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

Fryer's been getting a lot of heat for this on Twitter, I've noticed.

I think it's a nice footnote, but there's a lot of risk involved. If Alonso showed up and was quick out of the gate, it has the potential to undermine the perception of the entire enterprise the way that Montoya dominating the 500 in ... 2004? made the field of IRL full-timers look like a joke.

I can't speak to Alonso's 'Q' rating but I watch several F1 broadcasts a year and if you asked me to name five drivers, he probably wouldn't be one of the ones I'd get off the bat. Besides, the thing that really amazes me when I watch an F1 race isn't the racing, it's the engineering. The things those cars can do are just a triumph of human ingenuity. Would like to see a North American have some success, but people keep running Lance Stroll over, so maybe in a couple years?

If there's any F1 driver I'd want to see run the 500, it would be Raikkonen, for radio purposes only, though I believe he already had a rather funny audition in a truck?

 

Here's the Kimi Raikkonen NASCAR radio top ten, which is gold. (My favorite: "We're so fucking shit, it's unbelievable.")

Worldwide, I suspect Alonso is second only to Lewis Hamilton in F1 Q rating. The timing on his last two team moves has been disastrous -- he joined Ferrari and then McLaren just as the engineering side fell apart for each team. That's kept him out of the conversation race to race.

Would love to see a North American succeed in F1. Not sure Stroll will be the guy, but he might. I was really hoping for Rossi but the Indy 500 win kind of screwed that up!

 

Was he the guy that got hit in the head by the loose spring on the track?

 

No, that was Felipe Massa.

Alonso won two titles with Renault. He went to McLaren and it was a disaster -- he didn't get along with Lewis Hamilton, squabbled with the team, team had to pay a $100 million fine for cheating -- so he went back to Renault. He then went to Ferrari just as Ferrari was falling apart. After a few years there he went to McLaren, which had been dominant with a Mercedes engine. The move came about the same time Mercedes left to operate its own team and McLaren switched to a Honda engine, which has been garbage. The rumor mill now suggests he'll go back to Renault after this season, which would probably make sense.

So, it's been years since Alonso has been in an even halfway competitive car. He's done remarkably well just to drag this McLaren into the top ten before it inevitably breaks. Put him in a good car and he'll be fighting for the championship again.

 

I feel bad for Wilson, but.... he qualified 30th and finished 28th in his rookie race last year. If someone's going to lose their seat, that seems like a reasonable place to start.

 

Are Dennis Vitolo - the Human Chicane - and Hiro Matsushita still mucking it in Indy Car?

 

My favorite racing nickname: "King Hiro." Because Emerson Fittipaldi had a voice activated radio that would cut off the first syllable, and he was shouting "Fucking Hiro!"

 

I remember I actually liked Hiro Matsushita as a kid. Maybe since he was Japanese or something, but I remember him. Research shows he did have a top-10 in an Indy 500 ('95, he was 10th, a lap down) I watched a lot of IndyCar races before and around the time of the split. A nice fella from church would give me his back issues of AutoWeek and I'd read the racing articles. Loved the annual guide that had all the track diagrams and the driver bios.

 

Spot on. I know AP had big shoes to fill when Mike Harris retired, but IMO they whiffed badly with Jenna Fryer. She's been covering racing for AP for a few years now and she cranks out this garbage? She really thinks the Honda turds that can't complete a race in F1 are the exact same ones that routinely finish the Indy 500? That column is an embarrassment to AP. I've not been impressed with Jenna's lack of knowledge overall, but I can't think of a better example than this column. Alonso is pissed off by his Honda F1 engine, and rightly so. Why would he miss Monaco (a race where the engine isn't important) and race Indy if Indy used the same engine? He wouldn't.

 

I remember the joke about Matsushita being Japanese for 7 laps down. Wasn't too far from the truth usually.
And yes, AutoWeek was good back in the day. Daytona 500 and Indy 500 used to be the cover story each year. Big motorsports preview section each year with a pullout calendar. Editors at Speed for the major series. Gradually they started scaling back the coverage. Final straw for me was when they made it every other week but charged the same price.