Wickens brings European race experience to Honda Indy
Robert Wickens, of Guelph, is a rookie in the Verizon IndyCar Series and in town to race in Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto.
But the word “rookie” is a misnomer. Wickens — who set the 13th fastest time (of 23 drivers who were out there) during practice Friday for Sunday’s 32nd autoracing festival at Exhibition Place — is 29 and a veteran of European formula car and touring car racing.
In fact, in 2011, he won the championship of the league that’s one step below Formula One, defeating famous drivers like Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne and Alexander Rossi in the process.
They all went on to become Grand Prix racing racers. The politics (and money) of Formula One being what they are, Wickens, who comes from a family of modest means, found himself without employment.
But Toto Wolff, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Motorsports, who knows talent when he sees it, snapped him up and put him on the Mercedes team racing in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM).
Wickens won races in that series every year until last fall, when he got a call from Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, who invited him to join their IndyCar team to race alongside his best friend, in racing and in life, James Hinchcliffe, of Oakville.
Wickens set the IndyCar world on its ear when he won the pole for his first race, at St. Petersburg, Fla., in March. He was actually winning the race, but was crashed out by another driver on the very last lap.
He’s had some tough luck along the way since, but among his successes have been a secondplace finish at Phoenix, third on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a fourth at Alabama and two fifths at Road America in Wisconsin and last week on an oval speedway in Iowa.
Which brings us to today.
In an interview, Wickens said he’s optimistic about winning his first race in the series in Toronto.
“It would be a dream come true,” he said.
Wickens raced in Toronto in 2007, when he drove in the Champ Car Toyota Championship with sponsorship from Red Bull, a reward for winning the Formula BMW USA championship a year earlier when he was just 16. Despite some small changes, the circuit is virtually the same, said Wickens.
“The track is unique,” he said, “in the number of surface changes you go through in one lap. You go from pavement on the straights to concrete in the turns and the concrete can be smooth
or bumpy. Trying to get the car to work across all the different kinds of surfaces is the challenge.
“The car is going to behave differently on asphalt than it will on concrete. They resurfaced the whole straight heading toward the first turn at the Princes’ Gates and that will be an improvement because before, when you braked going into Turn One, there was a big bump and it would be unsettling for the car.”
Wickens said he will be facing some psychological challenges this weekend. For the first time in more than a decade, many of his old Guelph friends, who haven’t seen him race because he’s been in Europe, will be in attendance. And everybody in his family will be in the grandstands.
“The big thing is, mentally, not to try too hard,” he said. “Trying to get results because it’s Toronto and people are there to watch you can be counter-productive. Whenever you try to overachieve, you start making mistakes. Weird things will start happening; you’ll put too much pressure on yourself.
“I’m going to approach the weekend as I do all the time and take it one session at a time. It’s been my approach my whole rookie season and I don’t see any reason to change.”
One thing he has to do — as he put it — is “get better at” handling situations beyond his control. Last weekend in Iowa, he was running third with only laps to go when the pits opened during a caution and he ducked in for fresh tires, anticipating a restart that never came. He eventually finished in that fifth position.
“I was upset about that,” he said. “But when I try to put it out of my mind, the media do a good job of putting it back in. So I have to work on things like that, to not let things fester and bother me.”
While Wickens was 13th fastest in Friday practice, two-time Toronto Indy winner Scott Dixon was quickest, followed by Takuma Sato and Marco Andretti. Hinchcliffe was 10 fastest and the other Canadian, Zachary Claman De Melo, was 23rd.
The Indy drivers will practise again Saturday before a final qualifying session is held.
“It feels good to be here in Toronto,” said Wickens. “The fans have been great. Earlier today we had the autograph session, and there were so many people from Guelph. It`s been amazing to have all the support.
“Practice didn’t go super well for us. The Lucas Oil crew and I definitely have some work to do overnight.”