Champ Car in the rocks?

I have been tentatively following this wherever I can over the last while and by the sounds of it Champ Car is really on the rocks. They've only got about five drivers signed up to drive this year, a poor home-grown driver presence and the need for drivers to pay to drive - there seems to be more mounting talk about the Indy Racing League and Champ Cars (finally) rejoining to form one series.

For those of you not familiar with the split, the old Indycar series was split in two. Champ Car, then known as CART, had all the big name drivers and teams while the IRL got the Indy 500. How things have gone pear shaped over the past few years. Champ Car's fall seem to begin when their teams began to make once-off appearances for the show-piece event.

This was followed up by the big name teams like Andretti Green, Chip Ganassi, Rahall et al switching codes. Now Champ Car runs majority with non-American drivers who couldn't make the step up to Formula One on this side of the Atlantic. While Bourdais has walked away with multiple titles, one must consider the lack of top class competition for the Frenchman during his time. Would he have been as successful back in the days of Andretti, Montoya, de Ferran and Castroneves graced the field?

Now all that is left is the carcass of a once great series. It appears to be a matter of 'when' and not 'if' it will either close it's doors or goes into talks with IRL. Champ car stalwarts Newman Hass Lanigan Racing, one of the last of the big name teams left in the league has sent the clearest message, claiming that they will leave for the IRL unless a merger between the two series is found.

A merger would allow single seater racing to once more flourish state-side. Since the split, both series have failed to dominate the motorsport market. In fact it seems that NASCAR has driven down the middle and sits atop of American motorsport. A united series that took advantage of the circuits and drivers under each organisation could once more return respect and television coverage for the single seater division.

Of course that all depends on people looking past their ego's for the betterment of the sport.

T-Minus Sixty-Five Days

This week sees the 2008 season begin in earnest with the first car launches. Title hopefuls Ferrari and McLaren were the first to showcase their championship challengers followed by Toyota’s new challenger and Force India confirming the final available race seat.

The defending champions Ferrari launched on Sunday, once more christened with the number one plate in the traditional red. The car features a longer wheelbase than last year, a feature that many teams appear to be employing with the traction control ban. This area is one that Ferrari may capitalize on compared to other teams given that the F2007 featured a longer wheelbase than others – the reason pointed out for the lack of success on places such as Monaco and Hungary. What is yet to be seen is whether Ferrari have improved on the weak reliability of the 2007 car, so often an Achilles heel to the Italian team.

McLaren followed up their launch 24 hours after Ferrari with the MP4-23. The car has a #23 number plate and Hamilton’s 23^rd birthday was all on the day of the launch. The conspiracy theorists must have had a field day with this one. It’s a sign! Didn’t hear any of them point out that it’s Heikki driving the #23 car though. The car looks much the same as last years and would beg the question of how much Ferrari-stolen data parts did they have to tear off for the car to be legal this year. The big question many ask is how competitive will it be with the fallout from Spygate. How long will it be before Ron uses it as an excuse? Not long I bet.

McLaren have failed to build a decent car two years in a row over the past number of years. They are either ultra competitive or title challenging, thus not devoting as much time to the development of the car for next year OR they are stuck in the doldrums in which they give up early and focus on the car meaning they come out ultra competitive. It’s the cycle they have become trapped in and need to break.

After the big guns came Toyota with a car that isn’t an evolution of their previous buckets. Time will tell if it’s all big talk which Toyota are becoming well-known for or if they have actually made a step forward. Their head boss has been giving two years to prove his worth, or more so the teams worth in Formula One. The honeymoon period is long over for the Japanese giant and if things don’t improve I’d expect them to cut their losses and jump ship from the sport in 2010.

The week finished up with Force India confirming Giancarlo Fisichella as team-mate to Sutil. Given the options he probably represents the best choice for the former Spyker team. While Luizzi and Klien have raw pace they both lack the experience that someone like Fisichella can bring to a team like Force India in the development department. Even if Sutil shows him the way around the track in 2008 both he and the team can learn allot from the Italian. Case in point is the improvements in 2007 of Williams and Nico Rosberg with an old hand like Wurz in the team.

Just got to hope those trousers aren’t going to be a common thing in the paddock!

Dakar Cancelled

The prestigious Paris-Dakar Rally has been cancelled amid terrorist threats. The event was due to begin in the first week of January from Lisbon.

It isn’t the first time that the rally, one of the toughest off-road events has come under threat from forces in North Africa. The biggest question is whether the event can recover from the cancellation. The organizers have announced that the rally will return next year but one has to question if it is nothing but hopes and dreams. The event has to take into account the financial loss from it’s cancellation along with the prospect of such issues arising again in the future. Political stability isn’t something we are likely to see happen in Africa anytime soon and now that the terrorists know it is possible to ‘win’ against the rally I see no reason why they cannot do this again next year.

In it’s current format it’s likely we have seen the last of the Paris-Dakar. If it is to return I would forsee changes to ensure that such threats won’t grind the rally to a halt in the future.