Newman-Haas, 3 Cars for 2006?

[Snrub]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...s/12541045.htm

''I think I'm getting strong and would be 100 percent for Mexico,'' Junqueira said Thursday.

Haas said he will wait to hear what the doctors tell him, but he would consider a third car for that race.

Haas added that a third car might be possible for the 2006 season, saying: ``Well, it's really not finalized yet. I assume we will run the standard two cars, but we're trying to put a third car together.''

So it sounds like they want to keep Servia on board.

[drewdawg727]

To be quite honest, i don't know how these guys do it.
Maybe it's in their blood, but if i were to get into a race accident that caused me to severely injure my back and be in the need for surgery, i wouldn't just wanna hop back into a car as soon as possible. I know that i would go through a great deal of trauma and worry that i would take my time getting back into my car.
Even someone like Zanardi who lost a leg wants to race again.

I just find that amazing

</off-topic rant>

[macdaddy]

(Drewdawg, Zanardi lost both legs...)

Newman/Haas was talking about running three cars for this season, but couldn't find the sponsorship for daMatta. Talk is cheap, really. Dale Coyne would run five cars IF he had the sponsorship to do so.

It would be great if it comes to fruition, but let's not hold our breath.

[Hazza]

3 cars? It'd be very nice if it happened.

But NH havn't done that in like...ever have they? Not that I doubt they'd be the best prepared three on the grid.

[Kicking-back]

I'd rather have ten strong teams running two cars each than go down the road of "superteams" with multiple cars and some stragglers behind them.

[Amar7605]

What difference does it make, K-B? F1 has shown us that having teams of two does not demonstrate equality amongst teams.

[Russfeld]

Yeah, in the case of F1 id rather have 3 Renaults and 3 McLarens, so we'd have potentially 6 race winners instead of 3 and a half.

In CART it'd be the same. Lets say you dropped Conquest Racing entirely, and replaced them with two extra cars out of RuSport/Forsythe/Newman-Haas

[Snrub]

If the money starts coming into CC again, we won't need big multi-car teams because ALL of the teams will be strong and anyone will stand a fair chance at winning.

Macdaddy eludes to a point I was going to make, if you were NH and you had a choice between a three car team with Servia or CDM, who would you pick? CDM is better than Junquiera too.

Bourdais was asked about 3 cars on Wind Tunnel last night and admitted that it was being looked at, but nothing firm. Obviously it's a matter of sponsorship.

[captain crunch]

I assume the third car would be #6 and have Centrix sponsorship, since they sponsored N/H indy run as well as being an associate sponsor on their champcars. This one sounds quite plausible to me.

[Kicking-back]

If the choice for the third car is Servia or CDM, I'd go with Servia.

If the choice is Junqueira or CDM, I'd go with Junqueira.

Ideally, I'd have Bourdais, Junqueira and AN Other (who is not Servia or CDM) in the three-car team.

[BootsOntheSide]

Multi-car teams are a very short-sighted way of providing more competitive racing, especially in championships where 10 different winners in 16 races is perfectly commonplace. If all the money goes to the big teams, the end result is that there are less teams willing to run cars. Top teams become more concerned with team orders and strategies, meaning less overtaking on track. It's much more important that new squads feel that they can be competitive without having to face the kind of behemoths of the past. Russfeld, if you think Fisichella has half the chance of winning races as Alonso (which you've implied there), would their third driver have even half the chance)?

[Omega99]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

If the choice for the third car is Servia or CDM, I'd go with Servia.

If the choice is Junqueira or CDM, I'd go with Junqueira.

Ideally, I'd have Bourdais, Junqueira and AN Other (who is not Servia or CDM) in the three-car team.

Interesting, why's that? Do you suppose it would be a problem having two series champions on a team from a support/resources perspective? Or is it that DaMatta may be past his prime?

[Jordi]

I'm all for a third car. I'm all for any car with Oriol driving it, really!

I don't think multicar teams are a problem. It has happened in the past and while Penske utterly dominated in 1994, it did not really damage the championship (it was much stronger anyway). Ganassi also ran 3 cars in 2001 when Dixon was left out in the cold by PWR, but it did not make a great difference.

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by Omega99

Interesting, why's that? Do you suppose it would be a problem having two series champions on a team from a support/resources perspective? Or is it that DaMatta may be past his prime?

Partly because having Bourdais, who's clearly the superstar, the solid pointman in Junqueira, I'd want a young charger in the third car.

da Matta is decent, but I don't think he's absolutely top drawer, and I think as part of the overall balance of the team there would be no point in having him.

Servia, Montreal aside, is a bit too much of a cruiser for my liking, and would offer nothing that Junqueira doesn't.

Someone like Pantano or Dalziel or Ranger would be worth a punt in there.

[Omega99]

Good points.

[Amar7605]

If there is a third car, then K-B may have a point in putting a rookie in the car. If you put someone like CDM or Servia you may have to pay more money to the driver.

[Hazard]

Personally, I see Servia is a better back-up driver to Bourdais than Junqueira...as evidenced by their run ins at the end of last season.

I think Junqueira has always seen himself as the true contender in Newman-Haas. I also think Servia has long been due a top ride, I don't see a problem with all three as Newman-Haas' 2006 line-up, though if I was playing boss and I was told I had to chose one to let go, it would be Bruno.

[mp356a]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Partly because having Bourdais, who's clearly the superstar, the solid pointman in Junqueira, I'd want a young charger in the third car.

da Matta is decent, but I don't think he's absolutely top drawer, and I think as part of the overall balance of the team there would be no point in having him.

Servia, Montreal aside, is a bit too much of a cruiser for my liking, and would offer nothing that Junqueira doesn't.

Someone like Pantano or Dalziel or Ranger would be worth a punt in there.

With a win finally under his belt, I think you will see less of the cruiser and more of the charger from Servia.

Mike

[Snrub]

I'm not sure if Servia qualifies as a young hard charger, but he certainly tries hard. I think the difference between Servia and Junquiera is that periodically Junquiera has gotten the better of Bourdais. Servia was better at Milwaukee, but that's to be expected. Montreal had some other stuff come into play.

I'd rather see the fastest guys fighting tooth and nail. IMO CDM is faster than both Servia and Junquiera.

[Jordi]

Oriol... I wonder if having won a race will change something in his driving.

In any case, he's always been more of a Damon Hill than a Michael Schumacher in my opinion. He perhaps isn't a superstar like Montoya or Bourdais were/are, but he's got the consistency, the speed and the ability to set up a car for it to be on the rostrum week in week out.

Of course, being in a Newman Haas car always helps for challenging for wins, but I think Oriol has proven that he can get better results than others in less front-line drives.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by Snrub

If the money starts coming into CC again, we won't need big multi-car teams because ALL of the teams will be strong and anyone will stand a fair chance at winning.

Every single sport has its 'Minardi', and I'm quite sure Champ Car won't become an exception to that any time soon

[Snrub]

I'm not saying their won't be a 'Minardi' or two, but having the vast majority with a chance to win races is what I'm talking about.

[Flatspot]

My how quickly our memories fade. 18 months ago we were complaining that there probably weren't going to be enough cars in a team and now we are discussing the possibility of there being too many.

[BootsOntheSide]

With spec cars there's no excuse for a team to consistantly be as far off the pace as Minardi are in F1.

[Jordi]

There are no Minardis in Champ Car anyway. Of course some drivers are usually in the top 10 and some are usually in the 11th to 18th places, but the gap is not enourmously huge as in F1, nor does it take billions of dollars to bridge that gap.