The first official test sessions of 2012 are underway at the Sebring road course (more of an airfield, actually) in Florida. The teams have been split into two groups, with the first group (including Penske and Andretti) testing on Monday-Tuesday, and the second group (including Ganassi) on Thursday-Friday. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97880 Judging by the closeness of the times, the teams have either got a handle on the new DW12 chassis, or are all in equal states of bafflement. So far the Chevrolet-engined runners are looking good, though it must be said Penske and Andretti are considerably better-resourced than the Honda-engined opposition in their group. When Ganassi run their Honda engine later in the week we may get a fuller picture. The behind-schedule Lotus engined HVM car propped up the field on both Monday and Tuesday, while the Dragon Racing car of Sebastien Bourdais missed the test due to no engine being available at all.
Season opener in St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday. Very interested to see who gets on with the new car. Also very excited to see an IRL race without Danica.
I believe Sky are showing the first race on the F1 channel but after that it will be on the regular sports channels. Shame.
Roger Penske is a hero of mine, and I greatly admire Chip Ganassi, but wouldn't it be great to see someone else take the initiative this year?
KV should be strong with Kanaan and Barichello, season would be much more intriguing with delta wings
first race is at the streets of st petersburg so a road course, but rubens is racing the ovals as well there are only five of them though
I thought he just had the track circuits! Rubens to win the world championship or title or whatever it's called down there
The whole thing will be on Sky from what I've read. First race at St Petersberg(not Russia) is on Sky Sports 2 (HD and normal) at 1am on the morning of Monday 26th March. I count 4 ex-F1 drivers in there at the moment and a few from GP2 - being as I've now gaind access to the Sky Sports channels through my phone(doesn;t include the F1 channel annoyingly) I may actually get to see some this year if I want to stay up late on a Sunday.
Rahal Letterman certainly doesn't fave the best equipment but they may have some of the best drivers with Takuma Sato and series rookie Luca Filippi
Filippi did look pretty handy in GP2 so wouldn't be surprised to see him near the front - Takuma though? How's his IRL career been goign anyways?
Final practice at St. Pete: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98352 Top 21 cars within a second! Plus the possibility - only the possibility - of one or two interlopers breaking up the Penske - Ganassi party. Now, if Rubens could just pull a magical lap out of the bag all would be perfect.
