The Motorsport Thread (was the F1 thread)

sleeper wrote: ^I dont think Laguna would be a good track for F1, too short and no decent streights. Elkheart Lake, on the other hand....

That would've been my #2. I also though Sebring but supposedly that track is way to rough.
This is just for fun of course, I don't forsee F1 coming back ever, or not for a very long time....

^Webber twice in practice (car withdrawn from race after second incident) and then to Peter Dumbreck in the race itself (of course his was even bigger, last surviving Merc was withdrawn after that).

Not as good a race as last year, Peugeot sorted themselves out this time and Audi surprisingly just didnt have the car for it, too many problems! Brabham, Wurz and Gene won from Bourdais, Sarrazin and Montagny and the lead Audi of McNish, Capello and Kristensen 3rd. Aston finished 4th on their first attempt with an almost faultless run, if the diesels werent given such an advantage they would have fought for the win.

I just read today that the major F1 teams have started talks on the new competition, parallel to F1. They say there's no further chance of agreement with the F1 management. What do you guys think about that?

JJLehto wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: I just read today that the major F1 teams have started talks on the new competition, parallel to F1. They say there's no further chance of agreement with the F1 management. What do you guys think about that? Is this the rival series we've been hearing about for a few years now? If so, I'm going to be very disappointed. I mean this is F1, is it really going to split over politics?

K, let's see. Indycar split in 1996, thirteen years later one series is dead and the other dying.

F1 should be gone by 2025 And sorry JJLehto, but the only thing I'll say is good riddance.

Seriously though, I think these talks are blackmail, nothing more. As long as that other series is not actually on a track and racing there's little reason to worry.

Though to be fair Indy was dying before the split thanks to surge of NASCAR in the early 90's
But hey, you'd think that's the case but you never with these things.

I hope its just blackmail.

Yea, things will probably be fine.

As for Tilke, honestly I don't loathe him that much. He should leave existing tracks be....but I don't think his fully deigned ones are that bad, and I kind of like the new Donnington layout.

Visitor13 wrote: JJLehto wrote: Though to be fair Indy was dying before the split thanks to surge of NASCAR in the early 90's I think it was more due to the skyrocketing costs of running an Indycar. Most local teams simply did not have that kind of money, whether they were rooted in road racing or its oval equivalent. Plus you had team owners choosing to employ road course specialists from overseas in lieu of local drivers. The latter either wound up in NASCAR, where their skills were in greater demand, or stayed in regional racing. Obviously their fans followed them wherever they wound up, and it wasn't Indycar. The early IRL looked like it could rectify this, but unfortunately it got a bad reputation, not entirely undeservedly. Too bad. The days when it was IRL vs CART (as opposed to IRL vs Champ Car) were truly fun.

Eh, yea it's all crazy. I guess in the end all that matters is American Open Wheel = Dead
NASCAR has it pretty much locked up.
I remember my Uncle saying a few years ago that "the sports" (outside of baseball of course) were Indy, Horse Racing, and Boxing and how all them are dying now.




Edited by JJLehto - June 14 2009 at 14:16

Visitor13 wrote: JJLehto wrote: Visitor13 wrote: JJLehto wrote: Though to be fair Indy was dying before the split thanks to surge of NASCAR in the early 90's I think it was more due to the skyrocketing costs of running an Indycar. Most local teams simply did not have that kind of money, whether they were rooted in road racing or its oval equivalent. Plus you had team owners choosing to employ road course specialists from overseas in lieu of local drivers. The latter either wound up in NASCAR, where their skills were in greater demand, or stayed in regional racing. Obviously their fans followed them wherever they wound up, and it wasn't Indycar. The early IRL looked like it could rectify this, but unfortunately it got a bad reputation, not entirely undeservedly. Too bad. The days when it was IRL vs CART (as opposed to IRL vs Champ Car) were truly fun.    Eh, yea it's all crazy. I guess in the end all that matters is American Open Wheel = Dead NASCAR has it pretty much locked up. I remember my Uncle saying a few years ago that "the sports" (outside of baseball of course) were Indy, Horse Racing, and Boxing and how all them are dying now. NASCAR is losing viewers left and right. I'm hoping this is a permanent trend. NASCAR has pretty much monopolised US racing, and we all know monopolies deliver crap products. Really, something's got to give. The driver lineups in Sprint Cup are locked in, and only a few very lucky drivers + some style-over-substance folks like Danica Patrick have a chance of getting in and staying there. NASCAR has ruined or marginalised its ladder series (alongside every other regional series it laid its hands on) in Nationwide and the Trucks, so fewer and fewer young drivers will see those as a career goal.  They'll have to find someplace to go eventually. And I think that place will be associated with Indianapolis - though probably not run by Tony George.

Well, it's impossible to disagree with the first part. The last year of NASCAR I truly enjoyed was 2003. Since then it has gotten progressively worse, every year. Outside the Daytona 500, I have not even watched a race since 2007....

Hey, I would love to see a serious, legit Open Wheel series in North America again. Ideally more road courses than ovals, save those for NASCAR and also ideally it would be nice to NOT have it run by Tony George.

And don't get me started on Danica. I don't know what pisses me off more, people who hate her because she's a woman, or people who love her, just because she's hot. I mean if she was good then fine....but she is so over rated, (mainly because she's hot I assume) it's sad.
I hope she develops more and becomes a good driver, but time is ticking.

Visitor13 wrote: Unfortunately the IRL needs money badly, and Danica Patrick is easily their most marketable driver. No wonder she gets so much attention, the hate and the love that you speak of. Overrated she certainly is. She'll probably wind up in NASCAR, and contend for 35th every week against, ironically, better drivers in worse equipment.  She'll be a blessing to NASCAR though - one day she's bound to get in trouble with Kyle Busch, and the resulting soap opera will glue viewers' eyes to the screens for months to come .

There's no doubt. And I guess I have to give her props...as much as I hate the way she lets herself be portrayed and go along with the sex appeal thing, if us guys buy into it then.....f*ck. I guess power to her.
Kyle Busch is another one that makes me laugh. Never thought he'd be "the bad boy" but take my one friend.
Despises him with a passion, but later admitted he's a hell of a driver and he's actually nice in real life, just puts on the a****le persona for the entertainment. Then I think he messed with Dale Jr and he hates Kyle again

I don't know if its him or the act but he is one very whiney driver, and how about the guitar smashing thing? I mean yea, kinda messed up but it WAS his trophy. Ah well, the controversy sells.

JJLehto wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: I just read today that the major F1 teams have started talks on the new competition, parallel to F1. They say there's no further chance of agreement with the F1 management. What do you guys think about that? Is this the rival series we've been hearing about for a few years now? If so, I'm going to be very disappointed. I mean this is F1, is it really going to split over politics?

I'd be slightly surprised if they've seriously started to consider a brakeaway series, especially as BMW and Mercedes seem very reluctant to do so.

Having said that, I really hope it happens this time (this one has nothing to do with the now dead GPMA, its FOTA, led by Ferrari, and they are rightly pissed). Max Mosely is the single worst thing to have happened to motorsport in the last 2 decades, he has become everything that he said he wouldnt be when he was first elected as FIA president. He has not only allowed F1 to become the sole preserve of billionairs and major global companies but actively sort for this to happen. Then he gives the comercial rights for F1 to Bernie for a pittence (£100m) but then lets him sell it off to someone else, for billions, that couldnt pay back the loan he used to buy them and had the stupid idea to remove F1 to pay-per-view TV globally. The result is that half of all money made by F1 goes to CVC Capital so that they can pay off there £4billion+ debt to RBS! Then of course there's the way he's meddled with the WRC so that its now a joke and ignored all other forms of motorsport.

His current plans for the £40m budget cap means that we will have a two-tier series next year, and the shambles that is the WTCC proves that is a terrible idea, or several thousand people will be out of a job at the end of the year because the teams will all have to shed several hundred people at once. I'm opposed to the budget cap for one reason, I do not give a damn about the world accounting championship and it doesnt take a genious to figure that with conglamerits made up of multiple organisations, several of which are devoted to manufactureing and R&D, that this is exactly what is going to happen.

There's also the fact that when he forced these rules through he added a clause that states that from next year, only the FIA will have any say in the rules with the teams or any one else having zero input into it.

Did I also mention that in the last year he's made it clear that his dream for F1 is to see it become a spec series like GP2, or even worse like his most recent farce the centerally run F2 series.

I used to be opposed to the manufacturers setting up there own series because it would be a high tech, super expensieve series, but thats simply not an option any more in the current economic climate and anything that doesnt have Mad Max involved cant be bad.

I think I've ranted enough for this evening!