Open letter invites disgruntled F1 drivers to Indy Car
If you follow the political bickering in Formula One, you may have seen a heated exchange of correspondence between the F1 drivers and the regulatory body responsible for accrediting them to race. After the FIA exponentially raised the fees for a Superlicense – the certification that the FIA grants and requires of F1 drivers – the Grand Prix Drivers Association wrote an angry letter to the ever autoerotic Max Mosley, in which they compared the fee for renewing defending champion Lewis Hamilton's Superlicense – a whopping $270,000 – to the comparatively modest $4,000 that NASCAR charges its drivers. Mosley's response? So go to NASCAR, then!
Well, not exactly. Mosley responded to the drivers' objections by saying that if they can't afford the fees, they should look for more a affordable racing series. In a clever publicity stunt, a "fictitious letter" has appeared on the IRL website answering Mosley's call by inviting the disgruntled F1 drivers to move over to the newly reunited IndyCar Series where participation costs $1,000 and includes benefits. If the idea sounds ridiculous, remember that it wasn't so long ago that prominent F1 drivers like Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti came westward to find new challenges in American open-wheel racing. It could happen again.
[Source: IndyCar.com via F1-Live]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
geo.stewart 9:08AM (2/20/2009)
guess that makes brian france something of a piker. no worries, I'm sure he'll double up those fees at some point.
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Lester 9:22AM (2/20/2009)
If things dont work out for Honda, maybe a place for Button to end up?
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TigerMil 9:22AM (2/20/2009)
ROFLMAO! The US should only treble the license fees for its drivers and require adequate driver education as well as biannual testing for drivers over 70. As if.
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JD 9:25AM (2/20/2009)
$270k for a license RENEWAL?! (not the original license, but for renewing it).
You know what, I'll play Gran Turismo 3 again and ace the license. :).
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Jsams4131 9:27AM (2/20/2009)
that is a ridiculous amount of money...If I were in F1 I'd say to hell with a drivers license, you know these boys are capable, 200k+ could actually go towards development, or a plane ride over to the US.
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Richard 9:35AM (2/20/2009)
Max has some legal bills to pay und ze girls von't leave him alone until he pays zem und signs ze papers.
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Snix 9:39AM (2/20/2009)
Hey, here's an idea.
Have Ron Gettlefinger go and have them organize under the UAW. They do work in the auto industry, you know.
The dues he collects would be a windfall, and he could shut down races.
How would Max and Bernie handle that?
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Kattleox 9:40AM (2/20/2009)
looking forward to them actually SHOWING Indy road courses. Maybe they will even break out the Daytona road course this year! I'm sure those barricades are becoming kinda dusty.
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hyundaifans.com 10:05AM (2/20/2009)
From F1 to Indy Car?? I don't think so.......
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Richard 10:34AM (2/20/2009)
Only if you are an ex-World champion who wants to continue driving, but enjoy some of your success and not spend all your free hours in the gym.
Pat 10:10AM (2/20/2009)
So Max want's to keep F1 "affordable" by doing stupid things like spec engines and reduced testing, but when it comes to the Superlicense he changes his tune and says that F1 isn't made to be affordable and to find a cheaper series? WTF?
However, given what F1 drivers are estimated to be paid relative to what my assumptions are about how IndyCar drivers are paid, I'd say it's less ludicrous than it may seem.
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Kitko 10:12AM (2/20/2009)
Yes, Nigel Mansell, a prominent F1 driver came to Indy, and made other drivers look almost stupid by winning a championship in the first attempt in a car he had no experience with.
Montoya, Villeneuve and Bourdais came from non-American junior formulas and did something very, very similar to the old boys.
Wasn't there enough humiliation?
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Peter 10:33AM (2/20/2009)
Dont forget Zanardi.
why not the LS2LS7? 11:41AM (2/20/2009)
Bourdais didn't race in IRL.
Why do you feel that having good drivers is considered humiliation?
revvo 1:14PM (2/20/2009)
Because it is, it's a totally different league and F1 drivers aren't probably challenged much, so I think they'll pay the ridiculous fee with their insanely ridiculous salaries
Holden Miecranc 10:24AM (2/20/2009)
Ahh, the egofest that is F1 continues to unravel. Let's face it, F1 is nothing but an exercise in self-gratification for those involved. Now that the world's economy is in the toilet, manufacturers and sponsors are actually looking at what they get for their money, which is not much. F1 has a very finite audience. If you're looking for racing action, you might as well go watch a parade- Shriners do more passing than you see in a typical F1 race. A lot of people like to say that they watch F1 as a way to make themselves sound / feel superior to those who enjoy other 'lowly' forms of auto racing.
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Richard 10:41AM (2/20/2009)
Well,
If you look at the typical NASCAR race, there is so much passing that it is a non-event. In NASCAR, there is so much passing that only the last 15 or 20 minutes matters. I'd bet that the TV ratings show a strong peak in the last half-hour of each race.
In F1, each race is a drama from beginning to end because passing is difficult and strategy makes a huge difference - especially now that Schumacher has retired.
And if it rains...well, let's just say that's where the men are separated from the boys.
Achtun Dumkopf 11:41AM (2/20/2009)
Holden, Holden, Holden. You really don't understand the midset of us F1 fans. The drama comes from the hope that we might see a pass- maybe. We enjoy watching drivers follow each other like a parade on fast forward. You see, unlike every other form of racing, strategy is involved. There's no strategy in NASCAR, IRL, SCCA or even horse racing- only in F1. Add in the condescension we have for every other form of racing, excluding World Rally racing which is acceptable since that is yet another form of racing that is not very popular, either, thus making it cool to say you watch it as well.
Mark 10:37AM (2/20/2009)
so they bring in all these rule changes as a cost cutting measure, then whack the price of a licence up to $270k
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ehisforadam 10:41AM (2/20/2009)
I find this really funny, because the IRL was originally supposed to be about 'merican drivers driving on 'merican style ovals...The march toward CART II carries on.
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