Making Things Better

I like to think about the solutions. How do we restore it, fix it, improve it?

I watched with interest as an IndyCar team grappled with worrying behavior from one of its two drivers recently and I wondered how they would respond. I wondered how fans would once the team had.

The situation I’m referring to involves Agustin Canapino, an Argentinian driver racing in IndyCar for Juncos Hollinger Racing, and Theo Pourchaire, a young and talented Frenchman in an Arrow McLaren.

Pourchaire misjudged a braking point and made contact with Canapino in the Detroit Grand Prix a couple weeks ago. It was minor, both men finished the race, and it was one of the lesser incidents in a race that didn’t exactly showcase the wheel-to-wheel prowess in the series.

Fast-forward to the week after the race:

Pourchaire received death threats over social media, Juncos Hollinger Racing and Arrow McLaren released a statement calling out the behavior as inappropriate and unwelcome.

Then Canapino waded in and said he hadn’t seen any but if there were any, it was only because Argentinian fans are passionate about sports and Pourchaire should get thicker skin.

The blowback was swift and intense and at the end of it, Juncos Hollinger Racing pulled Canapino out of the seat before driver-favorite track Road America. A couple days later, they announced that Canapino would be back in the seat and finishing the season. But the discussion that Juncos Hollinger started in the same news cycle is a good one for the health of basically everyone in the world.

It was made very clear in numerous articles that Canapino and the team had been involved in a fairly intensive dialogue centered around sensitivity to other cultures.

What may be considered normal expectations for fan behavior in Argentina may be out-of-bounds in the United States. 

(I think death threats are quite a ways across The Line regardless of culture but I’m glad to see progress of any kind.)

Obviously none of this means much if Canapino and another driver come together, a situation is inflamed, and Canapino again pours fuel on the fire. But until we get a chance to see the improvement in action, we’re left with the team statements and Canapino’s commitment to make our judgments and they’ve gone further in describing their approach to resolving a difficult situation and being transparent about conversations from which we could all benefit. 

That’s worth enough. For now.