Most liked posts in thread: 2014 - F1

Danica's strongest races were on ovals in Indy cars. She didn't do well in road course races. Is F1 going to the Monza oval?

Mentioning Danica makes sponsors sit up & take notice. That could be the main reason she has been mentioned. I like Danica, but don't think she will be more than a mid field runner in NASCAP. In F1 who knows.

 

Danica cut her teeth in Formula Ford, and was showing promise before she jumped too soon to the IRL. Personally I think road courses are more suited to her style than ovals. She did fantastic at Road America a couple of years ago, a tough road course, and had a legitimate chance of winning it against proven world class road track specialists (better than what's in NASCAR), ringers specifically brought in for a one-off nationwide race, until she hit a shoe and blew her suspension. It was by far the best race I've seen her run in any series; she actually looked like she belonged. I think she'd be more successful long-term in an open wheel road racing then either open wheel oval or stock car racing.

If you check her road racing results against her oval results in the Sprint cup, on average, she does slightly better in the road races. And that's deceiving, because it's harder to do better in the road races, as there are ringers brought in just for one race too. In other words, the back of the pack, which she usually is racing against, is much stronger at Sonoma and Watkins Glenn than it is on the ovals.

It would take her time to get up to speed in F1, but long-term, I think that's the better series for her IF she did it the right way. I don't ever see her as a top 15 driver in NASCAR, she'll struggle to be top 20, it's not her bag. I could see that happening in F1. I honestly don't think she'd do worse than what she's done in NASCAR.

Either way she's shown she'll go where the money is, rather than going the route that's going to make her the best driver she can possibly be. She did it when she jumped too soon into the IRL, and did it again when she jumped too soon into full time Sprint Cup, when another year or two of Nationwide would have been the most logical route if she REALLY wanted to do it right.

 

I watched her run Atlantics (intead of FF?) and she was fast and a hard charger....I think the only reason she went to NASCAR was the cubic dollars she's making, can't blame her for that.

I agree, I hope it's not Maldonado......if they want a female there are a number of good female drivers - Simona de Silvestro or even Suzy Wolff would be good choices......

 

I'm not a Danica hater, in fact I support her racing. Yes she was good in the junior formulas, but F1 is as far from a junior formula as you can get. Haas needs a driver who has recent experience in open wheel racing. That's not Danica at this time. I think that ship has sailed for her.

 

I don't hate Danica either, I just think Susie's better qualified at this time. She's been a development driver for F1 for a couple years now, and I think she deserves a shot. I don't think she's world champion caliber, but I could be wrong.

She'd have to leave Williams though, I don't think they'll want to give up either of their drivers for her, unless the three-car rumor is true.

 

She's not ready to jump straight to F1, I'm not suggesting that, she's nowhere near that caliber. She'd have to run in one of the lower series first, which I SERIOUSLY doubt she'll ever do. That's my whole issue with her--she showed promise early, she raced against future F1 drivers in Formula Ford, and held her own--then instead of taking the tough road, the natural progression, jumped at the IRL chance before she was ready, basically going from High School to the Pros without going to college. There aren't that many Lebron James's in any sport.....

Yeah, I know I'm being judgemental, many others would have taken that opportunity, but it's not the way to go if you really want to do it right. We'll never know how good she could have been, but I'm not sure that was ever her primary motivation.

When it's all said and done, I'd rather have seen Sarah Fisher get the opportunites Danica had (although she's doing fairly well as an owner), I'd love to see Johanna Long get another shot, she's been kind of shoved to the side with little chance at another ride.

I think she could have been more successful in F1 than any of the other series. It would be interesting to see her give it a go, but I suspect, just like for Kurt Busch, it's too late for that.

 

Yes Danica was fast in Atlantics. Thanks for the reminder Dave.

I think Suzie Wollf, Simona de Silvestro or Kathrin Legg would be very good choices.

 

That's true, but she showed more in FF than any other series--I think she missed her one shot where she had the highest chance of success. F1 is more regimented, heavy on rules, and this fits her style more than NASCAR or even Indy car. Another year in FF or the next step into the lower level F series, and we'd have a better idea of what she could do.

I'm not a Danica fan, in fact, exactly the opposite. But at a young age she was damned good, and I think she would have had a shot at being a legitimate driver rather than eye candy had she done it differently. To her credit, she's working hard in NASCAR, and has shown improvement (although the results don't necessarily show it); she actually takes positions this year rather than trying to hold onto what she's got. But she's already been eclipsed by Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon, and there's a whole group of young drivers coming up that's going to keep her in the back of the field.

 

Nah, they don't want the cash, they're just in it for a few CNC machines on the cheap.

They'd be better off going with Furniture Row, and get some trick office desks for free.

 

Oh yeah? Well I was kidding about the CNC machines and office furniture.

 

Why?

 

I'd think they'd keep it for the safety factor alone. I guess they could try and ban all communication except for messages from the team to the driver concerning safety specifically, but then there'd always be someone trying to work around it. It'd be tough to enforce, although it might be possible, it might require a person independent from the team communicating with the driver. That might work, and I see the point in keeping the team off the radio, especially in this age of conspiracy theories with the teams.

 

Yeah, from what I understand it's the "OK Nico, Lewis is 2.5 seconds behind you on different tyres. You need to map to setting 2 and use the overtake on straights." kind of chatter that they want to clamp down on. Let the driver drive, not the engineer.

 

Speaking of radio transcripts, here's the last race's:

2014 Italian Grand Prix team radio transcript - F1 Fanatic

 

Well, now that Montezemolo is gone, will Ferrari ever recover it's winning ways, or is it in a death spiral, destined to run 5th or worse the rest of the season?

 

Much to my own surprise, I can't get a handle on what I think of him leaving....the F1 part of Ferrari has been in decline whilst the retail sales and the cars they are producing is great.... I know that I do not want Ferrari to become a Fiat or a Chrysler.....But a change on the F1 side is in order, but is this the change that was needed?

Need more time to see who takes over, if Ferrari just becomes another brand under the head of Fiat and there is no seperate President at Ferrari, I just can't see that as being a good thing....much to think about....