Great finish by Alex Rossi in front of 350,000 screaming fans (nearly six times those at Sochi F1). Rookie Rossi pulls off stunning upset in 100th Indy 500
Probably need a spoilers title But even the worst f1 driver is better than the best indy car driver Montoya being probably the only exception never a fan of driving in circles but grats to Rossi
Indy used to have top talent mixed in with the wealthy adventurous youth, but the rise of NASCAR and the CART/IRL split has made NASCAR where the talent is. While driving is important, the draft and fuel/yellows seem the most important part.
Kiwi, this should have been posted in the "Other Racing" forum, and with a SPOILERS warning!! Please don't spoil the pleasure others may have watching recorded races later on, by announcing the results already.
Mario Andretti, Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Zanardi, di Matta were recruited in F1 from the Indy series!!
And????? With Andretti and Villeneuve, despite both winning a WDC, their F1 careers were hardly demonstrations of major driver superiority - Andretti always seemed to be a part time F1 driver, and Villeneuve made hard work of winning a WDC in a car that should have cruised it! As for Zanardi and Di Matta, their F1 careers were in reality, anything but successful.
Mario was really friggin' quick. And one hell of a fine development driver / feedback supplier. One of the few guys Colin truly listened to. Had a truly great career across many forms of the sport, from Indy, F1 & Le Mans to those crazy sprint car thingies! Cheers, Ian
That's what made him the greatest ever, by my standard: If you could have just one driver in your team to drive your stable of F1, Indy, stock cars and sports cars, whom would it be?
Don't get Me wrong, as a driver in general, Andretti was incredible, and a true racing legend, with an ability to win in any car regardless of type or class. It's just that with his F1 career, it seems that he should have won more than he did, but F1 was almost a distraction to him. I've never got the impression that he was totally committed it. If you look at his F1 career, in 131 F1 races over 14 years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Andretti ): 1st Place: 11 2nd Place: 2 3rd Place: 5 Retired: 63 races. A good portion of the 63 retirements would have been due to poor reliability rather than driver error, but if you remove those 63 races, in 14 years he won 11 races of the 68 he actually finished. That's not too bad, but had he been more committed to F1, surely he would have won more races, and more than a single WDC? If you want to look at it coldly, like Jacques Villeneuve, in F1 Andretti was actually a bit of a one season wonder!
^^ All very valid points. I guess I may be a little guilty of the rose tinted's as the year he won it was the one I also did in F1. [Wrenching, not jockeying I hasten to add! ] But, however you look at it, he had one hell of a fine career. Won in pretty much everything he drove. As noted, one of the legends IMO too. Cheers, Ian
I forgot to add that he was also one of life's true gentleman racers too, and an all round nice guy! - I genuinely do rate him highly (despite My F1 criticism! )
And how many other drivers won Grand Prix races for both Enzo Ferrari and Colin Chapman? None, to my knowledge. Surtees may have been the only other driver to drive for both men, and his works Lotus career was pretty brief.
Good for Rossi. The Indy 500 is a race that is interesting for about the last 10 laps. Just like Daytona 500.
Really? How many races did Rubens win in Indycar that one year? Answer is zero. Best result was 12th. How many road course races did Mansell win in two years? Answer is one. All the rest of his wins were on ovals and that stopped once Mario stopped setting up his car for him
The Indy 500 use to be part of WDC. Takes skill and balls to drive into corners at 200+ mph and drive for 500 miles. Anyone over age 45 should understand how important The 500 was. You got for coverage for a month on network TV here in the US.
Zanardi and DaMatta didn't have winning cars did they? JV was a bit of a headcase and yes Andretti did seem to be a pet time F1 driver. And still won a WDC. Impressive by any standard.
The Indy 500 has become the crown jewel in a big boy's go kart series. Congrats to Rossi for winning it. Let's see if he is attracted to a better F1 ride as a result of this win.
Rossi was screwed not getting a ride this year in F1. He dominated his teammate last year despite FAR less seat time. Rio Harayanto...lmfao
Did I read something about "lift and coast"??? Couldn't be, because as we all know, only F1 would be dumb enough to get into a "lift and coast" situation.
