Yay, Kimi!

[AmericanEagle]

Who on earth is Kimi?

[Silurian]

Originally Posted by AmericanEagle

Who on earth is Kimi?

Seb's wingman.

Hope that makes it clearer.

[lukeap69]

Careful! Bottas hates that word! [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

[Joseph Hanna]

I'm really happy for Kimi. He's had some bad luck and certainly shown some degree of unhappiness with team Ferrari and certainly team Ferrari has struggled a bit in the shadow of Mercedes. All adds up I suppose. Still in some ways he reminds me of Valentino Rosso in MotoGP in that he's nearing the end of his career, some younger drivers have certainly emerged as front runners, yet still he's always right there in the thick of most races. One thing for sure Kimi's far less prone to mistakes than Seb and I'd suspect that's do to his race maturity. Again reminisent of Valentino and Marquez in MotoGP.

He say's in genuinely wants to race a few more years and I suppose Sauber offered him that opportunity. I'm pulling for him!

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by flaggerphil

A very good race. Now to Mexico.

It was a good race with lots of chaos to start with, pity about Alonso.

The media made lots of Kimi's win, justifiably, and of Lewis' 3rd place and Vettels 4th, but no-one seems to bother about Max Verstappen's 2nd place from the last place on the starting grid.

Particularly well deserved as he was denied his worthy podium place at the same race last year.

I was a little surprised at the lack of interest in this US based race here on this forum.

[Jeff Scott]

Perhaps the general lack of interest in the US is that F1 stills plays something like fourth or fifth (probably more like tenth) fiddle to other sports in the US, unfortunately.

[Ozzy the dog]

Originally Posted by AmericanEagle

Who on earth is Kimi?

Kimi is brilliant! This is Kimi winning earlier this year and if you skip to the end (3.30) you can see an uncharacteristic smile from the ICE MAN.



In fact, he is a master of all things petrol driven

[Ozzy the dog]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

The media made lots of Kimi's win, justifiably, and of Lewis' 3rd place and Vettels 4th, but no-one seems to bother about Max Verstappen's 2nd place from the last place on the starting grid.

Particularly well deserved as he was denied his worthy podium place at the same race last year.

Indeed - and in a lesser car. He made me smile when, in the cool down room for the podium, he asked the official if he could stay this year. He then went on to casually ask Lewis 'Did you win the championship today?'

[Johnny K]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

Perhaps the general lack of interest in the US is that F1 stills plays something like fourth or fifth (probably more like tenth) fiddle to other sports in the US, unfortunately.

I started losing interest about the time of the rule changes that got rid of the the screaming V10's in favor of what they use now that sound like my old dry clutch Ducati. Not that I dont like that sound, but in an F1 car, yeah no thanks. And add in ESPN now doing the broadcasts, The whole package is just wrong sounding Muppets.

I used to watch MotoGP and World Superbike religiously too, but even they dont like fun anymore. I took Nicky Hayden's death almost as hard as SRV's. Very strange who we grieve for.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

Perhaps the general lack of interest in the US is that F1 stills plays something like fourth or fifth (probably more like tenth) fiddle to other sports in the US, unfortunately.

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I guess that in the USA there is far less motor racing and people don't think about the rest of the world in the same way that we do.

I know that you have Nascar, and those standing 1/4 mile things. but the only race for open wheel cars that I know of in the USA is the Indy 500, probably more, but I don't know of them.

F1 is, of course international with races in 21 (?) countries, and of course there is the F2, F3, F-e (electric) plus rallies, saloon cars, sports cars, and Karts in most countries plus all the international formulae. We also have Stock car racing and other "amateur" racing formulas.

The geographically tiny UK has so many racetracks I can't count them (just tried).

So, I guess that motor sport is far less of a thing in the USA.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I guess that in the USA there is far less motor racing and people don't think about the rest of the world in the same way that we do.

I know that you have Nascar, and those standing 1/4 mile things. but the only race for open wheel cars that I know of in the USA is the Indy 500, probably more, but I don't know of them.

F1 is, of course international with races in 21 (?) countries, and of course there is the F2, F3, F-e (electric) plus rallies, saloon cars, sports cars, and Karts in most countries plus all the international formulae. We also have Stock car racing and other "amateur" racing formulas.

The geographically tiny UK has so many racetracks I can't count them (just tried).

So, I guess that motor sport is far less of a thing in the USA.

Nascar has suffered a bunch lately as well. I know first hand (well maybe second hand) how much the Verison Indy Car marketing team has fought for America's attention and quite honestly the last several years has seen some really great Indy races, even so marketing continues to search and struggle.

The seemingly dis-interest in F1 may be a bit easier to see given most races are in the middle of the night (US time). Hard to get the kids and wife wound up about a 3:00 am Formula One race Also Americans drivers (at least comparatively) have never faired all too terribly well at F1 and further ya gotta be dang near wealthy to ever consider personally attending a race. That not to mention there's a limited number of races to attend anyway.

Finally I think you'll agree the UK does a much better job at cultivating young drivers and driving schools and by and large has always put a greater emphasis on auto racing in general. Maybe except for a brief period of time in the 50's and 60's with the rise of dirt track racers into the uber competitive stock car racing world of America's southern heartland, interest rose but in general it's kinda homogenized here except for those rabid fans like me.

I see the same kinda thing in MotoGp with the Italians and Spaniards. There's video of Marquez ridding a mini-bike at like 5 years old. Similarly, and for all the same reasons as the lack of interest in F1 racing, MotoGp suffers a similar fate in the U.S.

Just food for thought

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I guess that in the USA there is far less motor racing and people don't think about the rest of the world in the same way that we do.

I know that you have Nascar, and those standing 1/4 mile things. but the only race for open wheel cars that I know of in the USA is the Indy 500, probably more, but I don't know of them.

F1 is, of course international with races in 21 (?) countries, and of course there is the F2, F3, F-e (electric) plus rallies, saloon cars, sports cars, and Karts in most countries plus all the international formulae. We also have Stock car racing and other "amateur" racing formulas.

The geographically tiny UK has so many racetracks I can't count them (just tried).

So, I guess that motor sport is far less of a thing in the USA.

NASCAR? What's that? I never got into that.

The only other series I was into, seriously, was when Indy car racing was called CART, way back when. I went to a few races at Long Beach in the '80s, and at Burke Lakefront Airport a couple times in the mid '00s (my old photo lab was just a few blocks south of Burke so we'd hear practice every time they were in town, too).