As the self proclaimed resident expert on IndyCar in Race Department
I'd just like to say it's nice to see someone crawl under my rock this time around
I watch every week and hope that we'll see him up there fighting for a podium, and I'm beginning to wonder when/if it will happen.
His 'transfer' across the water has renewed my interest in Indycar, but I really want to see him doing better, and I don't think the current field is as good as it was.
I think Ole is right on this, I actually don't think early CART was as talented as people think it was back in the day. Compare to Senna, Schumacher, Piquet, Mansell, Rosberg, Bellof. Even some of the F1 backmarkers were actually very talented people like Roberto Moreno (I don't care what anyone says if you qualify an Andrea Moda in the field and not by default then you are WC material...) You compare that lineup to the legends of CART in the early 90s and it's just Unser Jr, Tracy, Robbie Gordon, Michael and John Andretti (to be frank I've always thought John was more talented than Michael but that's just my own opinion) and the old guys with Mario, Emerson, and Bobby Rahal.
So you can see what I mean when I think that the "talented CART drivers of the early 90s" was actually a bit of an illusion. I've always maintained that the AOW (American Open Wheel) scene was the strongest in the late 90s and very early ChampCar days.
Lets look at some of the top guys of late 90s CART. Greg Moore, Scott Pruett, Jacques Villeneuve, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti... and when ChampCar came around there was Simon Pagenaud and Timo Glock and I actually think Sebastian Bourdais was talented he just flopped out of F1 for whatever reason.
I honestly believe that the current IndyCar field has been the strongest since the late 90s. Unfortunately, and I hate to say it because I do like Rubens, but I don't think Rubens has really been impressive at all. Sure he's not in a Ganassi or Penske, but he's in a team that's definitely second tier and on par with fights for podiums as Tony Kanaan has proven. Excluding the oval races, on every single road course race he's been eliminated from the Top 12 in qualifying (and if you don't know, that's the equivalent of being stuck in Q1 for F1).
If an IndyCar driver went over to F1 in... let's say Lotus-Renault and he's been eliminated from Q1 every race you'd say the IndyCar driver is doing horrible. And the technical gaps between the teams in Indy aren't even as big as the ones in F1. KV is below Ganassi and Penske sure but honestly Rubens is in a Chevy engine which is better than its competitors (as Will Power has proven at Long Beach).
Honestly, I personally believe that asking Rubens to do more than what he's doing now would be asking a bit much. But, the fact of the matter is, if an IndyCar driver went over to F1 and hasn't gotten up to speed at this point or fighting for podiums in a car that's possible to get podiums he'd be thrashed to bits. Yet, Rubens is getting the soft treatment with the "he just need to get used to the cars and tracks." Between his critics and his supporters, the truth of the matter is inbetween. I think the jump between F1 and Indy is so big at this point that you shouldn't expect to fight for podiums, let alone wins in your rookie season but I also think the current talent in the grid this year is seriously underestimated. It's not F1 level of talent sure, I can admit that. But it's definitely a grid that's more worthy of the "American continent's premiere open wheel series" that IndyCar is supposed to be known as.
I'll be the first to admit that Indy hasn't had a talented grid for the past 5-6 years with the exception of maybe a handful of drivers. This year, everyone deserves to be there maybe barring Katharine Legge, Charlie Kimball, and James Jakes.
BTW. I'm glad you've decided to start watching Indy, it's good to see some renewed interest in the new direction of the series. I hope you've been enjoying the races so far