Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Join Mike and Shaun as they hit a couple points from Motegi. They also talk 2012 IICS schedule and all of the weeks hot INDYCAR news. We also look back at a dominating performance from Sebastien Vettel during the Singapore Grand Prix. The title is all but concluded and Jenson Button is making the claim to McLaren’s number one seat for 2012.
Two things:
1) Townsend Bell, Buddy Rice, Tomas Scheckter, Paul Tracy and the like are not eligible for $5 million at Vegas because they did not win the 2011 Indy 500. It’s a $5 million bonus for “doing the double”of Indy and Vegas, not a $5 million bonus up for grabs among a bunch of guys who, for a variety of reasons, are not regular competitors in the IndyCar Series. That whole thing with “5 guys who are frome different series coming in and trying to defeat all the regulars”? Out the window. Forget it. It’s a different challenge now. One guy is eligible. And if the rest of the teams have a complaint about it, as you guys said they should, maybe they’d prefer the deletion of the $5 million challenge and the possible resultant lower TV ratings? Shouldn’t the teams be happy that IndyCar is trying to draw eyeballs to the Series?
2) Yeah, I get that you guys are not Lewis Hamilton fans. To each their own. Also, yeah, Lewis is having a bad season, as far as his seasons go. However, two more things:
2A) Lewis is 17 points behind Button with 125 points left on the board. I don’t think it’s a closed case for Jenson to finish ahead of Lewis. I think it’s going to be a fascinating battle, frankly, and I think the battle between the two of them has been really interesting so far, with their disparate styles and McLaren’s decent handling of an actual “two #1 drivers” situation for once in the team’s history.
2B) How come Lewis gets microscopic analysis from you guys (including his “maybe because I’m black” joke that he made, and let me repeat that, it was a joke, because he was quoting an Ali G catchphrase, and is that really worth bringing up in something like 5 of your last 12 podcasts?), how come Michael Schumacher gets a pass on most of the stuff he does? Lewis misjudges a pass on Massa and cuts down Felipe’s tire and has a couple other clashes over the course of the year (most of which I’d say took two to tango), and so he’s the most chumpy, hotheaded driver ever, but Michael blocks and weaves just about every time somebody approaches him from behind (oh, and there’s that whole history thing, where he crashed into another driver in order to clinch a championship, tried to do that one other time and didn’t get the job done, parked in the racing line in order to preserve a pole position, though I don’t think I remember Lewis doing much in the way of any of that stuff, except for the whole miscommunication between him, Alonso and the team at Hungary in 2007, which if you bring that up, you do have a point), but Michael deserves plaudits for wanting to race hard and being the consummate bulldog on the track? Please. Double standard much?
SpeedGeek,
I will start by saying good to hear from you! Have been missing your comments on the show. They are always appreciated. Let me see if I can answer some of what we were talking about.
1) Good point on the INDYCAR challenge. It is “doing the double”, I just think we could of had some amazing stories like TScheck taking it up top for 5 million in a Sarah Fisher car. Perhaps that is strictly my opinion and not the goal of the challenge, but it would have brought some attention to folks who do not get much air time during other races. You bring up valid points though and are correct.
2) Now the fun topic.
2A) You are very true in saying Lewis could overtake Jenson before the curtain falls. Just from what I have seen this season, I don’t think it will happen given Jenson’s cool approach. He knows how to take care of the car given the tire situation. I just think this season, the car is better suited for him. He takes care of the equipment better than anyone else on the grid. Lewis drives what I like to call the “Cole Trickle”. He is an amazing talent behind the wheel and drives beyond the limits the McLaren lets him. That being said, his car brakes down quickly and he usually becomes a non factor in the later stages of the race. That plus his frustration this year just has me thinking it will not happen.
2B)The reason that Lewis gets the microscope from us is simply how he carries himself. While the racial moment he had was probably a joke, it is completely unacceptable behavior from a Formula 1 champion. We were the first to defend Lewis a couple years ago when he was getting called racial names in Spain by Alonso supporters following the McLaren fallout. It just really upset me that he would even mention it. While I am a Michael fan boy, I have been criticle of him at times this year and even thought it would be best for him to retire after constant contact with Petrov and just some of the silly things he has done this season. Michael has and will never escape what he did at the beginning of his career. It is completely unacceptable to slam a contestant out for the title. But then again, Senna did the same thing to Prost? Michael is not without fault, but it is the way he carries himself in public that is truly the difference maker. I would not have a problem with Lewis clipping Massa if it happened every now and again, but he has hit a lot of people this year. I probably would still look past all of that if he just carried himself better in the media after things like this. He just does not know how to act and that is the most irritating aspect about him. He will get respect from me and while I don’t speak for him, probably Mike too when he carries himself like a true champion. He is in fact a champion and he earned it.
I’m gonna side with Andy on most of this, here. Randy Bernard is doing what he can to make the best of a doomed-from-the-start project with the $5M bonus at Vegas, and a 50/50 with an IndyCar Nation fan is a brilliant way to do it. I can’t say that I approve of thrusting Tags out of his seat at Kentucky, though. THAT irritates the heck out of me.
With regards to Lewis, he is an amazing talent (and here’s where I’m more in line with Shaun), but its not his on-track performance more than it is his off-track vocalizations that draw ire. If he’d just stop making foolish statements to the team and to media, there would be a less negativity toward him. To be sure, there will always be scrutiny because of how he came to F1 as McLaren’s favored prodigy, but Lewis hasn’t conducted himself in a manner commensurate with a World Champion.
Lewis’ misbehaviour off-track doesn’t give a pass to Schumacher, however. Yes, his driving has returned to some of the form he showed while at Ferrari, but that should be no excuse for his overly aggressive driving that he’s exhibited as of late, and his extremely foolish maneuver at Singapore. He deserved a calling out at least as much as Lewis did during that race. Perez was very fortunate to have escaped from that incident with a still functional race car.