Is F1 going to be Champ Cars Saviour

[hoffy]

Hi guys
After watching the snooze fest that was the Spanish GP the other night, I came to thinking. Is the way F1 is this year (for .... sake, just give the damn thing to Micheal. At least Minardi and Jordan can save some money then) going to help the Champ Car cause.

F1 and has become boring and predictable. Who wants to watch Schui win another damn race.

Lets go back a few years, when the champ cars still had the big teams. People were becoming dissolusioned with the F1 farce. Where did they go to get there top level circuit racing open wheelers? CART of cause.

OK, lets face facts, the "big teams" are now elsewhere and this type of domination has happened in F1 before (at least in the Prost Senna days, there were 2 of em fighting for the championship), but where else are people going to get real racing on circuits by real cars with no guards over the wheels?

At least F1 is something to do between the Champ car races

[Phoenix1]

Each F1 team has its own chassis, engine type and there are two tyre manufactures so each car is different.

Champcar there are two chassis, one engine and one tyre manufacture.

In Champ Car last year Tracy was dominant without a better car than everyone else (in thoery) whereas Michael had to fight down to the wire last year and this year BAR and Renualt are both gaining on Ferrari and along with the ability to bounce back from McLaren & Williams the fights will come back.

Champ Cars only race this year was actually quite dull with no incidents past the first corner. In theory ChampCars should be closer as an, in essense, single formula racing should be.

Every sport has a dominate person from time to time I don't recall the complaints after Damon Hill lapped the field twice in 1996.

F1 is currently the pinnicle of world motorsport whereas ChampCar is also big but only truely in the Americas and is not technologically advanced when compared to F1. Maybe ChampCar would threaten F1 moe if it again had manufacturer support and several chassis.

The argument to do with money is flawed in that if ChampCar became F1 then the costs would also rise, another reason F1 has more money is because of TV money and coverage. As coverage rises so does sponsorship.

[N I Tram]

I don't remember Damon 'lapping the field twice' too often in 1996 - he only won the title in the last race of the season, despite having a rookie team-mate and a dominant car.

If F1 is in crisis this season, and I've certianly found some of the races quite dull, ChampCar is badly placed to take over public affection, because the field is weakened and lacking big stars, the Indy 500 will dominate public attention for the next few weeks, and Long Beach wasn't any better than the F1 races so far.

The series that can really gain due to F1's problems is MotoGP. Now that's real racing.

[Amar7605]

If you look at F1, for example, here you have a rather small car manufactuer (Ferrari) who is beating the heck out of the field. You would think that the teams that are from the large car manufactuers (Jaguar via Ford, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Honda) should have enough money and resources to beat Ferrari into submisssion. But it isn't happening, and hasn't for the last few years. So, can you really knock on Ferrari that much?

I think that F1 is using Michael Shumacher as a face for the series, so for him to be constantly winning promotes F1 because he is so recognized around the world. Maybe Champ Cars needs a face, like Paul Tracy or something. Someone who can be easily recognized.

All sports do this :Shaq for the NBA, Tiger Woods for golf, etc. So, Paul for CCWS?

[Teretonga]

It needs a new up coming prodigy to capture peoples imagination. woods did it for golf while still an amatuer and then produced as a pro.
The Williams sisters did it in womens tennis when they first went professional.
PT is not the persona to capture the public imagination. A gret guy, yes, but not the one to build chmpcars public image around.
Secondly, champcars have to be seen as an end in themselves, not a step on the ladder to somewhere else. Defections to the IRL hurt CART in the sense that it was no longer the top of the US open wheel tree. that perception has to go. if CCWS is the ultimate in open wheel competition internationally (outside of F1) it may gain some leverage over the IRL nationally but its going to be a tough ask. The fact that ISC is backing the IRL will make it tough to get venues that are 'big' in the minds of the casual US race fan. It marginalises CCWS in the domestic scene.