Any motor racing fans here?

[StyrbjornSterki]

...Button winning the championship showed what a joke F1 has become....

Talk like that won't win you many friends, ...but you're right.

It's a spec series now and the only way a team can advantage itself over the competition is to nibble at the edges of the rules and develop stuff that's as likely as not to be banned as soon as the dullards at the FIA can figure out how to enforce the rule (which they abysmally failed to do with the exhaust overrun blown diffuser).

 

[ramjambunath]

Anyone here watch Speedway GP, I know it's only four oval laps but it is quite exciting.

as for the failing of the other series, I think that due to the globalisation of motorsport some series - especially NASCAR and F1- I think that most of these GP2 riders believe that if they could get into the F1 setup (even as the second test driver) they have a serious shot at a ride and I remember one driver last year getting the HRT a couple of million dollars per race from his sponsors.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Why should Indy car racing care about any European perspective? F1 dominates.

NASCAR could say the same thing about F1 racing from an American perspective. F1 racing is a non-event over here - like soccer.

Because last season one of the oval races had to be shifted to Saturday because the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks were a bigger draw. Ticket sales are through the floor. Champ Car's solution to this was to hold more events in Europe, but their business model was the failing.

And if you aren't creating viable new stars from your own feeder series (which they aren't) then you need to attract people from other places. F3000/GP2 was a constant source of replenishment for the CCWS, as was Champ Car Atlantics for obvious reasons (but also Champ Car Atlantics were seen as a viable move as a junior formula for European prospects too). In the pursuit of the quick buck (especially when they were still competing with Champ Car, which is guilty of the same thing) the IRL promoted young prospects too soon, and now the likes of Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal are seeing their careers stuttering. There's plenty of turnover in the mid- and lower field, but where's the turnover at the top? There isn't any.

CCWS was criticised for its tiny fields by its death. The CCWS/IRL merger led to some big grids and some good fun for a while, but the teams couldn't afford to run all those cars (especially the old Champ Car teams who had to hastily buy up an IRL Dallara and go racing with minimal testing time and so didn't get the results, so didn't get the funding, etc) and soon the fields were shrinking back down to late era CCWS days.

There are signs that the IRL is righting its course at the moment, but the damage has been done. NASCAR is now undisputedly the king of American motorsport, and in comparison IRL is no more relevant than WTCC is to F1.

 

[auscyclefan94]

 

[Kvinto]

I have not found another motorsport thread so:

Dakar has just started and we've got another motorbiker's death, sad

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/01012012/58/dakar-boero-dies-opening-day-dakar-rally.html

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Very sad. The Dakar is perhaps the most dangerous of all the existing motorsport races nowadays (and it's run by the ASO, the same as 'our' ASO). 21 competitors dying in 32 years of running is quite a grim record. Unfortunately, the open nature of competition, where drivers need not be professionals, and given a lot of the terrain being used, and what gives Dakar the challenge and character that attracts competitors, I see very little way to actually combat this short of banning the bike class from all rally-raids.

It is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in motorsport, and unfortunately with the great challenge and prestige comes a terrible risk; Boero is not the first to pay the ultimate price for it, and he will not be the last either I'm afraid.

 

[Kvinto]

the most dangerous motorbike event is perhaps Tourist Trophy Race, it's pure madness with its sad statistics...