Entries in Ganassi (13)
Day Off
Saturday, August 7, 2010 at 04:29PM
Whatever happened to days off? With all this new technology and communications we were supposed to make life easier. All we've done is make it 24/7. Thought I could have a quiet day, read a book, watch some racing, but what arrives in e-mail this morning but another lead for a track . Should not complain really as a commission is a commission, and hard to close out, but that put paid to this morning, and now I'll be thinking how to lay it out all weekend. It is fun, but not very restful.
About the only exciting thing happening actually. IRL, NASCAR, ALMS and Grand Am all racing this weekend, but no great surprises yet. Following my review piece yesterday and comments on Peter Sauber not carrying the team much longer it turns out that he is in discussions with the owner of Telmex about investing in the team. Telmex backs the Ganassi Grand Am car, so has a background in racing, and there are a couple of handy Mexican drivers out there, so it could all come together for Sauber. As I said, De La Rosa and Kobayashi may not have a seat next year, we may be watching Perez & Gutierrez, both doing well in GP2&3. Mexico has produced some excellent drivers, who can forget the Rodriguez brothers, if you are old enough to remember them in the first place!
Let's hope there is something interesting for tomorrow.
About the only exciting thing happening actually. IRL, NASCAR, ALMS and Grand Am all racing this weekend, but no great surprises yet. Following my review piece yesterday and comments on Peter Sauber not carrying the team much longer it turns out that he is in discussions with the owner of Telmex about investing in the team. Telmex backs the Ganassi Grand Am car, so has a background in racing, and there are a couple of handy Mexican drivers out there, so it could all come together for Sauber. As I said, De La Rosa and Kobayashi may not have a seat next year, we may be watching Perez & Gutierrez, both doing well in GP2&3. Mexico has produced some excellent drivers, who can forget the Rodriguez brothers, if you are old enough to remember them in the first place!
Let's hope there is something interesting for tomorrow.
Controversy
Monday, July 26, 2010 at 11:53AM
What a strange weekend, the only race that did not end with someone really upset was the MotoGp at Laguna. Not a great race, but great result for guts and determination on the part of Valentino. Cannot imagine how hard the corkscrew is with a broken leg, although as I said before it is the shoulder that is giving him the most trouble. using more arm strength to turn the bike and he hurt his shoulder anyway. Roger Hayden at least finished the race which is more than a lot of the full time riders did, and was not last, so well done.
Ferrari are being hammered about the German GP debacle. I guess on balance my feelings are that if Alonso was faster he should have overtaken Massa without team orders, but we know how hard that is to do with cars so closely matched. From Ferrari's viewpoint I would have thought the team championship would be the prime target, and they got the same points for that whichever way round their drivers finished, so clearly there is a number one driver in that team. So, where do I stand? Let them race. It is going to be potentially a very stressful time for Ferrari until they know what the World Council is going to do, they have been known to strip a team's points for the season.
Over at Indy I guess Montoya thinks there were team orders at Ganassi, with his team mate being sent with two tires and him being delayed to take four and losing the race. I love Montoya for his passion, but then getting caught up in an accident seems to have been a "red mist" moment, although I did not see it so cannot really comment. Must be interesting in some teams debrief sessions. Managing these elite athletes is a special talent, and at the moment McLaren seems to be the only ones doing it well, although they had their problems too in 2007. Maybe Martin Whitmarsh is the new Phil Jackson. If you do not know Phil he is the Coach of the Lakers Basketball, and was Michael Jordan's coach at Chicago. Known as one of very few men who can make egos work together. One funny story, he ran what he called the "triangle offence." When he went to the Lakers the players said they were confused as they could not work out which two of them could sit down.
Over at the IRL I watched the Edmonton race with the sound off as I was not really interested, but, like most I suspect, I am mystified how Castroneves was blocking? No wonder he was hot after the race, that was a terrible decision. About the only thing interesting about the whole race, except why there are walls right on the edge of the asphalt at an airport?
On the home front it has been an interesting morning with three e-mails about overseas projects. Never know where any of these end up, usually nothing happens, but it is nice to know people are out there finding me. Interesting the projects that get thought up. It is difficult to know whether just to give them a fee for what they are thinking of, or to try and redirect them to what I think probably works. It is also summer in most places that want to do something so they are on vacation and things take longer. That is a little of what is going on here in Arizona, but schools go back soon and things will get back in full swing.
Ferrari are being hammered about the German GP debacle. I guess on balance my feelings are that if Alonso was faster he should have overtaken Massa without team orders, but we know how hard that is to do with cars so closely matched. From Ferrari's viewpoint I would have thought the team championship would be the prime target, and they got the same points for that whichever way round their drivers finished, so clearly there is a number one driver in that team. So, where do I stand? Let them race. It is going to be potentially a very stressful time for Ferrari until they know what the World Council is going to do, they have been known to strip a team's points for the season.
Over at Indy I guess Montoya thinks there were team orders at Ganassi, with his team mate being sent with two tires and him being delayed to take four and losing the race. I love Montoya for his passion, but then getting caught up in an accident seems to have been a "red mist" moment, although I did not see it so cannot really comment. Must be interesting in some teams debrief sessions. Managing these elite athletes is a special talent, and at the moment McLaren seems to be the only ones doing it well, although they had their problems too in 2007. Maybe Martin Whitmarsh is the new Phil Jackson. If you do not know Phil he is the Coach of the Lakers Basketball, and was Michael Jordan's coach at Chicago. Known as one of very few men who can make egos work together. One funny story, he ran what he called the "triangle offence." When he went to the Lakers the players said they were confused as they could not work out which two of them could sit down.
Over at the IRL I watched the Edmonton race with the sound off as I was not really interested, but, like most I suspect, I am mystified how Castroneves was blocking? No wonder he was hot after the race, that was a terrible decision. About the only thing interesting about the whole race, except why there are walls right on the edge of the asphalt at an airport?
On the home front it has been an interesting morning with three e-mails about overseas projects. Never know where any of these end up, usually nothing happens, but it is nice to know people are out there finding me. Interesting the projects that get thought up. It is difficult to know whether just to give them a fee for what they are thinking of, or to try and redirect them to what I think probably works. It is also summer in most places that want to do something so they are on vacation and things take longer. That is a little of what is going on here in Arizona, but schools go back soon and things will get back in full swing.
Laguna
Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 06:18PM
Don't know which lagoon to comment on first, the one at Lime Rock or the one in California. Qualifying at Lime Rock could not have been fun for the ALMS boys, but David Brabham showed his class with pole for the Highcroft Honda. Watching the race today two of my pet peeves come to mind, gentlemen racers who should not be out there, and running races at tracks that do not showcase your product well. Lime Rock is a lovely little track, but too short and too narrow for a full field of ALMS. I say full field, but it is actually far from it. Good job the prototype class is so depleted. Speed TV did its usual job of running an infomercial for 2 hours plus. I guess Don has to make money somewhere. If you want to know who makes the money then check the archives at Last Turn Club, they did a three part examination of the money trail. The Jaguar actually ran the whole race, not the quickest car, but it did at least run. Pity about the puncture to Brab's car, spoiled a good finish.
On the other side of the country it was good to see Casey Stoner fastest in Friday practice, let's hope he can keep it up today and stop the Lorenzo show. Roger Hayden has been thrown in the deep end on the LRC Honda, and was slowest, but not by a lot compared to the geriatric Japanese test riders we have been seeing lately. Perhaps with yesterday's sessions under his belt he can qualify OK. Good to see a young guy getting a break though.
At Indianapolis a couple of ex F1 drivers are at opposite ends of the field after Friday practice. Montoya was fastest and Villeneuve 42 nd! Looks like Jacques has his work cut out to qualify that car, pity after his run in the Nationwide car at Road America. I'll admit to being a Montoya fan and would love to see him break through with an oval win, especially at Indy. Wrap up an amazing season for Ganassi.
Over in Germany McLaren has decided to stay with the blown diffuser for qualifying and the race. At some point if you think it is the way forward you have to stay with it and get it to work. Like a lot of things in life, make a decision and go with it, it is better than not making one at all. You rarely, if ever, get the chance to do the exactly the same thing twice, so you never ever know if the decision was right, so live with it. Seems to have worked OK, not on pole but not too shabby. Great qualifying session with Ferrari pushing Red Bull all the way. Button obviously happier with the car in qualifying after some very bad practice times. So sad to see Michael not making it into Q3, not! Mercedes obviously struggling at their home GP, cannot be happy with that. Rosberg commented that the basic car is not good this year, and though they are working hard on making changes it is hard to make a big difference if the base is off. Times are so close it is still anybodies race tomorrow, and if it rains? The Virgin cars are still suffering gearbox problems, which seems to have plagued them since the start of the season. Hard to see why they cannot get on top of this. Nick Worth is under a lot of pressure, but this should have nothing to do with the aerodynamics, which is what Nick and CFD is about, but I guess if you are responsible for the cars design then you have to carry the can for whatever is going wrong. Still, the gearbox is a bolt on piece, unless the hydraulics and the way they are built into the car are at the heart of the problem.
Tour de France going out with a bang. Great time trial today and watch out for Andy Schleck next year, he really put it to Contador who looked totally wiped afterwards. Roll on 2011. Got to go and see this race one year. As an event organizer the logistics of making this happen are amazing. It is one thing to put an event on at a track over three or four days, but to do this for three weeks and move it every day, that is some organization! It is one of those things that to start now would be a real challenge, but these guys have been doing it for a hundred years and building it every year.
On the other side of the country it was good to see Casey Stoner fastest in Friday practice, let's hope he can keep it up today and stop the Lorenzo show. Roger Hayden has been thrown in the deep end on the LRC Honda, and was slowest, but not by a lot compared to the geriatric Japanese test riders we have been seeing lately. Perhaps with yesterday's sessions under his belt he can qualify OK. Good to see a young guy getting a break though.
At Indianapolis a couple of ex F1 drivers are at opposite ends of the field after Friday practice. Montoya was fastest and Villeneuve 42 nd! Looks like Jacques has his work cut out to qualify that car, pity after his run in the Nationwide car at Road America. I'll admit to being a Montoya fan and would love to see him break through with an oval win, especially at Indy. Wrap up an amazing season for Ganassi.
Over in Germany McLaren has decided to stay with the blown diffuser for qualifying and the race. At some point if you think it is the way forward you have to stay with it and get it to work. Like a lot of things in life, make a decision and go with it, it is better than not making one at all. You rarely, if ever, get the chance to do the exactly the same thing twice, so you never ever know if the decision was right, so live with it. Seems to have worked OK, not on pole but not too shabby. Great qualifying session with Ferrari pushing Red Bull all the way. Button obviously happier with the car in qualifying after some very bad practice times. So sad to see Michael not making it into Q3, not! Mercedes obviously struggling at their home GP, cannot be happy with that. Rosberg commented that the basic car is not good this year, and though they are working hard on making changes it is hard to make a big difference if the base is off. Times are so close it is still anybodies race tomorrow, and if it rains? The Virgin cars are still suffering gearbox problems, which seems to have plagued them since the start of the season. Hard to see why they cannot get on top of this. Nick Worth is under a lot of pressure, but this should have nothing to do with the aerodynamics, which is what Nick and CFD is about, but I guess if you are responsible for the cars design then you have to carry the can for whatever is going wrong. Still, the gearbox is a bolt on piece, unless the hydraulics and the way they are built into the car are at the heart of the problem.
Tour de France going out with a bang. Great time trial today and watch out for Andy Schleck next year, he really put it to Contador who looked totally wiped afterwards. Roll on 2011. Got to go and see this race one year. As an event organizer the logistics of making this happen are amazing. It is one thing to put an event on at a track over three or four days, but to do this for three weeks and move it every day, that is some organization! It is one of those things that to start now would be a real challenge, but these guys have been doing it for a hundred years and building it every year.