Jean Alesi to race in Indy 500

[hornet]

I'm a fan of the series, but this is a baffling move.

http://www.racer.com/newmanhaas-drive-for-alesi-at...

[Great Dane]

LOTUS is the answer

[rallycross]

This was announced by Lotus last year (or more than a year ago?) did'nt believe it at the time.

Hope it all ends well as Indy 500 is not a good place to go and learn how to race on Ovals, long time retired F1 driver does not = oval racing winner.

[Streps]

I hope he does as well as can be expected.
first time and Judd engine right?
He just seems to be there for Lotus Marketing purposes though.



The Indy spec DW12 looks rather good.

Edited by Streps on Friday 6th April 01:34

[gowmonster]

OMG, what have they done to to that car? do they all look like that?

[Stu R]

Baffling move, curious to see how he'll get on.

gowmonster said:

OMG, what have they done to to that car? do they all look like that?

Some of them look even worse. Hideous this year.

[PiB]

Indy is where F1 champions retire by becoming the series champion. Numerous F1 drivers and Europe feeder series drivers have succeeded in the Indy/CART oval racing series. Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve and don't forget the Nige.

This is just my opinion but America just doesn't breed exceptional talent when it comes to light weight powerful open wheel cars - that may be slowly starting to change though.

[hornet]

PiB said:

This is just my opinion but America just doesn't breed exceptional talent when it comes to light weight powerful open wheel cars - that may be slowly starting to change though.

I think it did in years gone by, but the rise and rise of NASCAR has meant the young talent is quickly diverted to the whole trucks, Nationwide, Cup ladder. Given that's where the money is, can't say I blame them really. Someone pointed out that the US viewing figures for Indycar are only marginally better than the UK, which shows how few people over there watch it, Indy aside. On that basis, you'd have to really love open wheel racing to pursue a career in it. Hopefully the series can get back to something approaching the strength it was pre-1996, but I just can't see NASCAR losing popularity any time soon. Personally, I'd love to see someone like Kyle Busch give open wheel a go, as he's clearly a very talented driver, but given he's earnt $40m in the last eight years in NASCAR, why on earth would he? Maybe an Indy one off (and Stewart, if indeed he'd fit), but can't see the sponsors allowing it. Indeed, I think that was the original plan for Vegas last year before Wheldon took up the offer.

ETA - new cars are growing on me, but depends an awful lot on livery. The Dragon Racing car of Bourdais is probably the nicest.

[rm89]

I like the new cars. They somehow look like something that would have been a "racecar of the new millennium" in the 1960s. Or something. Judging by the racing at Barber (from Bourdais and Andretti in particular), they also seem to be exceptionally sturdy and not averse to a bit of bumping and barging.

Some of the liveries are particularly atrocious though. Dario's car looked horrible last weekend.

[thunderbelmont]

PiB said:

Indy is where F1 champions retire by becoming the series champion. Numerous F1 drivers and Europe feeder series drivers have succeeded in the Indy/CART oval racing series. Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve and don't forget the Nige.

This is just my opinion but America just doesn't breed exceptional talent when it comes to light weight powerful open wheel cars - that may be slowly starting to change though.

Well actually - Mario Andretti came from Indycar (and NASCAR) to F1 before returning home, and Jacques Villeneuve was a champion in ChampCar (as it was then) before joining Williams, winning the WDC and never doing anything meaningful ever again.

[Sprint Rich]

thunderbelmont said:

Well actually - Mario Andretti came from Indycar (and NASCAR) to F1 before returning home, and Jacques Villeneuve was a champion in ChampCar (as it was then) before joining Williams, winning the WDC and never doing anything meaningful ever again.

Montoya raced Champ cars before F1 too. Christian Fittipaldi and Max Papis both had midfield F1 careers before they went to the USA, neither dominated. See also Justin Wilson and (early days yet) Rubens. As someone else said the USA has a huge pool of drivers heading for Nascar, the reason they havent produced great single seater drivers is down to the size of the pool coming through. Same reason we havent yet seen world class female, Chinese, African drivvers.