UOWWB Questions

I've been remiss on not answering the United Open Wheel Word Butcher questions of the last couple of weeks and there's another one up today, so let's run through some quickie answers:

Many IRL drivers from last season have not been officially signed to a deal for 2009. This includes Ryan Hunter-Reay, Oriol Servia, Justin Wilson, Darren Manning, Buddy Rice, AJ Foyt IV, Bruno Junqueira, Enrique Bernoldi, Jaime Camara, Milka Duno, Townsend Bell, Mario Dominguez, and a few others. How many of these drivers will be driving in the IRL this season?

This question was posted on Feb 9th and obviously we now know the fates of Wilson, Duno and hopefully Junky (I think he'll get the other Coyne car). I think Camara is in with Conquest again, he's listed to test with them tomorrow but I don't know if he's confirmed.
I don't see many of these others getting drives without funding. I'm pretty sure Manning is in sportscars, RHR and Servia definitely need to be in the series but I don't see anything rumoured on the other blogs/sites. So we're getting some good guys back, some are sitting out who shouldn't be sitting out, and others... I don't really care about!

If you were given one wish and could change anything about auto racing, what would you're one wish be?

Two words: Economic Recovery!!
At this point all the stuff we'd usually discuss about drivers, teams, tracks, events, sponsors, etc - these things are just niceties right now. We just need to survive. It's that bad. So essentially what I'd change is the attitudes in some parts of racing right now who seem to have their heads in the sand, thinking this is just going to go away by itself.

"Of the unemployed drivers in the Indycar Series (see below) which two would you employ to join your racing team"
* Ryan Hunter-Reay
* Oriol Servia
* Justin Wilson
* Darren Manning
* Buddy Rice
* AJ Foyt IV
* Bruno Junqueira
* Enrique Bernoldi
* Jaime Camara
* Townsend Bell
* Mario Dominguez
* Jay Howard
* Alex Lloyd
* Tomas Scheckter

We can strike Wilson and Camara as taken for Coyne and Conquest, I don't think they are 100% official yet but they are almost there.

So to answer the question: I'll take Ryan Hunter-Reay and Darren Manning, please. Servia is a close call but Manning nicks it for patriotic and personality/PR reasons - and I'll take RHR any day, he's the business.

* * *
Interesting day tomorrow, we've got announcements from the BBC F1 team on what they have planned, we'll have something from Peter Windsor's USF1 operation, and perhaps something will come from the former Honda F1 team as I believe their Mercedes engine option timed out today. While all this happens the IndyCars will have their first test of the year, at the Homestead oval, which will be about as useful as any test of any car in terms of form guides but it'll give us something to talk about.

I'll do a round-up at this time tomorrow, if some of that hasn't happened yet then tough!

In the meantime if you're on Twitter you should add these:
LeeMcK (Lee McKenzie, BBC's F1 pit reporter for 2009)
BMWSauberF1Team
Vision Racing
HVM Racing

Tell me if you know any more!

UOWWB: Hamilton & Dixon

United Open Wheel Word Butchers Question of the Week:

If Lewis Hamilton and Scott Dixon switched places for the 2009 season, how would each driver fare in the other's league? Who would be more successful in 2009?

Dixon would have a year much like Raikkonen's 2008. F1 cars are not easy to get your head around because they are much more 'knife-edge' in terms of setup and driving style than any other car. I'm not doubting he has the talent to be a successful F1 driver because he clearly does, I'm just saying it'll take time and F1 cars can be notoriously finicky things to learn. If you don't get the car right or it inherently doesn't suit your driving style you're nowhere - again see Bourdais who was driving better in the STR2 early in the season than he was in the STR3 for most of the rest of the year. And how else do you explain Kimi's lacklustre season?
So if he dials it in, and the car suits him, he would do very well. I think he'd end up on the middle road with an 'average' but respectable first season before stepping up in performance in 2010. He'd probably win a race in that first season. This assumes McLaren are still a top team in 2009!


The same would be true of Hamilton in the Dallara, he'd have the same kind of year as Dixon in F1. But he wouldn't be properly up to a Ganassi-level of performance until after the huge mileage they do at Indy over those few weeks. Jumping directly into two street fights at St Pete and Long Beach is going to be a challenge for all the newcomers this year! And then on to the ovals. There isn't what he'd know as a 'normal' track until the Glen in July, so he'd have to completely relearn how to race. And I include the street races on purpose here, American street tracks are not like Monaco, Melbourne or even Montreal, they have to be treated differently.
Again he's with a top team so a win isn't out of the question. Ganassi's guys certainly know how to use strategy to get him there and you have to assume they and Penske will remain top dogs in '09.


I do think the Dallara would be the easier car to learn but the tracks the IRL races on are a lot tougher, more rough and ready, more physical. F1 drivers are quite pampered when it comes to race track surfaces and run-off areas, so Hamilton would have to mentally adjust himself. Meanwhile Dixon could let it all hang out without fear of hitting much of anything.

There are so many variables which could affect the performances, not least of which is how much pre-season testing they do. There isn't any doubt though - they'd both get there eventually.

Weekly Question - Foreign Drivers

UOWWBA asks:

Is the prominence of foreign drivers in the league hurting the IRL?

The answer to that depends on which drivers you're talking about. If you're referring to the highly successful championship winning drivers Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Cristiano da Matta and all the rest - then clearly you are insane if you think that somehow hurts IndyCar or any other series they've run in over the last decade. Joel at IRL-O-Rama wrote a good piece in answer to this same question, and I agree with him entirely.

On the flip side if you're referring to the ride buyers which propped up the last few years of Champ Car then yeah, it does hurt. Several of those guys had no business being in a top line single-seater. But then you could say the same about the ride buying Americans which propped up the first years of the IRL.

Us hardcore fans of racing don't give a monkey's where the drivers come from if they are talented and are able to get a ride in a good team.
What I think the question is driving at is the appeal to the more casual fan. The guys who only watch when someone of their nationality is winning. We have the same in Britain, many more people watch F1, tennis, golf, etc. whenever a Brit is winning or competing for wins.

Those 'fans' will never change and that's a shame because they are missing some great racing and great sport generally. They seem to miss the whole point of Indy-style (and sportscar) racing as opposed to NASCAR - bringing top drivers from around the world and racing them against the best America has to offer to see who's best. And guess what guys: sometimes the Americans win!

From my limited knowledge of the beginnings of the Indianapolis 500 I seem to remember something about those first races consisting of drivers from everywhere racing cars from all over the place to see which combination was best over a distance. I'll wager that's one of many reasons why the 500 became so huge in the first place. Surely as the Speedway enters what it terms the 'Centennial Era', that's the one thing it needs to hold on to?


Let me compare it to our little BTCC. Ten years ago it was at its height with big fields of British drivers alongside the cream of talent from all over Europe choosing to join them and race here. Result: big crowds at the circuits, good TV ratings, sponsorships, all the rest of it.
Nowadays we have smaller fields of British drivers and only one foreign driver, albeit he's one of the best tintop drivers around. Result: far smaller crowds, relatively low TV ratings, and less sponsorships (and this was before the crunch).
OK the modern cars aren't as good as those a decade ago and you didn't have WTCC then, but still the point remains:
BTCC fans not only appreciate the foreign drivers racing here but consider it something to be proud of that some the best talent from across Europe chose to race here instead of DTM or any of the other national series. There really isn't any reason why IRL fans can't look at it the same way.


***
Speaking of non-Americans looking for IndyCar rides, check out Dan Clarke's quotes when he was interviewed by Autosport.com prior to this weekend's A1GP event.

"I'm still living in Indianapolis, and we're still gearing up for a season in IndyCar. But if the opportunity arises to do more of these (A1GP) races then I will jump at them, of course. But after this race I will go back to Indianapolis and continue with the negotiations that we're having there with the teams in IndyCar."

More on Autosport.com.

On Marco Andretti

This week the Word Butchers ask:

Does Marco Andretti improve or hurt his teammates at Andretti Green Racing?

I'd say probably both in a way, although he's still improving year on year. His raw talent and speed isn't in doubt but he seems to find himself in accidents maybe a little more often than maybe he ought to. Accidents cause a loss of track time (obviously), and that's not what you need especially in a series as close as IndyCar where you need to be on top of conditions at all times.

With four drivers AGR can split the race weekend set-up workload and get results more quickly than other teams can - in theory, anyway. If you take out a chunk of time caused by crashes, his part of that is lost to the whole team. I'm including the races here, even then you lose valuable learning time. Even the most experienced drivers need that time because the cars, engines, tyres and circuits are always evolving even in a largely spec formula.

He'll sort it out soon - I'm tipping him to do just that this year. He showed signs of it in '08, it'll come.

He's showing an apparent change of attitude since the last part of the '08 IRL season. The willingness to go to A1GP when he really didn't need to take an unpaid drive in what is still a fairly obscure series, on his earnings and with his secure ride, I think it says a lot about how he's willing to broaden his experience base and technical ability. I'm not sure how true that was before. I mean I don't know if he genuinely wanted to be in the ALMS car, or if he was just parachuted in to help.. Those of you who watch those races may be able to answer that.

So yeah, in summary... If he keeps ending up in the wall or other cars, it hinders his teammates. Sometimes he shows a level of arrogance I don't like, maybe that hinders things too, although in his defence perhaps that's the only way to get anything in that team with Princess around.
On the other hand, his ever growing experience with these cars and his experience with another powerful single-seater will give him another reference point to work with. He'll now approach the Dallara with a completely different mindset. This will help him and his teammates, particularly Mutoh who is still new to this stuff, and may also take some of the set-up pressure off of TK, which in turn will allow Tony to fight for the title... although I'm sure Marco is thinking of an assault on that himself.

Christmas List

This week's United Open Wheel Word Butchers Association question:

What's on this year's Christmas List for the IRL?

- Start talking about the new chassis / engine formula so we can get excited about it!

- Make sure the international TV package is good. There are a LOT of IndyCar fans outside the USA and we feel like an afterthought sometimes. Gary and Larry made sure to namecheck all the countries their feed reached and it was nice to hear.

- Make sure the Indy Lights champ of every season gets a test with a major team. Do they already? I have no idea. Surely if they get a test, somebody down the grid will take a chance on them.

- I don't care about a series sponsor as long as the cars are well stickered-up and look good. Make sure each team has sponsors, and try to attract even more. Yes, this is tough to do these days.

- Make sure safety car periods are kept to a minimum, and the clean up is as fast as safely possible. Don't extend yellows just to squeeze in a pit sequence or a TV commercial break. TV should fit to the sport, not vice versa.

- Ditch Sonoma, a track with no fans looks stupid. See Bahrain in F1.

- Bring in Road America for 2010 (if not 2009). Also try for Michigan Speedway. Keep the street races to no more than 3 per season (Long Beach, Toronto, St Pete). I'd like to see the schedule mixed around a bit. I don't like having oval-heavy to start with, road-heavy to end with.

- Above all else: survive this downturn intact, even if it means not doing some of the above until things quieten down.


I know that's a lot of hard things to ask for, and they are all needed...

Thanks to Joel for this week's question.

Come back tomorrow for my F1 Top Ten!

Word-Butchering Talent Scouts

I've kindly been asked to join a co-operative of bloggers known as the United Open Wheel Word Butchers Association, which has been set up to cross-promote a selection of racing blogs to like-minded people.
After you've read this post take yourself over to the UOWWBA site and check out some of my colleagues' blogs in the sidebar there, you might find some you've never seen before. I'd never seen Pit Out before and I've gone on to bookmark it (I also added it and Planet-IRL and Motorsports Ramblings to my sidebar). Pit Out is close to what this blog would be like if I could find the time / effort to update it as often.

Part of being with the UOWWBA is to answer a weekly question, in order to get our own individual take on any given burning issue. This week's question is this:

"You have just been appointed to be the new "talent scout" for the IRL. Your first mission is to bring 5 drivers to the series. These can be former drivers from Indycar or from any other series. Which 5 would you pick and why?"

So here are my picks in no particular order:

1. Paul Tracy.
This might only be for the one season because let's face it, even if Champ Car had continued Paul would be getting close to the end of his open-wheel career by now. His career should end the way it seems to have ended. He should go out fighting, that's the Paul Tracy Way. I miss watching him race. I wish we could see him adapt to what he once called 'those crapwagons'. When 'unification' was announced he was one of the first drivers I wanted to watch mix it among the IRL crowd, alongside Wilson, Servia and Power. He needs to be back. Just for one season. He just DOES dammit.


2. A J Allmendinger.
I don't know much about this guy, but what I do know is that once he stepped up from a midfield team to Forsythe he completely killed the opposition. Then walked away. He shouldn't be trolling around in back-of-the-field N-word teams. Even if Toyota plus Red Bull shouldn't be back-of-the-field teams. Just like Toyota and Red Bull in F1, in fact.


3. Sam Hornish Jr.
Because he was getting better at road courses, wasn't he? In any case we need drivers who are stronger on ovals than on road courses, as much as we need drivers who are stronger on road courses than on ovals. And we need flag-bearers from the 'old' IRL just as much we need those from the 'old' CART. Hornish is the best of that bunch. And the same applies to Hornish as it does to Allmendinger, vis a vis being in NASCAR.


4. Justin Wilson.
It looks like Justin is out of a ride so I'll include him here, because he damn well shouldn't be out of a ride. I hope N/H/L get some more funding and are able to run a second car with him in it. I'm sure he must be 'first call' in that instance. Look at his progress on road courses this year. He was one of the few to take it to Bourdais regularly in Champ Car. He dragged a half-assed Minardi around the F1 tracks to positions it should never have been, that car being the only one at the time without power steering.


5a. Robert Doornbos.
It looks like he may have signed for HVM, I'm not sure if that's an announcement or just a rumour I've seen on websites. In any case he's wasting his time in Superleague Formula. His sporadic F1 appearances showed potential, which he went on to prove in Champ Car before the series collapsed from under him. He was supposed to go into 2008 as a serious title contender against Wilson and Power. In reality he spent the year scratching around making a living in SF, A1GP and GT racing. He needs to be back in a top line open wheel car. I think he'd love ovals.

In case he's signed already, an alternative no.5:
5b. Alex Lloyd.
He's British, I'm British, and he's a proven winner in that he's the 2007 Indy Lights champ. The Indy Lights champ should always get at least few races in the main series during the following year or two. I know running the Indy 500 itself is a big deal, and if the winner of Lights always wins a prize drive at the 500 then that's fantastic - but I don't think they do. He needs a run with somebody who can give him a fair shot even if it is only half a season. Maybe he can run the road courses for Fisher (or a second car?).

For the last twelve months the automatic entry to this list was Dario Franchitti. Thankfully he's back already!


Thanks again to Kohl for the invite to join the OWWBA.

To everyone else, I promise I *will* get the first of my Top Tens posted next weekend! I'll probably start with the IndyCar one.