2010 Silly Season

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Magnusson

Conway is probably better than Summerton, but I'll let you guess why IndyCar teams may choose to be "short-sighted"...

How would you know? Have they ever raced together?

To be honest, I'm not that familiar with Conway - from the few races I've seen of him so far, he looks quick but error prone. He definitely seems to have potential though.

drdisque - I'm not sure why Doornbos struggled at NHL, he showed a lot of talent when he was in Champ Car. I don't think his failure at NHL will affect his chances of a ride in Europe. To be honest, I don't think European racing series take Indycar seriously at all...it might as well not exist to them. That said, his career does seem destined for sports cars, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Originally Posted by Jay

How would you know? Have they ever raced together?

To be honest, I'm not that familiar with Conway - from the few races I've seen of him so far, he looks quick but error prone. He definitely seems to have potential though.

drdisque - I'm not sure why Doornbos struggled at NHL, he showed a lot of talent when he was in Champ Car. I don't think his failure at NHL will affect his chances of a ride in Europe. To be honest, I don't think European racing series take Indycar seriously at all...it might as well not exist to them. That said, his career does seem destined for sports cars, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Drivers doesn't have to race togeather for you to judge who's the better. I've seen both Conway and Summerton work their way up the ladder (Conway in FR, F3UK and GP2, Summerton in F3ES and A1GP), and while Jonathan has been good, he's never really struck me as anything extraordinary. Conway has shown himself to be very good, but a bit of an incident magnet. At least in GP2 those incidents were seldom his fault, but he always seemed to get caught up in them anyway. Just give him some time to sort himself out and he'll be fine.

And no, if by "a ride in Europe" you're talking about F1, no one really looks at IndyCar. No reason to. Doornbos is better than he's shown this year, but not great. Right now there's plenty of seats in A1 (well, just one there), Superleague and Formula Nippon for a guy like him. I'm not saying he won't end up in sports cars, but staying in single seaters is obviously a priority for him and he can keep it on for a while still.

[csirl]

Conway is probably better than Summerton, but I'll let you guess why IndyCar teams may choose to be "short-sighted"...

Summerton has a good chance of being in F1 next season. Conway has never come close to being considered an F1 candidate and will never race at that level. I just picked Conway as an example - you could apply the same logic to 90% of Indycar imports. And Summerton's A1GP results show that his is significantly better than Andretti and Rahal.

[Stefvh]

He was one of Honda test drivers last year.

[Taprobane]

Summerton is only being considered for F1 based on his nationality, otherwise he'd be behind a huge list of drivers.

Mike Conway has an excellent junior racing resume, hes a British Formula Renault champion, a British F3 Champion and Macau GP winner. He also did well in his time in GP2 despite not being in a top team.

Perhaps if he'd spent two years at iSport or ART he would be looking at an F1 drive, who knows?

[Alwaysfirst]

Just so everybody realises the difference in quality between these two, Milka Duno was 8 seconds a lap slower at Infineon testing yesterday than Mike Conway. 8 seconds in a spec series...

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Originally Posted by csirl

Summerton has a good chance of being in F1 next season. Conway has never come close to being considered an F1 candidate and will never race at that level. I just picked Conway as an example - you could apply the same logic to 90% of Indycar imports. And Summerton's A1GP results show that his is significantly better than Andretti and Rahal.

Summerton is only getting that seat because he's American and slightly good. If you're claiming that everyone who goes to F1 are better than everyone who doesn't you're talking nonsense. Rahal is also a bit better than Summerton, and you can't use his one weekend in A1GP (for a struggling team) to draw any conclusions. Rahal was second in Atlantics to Pagenaud, who in all fairness is some way better than Niemelä (champion last year while Summerton was third), and then Summerton already had a year's experience in F3. Again, Summerton is a decent peddler who would do allright in IndyCar, but I don't see what makes him better than Conway or Montagny, to name two.

[csirl]

In fairness, Rahal did 6 A1GP races with one of the best teams in the field - Carlin Motorsports. And to be honest, he was real bad - results as follows: 13th of 16 finishers, 14th of 18 finishers, Ret, Ret, 18th of 18 finishers, 11th. Was way of the pace of any driver with any experience - generally had similar pace to the few very inexperienced drivers from developing countries. Was embarrasing for him to be honest.

[Alwaysfirst]

Back on topic...just a little update:

Penske (3) Castroneves, Briscoe, Power
Ganassi (3) Dixon, Franchitti, Patrick
Andretti/Green (3) Kanaan, Andretti, Montagny
Newman/Haas (2) Rahal, Lloyd
Vision (2) Carpenter, Hunter-Reay
KV Racing (2) Moraes, Tracy
Panther (1) Wheldon? (wants out of his contract, according to Curt Calvin)
Coyne (1) Wilson
Foyt (1) Meira
Conquest (1) Philippe
Dreyer & Reinbold (2) Conway, Scheckter
Luczo Dragon (1) Matos
De Ferran (2) Sato, Pagenaud
Fernandez (1) Diaz
HVM (2) Doornbos, Viso
Fisher (1) Fisher
Team 3G (1) Antinucci

Other aditional entries/one-off posibilities seem to include...

Andretti/Green (1) Hildebrand (Indy 500)
Newman/Haas (1) Bourdais (Full-time if the funding can be found. He is still in contact with the team & is working on the budget)
KV Racing (1) Bell (Indy 500)
Panther (1) Pantano or Servia or ? (Possible full-time expansion if the $$$ can be found)
Highcroft/Panther (1) Sharp (Indy 500, possible other select races. Highcroft is staying in ALMS whatever, but is interested in expansion)
Coyne (1) Perera or Junqueira or ? (Possibly going back to 2 cars full-time, dependant on $$$. If not full-time Indy 500 one-off possible)
Foyt (1) Foyt IV (May run either full-time or part-time/Indy 500, depending on $$$)
Conquest (1) Junqueira or ? (Full-time or Indy 500, dependant on $$$, but team is looking to get back to 2 cars)
Dreyer & Reinbold (2) Duno, Yasukawa (Duno where her $$$ allows, Yasukawa for the Motegi race)
Luczo Dragon (1) Matsuura or Tagliani or ? (Still interested in expansion but only if all costs are covered)
Fernandez (1) Martinez or ? (if Fernandez returns to Indycar may be a 2 car operation, depending on $$$)
Fisher-may put another driver in for road courses if the team runs full-time
Team 3G-May continue to swap drivers. Possible replacements include Jaques Lazier & Stanton Barrett.
Rahal/Letterman (1 or 2) Servia or Tagliani or ? (All dependant on $$$, but the team is looking to get back in full-time)
Walker (1) Tagliani or ? (If the $$$ is found then the team will be on the grid)
Richard Petty (1) John Andretti (Indy 500)
Apex/Kingdom/Dreyer & Reinbold (1) Hamilton (Indy 500)
Herta (1) Davison or ? (Indy 500, dependant on $$$)
Hemelgarn (1) Buddy Lazier or ? (Indy 500)
Schmidt (1 or 2) Beatriz &/or Wade Cunningham (Dependant on $$$. Bea may get Apex Brasil money. Probably only Indy 500 whatever happens)
Forsythe (1 or 2) Hinchcliffe or Daly or Martinez or ? (Fresh rumours appearing about Forsythe returning. Very unlikely...but nothing is impossible. Dependant on $$$)
Fittipaldi (1) Rumours that Fittipaldi may be looking to start a team with $$$ from an Apex Brasil company for a Brazilian driver...

[Alwaysfirst]

Latest rumour from Robin Miller is that Jim Freudenberg of Rubicon & Alex Tagliani are buying up Marty Roth's old equipment for next year...so add that to the list...

[Mr Pink]

Alwaysfirst: Good job!

There's some good drivers in there and with the addition of De Ferran and Fernandez maybe the series is taking a couple of small steps the right way.

I really hope that Rahal/Letterman can field at least on full time entry. Forsythe would of course also be a great addition even if it's unlikely.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Originally Posted by csirl

In fairness, Rahal did 6 A1GP races with one of the best teams in the field - Carlin Motorsports. And to be honest, he was real bad - results as follows: 13th of 16 finishers, 14th of 18 finishers, Ret, Ret, 18th of 18 finishers, 11th. Was way of the pace of any driver with any experience - generally had similar pace to the few very inexperienced drivers from developing countries. Was embarrasing for him to be honest.

I'd forgotten about those two other weekends. Carlin's A1 teams have never been much to cheer for though, good as they may be in other series. Those results are not indicative of Graham's talent level, or I suppose you rate Mathias Lauda and Alex Yoong above him?

[gomick]

He is only 20 years old, fair go...

[Jonerz]

And he was right where he belonged on the time sheets - with the inexperienced drivers. Rahal is one of the best talents in the world and twenty years from now Graham will be seen as one of the saviors of IndyCar and one of the greatest drivers in the world.

Chris

[gomick]

Do you think his career will match his old mans?

[Alwaysfirst]

Tagliani has indeed purchased all of Roth's old equipment (4 cars) and is planning on running full-time next year. There's a possibility that a second car may run at Indy & a couple of other events for a 'young Canadian driver', possibly Andrew Ranger or James Hinchcliffe.

[AndrewF31]

Where did the whole Pagenaud/de Ferran/IRL connection come from?

[Alwaysfirst]

Well De Ferran has stated that he is running 2 full-time cars in the IRL next year as well as in ALMS. One of these drivers is expected to be Takuma Sato bringing Honda (Formula Dream) and Panasonic money. The other driver is expected to be Simon Pagenaud, who has driven for de Ferran's ALMS team over the last couple of years & who has made no secret of his desire to get back into open-wheel racing. Therefore it is logically expected that the de Ferran team will be made up of Sato and Pagenaud, especially as de Ferran himself has talked about Pagenaud as an option for one of the seats. We may still be surprised yet...but that line up certainly wouldn't surprise me.

[gomick]

Pagenaud has unfinished business in open wheel racing - he finished 7th (Rahal was 5th) in "Rookie" Champcar season in 2007 before losing his drive for $$$ one would presume, he is still only 25 years old...

[mountainstar]

Pagenaud I think is pretty decent and worth a chance. I've seen much worse.

[gomick]

Much much worse, Pagenaud was Formula Atlantic Champion in 2006 in which he beat Graham Rahal, Rafael Matos & James Hinchcliffe to name a few...

[AndrewF31]

Simon's definitely a very good driver. Would be a loss for sportscar racing.

[JagtechOhio]

AGR will be retructured, plans to campaign four cars next year and still courts DP as one of the drivers:

http://www.indystar.com/article/2009...control+of+AGR

[FIRE]

Doornbos will not return at HVM.

[DanicaFan]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Doornbos will not return at HVM.

Where are you getting this information?

Doornbos signed a contract with HVM Racing in August of this year to race for them the rest of the 2009 season and the 2010 season.