Belgian Champ Car GP

[Ciro Pabón]

Cool. I go now to see the F1 race. Good luck, say hello to Tomba.

[Principessa]

http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/v/Ev ... ?g2_page=2

Some pictures are already online in our gallery. Tomorrow there will follow more, but now we're exhausted from a long day running around at the racetrack

[Principessa]

More pictures online. I hope you like them! It was an incredible day at Zolder and really great when Bourdais took the win and crawled on the bridge over the finish line to wave the French flag! The crowd went wild!

[cossie]

How were the crowds at Zolder and did people have easlly acess to the driver and paddock, sound like the event was a hit, great pic here of Mario catching some air
http://www.speedtv.com/_assets/library/ ... 56_mdo.jpg

[Principessa]

Well, Of course it was the first time the crowd got to know Champ Car from this close. I think that the weeks before the race, there should have been more advertisements on tv, radio and in the papers, as that would have attracted even more fans. But it was a great atmosphere with people from all over Europe coming to see there hero's

[Belatti]

cossie, thanks!

Champ Cars look like an F1 without airbox!
IRL looks weird and ugly.

I didn´t know that Toyota F1 tested in laguna seca and that Champ Car where faster there!

Now I wonder if F1 Toyotas where making a few demo laps with the car "unsetupped" or where really testing hard there.
Anyway, regulations ban almost every feature Champ Car has for F1, so they are quick, but still are "produced in mass".

[Belatti]

AHA! Wikipedia is the answer!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champ_car

Direct comparison
In recent years it has been possible to compare the respective performance of the two series.

The performance superiority of the Formula One machines was first demonstrated in 1989 when Champ Car began to race on a street circuit in Detroit that had served as the Grand Prix of the United States just one year prior. There was no big discrepancy in lap times on this occasion, but this was partly due to a tight second gear chicane that was removed from the circuit for the Champ Car series.

Since 1978 Formula One has made an annual visit to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Champ Car added this circuit to their tour in 2002, making a direct comparison possible.

During the inaugural Champ Car visit in 2002. Former Champ Car Champion Juan Pablo Montoya won the pole position in the Formula One race with a lap time of 1'12.836. Several weeks later, Cristiano Da Matta won the pole position in the Champ Car race with a lap time of 1'18.959.

In the Autocourse / CART "Official Champ Car Yearbook" for 2002, the following article appears on page 132, entitled "CART VS. F1":

"With the FedEx Championship Series making its first visit to the track that had hosted the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix since 1978, there were inevitable comparisons between the world's two major open-wheel categories. Admittedly, it was rather like comparing apples and oranges, but it did represent the first opportunity in over two decades to get some idea of the relative performance of Champ Cars and their F1 cousins.

"On the face of it, there was no contest. Cristiano da Matta's pole time of 1m 18.959s was 6.123 seconds shy of 1999 CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya's stunning pole-winning effort aboard the BMW/Williams at the 2002 GP - which was exactly the sort of discrepancy da Matta had predicted in the run-up to the event.

"In CART, meanwhile, Bridgestone's position as sole tire supplier ensured production of a more conservative (i.e., harder) compound, prioritizing durability over ultimate pace. Granted, the F1 tire war was fought on grooved rubber rather than the slicks sported by Champ Cars. But bear in mind that a Champ Car weighed the best part of 400 pounds more that its F1 counterpart, and the general conclusion was that CART's machinery stacked up pretty respectably.

"And then there's the 'other' factor. As da Matta observed, 'It's a pretty unfair comparison, since one side spends £100 million more than the other! I think that our designers and engineers are pretty smart if they can get this close with ten percent of the budget.'" (EDIT: 10%*10 teams on the same chasis+engine = 100%)

However this does not take into consideration the fact that the big F1 teams build their own chassis and engines. It is estimated that the big teams spend €100 to €200 million ($125-$250 million) per year per manufacturer on engines alone.[1]

In 2006, the latest and currently last time both series raced on the same track, Formula One was 5 to 7 seconds faster than Champ Car. The pole position in formula 1 was taken by Fernando Alonso in a time of 1'14.942, while Sébastien Bourdais took the pole in 1'20.005 in Champ Car. The fastest lap in the Formula 1 race was 1'15.841 by Kimi Räikkönen, while Sébastien Bourdais' fastest lap was 1'22.325 in the Champ Car race.

At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California on August 20, 2006, Toyota F1 test driver Ricardo Zonta set a new unofficial lap record of 1'06.309, however, this was in an exhibition- not a qualifying or race session.[5][6] The official record time is 1'07.722, set by CART driver Helio Castroneves in a Penske Champ Car in qualifying for the 2000 CART Honda Grand Prix of Monterey. The Toyota record was eclipsed on March 10, 2007 by Sébastien Bourdais, who lapped in 1'05.880 piloting the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Panoz DP-01 during Champ Car Spring Training.

F1 Rules!

[cossie]

the bottom tier f1 car and ChampCar are probably pretty close right now, Seabass set the mark in spring traing , however the Dp01 was still a brand new chassis, still is, the times have been impresive and they have set track records on most of the tracks this year, but still Ferrari and Mclearn would probably be 3 to 4 seconds faster than CC, but it would be close with the DP01 against Spyker and torro Rosso and Aguri