INDYCAR

The experience of the Brazilian team in the category

When the F1 champion in 1992, Nigel Mansell, moved to Indy next year, and none other than the triple world champion Ayrton Senna tested Emerson Fittipaldi's car at Penske, there was no doubt: the category had the potential to rival the F1. And it was in the following years that the category attracted more and more young talent in search of an international career - many of them Brazilians.
More than two decades later, however, the reality of Indy changed - and that of Brazil abroad as well. In the case of the American category, the years of transfer between two leagues (CART and IRL) hindered the plans of ascension on the world stage. And in the Brazilian case, only two drivers start the 2019 season of Indy, which starts on Sunday in the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Despite the lower amount, the quality of the drivers makes the fans have every reason to follow the racing category: at age 20, Matthew Leist is one of the promising talents of motorsport, winning important titles like the F3 English in 2016 (equating to Senna, Nelson Piquet and Fittipaldi) and the Freedom 100, the Indy-500 in the category of primary access, writing his name in the most famous oval in the world, Indianapolis.
The typical daring of youth joins one of Indy's biggest names: Tony Kanaan. The 44-year-old Brazilian is his team-mate at Foyt and has already shown signs that he will do his utmost to make the young teammate his pupil and carry the Brazilian legacy at Indy. "I had the privilege of living together when I started with one of the great mentors a young pilot can have: Ayrton Senna," says Kanaan.
The challenge for both Brazilians is that at Indy all teams use the same chassis and tires - the engines may be Chevrolet or Honda. So small performance differences (sometimes two tenths of a second separating the top ten) represent giant leap for teams, hence the field of more structured teams in terms of budget and personnel if Penske, Ganassi and Andretti.
"Me and Tony (Kanaan) have been working a lot over the last few months with AJ Foyt and we are very motivated for the start of the season. I feel I'm helping our team even more than it was last year, so I'm really ready for this race in St. Pete, "says Leist, who in his debut at this track last year surprised to be first in training free from Friday and to qualify in third among the 24 pilots in the grid.
Indy's free practice on the streets of St. Petersburg will start this Friday from 12:45 p.m. The qualifying session will take place on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and the start of the race is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, with a live broadcast of the Band (Brasília time). Source:icarros.com.br