Chirstian Fittapaldi in Champ Cars again?

Amar7605 · 5 Oct 2004, 17:33 (Ref:1116163)

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/N...le.asp?ID=8424

According to this article, Christian Fittapaldi wants to go back to Champ Cars after his dismal stint in NASCAR.

IMHO...

Kicking-back · 5 Oct 2004, 17:36 (Ref:1116167)

Christian would be a good addition to the series.

Snrub · 5 Oct 2004, 17:42 (Ref:1116182)

Personally I don't want him back. IMO there's 13-14 better drivers than him in the series right now, I'd rather see other talented drivers be given a chance. Preferably ladder series or lower series drivers (Fogerty, Valiente, McDowell, Dazeil, Ranger, Patrick, etc.) and ex-F1 drivers too (CDM, HHF, Salo, etc.).

Tim Northcutt · 5 Oct 2004, 17:53 (Ref:1116194)

Patrick (if it is Danica you're referring to) is likely to be running in the other Series next year as part of a 3-driver Rahal-Letterman team for 2005...

She tested at Homestead recently, and have a good session....

Snrub · 5 Oct 2004, 17:57 (Ref:1116203)

Quote:

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
Patrick (if it is Danica you're referring to) is likely to be running in the other Series next year as part of a 3-driver Rahal-Letterman team for 2005...

She tested at Homestead recently, and have a good session....

Yes I know. I don't rate her that highly either.

Tim Northcutt · 5 Oct 2004, 18:02 (Ref:1116209)

I would rather see any of the five you listed before her get a shot at an OWRS ride than see Danica get one...

MacDowell was in a league of his own both times that I saw him in person in the Star Mazda Series this year....

Speaking of Star Mazda, that is a great support series for the ALMS...the action is fast and furious, they have big fields of competitors, and the drivers are really hard chargers....

very fun to watch....

luke · 5 Oct 2004, 18:26 (Ref:1116231)

Quote:

Originally posted by Snrub
Personally I don't want him back. IMO there's 13-14 better drivers than him in the series right now, I'd rather see other talented drivers be given a chance. HHF,

Salo was good.

And to reply to what you said I can see what you mean about there being more better drivers than him but T o be fair I would rather have Christain than Nelson Phillepe
and Alex Spirafico.

BootsOntheSide · 5 Oct 2004, 18:45 (Ref:1116253)

That's irrelevent Luke. Nelson and Alex can bring money to get a car onto the grid - Christian is one of a huge array of drivers competing for very few fully-funded rides - and you can't really say he's among the best.

Kicking-back · 5 Oct 2004, 20:05 (Ref:1116314)

I think a succession of heavy accidents dating back to 1992 literally knocked the ability out of Christian.

luke · 5 Oct 2004, 21:03 (Ref:1116350)

I take it, those heavy crashes were in Champcars although I remember his bad one at Monza in his Minardi the following year.

Jordi · 5 Oct 2004, 21:04 (Ref:1116351)

If he can come back welcome to him, he's a "name" after all!

Kicking-back · 5 Oct 2004, 22:45 (Ref:1116417)

He broke his back in an F1 crash in 1992.

He was uninjured in the Monza shunt.

He broke a leg/legs in a CART shunt in 1997, then got head injuries on a couple of occasions between 98 and 01.

macdaddy · 6 Oct 2004, 04:36 (Ref:1116519)

Christian had a great ride with a great team and was unable to put up the numbers. IMO he's overrated, always has been. He certainly wouldn't make my list of drivers that I'd like to see in ChampCar.

RedNine Racing · 6 Oct 2004, 07:56 (Ref:1116577)

Fittipaldi had that crash where he broke his leg in the Gold Coast race!

I agree with most of yous,that he isnt really that good and dont particurly want him back.He had good cars at Newman/Haas and got beat comprehensively by his teammates pretty much all the time!
If he did come back,i cant see with which team.

Snrub · 6 Oct 2004, 14:38 (Ref:1117010)

Regarding Patrick, there's certainly better, but the marketing angle is quiet important. For the series I'd like to see her on the grid, but as was mentioned that's probably unlikely. Bottom line, would you rather have Sperafico on the grid or Patrick who actually has some talent and would definately get sponsorship?

Quote:

Originally posted by luke
And to reply to what you said I can see what you mean about there being more better drivers than him but T o be fair I would rather have Christain than Nelson Phillepe
and Alex Spirafico.

That's why I said 13-14 drivers were better than Christian.

(hmm...out of 18 who would be on that list?)

Quote:

Salo was good.

Indeed he was. It's a shame the series isn't in better shape or we'd have him in the field right now.

jjspierx · 6 Oct 2004, 16:37 (Ref:1117144)

I dunno, I somewhat disagree with several of you on Christian. I don't think he's an amazing driver by any means, but he certainly is a GOOD driver, with enough talent to race competitively in OWRS. I mean, look at Tags, I think most of you agree he belongs in Champcar, but he has raced here for how many years and won only how many races? And its not as if Forsythe wasn't a competitive team.

Tim Northcutt · 6 Oct 2004, 21:17 (Ref:1117403)

Quote:

Originally posted by jjspierx
I dunno, I somewhat disagree with several of you on Christian. I don't think he's an amazing driver by any means, but he certainly is a GOOD driver, with enough talent to race competitively in OWRS. I mean, look at Tags, I think most of you agree he belongs in Champcar, but he has raced here for how many years and won only how many races? And its not as if Forsythe wasn't a competitive team.

I agree with you on this one, jjspierx...

Christian certainly is competent, and has had his share of competitive runs over the years when he was in Champ Cars...

I think he would be a decent "returning alumnus" to the driver roster of the Series..

LadyRaceFan · 7 Oct 2004, 05:52 (Ref:1117681)

Quote:

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
I agree with you on this one, jjspierx...

Christian certainly is competent, and has had his share of competitive runs over the years when he was in Champ Cars...

I think he would be a decent "returning alumnus" to the driver roster of the Series..

I agree with you on this one. I think it would be a nice addition to the roster as well. I say the more the merrier.

BootsOntheSide · 7 Oct 2004, 12:23 (Ref:1117964)

If Christian gets onto the grid, he wouldn't be adding a car as such, he'd be taking a drive that could've gone to another unfunded driver. With guys like Carpentier, Salo, Fogarty, Ranger, Gidley and McDowell looking for drives, Christian wouldn't be a great addition. He was never more than adequate, and would take time to readjust to single-seaters anyway.

Snrub · 7 Oct 2004, 14:51 (Ref:1118082)

Quote:

Originally posted by jjspierx
look at Tags, I think most of you agree he belongs in Champcar, but he has raced here for how many years and won only how many races? And its not as if Forsythe wasn't a competitive team.

Tag's performances are in some ways similar to Pat's. He's had some really good performances and some not so good performances. In Tag's rookie season he was incredible. 2001 he still looked pretty good, but Forsythe's performance was down. Pat overshadowed him dramatically in 2002, but since he's moved to Rocketsports I think he's done incredibly well. I love watching him carve through the field. As for his win totals, he was robbed or nearly won a number of times. Easy examples: Japan (rookie mistake, but he had it in the bag), Elkhart 2000 (engine blew when he would have easily won), Montreal 2003 (team screwed up, he owned that race).

Kicking-back · 7 Oct 2004, 15:47 (Ref:1118137)

Quote:

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
With guys like Carpentier, Salo, Fogarty, Ranger, Gidley and McDowell looking for drives, Christian wouldn't be a great addition.

Just to update you, Mika Salo has confirmed he's retired from single seater racing.

Snrub · 7 Oct 2004, 17:09 (Ref:1118232)

What options did he really have? I tend to think that if he were offered $4M/year in a good team he'd be willing to reconsider.

BootsOntheSide · 7 Oct 2004, 21:13 (Ref:1118381)

Thanks for that KB - hopefully my main point still stands.

Kicking-back · 7 Oct 2004, 22:44 (Ref:1118470)

Absolutely.

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