It is why Franchitti remained silent over the winter, declining interview
requests as he waited for the furore to subside. Only now, with the new
IndyCar season just over a month away, does he feel ready to discuss fully
what happened. And expand on his own hopes and dreams at the age of 38, with
a glittering career behind him.
Sitting in the Force India motorhome at last week’s Formula One test in Jerez,
where he and his brother Marino watched their cousin Paul di Resta put the
new VJM05 through its paces, Franchitti speaks calmly but with no little
emotion about what is still a sensitive subject within motorsport.
Questions remain about the conditions under which the race in Las Vegas was
run; the number of competitors in the field, the characteristics of the
circuit, the share of $5m Wheldon stood to have received had he come through
from the back of the field to win.
Franchitti accepts some of that criticism, but not all of it, although he
doesn’t elaborate beyond saying: “I don’t think we should have been there
[in Vegas]. And we were proved right. Mistakes were made but everyone makes
mistakes. You can always look back and say ‘We shouldn’t have done this’ but
that’s not what I’m talking about. That stuff was fair.
“But there was some really bad stuff out there that was not constructive or in
any way accurate.”
For Franchitti one of the greatest tragedies was that it took Wheldon’s death
for the British public at large to realise that it had a huge star – the
2005 IndyCar Series champion and two-time winner of the hugely prestigious
Indianapolis500 – on the other side of the Pond.
It is subject to which the 38-year-old, twice a winner of the Indy500 himself,
can relate.
“When Dan won his Indy 500s there wasn’t any fanfare in the UK – same when I
won mine,” he says. “I have a vested interest so maybe I am not the most
impartial but we have definitely been overlooked.”
You might think there was a hint of ego involved here were it not for the fact
that Franchitti, born in West Lothian but of Italian stock, is one of the
most down-to-earth, unassuming sportsmen out there. Clean-cut, good-looking,
with a soft Scottish burr. The kind of sportsman, in fact, who should be a
big star in Britain.
He certainly is in the States; the fact that he is married to Hollywood star
and sometime political activist Ashley Judd hardly a hindrance in that
respect.
Like most young British drivers Franchitti had ambitions to race in Formula
One but for one reason or another it never happened.
As he reaches the twilight of his career and ponders his next move (“I’d love
to do Le Mans one day”) he says he’s delighted with the way his career has
panned out and happy to be at Chip Ganassi, “the best team” in IndyCar.
“You can always look back and say ‘I wish I had done this or that’,” he says.
“In 1997 when the McLaren test contract was offered, should I have taken it?
Or the Jaguar thing or BAR? The fact is I didn’t.
“But I wouldn’t give up the four championships or the Indy 500s just to have a
crack at this,” he adds, sweeping his hand across the Jerez paddock, “in a
mediocre car or team. Maybe it was wrong but I always wanted to do F1 with a
chance of being nearer the front but I never got the offer, so I never did
it.”
Instead Franchitti takes a vicarious pleasure in watching di Resta, whose rise
through the lower ranks he helped to fund, out lapping the Jerez circuit in
bright winter sunshine.
“I love watching Paul,” he says. “I’m proud of what he’s doing. I would love
to have got the chance to drive the cars but I got a lot of chances. I’m
pretty happy with my lot.
“It would be nice to get [some sort of recognition],” he adds modestly. “But
it’s just one of those things. I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t really
know if it’s my job to fix it.
“It is what it is and it doesn’t keep me awake at night. It might keep my Mum
awake I don’t know. My job is just to go out there and drive.”
Starting with St Petersburg, Florida – by coincidence Wheldon’s adopted home –
on March 25.
New, safer cars, which Wheldon was helping to develop, are being introduced
this year and Franchitti insists the accident has not shaken him and his
motivation remains undimmed. How long can he go on?
“That’s the question,” he says. “I said to Rubens [Barrichello, who has been
dropped by Williams F1 and is reportedly close to signing with KV Racing]
last night: ‘I hope you can do this deal, mate, so I won’t be the oldest
driver in Indy!’
“I have done a two-year deal [for 2012 and 2013] and I love doing it.
Obviously what happened at the end of last year was a huge reality check,
but I love what I do, more than ever, because I think I am closer to the end
than the beginning.
“Even stuff that used to irritate me, I enjoy it. I’m at the best team in the
business.
“As long as I can keep performing. I’m not saying I’m going to win the
championship every year but as long as I’m in the fight, then I will keep
doing it.”
For now, though, it’s all about preparing for the start of the season next
month and what promises to be an emotional race around the streets of St
Petersburg.
“Going to St Pete’, Dan’s home town, for the first race will be tough,”
Franchitti concedes. “But we will deal with it. It’s a lot tougher I think
for the people outside than the person in the car.
“But nobody – whether it was Ashley, Marino, Mum and Dad, Paul, my sister –
nobody said ‘maybe it’s time to stop’.
“They know I love doing it. They know that when it’s time I’ll stop.”