Will anyone in Indycar ever make it to F1 now???

[Hoop-98]

Not until the cars are built way more for performance, and quickness!!

And that won't make Indycar look very good in those worldly road racing enthusiasts eyes.....

The cars need to be a handful to drive.......

Are they really going to have power assisted steering?? If so.....Hideous!!

My opinion of course.....

I still have hope that everything turns out the way open wheel was meant to be!!

Jimi, do you mmmm know much about F1 steering?

rh

[Jag_Warrior]

Just like in CCWS with the DP-01, the problems that the IRL is facing are a lot deeper than just choosing a snazzy looking chassis and cool sounding engine.

This so called "unification" does not end the $ Catch-22 that AOWR has been in for almost ten years now. IMO, the trick is how to decrease costs without affecting perceived value. And conversely, if anything is introduced which increases costs, will it increase perceived value fast enough to convince outside interests to invest in the series and its teams?

I remain in wait & see mode, eating my popcorn... taking in the show. But I've yet to hear or see anything that convinces me that the above Catch-22 has been figured out. The IRL couldn't figure it out before. CCWS couldn't figure it out. And I see nothing about this latest deal which addresses it, other than larger and larger subsidies to keep sponsor starved teams alive. As long as the money and desire are there, you can make that work forever. CCWS ran out of desire. Maybe George has enough money and desire to keep on spending til the day comes when the series can stand on its own. I dunno. But no, I don't see Patrick Head, Flava Flavio or Ron Dennis attending IRL test sessions, looking for talent, anytime soon.

Popcorn, anyone?

[Jag_Warrior]

It's only NASCAR if you want the most money, not if you want to participate in the most challenging form of auto racing.

Jeff Gordon could marry and divorce a super model wife a year. Even throwing in child support, he'd have enough money to live a rock star lifestyle the rest of his life. The same is true of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Tony Stewart. Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards are getting close, I'd say. But I believe that the main reason that they devote so much of their time, and make so many personal sacrifices, is because they see winning the Cup as a great accomplishment in the world of motorsports.

They're not going to race for free or give the money back, but money aside, I think you'd have an incredibly hard time convincing the sharp end of the NASCAR Sprint Cup grid that they're not already in the most challenging form of auto racing.

This isn't about beating down or denigrating the IRL. But just like with the CCWS fans, who convinced themselves that most of CCWS's problems were being caused by Bernie Ecclestone scheming and plotting against the series 23 out of 24 hours a day, sometimes reality is just staring at you from the mirror.

[indycool]

I'll take some popcorn, Jag, with butter.

The idea that F1 is considered the ultimate for a John Force or a Steve Kinser or a Jeff Gordon or a Nicky Hayden is full of what comes out of the northbound end of a southbound horse. They do their own thing, and WANT to do their own thing.

In the past, Richard Petty chose to win 200 NASCAR Cup races and not ever try an Indy car. Mario wanted to go to F1 and did and won a championship. Foyt didn't want to go. And didn't.

So Bourdais whined at us for four years about wanting to go and people were keeping him from doing it and not giving him a chance, etc., etc. Bourdais won four championships. Last I looked, he was 18th on this weekend's grid. Bully for him.

[jimispeed]

Sorry, my bad on F1 having power assisted steering.

I guess maybe Champcar is the most challenging car to drive for the drivers. It wasn't just a beautiful car with a turbo. The drivers who were veterans as well as the new drivers coming in had great things to say about how Champcar was a heavier and more powerful car, that required alot of muscling around.

That's what I want to see......

[Hoop-98]

That's all cool Jimi, and it's adjustable lol. BTW a NASCAR car is heavier and more powerful than a DP01 ;P

Hey all incoming drivers love the (Put Series Name Here) cars because they have so much (choose 1; power, downforce, stopping. cornering) and are a (choose 1; real, true, big, awesome, ) challenge to (choose1 ; stop, steer, turn, pit).

Ya know I like Modigliani's and I think real expressionists have long noses on their subjects

rh

[jimispeed]

That's all cool Jimi, and it's adjustable lol. BTW a NASCAR car is heavier and more powerful than a DP01 ;P

Hey all incoming drivers love the (Put Series Name Here) cars because they have so much (choose 1; power, downforce, stopping. cornering) and are a (choose 1; real, true, big, awesome, ) challenge to (choose1 ; stop, steer, turn, pit).

Ya know I like Modigliani's and I think real expressionists have long noses on their subjects

rh

wha??

[Jag_Warrior]

I'm with you, Indycool. There are drivers who are where they want to be and they feel no desire to do anything else. I don't expect to see Michael Schumacher do Le Mans or Indy. Years from now, he might. But I doubt it. Lauda and Prost didn't venture far from F1 either. But some others did.

What I'm getting at is that there used to be something of a two way street between AOWR and F1. Once upon a time in the west, it wasn't just AOWR drivers jonesing to do F1. And it wasn't just also ran F1 drivers trying to find refuge in America. You've been a fan for as long or longer than I've been. You know of Jimmy Clarke coming to Indy. Mario Andretti returning from Europe with his WDC crown, to do Indy again & again. Emerson Fittipaldi. Nelson Piquet. Nigel Mansell. Ayrton Senna's Firebird test. The hands down, no argument, cream of the crop of the day once considered driving here. Now? Crickets chirping. Now, hardly anyone wants to come here. And the bus leaving town is packed. Timo Glock and Christian Klien would take a beating (and a biting) from Mike Tyson before coming over (or back).

Jeff Gordon, like Petty, is exactly where he wants to be. And Tony Stewart, like Foyt, will do as he pleases. But where is Mika Hakkinen? Where is Juan Pablo Montoya? Where is Jacques Villeneuve? All I'm saying is, there was a time when drivers of this caliber would have seen a return to AOWR at least as a realistic and viable option. But Wheldon, Franchitti, Hornish and Bourdais wanted to get on the bus out of town last year in the worst way. If the bus had had four seats, instead of three, all would be somewhere else now.

So the mission is (I guess) to build something that homegrown talent will aspire to. And maybe later, others will be drawn to it as well. That's where I admire NASCAR. They've found a magic formula which pits new faces against seasoned, accomplished, well known veterans. And people go for that! To truly be a somebody you've got to beat a big somebody. Jeff Gordon is who he is because he beat Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace. And Jimmie Johnson? He beat Gordon in a great showdown last year. Bourdais had to win four titles in a row to get an STR drive? How sad... but who did he beat? Same with Dario and Hornish. Lucky for Hornish he has some Penske points to keep him in the game. AOWR let too many of its legends go away before the newbies could rough them up and make a name for themselves, IMO. Now, the job will be harder.

Popcorn good. Kernels bad. Don't tell my doc I'm using real butter.

[Hoop-98]

wha??

rh

[geek49203]

It's only NASCAR if you want the most money, not if you want to participate in the most challenging form of auto racing.

Uh, judging by the struggles of JPM and the rest of the open-wheel guys, I'm saying that NASCAR is indeed challenging. It might be challenging in a different way, but there is indeed a skill set required for NASCAR that is required and difficult to obtain.

NASCAR of today is so much like CART of 1990-1995 that it's eerie....