800 Races
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 09:37AM
So Ferrari has competed in 800 races. Who keeps these records and do we really care? What about 750, it somehow sounds more important than 800. I remember when the great Pele supposedly scored his 1000th goal. The goalkeeper had a tee shirt under his jersey with 1000 on it so he could be part of the celebration. That's something to be proud of? But what I want to know is, how do we know it was his 1000th? 1000 goals in what? All the matches he ever played in his life, on the beach, professionally? Do we really think someone in Brazil kept those records? Anyway, I am sure it is easier to count the number of Ferrari starts, but why do we want to know? In my book it is the last race that counts.
An F1 race in the US continues as a feeding frenzy for the media, both those gushing over it and those questioning the seriousness of it. I am continually surprised by the teams and sponsors saying they need a race to come to the States. As far as I know there are 19 races coming to the US this year, and we have had them coming for years via TV. Bernie worked out a long time ago that you do not have to race in a country to have an audience there. Australia watched F1 a long time before Adelaide in '85, thanks to Alan Jones, and Adelaide succeeded because of Alan. That is why Bernie is comfortable losing races in Europe because he knows that the Europeans will still watch it even if the race is being held in Turkey at a track no one goes to watch. And that suits Bernie, no crowds to make it hard to get in and out for him and the teams, and he can put billboards everywhere without worrying about blocking someone's view.
OK, so the marketing types like to put on promotions etc to sell their cars, but do 100,000 people, or even 200,000 at Indy, make any difference just because they're at the track and not watching the TV? Is the TV audience suddenly going to spike just because it is in the US, and does that translate into a larger audience all year for the coverage? Does anyone have any evidence that having the race at Indy or not has made a difference in the viewing figure, please comment if you do. For me, if the teams really want to build their sport in the US then invest some money to put the races on Network TV, or at least ESPN, and treat it seriously, not just as a time filler, find some real commentators, and find a way to get a couple of drivers like Alexander Rossi into an F1 car. No offence to Michael Andretti, but that did us no favors at all, and Scott Sharp was not the guy and nor were Torro Rosso the team to put him in. Maybe then you will have a chance against all the existing sport, let alone NASCAR. Martin Whitmarsh talks about tailoring F1 to suit the American fan when they're here, but having a fan walk ain't it. You may not have noticed but Basketball, Football etc do not need these, nice as they are.
Talking of Turkey, why do we have major ripples in this six year old track? Is it built on a rubbish dump like Brazil, or did we not get the correct pavement laid properly. Seems unlikely in this day and age that Mr. Tilke did not spec this and supervise it. Just curious.
In practice for Turkey the Red Bull Team rolled out their version of the F-Duct, but did not make an impact on the speed trap numbers while being second and third on the time chart. They continue to confound the experts as to what they are doing with that car that makes it so fast.
"Murphy The Bear" has his, I presume it is he, latest offering at www.murphythebear.com, always a good read. He predicts the demise of the prototypes in sports car racing as we know them, and the rise of the GT. This is no bad thing given the racing the GT's have been serving up, and let us not forget they have been times before when Le Mans was only GT's. In fact, if you are a purist, Le Mans was started to showcase just this type of car back at the dawn of time. Competitors drove their Grand Touring Bentley's etc, cars built to do the grand tour of Europe complete with luggage, to the track for those first races. (Does the FIA still require the FISA suitcase to fit somewhere in the car?) The cars were inspected in the Town Square, as they are to this day, one of the great parts of Le Mans week, and then driven out to the roads on the edge of town that made up the track to prove that the automobile had been sufficiently developed that it could run for 24 hours, with a riding mechanic of course to keep it going. So, as I said the other day, not much new under the sun.
An F1 race in the US continues as a feeding frenzy for the media, both those gushing over it and those questioning the seriousness of it. I am continually surprised by the teams and sponsors saying they need a race to come to the States. As far as I know there are 19 races coming to the US this year, and we have had them coming for years via TV. Bernie worked out a long time ago that you do not have to race in a country to have an audience there. Australia watched F1 a long time before Adelaide in '85, thanks to Alan Jones, and Adelaide succeeded because of Alan. That is why Bernie is comfortable losing races in Europe because he knows that the Europeans will still watch it even if the race is being held in Turkey at a track no one goes to watch. And that suits Bernie, no crowds to make it hard to get in and out for him and the teams, and he can put billboards everywhere without worrying about blocking someone's view.
OK, so the marketing types like to put on promotions etc to sell their cars, but do 100,000 people, or even 200,000 at Indy, make any difference just because they're at the track and not watching the TV? Is the TV audience suddenly going to spike just because it is in the US, and does that translate into a larger audience all year for the coverage? Does anyone have any evidence that having the race at Indy or not has made a difference in the viewing figure, please comment if you do. For me, if the teams really want to build their sport in the US then invest some money to put the races on Network TV, or at least ESPN, and treat it seriously, not just as a time filler, find some real commentators, and find a way to get a couple of drivers like Alexander Rossi into an F1 car. No offence to Michael Andretti, but that did us no favors at all, and Scott Sharp was not the guy and nor were Torro Rosso the team to put him in. Maybe then you will have a chance against all the existing sport, let alone NASCAR. Martin Whitmarsh talks about tailoring F1 to suit the American fan when they're here, but having a fan walk ain't it. You may not have noticed but Basketball, Football etc do not need these, nice as they are.
Talking of Turkey, why do we have major ripples in this six year old track? Is it built on a rubbish dump like Brazil, or did we not get the correct pavement laid properly. Seems unlikely in this day and age that Mr. Tilke did not spec this and supervise it. Just curious.
In practice for Turkey the Red Bull Team rolled out their version of the F-Duct, but did not make an impact on the speed trap numbers while being second and third on the time chart. They continue to confound the experts as to what they are doing with that car that makes it so fast.
"Murphy The Bear" has his, I presume it is he, latest offering at www.murphythebear.com, always a good read. He predicts the demise of the prototypes in sports car racing as we know them, and the rise of the GT. This is no bad thing given the racing the GT's have been serving up, and let us not forget they have been times before when Le Mans was only GT's. In fact, if you are a purist, Le Mans was started to showcase just this type of car back at the dawn of time. Competitors drove their Grand Touring Bentley's etc, cars built to do the grand tour of Europe complete with luggage, to the track for those first races. (Does the FIA still require the FISA suitcase to fit somewhere in the car?) The cars were inspected in the Town Square, as they are to this day, one of the great parts of Le Mans week, and then driven out to the roads on the edge of town that made up the track to prove that the automobile had been sufficiently developed that it could run for 24 hours, with a riding mechanic of course to keep it going. So, as I said the other day, not much new under the sun.
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