As NBC Sports Group’s ’16 motorsports season kicks off this weekend with live race coverage of the F1 Australian GP, lead motorsports play-by-play man Leigh Diffey sat down with THE DAILY to hit on the hot-button issues going on throughout the series that the company covers:
* On Haas F1’s entrance into the sport starting this weekend: "I was in Barcelona (for F1’s first test of the season last week), saw the teams, cars, everyone in the flesh -- and (Haas F1’s setup) is impressive. They don’t look like somebody who just came into the world of Formula 1; they look like they’ve been there for 10 years. Just because of (team Principal Guenther Steiner’s) history not only in Formula 1 but in motorsport; I remember when he was with the Red Bull NASCAR team as well. He has a very high quality; he knows exactly how a team should run; he’s selected some great staff. And we’ve sat on the pit wall and spoke with Gene Haas for probably 45 minutes, and he’s the first to put up his hands -- and he even says this about the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Stewart-Haas Racing -- he says, ‘Hey, I stand back and let those guys do what they do. I do what I do and they do what they do.’ He’s the same on the Formula 1 side."
* On IndyCar’s aero kits: "The thing that actually confuses me is that the teams were made to spend an enormous amount of money -- IndyCar spent a lot of money -- getting the aero package ready for the 2015 season. And it was so different from Honda to Chevrolet, and as we saw in the race results, Chevrolet came out with a better mousetrap. Honda gets a concession at the end of last year; they roll out in St. Petersburg with an aero kit that is basically a copy of Chevrolet, so therefore the whole philosophy behind it -- to get the cars to look differently to build brand loyalty -- now we’re back to where we were before where the cars look the same, so what was that all about? In a time when everyone’s scrambling for the next dollar, I’m not sure that the series went down the right road with that one."
* What he expects from the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500: "Just more eyeballs on screen, being selfish -- more people talking about IndyCar or watching it. Last weekend in St. Petersburg, our friends at ABC got a decent number (1.1 overnight), which is terrific -- nothing to sneeze at at all. And from the NBCSN side of things, we had the best IndyCar season we’ve ever had (in ’15) since it’s been at one of our properties. There is an upward trend there. But maybe the 100th can really get people excited about it. Ever since the split, it has been lost. So ever since then -- the reunification of the two open-wheel series -- I think all of us involved have been scrambling to try to get us back to those healthy days. I was fortunate enough to go to Super Bowl 50, and just the landmark occasion like that -- not that the NFL needs any more help -- because it was the 50th, the hype and the verber and just the surrounding. I really sincerely hope that the Verizon IndyCar Series feels that with the 100th 500."
* What he’s watching out for in NASCAR: "The thing that impresses me right across the board at NASCAR is nobody -- and this is not only NASCAR as the governing body but also the stakeholders like the tracks -- nobody is sitting on their hands. They’re modifying the seating charts, they’re making changes, and I’m not just talking about Daytona Rising. ... I like the fact that NASCAR is tweaking and changing and evolving and trying to be a better product, even though it’s the dominant form of motorsport in North America."
