What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Open Wheel Racing 2021, anyone there to watch?

Russell Jaslow said:
Auto racing, and particularly F1, always has had this interesting dichotomy of individual sport vs. team sport.

What you state is true but so is the desire of these Type A hugely successful athletes wanting to be a world champion. Everyone remembers that, not which team won the title. Plus, rule number one in racing is beat your teammate. Because that is the only apples vs. apples comparison you can ever have since all the other teams are so different, and again in F1 have completely different cars. So, the only way you can truly be measured is how you did against your teammate. Thus, by default, it automatically creates discord between teammates.

Think QB or goaltending controversies that occur. Sometimes, the athletes think team first and don't make waves. Other times, they think about themselves first and cause the team's harmony to be wrecked.

F1 has a long history of teammate controversies. Look up Senna vs. Prost when they were teammates. Heck, they crashed on purpose in the final race in Japan to decide the championship. Look at Hamilton purposely backing up Rosberg hoping someone else would pass him to take away crucial points that would have given the title to Hamilton at Abu Dhabi despite the team telling Lewis to absolutely stop it. Multi-21 between Vettel and Webber. Alonso staying in the pits to screw Hamilton from getting new tires in time during qualifying when they were at McLaren.

Once, when Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham, in the last race of the season, he told the second driver to move over if necessary to let Piquet by since he was fighting for a title. The second driver said he absolutely won't do that. Bernie said, "So, we made sure it wasn't a problem. We didn't give him enough fuel to finish the race."

Enzo Ferrari loved to pit his drivers against each other to "motivate" them. Some say that was the reason which caused Wolfgang von Trips, under intense pressure, to fatally crash at Monza handing the championship to his teammate Phil Hill in 1961. (Ironically, Hill and von Trips got along just fine.)

Then, there are the times teammates are told to support the other driver with the promise it will be their year the next season. Many argue Ronnie Peterson was a better driver than Mario Andretti, but Peterson duly supported Andretti to the title in 1978 as asked, because he was told it would be his year to go for it the next season. Sadly, Peterson died at the end of that season.*

Gilles Villeneuve also played the dutiful teammate, supporting Jody Scheckter who won the title in 1979. Again, Gilles sadly never had a chance to have his turn, as Ferrari took a downturn and then he was killed in 1982.

* - The stories of the only two Americans to win the World Championship are tragically coincidental. As the season wound down, the only drivers who had a mathematical chance of beating them were their teammates. In both cases, their teammates were killed, clinching the title for the Americans. Both fatal crashes were at Monza.
Click to expand...

Excellent encapsulation! I had no idea some people thought Ronnie Peterson was even better than Mario. Damn. Thanks know Mario says now and has remained consistent that Peterson was his favorite teammate of all-time.
 
Thus ends the 2022 open wheel racing season. Partially thanks to Max being a teammate, Perez can't get 2nd in the championship. Or you can see that as a bonus for Ferrari to getting 2nd for LeClerc.

First mechanical failure for Mercedes ends Hamilton's season.

And bye to Vettel. I was a fan for a handful of races in the beginning, but after his driving at RBR- not a big deal to see him go for me.

Given how the season progressed- optimism for Mercedes, unsure for Red Bull (have a penalty), massive unknown for Ferrari (can't be consistent with the second fastest car out there). One wonders how many years it will take for the shake up in the rules will bring the rear teams forward- if it ever will. Some of the midfield teams had a clear advantage over the top 3, and they didn't make any progress. And while I can understand Haas's issue (not even close to the budget limit)- the rear cars also didn't do anything special relatively.
 
Got a laugh on the final lap at the absurdity of two drivers without rides next year (granted one is a retirement) battling it out 80 seconds back of the leader for a single point worth 12 million dollars while fireworks are going off in the background.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
Got a laugh on the final lap at the absurdity of two drivers without rides next year (granted one is a retirement) battling it out 80 seconds back of the leader for a single point worth 12 million dollars while fireworks are going off in the background.
Click to expand...

Yep. That was great.

Latifi actually being the victim of a bad move for once made me laugh, too.
 
Thus ends my 1st F1 season (half season, I picked up in Spielberg).

General thoughts:

Yay Ferrari, McLaren, Williams. I am boring, sue me.

Without knowing them I will miss Seb and Danny Ric. I hope Alonso wins a GP when he's older than Fangio.

Fuck Red Bull, paid drivers, and Max the thick-lipped white supremacist peregrine.
 
None of the F1 drivers' girlfriends is in any way attractive except Bottas' because she seems fun.

I have this recurrent intuition that all the drivers are actually gay and these are beards. Like NASCAR.
 
Kepler said:
None of the F1 drivers' girlfriends is in any way attractive except Bottas' because she seems fun.

I have this recurrent intuition that all the drivers are actually gay and these are beards. Like NASCAR.
Click to expand...

Based on observations, sure. But given the degree of commitment the drivers have to give, they really have no time for relationships. It's why Rosberg retired- as he was being so drawn from his family. And when you look back on who was dating who- there are some serious hotties around when they were dating.

And Valteri's ex is, well, she's an Olympian... And Finnish. Pretty strong combination is most books.
 
Russell Jaslow said:
Yeah, but the bad move was made by Mick. So, basically it was a battle of the top drivers who make bad moves...
Click to expand...

If there was anything to confirm why Mick didn't get resigned, there you go. I felt bad for him, but it is what it is. I don't see him back in F1 anytime soon.
 
Better days.

Charlotte is now an ex.

FSt3Xw0WYAk3QPV
 
In the last few days, kind of carnage in the management ranks...

With Binitto being ousted, Sauber principle Vasseur moves to Ferrari.
And then Vasseur is replaced by McLaren principle Seidle (sort of- apparently not official yet, but rumors abound that he's buying into the team, and he's also close with future partner Audi)
And Seidle is replaced internally by Stella.

Ferrari, well, yea- just keep firing people until they win- that's how it's been forever.
Sauber- makes sense if Seidle gets ownership and a better partner with Audi
And Stella, well, need someone who knows what's going on...

All of that makes sense.

Then there is Williams. Where the top two were told to let go after very underperforming for 2022. Not sure what to make of this, as Williams never has enough money, so the "focus on 2023" work could not happen like it did at Mercedes. Well, that's my theory. But given that Williams is owned by a investment group- maybe they are rethinking their investment??? Do they have any clue what to do?

And if they sell, can the name change? As much as Mike wants to be in F1, would he do it even if the team didn't have Andretti on the title?
 
MichVandal said:
In the last few days, kind of carnage in the management ranks...

With Binitto being ousted, Sauber principle Vasseur moves to Ferrari.
And then Vasseur is replaced by McLaren principle Seidle (sort of- apparently not official yet, but rumors abound that he's buying into the team, and he's also close with future partner Audi)
And Seidle is replaced internally by Stella.

Ferrari, well, yea- just keep firing people until they win- that's how it's been forever.
Sauber- makes sense if Seidle gets ownership and a better partner with Audi
And Stella, well, need someone who knows what's going on...

All of that makes sense.

Then there is Williams. Where the top two were told to let go after very underperforming for 2022. Not sure what to make of this, as Williams never has enough money, so the "focus on 2023" work could not happen like it did at Mercedes. Well, that's my theory. But given that Williams is owned by a investment group- maybe they are rethinking their investment??? Do they have any clue what to do?

And if they sell, can the name change? As much as Mike wants to be in F1, would he do it even if the team didn't have Andretti on the title?
Click to expand...

Whoever thought we would have a silly season for team managers...?

According to Zak Brown, Seidl told McLaren earlier this year he wasn't sticking around past his contract end date of 2025. So, he probably was heading to Audi all the time, and with Vasseur leaving, it accelerated the time line for him. Seidl has a lot of experience with VW Group projects and certainly understands the politics there.

Interesting fact about the investment company that bought Williams -- they have never sold any business they bought. Not exactly what you expect from a capital venture group.
 
Russell Jaslow said:
Interesting fact about the investment company that bought Williams -- they have never sold any business they bought. Not exactly what you expect from a capital venture group.
Click to expand...

That is interesting. Given the massive changes, I really wonder what their long term plan is. They really need to find some high end sponsors so that Williams can compete just on the base spending level. And seeing what they did this past season- there's a LONG way to go to do that.
 
MichVandal said:
So The Race has come out with two interesting stories in the last few days- one that F1 is likely to open up the bidding process for new teams.

And then this gem- https://the-race.com/formula-1/andretti-teams-up-with-gm-for-cadillac-f1-entry-bid/

Where one of those possible bids will be Andretti-Cadillac.

Never really saw this one coming.
Click to expand...

Very interesting. Andretti and Cadillac. Racer has 3-4 stories up on it now.

i can’t see how Andretti gets spurned again on this.

and if this does go through Colton Herta will be racing F1 as soon as the team is up and running.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top