Same question as Sledge: do you think US F1 is an option for Bourdais as he is still famous there and was backed by Mac Donalds.

General admission tickets? Mate you won’t see a thing with those. I went to Melbourne last year and paid through the nose for a silver grandstand deal and had to peer through mesh fencing to see the action. I paid through the nose for them too as I wasn’t prepared to part with the better part of $600 to sit higher in the stand. Think I’ve seen my last live GP unless I win the lottery and go and see Monaco one year. Spectators are treated like the plague by F1 because of the deal given to circuits who have to make ends meet by the money paid by the spectators alone!

Keep up the good work…

Jim

Do you reckon its a possibility for Bourdais to join US F1 because of his history in the US or is this the last of Bourdais’ F1 career.

F1 drivers have had problems adapting over here, especially to ovals, too. None has stepped from an F1 car and been truly competitive since Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fitipaldi, and, to a much lesser extent, Mark Blundell, back in the ’90s. Wilson just won at Watkins Glen, so maybe he’s on the way after years of so-so performances. And he still has to show consistent oval form. Dornbos? Hardly. Sheckter? He’s had moments few and far between. Montoya is interesting, having gone F3000 champion/CART champion/IRL Indy 500 winner/F1 winner/to at least respectable, with a road course win, in NASCAR/and winning in GrandAm. Maybe the last of the true all-rounders.

Something James says rings true, the reliance on mechanical (over here) v. aero biased (across the Pond) handling and grip. I’m oversimplifying things, but it seems that on both road courses and ovals, springs, shocks, tire pressures and anti-roll bars are things you hear more about when Indycar teams (and NASCAR and USAC teams for that matter) tune handling. In F1, you rarely hear them mentioned except with “riding the curbs” on chicanes. It seems that most of the springing action in F1 cars actually comes from the tires. Of course, as James has also noted, the relative weights of the cars plays a big role too.

This may be down to the tracks as well. Road America and Laguna Seca, for example, have much more elevation change than most GP circuits and are bumpier too, as is Long Beach and most other U.S. tracks. (Relatively) supple ride, focusing on springs, shocks and anti-roll bars, has to take precedence over the sucking the car to the track with wings and diffusers — requiring stiffer springing and damping to cope with the aero loads — approach that you see in F1. Indycars test at Sebring. Can an F1 car even be controlled over that bumpy surface?

And don’t forget that telemetry plays almost NO role in most forms of U.S. racing: It’s banned at races, everything is based on driver feedback. So, “what we have here is a failure to communicate” when drivers switch between Indycars and F1. I doubt that drivers from either discipline can bridge the communication gap, the difference in tracks and the difference in handling bias in one or two seasons. And no team is going to wait the three to five seasons it probably takes for all of that to mesh, unless the driver brings big, big money into the team.

(sorry again for the length James. hacksaw as needed.)

Re: Sato
It’s unlikely to see him at STR this or next season to be honest. There are big rumours flying that he has a confirmed seat with Gil de Ferran’s new team in the IRL next year.

On a sidenote, as a fan of both the IRL and (the now defunct) Champ Car World Series, I must agree with the Force India chap Ian Phillips, when he pointed out that every so often American single-seaters occasionally stagnates every few seasons. They’ve been using the same spec chassis and engine for a number of years now and any tech development is generally non-existent.

Unfortunately this produces a large number of drivers that are for all intents and purposes very fast, but seriously lacking in technical knowledge which hinders their F1 career greatly.
The question is “would Bourdais been more successful had he gone into F1 straight after or shortly after he won the F3000 championship?”

In the long run, I can’t see Jaime Alguersuari making an impression as he may just be too inexperienced; and to be frank, he has not set the world alight in WSbyR.
So don’t be too surprised if a certain Nico Hulkenberg found himself in that seat next season. He looks to have all the right credentials thus far.

Anyhoo, that’s my two cents worth…