became very big for me.

Obviously IndyCar is mostly an American series, so you spend a lot of time in the States during the racing season. How often do you travel home to Colombia during the racing season?

SS: I'm living in Indianapolis the complete season. I like this as I can keep very focused on my gym and engineering. I usually go to Colombia when theres a sponsor event or any important deal going on, so usually I hope to go down a lot. HA

Your management group includes Derrick Walker, and earlier this year you had former Colombian IndyCar driver Roberto Guerrero as a driving coach. How much does it help to have two people with that much experience in IndyCar helping your career along?

SS: It's great to have such an interesting group of people behind me as they give me great confidence with the amount of experience they have to give. Im very pleased on their work and want to continue close together for a long time.

Anything you’d like to tell your fans?

SS: There's something very important I've been giving my fans and its the pleasure of dreaming! When you dream very hard and wish something, with lots of work everything is possible.

Finally, what are your goals for the future? You’ve said that an Indy 500 win is one of your goals, but beyond that, are you looking to go to Formula One someday? Any other championships or races you’d like to win?

SS: F1 for sure is my big goal. Something I've often heard its just too hard to get but my dad has always said.." if it was easy anyone could do it' I go by that principle and work on it. I want to win more than one IndyCar championship and be a positive Colombian figure to follow.

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Thanks once again to Seb for agreeing to do the interview, and we at OWA wish him the best of luck in 2011 and beyond. Check out his personal website at http://www.ssaavedra.com, and be sure to follow his Twitter account at @sebsaavedra.

IndyCar Season Review: Raphael Matos

Raphael Matos could have used some better luck in 2010.

The 2009 IZOD IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year headed into 2010 looking to continue a three-year streak of winning awards in every series in which he competed. He had won the 2007 Champ Car Atlantic title, and followed that up with the Firestone Indy Lights crown in 2008 before scoring his IndyCar rookie award last year.

One of the hottest young drivers in the sport had a new advisor, as former Indianapolis 500 champion and countryman Gil de Ferran bought into the Luczo Dragon Racing team, renaming it de Ferran Dragon Motorsports in the process. The team also added a limited program for Davey Hamilton, who brought Hewlett-Packard funding to the team full-time. Both driver and team set goals for a top-10 points finish this year after running 13th last year.

Matos opened the season in his native country of Brazil, where he took a career-best fourth place finish, second-best among Brazilian drivers in the event. He followed that up with three laps led and an eighth place run at St. Petersburg, where he had crashed out in 2009. Through the first quarter of the season, Matos maintained ninth place in points, easily within the team's goal for the year.

But next on the schedule were Kansas and Indianapolis, two tracks at which the team had failed to finish in 2009. Matos survived Kansas in 16th place, but for the second year in a row failed to complete the sport's biggest race. Not long after losing a wheel in the pits, Matos slammed the outside wall on lap 73, and his day was done. His crash, combined with Hamilton's first-lap incident, meant the team would scramble to prepare a single car for the next two oval events.

It took a return to the road courses for a reversal in Matos' fortunes, as another fourth-place finish came at Watkins Glen. But Toronto saw an accident with E.J. Viso kill any momentum the team may have had.

Mid-Ohio saw Matos' fourth and final top-10 of the season, as he came home seventh, but the rest of the year wasn't much to write home about. Back-to-back DNFs at Sonoma and Chicago were less than conducive to maintaining his position in points, as he dropped all the way down to 15th in the order. In each of the final three races, the team finished outside the top 15 as well.

When all was said and done, Matos finished 14th in points, despite qualifying no better than 10th all season and producing half the amount of top-10s he had in 2009.

Indeed, declining qualifying performance was a decisive factor in Matos' 22-point decrease from his rookie season. 2009 saw Matos start no worse than 18th, as he qualified in the top 10 seven times for an average of 11.8. This year, Matos started 20th or worse five times, never making it to the Firestone Fast Six as he had in 2009, resulting in a 16.5 average start. His average finish also dropped to 15.7 from 12.8 in 2009.

With the hopeful addition of a full-time teammate and mentor for 2011, Matos' prospects may improve markedly, but only if the team is able to expand and thus retains him. With Tony Kanaan on the market, there have been rumors that Matos may be replaced, as nobody knows the status of Matos' multi-year contract with the team. But the addition of the fellow Brazilian and former IndyCar champion to the team, if in a second car, should help Matos improve as a driver dramatically next season and beyond.

IndyCar Season Review: Alex Tagliani

Alex Tagliani spent more of this season racing up front than anybody could have expected.

The Canadian spent the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season with the newly established FAZZT Race Team outfit. While much of the personnel, including former Walker Racing team manager Rob Edwards, had been taken from established teams, their cars had been purchased from Roth Racing, a former series backmarker. Expectations were, therefore, not overly ambitious for the new team.

So it was a surprise, to say the least, when Tagliani opened the season from the outside pole at Sao Paulo.

Unfortunately, through 28 laps of that race, Dan Wheldon got into the back of Tagliani and sent him spinning into the wall. The damage was severe enough to knock Tagliani out of the race, setting an unfortunate trend for the rest of the season: strong, quick runs in qualifying sessions, only to be marred by relatively disappointing finishes.

St. Petersburg and Birmingham gave the team its first top-10 finishes of its short existence, but Tagliani suffered a wrist injury during the Long Beach weekend, crashing out of that race as well. The team would thus head into the first oval segment of the season mired in 14th in points. Expectations were once again low, as the former Champ Car driver had only three oval starts in IndyCar.

But Tagliani and FAZZT shocked and surprised in the next three events. Kansas and Indianapolis alike yielded fifth place qualifying runs, and two more top 10 finishes. At Texas, Tagliani managed to lead 33 laps, although he only came out of the weekend with an 18th place run, finishing three laps down.

From there, unfortunately, the finishes were not particularly strong.

A series of low finishes from Iowa to Toronto was punctuated by a crash coming off a restart at Edmonton, where the Canadian was tagged by Mario Romancini in his final start of the season. The high point of this period was the stylish Hot Wheels livery that Tagliani carried in the two races in his home country; unfortunately, he could not bring home a solid finish in either event after nearly taking the Toronto victory in 2009.

Mid-Ohio broke the streak of subpar finishes. The team's best race of the season saw Tagliani, who had seen bad luck take him out of races all season, finally stick around for the finish. He led a race-high 30 of 85 laps to finish fourth. It would prove to be his only top five finish and final top-10 of the season. Even still, it affirmed the paddock opinion that Tagliani and FAZZT were no pushover, if only their luck could improve a little bit.

From there, the rest of the season was nothing to write home about. Tagliani, who had qualified eighth or better in five of the first six races of the season, only had three top-10 starts from Texas to the end of the season. Four of the final five events yielded finishes between 13th and 15th, with the lone exception a crash out at Chicago. He ended the season 13th in the overall standings, scoring 302 points with five top-10s and four DNFs. He also placed 13th in both the oval and the road course sub-championships.

As far as new teams went in 2010, Tagliani and FAZZT were far and away the best. With sponsorship somewhat stabilized, the team establishing a solid rapport through the growing pains, the potential of a teammate, and Tagliani entering the second of a four-year contract, 2011 should be an even better year for the small all-Canadian outfit. In fact, Tagliani may be primed for his best season since his seventh place run in the 2004 Champ Car World Series.

IndyCar Season Review: Vitor Meira

Vitor Meira showed a lot of heart by returning to the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2010.

In 2009, his season was ended prematurely after a major wreck in the Indianapolis 500 broke two vertebrae in his lower back. The Brazilian, who had made 97 career IndyCar starts without a win, was not a lock to return to A.J. Foyt Enterprises.

But the immortal A.J. Foyt, after going through a revolving door of replacements the rest of that season, retained his driver for 2010, hoping once again to put together the team's best season in recent memory. Immediately Meira paid back his owner's loyalty.

Meira scored a third-place finish at Sao Paulo, making him the highest finishing Brazilian driver in his home country. An emotional Meira wore a Brazilian flag on the podium to celebrate. He then led 12 laps in the next event at St. Petersburg, a race he may have won on an alternate pit strategy had it been about ten laps longer.

The rest of the season would not be as quite as strong. Meira fell out of the top 10 in points by Long Beach, but through the first five races of the season managed four top-15 finishes. Indianapolis, once again, proved a struggle, but for different reasons; he qualified a poor 30th and crashed out on the backstretch after 105 laps. Regardless, simply surviving the 500 was a small victory.

The first four ovals marked Meira's strongest period of the season, even with the Indianapolis disappointment; all three other tracks, Kansas, Texas, and Iowa, yielded top-10 runs. Meira was now ranked 12th in points, a position he would generally hold to the end of the season.

Meira spent the next five races, all road course events, in the middle of the pack. A negative sign was that Meira never qualified better than 17th in any of those races; however, in four of those five events, Meira made up at least six spots by the end of the race, and never finished outside of the top 20. His Toronto drive was most impressive; from the last starting spot, he posted his best finish of the third quarter of the season, a respectable 11th.

Next up, Meira led his final six laps of the season at Chicago on his way to a ninth place finish, but an errant move in the next race at Kentucky into a passing Simona de Silvestro ended both of their days and killed his momentum. Meira ended his season with a 17th-place run at Motegi and his sixth top-10 of the year at Homestead, a sixth place effort.

Meira's return to IndyCar yielded a 12th place finish in points, his best result since 2007. He also ranked 12th in the oval championship, to go with a respectable 14th in the road course standings. It wasn't one of his best years in the sport as a driver, nor one of Foyt's best as an owner, but the results give both hope for another, even stronger go-round in 2011.