James Hinchcliffe calls for IndyCar restarts rethink
Andretti Autosport's James Hinchcliffe has called on IndyCar officials to tighten up double-file restarts in order to prevent some drivers from getting an unfair advantage
The Canadian finished sixth in last weekend's street race in Sao Paulo, but felt that he could have been higher had he not been shuffled back prior to restarts by rivals who jumped early.
"It was a catastrophe from the fourth row back," he told AUTOSPORT. "We need to take a real hard look at how we get these cars lined up for these double-file restarts. We're doing it too late, and we're letting guys get away with murder."
Other drivers have previously flagged up concerns about the rear of the pack not being properly formed up for restarts this year and Hinchcliffe said that the issue had been raised in driver meetings, but that nothing has been done to address it yet.
"It has come up [in meetings]," he said. "Some days we will focus a little bit harder on it, and then we'll get slack on it until we have another bad weekend like this weekend. At Indy it's not going to be an issue, but when we get back to Detroit ...
"I think it's just a function of lining up earlier. When you wait until we're coming off the last corner, half of us are still single-file, and nobody's in the right position. Under caution, I lost three positions on one restart, because guys went at the wrong place. Just because you're not in the top 10, doesn't mean it should be forgotten that you're still racing."
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