Auto Racing Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 16,476]

More than excellent ride by Tatiana Calderon, Sophia Flörsch and Beitske Visser in the all-female #50 Richard Mille! Nothing too special in terms of speed, but very stable, they basically made no mistakes at all, didn't encounter any issues and finished in a very respectable 13th overall and 9th in the LMP2  

[Federer91 3,392]

Wasn't the most exciting Le Mans that we've seen. Let's hope things will change from next year. Toyota can win without Fernando Alonso, who would have thought.  Buemi, Nakakima and Hartley are all now 3-time LM winners, which is ok, i guess..

[heywoodu 16,476]

11 hours ago, Federer91 said:

Wasn't the most exciting Le Mans that we've seen. Let's hope things will change from next year. Toyota can win without Fernando Alonso, who would have thought.  Buemi, Nakakima and Hartley are all now 3-time LM winners, which is ok, i guess..

Everyone?  

[Monzanator 5,136]

On 20/09/2020 at 15:00, heywoodu said:

More than excellent ride by Tatiana Calderon, Sophia Flörsch and Beitske Visser in the all-female #50 Richard Mille! Nothing too special in terms of speed, but very stable, they basically made no mistakes at all, didn't encounter any issues and finished in a very respectable 13th overall and 9th in the LMP2  

 

Why didn't Porsche enter Simona de Silvestro? She's the fastest and most reliable female driver of the past decade plus, way above the overrated Danica Patrick or the W Series graduates.

 

Meanwhile Zach Veach is out at the #26 Andretti Autosport entry (poor results and crash repair bill stacking up). If Sergio Perez can't hook up at Haas in F1 there's a solid IndyCar opening for 2021 right here. We know Andretti is more than comfortable fielding internantional drivers. Something for @mrv86 to watch out

[heywoodu 16,476]

7 hours ago, Monzanator said:

 

Why didn't Porsche enter Simona de Silvestro? She's the fastest and most reliable female driver of the past decade plus, way above the overrated Danica Patrick or the W Series graduates.

Most likely because their seats were already filled in. Suddenly coming up with comparing De Silvestro and Patrick out of the blue...it's a bit impossible to compare them. If you're talking about GT/Supercars racing, which Patrick hasn't raced in much, De Silvestro comes out on top (not too good, but at least pretty reliably in the back). Talk about NASCAR, which De Silvestro hasn't raced in, and Patrick comes out on top. They did both race in IndyCar and De Silvestro was simply mostly a backmarker, whereas Patrick had her moments now and then.

 

Oh well, this was about Le Mans and both weren't in the picture there, so it's all a bit senseless. Like trying to compare Tony Kanaan and, say, Gary Paffett.

[Monzanator 5,136]

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

Most likely because their seats were already filled in. Suddenly coming up with comparing De Silvestro and Patrick out of the blue...it's a bit impossible to compare them. If you're talking about GT/Supercars racing, which Patrick hasn't raced in much, De Silvestro comes out on top (not too good, but at least pretty reliably in the back). Talk about NASCAR, which De Silvestro hasn't raced in, and Patrick comes out on top. They did both race in IndyCar and De Silvestro was simply mostly a backmarker, whereas Patrick had her moments now and then.

 

Oh well, this was about Le Mans and both weren't in the picture there, so it's all a bit senseless. Like trying to compare Tony Kanaan and, say, Gary Paffett.

 

Patrick had her moments? Please... that's PR crap for ignorants. Motegi win was all down to cars around her saving fuel. Plus she burned all the IndyCar bridges after she jumped for NASCAR money.

 

She was a total wash & a publicity stunt in NASCAR, she achieved 7 Top 10s in 191 races, her replacement Aric Almirola needed 16 races to match that total Tatiana Calderon hasn't showed much in ladder series in Europe and Floersch got more publicity due to her Macau crash more than anything.

 

Simona de Silvestro doesn't have the PR stunt and has hang it out against the toughest without the lucky breaks. HVM was a low-tier team and the Lotus engine foray was a total disaster. But she had a 2nd place on merit in Houston.

 

I'm not saying she would be ultra successful at Le Mans but she's way more accomplished than Calderon and Floersch will ever be IMO.

 

In my 30 years of watching motor sports two women have shown the mettle to mix it with the big boys, Ellen Lohr and Simona de Silvestro. Everyone else is 2nd tier allthough I didn't see enough of Christina Nielsen to have a full opinion on her (btw, Nielsen was also missing at Le Mans, I suppose the fire at Daytona 24h literally burned down her season too?).

 

 

[heywoodu 16,476]

3 hours ago, Monzanator said:

 

Patrick had her moments? Please... that's PR crap for ignorants. Motegi win was all down to cars around her saving fuel. Plus she burned all the IndyCar bridges after she jumped for NASCAR money.

 

She was a total wash & a publicity stunt in NASCAR, she achieved 7 Top 10s in 191 races, her replacement Aric Almirola needed 16 races to match that total Tatiana Calderon hasn't showed much in ladder series in Europe and Floersch got more publicity due to her Macau crash more than anything.

 

Simona de Silvestro doesn't have the PR stunt and has hang it out against the toughest without the lucky breaks. HVM was a low-tier team and the Lotus engine foray was a total disaster. But she had a 2nd place on merit in Houston.

 

I'm not saying she would be ultra successful at Le Mans but she's way more accomplished than Calderon and Floersch will ever be IMO.

 

In my 30 years of watching motor sports two women have shown the mettle to mix it with the big boys, Ellen Lohr and Simona de Silvestro. Everyone else is 2nd tier allthough I didn't see enough of Christina Nielsen to have a full opinion on her (btw, Nielsen was also missing at Le Mans, I suppose the fire at Daytona 24h literally burned down her season too?).

 

 

Yes, Patrick had her moments. And no, I'm not saying she was an elite rider in the top American classes, but she wasn't worse than a good amount of riders who are there. It's not like all of her good results, because she had some, were due to luck, and people often forget how incredibly often she was crashed out of the race by others. No, I'm not a fan of her, but "PR crap for ignorants" as answer to saying she had her moments is just ignorant in itself  

 

De Silvestro had her moments as well, in between mostly hanging around at the back, accomplished more than Calderon and Flörsch (duh, she's rather much younger). Calderon has never really impressed me much, neither did Flörsch, although she is still young enough and has at least shown enough resilience and mental strength.

 

In the end, it's not like every team can just choose everyone to race for them. I didn't check why De Silvestro wasn't in the car, perhaps she had other obligations or just wasn't an option for Porsche for other reasons than just performance. If Porsche was looking specifically for a female driver, they may have tried her, but in the end it's still simply a matter of trying to get the strongest and De Silvestro isn't one of the strongest overall riders.

 

Calderon and Flörsch had nothing to do with Porsche at all, they were in LMP2 and so are just entirely out of this discussion anyway.

[Monzanator 5,136]

8 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Yes, Patrick had her moments. And no, I'm not saying she was an elite rider in the top American classes, but she wasn't worse than a good amount of riders who are there. It's not like all of her good results, because she had some, were due to luck, and people often forget how incredibly often she was crashed out of the race by others. No, I'm not a fan of her, but "PR crap for ignorants" as answer to saying she had her moments is just ignorant in itself  

 

De Silvestro had her moments as well, in between mostly hanging around at the back, accomplished more than Calderon and Flörsch (duh, she's rather much younger). Calderon has never really impressed me much, neither did Flörsch, although she is still young enough and has at least shown enough resilience and mental strength.

 

In the end, it's not like every team can just choose everyone to race for them. I didn't check why De Silvestro wasn't in the car, perhaps she had other obligations or just wasn't an option for Porsche for other reasons than just performance. If Porsche was looking specifically for a female driver, they may have tried her, but in the end it's still simply a matter of trying to get the strongest and De Silvestro isn't one of the strongest overall riders.

 

Calderon and Flörsch had nothing to do with Porsche at all, they were in LMP2 and so are just entirely out of this discussion anyway.

I didn't say SDS should have replaced either Calderon or Floersch in that car since obviously it wasn't a Porsche. But in the Pro-Am days it doesn't take much to put these usless ride buyers out there and nobody has an issue with it while you seem to dismiss Simona as backmarker who can't do better than Danica frickin' Patrick.

[heywoodu 16,476]

Le Mans is the famous 24 hour race, Nürburgring is the epic one and that one is about to start  

 

Warmup lap started almost 20 minutes ago, so they're almost there now  

 

Almost a hundred cars (less than usual, but alright), rain, close racing, the Green Hell that's been dubbed Dark Hell because of the lack of fires and such. Here we go!

[heywoodu 16,476]

Quite some first 7 hours. Third-placed Lamborghini broke down and is out, later the leading Mercedes crashed and is out....and less than an hour ago, the other leading Mercedes crashed as well, out as well. Two of the three leading Audi's had a spin, but stayed on the road, and now there's a red flag due to too heavy rain, which is most likely going to turn the 24 hour race into a 16 hour race, since it's probably not going to be lifted until early daylight