Le Mans no race - Ron Dennis!

Surviving a race is not as important as being really fast around a race track. I think his number 1 takes that type of thinking to heart.

 

He's got a fair point, but come on. F1 drivers slow down their pace all the time.

 

How do you win a race without being fast and surviving?

About the only thing I can agree with RD is that it certainly is different than F1. I watched this year's LeMans on and off, I certainly thought that cars like the Audi were pushing to go fast to keep ahead of Peugeot that was catching up. I also remember many an F1 race where leading cars slowed at the end due to a lack of competition and in order to preserve the equipment.

Ron Dennis is an idiot. Brawn has lost his magic, and Kubica never ran LeMans so why is he even a source?

 

RD is not interested in racing, just being a part of Bernie's private billboard parade called F1 and making big bucks. F1 is totally screwed up. Advertising space is so expensive that there is no space to put a decent number on a racecar. What a joke.

Le Mans is an icon, where one can still prepare a car and with enough dough you can participate. In LMP my hat's off to huys like Pescarolo, and what about having a fun weekend and WIN with your 430?

 

REMEMBER GROUP C ? ? ? SAUBER MERCEDES C9 is the record holder for the fastest speed down Mulsanne at 257 MPH - FASTER than any F1 car.

What a bunch of trash from the F1 folks - why do they need to say that?? perhaps they are just hitting back at their own sport which is merely a procession of cars going about for ONLY 1.5 hours that often can't survive that short duration of a race. I too don't understand about Kubica, as Ron mentioned in his post, the guy's never run nor been involved with it. Incidently there was some fantastic driving from the F1 drivers - they were holding back Franck Montagny who was sharing #9 with Christian Klein and Ricardo Zonta - Peugeot also had F1 drivers Villeneuve/Alex Wurz and FERRARI test driver Marc Gene.

Being at LeMans this weekend I can tell ya'll THIS WAS DEFINITELY MORE EXCITING THEN F1... and if you didn't see what Minissian was doing in the closure of the race with a car with definite problems in his attempt to catch Tom and Tom having been hit and Audi's strength - all this coming down to the final minutes/laps . . .well this had everyone on their feet in our stand. This was a 24 hour sprint race at it's finest. Look at the lap times and say they're not fast!!!

It's a tribute to all who are involved with the cars running at LeMans - they all deserve congratulations whether they finished or not and I most definitely agree with f308jack on his comments about Pescarolo - Henri is a true competitor and his interview after the race speaks extremely well of the man who's won LeMans in the past.

Not competitive per Ron Dennis - perhaps he needs a one-on-one with the Peugeot #7 and Audi #2 (I'd love to be a fly on the wall in such a conversation!)

Carol

 

I believe Dennis' statement is more about politics than sport. He feels the need to belittle the competition rather than raise his own game. I wonder how he would belittle the Indy 500 that McLaren was very proud to win several times. Given the cheating scandals in his own company, he should be careful whose else's competitive spirit he chooses to criticize.

 

Settle down everyone. After all, if anyone can speak knowledgably about non-racing on the track, it would be an F1 boss.

 

Yeah, whatever F1 blows next to endurance racing

how can they say LeMans is not a race ?

just watch a C6R Vette racing against an AM DB9R, now THATS a race

 

Ron Dennis is a blow hard idiot. I would not be surprised if he is the last one to leave the Pub at night along with Sir Jackie Stewart.

 

Someone should make a site called www.raceteamsrunby******bags.com.

 

I don't remember who said it but I remember a quote "racing is seeing who can cross the line the slowest first".

 

+1 Excellent Post, not to mention how great the cars look.

 

"Le Mans isn't a race" -Ron Dennis

"F1 isn't a sport"- Fernando Alonso

Where do these people come up with this stuff.

 

We all know the guys at McLaren never slow down.... or stop at red lights for that matter!

 

I wouldn't call Ron an idiot. He's a man who started from humble beginnings and pulled himself up to the top of motor sports and has made millions. If he's such an idiot, why don't you do that? You seem to like F1, don't you? Also, to say Brawn has lost his magic is jumping to a conclusion. You're essentially saying that he is solely responsible for Ferrari's success, which he obviously is not. Did you really expect him and him alone to turn around Honda so quickly? Boy, sometimes your posts amaze me.

 

+1

ROFL. touche'

Funny how all those guys who like to slam any Danica critics by saying she is a better driver than you also seem to shut up when you ask this question about Ron Dennis.

 

Jack Brabham has said that a few times but may not have been his enlightenment, and then Mick Doohan was always quoted as saying "2nd was just the first loser"

 

He could have won a nobel prize in physics for all I care, if you try to argue that Le Mans isn't racing, then you are an idiot. Yes, it really is that easy.

 

I went to the 24 hours@Lemans last week. It was a great 4 days, and a great race. Even though in the top class was really a two horse race between the Audis and the Peugeot's, which sounded like sewing machines. But in the GT2s the Ferraris got 1,2, and 3 against the Porsche's, and they sounded like race cars should. There were 4 ex F1 drivers in some of the cars as well.

 

I don't think he is stating that literally. I think he is making a rhetorical point.

I have seen it argued on these boards that drag racing, NASCAR, and rallying aren't racing either.

 

I think Ron Dennis' statement make him an idiot in the same vein that good people can still do bad things from time to time. And there are levels of idiocy. Some folks are idiots from cradle to grave. Some make occasional idiotic moves or statements during their otherwise-productive lives. Ron Dennis is no doubt a brilliant and successful man. But what he said about LeMans is idiotic.

People on this site have forgotten how to see issues in shades of grey. Stop interpreting things using absolutes, always one way or another. One statement doesn't make a man a lifelong idiot any more than a long and successful career makes him bulletproof from saying idiotic things.

 

That what he said.

 

+1000000

Well said

 

Are some forgetting that McLaren won the 24 Hours of LeMans with Dennis at the helm in their very first attempt in 1995 and that they were highly competitive in the race the following two years, capturing the overall in GT1 class in 1997?

The man obviously has more of a basis to comment on the race than most others involved in Formula 1. If that's his opinion of the event, then so be it.

I guess to many of you that won't matter though. I think you all just get a woody now when any chance to bash Dennis comes along. Get over it - move on. You won the Constructor's title last year, your driver was World Champion, and McLaren got a big fat (ridiculous) fine in the process. Why all the bitterness?

Respectfully yours.

>8^)
ER
Image Unavailable, Please Login