Auto Racing Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 16,476]

Sad news, one of the absolute legends of motor racing. Rest in peace.

[Olympian1010 8,322]

So I guess there’s an assload of controversy after the virtual Indy 500 last weekend. There were two major incidents in which drivers purposefully took out another driver who was in the lead at the time. Racing channels and forums are hot with debate right now. Also, because the first incident was between Lando Norris and Simon Pagenaud there’s now some sour relations between F1 and IndyCar fanbases and drivers.

 

Honestly, IndyCar drivers being assholes doesn’t really shock me. Americans love athletes that have poor attitudes and model poor behavior. 

[Monzanator 5,136]

Thankfully I don't watch these iRacing crapwagons. It's been like 15 years since I played Grand Prix Legends online but that ship has sailed for me

[Olympian1010 8,322]

53 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Thankfully I don't watch these iRacing crapwagons. It's been like 15 years since I played Grand Prix Legends online but that ship has sailed for me

iRacing and the F1 Game are highly entertaining to watch. There’s been some great racing up until this drama. There were some epic battles at the Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend.

[heywoodu 16,476]

9 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

So I guess there’s an assload of controversy after the virtual Indy 500 last weekend. There were two major incidents in which drivers purposefully took out another driver who was in the lead at the time. Racing channels and forums are hot with debate right now. Also, because the first incident was between Lando Norris and Simon Pagenaud there’s now some sour relations between F1 and IndyCar fanbases and drivers.

 

Honestly, IndyCar drivers being assholes doesn’t really shock me. Americans love athletes that have poor attitudes and model poor behavior. 

 

Oh well, those people who somehow can only be a fan of one series aren't worth the time anyway  

 

But yeah, that was a shitshow by Pagenaud but even more so by Santino Ferrucci, who purposefully pushed Oliver Askew into the walls 100m before the finish (Askew was winning, Ferrucci thought it was Mario Kart and he could win that way). Most other IndyCar drivers seemed to agree that was a shit move by Ferrucci (who is known as a major asshole anyway, just look at him in GP2), Conor Daly quite clearly told him he didn't need to do that.

 

Luckily these things exist though, they are often great fun indeed  I don't find all of them as interesting: the Formula E and virtual F1 races aren't so much my thing for example, they just don't really find the right mix between fun and serious racing. IndyCar is doing well, but I find NASCAR the most fun by far. Good contact with the drivers during the race, Clint Bowyer in the studio is always good for laughs and especially when Jeff Gordon joint him a week ago it was wonderful fun. 

 

I can't wait for real racing to get underway, but my race loving heart is happy we've got some excellent entertainment in this, with both young and old drivers joining in.

[Olympian1010 8,322]

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

 

Oh well, those people who somehow can only be a fan of one series aren't worth the time anyway  

 

But yeah, that was a shitshow by Pagenaud but even more so by Santino Ferrucci, who purposefully pushed Oliver Askew into the walls 100m before the finish (Askew was winning, Ferrucci thought it was Mario Kart and he could win that way). Most other IndyCar drivers seemed to agree that was a shit move by Ferrucci (who is known as a major asshole anyway, just look at him in GP2), Conor Daly quite clearly told him he didn't need to do that.

 

Luckily these things exist though, they are often great fun indeed  I don't find all of them as interesting: the Formula E and virtual F1 races aren't so much my thing for example, they just don't really find the right mix between fun and serious racing. IndyCar is doing well, but I find NASCAR the most fun by far. Good contact with the drivers during the race, Clint Bowyer in the studio is always good for laughs and especially when Jeff Gordon joint him a week ago it was wonderful fun. 

 

I can't wait for real racing to get underway, but my race loving heart is happy we've got some excellent entertainment in this, with both young and old drivers joining in.

Yeah people are saying that Pagenuad and Ferrucci should be permanently banned from iRacing, and maybe even punished when the season starts up. Formula E didn’t even bother with sim racing. They went straight to marble racing and partnered up with the channel I always post about (I’m dead serious about this). I’ve actually really enjoyed the F1 races. They’ve been much more entertaining than the actual F1 races (because people have equal cars, and there’s some actual overtaking). Plus, they’re playing with a bunch of YouTubers who are fanboying hard 

[heywoodu 16,476]

1 minute ago, Olympian1010 said:

Yeah people are saying that Pagenuad and Ferrucci should be permanently banned from iRacing, and maybe even punished when the season starts up. Formula E didn’t even bother with sim racing. 

 

Formula E is sim racing though, for a few weeks already. With almost all actual drivers present (I think except for one or two who don't have the equipment yet), another thing they and most top series have ahead on F1, where maybe half the field is participating and the other half doesn't much care for it - F1 needs to use their own game instead of something good like iRacing, and people like Norris and Verstappen just aren't really into that (Norris uninstalled it after the game just froze and he was kicked out of the race for the second time).

 

Punishing Pagenaud and Ferrucci for the real life season would be complete bullshit. Come on, those were asshole moves, but punishing a rider in the real life season for something they did in a virtual race is downright bullshit, period.

[Olympian1010 8,322]

58 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

 

Formula E is sim racing though, for a few weeks already. With almost all actual drivers present (I think except for one or two who don't have the equipment yet), another thing they and most top series have ahead on F1, where maybe half the field is participating and the other half doesn't much care for it - F1 needs to use their own game instead of something good like iRacing, and people like Norris and Verstappen just aren't really into that (Norris uninstalled it after the game just froze and he was kicked out of the race for the second time).

 

Punishing Pagenaud and Ferrucci for the real life season would be complete bullshit. Come on, those were asshole moves, but punishing a rider in the real life season for something they did in a virtual race is downright bullshit, period.

The argument being made is that this race was national television, with sponsors and interested groups fully engaged in the delivery of a proper. When Norris addressed the issue he talked about how many drivers and even teams (strategists, spotters, engineers, etc.) had put hours, if not days, of preparation into this race, and how it was very much a serious event, and that was made clear. To me it seems fair to punish them. We have to teach young drivers and kids that it’s not okay to be an asshole just because your online and there’s no consequences. I’ve already seen what that attitude can do to people, I lost full function of my left thumb from an incident related to that attitude. 
 

So when these asshole crash people on purpose, they’ve wasted people’s time, effort, and energy to make a legitimate alternative for fans. Plus, fans came to see a clean/contested race, and now everyone’s disappointed about the outcome because of some low grade professionals who can’t what they do seriously. Virtual or not, there was a lot invested into this race from many parties. 
 

Now, I don’t think the punishments should be harsh. I think should be banned from iRacing until both apologize from purposely crashing another competitor. I would then suggest that they be allowed to race, but that they forfeit all prize money and series points for the first race of the season. That seems more than fair to me. 

[heywoodu 16,476]

21 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

The argument being made is that this race was national television, with sponsors and interested groups fully engaged in the delivery of a proper. When Norris addressed the issue he talked about how many drivers and even teams (strategists, spotters, engineers, etc.) had put hours, if not days, of preparation into this race, and how it was very much a serious event, and that was made clear. To me it seems fair to punish them. We have to teach young drivers and kids that it’s not okay to be an asshole just because your online and there’s no consequences. I’ve already seen what that attitude can do to people, I lost full function of my left thumb from an incident related to that attitude. 
 

So when these asshole crash people on purpose, they’ve wasted people’s time, effort, and energy to make a legitimate alternative for fans. Plus, fans came to see a clean/contested race, and now everyone’s disappointed about the outcome because of some low grade professionals who can’t what they do seriously. Virtual or not, there was a lot invested into this race from many parties. 
 

Now, I don’t think the punishments should be harsh. I think should be banned from iRacing until both apologize from purposely crashing another competitor. I would then suggest that they be allowed to race, but that they forfeit all prize money and series points for the first race of the season. That seems more than fair to me. 

 

Not being in the next few iRacing events is really more than enough. No forced forfeiting prize money (although it'd be a good show if they'd take the prize money and donate it to a charity - not that some trash like Ferrucci would do that, but Pagenaud doesn't generally seem to be a bad guy), no withholding of points.

 

In the end fans are watching to have some fun, and most of the race definitely was, up to the very last lap. Those were asshole moves and I'd rather see any race without Ferrucci, but dear lord, can we just stop making it sound like they killed someone. People overreacting so enormously about this make it sound like I'm defending Ferrucci, that's not what I wanna do at all  

[Olympian1010 8,322]

17 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

 

Not being in the next few iRacing events is really more than enough. No forced forfeiting prize money (although it'd be a good show if they'd take the prize money and donate it to a charity - not that some trash like Ferrucci would do that, but Pagenaud doesn't generally seem to be a bad guy), no withholding of points.

 

In the end fans are watching to have some fun, and most of the race definitely was, up to the very last lap. Those were asshole moves and I'd rather see any race without Ferrucci, but dear lord, can we just stop making it sound like they killed someone. People overreacting so enormously about this make it sound like I'm defending Ferrucci, that's not what I wanna do at all  

You know this is just an issue that I’m passionate about. Like I said in my last post, I’ve seen where the “it’s just a game” mentality can land you. There’s absolutely a place for that (Leclerc organized a virtual lawn mower races with his mates where they knew they were crashing on purpose), this wasn’t it. They cost people money, time, and effort; and their should be some consequences for that.