Opinion: 7 Thoughts from the 2015 IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

The opening race of the 2015 IndyCar Series season is in the books, and it was an exciting way to kick-off a new year. Here are my seven biggest takeaways from another successful season opener in Florida, which was taken out by Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.

1. Based on this weekend’s form, Team Penske will be tough to beat all year. Australia’s Will Power led a Penske 1-2-3-4 in qualifying on Saturday and Juan Pablo Montoya led home the reigning series champion on Sunday for a 1-2 team finish. Surely there are alarm bells going off throughout the rest of the IndyCar paddock now? Penske cars were by far and away the pacesetters this weekend, and it it’s an omen of things to come – other teams will be hoping it isn’t – it’s going to be a long season

2. Honda are way behind in their engine development. Chevrolet will be gleefully aware that they scooped the top six finishing positions at the Grand Prix of St Petersburg, with the top Honda runner, Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay a distant seventh.  These aren’t good signs for the Japanese manufacturer, especially not on top of whispers out of the paddock that Chevrolet teams have worked harder and for longer developing their aero kit package. Obviously it’s still early days, but the team at Honda Performance Development will doubtless be working hard before the next event in New Orleans.

3. The aero kits look great. Yes, they appear to be rather flimsy – debris seemed to be flying thick and fast, and often – but it’s really nice to turn on an IndyCar race and see genuine difference between the Chevrolet and Honda cars. A lot of people don’t like the DW12 chassis, and, sure, it’s not like we’re seeing the awesome Lola and Reynard chassis that dominated the last 1990s and early 2000s, but the cars look good. The aero kit introduction seems to have swung most people’s opinion right around.

4. The new aero kits might not actually be the death of good IndyCar racing. If you read social media, you’ll realise that the doomsayers are predicting the end of the spectacular on-track product as we know it – based on one afternoon’s racing.

I’m willing to adopt a wait-and-see-approach. Maybe this being the first race of the year and the first race with the new aero kits was an aberration caused by excited drivers with new bodywork on their car that they’ve never raced before. Of course, St Pete has something of a history of being wild, especially into the first turn – we’ve had cars upside down there in years past – so for those on social media screaming that it’s the end of the world as we know it, maybe let’s wait and see what happens by the time we get to the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and then make a judgement.

5. Inconsistent rulings from Race Control are already causing controversy. When race director Beaux Barfield – you know, the guy who presided over IndyCar racing in a mostly uncontroversial manner these past few years – left for the Tudor United Sport Car Series, IndyCar fans were dismayed to learn that Barfield’s spot was being taken by Brian Barnhart, an old IRL crony of Tony George’s, and a guy who was basically fired for inconsistent and sometimes insane rulings. I mean, this was the man who green-flagged an oval race restart in the rain!

Aided by a team of other experts, Barnhart is back and hopefully on a very short leash. Even so, it hasn’t been a good start for the new regime in Race Control. Graham Rahal was penalised for contact with Charlie Kimball, but Kimball and Simon Pagenuad coming together a handful of seconds before wasn't given a second glance? They were about as bad as each other. That maddening inconsistency is going to make for a very long season if Barnhart and co keep it up.

6. Team Penske’s pit-road mistake on Will Power’s final stop is incredibly rare. If there’s one thing you can normally bet the farm on, it’s the professionalism of the Team Penske crew. Roger Penske demands nothing less.

To see them release Will Power fractionally late from his final pit stop of the afternoon was, frankly, shocking. These guys just rattle off exception stop after exception stop. It’s in the team’s DNA. I can’t even remember the last time a Roger Penske crew made a mistake on pit road, much less one that cost one of their drivers a race. Mark it in the books, people. We probably won’t see another for many races to come!

7. The Grand Prix of St Petersburg is fast becoming a classic event. Originally part of the now-defunct ChampCar World Series, the St Pete race has everything you need to ensure a good event: a racy track, wonderful setting, great crows and a title sponsor. It’s a fun track to watch an IndyCar buzz around, especially the last third of a lap down the shoreline and onto the airport runways, which remind me of the Cleveland airport race of old.

I know St Petersburg wasn't supposed to be the first race of the season – the recently-cancelled Brazil race was meant to have that honour, and IndyCar are looking at overseas races to start the year in the near future – but the series could do worse than beginning each year down in Florida. Hard to believe the race, in it’s current incarnation, has been around since 2004.