Promising talent and old standards

[KC]

Well, the season is underway and it was a good race at a good track. Although I am sure Brock Yates can find a multitude of things to whine about.

Promising new talent...
Sebastian Bourdais: very quick, however he got caught out a little on the cold tires and was mobbed by the other racers. He will do well this season. He will learn how to handle the cars with cold tires and this will pay dividends for him.
Tiago Monteiro: very mature drive for a guy who I've never heard of, driving for a team only a month old and in a car he only saw for the first time last week! I know Paul Tracy was unhappy he got stuck behind the Portuguese, but that's racing. I also noticed his pit stops went flawless. That did not look like a brand new team with a rookie driver.
Mario Haberfeld: very agressive young driver. When I saw the replay of the "blocking" manuver he was being villified for, I saw something totally different. Haberfeld moved to his right before Junqueria did and continued to the right down the entire straight. Junqueiria made the mistake by following him out there and trying the impossible pass. Nearly cost three cars the race. I do think he was blocking on the second attempt later on against Junqueria.

Old Standards...
Paul Tracy: a fairly mature and patient result from everyone's favorite Canadian. He should have been in the front of this race and did everything right to get the win.
Jimmy Vasser: still got some speed from the former champ. Vasser started the race in last position after his car failed to meet the grid. Not a bad result after having to overcome a few spinning rookies in front of him.
Roberto Moreno: another old dog with a show of speed and talent. This guy is still having fun racing against drivers young enough to be his sons. He truly does enjoy his racing.

It was good to see Emmo and the grin on his face as his driver stood his ground and brought home the fledgling FD Racing effort well in the points.

Also kudos to Joel Camathias for hanging in there, out of his depth to some degree, and bringing in the car with points on his first effort. The team looks more out of sorts than the driver at this time.

All in all, a good debut. A decent field of cars with very little in the way of truly stupid driving. Who thought the whole field could get through the first corner without a 6 car demolition derby? Maybe the F1 teams cannot see the talent they once had in their grasp?

[KC]

Oops, forgot to mention Darren Manning in that list of impressive rookies. It should prove very intersting at the Brands Hatch race, a place I sure he is very familiar with.

[Russfeld]

Originally posted by KC
Sebastian Bourdais: very quick, however he got caught out a little on the cold tires and was mobbed by the other racers. He will do well this season. He will learn how to handle the cars with cold tires and this will pay dividends for him.

The cold tires thing is so overrated in the Bourdais incident. He's got plenty of experience on cold tires from his F3000 and sportscar years. Anyone else in the series coming out of the pits in that group on full tanks and cold slicks would have been mobbed too.

[BootsOntheSide]

Actually F3000 has tyre warmers, and the tyres will have been sued from the start, includign a formation lap. In CART the tyres added during a pitstop are considerably colder.

[Russfeld]

I thought F3000 only had them in testing?

[KC]

Thats why I thought. I am not sure, but I think they used warmed tires in F3000.

[BootsOntheSide]

I may be mistaken, but I can't see the logic of ONLY allowing them in testing. Surely that'd cause the rookie drivers to expect far more grip than they'll get in the first corner duels, leading to lots of collisions?

Unless you meant that they are used in testing, but under the knowledge that it's an illegal car, just so as to help the new driver learn without writing off too many cars?

[Russfeld]

CART uses them in testing too, cuts down on the wasted laps waiting for tires to warmup. On a given test day you could maybe save 20-50 'good' laps by using tire warmers depending on how often you're in and out of the pits.

I know they use them quite often in oval testing so the driver can value the setup change usually before an entire hot lap is completed.