Pato O’Ward finished on the podium in Saturday’s IndyCar race from World Wide Technology Raceway, commonly known as Gateway, but he was not pleased with how the restarts were managed by the leading cars.
A multitude of cautions struck the early portion of the race, with some of them occurring just at the field was lining up to take the green flag.
A couple drivers were forced into collisions after getting caught out by inconsistent speeds coming to the green flag, unable to avoid contact with their competitors.
Even though O’Ward made it through the chaotic race unscathed, he was near the middle of the pack for many of the early-race restarts and had a few close calls.
Speaking after the race, the Arrow McLaren SP driver related his displeasure with the inconsistency of restarts in recent races, saying that the lead cars should have a single throttle position before accelerating.
“I can’t remember who it was [leading the pack],” said O’Ward. “I think it was either the third or fourth restart.
“The problem was, the guys were starting to accelerate. Everybody is like, ‘Okay, we’re going.’ They would stop and then go. That’s what makes the checkup so much.
“I don’t know why it’s so hard to comprehend. Man, just stay in one throttle, then go. It’s so simple.
“But when guys just go, then stop, everybody behind us, if you’re fourth or fifth in the line, you see the first jump a little bit, let’s go. If not, you just get eaten.
“They stop, you stop. You’re relying on the guys behind to stop. It just creates chaos.”
O’Ward was not the only one who noticed the lack of smooth restarts in Gateway, and even the veteran Ed Carpenter was caught out enough that he ran into the back of Dalton Kellett coming to the green.
Other recent races have had similar problems as well, including the Nashville street race which saw Marcus Ericsson launched into the air due to a sudden slow-down in front of him.
Multiple drivers have expressed concern lately for the frequency in which unexpected pileups are happening just when the field is getting up to speed.
Timing a restart is a common problem for drivers to navigate, since they can only see a couple cars in front of them and are watching for any cues as to when to accelerate.
It does seem, however, that many drivers would like to see more controlled restarts in order to cut down on unnecessary chaos in the back half of the field.
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