Road "america"? or road of brazilians.

[kuchi]

This season the points and wins have been taken most likely by brazilians. eventhough the points leader (andretti) is american, the guys from down here have controled the series in a very dominating way. So whats up with this guys?. They work a lot, they love what they do, and most of them don´t do it for money.

[wallbanger]

I think you answered your own question, kuchi. For a bit more insight read this piece that a friend of mine wrote;
http://www.7thgear.com/htms/2000/edartic018.htm

[bella]

bwa-hya-hya!!!
helio, or christian? can't say i mind either way. gil had better do well. or liz'll get rowdy. and we don't want that.

[Liz]

Gil said in an interview this past week that since there have been numerous Brazilian champions, Brazilian parents consider race car driving an acceptable career choice and don't try to get the boys to go to circus school or get an MBA instead. Also in the same program where Gil was interviewed, it was mentioned that the majority of Brazilians who race overseas (including up here) are the possessors of up to five years worth of grubstake from people who believe in supporting their countrymen (or boys in this case) for the glory of Brazil.

Why can't our countries do this?

[Jay]

I have to admit that I have never been terribly fond of Brazilian drivers. I started watching F1 races a few races after Ayrton Sennas death. (They replayed them late at night, and since there was nothing else on, I got hooked!)

I was totally oblivious to who Senna ever was. I have seen Christian Fittipaldi race and Cart, and have been less than impressed at his ability to crash into walls and knock himself out. (Which he as done many more times than he has win races)

Gil never showed much either because he was driving an ill handling car on Crapyear tires. And although Helio showed spark last year, he always seemed to go out. (which at the time I cheared, as it usually meant Greg Moore moved up a place).

However, after talking to Gil in Toronto (about Toronto) and meeting Helio and seeing him take the Greg Moore pole award, and then Rubino's fine win in Germany that almost brought a tear to my eye, I feel differentlty. Gil is incredibly nice, Helio is always smiling and willing to sign autographs and in a way represents Greg to me. Go Brazil! (but not in football)

[Liz]

I think you have hit their big secret, Jay: They are NICE. And it's a different kind of niceness from what you meet up with in other pilots, though the Brits in CART are also nice, and Greg was nice and Patrick still is ... it is the kind of nice that includes you the fan in the whole experience. I almost feel as if I am racing with them and they include me when they say "We were fast today". Hard to explain, but I've always felt that way about Brazilian pilots. Emerson Fittipaldi is the first one I remember caring seriously about (although I hated his haircut) and found him every bit as nice and friendly as Mario has always been. Senna was a bump in the road, but thankfully proved to be an exeption; Piquet was a brat, but even when he was awful off the track, he made me laugh...where others who behaved the way he did only made me mad.

I am afraid that if Helio had not been so well brought up, though, he might have grown up to be Nelson Piquet.

[bella]

i think that's why i like brazilians too. helio seems a very nice honest person (although i shall be forever scared of his sister ), and from a distance, mrs gil has a very good catch, and little gils will be very nice children. i thinkit's like bob moreno says, brazilians have to work very hard for what they have got, and so appreciate it way more than europeans do, who seem to get it relatively easy.

gil has definitely grown on me. he's so quotable, and one gets the feeling he's far too intellegent for motorsport. after the brainless attitude of f1, it's very refreshing to have a really smart guy who can explain thing nicely.

[Liz]

Gil has some years of training toward an engineering degree; I don't believe he finished it but he has rather more education than a lot of the other pilots. And Derrick Walker used to say, "It's enough for most drivers to know that a tire is round and black; Gil wants to know what it's made of and how it's made!"

I think it's cute that the young Brazilian pilots yell "Mom, mom, I did it!" when they win races. Not only do they feel pride in what they have done, but they want to share it -and they know Mom is watching! So much nicer than hearing somebody thank STP and BIC...

And Bella, the working hard bit is why I like Memo too; when you work hard for what you get, you enjoy the sweetness of victory so much more. Memo doesn't think anybody owes him anything - or if he does, he keeps it to himself. That's what I like about the Brazilians too.

[bella]

the thanking mom thing is sweet - it's the latin thing. jenson button certainly wouldn't have gone to a cellphone to say 'mummy, i won!' when he was a whippersnapper, would he?

the sweetest thing was gil ad the kids on the phone (i hope it was gil) 'daddy won!' aaahhh..... that's so sweet. but the guy is horrifically intellegent. i always consider christian to be quite smart (smarter than he looks, neway..), but gil's just too damn eloquent. some of his quotes are brilliant (as i keep on saying...perhaps because racing drivers aren't supposed to be quotable...)

i don't think i've ever seen a brazilian give up.

oriol servia has an engineering degree and max papis has a political science degree (worship, worship...i did politics at school, and it wasn't 'arf difficult..), and half of those guys speak thousands of languages. alex tagliani is fluent in 3 languages, so is christian (well, 2 and a half, near enough 3..), gil's obviouly got at last 2.....suddenly makes you feel very stupid, doesn't it?

[Liz]

I believe Gil also speaks French. I bet his accent is interesting.

Yes, it was Gil who called his little girl from the podium to tell her that "Daddy won" - he is very much a family man, as is Mo Gugelman.

The idea of Button Spice thanking ANYBODY but his sponsors is alien to me. I have never even heard him mention his mother, though I assume he had or has one somewhere.

I remember seeing Christian when he was in F1 celebrating with his family when he got his first points. (In 1993 I think, he looks such a little boy back then!) I saw Emerson (yeah he's Christian's uncle) the other day on Speedvision and except that he is losing his hair, he is still a most attractive man. He also said that there is no comparison in F1 today to what they did in his days - that CART is more like what F1 was then.

[bella]

hey, christian was a little boy back in 1997.....now he looks a little more troubled.. his parents are part of cart, though. his mum organises the rio race (there's a pic of her and carl haas discussing....i swear she has a brick in her handbag and is ready to use it if he doesn't giver her boy a contract), and his dad, erm......well, he's wilson, isn't he? i'm sure he has something to do with the sport. then there's uncle emmo.. who is supposed to be a vey nice person. someone we know used to be a mechanic for emmo in his sportscar days (or something like that), and as he says (good old dave) emmo's just a friend. as is dan gurney (who went up to him at goodwood, gave him a big hug and uttered some very naughty words at him...). he also knows christian vaguely (on the way to the leavers ball, he was talking about goodwood, and seeing his old friends again, and emmo, and i mentioned i fancied the pants off his nephew. 'christian?' dave asked, and looked knowingly into the distace.....), but it amuses me to think of somone like that socialising with someone like dave.....(he's butt ugly, has decaying teeth (hence his nickname among the family of 'tombstone dave'), but is a very interesting and wonderful person to talk to. he's returned a lion to the wild, he's been a mechanic, and now he works repairing classic cars and running the practical side of a car storage firm.....

anyway, where was i? gil speaks french. of course, he was born in paris..... christian speaks near fluent italian because of minardi, i think... out of curiosity, do you know how gil came to end up in paris? it seems a very odd place for a brazilian to be born... mind you, it makes for an international understanding beyond that of a normal person...

[Liz]

Gil's father's job had taken him to Paris at that time; that's how he ended up being born there.

Did you really say you "fancied the PANTS OFF" Christian? I just bet you do! Wasn't Wilson the one who designed that (*&^%$ car that Emmo "drove" to the ruination of his career? Amazing to me that they are still speaking.

As to Dave, I think it is the mark of a real gentleman how they speak to people who are not perfect 10s and don't have seven figure bank balances and can't do anything for them personally. A man who treats a homely girl with the same respect he treats a bimbette (and RESPECT is the operative word) will always get farther in life. Used to be parents taught their sons this. Not fashionable now I guess.

Portuguese is enough like Italian that Christian probably has a very pretty accent.

[bella]

i have fancied christian's pants off a few times, let me tell you.... (origin of expression unknown. probably northern)

recently spotted - dave, at the local pub, having a beer with the (absolutely gorgeous) singer of a dance band called faithless who are v. popular with student types. this guy is unbelievable! such a nice guy though..

i speak italian, and i frequent autosport.com.br, having thought i might stand a chance.....nope. it's a horribly ugly language when written, portugese, and nothing like spanish.... latest amusement - running it through babelfish on altavista....quite hilarious..... speaking of italian, max papis has an awful accent. i listenend to an italian interview with him, and he obviously doesn't speak it much, cause it was bloody awful!

i do believe wilson ran that $%^"$%^ team you were mentioning, yes. and had a relatively unsucessful f1 career.... bet he got a serious kicking for that one.....

scuse the diverting from the subject, but has helio been on the brazilian podium twice too? i don't remember...and certianly couldn't be bothered to find out.

(christian's italian..now you've got me thinking....)

[Liz]

Well today it was Road International, wasn't it? Canada, Mexico and Sweden!

If Kenny had been American, we could have called it Road North America ...