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mlittle wrote:In which case, GhoGho's right(referring to his Friday 8 July posting)--Danica is a better driver than Webber.

HUH? Webber is driving the tits off a piece of rubbish. You tell me, and Danica states, that she is driving a good car for a top team. How does that equate

Point #1--You're right; Webber's drivng the b---- off of his Williams, but it's not translating into good results, while Patrick's wringing the guts out of her IndyCar on ovals she's never been to, so yeah, she's doing better(but it is an inexact comparison).

Point #2--Williams(at one time) was at the top of the F1 world, but now they're struggling for points when they should be fightin' Ferrari and Renault for the top of the constructors' table, while Rahal-Letterman is one of the three top IRL teams at the moment(other than Andretti-Green and Team Penske) and have been there since the beginning of 2004.

Well I am glad we got that sorted out. I think.

rah wrote:Well I am glad we got that sorted out. I think.

whats the answer?

I don't know, I was just hoping it would seem like I did.. Do you know?

rah wrote:I don't know, I was just hoping it would seem like I did.. Do you know?

Iknow nothing!

Well thanks captain obvious!

rah wrote:Well thanks captain obvious!

julian mayo wrote:

rah wrote:Well thanks captain obvious!

If only it was that easy to upset you. Your kids would rip you to shreds.

rah wrote:

julian mayo wrote:

rah wrote:Well thanks captain obvious!

If only it was that easy to upset you. Your kids would rip you to shreds.

Their reputation has spread that far ?

Going back to the subject I've read an article (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8018894/) that Patrick has a big advantage in IRL due to her weight compared to the other drivers. Is that true ?

If she is beating Briscoe, she could make it in F1. I hope she tests in F1 soon!

Call it bad timing, graham. When the IRL began in 1996, the rule(which is still around) was that the car must weigh 1525 lbs. not including the weight of the fuel and driver. No one thought until right before the Indy 500 this year that the rule would be challenged. The problem is that the average weight of the drivers(not including Patrick) is around 140-145 lbs. while she weighs 105 lbs. Effectively, this means that, in theory, she's got about a 0.3 sec. adv. over the other drivers(according to some w/in the IRL). In reality, it doesn't wash, because of the fact that the series races on ovals(14 of 17 rounds) where the weight adv. is cancelled out by other factors, notably the ability of the other drivers. Don't worry, though; I suspect they'll change the rule in the off-season to include the driver(NASCAR, Formula 1 and ChampCar already do this).

As far as F1...considering that, until now, her whole racing background has been on road courses, I wouldn't be surprised if she did make it into F1.

mlittle wrote:The problem is that the average weight of the drivers(not including Patrick) is around 140-145 lbs. while she weighs 105 lbs. Effectively, this means that, in theory, she's got about a 0.3 sec. adv. over the other drivers(according to some w/in the IRL).

it means she'll be going 0.3s/lap slower then now if the weight limit includes the driver... bad news for her... she'd have to use extra ballast...

what is the typical gap (between P1 and P2...)in Q laps in IRL?
what is her typical Q pos?

anyone interested in betting some Roubles DP won't do it to F1 in the next 3 years?? ... still it'd be iteresting and nice to see her in minardi alongside SS... (maybe 2009?)
no seriously, it'd be nice to have her in the F1... sad it won't happen...

sgd wrote:

mlittle wrote:The problem is that the average weight of the drivers(not including Patrick) is around 140-145 lbs. while she weighs 105 lbs. Effectively, this means that, in theory, she's got about a 0.3 sec. adv. over the other drivers(according to some w/in the IRL).

it means she'll be going 0.3s/lap slower then now if the weight limit includes the driver... bad news for her... she'd have to use extra ballast...

what is the typical gap (between P1 and P2...)in Q laps in IRL?
what is her typical Q pos?

anyone interested in betting some Roubles DP won't do it to F1 in the next 3 years?? ... still it'd be iteresting and nice to see her in minardi alongside SS... (maybe 2009?)
no seriously, it'd be nice to have her in the F1... sad it won't happen...

Thing about ballast is that it can be distrbuted in a way that might even help her lap speed, against the other teams with ballast.

Good point, julian. As to sgd's point...the weight issue's a non-starter for one primary issue...the IndyCar Series has 17 rounds, 14 on oval tracks where the weight issue isn't a factor(in 9 races so far, Patrick has yet to set fast lap of the race) but other factors(the car's handling through the turns, the interaction of the cars, etc.) play a role as well. As the season's moved along, she seems to be learning more and more about each track, which'll help further along. Ironically, a lot of critics said that she would have lots of problems at Texas(highest-banked track on the schedule) and Richmond(shortest track on the schedule) and she made it safely through both, finishing 13th at Texas and 10th at Richmond.

Now, as to sgd's point on the avg. qual. gap...It's usually between .01 secs. to around .04-.05 secs. Note, though:this applies to 13 of the 17 races....the three non-oval events use one flying lap and Indianapolis uses a four-lap qual. system to set the grid.

In nine races so far, sgd, Danica's qualified in an avg. starting spot of 8th.
Here are the actual numbers:Homestead-15th, Phoenix-18th, St. Petersburg-15th, Motegi-2nd, Indy-4th, Texas-3rd, Richmond-21st, Kansas-1st, and Nashville-2nd.

As to whether she'll make it into F1....only time will tell, sgd. My guess..she'll be there. But I seriously doubt it'll be w/minardi.