IndyCar: No, James Hinchcliffe should not be 'feeling the pressure'

It seems as though the question as to whether or not James Hinchcliffe should be “feeling the pressure” is becoming an annual tradition at this point in the IndyCar season. But he shouldn’t be the least bit fazed.

Last year at this time with 10 of the 17-race IndyCar season’s races having been contested, the question was posed by race broadcasters and media members alike: should James Hinchcliffe be “feeling the pressure”?

Last season at this time, Hinchcliffe’s rookie teammate at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Robert Wickens, sat in seventh place in the championship standings with 274 points, four positions and 45 points ahead of the veteran Hinchcliffe in 11th with 229.

This was the case since Hinchcliffe failed to qualify for the double points-paying 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway while Wickens finished the race in ninth place after leading one lap, and he scored 45 points as a result of it.

But because of this discrepancy in the championship standings with the rookie several positions ahead of the veteran, this particular question was still posed.

Why?

Hinchcliffe’s average finishing position at this point in the season was still almost two full positions better than that of Wickens at 7.78, as Wickens’s was 9.60, so it’s not like he was struggling.

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Hinchcliffe shut everybody up by lowering his average finishing position to 7.10 in the following with a stellar performance at Iowa Speedway and a victory to go along with it, his second victory in his last five races at the track and the team’s first victory of the season.

Wickens ended up going on to miss the season’s final three races after he was severely injured in a nasty accident at Pocono Raceway. Among these three races was the double points-paying season finale at Sonoma Raceway, so he and Hinchcliffe both missed a double points-paying race.

The two Canadians ended up tied for 10th place in the championship standings. Wickens’s average finishing position ended up being slightly better (8.93 to 10.06), but Hinchcliffe won the tiebreaker because of his victory.

Now, one year later, the same question is being posed about Hinchcliffe.

Once again, why?

Hinchcliffe (barely) qualified for this year’s Indy 500, and while he has scored fewer points (216) through the season’s first 10 races than he did last season, he has done better compared to the rest of the field, as he sits in ninth place in the championship standings as opposed to 11th.

While the fact that he has not yet finished a race in the top five yet this season and in nearly a full year could definitely be considered concerning, he has still recorded five top 10 finishes so far in 2019, and perhaps more importantly, he has outperformed rookie teammate Marcus Ericsson, a former Formula 1 driver.

Yet it is Ericsson who has been the cause of this recent debate because of his recent improvement.

Ericsson has been quick ever since he arrived to IndyCar from Formula 1 ahead of the 2019 season, but only recently has he started to turn that speed into results.

After finishing in the top 14 only once in the first six races (seventh place in the race at Barber Motorsports Park), he has recorded four consecutive top 13 finishes, including a career-high second place finish in the second race at the Raceway on Belle Isle and an impressive seventh place finish in the race at Texas Motor Speedway, his first race ever at a high-banked oval.

Is this really reason for Hinchcliffe to panic?

Hinchcliffe finished at least four positions ahead of him in two of these four races, and he would have in the race at Texas Motor Speedway as well had he not crashed late in that race while fighting hard for a spot in the top four.

And crashes happen to the best of them — just ask five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, who crashed a few laps later with Harding Steinbrenner Racing Colton Herta, a wreck that the Chip Ganassi Racing driver admitted was his fault.

Here we are headed to one of Hinchcliffe’s best tracks, Iowa Speedway, in a few weeks following his home race in Toronto, Ontario and we are being asked once again whether or not he should be “feeling the pressure” when he sits in ninth place in the championship standings, five positions and 33 points ahead of Ericsson in a 14th place tie with 183 points.

Yes, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports did gain an additional investment from primary sponsor Arrow when Arrows signed on as their title sponsor ahead of the 2019 season, but it is safe to say that even with additional resources and funding, the team have taken a slight step back from last season, which was arguably their best season based on raw speed since Simon Pagenaud drove for them from 2012 through 2014.

But this is an overall team issue, not a Hinchcliffe issue.

Their average finishing position through the season’s first 10 races is 13.05, marred by four DNFs. Not including these four DNFs, it is still only 11.25. Hinchcliffe’s average finishing position with DNFs is 11.70 while Ericsson’s is 14.40, and Hinchcliffe’s without DNFs is 10.00 while Ericsson is 12.50. Hinchcliffe clearly still has a clear multi-position advantage.

In a season during which they had hoped to make the jump up to the “Big 3” of Team Penske, Andretti Autosport and Chip Ganassi Racing, Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports simply haven’t had the speed to contend with the usual mid-pack teams and challenge these top three teams on a regular basis like they did last year.

Hinchcliffe would probably be the first person to tell you that he hasn’t had the results that he has wanted to attain this season. Given the fact that he is driving for team that have underperformed as a whole, the fact that he can say this while sitting in a more than respectable ninth place in the championship standings and well ahead of his teammate says a lot about what he is capable of.

Even if Hinchcliffe does start to actually struggle, he has been a great representative for Arrow and Honda over the last few seasons, so it is unlikely that he would lose his ride at Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, at least not right away, because of his struggles. It is hard to see both of these organizations no longer being willing to support fan-favorite.

It is even harder to see Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports themselves cutting ties with him since he has been their highest finishing driver in the championship standings in each of his first three full seasons driving for the team and he is on pace to continue that trend this year as well.

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Talk of James Hinchcliffe “feeling the pressure” amid a recent improvement in performance by Marcus Ericsson should not faze him as the 2019 IndyCar season progresses and as he prepares to tackle his home race track before heading to arguably his best track in a few weeks. His seat should be safe at Arrow Schmidt Motorsports season well into the future.

But maybe for Hinchcliffe’s sake, he should feel that the pressure is on, because the last time the “pressure” was on, he went out and won a race, shutting up the naysayers in style.

IndyCar: No, James Hinchcliffe should not be ‘feeling the pressure’

By Asher Fair | Jul 9, 2019

It seems as though the question as to whether or not James Hinchcliffe should be “feeling the pressure” is becoming an annual tradition at this point in the IndyCar season. But he shouldn’t be the least bit fazed.