F3000 Barcelona - race

[x_dt]

Any news?
It should be starting about now.

[corkholio]

Race Results
1. Pantano
2. Wirdheim
3. Toccacelo
4. Janis
5. Nguyen
6. Schmidt
7. Baumgartner
8. Schroeder
9. Piccolo
10. Kiesa
11. Hill
12. Bell

[corkholio]

Friesacher lost his front wing in the first corner.

Schroeder spun on the first lap.

Giebler and Giammaria collided on the second lap.

The Astromega cars are painted yellow and blue this weekend. Only van Hooydonck's car had sponsors on it.

Sperafico was running third but then retired after falling back.

Nguyen locked up his left front a whole bunch of times.

Zslow Baumgartner tried to pass Nguyen but didn't pull it off and lost a position to Schmidt.

No idea on why van Hooydonck and Liuzzi disappeared.

[BootsOntheSide]

Sounds like a great drive by Nguyen. Presumably something went wrong on Sperafico's car.

[x_dt]

Championship:
1 Wirdheim 18
2= Pantano 10
2= Toccacelo 10
4 Friesacher 8
5 Ri Sperafico 6
6= Liuzzi 5
6= Janis 5
6= Nguyen 5
9 Schroeder 4
10 Schmidt 3
11= Gianmaria 2
11= Baumgartner 2

Teams:
1 Arden 18
2 Red Bull 13
3 Durango 12
4 Super Nova 10
5 PSM ISR Charouz 9
6 Coloni 8
7 BCN 5
8 Astromega 3

[Lee Janotta]

Nguyen was extremely impressive, lit up the tires at both ends defending his position.

Miserable luck for Phil Giebler.

[Mekola]

How bad that Astromega left Nguyen before the season... and how lucky BCN runners that they signed him instead Mazzacane! (I'm also pleased for it) With the form in was, the young Vietnamese-Australian is coming to be into the big ones this year. Only (perhaps) he needs a frontrunner team.

[mac]

How good is Rob Nguyen!!??

How he nearly didn't have a drive this year is beyond me.

[*formula3*]

nguyen is really good, i´ve seen him racing in formula volkswagen in 2001, he had absolutely no expierience with cars nor in karting and he finihed fourth in the end...very good, i´m happy that he got the drive in the end, is remus still supporting him?

[flor]

at least he has remus stickers on the car

[R]

I can't believe what I'm reading here! Nguyen did OK, but that's also it! Half the field impressed more.

I have no idea where all the praise for Nguyen comes from. Of course he's a decent driver, but he's well overhyped, and the words being used here are extremely exaggerated compared to his performance.

He finished 5th, but he held up Zsolt Baumgartner (who a lot of people makes fun of by refering to as "Slowgartner" - or "Zslow Baumgartner" like above, that's a new one. Guess he can't be all that slow after all, since he was faster than "your boy" Nguyen) and Tony Schmidt for most of the race.

Nguyen was driving very unsportingly when Baumgartner was behind, zigzaging towards the end of the start/finish straight to prevent Zsolt from overtaking, in my view Nguyen breaking the rules which says you can only change your line once. Kudos to Baumgartner for having a go anyway, too bad it didn't come off, but at least he had a go.

Locking up your left front isn't a sign of greatness either, in my book. Nguyen's car certainly lost stability from that move, and at times it looked like he was all over the place. Ralf Schumacher does the same (though he has a tendency to lock up the right front), and it isn't a sign of greatness in his case either.

Van Hooydonck retired early. So did a bunch of the new guys, which makes it hard to make an assessment. Townsend Bell was really poor!

The real stars of the race were Giorgio Pantano and Björn Wirdheim. Enrico Toccacelo and Jaroslav Janis also did well, to finish third and fourth in what looked like being uneventful races for both of them - we certainly didn't see neither of them much.

[mac]

R, what's your problem with Rob? It must be very awkward for him driving around with you firmly attatched to his back. I reckon 16th to 5th is a pretty good effort, personally.

[R]

One question: Do you watch the races?

I don't have a problem with him. I wish him the best of luck, and I hardly think he'll be bothered by some criticism in a racing forum! As fans, we're entitled to our opinions, no matter what those opinions are. What I do have a problem with (and can't see where is coming from) is the extremely exaggerated overhyping that surrounds him. And that's also what I argue against, by posting my take on the events as I see them.

In your previous post, you asked "How good is Rob Nguyen?" My answer to that question is that he is average by F3000 standards. So I don't think that he's a bad driver at all, and I don't want anyone to think that I do. But if you're going to make it sound like he's the next Schumacher, you should be sure that I will contradict that opinion.

[bella]

nguyen has reached his peak i think. it's nothing to be ashamed of because f3000's quite competitive. it's such a shame he reached it so early in his career before he could develop to be a better driver.

[BobbyB]

R & bella,
You guys are off the mark. Mac's comment of Nguyen starting in 16th and getting as far as 6th is worth noting. In my view, this demonstrates more skill than someone like Pantano, who cheated at the start and didn't have to do anything more than to not allow his car to be overtaken throughout the race. Funny how we can all see the same set of circumstances in wildly different ways.

[AnotherSpy]

Yannick Schroeder was very good considering he was punted off by Friesacher. He came round the first lap last, with no lower rear wing, a bent rear wishbone, and damaged drive shaft, yet still managed the 5th fastest race lap, and salvage a point.

[bella]

bobbyb - i'm not off the mark at all. i just don't think he's f1 material and going straight to f3000 was a mistake for anyone.

[mellowyellowcj7]

Originally posted by R
Van Hooydonck retired early. So did a bunch of the new guys, which makes it hard to make an assessment. Townsend Bell was really poor!

Yeah Townsend Bell was poor!
He had a bent car. He did well to stay in 7th as long as he did. I'm going to go back and watch the tape, but there was a clip of his car 6" in the air.

I don't quite understand these standing starts. Why wasn't the guy in the blue car, not penalized for a rolling start? Did the officials miss that?

Other than that 1st and 2nd were heads and sholders above the field.

[jetsetter]

Regardless whether the drive from Nguyen was F1 material or not the main thing was he finished in a very credible 5th place.

[Lee Janotta]

Originally posted by bella
nguyen has reached his peak i think.

This is only the guy's 3rd season racing cars!

Admittedly, I think sportscars would be a better place for him than F3000, for a litany of reasons, but he's doing a fantastic job against guys who have been karting since they were in short pants!

[cos]

Autosport.com reported that Friesacher suffered a broken arm, is this true and is he ok??

[corkholio]

Of course Slowgartner had a faster car. The guy is driving a Coloni, and oh yeah, his teammate was running 3rd until his engine let him down, while Slowgartner was chugging around in 16th place waiting for the drivers with talent to drop out.

Nguyen raced Zslow Baumgartner clean. Nguyen stuck to the inside line and never even chopped him or Schmidt once. That's not to mention that Nguyen is stuck in one of the BCN slugs, the same cars that Zslow couldn't do jack squad with last year. I am sure if Zslow and Schmidt are that good, they would have found a way past.

I do, however, agree with the notion that he was rushed up the ladders way too quickly. But the man does have bucket loads of natural talent, despite what our friend from Norway wants you to believe...

[Russfeld]

There's too many holes in Nguyen's career. There's something else behind the scenes imo. He's displaying incredible talent for his experience in F3000, in which case why didnt he absolutely lap the field when he was in the easier Formula VW series? It seems strange that he'd be more competitive in a more difficult and more experienced series.

[BobbyB]

Originally posted by Russfeld
It seems strange that he'd be more competitive in a more difficult and more experienced series.

He seems to simply be rising to meet the challenge at hand, in my opinion. Kind of refreshing, I'd say.

[razo]

Originally posted by BobbyB
He seems to simply be rising to meet the challenge at hand, in my opinion. Kind of refreshing, I'd say.

How can Nguyen lap the feild when it was his first ever year in motor racing including Karts?? He did a good enough job finishing twice on the podium and a pole positions in Formula VW that was enough to earn him a test in F3000. He has only done just more than 20 races in his life...yes thats Karting too