Graham Rahal To Drive BMW Sauber F1

is he related to Bobby Rahal in anyway?

 

Good for Graham, and yes, Bobby is his Dad.

 

thanks.

 

Is he F1 material?

 

Great to hear of an American Lad, having a chance! I hope he succeeds and with Marco Andretti, the move to F1, too!

Ciao...Paolo

 

He's 18 and had a decent 1st year in Champ Car. Made some mistakes, had some bad luck. But could run up front. We could trash Champ for a while, but this kid is 18 in a 700 hp car, not an Atlantic or F3 car. Here he is with Bobby at Petite LeMans. Drove as the 3rd guy in Bobby's RSR GT2 Porsche.
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Neck looks pretty thick. I hope the next American F1 driver is something special, hopefully that will get people in this country interested in F1 and will bring us back a GP or two.

 

Conehead, Ha. But nope, you get your hairline from your mother. Saw Bobby win vintage F1 in April driving an old Brabham. Graham's a big boy. 6'1" probably. He had the Atlantic title in the bag at the last race, last year. Electrics put him out on the first lap. That was at 17. I wish both him and Marco well but at his age, Graham's a little ahead of the curve.

 

No, not yet. But he is young and seems to have potential, he certainly has the genes. Bobby Rahal was one of my favorite Champ car drivers and I would like to see the Rahal name back in F1, along with Marco Andretti. Hopefully they both enjoy more sucess than their dads did. Bobby's F1 career lasted 2 races and Michael's only 13.

 

I don't mind a bald headed women if her head isn't shaped too funny.

 

I met Graham at the Petit Le Mans; nice kid, though I had forgotten how tall he was! I had met Bobby at the same event a few years earlier (when he was watching his protege, Danica Patrick, driving the ProDrive Ferrari 550) and their personalities are very similar.

People often forget that Bobby actually drove two Grands Prix for Walter Wolf back in 1978.....

 

And I'll never forget when Bobby drove at Atlanta (?) the newspaper covering it called him 'Bobby Ray Hall', LOL

 

The Only way that the American's are really going to take to the sport is if you get a Yankie Doodle Winning.

I know that Bernie would do anything to get an American in the front running to up his $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ from the US market.

Good Luck to Him. I hope he does well!!

 

Y'all know evryone in the South has two (2) first names.

If you don't they make one up for you (Ran De Forbes, as an example).

I spent twenty years in Southern Louisiana, and loved (almost all of) it.

Last weekend, we got nearly ten inches (10") of snow in Northern Ohio; I sho wish I had 'dem 2 1st names again!

Back on topic: yes, it'll be nice to see some names in F1 that we can pronounce

 

It'll be interesting to see how it goes. Graham was good in Champ Car last year, but kind of disappointed me. He is on what is clearly the top team in a league with very few good drivers, he should have been running up front with greater consistency in my opinion, Pagenaud (may have completely messed the spelling) led him many times in an inferior car.

Marco wouldn't have a win without a teammate making a "mistake" to hand him the win. Do you think an F1 owner would take him parking a car during a race because "it's just scary to drive", especially on more than one occasion? He really needs to redeem himself this year.

 

Niki Lauda did exactly that in Japan in 1976, handing the WDC to James Hunt in the process.

 

This was after Niki was nearly burnt to death, correct? Even getting into the car after something like that takes a lot of courage.

 

Graham's reaction after driving the BMW Sauber F1, and I quote “Oh, it was OK”

Just OK? Damn.