March 19, 2008 at 10:15 am
· Filed under Racing

This past weekend in Melbourne the 2008 Formula One season started off with Lewis Hamilton taking a controlled victory for McLaren-Mercedes in an incident-packed race. Nick Heidfeld finished second for BMW Sauber and Nico Rosberg rounded out the podium for Williams-Toyota. Four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais was running a strong fourth in his GP debut for Torro Rosso until his Ferrari engine failed with only two laps left in the race, leaving him seventh in the final classification. In fact, all six Ferrari-powered cars failed to finish the race, three of them due to engine failures.
Of the 22 cars that started the race only seven were able to finish under their own power, a product of both poor technical reliability and several accidents stemming from the recent banning of traction control. Five cars were taken out at the first corner (just after the picture above) on the first lap alone. In fact it was one of the most entertaining dry races I have seen since I started following F1 in 2001. The removal of traction control seems to be a pretty big success as the drivers were clearly pushing hard, making mistakes, and power-sliding around the track in displays that haven’t been seen for a while in the sport.
Currently McLaren have 14 constructors’ points and Williams are in second place with nine points. Last year’s champion Ferrari have only a single point. Hamilton has picked up where he left off in 2007 and is leading the driver’s championship with 10 points. Next weekend is the Malaysian GP in Sepang, which traditionally has a very hot and steamy climate with the potential for rain. Speed Channel has coverage of the race which starts live at 1:30 AM CDT early Sunday morning.
Race Recap | Winners & Losers | 10 Conclusions
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March 1, 2008 at 12:58 pm
· Filed under Racing

After weeks of speculation it was confirmed on Wednesday that Tony George’s Indy Racing League would absorb the Champ Car World Series, ending a 12-year division that has seen both series reduced to the auto racing equivalent of fighting for scraps from the NASCAR table. The merger has been seen by most fans and critics as a no-brainer, although it has taken quite a while for the respective heads of the two rival series to agree to terms. Specifically, the Champ Car teams have been given a generous offer of two free IndyCar chassis, a Honda engine lease, and $1.2 million in cash if they complete the entire IRL season.
To overcome conflicting schedules on the weekend of April 20, the former IRL teams will compete at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan while the former Champ Car teams will contest a send-off race using their Panoz chassis at Long Beach in California. Both races will award IndyCar championship points to the finishing positions. The rest of the races in 2008 will be run with IRL machinery using the IRL calendar with the addition of Edmonton and Surfers Paradise, two former Champ Car events. There will be further discussions about adding other Champ Car tracks to the IndyCar schedule for 2009 with an emphasis placed on improving the balance of ovals, street circuits, and road courses.
Unfortunately, the first major casualty of the unification comes with the closure of the Forsythe Champ Car team, which has traditionally campaigned one of open wheel racing’s better-known personalities in Paul Tracy. The outspoken driver has always been good for publicity and while he certainly could not be considered even-tempered, it would be a shame for the IRL to lose him. The new IndyCar series will need to promote the personality of its drivers to have a chance at competing with the NASCAR machine, and while they do have Danica Patrick wearing a bikini in Sports Illustrated, most of their drivers are still relatively unknown.
Commentary on the merger: Robin Miller | David Phillips | Sebastien Bourdais
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