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Old 4 Mar 2010, 06:11 (Ref:2644594)   #1
Mekola
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JM López - the F1 dream is over.

I can write the saddest verses this night... Paraprhasing Neruda, I have the horror to see that the possibilities of JM López in F1 are reduced to zero, in dwindling changes: from USF1 driver - to Campos driver - to HRT tester - to... nothing (even seeing his managers and some sponsors blaming each other), make me feel how an humilliating way had my countryman and, specificly, those who followed him, like me.

One good friend of this forum called me a happy man when López signed for USF1, but I was skeptic because I knew the risks of the operation - and the worst has happened. López lived one of the worst things that could happen to a driver, being promised for anything he was looking for all his life - to be deluded in the last days before the eve of 2010 championship.

We'll see perhaps López confined forever in the local touring car series scheme, where he can collect more championships, like the two he clinched in 2009. It's a shame, because he should even reconstruct his way on the local area, because he has "burned the ships" to be prepared in his F1 crazy and tragic adventure.

This is the worst delusion since he had to return to Argentina in early 2007, and then he even tried to think to retire from motorsport... don't know what he's thinking today.

Felipe McGough, the businessman who managed these operations, is highly blamed in Argentinian motorsport circles, because this is the second straight fail that does while trying to enter an Argentinian into F1. First fail was when negotiated to put Norberto Fontana in Tyrrell before 1998 season - and also has fallen in late-minute in favour of Ricardo Rosset.

Well, hoping this wouldn't be alike JV threads on the matter, it seems that I will support Bruno Senna this year, as Argentina is so far for having a dream about F1. Condolence messages are welcome, because it seems the F1 dream of José MarÃ*a López is over - and sadly, it was his last (and lost) chance.
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Old 4 Mar 2010, 06:37 (Ref:2644603)   #2
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I can see you're gutted with the news. Sport can be a harsh place at the best of times. He didn't even get to turn a wheel to prove anything which is so disappointing.

I suppose many drivers have had such luck. How about Perry McCarthy and Andrea Moda and barely getting to drive the car?
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Old 4 Mar 2010, 09:15 (Ref:2644666)   #3
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It is unfortunate, it's a tough place to be. Still, many good things in a career to be proud of by the sound of it.
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Old 4 Mar 2010, 09:20 (Ref:2644667)   #4
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Is the HRT reserve deal not going ahead? Haven't read anything to suggest it isn't
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Old 4 Mar 2010, 09:20 (Ref:2644668)   #5
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If by miracle USF1 survives then i suppose he could be in with a shout next season
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Down F0rce: "More than a few, but the strangest one was when Jos Verstappen and Enrique Bernoldi scored a one-two for Arrows and were apparantly so impressed by each other's driving, they sang "Wind Beneath My Wings" to each other in the press conference."

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Old 4 Mar 2010, 09:23 (Ref:2644671)   #6
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Nope, they've released him. And I doubt he'll be going back there in a hurry

Mekola is right. This was pretty much his last chance to get a foothold. But then I don't think that's just US F1's fault
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Old 4 Mar 2010, 12:11 (Ref:2644754)   #7
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How do we all think he would fair given a shot in a reasonable car?
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Down F0rce: "More than a few, but the strangest one was when Jos Verstappen and Enrique Bernoldi scored a one-two for Arrows and were apparantly so impressed by each other's driving, they sang "Wind Beneath My Wings" to each other in the press conference."

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Old 4 Mar 2010, 14:38 (Ref:2644850)   #8
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It's hard to say for sure, but I think he would have spiced things up, at least in the opening laps of the Grands Prix. He certainly hasn't had his push to get places on track diluted as much by the promise of pit strategy. So i think he would be apt to go for it that bit more than some of the others who are more used to that aspect of racing. The man is certainly fun to watch in TC2000, TRV6, or Turismo Carretera. If not F1, I hope a good sportscar team picks him up sometime soon.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 04:09 (Ref:2645270)   #9
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I feel badly for Lopez as it is such a public train wreck for him. Especially as he was no doubt getting not just official backing (via the government) but also the public support of his countrymen. I don’t really know much about him, but if he was talented enough to make it to this point I expect he should be able to continue to have a successful driving career. While it looks to be a nightmare at the moment, he continues to live a dream that others will never achieve. I hope he doesn’t retire.

I also find sad the vitriol directed at America in general by a few Argentineans on the USF1 Facebook page (not that Facebook is the home of the classiest people). It’s unfortunate that the poor execution by a few individuals has resulted in such blanket hatred. Hopefully those wounds don’t go deep. I wish those individuals realized that many here in the US are also disappointed.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 15:13 (Ref:2645589)   #10
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1. He's a ride buyer, so how can you feel sorry for a guy in this sport because the money didn't work out since him buying his ride means a more capable driver is not racing? It's not like this ends in tears. If he can get the money again, someone will give him a ride. He'll probably end up in an Indycar taking the ride of a person that's better than he is.

2. He was financed by his government. I love auto racing but if the American government subsidized a racecar driver in any racing series I'd be the first person to go to the Capitol building and catapult huge rocks at it. Honestly, Argentina is in bad financial shape at the minute that could affect the broader society and the government decides the best use of their money is to subsidize a rich boy to take part in the F1 circus? Very Marie Antoinette-ish.

A conversation I had another message board with an Argentine:

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Off topic, but why the hell in light of the bad economic situation going on in Argentina is the Argentine national government subsidizing rich boy Jose Maria Lopez to get a Formula One drive for the coming season?
Because it's the same populist government that has used $US 200 million last year to rescind the football transmission contract a private company had and now shows all games in open air TV with Government propaganda all over.

The President then compared on a public speed what she called "the kidnapping of the goals" with the "missing" situation of the 70s terrorist war.

Panem et circenses, and we're running out of bread, so more games are needed.

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Old 5 Mar 2010, 15:30 (Ref:2645594)   #11
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1. He's a ride buyer, so how can you feel sorry for a guy in this sport because the money didn't work out since him buying his ride means a more capable driver is not racing? It's not like this ends in tears. If he can get the money again, someone will give him a ride. He'll probably end up in an Indycar taking the ride of a person that's better than he is.

2. He was financed by his government. I love auto racing but if the American government subsidized a racecar driver in any racing series I'd be the first person to go to the Capitol building and catapult huge rocks at it. Honestly, Argentina is in bad financial shape at the minute that could affect the broader society and the government decides the best use of their money is to subsidize a rich boy to take part in the F1 circus? Very Marie Antoinette-ish.

A conversation I had another message board with an Argentine:
The president is also trying to start another shooting war over the Falklands, as if they haven't been there before and learned our lesson. Bread and circuses for the masses.

I never thought this driver in question was ever going to be an F1 star. I applaud him for making a go of it though. It just added to USF1's laughable situation: the Argentine government funding an American F1 team.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 16:57 (Ref:2645641)   #12
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At first, the Falklands issue about a potential war is absolutely false. Argentina will protest in diplomatical ways only. Mostly when the country is not on position to beligerate and the general population has a negative vision of their own army.

Second, López budget from Argentinian Government was only U$S 2M (it means, one quarter) of his complete budget of U$S 8M. Other U$S 2M (others reporting U$S 2.5M) were coming from Alejandro Urtubey, an important private backer who is the organiser of Top Race V6 series and who has a motorsport magazine, Corsa. The rest were composing of minor sponsors like LoJack, Kwan Mobile, M&S Oil and even Pauny, the tractor company presided by López's father.

At third, López has lost 10% of the inversion (about U$S 830,000) who was paid to USF1 as the first part of the proposed budget. That was invested by López family itself and (very probably) Urtubey, not the Government. McGough and Rosso tried to negotiate or event sue USF1 to get that money back, using it to pay the tester seat at HRT, but that backing is strapped and I am very skeptic they could recover it.

And at last, when it was realised that López wouldn't have a titular ride in F1 and only a possible testing contract, many of his backers (specially Urtubey) were stand down, so his actual position is more frail to grab even a testing F1 seat. With that, it's better that López could return to Argentine touring cars, when he didn't pay and even had neat salaries with his contracts with the teams of Turismo Carretera, TC2000 and TRV6.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 17:39 (Ref:2645663)   #13
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Chin up there Mekola, not sure we've seen the last of the driver changes for this year. Or, you could hightail it outta here at the first sign of trouble I suppose, but that doesn't seem very Argentinian to me. Keep the faith lad.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 18:29 (Ref:2645686)   #14
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He's a ride buyer, so how can you feel sorry for a guy in this sport because the money didn't work out since him buying his ride means a more capable driver is not racing?
I understand your point, but rider buyer or not, I have empathy for someone who was very close to participating at the top level and then having it all fall out from under him.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 18:41 (Ref:2645699)   #15
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Flyin Ryan, he may have been a ride buyer, but Lopez is NOT slow by a long shot. He made the Ferrari 550 competitive in FIA GT in 2008 at the couple of races he drove it in (Oschersleben and Potrero de los Funes, IIRC). And he grabbed at least two, if not all three, of the Argentinian touring car series titles in 2009 (counting sprint and feature runs, that's something like 72 races between the three series). Lopez is definitely MUCH faster than the last F1 Argentinian: Gaston Mazzacane.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 20:41 (Ref:2645775)   #16
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Flyin Ryan, he may have been a ride buyer, but Lopez is NOT slow by a long shot. He made the Ferrari 550 competitive in FIA GT in 2008 at the couple of races he drove it in (Oschersleben and Potrero de los Funes, IIRC). And he grabbed at least two, if not all three, of the Argentinian touring car series titles in 2009 (counting sprint and feature runs, that's something like 72 races between the three series). Lopez is definitely MUCH faster than the last F1 Argentinian: Gaston Mazzacane.
Talk about damning with faint praise.....................
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 21:14 (Ref:2645795)   #17
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Second, López budget from Argentinian Government was only U$S 2M (it means, one quarter) of his complete budget of U$S 8M.
Why is it any larger than zero?

(and yes, Petrov's the same way and I feel the same there; the difference there is I doubt the Russian government cares what their people think about it)

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Purist: Flyin Ryan, he may have been a ride buyer, but Lopez is NOT slow by a long shot. He made the Ferrari 550 competitive in FIA GT in 2008 at the couple of races he drove it in (Oschersleben and Potrero de los Funes, IIRC). And he grabbed at least two, if not all three, of the Argentinian touring car series titles in 2009 (counting sprint and feature runs, that's something like 72 races between the three series). Lopez is definitely MUCH faster than the last F1 Argentinian: Gaston Mazzacane.
And?

This is supposedly the "world championship", which I kind of laugh at but for the purposes of this thread I'll play along with. If this is a world championship, do you or any other poster on this website believe Juan Maria Lopez is one of the best 24 racecar drivers in the world?

Gaston Mazzacanes are allowed to exist because of Juan Maria Lopezes. I'm not being naive here, I've followed auto racing for 22 years, I know damn well how it works and operates. But don't convince me to feel sorry for a guy that got to where he was in this sport because he was born rich and has friends in high places helping them out when the government's money is best spent elsewhere probably. I only feel sorry for the guy that's a good hard racer but can't progress higher because he made the mistake of being born to two parents that didn't have a lot of money or didn't bankrupt themselves to satisfy their son's career choice. If Ayrton Senna was coming up today, he would probably have never gotten an F1 ride.

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Old 5 Mar 2010, 21:47 (Ref:2645812)   #18
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To add on to my post, I wish the best for Juan Maria Lopez. I hope he can someday find an F1 ride where he's not paying for it and instead the team is paying him. If the odds of that are zero, than he's not a good enough driver to be in F1 anyway.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 23:18 (Ref:2645864)   #19
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I only used Mazzacane as an example since he was the most recent Argentinian to drive in F1, and if he is what you use as a model for what you expect from Argentinian drivers, you have made a poor choice.

I will admit that I would prefer the Argentinian government spent its money in other places, but I'm not going to worry a lot about that, as I don't need to become paranoid about such things. However, if that investment were to yield a handful of Lopez's countrymen being inspired and to become truly successful in their lives in Argentina, then they probably will recoup that money, and then some, in the long run.

Honestly, do you think the current line-ups truly represent the 24 best drivers in the world? We both know the answer to that is not in the affirmative. We can all come up with a fair few overrated and underrated drivers that are or have been in F1. And it isn't just about money, but also whether you bump into the right person at the right time, and are thus picked up by a team before they stumble upon somebody else.
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Old 5 Mar 2010, 23:37 (Ref:2645872)   #20
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To add on to my post, I wish the best for Juan Maria Lopez. I hope he can someday find an F1 ride where he's not paying for it and instead the team is paying him. If the odds of that are zero, than he's not a good enough driver to be in F1 anyway.
I wish the best to Juan Maria Lopez too, lets see if he can do better than Jose Maria Lopez and actually get into a race
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Old 6 Mar 2010, 01:34 (Ref:2645908)   #21
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Juan Manuel López is another Argentine driver (nicknamed Cochito), who raced British F3 mid-season in 2000 as champion Pizzonia's teammate. He also did many international outings: Last year was in Spanish GT Open.
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Old 6 Mar 2010, 02:34 (Ref:2645919)   #22
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I only used Mazzacane as an example since he was the most recent Argentinian to drive in F1, and if he is what you use as a model for what you expect from Argentinian drivers, you have made a poor choice.
No, Mazzacane is what I use as a model for all ride buyers. If you think that's unfair, I'm more than willing to use Milka Duno as being representative of all of them.

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Honestly, do you think the current line-ups truly represent the 24 best drivers in the world? We both know the answer to that is not in the affirmative.
Glad you agree with me the World Championship moniker then is a farce.

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And it isn't just about money, but also whether you bump into the right person at the right time, and are thus picked up by a team before they stumble upon somebody else.
And why do we as fans accept this? The sport about split in two over cost reductions. The teams got the cost reductions they needed, and it allowed new teams to enter the sport, but these same teams are still taking money from sh*t drivers (if they weren't sh*t drivers, they wouldn't have to pay for the ride), raising the question of what the hell the damn point of all this was. Why do we accept this?

Just don't tell me to look at a club and say it's a spade as yourself and Mekola are saying. Lopez is a ride buyer, period. If the sport was honest, he'd never get in, so why feel sorry for him when the only reason he almost got in to start with was because of a lot of other more talented drivers we should instead feel sorry for?

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Old 6 Mar 2010, 03:49 (Ref:2645928)   #23
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If the sport was honest, López would have driven for Minardi in 2005 season (of course, paying as Tuero and Mazzacane did). Perhaps it would have been his only year in F1, but enough to made his mark as Norberto Fontana did in his short 4-race outings in 1997, or like Oscar Larrauri when had a brink of shine during the 1988 Monaco weekend.
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Old 6 Mar 2010, 05:13 (Ref:2645936)   #24
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If you're a relative unknown, internationally speaking, it may not matter how good you are. You may not have the visibility for the big wigs to accept you on merit alone when you start out in the bigger pond. You may have to foot the bill to have a chance to get your foot in the door to even have the opportunity to actually prove yourself.

Since when do the top teams choose a relative unknown, like Lopez is, to pilot their machine? So, a good driver, but one who hasn't been as established on the wider stage, goes to a lower rung team, but that team NEEDS extra backing from the drivers. Are you saying we shouldn't have these other teams at all?

I'll be honest, I think there are 26 drivers in the world qualified to be in F1, but you have to be able to find them all, and have 26 cars adequately financed for them to be able to race. Obviously, it's VERY hard to put that full package together.

I'm happy to see the larger grid in F1 again. Maybe we'll see the start of another new great team. This injection of new driver blood, with more seats being available, is also quite refreshing. Not to mention, considering the other racing series i can watch, a mere 20 cars is rather piddly.

Also, consider that if the big teams have a long-term, solidified driver line-up, even a good driver may be forced to go with a lesser team to just get into the F1 show, and that lesser team may NEED a bit of backing from that driver, either to keep the team afloat, or to get that team that much closer to the front. And before you say that no driver would switch from the top of the league he was in to the lower rungs of another series, does the name Sebastian Bourdais mean anything to you?

Finally, as to why we let it happen, we don't. This is a business when you get down to it: a business in which we, mere pawns, don't particularly matter anymore. Even if we could orchestrate a mass TV boycott of F1, if the series did start to falter, it would take that big business money all over again to get F1 back to stability and prosperity. It's a cycle that I certainly don't know how to break.

P.S. The "World Driver's Championship" wasn't actually based on a having a spectrum of drivers from across the world, but having racing located across the racing world. At various points, that racing world was considered to include Morocco, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, the US, Portugal, Sweden, and Holland. F1 has yet to embody a true world championship for a number of reasons. It used to be basically that some parts of the world simply didn't have developed motorsport. Now, it's a matter of some nations not being willing to give government backing to have the, ahem, "privilege" of hosting a Grand Prix.

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Old 6 Mar 2010, 20:58 (Ref:2646302)   #25
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Originally Posted by Flyin Ryan View Post
He's a ride buyer, so how can you feel sorry for a guy in this sport because the money didn't work out since him buying his ride means a more capable driver is not racing? It's not like this ends in tears. If he can get the money again, someone will give him a ride. He'll probably end up in an Indycar taking the ride of a person that's better than he is.
By describing Pechito as a ride buyer, Flyin Ryan, you prove that you haven't watched him overtake two or three cars at a time at impossible places, you haven't watched him win in circuits that render San Jose (Champ Car)'s track surface as a brand-new tilkodrome and Monaco's Loewes hairpin as Daytona's turn 1, you haven't watched him switch from overweight RWD V6 tubeframes to underweight FWD inline-4 touring cars back and forth and beat several weekends in a row a more than proficient grid.

If the world economy was fair, Flyin Ryan, Pechito would easily get a decent F1 bucket. It's not, so Pechito can't show how good an open-wheel car driver he is, and we cry for that.
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