Road Track Questions

[m3_lover]

I bought May's Issue of Road and Track and there are some questions I have

1)It said that A.J Allmendinger is faster then Sebastian Bourdais in the rain at the race in Montreal. It then said this and I quote " Bourdais you will recall, had a test with Renault Formula 1 and was faster than the soon-to-be world champion, Fernando Alonso" Can anybody confirm this statement ?

They implied that since A.J was faster then Sebastian he would be faster then Alonso...now I DO NOT want replies stating which is the better driver..but would you think that this american media bias towards A.J?

2) Later on in the article A.J stated that he learned alot from Justin Wilson (ex F1 driver). He said that he learned "like going fast while saving fuel. So many of these races are about fuel saving, especially the first stint, its a huge deal"
Does that statement seem to make sense to anybody? I know you can change the fuel settings in the car..but saving fuel and still going fast, is that even possible?

3) I was watching a documentary about Steve Saleen..they said he was a F1 driver..is this true?

[Tom]

Seb did have a test with Renault and was indeed very competitive with Alonso, but he had a spin which Alonso didn't. I don't know enough of the details but Bourdais was very bitter as Alonso had been testing the car alot more prior to the trial between the 2 and therefore was less likely to spin. He was supposedly faster than the Spaniard but at this stage Alonso was under Flav's wing and Flavio wasn't going to lose an oppertunity to put his guy in a car so Sebastian went West.
Whether AJ was faster I don't know, there has been alot of controvers surrounding Seb in America as far as i understand, much like Zanardi in CART. A French driver comes into a dominently American series and starts beating the regulars, people get pissed because he's successful and Tracy seemed to have waged war against him at some point with AJ backing him up. He still keeps winning though.

You can go fast and save more fuel than the others by being smoother than them, something Justin probably picked up in the lighter F1 cars on their grooved tyres which have a far greater tendancy to spin off the road if you make a mistake. In American series with the way yellow flags work they seem to wait for a caution before pitting so obviously saving fuel allows you to wait for a caution longer than others who might need to pit before the oppertunity arises. Also I heard the champ car commentators saying that whoever pits first usually looses out most because they have to lap longer with a heavy car so the later you pit the better.

As for Steve Saleen, no mention of him racing in F1here

[FLC]

Nothing came up on Forix too...

[Ted68]

I worked for Steve Saleen in the late 80's when he was running a CART car. He was a mid pack finisher. He never drove F1. Thats probably where the confusion comes from because many Americans think IndyCars and F1 are the same thing. That had to come from the journalist who knew little about his subject matter.

[Tom]

Wikipedia says:

The owner of the English team Arrows gives Sébastien the opportunity to drive a Formula One for the first time in Valencia. The test goes so well that Sébastien is offered a seat for the 2003 Formula One World Championship. Unfortunately, Arrows’ financial situation is critical, and after several attempts to save his team, Tom Walkinshaw has no other choice but to go bankrupt and liquidate the company, breaking at the same time his contract with Sébastien. A few months later, Sébastien gets another test with Renault F1 in Jerez, but the outcome is not to his advantage either.

[DaveKillens]

I remember watching that CHamp Car race in Montreal, it was raining so hard that the organizers red flagged the race after six laps and rescheduled it next day. But in the rain, AJ Allmendinger was ultra-quick, and easily lead the entire field. But there were factors that had to be taken into consideration. This was the 11th race of 15, and AJ was trying to close the gap on Sebastien, after the title. AJ had won a string of races, and if he continued his pace, would have had an honest chance at the title. So under the circumstances, it's my personal theory that AJ was going flat out, while Bourdais was looking at the big picture, and most likely was willing to be conservative and safe under such wet conditions.
Note: my opinion is prejudiced because I'm a huge fan of Bourdais.

Because of the differences between F1 and Champ Car, fuel mileage is more important in Champ Car. It is possible to save fuel in a number of ways. There's the engine management system, just like in F1. Also, just getting off the gas a wee bit soner and gradually applying throttle helps. And the time difference isn't that large, not driving 100% provides consistent lap times, and we've all heard that axiom "sometimes you need to go slow to go fast".

[Ray]

Yeah, most people don't realize if you gradually get on the throttle and not stomp it, you save gas. Smoother is always better.