maroon92 wrote:
no offence to pruett, he is a great guy, and a really great driver, but he is just too old for F1. the winningest driver in the sport retired at 36, and Scott is 48...you would be laughed off the grid.
If the team were mine, I would try to recruit someone who knows formula 1 (if Fernando Alonso weren't so expensive, he would be perfect), as well as young american talent such as Scott Speed, Graham Rahal, or Kyle Busch (as much as I hate the man, he knows how to drive)
possibly so, but being the hottest new 20-something driver on the grid doesn't make you any better than someone who's been playing the game for a while and has some experience. the someone-who-knows-F1 thing plays right into the hands of hiring Mika Häkkinen, though, or at least giving him the chance to get back in a F1 car. I do agree with you on the young American talent bit, though. although, like I said, I'd almost be afraid that Kyle Bush has gotten a bit too used to having fenders. bump drafting doesn't work in F1, and touching wheels is just asking to get punted a meter or two into the air. personally I would go for drivers who had extensive experience in either open wheel or a series that frowns upon contact between cars, such as ALMS. that way the driver already has the mindset to do more or less everything in their power to avoid contact with another car, either because they don't want to get too rowdy (pardon the Kyle Bush reference) and get a stop/go penalty or a drive-through penalty, or because they want to keep their cars in more or less one piece.
plucking a "good old boy" driver out of basically a 3500 pound, space-frame, mid-size sedan with a 850hp V8 at the front and a wing on the back and sticking them in a 1300 pound, carbon fiber monocoque with a wing at each end, a screaming 2.4l V8 mere inches behind your head (ok, maybe a foot), a flappy paddle gearbox, more knobs on the steering wheel than are in the entire inside of most cars, and no fenders to speak of, without a few months of practice driving that sort of car under race conditions, said good old boy has a high chance of ruining more than his fair share of suspension components and monocoques.
HappyAndy wrote:
"One of the problems with Formula One, (is that) the way the teams present themselves in America has always been very difficult for the fans to grasp what F1 is all about," he said.
Stop turning right and more american fans will get it. I think that if WRC had an all left turn format it could make headway in america too. 
begrudgingly, I agree with you. the begrudgingly bit wasn't aimed at you, but more at the fact that our premier racing series plays host to drivers who only turn right at 2 tracks in a 36 race season, and when driving their personal cars, or racing in other series.
