hotshot

Thats what I dont like about NASCAR, I could put a Mercedes logo on my Subaru but that wouldnt make it a Mercedes. Same thing with NASCAR, those arent Fords, Chevys, or Toyotas.

Le Mans GT class and Touring Car are alot closer to "stock car" racing than NASCAR.

pete2800

F1 should be interesting to watch, as always.

But speaking of rule changes, I still love the older F1 cars... back when you had a 1200 hp Lotus running a 1.5L V6 on 60 psi of boost. Now those guys were nuts.

KJSWA

KERS looks like it might become an issue for some of the teams reliability, and the safety of the driver, pit crews, and track marshals. Vettel had to stop on track and bail out of the new Red Bull RB5 due to a shock warning while testing in Spain, and checkout this unlucky BMW mechanic.

YouTube - BMW Mechanic in KERS Shocker

gipple

I hate the idea of dumbing down F1. More HP, slicks, all the bells and whistles etc... bring em on.
No refueling could lead to the passing attempts that Bernie and Max (don't call me a pervert nazi) Mosley so openly crave.
Common engines would be the death knell for the sport.
Lewis Hamilton rocks.

Abbey2

It is great to see that pilots are interested in auto racing. I am a retired driver that raced in the Trans-Am series as well as some selected Nascar races. I raced until I turned about 40 then said enough. I raced at many of the Nascar tracks and toured with the CART series. Those were powerful cars.The Trans-Am cars were a bit quicker than the stock cars at 2,600lbs and 700hp. Racing has some of the characteristics of Aviation. It goes in cycles. Finding sponser money was tough. I had 3 different sponsers for the last 5 years. A lot of meetings,autograph signings,car showings at local stores. We too did not have the funds for Wind tunnel and other tests so we made deals with other teams. I came thru racing the hard way. Building my own chassis's,learning set-ups,understanding all the technical sides. Even the braking systems which I always installed myself were very expensive. Just the Calipers were $3g a piece. Did some testing with the tire companys which can be very dangerous. Ya know,lets try this or that and see how it goes. Too many guys striking the wall,even a glancing blow,and loosing a few fillings or a broken wrist. One thing I can tell you all for certain is that you can't take the money out of racing. Even with what we call "crate motors" some one has the funds to buy 20 motors,dyno them and run the best out of 20.I know what it's like to go thru tech sweating bullets when they pump the motors and pull out all the templets. I only weighed about 170lb and my crew used to put quarters in my race suit to get us up to weight. It was crazy. I ran several race's at Sears Point(now Infineon Raceway) were I had several testing events with the NWC guys. This is back with Kenny Schrader,Johnny Benson,Ward Burton,Kyle Petty and many of the guys that are gone now. Back then Dale Jr was in Busch,Kevin Harvick was in a series below me(Winston West) Juan Montoya was in CART as I saw him regularly around our trailer. Friends of mine often think I have just gone into something as risky(flying) which is simply the opposite. I remember too well driving on a road coarse into a corner at 185mph and breaking down to 50 mph in 300 ft. If your brakes failed.....you were done. Of coarse there are those time flying iced up on a ILS down to minimums at night. I'll still take the ILS. Glad I found some racing pilots!

KJSWA

I read an article today about Richard Branson (Virgin) being interested in the Honda F1 team but nothing official anyone else heard anything?
Lewis may be fast but Kimi doesn't rear end people in pit lane.
Yeah I'm a Raikkonen fan but if I had money on it I'd lean towards a back to back champ.

KJSWA

The Official Formula 1 Website

A US based F1 team?!
Would be awesome if it came true but its still a long way off, and throwing together a F1 team and car in 13 months is easier said then done.

Pilotpip

Bringing this back up. Finally watching the Malaysian GP on my DVR. Don't have the Australian. What is up with the rear wing this year? Hideous.

jungle

Excellent post. It always seemed to me that the "run what ya' brung" days of turbine Indy cars and six wheel Formula One cars were some of the most interesting. To advance engineering it would seem a fixed budget and no rules on construction, other than safety, might be an interesting concept. Today it is more about the business.
A modern fighter makes an F1 car look like a tinker toy from an engineering standpoint, but the skillset of most any good driver in any type of car is amazing.
Flying is much safer in general, but corners of aviation are still quite dangerous and thus quite sporty-such as flying off an aircraft carrier.

Pilotpip

Jungle,

Interestingly the commentators were discussing how "over officiated" F1 has become. To a greater extent, this is the case in other sanctions as well. Nascar runs a common template car design, IRL runs the same engines across the board, FIA is moving towards some of the same issues. I hope to not see it.