Running 2023 Motorsports thread

Good to see solid showings from the Astons and Williams.

You're right, it'll be tough to keep people engaged if the only thing worth looking at is who finishes third to 10th. To me it's like paying more attention to who wins the wild card games instead of who gets to the Super Bowl.

 

Those drunk Swedes got plenty of airtime on NBC, both Saturday and Sunday.
On one hand the amount of contact was surprising Sunday, in that it was experienced guys like Dixon and Power causing some of the trouble. But when you have 27 cars in a tight space to open the season, you can expect a melee.
That first lap crash was a doozy, but how could that Foyt rookie (Pederson) not realize what was going on ahead of him and plow into stopped cars like that? He was well behind the accident, but came in with a full head of steam. I get the impression he's in over his head, almost get a Paul Dana vibe. The bad thing about the schedule for IndyCar rookies is you have a good chance of getting taken out early in the opener, then a month of no racing, then you're on a high speed oval in Texas.

 

This is a good read.

https://www.ourstate.com/tobacco-roar/

 

I have never seen/heard quotes like this from an F1 driver.

Hamilton: Mercedes didn't listen about 2023 car

 

Hamilton will never win another race, whether he realizes it or not.

 

And from what I was told, NASCAR PR emptied everything with a Winston logo into a dumpster when RJR left the sport. However, there were enough private collectors to donate many lost items to the Museum when it opened. I had no idea Tom Jensen was the curator now. That's a great choice, because he's been involved in the sport pretty much his entire life, particularly during the NASCAR Scene era.

 

So is this a case of the team figuring they'll just get a cheaper and younger driver in there? The car problems are a way to grease the skids for Hamilton to exit? You have to go back decades to find a F1 champion his age and half a century to find one older.

 

I like Lewis and he's certainly earned the right to speak about his issues with the car. But lord, I would hate to work with the guy. His constant gripes about the car and the strategy would just be so exhausting.

Nope. Just a matter of Mercedes getting the car wrong. It's not that he's no longer capable of driving on a championship level. It's that Red Bull has built a dominant car and Mercedes will have a hell of a time catching it before the next major formula change... which is likely to be 2026. He'll probably retire before then.

 

Maybe F1 should create a scenario where they don't throw the car out the window and start over every year. Build cars that are good for a couple of years and focus on the racing product.

 

I was talking with an executive with a high profile in the 90s and he was PISSED his birthday didn't get a mention in the most recent Winston Cup Scene.

 

Didn't address one issue ... do you have to go outside to smoke?