Bryan Herta Autosport Named Team of the Year by Racer Magazine |
|---|
Topics: Racer
|
Monica Hilton
Bryan Herta Autosport
February 17, 2012
|
There was one other team in contention for this – Red Bull Racing – but with the combined talents and experience of Adrian Newey and Sebastian Vettel and with a budget like Red Bull has to splash about, it could hardly fail.
By contrast, for Bryan Herta Autosport to win the 2011 Indianapolis 500 was astounding. Hiring a previous winner of Dan Wheldon’s caliber was one major part. But to have a car capable of qualifying sixth and to then employ the right race strategy when the big-name teams didn’t – that’s amazingly impressive for a part-time team of 12 staff in only its second ever IndyCar race.
No wonder Herta looked so shocked in his post-race interview on ABC TV. “We just won the Indy 500,” he stammered. “Can you believe that? I mean, we came here to win and we kept saying ‘We’re here to win’ but…we actually won!”