Chip Ganassi Formula 1 Garage Tour

[David]

He has won some big national races this year, why not take on the world? From the Corvette Museum Enews letter sent out yesterday:

Have you ever wondered what a Formula 1 race team's garage looks like? Well, September 22-25 is your chance to find out! This year's Pace Car reunion will take you behind the scenes into the Chip Ganassi / Target Racing Team Garage! Check out this action-packed event agenda online!

Obviously written by someone that lumps all open wheel cars together, but is is an interesting notion. Chip is a US citizen I think could at least get actual cars on the F1 grid. Maybe they would tweak the rules a bit to allow his Indy Car proposal:

[duke_toaster]

Off topic comment alert I have to type this or my brain will explode! I never heard anything about Chip being in this Delta Wing business - what I heard was that it was all Ben Blowby. The thing sounded a bit too radical, I have no idea how a car with that narrow a front track would handle ... Thanks for reading, you've been a wonderful audience. Don't forget to try the veal and tip your waitress. We now return you to the topic

I suppose Chip Ganassi could run an F1 team, but does his facilities have an autoclave and all the carbon building gubbins? He would probably be far more competent in running the team than Peter Windsor et al ...

[HughGJohnson]

Well, he's won everything in the US... I think it would be a good challenge for him. I think he could pull it off, too. He's got the resources and experience and he's young enough to see it through (appologies to Roger Penske). The more I think about it, the better it sounds... someone tell him to do it!

[Adam43]

Off topic comment alert I have to type this or my brain will explode! eh? Thanks for reading, you've been a wonderful audience. Don't forget to try the veal and tip your waitress. We now return you to the topic

Chip rocks.

[ptclaus98]

Chip is way too cheap to run an F1 team

[Birddog07]

What about a LMP team? Them and if Penske returned to ALMS would be some great racing.

[Knowlesy]

Ganassi is the greatest. Would love if he came to F1 (and built an XL cockpit car for JPM to do the odd race).

[foreversideways]

There is a massive difference between running a couple of Dallara's in a one make championship to running a Formula One team. Roger Penske strikes me as the only person in Indy Car who has the experience and who could possibly muster the finance for such a venture.

[BMW_F1]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Ganassi is the greatest. Would love if he came to F1 (and built an XL cockpit car for JPM to do the odd race).

JPM and Franchitti racing at Monaco..for Chip..

[MrTTraces]

could always make a two seater for Paul Tracy.

[baclightning]

Originally Posted by foreversideways

There is a massive difference between running a couple of Dallara's in a one make championship to running a Formula One team. Roger Penske strikes me as the only person in Indy Car who has the experience and who could possibly muster the finance for such a venture.

The point with Ganassi is that he's been successful this year in three different series; the past weekend his cars won the Grand Am race (sports cars), the NASCAR Sprint Cup race (stock cars), and the IndyCar race (open wheelers). He's won the Daytona 500, Indy 500, Brickyard 400 (and came second in the 24 Hours of Daytona).

Now, whether this means he could as successfully run an F1 team, or would even want to, I have no idea. But he has been successful in numerous disciplines this year.

And Penske has already given F1 a go. As far as I know, he's the only owner to win in F1, NASCAR, and IndyCar. (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong - I don't think Dan Gurney won in NASCAR as an owner, although he did as a driver).

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by foreversideways

There is a massive difference between running a couple of Dallara's in a one make championship to running a Formula One team. Roger Penske strikes me as the only person in Indy Car who has the experience and who could possibly muster the finance for such a venture.

Both Roger Penske and Parnelli Jones ran F1 teams from 1974 to '76, with John Watson and Mario Andretti driving respectively, not with any great success though Penske won one GP.

It will be interesting to see what Chip comes up with.

[blaffer]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Both Roger Penske and Parnelli Jones ran F1 teams from 1974 to '76, with John Watson and Mario Andretti driving respectively, not with any great success though Penske won one GP.
It will be interesting to see what Chip comes up with.

Today in this German Magazine, Ecclestone's opinion on a US team:

A team only makes sense when it is set up by an experienced guy like Roger Penske...

Sounds like an invitation...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by blaffer

Today in this German Magazine, Ecclestone's opinion on a US team:



Sounds like an invitation...

When Penske ventured into F1 he had the factory set up in Poole, Dorset and that factory went on to design and build cars during the CART era, though Penske eventually switched to using Reynards and then subsequently left CART and joined the IRL. Bernie has a point but Ganassi could do it as well.

The only thing stopping either of them are the chassis and engine changes to IndyCar in 2012, so whether they can afford that as well as venturing into F1, I'm not so sure.

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by blaffer

Today in this German Magazine, Ecclestone's opinion on a US team:



Sounds like an invitation...

Penske, like Ganassi, is way too cheap to do F1.