Not ALMS.............ELMS series and LeMans for now.

 

Schumie to head up Ferrari F1 team?
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/02/15/r...-lead-ferrari/

Hmmmmm.............

 

Thanks for the post ScottinBend. That is a very interesting development. We'll ahve to keep our ears open and see comes of it.

-Jason

 

A role for Marco Andretti at Indy?

[SIZE=2]Sat 17 Feb, 7:15 AM[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][/SIZE]
Marco Andretti could return to the wheel of Honda's F1 car for practice at the US Grand Prix in June.

The newspaper Indianapolis Star reports that while the American teenager's private test programme has been put on ice, 'it is possible' that he might be nominated as a one-off third driver by the Japanese carmaker.

Teams in 2007 are allowed to field a test driver in the newly-structured open Friday practice sessions before Grand Prix, but Honda will decline to use the opportunity at every event because it means that at least one of the race drivers is sidelined.

IRL racer Andretti's credentials for a future career in F1 are being pushed by the American Honda offshoot, which is no doubt keen to reunite his famous surname with the world of Grand Prix racing.

Marco's grandfather Mario Andretti won the drivers' world championship in 1978, before his son Michael - Marco's father - launched a failed F1 assault with McLaren in 1993.

__________________________________________________ _____


This I would like to see happen. And of course it would be nice to see the Andretti name back in F1 but that will be a little down the road still. The kid wants it to happen as well but he needs more experience still because he has done what ?-- some junior series, IPS where there wasn't much competion, and one IRL season. Not enough at all. Michael got shafted by the F1 rules back in '93 where testing was limited before the season, but before he got canned he had started to put up some results. Michael is smart keeping Marco in the IRL (although you know Mario is chomping at the bit to get him over there).

 

[QUOTE=S-Driver;1377576][B]TMarco's grandfather Mario Andretti won the drivers' world championship in 1978, before his son Michael - Marco's father - launched a failed F1 assault with McLaren in 1993.

Michael Andretti's 1993 failure was due in part to his failure to commit (he was involved like the hen but not committed like the pig - eggs and bacon) by not re-locating to Europe for the season, that coupled with McLaren's switch from Honda to Ford power (a one season deal like Peugeot in 1994) didn't help things, and oh yes there is the issue of his team mate one Ayrton Senna, a tough guy to share the limelight with, just ask Alain Prost. Andretti did manage a podium at Monza (3rd I believe) in his last F1 race for McLaren. It would be great to see his son Marco succeed in F1 like Mario.

 

Villeneuve has Raikkonen doubts

Raikkonen faces a lot of pressure after his switch from McLaren
Former Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve has claimed Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen is "overrated".

Villeneuve says the Finn lacks the all-round ability to replace seven-time F1 title winner Michael Schumacher.

The Canadian told F1 Racing magazine he believed the role of team leader at Ferrari will be taken by Felipe Massa. "Kimi's overrated as a driver package, because apart from jumping in a car and going fast, he really doesn't care about the rest," he said. "A complete driver will spend time with the engineers, setting up the car and pushing the team.

"In a way it's good for F1 to have a driver like that - you can't just have robots. But you never know how dedicated he is. "He'll look good, then have the odd race where he's somewhere else. You can imagine him saying, 'Okay, I'm done with F1, bye' for no reason."

Villeneuve, who will drive for Peugeot in this year's Le Mans 24-hour, partnered Massa at Sauber in 2005 and is a big fan of the Brazilian.

"If there are no fireworks with Raikkonen and Ferrari then it'll be fine, but only if Felipe manages to drive the team," added Villeneuve. "Then Kimi can do a few quick races. But he cannot drive the team. Massa will probably take over as team leader. "He did a really strong job last year, made a few mistakes, but didn't look too shabby next to Michael.

"He's intelligent, talented, quick. With the right equipment, he can be a title contender.

"Then we'll see if he's really a great, or just a good driver. But he could be great."


BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/moto...ne/6376617.stm

 

LOL. Ever since JV lost his mojo his mouth has been running flat chat.

I saw this little bit of exagerrated headlining a few days ago and paid it no mind . . .

 

World Championships:

JV -1
KR - 0

 

Dropped or option to retain dismissed after poor performance

JV-2
KR-0

 

JV - Winner of Formula One(1997) and CART (1995) world championships and the Indianapolis 500, one of only three drivers to accomplish all three feats (the others being, chronologically, Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi).

KR - Lots of broken McLarens and now with an opportunity to break Ferraris. Ron Dennis didn't mind losing him when he had the chance to get Alonso. KR hasn't delivered.

 

Honda Racing debuted their new 2007 livery on the RA107 yesterday. The team is taking a new approach to putting colors on it's cars this year. As, the Honda Racing F1 team has replaced all sponsorship logos, with a picture of the Earth, to signify their new "green" program.

RA107 Livery Press Release

This sounds very interesting. One quote from the article, that I will paste here says this:

Honda will harness this power to raise awareness of climate change among the 150+ million viewers of each race, taking place every two weeks. Indeed, such is the reach of the sport around the world, that it is estimated that if just 1% of F1 viewers turned their computer off at the plug overnight, this would save 45,000 tonnes of CO2., more than three and a half times the annual carbon emissions of the entire Honda Racing F1 Team.

 

Button was still on about getting things sorted out with the new Honda. He said in a very PC way, that they're not where they want to be yet.

 

can't wait to see this car moving!

 

We're less than two weeks away from Melbourne . . . so perhaps it's time to wake this thread back up?

Perhaps I can liven things up a bit by simply mentioning some of the things that I'll be looking forward to in '07. Let the sparks fly.

* First victories for both BMW drivers, Heidfeld and Kubica. Quick Nick for sentiment and perseverance. Kubica because it is inevitable.

* Opportunity for Webber. A more fully realized Red Bull entry, a car that IS competitive.

* Podium for Wurz. I don't expect a Williams rebirth . . . but I do hope for surprises. Would like to see Nico have a chance to remember that winning feeling

* Critic silencing results from Fisi. I'd love nothing more to see him rise above expectations. Continued competitiveness from Renault; a solid debut season for Kovaleinen. A race seat for Piquet. Hmm. Maybe I want too much?

* Podium for Davidson. Pipe dream, but you've gotta pull for the guy. He's earned it.

* Toyota to clue in? No, this is the pipe dream. Horrible waste. I used to question Ralf because I liked Montoya. How things change. I was duped, just like most of North America. Watching Trulli in this dog is almost like watching JV in the BAR, except the "born for neckcar" paint scheme is worse. Don't know if Jarno's manager spends as much time on the cell phone, though.

* A WDC for Kimi, with a solid, consistent season for Massa. Forza Ferrari.

* A turnaround for McLaren . . . I fully expect solid performances from Fred and Lewi . . . but can't wait for the first Mercedes Hydraulic meltdown so that we can all blame Kimi.

* As for Ron Dennis . . . I think, perhaps, that his time is up. I imagine this will be his final season in F1. F1 needs more Flavio Briatores, Eddie Jordans, Niki Laudas. I'd love to see an open but justifiably unapologetic Ross Brawn at the helm next year.

 

I can't believe no one's taken any of that on yet.....I'll start.

I would love to see Fisi do well, but the price -- Renault doing well -- is too high. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Renault, etc, shaking up the status quo, and if it weren't for two particular individuals I could even be a Renault fan, however.....

I don't like Fred at all, and seeing him win races (and titles) bothered me just as much because it made Briatore look good (that's right, I don't like Flav either), and since Flav is still a principle member I have seriously mixed emotions about wanting to see Fisi do well.

 

My wish list:

A couple wins for Ralf (a wish).

Broken Ferrari's, which are enevitable now.

A couple podiums for Scott.

Another WDC for Fred.

 

Hey folks,

I've got a buddy on the East Coast who's NUTS about Formula One. He just sent me the first of several F1 Updates for the 2007 season. I got his permission to make it available on the web, so here's the URL:

http://twistedmotoring.org/TMAN/TmansF1Update-01.pdf

(It's a PDF, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat reader to look at it.)

It's small, but interesting. Check it out!

_Dave_

 

My wish list:

A WDC for Kimi (if not at Ferrari he'll never do it)

Points for Scott Speed

A return to the old Hockenhiem

Marco Andretti in a top team in the GP2 series in '08, F1 in '09

ummm, that's it cuz I'm easy to please....

 

The fun starts next weekend - I can't wait! A few of us NAM-ers -- the "NAM F1 Challenge" team -- participate in thing called PickSix and we invite you to join in on the fun. It's much simpler than a fantasy league but still adds to the excitement each race weekend because you have to pick and lock in your best guess of the top six finishers. Points are tallied after each race and your cumulative points total shows up relative to the rest of the NAM team as well as the other PickSix participants.

Check it out in this thread and post there if you want in. We did pretty well last year and MGCMAN even finished 2nd overall! We have a lot of arm chair pundits on this board ..... why not get in on the PickSix game and show us how much you REALLY know?

 

Since I know we F1 wonks can't get enough of our favorite autosport, I started a league for MINIacs at www.f1manager.info.

It's a FREE fantasy-sports game (free!) for F1. I think it will be a nice addition to the NAM Pick Six challenge.

I started a thread here if you want more info: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=94720

Check it out! It will be a fun challenge.

 

Bumbling Bernie is at it again.....

This might spell the end of the season drama we've all come to know and love:

Ecclestone planning points change

Ecclestone wants to see drivers fight for top spot on the podium
Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone wants to make changes to the sport's points-scoring system for 2008.
The current format awards 10 points for a win, eight for second, down to one for eighth, but Ecclestone wants to give more points to the race winner.

"With second place getting eight points it is not right that the winner takes only 10," said Ecclestone, who introduced the current system in 2003.

"For 2008 I will propose a change. The guy who wins more should be champion."

Before Ecclestone's overhaul in 2003, the winning driver was awarded 10 points with second given six, and only the top six drivers getting amongst the scoring.

The F1 chief was prompted to close the gap and spread the points out after Michael Schumacher won the 2002 drivers championship by 67 points from Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello, prompting calls to make the competition fairer.

Now Ecclestone wants to reverse that decision in order to encourage drivers to fight for first place rather than settle for second.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/moto...ne/6442975.stm

 

I don't know . . . I can't say that I've ever been that much a fan of the current system.

I always thought the old 9-6-4-3-2-1 system offered the correct mathematical relationship, and perfect bump for the win.

The four point difference between 10 and 6 would in my mind decide too many championships too soon.

 

Typical Bernie nonsense.

"We need to change this"

"Yes, sir, it is changed"

"I see, well we need to change it again!"

The obvious solution in this case is to make up a series of point-awarding strategies, then look at the results for each of the past 20 years or so. See which point strategy would have yielded the most fair - yet most competitive - results for the most years, and go with that. Simple. You could even do it with an Excel spreadsheet if you had some free time.

 

You guys are blaming the wrong man.

This is an FIA issue.

 

The deal with points systems is this: If you have a race series where one team dominates, only an unfair point system that rewards consistency at the expense of winning will keep the championship close.

If you have a race series without one dominant team, every point system will be fair because every competitive team will at times benefit from the system and other times be "punished" by the system.

The bottom line is that you want to develop a competitive racing series where multiple teams and drivers have the capability of fighting for the championship.

I imagine you could apply any of the points systems F1 has used to a typical NASCAR season, and the title chase would be competitive simply because the cars are evenly matched (and the season is so long).