Zanardi wants to race in Indianapolis 500

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Former F1 driver and two-times IndyCar champion Alessandro Zanardi, now a Paralympic competitor having lost his legs, want to compete in the Indianapolis 500.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Former CART champ Zanardi to compete at Paralympic Games (The Globe and Mail)

“In a perfect world, Chip Ganassi would call me and ask if I wanted to do the Indy 500. That would be cool. Let me do this first and then we will see.”

Belgian GP Preview (Williams)

Bruno Senna: “Qualifying will be important and I’m looking to get into Q3 like I did in the last race and from there hopefully score some good points for the team.”

Lotus’ performance highlights closely fought Formula One season (AutoWeek)

Eric Boullier: “Yes, it was a risk to [gamble on Raikkonen]. It was a risk to bring Grosjean [who struggled with the Renault team during his first F1 go-round in 2009], but I think we were so convinced with what we wanted to do, we just went for it. I don’t know if it was brave or it was stupid!”

Tony Fernandes interview on Caterham F1 Team and Leafield (Caterham via YouTube)

The harsh realities (Joe Saward)

Vitaly Petrov is a pay driver. A good one, but a pay driver nonetheless and if his friends in Russia do not deliver the cash for him to continue in F1 in 2013 then Caterham will take another driver who can provide what is needed.”

Spa-Francorchamps equals respect (ESPN)

“Our worst fears were completely unfounded. The new Spa demonstrated just what can be done while making the necessary safety improvements but without diluting the track’s essential character.”

Back in the Saddle (EACSports)

“Personally, I hope to see more of the same. The prominence of race strategy and tyre degradation is engaging, the midfield battle is furious and at the top the drivers know it’s anyone’s championship. If this wasn’t enough, the rumour mill is conjuring up a gripping backdrop as speculation builds on the future of Felipe Massa, the man who will take his seat and the expiration of Hamilton’s McLaren contract.”

Formula One Betting: All systems go in Belgium

My latest article for Unibet.

Tweets

Comment of the day

@French-Steve mentioned an interesting statistic about the 1982 Swiss Grand Prix, the subject of yesterday’s On This Day:

The Swiss Grand Prix 1982 at Dijon is the last race with no Ferrari at the start on Sunday.
@French-Steve

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Michael Schumacher scored his first career win in the Belgian Grand Prix 20 years ago today.

Schumacher made a decisive switch to slick tyres after going off the track, falling behind team mate Martin Brundle, and noting the state of the rear tyres on the other Benetton.

Earlier leader Nigel Mansell began chasing Schumacher after he changed to slicks, but a broken exhaust ended his bid for victory and sealed a memorable debut win for Schumacher.

This race weekend also saw the final appearance of the infamously dreadful Andrea Moda team:

Image © Ford.com

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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25 comments on “Zanardi wants to race in Indianapolis 500”

  1. Alex Zanardi is by far my most estimated driver of all time. An example of effort and consistence and a message for all that anyone can achieve anything with hard work. Just seeing him start, or do some demo laps, would bring tears to my eyes just like when he won in the WTCC. Respect.

    1. Watching him in CART, then Montoya after him, was the best experience of American racing I could ever wished for!

    2. It just goes to show, when you have racing in your blood nothing will hold you back. What an inspiration Alex is and I’m happy to say I’ll be seeing him in ‘action’ at Brands Hatch on 7 Sept. Yes, Respect.

  2. if alex could have an indycar adapted for hand controlls, was entered in the 500 and proved competitive – i would be genuinely lost for words. he tested a bmw sauber a few years ago – i think he was thirteen seconds off of the lap record. as he says – one thing at a time. clearly, nothing gets in the way of alex and racing – good for him.

    1. Surely he would have improved in that time.

    2. Indeed, it would be amazing to see him go for it. He will hardly be slower than the Lotus engined car with Alesi this year!.

  3. I don’t see how Eric Boullier saw his drivers as a ‘risk’.
    Kimi wasn’t gone that long and is a proven talent.
    Grosjean had a bit of bad luck when he came to drive the renault.
    But if you look what he did after that, it was amazing.
    Going to GT1 and became an instant winner and a year later claim the gp2 title he should have won on his previous attempt hadn’t he taken that f1 drive.

    If it was a risk it was a very small calculated risk imo!

    ps: on the D’ambrosio facebook page I read that Jerome won’t be driving on friday, too bad :(
    A missed opportunity having a Belgian drive at his home track is always a positive (I would be amazed if Bernie didn’t make a call for it)

    1. I was going to say exactly the same, particularly when you consider any unspectacular alternatives.

    2. I can’t be the only one that agrees with Boullier, F1 doesn’t stop to wait for you, of course both drivers are talented but no team manager would have chosen such a risky duo, in the end the car is the most important piece on the team if the car was rubbish everyone would start saying that the line-up wasn’t good enough for the task. I might say that Romains performance on GT cars was really really impressive i remember watching him with the Ford GT besting the field only Richard Westbrook had such impressive performances with the GT, shame that no one but Porsche picked up on Westbrooks talent.

    3. A missed opportunity having a Belgian drive at his home track is always a positive (I would be amazed if Bernie didn’t make a call for it)

      Balance that against the need to give both their regular drivers as much track time as possible to work on car setup, and it’s a no-brainer. Giving d’Ambrosio a run in the first practice session for the benefit of his home crowd might be nice, but Lotus are there to win (as much as I doubt their race management skills). Raikkonen and Grosjean need time in the car more than d’Ambrosio does.

      1. I agree, given that you a. never know what the weather is going to do at Spa, b. they have their passive F-ducts system on both cars for the first time and intend to race it and c. they must feel they have a genuine shot at winning or getting both cars on the podium, its just not the right time for a bit of feel good running for the Belgian driver

    4. “Grosjean had a bit of bad luck when he came to drive the renault.
      But if you look what he did after that, it was amazing.”

      >> I can’t see how going to GP2 with F1 experience (earned alongside Alonso), and beating all the rookies there is “amazing” ?? It was unfair.

      1. And I can’t see how it was unfair. It was 8 races in an awful car, followed by a year out of both F1 and GP2 (save for maybe 1 or 2 GP2 appearances) before his return to GP2. I think it’s more ‘unfair’ if drivers are in their 4th or 5th straight GP2 season, as quite a few often are.

  4. @keithcollantine Are the posts programmed? I’ve noticed that the F1 Fanatic round-up are posted at 12.01am, obviously featuring news from the previous day but just by a single minute, journos stuff. I find myself awake waiting to read the daily round up at midnight and then asking stupid questions at 5 in the morning.

    1. @ukfanatic The round-up is the only article that is scheduled in this way, and then only if I get it written in time!

  5. Whilst the Andrea Moda was a dreadful car, I have to say it’s quite a looker.

    1. I too was just thinking that @hj1806 – the car shapes of those days did look good (though the Benetton is a big beast really) and full gleaming black works very well on that shape.

      1. eh, typing wrong is as bad as cut-n-paste error @jh1806, but I do agree with you :)

  6. Virgin? They’ve been out nearly a year, what IS Fernandes on about?

    1. @alexf1man You’d think that out of anyone on the grid, Fernandes would be best placed to ensure the right name is used for the right team ;)

  7. I’m impressed by the progress that Caterham has made since it entered the sport in 2010. They’ve been laying good foundations and improving step by step, not just on the track but off it as well.

    You can tell that Fernandes cares about the team and wants to see it succeed and become a potential McLaren a decade or 2 from now, unlike most new teams that seem to hop in, fail and get out, like Andrea Moda.

    Lotus v Lotus issue aside, Caterham have done everything right in terms of creating a new team and developing it, and I hope it’ll all equate to stronger on-track results in the near future.

  8. Artificial grass at Pouhon? Great, it adds a bit more challenge to it (instead of just an endless field of tarmac runoff). Plus it might be quite slippery in the wet…

    1. lets hope it bars drivers from choosing to go and get past some others in the first lap.

  9. Yay, my first mention on F1Fanatic! Thanks, Keith.

  10. Decent read that article with Boullier. The team principal is often over-looked when it comes to their hunger for success and I’ll certainly spare a thought for him if/when that day comes. I guess many of the guys at Enstone have tasted victory in the past.

    I must say @keithcollantine I really like the addition of the tweets to the round-up. I check Twitter quite regularly but there’s always something you miss. Sad news for Lewis and while I don’t personally get so ‘personal’ on any social network, it was nice to see him open up to his fans, try and take some comfort in them and also pass on wishes to his aunt. I hope he does her proud this weekend, I’m sure he will :)

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