I know Scott...he WALKED away from his F1 ride, he was NEVER fired. AJ wasnt good enough for F1, how do you know? he turned down the offer. I cant look beyond what country the driver is from??? When have I had a US driver to root for. Do you think I only liked the sport when Scott got in??? No offense but I dont care how long you have been watching the sport, you have NO eye for talent and no experience behind the wheel to judge.
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114229 I still stand by this statement 2.5 years later...
bd- Well, you got that one completely backwards. Want to read it one more time and try again? In F1 they weigh the car with the driver to ensure the combination exceeds the minimum weight. No advantage to being small in F1 except it gives the team more flexibility in where to place the ballast. All F1 cars and drivers combined are well below the minimum weight until ballasted. Taz Terry Phillips
If Mateschitz fired Scott, he wouldn't have continued to have Redbull money funding his rides, which he still does. Also, Scott spilling the beans about how he was physically assulted by his boss, and saying he'd never drive for them again, probably had more to do with his "firing" than his "lack of performance", considering he was out driving Liuzzi. Also Andreas, both Jani and Allmendinger are better than you give them credit for. Knowledge aside, if guys like Piquet jr, Nakajima, Yammamoto and do the bare minimum in F1, do you honestly think Allmendinger and Jani couldn't do at least that? Jani is an awesome driver, I've heard good things from several people who have both raced with him, and driver coaches who work with many drivers. Andreas, just because people who are in crap cars or don't make it to F1, it doesn't mean "they aren't good enough". It sounds like you've watched that movie Grand Prix too many times and are stuck on that line "Only 20 men in the world are qualified to drive F1". Also, if you think the STR that Scott drove was the same one as Vettel drove, with no improvements what so ever, then i'm sorry but you know even less about F1, and racing in general, than I thought before!
+1 I usually agree with him on many things, and he seems like an intelligent guy, BUT! when he makes posts like these, it's obvious that he knows far less than what he thinks. The issue is that he gets too condescending and disrespectful to all the other drivers out there who AREN'T Lewis, Kimi, or Vettel. As a racer myself, I have to respond to that BS.
Wow, major flashback ! Sometimes pre-qually was better than the race, I remember it being on Friday though. Thanks for sparking that memory.
Well, one of the drivers will be the winner of a reality show... (that is just the way we do it around here) On a side note, who would be the most likely engine builder? Let's see if the offering involves pushrods or a SBC. *getting nostalgic for the Ligiers*
Ever wonder what Danica would look like... with more talent, and less clothes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_RfK2rp2To&feature=related (its work safe, unless you work for the Pope) .
You know I agree with you. Thats another driver I would like to see in an F1 car. By the way what karting series do you race in?
This is extremely harsh, but as a minor league racer, I have to agree. With the exception of the few who pay with private funds for their seat in F1, everyone who is on the grid there has an amazing amount of talent. I am convinced after 4-5 years of bouncing around in road racing series either getting paid or paying nothing to rent a ride in a couple series, launching a career and landing in a good seat requires almost as much luck as talent. many of the guys on the grid would be front runners last year if they were in a ferrari or in a Mercedes. I will acknowledge that the better drivers make the car that much better through development, but all of those guys have an incredible physical fitness level and a huge amount of talent. Are there a few that rise about the rest? sure. Who they are is almost a religious arguement...
Speed got fired because he is American. They never liked him from day one no matter how much talent he has. The Europeans never liked Americans and they never will. I have raced against Scott numerous times and let me tell you he is one of the most talented drivers out there. AJ was is another extremely talented, maybe a bit more than Scott. By the way AJ turned down the Redbull program so he can race in the states. Had nothing to do with him not being talented enough.
Thank god some fellow drivers chimed in and gave their honest opinions. I never raced Scott in karts, just cars.
Pretty much. It would have been nice to see AJ go for it but I think the cards are stacked against Americans in F1. Each "failed" American attempt reinforces that opinion. It's going to take a mega talent to crack that image. Danica will only reinforce it. Big Time.
Couldnt have said it in such a to the point way.She iss in no way deserving.1 career win and she's hailed.Keep racing in circles sweety.BTW Mr Speed should be a number 1 candidate for the USF1 seat.He NEEDS that second chance.
+10000! Most people, even in club-level racing, have talent. To have made it to F1 means you have a good degree of talent. Andreas - While I am no Michael Andretti fan - to say he wasn't good is harsh. He chose to commute back and forth to Europe, which surely impacted him. He had a podium in his final race (an accomplishment for anyone), scored a 5th, a 6th, and nearly had a 2nd in Hungary. The Ford V8 was underpowered (although Senna's skill overcame that!), and the difference in technology between the CART car and F1 was significant enough that there was a learning curve. By comparison, Eddie Cheever (who had ~10 years in F1), scored just 2 podiums. Living in North America, I haven't been to many GPs (just Canada), but I've watched it as long as you - 30 years. I am a huge fan of F1 from the days of Gilles - Michael's stint may not have been long or very good, but his talent as a driver should not be downplayed. Oh, and Scott Speed - he won a NASCAR truck race and 4 ARCA races. Again, I can't stand NASCAR, and don't believe the talent level is as good as road racing series, but to win is an accomplishment. If it were that easy, JPM would be multi-time world champ. Put Scott Speed in the Ferrari - he's winning races, as did Eddie Irvine and Rubens!
Strange that a Danica thread (which started with a discussion of the symmetry of her navel button) is now all about Scott Speed getting a second chance.
Good thing that Phil Hill has passed over and is not here to see this... and of course that Mario and Dan Gurney seem to have better things to do at the time.
Be sure to tune in to SPEED channel on the 24th. That is when the official announcment will be made about USF1 and Dan and Mario will very much play a part in it.
In an interview with a German motorsport magazine, Ken Anderson, the man behind the USF1 project told that he favours Alexander Rossi as one of the drivers.
There are few subjects that will drag me into making anymore comments on this forum on FChat, but one is slamming someone that one does not know personally. You do not know Andreas personally, I do. Andreas and I do not always agree, and of course I am usually correct (correct Andreas? Massa, Massa/Schumacher, etc), but I respect his opinions and insight into this sport. He knows it, he understands it, and makes comments based on his experience and his contacts within the sport. He is an adament fan of F1. I would suggest that his depth of involvement is much greater than yours, but I obviously do not know for sure. You do not have to agree with him to respect his knowledge. And yes, that goes both ways. You made a comment about a spec series and F1 drivers. Once upon a time there was a minor spec series, and the likes of Graham Hill, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter raced against drivers with names like Unser, Baker, Yarborough, Allison, and I believe Foyt. Identical cars, four races. Two oval and two road course. Called IROC. The F1 guys did not come out on top. I would enjoy seeing the current F1 drivers in identical spec cars. I think that most here would be surprised at the results. I believe that drivers like Button and Webber would stand out, while Kimi and Lewis would fall back. I think through 2008 in F1, the chassis is 65%, the driver 35%. I believe, at least I hope, 2009 will be a little different as the cars will require substantially more driver skill. Scott Speed, whom I have met, is a really nice kid. I do think he is a talented driver, but driving talent is not all that is needed in motor sports. Communication and engineering input are prime assets. If you notice, even now Massa gets first draw at testing the new car because he is better than Kimi at giving input to the engineers. That is what made Felipe so valuable to Ferrari since Schumacher left. The fact that he also improved to the level of being one of the top four drivers in F1 certainly helped his credentials. Vettel did better in the STR than SS because the car improved due to his input, something Scott was not good at doing. That inability to communicate to the engineers made Scott a liability to the team. He was in fact "fired" from his Red Bull F1 seat, but not from the team. When you are not given the option to return to your prior high level job position, I would call that being fired, or maybe better yet, call it demoted. Nevertheless, it took a noticible level of skill to get Scott to where he has gone in motorsports, so I would agree with you he does deserves that credit. But so does Vettel, even the likes of Michael Schumacher consider Vettel to be one of the best of the new drivers. Scott is discovering the difficulty of racing in NASCAR, he must learn all new skills. Just as Montoya. Winning in ARCA doesn't say much when you are driving for a team with big dollars against mostly low budget teams. Montoya showed some improvement at that start of this year's Daytona 500, but he still lacks the sixth sense needed to draft for 500 miles. He fell back after a while. I wonder if Scott will do better. Neither may ever come close to the race to race skill of drivers like Gordan and Stewart. I attended the Daytona 500 this past weekend, and I left with the secure feeling that driving a two ton technically retarded vehicle at 190 MPH for 500 miles in a constant drafting situation takes an incredible amount of skill from the driver, as much as driving an F1 car, BUT quite different. Just as you can not compare F1 to NASCAR, they are so different, one should not belittle a driver's skill of a sport you do not understand. Most on this forum just do not get NASCAR, which is too bad as it is enjoyable especially on the superspeedways. Just because the cars do not turn in two directions is no argument to suggest F1 is better. Just different. So I would rank Jeff Gordan, Tony Stewart, Jimmy Johnson, even Dale Jr, right up there on my list of the most talented 15 drivers in the world. That list would also include the drivers from the WRC and LeMans/ALMS. Only 8 F1 drivers would appear on my list. Guys like Loeb have more car control and driver skill than 80% of the F1 grid. Michael Andretti was burdened with a b*t*h wife that did not want to live in Europe, yet she acted like God's gift to the female population in the F1 paddock at that time. Really irritated everyone. I give Michael credit for having great skill, although not the level of a WDC, he just did not have the dedication needed. And that is an opinion presented by none other than his teammate, Senna. Senna acknowledged in multiple interviews that Andretti was not treated equally or fairly by McLaren. As for the original subject of this thread, I prefer to wait and see what Danica Patrick can do, if and when she has the opportunity to try out for F1. The win column is thankfully not all that team owners look for in a driver. And all the publicity in the world will not keep sponsors in this economy if a car does not start finishing at podium level after 2-3 years. And how about credibility if the team continually finishes in the latter third? If she actually is given the opportunity, just maybe there is more to Danica than anyone here gets. I personally have no idea how she will do. I think she deserves the chance to succeed or fail. Did I miss any of the subjects in this thread? And since a few of you included credentials, my first two heros in racing were named Lorenzo Bandini and Fireball Roberts (I was only 2 years old). I have attended over 300 professional motor sports events, including at least 40 F1 races, 50 NASCAR races, and 25 Indianapolis 500's. I won three state autocross championships in AP. I have broken bread, actually toast, with Jackie Stewart, been driven around Daytona at speed in an actual NASCAR by Bobby Allison. Most of the races were as a professional photographer so my take on the sport comes from in the garage or pits. And I still have friends involved directly in the sport, F1, NASCAR and IRL, although most plan to retire in the next few years. They are obviously much older than me. Thankyou.
