Tarso Marques to drive for DCR at Cleveland

[Muzza]

Dear Fellows,


According to this intreview...

http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/pagin.../316472_1.html

... with Tarso Marques published by the (usually very well informed) Brazilian website Grande Prêmio, he will be drive for Dale Coyne Racing at Cleveland.

I really like Marques - a driver with excellent car control and someone who deserved better at Formula 1 - but considering Champ Car's future Valiante would have been a better bet to land a seat at DCR.

Having Marques at DCR would not help anyone...

1.) It is unlikely Dale Coyne can milk any sponsorship our of it;
2.) Marques is not looking for a long-term career at Champ Car, whereas Valiante is;
3.) I highly rate both (having seem both along many seasons, I put Marques a tad higher than Valiante), but the chance of "losing" Valiante to another series (you know which one) would represent a real loss to Champ Car, whilst having Marques driving in IRL (ok, here it goes...) would not be a "threat".

Regards,


Muzza

[BootsOntheSide]

I've been wiating for Valiente to get his chance, and he did pretty well at Portland. However, I think there are a couple of key points in Marques' defence. He is quite experienced, and better sutied to setting these cars up than either of their rookie drivers. With such a lack of engineering nous, driver experience is more important at Coyne than at most teams.

Also, Brazil is a target market for ChampCars to stage a race in, but right now the IRL has more Brazillian drivers (and, even in Formula 1, the popularity of the race is very closely linked to how likely it is to be won by a Brazillian), so Tarso could feasibly be a 'threat'. Do you know what Marques' long-term ambition is?

[Kicking-back]

I'm given to understand he'll be Brazil's driver in A1GP

[Muzza]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

I've been wiating for Valiente to get his chance, and he did pretty well at Portland. However, I think there are a couple of key points in Marques' defence. He is quite experienced, and better sutied to setting these cars up than either of their rookie drivers. With such a lack of engineering nous, driver experience is more important at Coyne than at most teams.

Also, Brazil is a target market for ChampCars to stage a race in, but right now the IRL has more Brazillian drivers (and, even in Formula 1, the popularity of the race is very closely linked to how likely it is to be won by a Brazillian), so Tarso could feasibly be a 'threat'. Do you know what Marques' long-term ambition is?

Interesting points (as usual), BootsOntheSide. My thoughts:

1.) I don't think Brazil is a target market to Champ Cars anymore, and a friend of mine who talked to Kalkhoven a few times recently has understood that Brazil is not a priority to him. Incidentally, this person told me that the last time Kevin mentioned the name Brazil as a "country of interest" was in the summer of 2004, around a year ago. Since then other countries have been rumoured (as Argentina and Portugal) and KK himself listed a few (Singapore, China - it happened since -, Korea, a second race in Australia and New Zealand), but Brazil has not been in the radar.

2.) Champ Cars' popularity in Brazil is not even a tenth of what it used to be in the early 1990s. Of course die-hard fans (and pundits...) know what is going on, but that's it.
(Champ Cars - CART at the time, of course - used to be the second most popular series in Brazil, now it comes after just about anything else, from Brazilian stock cars to IRL to local truck (real trucks, not pick-ups as in the United States...) racing).
Last time I checked Champ Car tv audiences in Brazil (end of 2004) they had averaged 2% along ten races.

3.) There is nothing going on in Brazil about a possible Champ Car race there.

4.) The last time I personally talked to Marques was during the 2004 Long Beach GP. He clearly said that he was looking forward to a strong Brazilian stock cars championship when Coyne's invitation for a ride reached him. I am sure Marques would be successful in stock cars, but he considers top open wheel racing as an unfinished business and is not going to give up yet. About your question on what Marques' ambitions would be, I guess he seems himself in a series like Champ Car or IRL for a few years, and then going to Brazilian stock cars or something else (as GTs).

(note: I also talked to Dale after Tarso drove for him; Dale was very, very impressed with Marques. Additionally, last year I saw Dale apologize to Tarso for not being able to offer him a better car (remember that Marques got quite disappointed with the level of the equipment he had at hand at DCR, and made public, very strong criticisms about that). How many team owners would have had the character required to do that? For this and other reasons is that Dale Coyne Racing remains my favourite team. The guys are honest to the bone)

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

I'm given to understand he'll be Brazil's driver in A1GP

On this concern, to the best of my knowledge nothing has been signed yet between the Roberto Carlos-funded squad and Marques - nor any other driver, for that matter.

Cheers,


Muzza

[Snrub]

A real shame for Valiente.

As for Marques, I think he's a better driver than he's given credit for and probably perfectly capable of being a competitive CC driver. I don't think he's going to be winning any races, but he's certainly more talented than many of the other recent DCR drivers.

[macdaddy]

Thank-you for the info, Muzza.

Shame about Valiante. That's all I've got to add...

[Fiorentina 1]

Marques is always good for a few dollars, while Valiante does not have any. I'm surprised Alex Sperafico wasn't 'hired'.

[macdaddy]

I wonder if Valiante will be back in the saddle for the following round in Toronto?

[Muzza]

Originally Posted by macdaddy

I wonder if Valiante will be back in the saddle for the following round in Toronto?

The Grande Prêmio article states that Marques has been hired "for the remainder of the season", but the same was said last year - and he drove for DCR for a few races only.

[macdaddy]

Doesn't make sense to me.

Unless Marques was bringing money, or else Valiante was hugely disappointing to Dale, why would he make the switch now? Cleveland is right beside Canada, and the following race is in Toronto! Having four Canucks on the grid certainly wouldn't hurt ticket sales! So many people have been speculating that OWRS have been helping Coyne to survive (and to supply the contracted amount of cars), but this move makes me reasonably sure that they are not. The timing just isn't right, IMO. Obviously Sperafico has a fat wallet, because a Marques/Valiante lineup would be just so cool, as I echo Muzza's admission of "favourite team".

[marcus]

a huge shame for Valiante , and marques really didnt show much over his last few years in his limited starts.

I'd much rather Michael stayed in the seat but good luck to tarso.

[BootsOntheSide]

Maybe Valiente will do Toronto and the other Canadian visists for Jenson? He may have been funded by OWRS for that race on the basis of it being a warm-up for his main role in those races?

Any announcement that a driver will be with Coyne 'for the rest of the season' should be taken with a fair amount of salt. There's always a certain degree of musical chairs going on there.

[Kicking-back]

Tarso is now saying he's only committed for this one race at the moment.

[Snrub]

Regarding the Canadian rounds, remember that Jensen should be back for those. Perhaps Valiente will be driving for those?

Valiente appeared reasonable at Portland, I don't think Coyne was upset with him. I think that with Tarso's ability to land time at Minardi and DCR, it's clear that he has some sort of money. Side note: I didn't realize that he raced for Penske in '99.

I think it's too early to critisize Ricardo Sperafico, he has a lot to contend with on DCR.

[marcus]

Tarso did fairly well at penske.

I cant quite remember why he got the drive but it was the same year as Gonzalez sadly lost his life at laguna , maybe he was replacing him but i cant remember wo rodrigo was replacing or why for that matter ?

[macdaddy]

Jan Magnussen also drove for Penske in 1999.

But, like Marcus, I can't remember why.

[macdaddy]

Tarso Marques:

We’ll have to see how we do at Cleveland before committing to the remainder of the season.

SpeedTV

[marcus]

Originally Posted by macdaddy

Jan Magnussen also drove for Penske in 1999.

But, like Marcus, I can't remember why.

actually Macdaddy Ive just done a search on magnussen.

he drove for the Hogan/Penske team back in 1996 I think he was Emmo's replacement ??

in 1999 he drove for the Visteon team.

but thats off topic and Im still searching for Marques at penske in 99

[Kicking-back]

Penske was running a solo car for Al Unser Jr for much of 1999.

Marques replaced Unser for a couple of races, because he'd broken his ankle in a crash at Homestead.

Rodriguez and a couple of other drivers (Jason Leffler?) did occasonial races in a part-time second car.

[marcus]

thats correct KB

except for leffler.

drivers I have found listed for Penske in 99 are
Al Jnr
Tarso marques
Alex barron
Rodrigo Gonzalez

[N I Tram]

That sounds right - by mid-1999 Roger had largely given up on the season and was planning ahead for 2000, switching to off-the-shelf-though-modified cars and Honda engines, with great success to come, although the losses of Gonzo and Greg surely took some shine off it all.

[Muzza]

Originally Posted by marcus

thats correct KB

except for leffler.

drivers I have found listed for Penske in 99 are
Al Jnr
Tarso marques
Alex barron
Rodrigo Gonzalez

Hi, Marcus,

You meant Gonzalo RodrÃ*guez...

Cheers,


Muzza

[marcus]

OMG I cant believe I made that mistake.

apologies I could have handled that alot better.

[TedN]

Valainte was inteviewed this morning on The Auto Racing Zone radio program on The Fan 590 .

There was supposed to be a test sesion before Portland but it never materialized. He said the Portland deal was very last minute. He booked a same-day flight.

Coyne is apparently scheduling a shootout between Michael and Tarso after Cleveland.

Valiante specifically mentioned the lack of a driver/engineer relationship that is missing at Coyne, because of the constant driver swapping. It is hard to get consistant results.

Michael wants to move forward and finish out the year at Coyne. No mention of Jensen. He didn't sound all that confident, but that may have due to the fact it was 6:30 a.m. in B.C.

Ted

[f1manoz]

Marques is an under-rated driver. He's never had the equipment to do the job. IMO he's been hired for his experience in setting up the car. Shame for Valiante, but he'll be back on the grid soon