2011 Superleague Formula Discussion Thread

[skells22]

A bit of a last minute time headache there as Superleague has to find one very fast!

[jondownunder]

Max Wissel back, in a South Korea car run by De Villota:

http://www.superleagueformula.com/ne...league-formula

Sorry, but I think they need to go the whole hog a la A1GP and have only national drivers in their countries' cars... this is aimless and ridiculous.

[dank]

Good news about Wissel rejoining the field (regardless of what he's behind the wheel of!) as he's one of Superleague's true stars - alongside Craig Dolby.

[Bonanza]

I can't see why Wissel can't represent Germany, then again he does strike me as very south korean.

[Valker]

Aleshin will drive Russian car in Zolder: http://openracing.ru/news/4615

[Juntos]

This year, Aleshin was planning to act in the championship of GP2, but due to lack of funds lost his place in the team Carlin after two rounds. Where is this money to race superleague coming from? Small price to pay to feel like heaven!?

[kurski]

Neel Jani (Belgium - RSC Anderlecht) topped the timesheets in first practice for Superleague Formula's Grand Prix of Zolder, producing a lap of 1:20.020 to edge out Craig Dolby (England) and John Martin (Australia) in a closely-fought opening run.

Frederic Vervisch (Luxembourg) set the pace in second practice for Superleague Formula's Grand Prix of Zolder, recording a blistering lap late in the 40-minute session. The Belgian-born racer became the first and only driver to dip into the 1m18s and ended the run almost four-tenths faster than his nearest challenger.

[p-matt]

I noticed on the quali coverage that Superleague has changed the calendar again. The next two rounds are in Brazil, one in Goiania, the other at a circuit TBC. Then two rounds in China (Beijing and Shanghai), then South Korea (in Seoul - presumably a street circuit), followed by a TBC circuit in NZ (Taupo?)

[skells22]

just like last year Dolby (England) won a race then have issues in race 2.

[Try Hard]

Originally Posted by Morris Dancer

Neither is SF. They've tarted it up this yearwith 'national' teams tacked onto the soccer ones in a misguided attempt to find a marketing 'hook', ignoring the fact that the same approached failed dismally with A1GP.

I'll admit I've not really followed the SF developments this season... so I was a bit surprised to discover all the "national" teams being used... what happened to the links with football? Teams realise it wasn't giving them anything, and pulled the plug on their deals?

Just smacks of A1GP all over again from the outside I'm afraid...

[ECW Dan Selby]

Was interesting watching a casual viewer watch it with me the other day.

His conclusion was there seemed to be some 'real racing' there, and some quite modern ideas with the way it's run (Dash for Cash, however gimmicky that may seem).

I must admit, it was good fun. I really enjoyed the racing.

I didn't particularly care for the nationalities. Actually, that's a lie - I don't mind the idea, but I cannot stand Germans driving for Team Korea or whathaveyou. It just doesn't add up and it's pretty confusing. Plus it just looks very last minute and amatuer.

But, the sounds, the racing, the look of the cars (basically 2004 F1 cars) - fantastic.

I'll be (trying) following the rest of the season, for sure.

Selby

[Mak]

Originally Posted by Try Hard

I'll admit I've not really followed the SF developments this season... so I was a bit surprised to discover all the "national" teams being used... what happened to the links with football? Teams realise it wasn't giving them anything, and pulled the plug on their deals?

Just smacks of A1GP all over again from the outside I'm afraid...

Nothing wrong with that.. A1GP was a fabulous series, just VERY BADLY managed.. Thanks TT.

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by Morris Dancer

Neither is SF. They've tarted it up this yearwith 'national' teams tacked onto the soccer ones in a misguided attempt to find a marketing 'hook', ignoring the fact that the same approached failed dismally with A1GP.

SF's backers are wasting their time and millions of Euros persisting with yet another second-tier openwheel series that two men and a dog turn up to watch because it's based on a fatuous concept.

They would get more recognition by sponsoring an outstandingly talented but cash-strapped young 'entry level' driver each year through the recognised 'junior development' and 'feeder' levels into Formula 1.

The backers didn't enter for recognition but for roi on their investment in the serie.

Having said that, we've seen many investors the past couple of years (superleague, a1gp, superfund, etc.). All decided to invest in a new serie and/or a new car, and thought if we just come up with a new car that has 100hp more people will start watching our serie.

The funny thing is, it isn't about having 800hp, it is about marketing. The masters of F3 at Zandvoort attracts more people then Superleague at Assen, that should tell them something.

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by RichardRenes

See that is the problem. Too many feeder series, but hardly any parallel series, as the FIA is allowed to do what, say, Microsoft is not: rule absolutely. It's time someone, say the EU, is going to slap their wrists for that.

The problem is not that the FIA can rule absolutely. The problem is that in 30 years they havn't been able and/or interested to use their position and build motorsport apart from F1, or at least kept the money from F1 to themselves.

Say what you want about FIFA, at least they did build a goldmine with the worldcup, kept the money themselves and spend a lot of it on developing football (obviously after keeping a part of the goldmine for some officials personally ).

There is more then enough room jext to F1 for a succesfull year round european stand alone open wheel formula serie (a la an european indycar like serie but then succesfull), if promoted properly. I'm pretty certain that for example GP2 combined with formula 3 as a support serie would be hugely succesfull as a standalone serie if promoted well in combination with decent tv coverage. Especially if the tv coverage exposure warrants decent team sponsorship and you'd end up with the best young talents vs. ex-f1 drivers. Obviously there are political reasons why this won't work....

[Valker]

Originally Posted by Francis Albert

Yes, and this was after Euro GT3 had cancelled their own event and the circuit organisers themselves had said there would be no international events in Smolensk in 2011.

Actually, circuit owners announced the cancelling of both FIA GT3 and Superleague at the same time. Their major sponsor had pulled of so they couldn't organize the events.

Anyway, the was still one international event left, so I doubt they have said there was none. FIA European Truck Racing Championship had their races in Verhnedneprovsky last weekend.

The circuit area looked better, more finished, than last year when the race trucks raced there for the first time. I don't understand why Superleague claim the track wasn't ready when it already hosted a FIA event last year and again this summer. As far as I know, for trucks EC the circuit must ha Grade 2 license, just like FS.