Four Left Turns for F1

I was greeted this morning by an article from F1 Fanatic about oval racing for F1.Read the whole article here. I highly recommend it.

I think Keith Collantine brings up a great point for US involvement in F1. If they really want to succeed as a popular form of racing in America, running on an oval is the way to go. Whether we like it or not, the road racing is the USA is a niche racing market. The majority of racing interest is direct towards ovals. An F1 race on an oval would certainly get an IndyCar fan's interest, and likely NASCAR fans would be interested in the novelty of it.

An added benefit of using an oval from an American perspective is that we would see a greater deal of respect towards this type of track from both drivers and fans. To say that "just turning left" is easy oversimplifies what this type of racing requires. I've said this to others in the past that successful oval racing requires a slightly different skill set than road course racing, but nonetheless it deserves to be in a great driver's set of skills. To me that's why I think most highly of guys like Mario Andretti who have been very successful in several disciplines and numerous styles of racing. It's a range that is too seldom seen these days (Montoya may be the last of them right now). It could have an added effect of having older drivers like a Barrichello try IndyCars (or at least the 500) after their F1 careers have run their course in the vein of Emerson Fittipaldi. That would bring a better profile internationally to IndyCars, as it would not just be the F1 reject bin.

But where would they race? The amount of speed an F1 car can generate eliminates high banked tracks like Daytona, Michigan, and Texas from consideration. Besides, a low banked track is an easier transition for oval newbies (see last year's Milwaukee race for proof). That being said, Indy would be an obvious pick: clearly F1 ready, low banked, historical, and could show off the real speeds of these cars. Pocono is one on my radar, since the uniqueness of the track is the most similar thing to a road course. Plus since it's fairly close to NYC the F1 powers that be would be able to tap into the national media easily not to mention allow the muckety mucks to spend time there.

I don't think it will ever happen though. There would have to be some technical changes for the cars, not to mention enough Eurosnobs who don't get this kind of racing. Still, if they ever want to really break into to the US again it would be the best option.

Good luck Pete and Ken

I watched the USF1 press conference on Speed today. I hope it isn't a mitigated disaster. The culture of Formula One needs to be shaken up a bit - it's not fan friendly and too Eurocentric to be a complete World Championship. I'd love to see a more explicit American involvement in F1 on the team and driver standpoint.

Driver lineup hint? Go young. Develop folks with potential to be great drivers. Avoid Danica, in spite of the sheer amount of publicity it will bring to take her to the grid. I don't think she'd bite anyway (she is too smart about her image to allow herself to look like a major chump).

Taking the Test

Homestead test results so far:

IndyCar (before dinner break)
Justin Wilson has since moved up in the standings though.

Pos Driver No Best Time Best Speed Laps
1 Scott Dixon 9 25.2919 211.372 50
2 Ryan Briscoe 6 25.3614 210.793 53
3 Dario Franchitti 10 25.4939 209.697 46
4 Robert Doornbos 6 25.5077 209.584 70
5 Ryan Briscoe 3 25.5479 209.254 14
6 Mario Moraes 5 25.5680 209.089 62
7 Danica Patrick 7 25.6133 208.720 39
8 Tony Kanaan 11 25.6134 208.719 14
9 Raphael Matos 12 25.6165 208.694 70
10 Graham Rahal 2 25.6476 208.441 63
11 Marco Andretti 26 25.6786 208.189 27
12 Hideki Mutoh 27 25.6984 208.029 54
13 Mike Conway 24 25.7075 207.955 58
14 Ed Carpenter 20 25.7481 207.627 56
15 Will Power 3 25.8672 206.671 43
16 Milka Duno 23 25.8837 206.539 50
17 Vitor Meira 14 25.9387 206.101 33
18 EJ Viso 13 26.1302 204.591 16
19 Jaime Camara 34 26.5155 201.618 16
20 Stanton Barrett 98 26.5531 201.332 46
21 Justin Wilson 18 26.7566 199.801 51

Indy Lights


Pos Driver No Best Time Best Speed Laps
1 Pippa Mann 16 28.4776 187.726 144
2 Ali Jackson 59 28.5138 187.488 70
3 Sebastian Saavedra 27 28.5216 187.437 181
4 Martin Plowman 15 28.5620 187.172 190
5 Mario Romancini 5 28.5674 187.136 106
6 Junior Strous 18 28.6193 186.797 175
7 Ana Beatriz 20 28.6775 186.418 136
8 James Hinchcliffe 7 28.6884 186.347 141
9 Sergey Mokshantsev 3 28.7227 186.125 126
10 Andrew Prendeville 2 28.7416 186.002 149
11 JR Hildebrand 26 28.7427 185.995 118
12 Sean Guthrie 4 28.7734 185.797 147
13 Brandon Wagner 32 28.8110 185.554 171
14 James Davison 21 28.8480 185.316 131
15 Jesse Mason 49 28.9948 184.378 127
16 Daniel Herrington 28 29.0297 184.156 66
17 Jay Howard 37 29.1379 183.472 46

For the second straight day, Pippa Mann tops the charts. Panther was always great on ovals last year, but to see an inexperienced driver on ovals do well bids well for her. Indy Lights might have two women with a good shot of winning races (the other of course being Ana Beatriz).

The long, silly season nightmare is over

Bobby D is employed.

The International "Problem"

Last Tuesday, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced a new driver for the 2009 season. Many fans reacted with horror and calls of ride buyer (which Mike Conway supposedly isn’t). Compounding their sorrows was the rumors that Mike Conway’s appointment to DRR would be the end of Buddy Rice’s tenure with the team, as his poorer skilled but richer funded teammate Milka Duno would be a more likely choice for the second car. It was a tragedy, as yet another American driver (one with a 500 win to boot) was forced to the background.

The key debate set off from Conway’s hiring was not about ride buyers and the like, but the increasingly smaller field of American drivers in IndyCar racing today. Is it really a problem, or is the problem something else?

Along with being a huge fan of racing, I happen to enjoy hockey. I bring up these sports because like open wheel racing, at the top levels they happen to be very international in their demographics. The National Hockey League has 83 percent of its teams in America, but only draws about one-fourth of its talent from the USA. More than half its players come from Canada, and the remaining from a smattering of Scandinavian and Eastern European nations. Fans still show up in spite of this lack of American born boys. Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York (the Rangers), Minnesota, San Jose, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit, Washington, and Dallas all average at least 95 percent capacity.

I have never felt having a majority American lineup has been essential for IndyCar. It can be beneficial to have an international field to help grow the series fanbase, as unlike NASCAR there is a broader global appeal for open wheel racing. If a driver is really serious about having a career here in the States, should it matter?

I do have one concern. I want to use another sports league for an example of what I worry about. I also follow soccer heavily, in particular the English Premier League. The EPL is truly the most international sports league in the world, with stars from every continent with names, like Cristiano Ronaldo, and Fernando Torres. Some of the stars, however, have grown up on home soil. Guys like Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, and Rio Ferdinand are held in similar high regard as those born outside Britain. Certain folks might like the fact they had similar upbringings to themselves and kids dream about being the next one too.

What am I saying in all this? The international flavor of IndyCar works when there is a mixture of foreign and domestic talent, both in the entry sheet and the podium. Unfortunately, what has happened in the past few years is that the American talent at the top has withered to non-existent.

I have studied IndyCar results since 2000 to look at the receding results of American drivers. Take a look at the win percentage for American drivers in that period:



The amount of wins has dropped dramatically since 2001. For those of you who have not followed the sport for long, the drop coincides with the arrival of Penske (2002), Ganassi, and Andretti Green (both 2003) to the IRL. Each brought primarily foreign drivers with them (save for AGR’s Bryan Herta). This stat doesn’t necessarily tell the entire story since a dominant foreign driver or two could easily take the majority of wins (like 2007, when Dixon, Franchitti, and Kanaan won 13 of 17 races). Further proof of the drop-off can be seen in the amount of Yanks in the top 5 and top 10 (FYI, blue lines are Americans, red from other countries):



Eek. Not only has the amount of Americans in the top 10 tailed off, the majority of those that did make it to that point finished in the sixth-tenth range. Only once since the Ganassi/AGR move have two American made the top 5 (Hornish and Sharp in ’05), but for the first time in series history no American was in the top 5 last year. Danica Patrick was the highest ranked American at sixth, but she was a distant sixth to Ryan Briscoe.

The problem exists that there are only eight or nine cars every that can win every week, and only two spots are held by Americans: those being the AGR cars of Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick. Marco has not been able to put together a complete run to win despite some great promise last year, and Danica has not run in a “leading” position in a long time.

So what can be done to alter this situation? The hope is that Marco has a breakthrough year in ’09 and Newman/Haas/Lanigan can return to its old glory and thus bring Graham Rahal towards the top, but that is not enough. The push to grow American talent needs action, not prayer.

Australia powering Penske in '09

The long awaited decision by Penske as to who would replace Helio Castroneves in the #3 car was (sort of) announced today, with Will Power joining Team Penske. I say sort of, since Tim Cindric only announced the Power would be running the preseason tests at Homestead and Barber, not at St. Pete or any other race. The situation was a tad bit strange, with Helio present and presumably still under contract with Penske. Should Helio escape a jail term and be able to race again, there is no word on what if any rides Power would have. My guess would be a ride in the 500, but nothing else barring that he is not farmed out to another team (Luczo Dragon maybe?).

I wonder if the arrangement set up by Team Penske may have scared a driver or two off from the deal. Yes, it's a possible Penske ride, but with no known guarantee to drive this year or in the future is scary. Just look at the "development" deal Alex Lloyd has been in with Ganassi which has led to a single run at Indy. Personally, I think Lloyd has been hung out to dry. For someone like Wilson or Hunter-Reay there isn't much to fall back on, like a family name (AJ IV) or a fanbase (Sarah Fisher) that could help.

Speaking of Justin Wilson and Ryan Hunter-Reay, somebody give them rides please! They're damn good drivers and don't deserve this limbo.

NASCAR 2008 Rankings

Now it's time for the release of the 2008 NASCAR Driver Rankings. I broke this away from IndyCar & F1 not because the other two are open-wheel, but because I have multiple charts for NASCAR.

One unique feature of NASCAR is that its drivers often run in multiple series. Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, and David Ragan to name a few ran full or almost full Nationwide Series, and Shrub also did a lot of Truck racing as well. As a result, I felt the need to have more than one chart was necessary. There are in fact three charts: a Sprint Cup only chart, a single-series season chart, and a chart combining a driver's performances between all three national NASCAR series.

Sprint Cup Rankings




Unlike the previously released Overall chart, this one extends to the top 50 point earners in the Sprint Cup series for 2008. Unsurprisingly Jimmie Johnson occupies the #1 spot, with Carl Edwards #2. Kyle Busch is #3, although when I began charting he was in the #1 spot for NASCAR drivers and fell coinciding with his poor Chase performance. Mark Martin is fifth despite his part-time schedule, which may mean good things for his full-time ride with Hendrick next year. Not bad for a guy who could have gone to high school with my dad (that is, if he lived in New Jersey or my dad lived in Arkansas).

Single Season Rankings


Kyle Busch occupies both the top two spots on this chart, with his performance in the Trucks at #1 and his Nationwide season with a record-tying win tally at #2. In the trucks, strangely enough Ron Hornaday bested Johnny Benson in the rankings although Benson was #1 in the points that actually counted.

The best total overall though is not listed here. Tony Stewart had the best season in the Nationwide Series, with an ranking average of 29.460. He did not make the cutoff though, as he ran 9 races in the season. In those nine appearances though he had five wins, finished in the top 10 all but once, and had 2 poles and a front row appearance. Ryan Newman's sole Truck appearance also bested Kyle Busch's best marks, as he won the race to pick up 26 points.

The Combined Rankings


Running just the Craftsman Truck season, Ron Hornaday tops Kyle Busch for the #1 spot. Still, Shrub's work is an impressive feat considering that he had 86 races in major NASCAR competition this season, and he won 21 times. Also breaking double digits is Carl Edwards, who had 16 wins in 2008.

The hyped "Next big driver" in NASCAR, Joey Logano, finished in the top 10. Note above in the Sprint Cup chart he's dead last, so his Nationwide work went a long way towards securing the top 10. I don't think he'll be there next year, although if he does we won't hear the end of it.

So what can be done to save racing as we know it?

The recent announcement by Honda that it is pulling out of F1 came as a shock to probably every racing fan, myself included. Furthermore, Audi, the defending champs of both the Le Mans Series and ALMS, is downsizing its program to focus on Sebring and Le Mans. To see major factory teams cutting their losses is pretty big. While much of the press about the auto slump at least here in the good old U.S. of A the extremely precarious positions of GM, Ford, and Chrysler, it is also affecting foreign makes too.

It makes me concern about the position of motorsports and if it can survive and still retain what makes it so great. The talk of the much-ballyhooed standard Formula One engine has returned, and people seem more willing to listen a few weeks later.

NASCAR faces a similar problem with the fact 3/4 of its automakers are dying without government assistance, with the ultimate possibility of having one or more makes gone by the green flag at Daytona. Several teams have merged (DEI-Ganassi) or closing up shop to make matters worse. For the first time in NASCAR history, a car owned by a Petty won't be in the field, since Petty Enterprises, the last original team, is basically done.

What can be done to save racing as we know it? I want to look at some ways the major racing series can significantly cut costs while retaining their identities. For example, I won't talk about a standard F1 engine, since it would radicially alter F1's identity. What can we do to prevent that from happening, while achieving the same effect? Likewise, how to save NASCAR from the slump as well?

The best thing NASCAR can do to save itself it to shorten itself, both in schedule length and race length.

It is a very easy way to reduce costs by simply running less events. Less weeks racing means less money is needed to run the team, thus a lesser burden on big sponsor dollars. Even if you don't extend the winter break and just take more break weeks in the season, that would have the added effect of more sponsor appearances opportunities for drivers, which could keep sponsors from fleeing the sport.

So what gets the ax? I would cut one of the Pocono races, as well as some of the weaker attended 2 race tracks, Fontana topping my list. Promoters will probably see attendance go up, since fans who previous attending the second race only will buy tickets to the single event instead. One well attended event has the added advantage of looking better on TV.

Shortening the races can also help save a bit of green for NASCAR teams. Less laps = less opportunities to wreck and spend costly dollars and man hours fixing the cars. Cuts tire costs, since there are less pit stops. I'm not too knowledgeable about the tech aspects of NASCAR engines, but something tells me a shorter race could stretch an engine's lifespan just a tad bit longer.

I am not advocating making it the Daytona 300 though. I'm talking about the 500 milers at tracks like Texas. All races would be limited to 300 miles, except for the ones the superspeedways (Daytona, Talladega), the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500.

As for Formula One, there are many avenues to cut costs other than standardization. I've just read a story by Martin Brundle detailing how to cut costs. That article has a lot of solid solutions and is worth the read. I won't repeat any of his ideas, but I have one of my own.

Brundle's article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article5298985.ece

The schedule, for instance, poses a problem. The focus on expanding the season towards Asia with high fees has hurt the sport in retaining traditional venues like France and Canada, and perhaps even Germany in the near future. Most if not all that money is going into Bernie Ecclestone's pockets, and not into any assistance for teams. European GPs are certainly less expensive on the teams in transportation costs, since cars can be trucked to Hungary but have to be flown to Malaysia.

I understand the desire for Asian GPs, but the scheduling that exists is a hinderance to F1. In 2009, three separate trips must be made to the Asian continent: the post-Australia trip of Malaysia, China, and Bahrain, the late season trip to Singapore and Japan, and a one-off trip after Brazil to Abu Dhabi. This is a ridiculous idea. Attempt two trips instead, with an emphasis on putting nearby GPs together better.

For example, why are Malaysia and Singapore, with tracks separated by 210 miles, not together on the schedule when that could save the teams on transportation? Teams could fly into one country, run the grand prix, then take everything by truck to the other site, before driving it back after the race and flying back to Europe or onto a different Asian site. They did not run the US and Canadian races apart most of the time, so why do the same with these two races?

Series Rankings: 2008 in Open Wheel

It's a delay in getting these out, but here is a look at the complete ratings in major open wheel. These lists will include anyone with 2+ starts. In F1, that means I've include the Super Aguri guys and for IndyCar it's everyone but the one-offers at Indy & Long Beach. There are few surprises on these lists - the only one that may register is Paul Tracy joining the IndyCar top 10.

F1


IndyCar

Rankings by Category

As promised, albeit a day late, here is a category by category look at the tops in each of the three major categories of the rankings: Race finishes, Qualifying, and Bonus Statistics. I've included the driver's overall rank as well, just for your information.

Race Finishes


Considering he's the #1 overall driver, it should not come as a shock that Scott Dixon is #1 on this list. Jumping up quite nicely in this ranking is Carl Edwards, #7 overall but tied for third with Lewis Hamilton based on race results.

All ties noted are truly mathematical ties. It's actually pretty easy, since F1 and IndyCar ran 18 races while NASCAR Sprint Cup ran 36. Ergo, Carl earned twice as many race points as Lewis, but are tied when averaged.

Two other gents who moved up quite nicely are #9 Dan Wheldon (13th overall) and #12 Jeff Burton (23rd overall). Neither is an impressive qualifier, but move forward as the race progresses.

Which drivers are being propped up by the other categories? Ryan Briscoe is the only top 10 overall driver not in the top 10 of race results - credit a poor showing in the early part of the '08 season when he was 19th in points leaving Indy prior to his breakthrough win at Milwaukee. Ditto Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Heikki Kovalainen, each 8 spots lower than their overall ranks, and the inconsistent Marco Andretti, 7 spots lower.

Qualifying




Dixon is #1 again in qualifying, but with 6 poles and qualifying in the top 25% in all but one possible qualifying session it's no surprise. Felipe Massa was extremely close - one position higher in Canada or Italy would have made him the top qualifier of 2008.

A few of the big NASCAR names, namely Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are much lower than than their overall positions would expect. The nature of NASCAR though can be a key reason. As the only series that features DNQs on a regular basis, there's often guys who will qualify better in a single session in order to make the show. Not to mention the length of a NASCAR race and the (relative) ease of passing compared to, say, Formula One that positions can be made up easily through time and only taking two tires on some pit stops. It's less necessary to qualify well, so the results show that.

Bonus Points

Bonus points consist of leading laps, leading the most laps, running the fastest lap, and improving the most positions in the race.


The Iceman Kimi Raikkonen leads racers in the bonus points category by a pretty fair margin. Kimi had 9 fastest laps that were key to his #1 placement. Scott Dixon is a lot further down in this category than most.



Towards the bottom of this list are two drivers you wouldn't expect in a positive top 30 list: Michael Waltrip and Giancarlo Fisichella. Waltrip was the best improver twice and regularly led a lap (in order to gain bonus points in NASCAR races). Fisi also improved the best twice, which considering Force India's poor qualifying abilities (he earned 0 points in that category), there was nowhere to go but up in classification.