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Post by OT on Apr 20, 2003 4:53:16 GMT -5
Yeah ....or learn to not answer the phone...
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Post by Wycco on Apr 22, 2003 16:32:59 GMT -5
Well I was expecting the call- and it was important- had resellers over from England... (hence my absence yesterday on Shamu)... Re the race- managed to tape it: Imola could be summed up in one word: boring... Although I'll put it down to the circuit rather than the series... Actually, thats not entirely true- there was some fantastic battles in the mid pack... really only the parade between "WindChime" and "FriedNutSachs" at the front was boring.... Van Hooydonk's demise was a shame- he made a really gutsy challenge- saw little of him during the race- but I'm going to look out for him in the future- that mans got balls- shame he couldn't make the pass stick! LOL- Kiesa has to be the Takagi of F3000- that lad was in trouble all over the place... he is what saved the race from total boredom... he was getting into mischief almost every other lap! All in all- its a shame- one of the 6 red cars won... I kept hoping Friesacher would make the pass... but alas not to be!!!!! Not expecting much in Spain- another boring circuit- and probably another boring F1 and F3000 race!!!!
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Post by Henrik on Apr 22, 2003 17:06:08 GMT -5
I wouldn't be too sure Wycco. Last year the F3000 race saw a brilliant battle all through the race for first place. Gripping stuff!!!
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Post by CFF on Apr 22, 2003 17:32:26 GMT -5
From Pitpass (April 22/03) If you thought the recent Brazilian GP was more than a little shambolic, spare a thought for pitpass' Colin Brown and his rivals, who were due to participate in the first round of the 2003 European F3000 Championship this weekend. On Monday, just six days before the season gets underway at Estoril, the circuit sent out a fax to the organisers of the European F3000 Championship with the following brief message: "After several attempts to contact you through your mobile phone number as well as your office phone number, please note that the Estoril race has been cancelled." That's it, the first round of the championship is called-off less than a week beforehand and all the circuit owners can do is send out a twenty-seven word fax. Pier Luigi Corbari, on behalf of the championship organisers, contacted all the relevant team owners, but that doesn't explain why the people at Estoril made this decision and more importantly, left it so late. pitpass spoke to Colin tonight, and to say the youngster was not amused would be putting it mildly. The Championship will now 'kick off' at Nurburgring on May 4, barring any last minute faxes from the circuit owners. Now when you have an idle moment, imagine the reaction if the owners of Monza, the A1-Ring or indeed Silverstone sent a similar fax to Bernie, just days before a Grand Prix.. CFF
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Post by Senninha on Apr 23, 2003 6:19:13 GMT -5
Idiots! From autosport.com Nicolas Minassian and Brand split Team claims it sacked driver, but Minassian says he quit Nicolas Minassian has split with the Brand Motorsports Formula 3000 team after just one race. Brand issued a press release saying that it had sacked the Frenchman after he threatened a team member during practice for the first race of the season at Imola last weekend. However, Minassian has said that he quit the team after it failed to live up to pre-season promises. In the Brand statement, team boss Martin Kendrick said that the team had decided to sack Minassian before the race at Imola, but that the driver was not told until the team returned to England. Kendrick described Minassian's apparent actions as "clearly unacceptable behaviour from a professional driver." But speaking to autosport.com Minassian described the Brand statement as a "pile of lies." The Frenchman said that he decided to quit the team before the first race, after promises and assurances over Brand's ambitious plans, including running in the upcoming German Champ Car race, failed to be realised. He said: "Everything that I was told the team was going to do didn't happen. The team lost most of the staff it had in the beginning – they were good people, but they all left. But Martin begged me to come racing, because he said it was going to cost him money. So I agreed to race and decided to do as professional a job as I could. But when you don't test you can't be competitive and I go racing to be competitive. "So after Imola I decided not to race for the team again. When you've finished second in the championship [in 2000] you only go racing if you can win. Martin wants to go racing. He thinks that he knows the job, but he doesn't. He's very good at what he does with his company outside motor racing, but he thinks he's an engineer and he's not."
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Post by Senninha on Apr 23, 2003 6:21:51 GMT -5
From Pitpass (April 22/03) If you thought the recent Brazilian GP was more than a little shambolic, spare a thought for pitpass' Colin Brown and his rivals, who were due to participate in the first round of the 2003 European F3000 Championship this weekend. On Monday, just six days before the season gets underway at Estoril, the circuit sent out a fax to the organisers of the European F3000 Championship with the following brief message: "After several attempts to contact you through your mobile phone number as well as your office phone number, please note that the Estoril race has been cancelled." That's it, the first round of the championship is called-off less than a week beforehand and all the circuit owners can do is send out a twenty-seven word fax. Pier Luigi Corbari, on behalf of the championship organisers, contacted all the relevant team owners, but that doesn't explain why the people at Estoril made this decision and more importantly, left it so late. pitpass spoke to Colin tonight, and to say the youngster was not amused would be putting it mildly. The Championship will now 'kick off' at Nurburgring on May 4, barring any last minute faxes from the circuit owners. Now when you have an idle moment, imagine the reaction if the owners of Monza, the A1-Ring or indeed Silverstone sent a similar fax to Bernie, just days before a Grand Prix.. CFF Cough cough - I knew about that a week ago?! ?!!! Not wanting to confuse Wycco (it's a different championship ), who's Colin Brown driving for? I hope it goes better than his truncated season of FR2000 the other year... he was supposed to be Britain's next big thing.... Although with hindsight, he did a lot better with DFR than anyone else has recently...
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Post by Senninha on Apr 23, 2003 6:24:56 GMT -5
Wyc, BArcelona's usually one of the more interesting races. As we see in F1, it's a car dependant circuit but in F3000 your only difference really is with set up... so the racing is quite good. But you get used to the occassional processions... Barcelona has given us quite a few major crashes in recent seasons as well... not necessarily pleasant, but gives you something to talk about... Btw, we had a hell of a lot of rolls and tipping last year. No doubt I will get the belated Imola coverage in about 6 weeks... it's usually around Montreal time...
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Post by Henrik on Apr 23, 2003 6:47:37 GMT -5
What I remember from last year was the fight between Bourdais and Pantano, with Enge staying a few lenghts back. Pantano pushed Bourdais lap after lap, trying to find an opening, and finally on the last lap Bourdais went wide on a corner, Pantano and Enge slipped through. It was a great fight.
Don't recall and rolls and tipping from last year's Barcelona GP though, although I may have been to caught up in the fight for the lead.....
Now Monza last year was a bit more of a crash feast if my memory serves me correctly....
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Post by Senninha on Apr 23, 2003 7:48:27 GMT -5
Don't recall and rolls and tipping from last year's Barcelona GP though, although I may have been to caught up in the fight for the lead..... Now Monza last year was a bit more of a crash feast if my memory serves me correctly.... Sorry, Henrik, that wasn't too clear. My btw comment was supposed to be refering to the season as a whole, in particular I was thinking about the crash between Haberfeld and Pizzonia, which was at Hungary, and Derek Hill (I think, was it) rolling at the last corner of Magny Cours... I remember which one Barcelona was now... it was awful! I so wanted Bourdais to win that won, he was trying so hard, but to no avail, his tyres were shot. I really felt for him that race, but then I always had a soft spot for him I meant to comment a bit on some of Wyc's comments earlier, but I got distracted I think... hehe! Friednutsachs... oh dear!! I like Friesie! He showed heaps of promise in his debut season, and was faster than Antonio Garcia!!! (who they sacked the meanies! ) I hope he wins the championship (pleeeease anyone but Wirdheim!!!!!) this season, because apparently Red Bull are ready to pull their support if he doesn't perform (or goes the same way as last season and disappoints). Van Hooydonk - unfortunately balls does not give you an F1 drive - watching lower formulaes makes you realise that pretty quickly. Kiesa - sounds wicked. Driving like a true FFordster I hope I take it they gave him a car slower than his talents again I wouldn't mind him winning the championship either, but I doubt DBA-Petrobras-whatsit will get their act together again with the new chassis. Grrr... ah well, proves Antonio was better than he looked (I know, I know, I'll stop it now, I promise!!!! )...
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Post by Wycco on Apr 23, 2003 8:24:19 GMT -5
LOL- I was cheering on Freisacher in Imola (he was the only non red car with a chance)...
Its really hard to tell based on one race- but it looks like (based on 1 race) Arden, Red Bull, And Coloni seem to be the teams to beat... since Red Bull (despite having red in their name) are the only non-red, top team I have a feeling Freisacher and Luzzi (sp?) are going to be the drivers I'm going to be cheering for this year...
Kiesa really did look Takagiesque... I think you're analysis is probably correct- he is too fast for his car (just like Takagi used to be)... Kiesa would overtake (narrowly avoid a collision)- then a lap later get retook... over take, skid off and get stuck behind someone again... Kiesa was the main source of entertainment during the race.
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Post by Senninha on Apr 23, 2003 8:39:10 GMT -5
See, Kiesa had a reason....!!!!
Oh yeah, and notice the reference to Red Bull being the same as Coloni (red ones!! lol). What happened there was the European Minardi junior team had to 'close' I think mainly because they needed the money for the F1 team i.e. Stoddy was short of the green stuff. He sold all the bits to Mr Coloni - who got Red Bull to badge the team (they previously badged RSM Marko, who were bought out by Brand - see Nicmi story above) - so that Coloni weren't running 4 cars, see? But it's the same team in the same sense that DBA and Jordan Junior are the same (well, at least they have different team managers!!).
Actually, you know I said anyone but Wirdheim... well, I don't dislike Wirdheim, but I don't think he's that good. I don;t like Giorgio Pantano. I don't want him to win either. So anyone but Pantano, except Wirdheim. WOuld prefer BW to GP (wow! cool initials though!!!). Although it does make FPA look really good y'know...although they were both bad at it!!!
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Post by Senninha on Apr 23, 2003 8:40:55 GMT -5
PS - I notice I am a 'Moderateur'... French perhaps? That would make me a Moderatrice surely? Hehe! Btw, the article above is from www.formula-3000.net
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Post by Henrik on Apr 23, 2003 10:54:46 GMT -5
Senn,
Why don't you like Pantano? I have always rated him very highly since his karting days.
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Post by Wycco on Apr 23, 2003 11:28:15 GMT -5
Damn it Sen!
I thought I had found a team to support! LOL...
Who is the top team not associated with the colour red then? Durango?
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Post by Senninha on Apr 24, 2003 5:13:01 GMT -5
Senn, Why don't you like Pantano? I have always rated him very highly since his karting days. Henrik, Pantano – Hmmm… I don’t take dislike to drivers very often, the only ones I do tend to be overrated (in my opinion) by either people in general and/or (and this is worse) overrated by themselves. It doesn’t help if they are arrogant on top of that! That’s not to say Pantano is, he seems like a decent guy – but I get so annoyed when he wins!!! lol! Anyway, in short I think he’s overrated (although I can't say much about his karting as I never saw or heard anything much about that). Two reasons. Somehow, and I swear he’s the only person who’s ever managed this, I managed to ‘watch’ him twice at Donington without noticing he was there (does that make sense?). He was racing at two events there which I went to in 1999 or 2000 which I went to (one was the old Open Telefonica championship) and both times I managed to miss him. I figured if he’s that good, I would have at least noticed his existence!! (although I did find him later!!) Hey, and when you’re a non-Spaniard in the old Telefonicas you stand out a mile, no? He also did the FPA winter series one year and achieved nothing, or at least very little [although in hindsight I have later realised that experience was incredibly important in the series, which he wouldn’t have had at the time – that applies to some others as well – makes Bruce Jouanny look even better mind!] And yet, at this point, people were still telling us how he was the next big thing I think this was due to his successes in karting, and the great (!) Peter Collins thinks he’s lovely as well, so he probably is very good, as he appears to be in F3000 (which I have never judged as a true marker in driver talent, largely due to the fact that it rarely seems to make sense!! Witness the F3 rookies in 1999 for example). Anyway, he then went to German F3 – and being only a reader of the race reports in Autosport, and not paying perhaps quite as much attention as I should have over the course of the season! – and he won the championship. I thought this was unfair, as not only did I struggle to remember him winning a race (oops!), I definitely remembered Lotterer winning quite a few at the beginning. Would I be right in saying that Lotterer won most races that season? Anyway, that was a negative against his name as well! But they were still all singing all dancing about how he was the next Trulli!! (yes it was the next Trulli, that I’m sure!). I didn’t get that. The only way he was going to come back from that was to prove me wrong – and only two drivers have done that (Antonio Pizzonia and Jamie Green… I suppose Kimi also did, but in a negative way). I would say he still had a chance, but not after Monza last year. Anyway, at the end of 2000, he missed Macau (so did Antonio). I was unimpressed with both – you have an obligation as a national F3 champion to turn up surely!! Antonio was supposed to be testing for Mo Nunn in CART I recall, although I’m not sure if that ever happened, I never heard about it. Whatever, I chose to forgive (well, only kind of) Antonio because only a month previously he’d given me a free hat and signed my flag, and was a love and the reigning British F3 champion. Pantano had no such positives, and I still hadn’t seen him race. A lot was said about the two of them missing Macau, saying that they both decided against because if they failed it would seriously harm their reputations (remember how badly Antonio had done at the Marlboro Masters under the pressure, and experience is always important at Macau – the returning drivers almost always go much better). Giorgio was never helped the moment he became a ‘rival’ to Antonio, because from that point he could never really win. They both went on to F3000. And I’d already developed this “Ok, Pantano, show me what you can do, you have to prove now to me why you’re here”. A few good races was never going to be enough, and I recall he was a bit wild for a time (which I liked) before Monza 2001. I didn’t like that one. Not only did Antonio feel he needed driving in to (what d’ya mean, he shouldn’t have tried?? ) he then went and won the race. Ok, I was annoyed with Antonio and I took it out on him, but I didn’t like him much, and I really disliked the idea that he might beat Antonio in the race and/or the championship. I mellowed with him slightly last year; he was ok for a while. I accepted that he was there and he was racing and he was half talented (though still not as good I believe as some thought). Unfortunately, all my positiveness was thrown out of the window at Monza, again!! After all the palaver with Enge and the cannabis, and Bourdais going out of the race, Coloni and Pantano saw an opportunity to take the championship. All they had to do was get a few cars in front of Pantano disqualified and he’d have it. I thought either Bourdais or Enge (aside from the drug offences, but that was only one race) deserved to win, but Pantano was the outsider, and justly so on the season’s performances up until Monza, where things seemed to be falling apart for both the other two. So Coloni protested all the cars in front of Pantano – who finished 4th/5th? Antonio had put in possibly the race of his season to finish second, both him and his teammate (Ricardo Sperafico) sporting an unusual aero configuration for a rear wing which had been passed by the FIA stewards I think twice over the weekend. After the race, with Coloni’s protests, they disqualified Antonio, and Pantano moved up a place. It wasn’t enough in the end for him to take the championship, but Antonio was protested, he lost his position on a technical infringement which the FIA had accepted on the weekend, which his teammate also had but wasn’t protested against, so Ric was allowed to keep his 6th position or whatever it was. It was worse by the fact that they didn’t agree to this until at least a week after the season. I can understand both Coloni and Pantano wanting the championship… but a) their timing was appalling and b) did they want it that badly? I was upset and angry about that, and it certainly didn’t improve what I thought of Pantano. I think the real reason I don’t particularly like the guy is because I was sceptical to begin with and he never changed matters. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy, he’s had some funny comments in the past, but he’s never going to be a favourite. There are days when, like last year, I can accept him for who he is, other times, I just can’t stand him. In some respects he’s a bit like Kimi in that sense. But I’d much prefer to see Friesacher or Kiesa win the championship!!!
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