2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bull!!

[Timothy A]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Indy finale....The time of the race was stupid, stupid, stupid, way too late, just ridiculous. I dvr'ed it and watched the hole race yesterday, but I got to watch the end live after the UW football debacle that night. They would have been a lot better off doing it Sunday to avoid the college football conflict. The race itself was ok. TK is ok, but I dislike his team, so I wish he didn't win from that standpoint. Helio could have created major drama if he didn't screw up on the last pitstop entry with Power getting his wing adjusted the wrong way and falling back due to that. You could tell Power was just totally relieved at the end. I think he took way too many chances mid-race when he got to the front. There really wasn't any need to put yourself 2" from disaster a half dozen times when the title was locked as long as he finished 6th? or higher. He's fast, just not the brightest guy, kinda reminds me of Paul Tracy back in his CART days for Penske. I knew the outcome while watching; had I not known the outcome, I may have punched a wall or something.

I'm all for the Greek GP as long as it replaces an oil country race.....

[Timothy A]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I'm slightly optimistic Ferrari is improving, they are 3-4 in FP2, with Kimi faster than Fernado. According to Racer, both left time on the track with errors. The Merc. engined cars otherwise are dominate.

[alfablue]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Interesting race- some was quite good and fun, others, well...

Great for Hamilton that he recovered from a bad start caused by technical problems. His radio made one thing his head would not be back in it. Little did we know that it would be quite the opposite- not only did he recover, he pressured Rosberg into a bonehead mistake. And since he did it twice, I think he may be losing the mental game a little.

Once again, the future of F1 looks BRIGHT city- Bottas and Ricciardo. Good lord those guys are fun to watch. Both were pretty far back after the start, both recovered really well. I'm so happy these two are in F1 right now, and should be for a long time. One year, the championship battle between the two of these guys will be fun to watch.

Ferrari- ugh. My wife takes great pride that we were at the 2010 race that was Ferrari/Alonso's last win at Monza.

[Timothy A]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I thought the race was a tad on the boring side. The 4th-8th cars were on a string, but not a lot of passing unless it was Bottas or Ricardo moving up. I generally root for Krauts, but I was happy to see Hamilton beat Rosberg.

Alonso almost got to 5th on the first corner of the opening lap, but even if he had the Ferraris were dead ducks.

Great to see Williams do so well.

[joecct]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Formula E coming this weekend

Rules and Regs. I don't like the idea of changing cars during the race. What I would like is to see them change the battery pack.

[MattS]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Monza is not my favorite track as the passing zones suck but I thought it was decent race for that track.

Felt bad for Magnussen and his BS penalty.

Ferrari certainly isn't good and I think Monza showed their power plant lack of power. Too bad for Alonso but since it's been years since he's had a mechanical he was due.


I'm looking forward to the Formula E series. I would prefer a battery change aldo but that's kind of not feasible right now for a startup series. I've never changed a electric car battery pack but I work for a electric powered forklift company and those batteries are not easy to change quickly.

[joecct]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I'm looking forward to the Formula E series. I would prefer a battery change aldo but that's kind of not feasible right now for a startup series. I've never changed a electric car battery pack but I work for a electric powered forklift company and those batteries are not easy to change quickly.

But, if like Tesla, they have a quick change battery pack......

If they don't, they need to develop one.

[Timothy A]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Formula E coming this weekend

Rules and Regs. I don't like the idea of changing cars during the race. What I would like is to see them change the battery pack.

I too am looking forward to the first race. It will be on Fox Sports 1, at least that's what their website said.

[MattS]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

But, if like Tesla, they have a quick change battery pack......

If they don't, they need to develop one.

I think maybe this could be a future thing but I think development would be costly for a brand new series (that may be a flop).

[alfablue]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

The blood letting at Ferrari is getting pretty strong- Luca is going- http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115788

And with FCA's chair, Marchionni, who is HQ's in Detroit, Ferrari becomes a US based team before the season ends....

Too bad for Alonso, as this makes the idea of a better car less likely.... but I could be wrong.

[MattS]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Too bad for Alonso, as this makes the idea of a better car less likely.... but I could be wrong.

Do you really think so? I don't think Lucas really had that much influence, outside of the Team Principle, on the car. I've read from non-racing sources that this had more to do with the floating of Fiat-Chrysler on the NYSE than racing.

[alfablue]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Do you really think so? I don't think Lucas really had that much influence, outside of the Team Principle, on the car. I've read from non-racing sources that this had more to do with the floating of Fiat-Chrysler on the NYSE than racing.

Yes, shake ups are not normally a good thing- particularly in technical things. Sergio did even mention that the team and how it showed on the track was part of the reason that they agreed that Luca would step down. Which tells me that Marchionne plans on having actual influence on the team.

It could be that the focus will make the car better. But Ferrari has never really been a good example of doubling down on focus like Ron Dennis and McLaren. (who hasn't really delivered all that much, either)

Luca did say it was about the Wall St float, but I see that as an excuse- for more than 40 years, Ferrari has been part of Fiat, which is a public company. This isn't really different, just that it's a new name and new place for the company to be traded.

More importanly, Ferrari isn't struggling, as far as I know. They still sell a lot of cars for a lot more money. So as a company, Ferrari has problems in just the formula 1 program.

To me, all of that points to higher ups trying to fix the struggling team. Which normally is a bad thing in terms of short term progress.

[MattS]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Yes, shake ups are not normally a good thing- particularly in technical things. Sergio did even mention that the team and how it showed on the track was part of the reason that they agreed that Luca would step down. Which tells me that Marchionne plans on having actual influence on the team.

It could be that the focus will make the car better. But Ferrari has never really been a good example of doubling down on focus like Ron Dennis and McLaren. (who hasn't really delivered all that much, either)

Luca did say it was about the Wall St float, but I see that as an excuse- for more than 40 years, Ferrari has been part of Fiat, which is a public company. This isn't really different, just that it's a new name and new place for the company to be traded.

More importanly, Ferrari isn't struggling, as far as I know. They still sell a lot of cars for a lot more money. So as a company, Ferrari has problems in just the formula 1 program.

To me, all of that points to higher ups trying to fix the struggling team. Which normally is a bad thing in terms of short term progress.

Thanks. I figure you know more about the car business that I do.

But IMO, I don't have a problem with shakeups in "technical things". If the wrong people are in charge it's better to get rid of them sooner as oppose to later. I use to work in R&D for Pall Corportation and the best thing that happened while I was there (13+ years) was for the Board to "suggest an early exit" to the VP of R&D and bring in a new person.

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

The blood letting at Ferrari is getting pretty strong- Luca is going- http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115788

And with FCA's chair, Marchionni, who is HQ's in Detroit, Ferrari becomes a US based team before the season ends....

When Marchionni basically b*tched slapped Luca after Luca's ridiculous declaration at Monza, you knew Luca was a goner.

Too bad for Alonso, as this makes the idea of a better car less likely.... but I could be wrong.

Why? Ever since Luca started to have direct influence on the F1 team, Ferrari has been a disaster.

Besides, Alonso could not possibly get a car any worse than he has now.

Luca has done very well for the road car company. Sales and profits have increased significantly since he's been in charge. But he's made the F1 team into a joke.

[alfablue]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

When Marchionni basically b*tched slapped Luca after Luca's ridiculous declaration at Monza, you knew Luca was a goner.



Why? Ever since Luca started to have direct influence on the F1 team, Ferrari has been a disaster.

Besides, Alonso could not possibly get a car any worse than he has now.

Luca has done very well for the road car company. Sales and profits have increased significantly since he's been in charge. But he's made the F1 team into a joke.

Like I posted to Matt, my view of Italians doing quick and effective management of technical problems isn't the same as the Germans. It's going to take some time for the new group to settle the whole system down, IF they can. And that's a big IF.

Ferrari meddled a lot in his team. And managed to get away with it. Luca didn't but the team still went from bust to boom to bust.

I just don't see the addition of Sergio, who also needs to pay attention to Fiat, Alfa, Maserati, Lancia, Chrysler, Ram, etc- as well as Ferrari cars, as the upper management who will find the core problems.

And the car can get worse. Once the engine customers start going faster.