MJSpeed

Not if they're going to F1.

The exact opposite has been proven time and time again. For instance take Michael Andretti at arguably the peak of his career and put him in F1 with a top team. This happened in 1993 when he joined McLaren along side (given) one if not the greatest of all time Ayrton Senna.

That year Senna won 5 races, at one point led the championship, won his 6th Monaco GP (the last five in a row) and won not to mention the greatest race I ever saw when at the European GP @ Donnington in the rain, he lapped the entire field!!

His team mate Michael Andretti's year went something like this; he only FINISHED six races and only once did he make the podium:

Spanish Position Finished 5 Points earned 2

Monaco Position Finished 8 Points earned 0

Canadian Position Finished 14 Points earned 0

French Position Finished 6 Points earned 1

Belgian Position Finished 8 Points earned 0

Italian Position Finished 3 Points earned 4

Or what about Alessandro (Alex) Zanardi after winning back to back Champ car titles he goes back to F1 in 1999 and doesn't even earn a point. Another example is Champ car champion Christiano Da Matta and his failed attempt in F1 with Toyota.

Nigel Mansell was very successful the other way around. Won the World Driver's title in 1992 and left to Champ Car were he won the championship as a rookie in 1993.

The only two that have been successful in F1 after racing in the US series' are Jacques Villenueve and now JPM. Please keep in mind that both of these guys honed their skills in Europe prior to arriving in the States.

Having spent more time writing that than my Master's Degree dissertation I will tell you that I really dislike Nascar and everything that goes along with it. As Martin Brundle once said after being invited to participate in an IROC event "Nascar and IROC is not something I'm interested, you see I was never in the Royal Military so I never learned how to drive a tank!"

Now I will tell you from experience (Formula Renault, Formula Ford, F3 and a Toyota Atlantic and Indy Lights test both on ovals, Phoenix & Michigan respectively) that road courses require more skill but as Eddie Irvine describes Spa-Francorchamps I describe ovals "It's a lot like soccer, you need a lot of speed and *****!!" Just ask Nelson Piquet 3 time world champion after his incident at Indianapolis in 1992 where he nearly crushed his legs to the point of amputation.

I guess you may be wondering what my point is so here it goes, top drivers have talent no matter what series, some drivers adapt better than others, ovals are ballsy (fenders on a car make it less scary) and road courses require a lot of skill, the most difficult thing to do is be competitive in an F1 car, but like I said the top three or four most talented drivers in any top series with ample testing would be "competitive" in any other series but NOT including F1. I really dislike NASCAR but that doesn't mean the guys are less talented, keep in mind if Tony George hadn't broken up open wheel racing in the US, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart would've gone that route instead of Nascar.

All this really illustrates how great drivers like Mario Andretti were, winning the World Driver's Title, the Indy car title, the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, the Rolex 24 @ Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. The only one that alluded him was the 24 Heuers du Mans.

I wish racing wasn't as corporate driven as it is today and maybe more drivers would attempt to try to better Mario...that would put this argument to rest for sure. Right now only two guys have a chance, Jacques Villenueve with the Indy Car championship, the Indy 500 and the World's Driver's Title already under his belt and Montoya with the Champ Car Title and Indy 500 under his belt and if and it's a huge IF, he were to win the World Driver's Title and then they decided to go sports car racing as hired guns for the big events like the 36 Hours of Florida (24 of Daytona-part of Rolex series and 12 Hours of Sebring-part of ALMS), the 24 du Mans and THEN have someone offer them a drive at the Daytona 500...man that's nuts!!

Kaz

This has been beaten to death but I do disagree on a few points there.

Rereading my quote I said " becomes far easier". That is a broad and blanket statement. I didn't say win in F1, I said a far easier transition. I didn't pay any attention to Andrettis season in F1, but I do remember reading an article by Jean Lindamood of Automobile Magazine remarking on his disasterous season in F1 in second hand parts or something to that effect. At the time I took it to mean the team he went to wasn't any good. In light of your statements it might've been an opinion that everything was for Senna and he was an afterthought. It'd probably take a bit of time for me to scrounge that article up and even so it is only her opinion. You go on to mention two other drivers who went to, or returned to F1 without much success but I know nothing of the overall team condition. For instance was Toyota's car even competitive when Da Matta was in it? As was plainly demonstrated this season, if the car and/or team is not competitive not even Schumacher can win.

What forms my opinion about the skill and talent of a few drivers in Nascar is how they do when they race their "tanks" on road courses not when they're on ovals which is that cars natural environment. On the other hand I really dislike watching Indy and Champ cars on ovals. Come to think of it, those drivers have more ***** than the stock car guys and gals do. One wheel touch and you're in the wall.

So, to sum this up. I never said that road courses and ovals mean equal skill but I did say they are different skill sets. Some of the guys in Nascar are very skilled road course drivers and it remains my opinion they would do fine in F1 with a competitive car and team. Had something happened to Schumacher and Jeff Gordon leaped over to Ferrari last year and driven his car what kind of season would he have had?

fahren affair

I wish racing wasn't as corporate driven as it is today and maybe more drivers would attempt to try to better Mario...that would put this argument to rest for sure.

[ahem] you forgot graham hill. he's the only driver that owns the 'tripple crown' (monaco, le mans and indy).

MJSpeed

That's right Monty has two out of three, maybe he should team up with Christensen and win LeMans.

Kaz,

I don't disagree with you completely, like I said in my post, talent is talent irregardless of series. However by you saying that it would be "easier" implies that it wouldn't be difficult. And that may be the case for most series' but IMO it's not at all the case if the series transitioning to is Formula 1.

And you are 100% correct in saying, we've beat this to death. So let's bring this back to it's original topic.

Did anyone catch on Autoweek Dave Hill denying the existence of the "Blue Devil?" Does that mean that the times set at NBR were set by the "regular" ZO6?