Alonso's fate gets complicated

i was quite surprised Fred took that Spanish guy as his manager. from what i understand, pre-2007 season, Flavio was supposed to be his manager, even tho he switched teams. but that never happened.

 

Also: Roger Penske and Frank Williams.

 

If we stretch the role of team manager a bit, Mario Andretti is still active with a strong team. Paul Newman also. Michael Andretti did well in CART, and now has a great IRL team. Dale Earnhardt's DEI did well while he was alive. And despite not finishing in the top 5 very often, Robby Gordan makes money driving and running his own NASCAR team.

Paul Gentollozi (sorry about the spellink) comes to mind.

 

Bobby Rahal

 

Dan Gurney...he had his own F1 team that made its own car. Started the tradition of spraying champaign on the podium. Invented the Gurney Flap rear spoiler.

 

Elio Zagato was a very good driver and owned the coachbuilder....

 

Would you call that successful?

 

Andreas, what car did DG drive to his F1 win? I don't remember.

 

Wasn't it the Eagle at Spa?

 

I think that's right. Still I don't consider that successful. Stewart also won one race with his team, but other than that they were midfield.

 

It was 1967 that Gurney and Foyt won LeMans in the Ford GT and Dan sprayed the champaign for the first time. It was 2 weeks later that Dan won Spa in the Gurney Eagle Weslake. The first American to win a F1 race in an American built car. In 2002 they took the car back to a Spa race weekend and did some demo laps. I have a sighed pic of the car in a wet mist with Dan driving.

 

Do you think MS would be an exception if he decided to buy/run a team? Not that I see him doing that though.

 

When I was 18 I visited the States for the first time. I stayed with a family in California and they were friends with Dan. One day they took me to his shop and I got a chance to say hello to him. He gave me an autograph, but I had absolutely no idea who the guy was...Only years later did a learn it.

No. Of the modern F1 era, Prost and Lauda were the most intelligent people and both failed as team managers. Lauda was smart enough to build a private airline from scratch, but didn't have what it takes to make it as a team manager. That tells you something.

Of the current grid Coulthard is considered to be the most intelligent driver. There is talk that he might take over as team manager for RBR once he is done driving. We'll see how he does, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Nope. Enzo drove in a handful of races and sncked. His last race caused him to resign as he was racing Nuvolari who only had a Alfa Romeo 6c in a hill climb (or something). Enzo had the far more powerful 8c, and if my memory is right Nuvolari had some mechanical issues and still beat Enzo ... or Enzo only just managed to hold on for the narrowest of wins.

Thus Enzo nowaways would not even have made it to Formula 3 probably ... and the books I have read made it sound that he knew he was not anywhere near drivers like Nuvolaris level.
Pete

 

I would call Dan Gurney successful for an underfunded privateer not compared to the bigger better funded teams. I admire him for his contribution to the sport.

Mario Andretti owned his own USAC team but didn't feel he could do both driving and ownership justice. He got out of it as fast as he could.

 

Rosberg is highly touted for his intellect.

 

True. I was a bit surprised when they mentioned that DC is the smartest.

 

Although Gurney wasn't very sucessful in F1, he did very well in sportscars, and had his own racing team. Not the greatest ever, but certainly in the top 100.

 

Top 100? The Gurney AAR Toyota Eagle MKII & III, driven by Juan Fangio II won the IMSA GTP drivers and constructors championships in 92 & 93 winning 21 races in 2 seasons. One of the most beautiful prototype cars ever. I was there.

 

Thank god I have alot of those race's recorded so I can relive them, the AAR Eagle was incredible!

 

Didn't Racer magazine name it the race car of the decade (1990-1999) over the F1 Williams and many many others? http://www.mulsannescorner.com/toymkiii.html

 

In the movie, "WINNING," I think it is, with Paul Newman, playing the lead role of an INDY 500 Driver, the car was an AAR Eagle, with an Offenhauser-Drake? Powerplant, in which he won the 500. Good racing footage of INDY Type Racing, with Bobby Unser, winning that years race. At least you'll see an Eagle in action. Dan Gurney's INDY Car chassis was pretty good.

Ciao...Paolo

 

Nico got the highest result ever in the Williams test, and he was just 17 years old. Every new Williams driver is made to sit a test before driving the car. 45 minute exam with 36 questions, designed to gauge a driver's understanding of engineering and mechanics.
So yes he's very smart!