The Formula One Thread

What surprised me most was, Bourdais was paid US $70,000 to drive for Newman/Haas Racing in 2003. This was after he had won the Formula 3000 championship and already signed for 2003 by Opel with a 250K Euro contract.

I incorrectly thought a big team like Newman/Haas, back in the early 2000's when racing money seemed to be really flowing, would pay that little for a racer.

 

It's all in how they choose their contract. I remember when a good friend finally made it to IndyCar, late 90s. My brother mentioned his 150k contract, I said that's all he makes? Dave (my brother) said he chose the lower payment but a higher race win percentage. 50% of a winners purse of the Indy 500 makes a nice paycheck.

I'll bet Bourdais' stock rose quickly though.

 

Robbie Buhl??

 

Just looking.....Bourdais' career is much more impressive than Vettles, other than his F1 dominance for four years. I know, crazy thinking. That just enforces my theory that F1 is all about the car.

 

Mark Dismore. Dave has been a spotter at Indy for 24 years with a few teams...Schmidt, Andretti, RLL. But in 2021 a good friend asked if he wanted to try with a new team, Dave was with Sam Schmidt for the last 6 years, but as soon as he heard who this new team (Meyer Shank) had as a driver he jumped ship. He now has a Indy 500 winning team ring. Helio was the driver.

In 2022, Dave was building a new house (he's a builder) and while doing his concrete driveway, I had this idea that I knew he would like.....

 

That's pretty cool he did that in his driveway, especially with his strong ties to the Indy 500.

 

I remember Mark from Formula Atlantic.

 

I did it while he was away from his house all morning. He knew something was up, he gave me that "if it's fucked up it's coming out" look when he left. He was pleased when he came home. He had concrete texture mats he found at the Speedway's maintenance shop, the guy loaned them to him secretly. Those are the black decorative spots above the brick stripe....Indy's wheel... I believe those are patented!

 

Yea, I can't make that part out. You have better pictures?

 

Standard Indy logo with the wheel and wings.

 

I think he won a championship there? He did win one IndyCar race at Texas.
Dave did spot for Al Unser Jr for a season. Al's last win was at Miami Homestead. Al Sr was always listening on the headset. He came up to Dave after the win, shook his hand and said that was the finest job of spotting he has ever heard. That was Dave's proudest moment. He wasn't crazy about the travel associated with being a spotter, he has a business to run. That's why he has only done Indy for the past 15 years or so.

 

All this Vettle retirement things, and I don't really care. Is it just me?

 

Not just you....

 

He had the mats and placed them along the entry to his barn. I used them out in the middle of his drive by the brick stripe

 

Well, the drivers sure care about the Vettel's retirement. The tributes have been impressive. Most have nothing to do with racing. They really, really love him as a person. Many have spoken about support they got from him behind the scenes during tough times. His transformation from his championship-winning days is unbelievable. I almost have hope for Verstappen.

 

Pato Oward is in a McLaren today at Abu Dhabi

 

Was. That was six hours ago.

 

Maybe he will be back in later today! I DVR'd it. Been busy sizing pics!