Indycar has made a decision regarding the winner of the St. Petersburg Grand Prix held over a month ago. Pato O’Ward has now been declared the official winner of the race, replacing Josef Newgarden.
The controversy arose after an extensive review of the race data revealed that Team Penske, the team Newgarden drove for, violated the “Push to Pass” parameters. This system allows drivers to temporarily increase their engine power output for overtaking maneuvers.
According to Indycar rules, the Push to Pass system is disabled during race starts and restarts until the cars reach a specific point on the track.
However, it was found that Team Penske manipulated the system, allowing Newgarden and his teammates Scott McLaughlin and Will Power to use Push to Pass during these critical moments, giving them an unfair advantage.
As a result of this violation, Newgarden and McLaughlin have been disqualified from the race, and Power has received a 10-point penalty. Additionally, all three teams have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit their prize money from the event.
The violation was not discovered until later, during the warmup session for the Grand Prix of Long Beach. INDYCAR President Jay Frye emphasized the importance of maintaining the integrity of the championship and announced new technical inspection procedures to prevent similar violations in the future.
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In response, Team Penske’s President, Tim Cindric, admitted the mistake, explaining that the push-to-pass software was inadvertently left in the cars following hybrid testing. He accepted the penalties imposed by INDYCAR.
Overall, the incident highlights the strict enforcement of rules and the commitment to fair competition in the Indycar Series.
