Have you ever wondered how much faster F1 cars really are? How’s this for a new perspective?
Tag: F1
Montoya: NASCAR Not As Boring AS F1 and Much Harder
Although F1 isn’t totally boring, it has been progressively going down hill for a while now. It’s getting to the point now where almost any attempt at over taking can be considered dangerous driving and that is part of why Juan Pablo Montoya left for NASCAR.
I would like to see much less of a gap between the top and the bottom teams, but as it stands technology and money are the driving force between the top and bottom, not driving skill. I still enjoy F1 despite this, but I can totally agree it’s been getting boring recently.
Montoya: NASCAR harder than ‘boring’ F1
Juan-Pablo Montoya has delivered a stinging rebuke to the sport that delivered him seven grand prix victories, 13 pole positions, twelve fastest laps and no fewer than 30 podium finishes, blasting Formula 1 as boring’ and claiming that as far as the Americans are concerned, Lewis Hamilton is Lewis Who?’
The famously outspoken Colombian competed in 94 starts in the top flight for BMW-Williams and McLaren-Mercedes from 2001 to 2006, before dramatically walking away mid-season just under two years ago to return to his roots across the Pond, where in 1999 he had sensationally clinched the Champ Car (then CART) laurels for Chip Ganassi Racing in his maiden campaign in the open-wheel series.
Montoya now races in the NASCAR Nextel Cup, and as such has become the only driver in history aside from the legendary Mario Andretti to have won races in F1, CART, the IndyCar Series, Grand-Am and NASCAR, with his sole triumph to-date in the latter coming in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California last year.
Indeed, the 32-year-old’s 2007 performances were impressive enough to earn him the coveted Rookie of the Year’ accolade, and reunited with Ganassi since his return Stateside he clearly does not regret making the move.
Formula 1 drivers are convinced that they’re so much better than anyone else, Montoya told The Times. When I was in F1, every week I was on the podium. It was cool, but is it satisfying? It wasn’t, because it was the most boring races.
The guy who started in front of you would drive away from you, and the guy who was behind you would drop away from you, unless you [had] f***ed up in qualifying and then you needed to have a different pit-stop strategy to beat them.
It’s boring. It’s a shame, because the technology these cars have and the amount of companies that are involved is unreal. I don’t know how big companies do it for such a long time without results.
Whilst he acknowledges results can sometimes be just as hard to come by in his current position, the big, brash appeal of the US’ premier stock car series is evidently very much to Montoya’s liking, with overtaking less of an art form and more of a past-time as up to 40 cars go wheel-to-wheel for three hours solid. What’s more, 17 of the nation’s top 20 best-attended sporting events are NASCAR races, and the sport is the second-most watched on American television.
It’s harder here, argued the Bogota native, currently sitting 19th in the championship chase out of some 67 fierce competitors. When you run 15th, sometimes you think it sucks, but look at the big picture 15th here is like sixth or seventh in F1, because there are twice as many cars.
The incredible thing is here I run 15th or 20th on average, and there are four or five weeks in the year where I have a chance of winning. In F1 if you run sixth or seventh, you run sixth or seventh the whole year.
It doesn’t matter if you’re running for the lead, or for 30th, you’re always racing somebody [in NASCAR]. That’s much better.
Montoya also pointed out that such is NASCAR’s incredible popularity in the States, F1 barely raises a flicker on the interest scale, and whilst he rates his McLaren successor Lewis Hamilton as a good kid’ and a nice guy’, he is blunt in pointing out that: Go ask anybody here who is Lewis Hamilton. Lewis who?
Chip Ganassi team-mate and former Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti who joined NASCAR from the IndyCar Series this season, but was almost immediately out of action with a broken ankle sustained in a 180mph collision at Talladega back at the end of April echoed Montoya’s sentiments.
It’s been a tough baptism, reflected the Scot. I thought it would be difficult, but I didn’t realise how difficult. The good thing is I feel I know a lot more now about what to do.
For anybody that loves cars, it’s entertainment that’s second-to-none. If you want exciting racing, to watch people driving cars that are very difficult to drive, this is the answer.
Danica Patrick Eyes Formula One Future
If Danica can be consistently competitive in IndyCar and contend for the title I see no reason why she shouldn’t get a shot at Formula One or at least GP2. But let’s be realistic. In the real world she has done nothing to prove her ability to drive a Formula One car. I’m not saying that she’s not good but let’s face facts, not many of the present day Champ Car or IRL drivers could make that jump, especially one that has no wins or very few.
Danica ‘dead set’ on move to F1
IndyCar’s latest new winner Danica Patrick has dismissed criticism from a former world champion that she is not good enough for Formula 1, by insisting she is ‘dead set’ on making the move into the top flight in the future.
Whilst three-time title-winner Nelson Piquet suggested the IndyCar Series was an inadequate training ground for someone wishing to switch across to grand prix racing [see separate story – click here], Patrick herself has hinted that it is something she is seriously considering – after she fights for the IndyCar title, that is.
The 26-year-old from Wisconsin became the first female to emerge victorious in a premier open-wheel race when she triumphed at Motegi in Japan a week ago, but she admitted in an interview with British newspaper the Daily Star that her heart had been set on F1 from an early age, right back to when she competed in the UK at the tender age of 16. During that period she went on to finish runner-up in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival – the best result ever achieved by either an American or a woman in the high-profile event.
“During my three years in England, I followed Formula 1 closely and became dead set on racing in it,” confessed Patrick, currently competing for Honda-powered Andretti Green Racing across the Pond. “F1 is regarded as the highest level of racing with the best drivers in the world, and it’s very flattering to have that as an opportunity.
“First I want to contend for the IndyCar championship, though, and then we’ll see what opportunities arise.”
Scuderia Toro Rosso ace Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, dismissed suggestions from some drivers – amongst them Jenson Button – that women would not be physically strong enough to race in F1.
“Well, I’m not exactly a bear!” the young German joked.
Honda star Button had previously joked in an interview with men’s magazine FHM that “a girl with big boobs would never be comfortable in the car, and the mechanics wouldn’t concentrate. Can you imagine strapping her in? You wouldn’t want to be on the circuit with them, would you?”
The last woman to enter the top flight was Giovanna Amati, who attempted to qualify three times for Brabham back in 1992 before being replaced at the ailing British outfit by Damon Hill.
Renault Formula One Engine Plays ‘We are the Champions’
To celebrate their 2005 F1 championship victory, and the last race for the V10 engines, the Renault team persuaded one of their V10’s to sing! The solo performance of the Queen classic “We are the Champions” was performed by one of Renault’s RS25 V10 engines at the teams dyno testing facility in France.
RS25 project leader Axel Plasse explained that making an engine “sing” is a fairly simple matter of finding the engine rpm that generates an exhaust sound of the right frequency for each musical note. The engine management system of the dyno is then programmed to manage engine rpm and duration to “sing the song.”
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