I've never liked JV, but someone pointed out this the other day...
Is JV the most complete racing driver of our time?
CART/Indycar champion
Indy 500 winner
F1 WDC
Currently in NASCAR
Part of Peugeot's Le Mans team.
If he manages to win Le Mans, and even NASCAR (unlikely as it seems), he could possibly be the most well-rounded driver since the days of Graham Hill, Stirling Moss, and Jim Clark.
I lost quite a bit of respect for him the second he defected to NASCRAP. If you join the redneck racing league after being in the pinnical league of motorsport, it means that...
1. You're giving up. No, I won't go as far to say that NASCRAP is easy, but easier than than F1? Heck, yes.
2. You're a sell-out. No one joins NASCRAP for any other reason than money. Except, maybe, die-hard rednecks.
about 20 drivers are "red necks" in a field of 50+ drivers. All the rest of the drivers are yanks so does that make NASCAR a yank sport now? :rolleyes: Keep in mind Canada and Mexico has a strong NASCAR following.
F1 drivers always branched into other racing fields such as IndyCar, ChampCar, Le Mans, and a Touring Car series. The fact that F1 drivers actually consider NASCAR is a giant boost for NASCAR. Is NASCAR over F1? Of course not. But keep in mind WHAT IS???
Besides, I prefer ARCA over NASCAR. Better competition without all that drama.
No one joins nascar except money??? Ummm...how about COMPETITION? That's what NASCAR's all about. How can you not love 43 cars going 3 wide all within 3 seconds of each other. Where F1 is...one guys having a 2 minute lead with only 3 other guys who has a chance to win. :rolleyes:
Ya it must definitely feel good stimulating your own superiority complex.
He'll make the race in Cali, he's got a good car. But whether or not he'll finish well is a different story. He is still clueless on how to handle the car in a giant draft with all that aero push. Something F1 or ChampCar will never teach you.
Good man. I agree, just because it's not your cup of tea doesn't mean you automatically have to revert to a crusade of smearing it's image. You dont see me trolling drifting fans and there's absolutely no reason why YOU yourself should troll just because others like what you may find uninteresting
It's pretty ironic though, eh? I never liked his driving in F1, he always did some of the crappiest maneuvers for someone as experienced as he was, and I sincerely think that it was the car doing the winning - there's no other way of explaining how he did dick-all after winning 1 championship.
You could also look at Juan Pablo Montoya's career for similarity:
1 F3000 championship
1 CART championship
Many F1 screw-ups (although by percentage less in 6 years than the amount of screw-ups JV commited in 10 and was never in a car that could win a championship)
Indy 500 winner
Daytona 24H winner
various NASCAR things (I don't follow or understand the championships there)
That isn't exactly true. He nearly won the championship in 2003 and the Williams that year was clearly the fastest car on the track at several races. He was in mathematical contention until the final race and if he hadn't retired there and gotten a drive-through penalty in the previous race he would have won it.
Hey - good point - I had forgotten about that. Pity he didn't win then, his profile would of been much closer to JV's (even down to the team he won the WDC with).
For all their attempts JPM and JV haven't won at Indy/Monaco/Le Mans. They may have had the best cars and been practically gifted a win but the lack of talent shows through. It should also be noted that back in the days when Graham Hill won Indy it was a big race with the top cars and drivers all European, currently it's rather sterile without the same kind of driving quality, as we've seen with the few CART/Indy driver crossovers to F1.
I think he is a complete something, but what I will leave up to your imagination. Although he always starts out strong in whatever he does, but he peaks too early and fades away.
Jaques hasn't won LM24 yet, I'm not sure if he'll be in a Pug this year but I hope will as otherwise he'll be down the job centre as his NASCAR career will be as bad as his music career
I dont understand why Jacques' expectations in NASCAR are sky high. They really shouldn't be. As long as he's in the top 35 in points (which no doubt he'll recover too after the 500 fiasco) then his rookie career should be considered a success.
Le Mans is much more about the car than the driver, has been for a long time. Put 3 good drivers in a very good car and you win Le Mans. Put 3 excellent drivers in a good car and you lose by a long way. As a test of driver skill I don't personally rate it anywhere near F1 races.
Villeneuve is less of a complete racing driver than Michael Schumacher, IMO, even if Schumacher hasn't had as much success in categories other than F1. Schumacher got into F1 very early so although he'd done other series (Formula Koenig, F3, World Sportscar) he hadn't really matured in any of them. I think if Schumacher had chosen to move to a different category in '96 or '99 or '02 he could have done better than Villeneuve. His natural talent is better than that of Villeneuve's and there's not really a substitute for that.
If you look it that way as a "potential" factor then that's a totally different issue. I'm pretty sure if open wheel picked up Jeff Gordon instead of bypassing him JG could have also been better than JV
Wouldn't you choose Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell and over JPM and Raikkonen for a 24 hour race? No doubt they'd make them look like a pair of pensioners over a few laps but they'd be far more likely to look after and nurse home a damaged car without incident over the course of 24 hours, there's a reason why they've got 11 wins between them. Endurance racing requires a completely different skill set, driving fast is only the icing on the cake, consistency and mechanical sympathy are far more important and especially today a lot of top level drivers are never required to have these abilities that are essential for an all round driver.
It is quite strange to say that F1 is less about the car than Le mans. F1 is all about the car, it even isn't possible to win anything in any other car than Mclaren or Ferrari, or almost ompossible at least.
Surely, endurance racing is different than F1 but it doesn't mean fast isn't fast and even in F1 you can't drive flatout the whole race.
You see, the difference between Mayfield and Villeneuve's situation is that Mayfield actually HAD a sponsor. The OTC 360. Financially the car wasn't stable sure. But Villeneuve had NOTHING. Not a single sponsor.
In my opinion this was a combination of Villeneuve's fault and BDR's fault. It's Villeneuve who lost control, but that was also partially because he had a seriously handling problem.
But look at Andretti. He was dropped by BAM and taken on by FRM and FRM has one of the smallest budget among all the NASCAR teams. They had three major sponsors last year and only made 4 out of 36 races they had attempted. This year was much worse. All the major sponsors that supported FRM last year left. Hefty was the only one to come on board only because McClure joined. It was so bad that it came to the point where Andretti couldn't get a single major sponsor and yet he raced his way to a 22nd qualifying position.
Is Villeneuve's career over? Probably. I honestly dont think he can secure a sponsorship since that crash in the duel. But at least BDR didn't blame anyone. If you listen to the scanners (http://poweracing.net/) you can hear the spotter defending him
OMG are you serious? ... man, thats the only race that we get in Mexico, thats why its popular not because of good racing, the only series that comes here , and Champ Car but we always know who wins....
but nascar ....
I never said that Mexicans will remain loyal to NASCAR if F1 goes over. I was making a point that NASCAR is not an "all redneck" sport, at least not anymore.
Also, I'm not sure what you are trying to say about NASCAR.
