2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

RHR was awesome on restarts throughout the race. RP needs to get that guy on his team.

To me RHR tearing it up on starts/restarts was the story of the race. Ballsy moves. In a Honda no less. He really could not have timed his pit any worse in hindsight with yellow coming right after. I personally thought the race was pretty exciting.

Really really really loved seeing JPM blow a tire. I like Helio (and Pagenaud) but considering where he was I was happy be blew a tire as well to get Dixon in the lead. Newgarden/Carpenter both had an interesting night - they certainly were interesting to watch going into the race considering what they had done in practice/quali.

Testing at IMS this week. The hype is really going to get over the top for the Indy 500 with under 45 days to go.

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

I've only liked (a lot, mind you) only one of Penske's drivers.

Which one? From previous years?

Big fan of Pagenaud but really hate with a fiery passion JPM and not a fan of Power at all. Helio is super nice so it's tough to dislike him.

Really hope Newgarden doesn't end up with Penske when all is said and done.

 

[alfablue]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Which one? From previous years?

Big fan of Pagenaud but really hate with a fiery passion JPM and not a fan of Power at all. Helio is super nice so it's tough to dislike him.

Really hope Newgarden doesn't end up with Penske when all is said and done.

Mark Donohue. He was my racing hero as a kid. Not knowing he was an engineer made the choice interesting later in life.

It's not that I hate any of the drivers- but I'm not a Penske fan. Haven't been since the late 70's. I do respect all of their drivers, though- Mears was pretty amazing at managing races. Probably the best driver Roger has ever had.

 

[Timothy A]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Mears was pretty amazing at managing races. Probably the best driver Roger has ever had.

Rick was/is my racing hero. Because of him I am a Penske minion. I'm not as passionate about the Penske drivers as I used to be, post Mears era, but I do root for them. De Ferran was my fav after Mears, kinda cut from the same cloth. Power makes too many mistakes, has puked up multiple titles. JPM is ok, but there's a lot of historical dislike from the Ganassi and Williams days. I am still mad he threw the title away last year. Helio is current favorite, though I do not want him to beat Mears' Indy record. Simon is ok. I'd love to see Newgarden and RHR replace Simon and JPM.

My other racing hero is Schumi. Because of him I am a Ferrari Tafosi. I liked him because he is German and he drove a Ford engine car back in the day. I followed him to Ferrari. I rooted for him when he was with Merc, but it was not the same due the retyrement and return.

 

[Timothy A]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

So the new new and new qualifying is officially dead in F1, back to last years, good move.

Marco is crying the Chevy guys are sandbagging at Indy testing. Like he would never do that? Maybe he is just too dumb to think of that. You sure don't hear about manufactures' crying in F1 when their cars suck, for the mist part they just take their medicine (or try and cheat a little more). There's way too much crying in Indycar. If your car sucks, make it better.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

F1.....qualifying was not good, race was very good throughout, except for the race for the lead, which is fine. I am in shock Haas finished 5th. Do they have last year's engine or this year's?

This year's engine. Toro Rosso is the only car on the grid using a 2015 spec engine (a Ferrari). Even Manor has a 2016 spec engine (a Mercedes).

What I find amazing is how much more horsepower Toro Rosso has with a year old spec engine than Red Bull has with a current Renault, oops, Tag Heuer engine.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Marco is crying the Chevy guys are sandbagging at Indy testing. Like he would never do that? Maybe he is just too dumb to think of that. You sure don't hear about manufactures' crying in F1 when their cars suck, for the mist part they just take their medicine (or try and cheat a little more). There's way too much crying in Indycar. If your car sucks, make it better.

Umm, were you in a coma last year when Red Bull whined incessantly...?

 

[Timothy A]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Umm, were you in a coma last year when Red Bull whined incessantly...?

Yeah, but that was entyrely their own fault, and I don't recall RB crying to the extent Honda was last year and even this year as in "change the rules so we don't suck".

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Question, if Honda sucks and Chevys are so much better, what is the incentive to use Honda at all? Are these teams that use Honda signed up long-term with them?

Reading about IMS testing and seems like Chevy cars all sandbagged to keep their discrepancy over Honda somewhat of a secret. Why are Hondas being used at all if they stink?

 

[solovsfett]

Question, if Honda sucks and Chevys are so much better, what is the incentive to use Honda at all? Are these teams that use Honda signed up long-term with them?

Reading about IMS testing and seems like Chevy cars all sandbagged to keep their discrepancy over Honda somewhat of a secret. Why are Hondas being used at all if they stink?

Neither manufacturer will supply an entire field but if Indycar keeps protecting Chevy they're going to have a mutiny AND the 500 will be terrible like it used to be with 2-3 guys on the lead lap multiple seconds apart from each other

It's incomprehensible that ganassi and Penske who consider themselves professional will continually stand silent when the league is making amateur decisions but then again they usually benefit so I guess "what me, worry?"

 

[Timothy A]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Question, if Honda sucks and Chevys are so much better, what is the incentive to use Honda at all? Are these teams that use Honda signed up long-term with them?

Reading about IMS testing and seems like Chevy cars all sandbagged to keep their discrepancy over Honda somewhat of a secret. Why are Hondas being used at all if they stink?

The incentive is that Honda will build a better mousetrap than Chevy, therefore win more. One of the biggest things in racing is trying to get a competitive advantage via the chassis/engine/tyres. To me that's one of the neatest things about racing is seeing how all the competing forces do battle. One of the coolest ideas was the 6 wheeled Tyrrell Ford. Fantastic concept. I loved when Ford brought the aero'ed out T bird into NASCAR. Obviously I am not a big spec car racing fan. To me close racing is fun, but watching your favorite team lap the field is darn cool. Back in the 70's and 80's that happened more than you think.

Honda is contractually obligated to supply a certain percentage of the field, probably 50%.

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Interesting.

I like the idea of competition but the fact that Honda is getting tooled on by Chevy it's kind of lame. Feel bad for these guys in the Hondas.

 

[solovsfett]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

After a bit more thought on Indycar and F1, I really wonder what's happened to Honda. Was their initial foray into F1 luck or an anomaly or did they just lose competent R and D people and/or the will to spend what it takes to kick *** in either series?

How is it possible Chevy can clobber them so consistently?

I honestly think Honda has a fundamental/foundational problem that is keeping them from really succeeding at the top level of open wheel right now

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

After a bit more thought on Indycar and F1, I really wonder what's happened to Honda. Was their initial foray into F1 luck or an anomaly or did they just lose competent R and D people and/or the will to spend what it takes to kick *** in either series?

How is it possible Chevy can clobber them so consistently?

I honestly think Honda has a fundamental/foundational problem that is keeping them from really succeeding at the top level of open wheel right now

Honda has had a number of forays into F1 over the decades. They all have been generally successful. Until this one...

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Did you guys see this horse***** at Long Beach with Pagenaud breaking the rules and coming away with only a warning and a win? Jesus Christ, Indycar.

 

[solovsfett]

Did you guys see this horse***** at Long Beach with Pagenaud breaking the rules and coming away with only a warning and a win? Jesus Christ, Indycar.

Yeah...isn't al Jr. in the booth? If yes, expect Penske to get calls all year.

Paul Tracy seemed to be quite irritated by the weak "warning" given and he's right.

Also, I'm really sick of Will Power, he's such a ******. I don't think I've hated any Indycar driver as much as I hate that guy. Penske should replace him with Newgarden and then carpenter can hire Karam

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Will Power rubs me the wrong way. No doubt about it. It's just that blank face that never moves at all... quite honestly him and JPM are my two least favorites.

Lots of complaints from the drivers after this race and rightfully so. Needed this one to be longer so it didn't become a boring early run to save fuel and required 3 stops.

Dixon was set up brilliantly to finish the race. Mike Hull is the best in the business.

 

[alfablue]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

After a bit more thought on Indycar and F1, I really wonder what's happened to Honda. Was their initial foray into F1 luck or an anomaly or did they just lose competent R and D people and/or the will to spend what it takes to kick *** in either series?

How is it possible Chevy can clobber them so consistently?

I honestly think Honda has a fundamental/foundational problem that is keeping them from really succeeding at the top level of open wheel right now

Some engineers I know think that Honda figured out the right blend of fuel better than the rest of the teams in the 80's, which allowed their turbos to have a lot more power.

Other than that era- they were only marginally successful in F1- one race in the 60's and pretty poor racing when they took over BAR. To show how bad they were, don't forget that the year AFTER they left, Brawn was them except for the engine and won the championship. Yes, they found a loophole to use, but Honda could have done that, too. Even with the rest of the teams catching up, they were still fast. Honda was terrible. Like Toyota was.

Not sure what they did in the early 90's at Indy. But the recent return has been pretty underwhelming.

The only place where they are doing a good job is P2 endurance racing.

Over time, I have become less and less impressed with Honda- including the successful years.

 

[solovsfett]

Some engineers I know think that Honda figured out the right blend of fuel better than the rest of the teams in the 80's, which allowed their turbos to have a lot more power.

Other than that era- they were only marginally successful in F1- one race in the 60's and pretty poor racing when they took over BAR. To show how bad they were, don't forget that the year AFTER they left, Brawn was them except for the engine and won the championship. Yes, they found a loophole to use, but Honda could have done that, too. Even with the rest of the teams catching up, they were still fast. Honda was terrible. Like Toyota was.

Not sure what they did in the early 90's at Indy. But the recent return has been pretty underwhelming.

The only place where they are doing a good job is P2 endurance racing.

Over time, I have become less and less impressed with Honda- including the successful years.

This sums up my feelings almost exactly. Which is I'm beginning to think they were more lucky than good in the 80's. BAR was terrible indeed, I'd forgotten about that episode.

 

[Timothy A]

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Did you guys see this horse***** at Long Beach with Pagenaud breaking the rules and coming away with only a warning and a win? Jesus Christ, Indycar.

I think after the dust settled, race-control was in the right as far as going with the warning as it was explained later in the broadcast. It's not a for sure that Dixon would have passed Simon if he had gone the full length of the exit area. There really needs to be a wall there or something that physically defines when it's ok to blend. That exit area in general is poorly designed. Otherwise was a snoozer race. They definitely need to lengthen the race to ditch the fuel saving mode, though it going caution free is highly unlikely to happen again.

If you get a chance, go to race.com and watch Rahal's visor cam video. I seriously just about passed out watching it due to all the bouncing. It made me dizzy.

F1....awesome race from a passing perspective. Great to see Seb and Kimi over-come their issue at the start. I don't think what Kvyat did was that egregious to have Seb react the way he did. I am dying for a straight up Merc-Ferrari battle to see who is really the fastest. I suspect it is still Mercedes.