All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

Jules Bianchi finished 9th at Monaco, first points ever for Marussia.

 

Nothing like a race coming down to the end with a split screen of WAGs.

 

It was pretty annoying, but there are precedents.

The 1982 finish featuring Dina Mears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmX08S5Pc2c

The 1989 finish featuring Teresa Fittipaldi and Shelley Unser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu8YwDgWxwA

 

F1 might be leaving Monza.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114743

 

It's Bernie.

F1 isn't leaving Monza. He just wants a better deal.

 

Caterham was sold to "a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors". Recent F1 reject Christijan Albers (????!!!!) will take over as team boss.

http://en.espnf1.com/caterham/motorsport/story/164987.html

Not really surprising, except for the Albers part.

 

Saw a story today with Bernie talking about how it would be better to have eight teams with three cars each as opposed to some of the current bottom-feeder two-car teams. He mentioned people would be more interested in seeing a third Ferrari as opposed to one Caterham.
Bernie often comes across as rather senile to me, but I do find it interesting how much he seems willing to talk to the media and give interesting quotes. Quite the opposite of Brain France.

 

I caught the end of the first Houston IndyCar race last Saturday, then the whole race the following day. I didn't think Graham Rahal could surprise me anymore with his ineptitude, but I admit he did when he took out Kanaan under caution. It's hard to tell which smells more suspicious in hindsight, Graham winning in his IndyCar debut or Danica's fuel mileage win in Japan.
On Sunday, Helio once again demonstrated why I call him Castronever. As in, never going to win a title because every year he makes at least one boneheaded move that costs him big in the points. The worst part about Sunday's wreck was he clearly chopped off Bourdais and put himself into the wall, then berated Bourdais on TV for having the nerve to try and pass him.

 

I saw Saturday's race, but missed Sunday's. I thought that was a fantastic finish up until Graham wrecked TK on that restart. Not only did it cost TK a podium, but also a spot in the standings. I would've liked to have seen a slightly harsher time penalty on Graham for it. The whole time he was stalking TK you had that sense of "will he do something stupid here or not?"

Even with Sunday's race, Castroneves is still within striking distance of his teammate for first place.

I'm looking forward to Pocono this Sunday. It's been a long time since I was excited about any race other than Indy more than a day or so before the race. Really curious to see if the real return of the Triple Crown can generate any interest.

 

It's all strategic for Bernie. The three car thing isn't going to happen and he knows it, but he brings it up when he wants to put pressure on the smaller teams for some reason. (The third car option exists in the rules only in case the smaller teams leave the sport and third cars are needed to fill out a grid. Third cars require a unanimous vote of all parties, and somehow I don't see Caterham, Sauber and Marussia voting to eliminate themselves.)