Ask Nigel October 24

Dear Dan,
Lucky you, living in Vermont. I know it quite well, and have often thought I'd like to move there some day. The only problem for me would be the Health Fascists, and their attitude to smoking! Now, where do I think CART should go? Ye Gods...

I'm a big fan, too, and it breaks my heart to see what is happening to CART. To some degree, its decline began with the split in 'Indycar racing' in 1995, when Tony George decided he didn't have a big enough say in CART, and decided to form the Indy Racing League, aimed - in theory, anyway - at 'the little guy'. The idea was that Indycar racing should go back to its roots, that those who made it to Indianapolis should be promising young guys from the world of sprint car and midget racing.

It was totally unrealistic in this day and age, of course, and it didn't quite work out that way. That most American of all Americans, AJ Foyt, said he backed Tony George to the hilt, that he wanted to see young American drivers coming up through the ranks. When he signed Kenny Brack, this prompted from my friend Robin Miller (writing in the 'Indianapolis Star') one of the great lines: "I guess AJ spotted him at one of those Saturday night Stockholm sprint car shows..."

The IRL, as it stands, doesn't much interest me, I have to say, because I find it difficult to take seriously a series in which a guy like Eliseo Salazar - very pleasant fellow, but no more than a journeyman in F1 20-odd years ago - is competitive. When I talked to Juan Montoya about the difference between a CART car and an IRL car, he said it was like comparing F1 with F3000. "Not enough horsepower - and too much downforce."

However, there is no doubt that the split damaged 'Indycar racing', and perhaps irreparably so. Even before this happened, open-wheel racing was being swallowed up by the monolith of NASCAR - I've noticed that 'Auto Racing' in US newspapers invariably means 'Winston Cup' and nothing else - and the split weakened it still further.

It is in the last two or three years, though, that CART has really started to go downhill, and I'm not sufficiently closely involved to know all the ins and outs of the situation. Certainly, for one thing, I know that a lot of people feel that taking it 'public' was a very bad idea, in the sense that it has been frequently taken in directions of more interest to shareholders than race fans.

I go to CART races infrequently, because the F1 schedule precludes anything else, but I'm always struck by the large numbers of CART employees there seem to be, particularly when it comes to 'PR' and 'Marketing'. Can't quite figure what they all do, I must say, and the thought always occurs that F1 - Bernie - doesn't feel the need for any at all...

CART team owners have often told me they think the organisation does a lousy job of promoting itself and its races, and certainly for the last few years I've been saddened by the ever smaller crowds at a race like the Michigan 500. Quite why the place is filled to bursting point for a Winston Cup race, and anything but for the far superior spectacle of CART single-seaters is beyond me, I must say. I've nothing against NASCAR per se - I've been to Daytona lots of times - but in these days of 'restrictor plate' races, I find it a lot less interesting than I did, and don't think it holds a candle to CART. That Michigan race in 2000 between Montoya and Michael Andretti, for example, was as exciting a race as I have ever seen.

It may well be that CART is suffering from its lack of American drivers - but, quite honestly, I don't see what can be done about that. I've often read interviews with young US drivers, in which they moan about lack of sponsorship, and how it's all money these days, and like that. Well, welcome to reality! It's the same for young drivers the world over, and the enterprising ones get out and find a budget.

CART also has an abiding problem with its rules, which seem to change almost by the week. I was sorry, I must say, when they decided to break with turbo engines, and go to 3.5-litre normally-aspirated motors - like the IRL. Some say that this is to appease Toyota, and maybe they're right, but if so the price has been too high, for in turn it has prompted Honda to announce its withdrawal (at the end of 2002), and it looks as though Ford will go the same way.

I don't blame Honda, I must say. Any engine manufacturer requires rule stability guarantees when it goes into a class of racing, be it CART, F1 or anything else, and I think this is very bad decision by CART.

The other thing, of course, is...the Indy 500. When the split came, the CART team owners were very gung-ho initially, saying that for too long Indy had been too important, that it took a ridiculous amount of time, and consumed a ridiculously high proportion of their annual budget. They could get along very nicely without it, thank you very much.

I think, though, they underestimated its importance to their sponsors. It's true that, since the split, the race has been a shadow of what it was, with TV ratings to match, and it's not certain that it can ever again be the event it was, in terms of the American nation's consciousness. But there has to be a reason why CART grandees, like Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske, went back there - and predictably dominated it. In 2002 virtually all the major CART teams will be there, running IRL cars for this one race only. And right now the word is that, down the road, many are thinking of making the switch full-time.

I'd be sorry to see that happen, for a variety of reasons. First, the cars are not exciting in the way that CART cars are; second, one of the great attractions of the CART series is that it is run on all kinds of circuit and track, and if it became swallowed up into the IRL, presumably it would be ovals only, with places like Elkhart Lake gone from the schedule; third, if we were to finish up with a single 'Indycar' series, it would be to IRL rules, and therefore inevitably 'dumbed down'.

As I left Rockingham, a few weeks ago, the English spectators were plainly exhilarated by what they'd just seen - on the track, anyway. They admitted that the constant changes to the schedule, the endless wait for the delayed start, and so on, had struck them as very 'amateur', and certainly not something Bernie Ecclestone would tolerate, but they had loved the quality of the racing, and the sheer speed they had seen.

"It's the best racing series on earth," one said to me. "How the hell can it be in trouble?" Your question entirely, Dan. Unfortunately, though, in this day and age, there's more to a successful motor racing series than motor racing...




Dear James,
You're quite right, Nelson Piquet has probably never had his due. He was undoubtedly a great Grand Prix driver, and, as you point out, a three-time World Champion. So why was much more written about such as Prost, Senna and Mansell?

Perhaps I should say right away that I never thought of Nelson as being on quite the level of Alain or Ayrton. For one thing, I don't believe he had anything like the dedication that they had, the willingness to put in the sheer hard work that separated those two from the rest. For another, I don't think his fitness was ever all it might have been, either, although his natural talent was very high. Nelson was - and is - the ultimate hedonist, a very serious racing driver when he was in the car, but one always devoted to enjoying life.

It's undeniable that sometimes he could be childish and annoying, as you say, but so also he was invariably good company, and, what's more, remarkably generous - I say 'remarkably', because as a breed racing drivers are invariably extremely close with a dollar. Strange, really, when they have so many of them, but there you are.

Nelson was also astonishingly open. At the Osterreichring in 1985, I happened to be passing his caravan - note 'caravan', not 'motorhome' - and he called me in. Although I always got on well with Piquet, we were not especially close, and therefore I was amazed when he began to pour out his heart. What should he do: stay at Brabham, where he felt he was taken for granted, and ridiculously underpaid, or move to Williams, where the offer was three times higher. It was all there, chapter and verse, including details of the money. Take my word for it, this is unusual behaviour for an F1 driver...

You ask why Nelson is now 'forgotten'. I wouldn't say that was absolutely the case, although there is something in what you say. Primarily, I guess, this is because he has disappeared from the scene, and shows up only once a year, at Interlagos. Unlike, say, Prost, he has no involvement in F1 these days, although he is actively involved in racing in Brazil, not least because his son has taken up the sport.

When people leave F1, this tends to be the way of it. Mansell, for example, has no involvement in racing now, beyond driving Minardi two-seaters occasionally, and showing up at the odd historic meeting. Consquently, his name, too, is not exactly on everyone's lips these days. It happens.




Dear Rizwan,
Pedro de la Rosa is quick, competent, professional, but when you say he is not 'very highly rated by the media and the paddock', surely you're not suggesting we should be thinking of him as an ace?

Do we think of Pedro as a 'making-up-the-numbers' driver? Yes, I suppose we do - but then that's how we tend to think of a lot of drivers. Not everyone can be a Schumacher or a Montoya, after all. I'm not denigrating de la Rosa by saying this; at any given time there are few genuine superstars.

There is no doubt that he's pretty quick. In the last seven races of the year, after all, he out-qualified his Jaguar team mate Eddie Irvine five times, and Irvine, while rather less good than he believes himself to be, is certainly not slow. On occasion, too, Pedro turns in a very good race drive: at Monza his run to fifth place was superb. On the other hand, he sometimes makes silly mistakes, as at Hockenheim, where he qualified an excellent ninth, then threw it all away on the opening lap.

In sum, then, a very good driver (and an extremely nice fellow, too), but not by any means at the very highest level.




Dear Jose,
I note you're from Amsterdam! That being so, I have to say that your sense of patriotism, and loyalty to a fellow-countryman, do you credit, but come on! Are you seriously suggesting that in 2001, when Kimi Raikkonen and, particularly, Juan Montoya made their F1 debuts, Jos Verstappen was the revelation of the year? I've always thought Verstappen an excellent driver, and one occasionally - as at Sepang this year - capable of inspirational performances, but let's keep a sense of perspective here. Yes, I agree that Jos is a very good overtaker, but quite often he needs to be, because he starts from so far back on the grid.

I'll grant you that an Arrows-Asiatech was not exactly the hot ticket this season past, but still the fact remains that Verstappen out-qualified 10-7 by Enrique Bernoldi, his rookie team mate. And that should not have happened.

Is he worth a top drive? Perhaps, but only if he were to drive every day as he can drive, at his best - and he doesn't do that, unfortunately. I like Jos, and always have, and I think his natural talent is high - we saw that in his debut season at Benetton, alongside Michael Schumacher. But I'm afraid his days of aspiring to a top drive are long gone.




Dear Alan,
If Ferrari, McLaren and Williams were to switch from F1 to CART (as Enzo, embroiled in a row with the FIA, threatened to do in the mid-'80s), I'm sure it would take them very little time to be super-competitive - on the road and street circuits, anyway. The ovals - of which they have no experience - might take rather longer. As such distinguished engineers as Adrian Newey and John Barnard have said, the ovals are another world.

I rather doubt that teams like the three you mention would ever buy cars from Reynard or Lola! They would, of course, build their own, and it would be fascinating to see the results of their labours, designing cars to a wholly different set of rules, without electronic gizmos, carbon brakes, and so on.

It wouldn't take them very long to come up with superior products, that's for sure. Price would be no object, for such as Ferrari, McLaren and Williams would not, after all, be building 'customer' cars, as do Reynard and Lola. A fascinating idea, but, as you say, it ain't going to happen.




Dear Julio,
Yes, I'm afraid to say that the time has passed for Gil de Ferran to come into F1 - in fact, I'm fairly sure that, at this stage of his career, he no longer gives the question any thought. He's as happy and content a racing driver as I know, thoroughly enjoying his life in the US, driving for Penske, the best team, and doing a first-rate job. Last year he was CART champion, and this year looks like keeping his title.

There was a time, back in the days when Tom Walkinshaw was in charge at Ligier, that it looked likely Gil would become a full-time F1 driver, but in the end contractual problems got in the way of it, and that was that. Not for years have I heard his name mentioned in connection with an F1 drive, but, as I say, probably that disappoints you more than it does him.