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Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2018: Our takeaways

By Brittany Frederick

SAINT PETERSBURG, FL - MARCH 09: Robert Wickens, of Canada, drives the #6 Honda IndyCar on the track during practice for the Firestone Grand Prix of Saint Petersburg IndyCar race on March 9, 2018 in Saint Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images)
SAINT PETERSBURG, FL - MARCH 09: Robert Wickens, of Canada, drives the #6 Honda IndyCar on the track during practice for the Firestone Grand Prix of Saint Petersburg IndyCar race on March 9, 2018 in Saint Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images) /
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The 2018 IndyCar season started with a bang, so what can we learn from the first race? Here are our Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg takeaways.

Welcome back, IndyCar! The Verizon IndyCar Series returned with a roar on Sunday, as the 2018 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg upended much of what we know about the premier racing series.

The season opener was controlled by Robert Wickens, the newcomer from Schmidt Peterson Motorsports who surprised everyone when he captured the pole. Wickens seemed to be in charge of the race as well, until a heated battle with Alexander Rossi opened the door for someone else to slip by.

That someone else was Sebastien Bourdais, who captured his second consecutive victory at his home racetrack. Bourdais looked sharp at St. Petersburg for the second year in a row, leaving his injury-plagued 2017 season in the dust. If you missed any of Sunday’s race, here’s how he won it and the full results.

Here’s what we learned from the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg:

1) Robert Wickens has arrived

He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory Sunday, but if you’re Robert Wickens, there’s still a lot to be happy about. In his first race as a full-time IndyCar driver, Wickens not only won the pole but nearly the entire race. He didn’t just run strong at St. Petersburg; he dominated.

That says a lot about the caliber of the Canadian newcomer as a driver and also about the forward progress of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports as an organization. SMP has been moving pieces and parts around James Hinchcliffe for awhile. But with Wickens, who is not only a solid driver but also a close friend of Hinchcliffe’s, they seem to have finally found an outstanding one-two punch.

Many rookie drivers come into IndyCar with hype, but few live up to it. The rookie class in the 2018 IndyCar season, though, looks like it could be positively amazing. Wickens ran a great race, and we had multiple rookies qualify in the first three rows. If IndyCar fans were looking for new blood, you definitely have it — and it wouldn’t be shocking to see Wickens in Victory Lane this year.

2) Andretti Autosport is the team to watch for

We’ve gotten so used to seeing Chevrolet and Team Penske at the top of the IndyCar standings, but after one race, it looks like Honda and Andretti Autosport might knock them down a peg or two.

Honda swept the Top 5 positions in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Before his wreck with Wickens, Alexander Rossi had looked strong all day in the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda. Likewise, Ryan Hunter-Reay ran well after qualifying for the Fast Six, and if he hadn’t also had to pit early for an ECR issue, who knows how much better he could’ve done?

Andretti looked great in this opening race, which is a relief for IndyCar fans after we watched them struggle so much with technical difficulties and bad breaks in the 2017 season. Rossi looks like he can easily snatch his second win, and RHR is always in the hunt.

And after all the talk about how Penske was dominating the league, it’d be great to see another team emerge as a credible threat to shake up what’s already a wide open field.

3) It’s the track surface

There’s always some form of shenanigans at St. Petersburg, and this year it was the track surface. Several cars went sliding, often at terrible moments. When a master of car control like Scott Dixon can’t hold on, you know there’s a problem. A slip could’ve also cost Rossi his chance at contending, if not for a late caution that closed the distance between him and Wickens.

Maybe, instead of penalizing Dixon for avoidable contact, we need to take a good look at the track surface ahead of the 2019 race. At least this was better than all those winglets flying everywhere a few years ago …

Next: 2018 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg results

The next Verizon IndyCar Series race is the Phoenix Grand Prix from Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday, April 7. For complete IndyCar coverage, follow the Motor Sports category at FanSided.