The problem with this is that she is the obvious week link in the Andretti team as far as road courses are concerned. However, her teammates are also good on ovals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lousada
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The problem with this is that she is the obvious week link in the Andretti team as far as road courses are concerned. However, her teammates are also good on ovals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lousada
great, more Pimp-Daddy commercials :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken
Thank you !Quote:
Originally Posted by TURN3
IMO Danica at her best is a consistently average driver. When she went to AGR at the time they had the best car and managed one win. She has never dominated when she had the chance.
Right now she's looking at Nascar so the Indycar League is an afterthought. She has struggled there already and will continue to do so.
The May issue of Racer magazine has an article about racers at 18. Danica talked about her FF experience. In the middle of the season after her 2nd at the Formula Ford Festival, she was apparently released from her ride at a race. Her quote - "Then one day after practice I got a call from my manager, who told me not to go to the track the next day, that was it, over". Funny how her biographies gloss over how she left FF.Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonyvop
Either the money ran out, or the team fired her. The team continued and again placed their drivers 1st and 2nd at the 2001 FF Festival. I did find a very interesting quote from a much later article about her FF experience (The article read like a PR release). "Mygale cars provided by Haywood Racing weren't competitive with the Van Diemens, and the shortcomings made them particularly unsuitable for Patrick's driving style." Haywood ran the Mygale cars at the 2001 FF festival. The article even had a complimentary quote from Haywood racing, which doesn't quite fit with Danica's quote in Racer. Incidentally, the FF festival was her only podium finish in 2000.
http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/229/
Another interesting tidbit can be gleamed from the Mygale website. She was in a Mygale at the 2000 FF, but the web site only listed the winner at the FF Festival (Anthony Davidson). Yet in other years (including 2001), they list both 1st and 2nd place finishers at races and various series. Racer also has a picture from the FF Festival where Danica is standing behind the 1st and 3rd place finishers (both regular Haywood drivers and they seemed to be ignoring her). I found a podium picture and she was WAY off to the side. There was another American in the field that day, running ahead of her until he was taken out. Patrick Long.
IHMO what annoys many racing fans is how her racing history has been "enhanced" to appear more than it is. She isn't a bad driver, but without a PR machine and questionable self-promotion, she would barely be a footnote in racing history.
Why Danica sucks at road/street racing? She isn't dedicated enough and smart enough to tune the car.
It was said best by Tony and others...she is a very good ride buyer...because people have ignored her ride buying.
All you need to know is the fact Rahal didn't try to stop her from leaving after he developed her career into the IRL. Bobby is a smart guy.....he knew she had gone as far he wanted to see her go in his stuff.....
And Patrick Long DOMINATES GT class racing these days. As her teammate, he domminated her. You hit the nail on the head...without the PR and marketing "gloss" as you put it, she would never have registered as a blip in the racing world. Some may say she isn't a "bad" driver and to that I ask what is the definition of a "bad" driver? I will say that she stays out of trouble generally...that is the only thing I can find in her abilities. There are scores and scores of drivers out there that can out run her in lesser equipment. I realize talent isn't what gets you a ride these days but still, she never earned anything in her career. Her talent level is lacking in every single catagory...except staying out of trouble. IMO, that is easy to do when you aren't capable of putting the car on the limit.Quote:
Originally Posted by beachbum
Danica = PC Affirmative action at its worst
what rep, that shes gonna be in the low end of top 10's barring several drivers have mistakes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lousada
expect all 5 (except maybe Will for now) from CGR and Penske to be ahead of her, TK, Marco, and RHR are all more driven to be faster than her on any given track when its time to go race hard, Ed Carpenter should be back with the oval season, so theres another ahead, Mutoh can normally surprise with strong oval runs.
Danica shouldn't expect anything easy on the ovals either, and alot of the ex champ car drivers are really starting to get better on ovals as well, another reason she prolly leaving the IRL because I believe shes even finding out how average of a driver she really is, and making a leap to Nascar will finish her racing career off and she can stick to Pimp Daddy commercials
I think the first oval race ought to be fun. When Danica discovers she is going to be hard pressed to stay in the top 10, that will be the end of the myth that she is really a top flight driver. She isn't...just a well promoted driver.
She can drive and has talent and has the tools to be good on any circuit. The biggest issue is and has been her desire and she does not do enough homework on how to get the most out of herself, and her car.Quote:
Originally Posted by NickFalzone
Data, and viewing data is huge in this sport. The cars are the same, engines the same, tires, setups can be the same... it is that extra effort that makes a good driver great. Working with their engineers and team mates to extract everything from the car, and themselves is key. The top drivers are like mini Mark Donahue’s. She is no Donahue. More like a Tim Richmond, if you know what I mean.
Danica, with all her talents, at times expects to just show up and go fast. She continues to believe things will improve greatly on ovals but even while she has been quick at times, she rarely has raced well. She rarely crashes, can tend to get wide when being lapped, and can go quite well at times, a t a steady comfortable pace. But she lacks in sheer "do everything I can to win" mentality you see from some of the top drivers (Think Moore, JPM, Zanardi).
Ask any engineer with Pi Sim on their computer to run a simulation, with everything equal except the driver's weight, and you will find what a huge performance advantage the smaller drivers have on ovals. That is why CART changed their rules back when CDM was winning quite a bit (though after that change, he and the NH continued to win). I hate to say it but if the IRL ever made the same rule that CART did, she would again be near the rear, on ovals.
Having watched her work so hard coming up through the ranks over the years and now watching her spend more time on the "Brand" then her craft, is very sad.
I can see her starting in the top ten in Kansas, but unless there is a lot of attrition, or she gets a lucky fuel run again, I think she will find herself out of the top ten at the finish. Indy seems more in her wheelhouse, due to the number of cars that drop out, and she can keep a good steady pace.
Right now at this point and time, there are just more hungry drivers than her.