Simona and Helio: Separated At Birth?

The more I see from new Indycar rookie sensation Simona de Silvestro, the more I like -- both on and off the track.

Check out Simona's VBlog from St. Pete:



Helio Castroneves' little sister, I say. She has the same natural charm and easy-going speaking manner. The way she says "crazy race", she's almost impossible to dislike.

My favorite part is when she said (about the race in Sao Paulo), "I did a few mistakes, you know... I sometimes hit the drink bottle instead of the radio, so I almost choked there in the car a few times. Sort of funny, maybe not so funny for the team."

Helio's Agonizing Wait

As the racing world awaits Helio's fate at the hands of the jury, I find myself imagining what Helio is going through today. To come from the top of the world as a back-to-back Indy 500 champion, winner of Dancing with the Stars, loved by his fans in several continents... now he sits with his head in his hands after an enormously complicated tax trial, helplessly waiting for 12 people to decide if he spends the next few years behind bars.

Given the facts in this case, I believe that Helio never intended to break the law. He may have tried to find the best way to structure his money to minimize his tax burden. He may have gotten some bad advice. And it does appear that he may have been tinkering with the idea of moving to Monaco to avoid future taxes -- but that's the future, and this isn't The Minority Report.

And so Helio waits, with some of the verdicts already sitting in a sealed envelope on the judge's desk. With every passing minute, all he can think about is his lovely fiancee he'd be leaving behind. The storybook career as an Indycar driver that might be left in tatters. The love of his fans that would eventually fade as he sits behind bars.

I can imagine him wringing his hands. Breathing in, breathing out. Trying to think about something, anything besides that sealed envelope on the desk containing your fate.

Jury Deliberates Helio's Fate

Helio Castroneves' tax-evasion trial has gone to the jury. With deliberations underway, we have to wonder what a hung jury will mean -- will the government go through the effort of retrying the case?

The IRS will have a tough time walking away from the case at this point, because it might open the door for others to attempt this tax-avoidance method. But re-trying a case like this has a low probability of yielding a conviction. Most likely, they would announce their intent to re-try, and then offer Helio a one-time chance to pay up and plea down to a misdemeanor. But it will cost him, probably big.

The Racemind Take: The burden of proof is heavy on the prosecution, who must show that Helio knowingly attempted to break the tax law rather than just legally minimize his tax burden -- and they must show it "beyond reasonable doubt". While I think it's likely that Helio was planning to avoid paying the tax altogether in the future, he doesn't appear to have done it yet. Hopefully the jury agrees.

This whole episode has already revealed one loser, regardless of the verdict: the former Penske employee who called the IRS to snitch on Castroneves out of spite.