Marcus Ericsson returned to the Indianapolis 500 with zero regrets but ended Thursday with a violent collision late in the first full day of practice. Ericsson hit a curb with just over two hours remaining in the session, causing his car to spin and hit the wall three different times. “Obviously it was quite a decent hit, but the safety in these cars is pretty impressive, so feeling OK,” Ericsson said.
Pato O’Ward picked up his first trophy in nearly two years when he arrived at Arrow McLaren's team lounge in Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend. No, it wasn’t the victory celebration O’Ward had planned for his first IndyCar win since July 2022, but it was unusual: He won by default when Josef Newgarden was stripped of his March season-opening win on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, because IndyCar officials discovered in April that Team Penske had cheated. O'Ward's inherited win is the highlight of the team's season heading into IndyCar's biggest race, the Indianapolis 500, as the slumping McLaren team celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first of its two Indy wins with Johnny Rutherford.
The contempt between Formula 1 and its governing body has softened, with both sides announcing Wednesday they've agreed “to commit to a strategic plan for the future of F1.” FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem told The Associated Press at the Miami Grand Prix earlier this month that his relationship with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali “has never been better” and the two were working to further strengthen an alliance. In a Wednesday statement given to the AP on behalf of both the FIA and Formula One Management, the two sides announced they have developed a working relationship to benefit F1.