Coloni to Indy !?

**seppefan** · 17th Jul 12, 22:13

Rumours Coloni are preparing an entry to Indycar. Indycar need to look at who these people are. Why are they suddenly looking at Indycar after five or more profitable years in GP2. Because they were kicked out of GP2 July 2012. Why ? I enjoy too much participating on this forum to tell you! Suffice to say, it must of been bad. Will we told ? Do we ask ?

**Anubis** · 17th Jul 12, 23:36

Been reading about this via Twitter. Interesting stuff. From a Coloni driver management point of view, it would sort of make sense, as GP2's media coverage makes Indycar look ubiquitous. I'm also wondering if there's a link to the AutoGP series, which I believe Coloni run, but I can't make one as of yet. Be interesting to see what the split with GP2 was all about.

**garyshell** · 18th Jul 12, 05:52

Originally Posted by seppefan

Rumours Coloni are preparing an entry to Indycar. Indycar need to look at who these people are. Why are they suddenly looking at Indycar after five or more profitable years in GP2. Because they were kicked out of GP2 July 2012. Why ? I enjoy too much participating on this forum to tell you! Suffice to say, it must of been bad. Will we told ? Do we ask ?

Why on earth would your participation in these forums be jeopardized by telling what you know?

Gary

**SoCalPVguy** · 18th Jul 12, 15:08

File this in the "I'll believe it when it happens" department. Maybe they can get Jos the Boss to drive or join the Ferrari indycar team...

**Nikki Katz** · 18th Jul 12, 19:35

I'm still baffled by the whole GP2 thing. What happened?!? Not that I'm trying to cost anyone their jobs by posting that on a forum

Well, it's good if it's true, but again I'll believe it when I see it. If they do, I hope they field Filippi.

**inimitablestoo** · 19th Jul 12, 10:14

Luca has been quoted in Autosport today as saying they'd do a good job in Indycar. Of course, he has been trying to get a deal sorted in the same series, so you can probably pencil those two in together...

Of course, Coloni was involved in Formula 1 in the late '80s and early '90s. It would be interesting to see how their American adventure compares with their F1 contemporaries Zakspeed - anyone remember their ill-fated Champ Car move?

**FIAT1** · 19th Jul 12, 15:01

Zakspeed? That explains a lot. I hope we see more interest from other teams for next season, but this sounds like some open pr for someone's leverage in some type war.

**Jag_Warrior** · 24th Jul 12, 20:28

If he can beat the attempted murder charge, I wonder if they'll try to line Jos Verstappen up as their driver?

I liked the idea that a poster on another board had: the series should pay the freight for either Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon to start an ICS team. That might offend some devoted open wheel fans. But it's time to swallow the pride. When you're down in the hole (and you're no closer to getting out this season than last season or the seasons before that), you might have to accept the sad fact that you'll probably have to pay someone to help you get back out of that hole. And bringing in some broke, also-ran team from an F1 feeder series does absolutely nothing, except add another (barely) breathing body to the grid... that no one will care about.

One way or another, even if they don't/won't drive a car themselves, what would be so wrong with bringing in some (truly) big name stars to either own teams or work in partnership with existing teams??? Earnhardt/Coyne (switch to Chevy engines), Gordon/HVM (switch to Chevy engines) or Stewart/Panther? And if enough sponsor $ can't be found, who pays the balance? Indy Car! Why not? Is that illegal? No, then do it!

**Loneranger** · 24th Jul 12, 22:14

Originally Posted by Jag_Warrior

If he can beat the attempted murder charge, I wonder if they'll try to line Jos Verstappen up as their driver?

I liked the idea that a poster on another board had: the series should pay the freight for either Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon to start an ICS team. That might offend some devoted open wheel fans. But it's time to swallow the pride. When you're down in the hole (and you're no closer to getting out this season than last season or the seasons before that), you might have to accept the sad fact that you'll probably have to pay someone to help you get back out of that hole. And bringing in some broke, also-ran team from an F1 feeder series does absolutely nothing, except add another (barely) breathing body to the grid... that no one will care about.

One way or another, even if they don't/won't drive a car themselves, what would be so wrong with bringing in some (truly) big name stars to either own teams or work in partnership with existing teams??? Earnhardt/Coyne (switch to Chevy engines), Gordon/HVM (switch to Chevy engines) or Stewart/Panther? And if enough sponsor $ can't be found, who pays the balance? Indy Car! Why not? Is that illegal? No, then do it!

I've been arguing for a long time that the series needs to find a way to attract better and stronger teams to the series. They should be courting the likes of Hendricks for example and presenting a very tempting offer for them to join. I have also suggested that the series should award franchises and charge a franchise fee to join the series. An easy incentive would be to grant any new teams joining the series a free franchise and then charge a large fee to join after that. Current teams would be given a franchise free which would instantly provide increased value to those teams.

**anthonyvop** · 25th Jul 12, 00:03

My favorite rumor is Massa to Andretti Autosport in 2013

**nigelred5** · 25th Jul 12, 12:49

Originally Posted by Loneranger

I've been arguing for a long time that the series needs to find a way to attract better and stronger teams to the series. They should be courting the likes of Hendricks for example and presenting a very tempting offer for them to join. I have also suggested that the series should award franchises and charge a franchise fee to join the series. An easy incentive would be to grant any new teams joining the series a free franchise and then charge a large fee to join after that. Current teams would be given a franchise free which would instantly provide increased value to those teams.

That worked out so well before. Why not float an IPO while we are at it. Penske and Ganassi are the standard in Indycars, I'd call them both second tier at best in NASCAR. It may sound strange, but I don't know that NASCAR teams would see much challenge to competing in Indycars. As much as people think of NASCAR as being Stock, fact is the top teams construct their own chassis, build their own engines, build their own bodies, and have a hell of a lot more track time, and even the top times are having to work one hal of a lot to get full season sponsorships. Has any team in recent mempory come this way, from NASCAR to Indycars? I can't recall one.

**Loneranger** · 25th Jul 12, 17:09

Originally Posted by nigelred5

That worked out so well before. Why not float an IPO while we are at it. Penske and Ganassi are the standard in Indycars, I'd call them both second tier at best in NASCAR. It may sound strange, but I don't know that NASCAR teams would see much challenge to competing in Indycars. As much as people think of NASCAR as being Stock, fact is the top teams construct their own chassis, build their own engines, build their own bodies, and have a hell of a lot more track time, and even the top times are having to work one hal of a lot to get full season sponsorships. Has any team in recent mempory come this way, from NASCAR to Indycars? I can't recall one.

Why wouldn't it work?

**nigelred5** · 25th Jul 12, 17:36

Originally Posted by Loneranger

Why wouldn't it work?

Because AOWR history has basically shown it didn't.

**Loneranger** · 25th Jul 12, 19:29

Originally Posted by nigelred5

Because AOWR history has basically shown it didn't.

Not really.

**seppefan** · 27th Jul 12, 20:03

Originally Posted by anthonyvop

My favorite rumor is Massa to Andretti Autosport in 2013

That would be a nail in the coffin for the series if Massa went well and won a race.

**anthonyvop** · 27th Jul 12, 23:14

Originally Posted by seppefan

That would be a nail in the coffin for the series if Massa went well and won a race.

Why. Massa is much better than pretty much anyone on the ICS grid today. A win wouldn't be a surprise

**Jag_Warrior** · 29th Jul 12, 05:08

Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Why. Massa is much better than pretty much anyone on the ICS grid today. A win wouldn't be a surprise

There must be a full moon in the sky... I've agreed with you more in the past week than I have in the past 10 years.

Though Barrichello may be past his prime, if both Barrichello and Massa were on the ICS grid next year, we'd have two former Ferrari drivers, who have both been in contention for the F1 WDC. Between them they have almost 30 F1 race wins and 30 poles. And that's a sight better than even Alex Zanardi had when he arrived here... and proceeded to paste (a much stronger) CART field and put us on the map. I don't think Massa has the polished personality that Zanardi had, and maybe he wouldn't come to grips with these (spec) cars the way that The Pineapple Man did with the 900hp CART machines... but having him on the grid would be a slam-dunk win for us, IMO. Throw in a championship by Ryan Hunter-Reay this year, and maybe a win or two by Mayor Hinchcliffe, and heck, we might have something BIG to brag about in 2013!