So the new customer engine and gearbox rules are already producing their intended results-more competition. This could elevate the sport of F1 racing in the eyes of U.S. fans, one would think. I wonder who the potential drivers might be? Pay for play types, or grads of F2 series, or even a NASCAR name or two?
Well, some North American names that are being kicked around are Jonathan Summerton, Robert Wickens, Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, AJ Almendinger, of course...sigh...Danica, Scott Speed, Graham Rahal, Jeff Gordon (prolly too old now), Kyle Busch, and more.
Just what we need Scott speed back in an F1 car...I'm interested to see what happens with this. If they can actually get a chassis produced for the 2010 season or not. If all the new regulations for 09' produce the results taht they are claiming with more passing and a greater chance for more teams to take a victory I think it's possible to see more teams enter. However I am 100% against a standardized engine.
Somehow I doubt Speed will be back. I wouldn't sweat him. I think it'll be an established F1 driver (probably int'l) with solid experience setting up cars and a newer American face, hopefully Summerton or the like. Rahal or Rossi might not be bad either, but please, no Marco or Danica. You know they're both lobbying hard, though.
Oh come on you don't think a driver who has won a single race in 64 starts because she didn't run out of gas should be driving in F1? Cause apparently she's a candidate for one of the seats.... The Link
Oh yeah, I knew this would happen. If she gets the seat it's due to the money she'll bring...ie she'll essentially be a pay driver. If she doesn't, then this was all a publicity/pr move in the first place. Can't hurt for a new team to get a bunch of attn by naming Wanica as a candidate.
I ave been following F1 for awhile mostly due to Mandingo's posts. I'll be excited to support the USf1 team, unless of course Danica is involved, in which case I will root against them aggressively.
"We will be officially announcing the team in a special show on Speed TV on February 24 at 13:00 EST. " Mark your calendars. The Link
In somewhat related news, it looks like Richard Branson of Virgin Records and Virgin Air fame may have the inside track to ownership of the former Honda F1 Team. The Link Hell, I could see that dude taking over F1 from Bernie someday and running it right.
Wow! I'm surprised the capital exists to do this. I'm not too worried about Danica. If she can pass muster in testing, she may get the 2 spot for p.r. The one spot would be a hotshot like Marco. The testing is too hard to keep secret for most teams abroad and I assume it'd be the same here. If she's 1.5s off the pace, it'd be too obviously a publicity stunt. I know it's a US team and for F1 you have to be more fit, but wouldn't it be hilarious to see a Paul Tracy type out there just bashing into everything!? Maybe Tony Stewart could drop 50 lbs and destroy $30m worth of hardware on the worlds most prestigious tracks. Also, Bernie and Max are controlling oddjobs, but can the teams really complain about F1's global success with those 2 in charge? You can argue whether that was an organic result due to technology, but they could certainly take credit as well. I know they eschew tradition like Spa but tradition don't pay the bills (ask aggy).
Marco and Danica.Man, that would be teh suck. I know a new team isn't gonna even sniff the front half of the field in F1, but those two might kill somebody. Looks like the team will def have 2 American drivers right off the bat, testing and car development be damned. The Link . Seems like kind of a sketchy move to me. During their big PC on SPEED the other day, they said absolutely nothing new. They dropped bombshells like that they'll have suppliers and will hire people. OK. Shocking, I tell you. People will supply them...and people...WILL BE HIRED!! They did announce that they sold a "small part" of the team to someone, but didn't say who. I'd like to go on record right now saying that a small portion of my F1 team is also for sale. Hell, for the right price, you might even be able to talk me out of MY nonexistent F1 team in it's entirety. To sum up, here's what we have right now, 13 months from Melbourne 2010: -No sponsors, not even a minor(thus no sponsor budget) -No engine. Will buy engines from existing F1 engine manufacturer, with whom no relationship has been established. -No chassis. -No factory. -No designers, engineers, mechanics, pit crew, safety crew, admin staff, or support staff. -No drivers, but intent to field American drivers -No FIA approved testing facility except Indy, which is cold all winter. -No race in North America -Lean, 100 member team "based" in North Carolina (no hirings announced & no base of operations announced). -Testing time in the Windshear Wind Tunnel. (Anderson is part owner) -Small part of team sold to a third party (no names given) Did I mention they only have 13 months? For an F1 startup that has literally nothing off the ground, that's like next Tuesday. I hope they prove me wrong. I'm not holding my breath. Tune to SPEED next week for my PC. MandingoF1 is going LIVE, baby!
It would be interesting to see a NASCAR driver step into an F1 car. The last time that happened was when Jeff Gordon swapped places with JPM a few years back and he wasn't all that far off the pace. I do think Busch isn't giving the F1 guys enough credit tho. The F1 cars may be easier to drive overall, but driving them at the limit for the full race distance is probably just as challenging as drafting for hours on end.
Yeah, I think that's the key...on the limit...all the time. That and getting that last 0.01-0.03 out of the car that is the diff between being in the running in F1 or being middle of the pack or a backmarker.
Anyone see qualifying last night? Wow...up is down. Left is right. You know...Old Testament, real wrath-of-God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria! Brawn GP is looking very, very strong. Still, in the long run, I wouldn't bet against Ferrari. They're looking very strong among the teams running KERS and standard diffusers. I'm really pumped about the race tonight, but I don't really know what to do. Race is at like 1am and I have to be up at around 5:15 tomorrow to go to work. I can DVR and watch it later, but if I do that, I won't get to see it 'til Monday and will have to try to avoid the result all that time on the internet, which I have to use at work for 24 hours. Maybe I'll just go to bed right now and get up at 3;30... Yep...I'm pretty sure y'all were all very interested in my sleep quandry.
BTW, here are the quali results, with final weights of the cars included. That's a new rule adopted since last year. Now instead of just speculating about what fast qualifier was light on fuel in the in the final qualifying session (Q3), you can actually tell by their weight. Amazingly, though, the two Brawn cars, the top 2 qualifiers yesterday, were heaviest on fuel. I wonder how this new transparent disclosure policy will affect strategy up and down pitlane in the engineer's boxes. The Link
Have been trying to follow the rule book changes and looking at plenty of pics, but have to say............................ Good lawd those cars are ugly!!!
Yep...they sure are ugly, and apparently relatively pretty gripless and hard to drive. Alonso agreed with both points in the pre-race show. If you look at the car in my sig pic and then look at an '09 car, the differences are striking. However, the combination of KERS and the cleaner following air the aerodynamics of the cars produce did make for much closer following, a much tighter field, more pass attempts, and more successful passes in their debut. All in all, I'd say it was a very exciting race. They may have to tweak the formula a bit for the sake of safety, pure racing, and let's face it, aesthetic reasons, but I think maybe they're on the right track. The race will be replayed later this afternoon on SPEED for anyone who didn't DVR it, & I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but the race was pretty entertaining with a pretty crazy finish, some pretty important failures, interesting strategy, and some cars making big position changes from their initial grid spots. Definitely worth a look. Oh, BTW, if anyone cares, I decided to go to bed a little early and get up at 3am to watch the race. Now it's off to work for me for the next 24 hours. Yay.
That was an exciting race. Why did they start it at 5 p.m. local time and end up with the glare and sun in the driver's eyes? Dumb idea. Was there a big Aussie Rules football match going up against it? Cricket match perhaps?
They started it at that time so that the people in Europe (where most of the money for advertising comes from) could watch it live. That's why they had practice at that time and the qualifying at that time. So that the drivers could get used to the glare.
Wow-the rules changes really shook up the field, at least for a race or two. The unsponsored Braun team comes in 1-2, only third time ever a new team has won their debut F1 race. This may be the best F1 season in many years. Or it may take two or three races for Ferrari and McLaren to figure out how to get back on top and win every remaining race. Lewis Hamilton did well to rise to fourth place after starting at the back. Looks like Vettel may be the rising next big thing. It was strange seeing two driver's suits with nothing on them but the name of the car owner and a small Bridgestone patch which they all wear, on the podium next to the typically major sponsor adorned third place driver, with every inch covered in large advertising logos. Who could have predicted that?
I have a gut feeling that Button & Barrichello's suits won't be so blank the next time we see them. Just a hunch.
Yes, that win will most likely bring in many millions in sponsorship dollars. Maybe hundreds of millions, which is what it costs to field an F1 team for a year.
