Alexander Rossi and his Andretti Autosport team have been fined and penalized 20 points after officials discovered an illegal ballast solution on the #27 entry following the recent race on the Indianapolis road course.
Rossi’s race-winning car fell afoul of the minimum weight requirement, which describes the way in which the car’s weight is calculated and that the total must meet or exceed 1700 pounds.
The weight of the car itself was above the minimum, but the way in which the team used the driver drink bottle as ballast was not allowed. The drinks bottle is specifically excluded from the weight calculations in the rules.
The discrepancy was discovered in IndyCar’s post-race inspection, and was announced on Wednesday in the lead-up to the Music City Grand Prix from Nashville.
“From a sporting perspective, the car met minimum requirements,” said IndyCar President Jay Frye in the penalty announcement.
“From a technical perspective, the way they achieved the weight is not allowed. To meet minimum weight, the drink bottle and its contents were used as car ballast, which is not permitted and why the team is being fined and penalized.”
Rossi has been docked 20 driver points and the team has been penalized a matching amount on championship points. Andretti Autosport has also been fined $25,000 for the infraction.
The win was not taken away from Rossi, who earned his first victory in nearly three years during the event, and other driver’s results or points awards were not modified.
The loss of points does drop Rossi from eighth to ninth in the overall points standings, however, and promotes Felix Rosenqvist up one position in the standings.
Rossi remains as the highest placed Andretti Autosport driver in the points, and now sits just ahead of his team-mate Colton Herta.
… painfully obvious, no room for argument whatsoever, now everyone definitively knows, the IRL have gone soft on cheating – asj.
Pressing into the envelope, testing the limit of the sporting regs, is something healthy we we expect and embrace of every viable competitor. Whole ‘nother thing, entirely, willfully, brazenly stepping over that line, knowingly breaking the rules, is what differentiates a viable competitor, from a common criminal.
Subsequently treating a common criminal as a viable competitor, the Indy Racing League makes a de facto admission, it is utterly impotent and cannot be entrusted, effectively executing its prime directives.
Textbook, archetypic spec-series behavior –
No disqualification? A lousy US$25 thousand fine? 20 lousy driver points? That’s it? Arguably so, of all sanctioning bodies in contemporary organized motor sport, we now know the Indycar people are the softest on deliberate rule infringements.
If Andretti’s cheating in Indycar, then we’re free to assume the worst, that it’s systemic, that he’s a crook, that he cheats on everything, 24/7-365.
Clearly intentional. No way employing Rossi’s drink bottle as ballast could have been construed an unintentional rules infringement.
Strategic use of the on-board driver hydration system, as ballast, would be something Michael Andretti himself would have had to sign off-on. Something like that could never (NEVER) have been initiated, without approval of senior management there at Andretti Autosport. There is no way Alexander Rossi could have not (NOT) known he was in deliberately breach of Indycar sporting regs.
I always knew those Andretti Autosport people are punks.
Exactly who’s behind the curtain, rigging the show there, in Indycar? George Soros?
^ 1++++++++++++
Indycar’s become even more crony than NASCAR. I didn’t think such a thing could ever be possible.