American GP Thread **SPOILERS**

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway may be one of the most famous motorsport venues in the world, but its grand prix history is relatively short. Originally built as a test track for the Detroit motor industry in the early part of the 20th century, ‘The Brickyard’ - named for its early track surface - became a Mecca for American motor racing, thanks to the popularity of the Indy 500.

The race briefly became a round of the newly-formed world championship in the 1950s (although local drivers and cars tended to do the winning), while F1 stars Graham Hill and Jim Clark took victories in the non-championship Indy 500 in the 1960s. Other F1 stars have also had success at Indy, with Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi also scoring wins in the 500. Jacques Villeneuve continued this tradition of F1 world champions triumphing at Indy when he won the race in 1995, while Juan Pablo Montoya won in 2000.

The US GP has been held at a number of venues – including Sebring, New York’s Watkins Glen, Detroit and Phoenix. The race moved back to Indy in 2000 after circuit boss Tony George built a new infield complex. In 2000 and 2003, Michael Schumacher took vital wins at the track to move to within touching distance of the title. But 2002's event was blighted by controversy when Schumacher inexplicably attempted to engineer a dead heat with team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

A major shunt for Ralf Schumacher in 2004 highlighted the challenge of the banked flat-out final turn (essentially, the Indy 500's first corner, run in reverse), while 2005 proved to be even more controversial as only six cars competed in the race following tyre problems in practice. It will be interesting to see whether the US fans' enthusiasm for Formula 1 can be restored in 2006.


Rudely copied from ITV.com


I hope it will rain this weekend, it's too long ago since there was a rain race. Alonso will certainly fight for the victory I think, but I hope Kimi wins this one


Yay, I made my first GP thread!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2006 09:28PM by Morbid.

I'm expecting Ferrari to do better this time with their great straightline top speed and Michelin perhaps going for a harder tyre compound. Hopefully Kimi will be up there with a chance of a race win and possibly if JPMs luck is in he can do well too as he usually goes well there. The championship is Alonso's now imo, so a few more winners would make this season a bit more fun.

Nickv Wrote:
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> Rudely copied from ITV.com
>

Best double check it then !

I just wish for some over-taking.

tbh I cant see neither Honda driver finishing any better than 7th.

I dont see anyone stopping Alonso.

I can still see Fry banging on about BMW's car, because its better

tbh.. at the front I think it will be a boring race... it will be FA, KR and MS all the way...

I think the excitment will probably come from the Williams/Toyota/BMW battle. I deerly wish to include Honda in that, but sadly they have been without a doubt the biggest disapointed of the season... no century

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

it's possible that it will rain in Indianapolis : [www.weather.com]

Let's pray to the rain gods then just a bit more

It would be nice with a proper wet race. It has been a while!

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

That last corner will be a complete turd in the wet...

Bring it on :P

Anyone still imagining Ferrari's 'straight line speed' advantage has just not been paying attention since Spain. The Renault has speed up it's sleeve, and even the terrible McLaren is a faster car now.

I honestly can't see Ferrari doing any better than 2nd, and even that would take another great drive from Schum.

Having said that, still looking forward to the race. Isn't it GREAT having a longer season and enjoying these back-to-back races!?

Webber is overdue for a result too by the way...

The Ferrari is still the fastest car in a straight line, whether that is down to low downforce setups, a more powerful engine or better aero i'm not sure. But Ferrari have always gone well at Indy and with good Bridgestone tyres and both Schumi and Massa on good form, they could win. Even Todt said at the end of the Montreal GP that they have a better car than the Mclaren. In qualy with several laps more fuel on board than the others both drivers recorded 320kph on the straight then next up was Speed with 316kph.

But IIRC, there has never been a wet F1 race at Indy, that'll shake everything up, so surprises are quite possible, like zeppelin said the last corner will be tricky if the track is wet.

2003 was wet. Great race too.

We really need someone to punt alonso off the track "accidentally". And then MS or kimi to win the race.

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keep alonso in the race, just let someone crash MS out

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why?

I.Tz No Problem
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Because he probably is an Alonso fanboy...

Thanks for the correction F1 lunatic. I'm looking forward to qualifying, I wouldn't be surprised for Ferrari to run MS light so that he doesn't get caught up behind Trulli again.

alonso has been going about last year that the only team and driver to stand in the way of them doing something to race for no points last year was ferrari and ms but who knows

they also recon michelin have made the tyres harder for the race so they dont have a problem this year

yes i dont recon ferrari will do what they done in canada again as mclaren found u just can not make up the gap when u start heavy and go long. Seems to work better when u start from the back and do that



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2006 08:18PM by marcl.

Razorsedge Wrote:
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> Having said that, still looking forward to the race. Isn't it GREAT
> having a longer season and enjoying these back-to-back races!?

Damn straight!

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

2003 was not only wet but freaking cold! And the damn rain left and came back, those damn clouds

Watch out for Rubinho! Seriously, watch out, he can go off in the gravel trap in turn 1 after some muck-up :p. And maybe Alonso can repeat his sweet crash a few years back where I got an amazing picture of him destroying one of the signs for the T-1 turn :D

that was cause buy a tyre problem as well