OT: Racing 2017 (Spoiler Alert)

[pk500]

Fernando Alonso's running the Indy 500 with Andretti. This year.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alon ... 00-892869/

That's a million kinds of cool.

Needless to say, today's day at work for me just got a WEE bit more crazy. But a f*cking awesome kind of crazy!

[Dave]

I can't think of a cooler piece of racing news in quite a while, it is going to be very fun to watch Alonso get up to speed at Indy. I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1 after opening Twitter this morning and seeing the story.

He's got a hell of a good chance to win, Andretti's cars were locked in last year and Honda's engine looks to have made a bigger jump than Chevy this year.

Edit: Adding another piece of cool news, it is a true racer's racer day for Indycar news. I didn't know Michael Shank is partnering with Andretti for Jack Harvey's much-lower-profile program at Indy. Shank got hosed during his efforts to launch an Indycar program a few years ago, glad to see him finally get his name on an entry.

[Rodster]

Freaking awesome news. I hope he wins it.

[DChaps]

I love it! I remember how exciting it was when Mansell came to run Indycars while he was the reigning F1 world champion. I am very excited for this years 500. Can't wait for the month of May to get here!

[XXXIV]

Oh ya.

Vettel bring it to the haters.



I so love the idea of Hamilton taking down Seb.

A fight to the finish?..I is be hoping.

[pk500]

Dale Jr. hanging up the helmet after this season. Not surprised at all. I'm more surprised he returned this season after all of his concussion problems last year.

Junior is a total class act. One of the few people in the NASCAR garage who receives universal praise.

[Rodster]

Junior is probably the last popular Nascar driver the fans rally around. Everyone else pretty much has the personality of a cookie cutter tri-oval track. More good news for Nascar.

[Gangrel]

Is there any money in racing iRacing? Maybe that's his next job.

[F308GTB]

Pretty boring F1 race, but congrats to Valteri. While I always want a Ferrari win, having Valteri get his win is alright by me. Great driver and personality/character that Bottas.

[fletcher21]

Pretty boring F1 race.

Seems like a common theme. Has F1 ever been a free-for-all? Even on years Jimmy Johnson dominated Nascar, you didn't think they would win every week. Right now, it's down to which 4 drivers will win between Mercedes and Ferrari. No one who is a Red Bull, Honda or Haas fan tunes in thinking their guy can steal a win. F1 has always been like this. From Scuhmacher to Vettel to Hamilton. I wish there was more competitive racing. The races all come down to the same 4-6 drivers, and there is almost no passing for the lead on track. Sad, really.

[XXXIV]

Pretty boring F1 race.

Seems like a common theme. Has F1 ever been a free-for-all? Even on years Jimmy Johnson dominated Nascar, you didn't think they would win every week. Right now, it's down to which 4 drivers will win between Mercedes and Ferrari. No one who is a Red Bull, Honda or Haas fan tunes in thinking their guy can steal a win. F1 has always been like this. From Scuhmacher to Vettel to Hamilton. I wish there was more competitive racing. The races all come down to the same 4-6 drivers, and there is almost no passing for the lead on track. Sad, really.

It is a parade yes.

Glad to see a new winner.

Good to see ferrari back.

[GB_Simo]

Sochi was always going to be that way. Any race that was dull under the old regs will be supremely dull under the new ones. See also Melbourne, Mexico and oh dear Lord, what about Spain?

Sky did their​ best to get excited about Vettel's late pursuit of Bottas, with much yelling about the supercharging effects of DRS. They ignored the fact that when Vettel got himself into DRS range, he gained only one tenth of a second each time. If they were still racing now, he'd still be runner-up. That, of course, should take nothing away from the job Valtteri did, particularly in his stellar first stint.

[XXXIV]

Adam would you say Vettel is a good race car driver?

Cause I have heard much to the contrary.

I do hate a good parade but prefer the drivers go home after the race.

[EffDee]

I thought Vettel pulled some nice moves in China this year.

It is true though that his wins have always been from the front.

[XXXIV]

I thought Vettel pulled some nice moves in China this year.

It is true though that his wins have always been from the front.

Hard to win from the back in a parade no?

I love it!!!

[Rodster]

Glad to see Bottas get his first win, great start, made no mistakes that cost him the race. I always thought he needed a winning car. Now he needs to prove he has championship qualities, like Hakkinen. That's his next step but now there are 3 drivers in the hunt for this years championship.

Lewis had one of those RARE weekends where he looked lost. Every time there was an onboard camera shot of his car he looked like he was fighting the car. I stand by my comments on Jolyon Palmer, the lad looks lost at every race, he's the British version of Esteban Gutierrez. I can't see him retaining his seat next year.

[pk500]

There's a reason Jolyon Palmer raced in GP2 for four years before he finally won the title in his final year and got the call for F1 -- he's not that good.

People love to rip poor little rich kids like Stroll for getting rides, but people forget Palmer's father, Jonathan Palmer, is one of the most well-connected people in British motorsport. He was a former F1 and sports car driver who formed the Formula Palmer Audi series in which Jolyon raced on his way up the ladder. Jonathan Palmer also owns the Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Cadwell Park and Oulton Park circuits in the UK and also owns the commercial rights to FIA Formula 2.

Let's just say if Jolyon probably wouldn't be in F1 now if his last name was Kelly, Simpson or Cambouris.

[GB_Simo]

Adam would you say Vettel is a good race car driver?

Cause I have heard much to the contrary.

Fearsomely quick, relentlessly consistent and contrary to the often-stated belief, a perfectly capable racer. Yeah, he's alright.

His only major weakness is that if the car isn't to his liking, he's off the pace to a greater degree than you might expect. Look at what Danny Ric did to him in 2014, when Seb couldn't get the Red Bull tuned to his preferences. Not an issue now that Ferrari are giving him what he needs.

Jonathan Palmer also owns the Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Cadwell Park and Oulton Park circuits in the UK...

Along with Donington Park, acquired in January, and Bedford Autodrome of ToCA Race Driver 3 fame, where his PalmerSport track day operation is based.

...and also owns the commercial rights to FIA Formula 2

I was of the impression that having ran FIA Formula 2 in its most recent previous guise until 2013, the good doctor was not involved in FIA Formula 2 in its present incarnation. Certainly he wasn't intending to put in a tender for the Formula 2 contract which went the way of Bruno Michel's GP2 crew for this year, so I thought that BRDC F4 was the only series he was actively involved in the running of of these days. Not so?

[Rodster]

Adam would you say Vettel is a good race car driver?

Cause I have heard much to the contrary.

Fearsomely quick, relentlessly consistent and contrary to the often-stated belief, a perfectly capable racer. Yeah, he's alright.

His only major weakness is that if the car isn't to his liking, he's off the pace to a greater degree than you might expect. Look at what Danny Ric did to him in 2014, when Seb couldn't get the Red Bull tuned to his preferences. Not an issue now that Ferrari are giving him what he needs.

It's pretty much what I've said as well. That said I put Alonso and Schumacher ahead of Vettel. Both those drivers especially Alonso can take an awful car and make it competitive even moving it up the grid several places when you don't expect it. Schumacher once finished 2nd in Spain back in the 90's only to reveal during the post race conference that his Ferrari was stuck in 5th gear. The car needs to be fantastic in order for Vettel to shine. His 1st Championship was a Ferrari gimme due to a pit stop strategy error which put Alonso behind Petrov's Renault in 7th place. Alonso was leading the championship in Abu Dubai.

If I ran a team would I have Vettel in it? Damn straight but I also would consider Ricciardo, Verstappen and Alonso.

[XXXIV]

Ive only seen the good old days of actual racing in documentaries and movies.

With the safety has come the parade?

[pk500]

You may be correct on F2 and Palmer, Simo. I used a basic Wikipedia search, and we know that's the ultimate authority.

[pk500]

Ive only seen the good old days of actual racing in documentaries and movies.

With the safety has come the parade?

Safety has little to do with it. Mechanical reliability is more of a leading cause than anything.

F1 cars were notoriously fragile up through the 90s. But so many more cars now continue to run to the finish, so freak mechanical failures taking out leaders and contenders is so much more rare these days.

Another culprit is F1's constant tinkering with technical rules. Changes to the regulations benefit larger teams with bigger budgets, as they can adapt more quickly to new specs than lower-funded teams because of better people, better wind tunnels, bigger staffs, etc.

The midfield always makes gains on the leading teams during periods of rules stability. This is what you're seeing in MotoGP right now. The 1000cc rules have remained pretty constant over the last three seasons, and the introduction of spec electronics last year has tightened the field even further.

Bored with F1? Watch IndyCar, MotoGP and WRC. They all still deliver racing entertainment in spades, last Saturday night's IndyCar snoozer at Phoenix notwithstanding. I know it takes a bad rap here and other spots, but the racing has been pretty damn good in the NASCAR Cup Series this season, too.

But if you only have time to watch one racing series, MotoGP will give you more entertainment and thrills in 45 minutes than most series do in an entire weekend. It's the best major racing series on Earth.

[XXXIV]

I must say I enjoy a good parade.

Moto Gp does interest me though. Moto GP 2 is one of my all time favorite games.

[Rodster]

So supposedly Indycar is showing F1 how to properly market itself. They showed a live feed of Capt Morgan during his rookie testing at Indy and over 2 million tuned in to watch Live. I haven't had this much interest in Indy 500 race since before the mid 90's.

[GB_Simo]

Stopping by for a moment to mark the 35th anniversary of this man's passing:



I must, of course, post this too. The first win for Renault as a constructor, the first win for a turbocharged F1 car, the first win for Jean-Pierre Jabouille, and all anyone remembers is who finished 2nd: