Champ Car/Indy/F1 running thread II (Montreal, Turkey, IRL to RACE Daytona?!?)

I never liked Schumacher, but that drive at Brazil was incredible. F1 will be poorer for his retirement. It's too bad that he's been in such a dominant car for so long, because he showed all the other pussies that an F1 car actually CAN overtake if the driver has big enough attachments (sorry to David Hobbs). Michael in the second or third best car would have been very exciting.

Both Renault and Alonso must be having second thoughts. McLaren doesn't look to be in the running next year with Newey not being involved with the 2007 car, so Alonso is not in a good position. Renault is stuck with Fisi as the #1 driver, and he's shown over the last 2 years that he's nothing special.

Ferrari will still be #1 entering the season since Martinelli and Byrne designed the 2007 car, and their Bridgestone relationship gives them a big head start, but Brawn will be missed if he takes the year off. He is far and away the best at mid-race strategy adjustments.

A problem at Ferrari is that their is no clear contractual #1 driver as MS always was. Kimi and Massa will be competing with each other, so that might cause some internal problems in the team. Who gets the best mechanics and engineers etc., who gets the optimal strategy? Ferrari hasn't faced this situation in 10 years.

As for the others, I just don't see any team coming out of the pack and challenging. Toyota is lost, Honda took a big step backward this season, Williams is f*cked, RedBull also went backwards. BMW is the sleeper. The team really came on in the second half, Theissen looks like he was right when he complained that Williams wasn't holding up their end, and Kubizca looks like the real deal.

 

As an aside, you might not like what Tony George has done to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy-car racing, but he's all aces when it comes to pumping out the Clabber Girl baking powder:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061026/BUSINESS/610260501

 

Sigh. Yet another case of thSportsJournalists.com.

 

Schumacher showed he could take a non-dominant car into stellar finishes early in his Benetton days. And IIRC, Ferrari hadn't won a big race in a number of years before he got there.