A winning Formula
F1 veteran Sato takes flag with Andretti car
INDIANAPOLIS — At the end of 500 miles around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was a former Formula One driver who took the checkered flag.
He even drove for Andretti Autosport.
It just wasn’t Fernando Alonso.
Takuma Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indianapolis 500 yesterday when he denied Helio Castroneves a recordtying fourth victory as the two traded the lead in the closing laps.
“I know Helio is always going to charge,” Sato said. “But he’s just such a gentleman and such a fair player.”
The Andretti family has struggled for decades to win this race, but as a car owner, Michael Andretti certainly knows the way to Victory Lane.
Sato’s victory gave Andretti a second consecutive win in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” An Andretti driver has now won the 500 three times in the last four years, and five times overall dating to 2005 with the late Dan Wheldon.
Last year, it was with rookie Alexander Rossi. This time it is with Sato, who joined the team just this season and largely had been overlooked at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Andretti camp expanded to six cars for the 500 to add Alonso, a twotime F1 champion who brought massive European interest to the race.
Six cars never seemed to spread the team too thin, and the main issue facing Andretti Autosport was the reliability of its Honda engines. Alonso put on a thrilling show and even led 27 laps — third most in the race — but he was sent to the paddock when his engine blew with 20 laps remaining.
“We didn’t build the thing that was smoking down the front straight,” said McLaren boss Zak Brown, who engineered Alonso’s trip to Indy.
Part of the reason Alonso was able to skip F1’s showcase Monaco Grand Prix earlier in the day for Indy is because the McLaren team — and its Hondas — have grossly underperformed and Alonso is not a current title contender.
Alonso did have a spectacular race and simply fell victim to his engine late in the race. The crowd gave the Spaniard a standing ovation as he climbed from his car.
“I felt the noise, the engine friction, I backed off and I saw the smoke and, yeah, it’s a shame,” Alonso said. “It’s a very nice surprise to come here with big names, big guys, the best in open-wheel racing and be competitive.”
Alonso still drank from a carton of milk to close out his experience, and didn’t rule out a potential return.
“The last two weeks, I came here basically to prove myself, to challenge myself,” he said. “I know that I can be as quick as anyone in an F1 car. I didn’t know if I can be as quick as anyone in an Indy car.”
The Honda teams had a clear horsepower advantage over Chevrolet, but things were dicey in Indy for more than a week and certainly on race day. Before Alonso’s failure, 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay lost his Honda and so did Charlie Kimball. Hunter-Reay led 28 laps and was a strong contender late.
“I’m really happy for Honda. They worked really hard to get us here,” Andretti said. “I know how big this news is going to be tomorrow when they wake up in Japan. It’s going to be huge.”
Added Sato about the popularity of his victory in Japan: “This is going to be mega big.”