Bourdais in Superleague Formula

Good for him,
curious how he will do!

"For a driver, Superleague is the best alternative to F1" Maybe that's true... all the other single seater series in Europe are step ups.

I watch Superleague Formula races, but as a non football fan .. I only watch for the racing and drivers, not the teams.

And what does Andreu really want to achieve, that drivers dream of Superleague Formula instead of F1?

I guess Seb is taking the view that it is better to be racing something than nothing at all.

Can't argue with that logic, but thought he'd go back to IndyCar or something like that.

Perhaps his family wants to remain in Europe.

I wonder if he'll be driving for Peugeot in the Petit Le Mans?

In whose seat in IndyCar this season?

I imagine him returning to America for the new season if he does go.

I didn't even realise the superleague formula was up and running.

His old ride at N/H/L is open after Robert Doornbos left...

Yeah, it's in season two.

It has a much better TV package this year so is coming across much better on the box.

Can't say that it's captured the attention of football fans though.

That's not his old ride, that was a car created with Doornbos's sponsorship. With Rahal in the McDonalds car there wasn't sponsorship to run Justin so unless Bourdais has sponsorship in his pocket for another ride there is no other seat with McDonalds changing their mind on only sponsoring an American driver.

No, it's always been a two car team. That's effectively Graham's old ride if we assume the McD's car was the original Bourdais car. Doornbos' money was what kept the second car going, but his crashes nearly put the car out entirely.

Personally I think the idea of using football clubs will just serve to alienate people. If your club isn't amongst them then the majority of fans won't support another team.

I can remember all the talk about this series, but really hadn't noticed that it was up and running. I'll have to make time and watch the next race just to see what it's like.

Would you think Bourdais would return to NHL?

The team seems to have suffered since he left, with one the occassional sparks of brilliance in the IRL.

Would be interesting, I presume Bourdais would want plenty of cash given his status in U.S. open wheel racing.

Then again, his stock is quite low I guess, after being bundled out of F1.

It is a weird model alright.

I can't imagine Millwall fans packing a picnic basket and blanket and heading off to Brands Hatch to watch 'their' car in action.

From what I've read there's a fairly bemused response among the fans when they wheel one of the cars onto the pitch.



The cars look lovely and sound really great with the V12s.

The driver line up isn't all that terrible either.

Rather than being a bunch of mostly up and comers and unknowns like A1GP there are a few biggish names in there.

They're not guys who were ever amazing in F1, but solid second tier performers like Pantano, Pizzonia etc.

The mixture of drivers is intresting.
4 F1 drivers now with Seb,
and there's some nice racing to see.

But that qualifyïng format, that's somehow complicated because it's like a Cup format in football but it doesn't really work, with at the end only 2 drivers battling it out for pole.

And the race 3 in a weekend (a 5 lap race with 6 cars) is for me not necessary.

Don't know if the football fans really follow their teams in Superleague...

I think the starting thing is weird.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but only the short qualifying race has a standing start, right?

I think I read in Autosport that this was because of the fragility of the cars.

To my mind all open wheelers should have standing starts...

But that's mostly due to the change, they have to be the most successful former Champ Car team in the IRL. With the fact that even without Doornbos in the car they have two cars unless Seabass brought significant cash there would be no place for him. Next year I don't know though, would be interesting to see if he could adapt to ovals better than Justin Wilson has.

Even on ovals potmotr?

He used to be pretty brilliant on ovals in Champ Car, with four wins out of seven contested, on various tracks such as Lausitzring, Milwaukee and Las Vegas. I guess he'd stand a good chance scoring big results on ovals in IndyCar as well, depending onm how good the team is. So far, it has got the job done for Rahal at times this year, and Bourdais is certainly better than what he is.

I'm a football fan before F1, and I can confirm that it's rubbish.

I hate it.

That's a good point.

Bourdais has done the 500 a few times hasn't he?

Me too, never could see the sense in 22 men kicking a bag of wind about for 90 minutes.

I'm a big fan of both football and openwheel racing and still dont give a shit about Superleague. Will probably watch the next race though, as Parente is driving for my club.

The cars are nice, the racing is nice but the whole thing is just too gimmicky. Full reverse grids, races with 6 cars, wacky qualy formats, cars running with the clubs names when in fact they do nothing but to sell their brands. I like real motorsport (and real football), not this.

Another issue is that there's already a ton of other series out there, and I follow many of them. Barely have time for more.

I'm not a huge football fan. I have a passing interest in the English premier league a bit and the finals of the Champions League and that's about it.

As such, I've never even heard of about a third of the teams racing in Superleague.

I watched a few Superleague races last year, and it was alright. I wasn't convinced by the fact that the TV commentators kept referring to guys like Adrian Valles as 'stars', but the racing wasn't too bad and I really like the cars.

With Pantano and Bourdais there, I might give it a look again here or there.

I'd much rather see Bourdais in IndyCars, though.

I'll take notice of SuperLeague when they stop that reversed grid idiocy.

I'm sorry good drivers like Pantano and Bourdais had to resort to this.

By the way, I expected Pantano to mop the floor with the competition, but from what I gather it did not happen.

I had no idea that even existed.

The V12's sound GREAT, and I like how on their web page they stress the fact...

What lap times do they run compared to F1?

The football tie-in makes no sense and as a North American I have no idea who the teams are, nor care. It's stupid, because just like with A1GP where they don't list which DRIVER is leading apparently they run the order based on teams, which probably sucks to watch.

It seems like everyone in power in the "entertainment industry", whether is music, movies, or whatever, are bozos and have run out of real ideas. Racing teams based on soccer???? WTF?

The V12's sound killer, though. Racing at Zolder, Estoril is cool.

Ha! I follow most motorsports news when I can and I didn't know squat about it!

Pretty amazing when I consider some of the obscure series I do know about!

http://www.superleagueformula.com/

I heard that Bernie had plans to have cricket matches between the F1 teams. I can't wait for that to happen: will Renault regain the ashes or will they stay in Maranello. Exciting prospect.

I don't think he would, rather than being a front running talent in Champ Car he's up against more seasoned oval racers now in the IRL. Even those he raced against the CCWS like Justin Wilson have had more experience over the last few years and more time to get used to ovals again than him. If he were to get back into NHL he'd also be in a team that is yet to do anything on ovals in the IRL.

I know a fair few Liverpool, Rangers and Spurts fans...


none of them had heard of SLF until I mentioned it and had no interest in it.

I am a big footy fan and I had never heard of it until recently until I read Spurs had won a race. My dad is a big Spurs fan and moto racing fan and he had never heard of it either.

(although I don't expect my team Morecambe FC to be coming to a grid near you anytime soon)

So a Football Racing championship that isn't popular with football fans or motorsport fans.


Awesome.

But Ross, is it popular with the overpaid, prima-donna footballers?

SPURS LOLZ

Did you noticed the headline on the SLF website:
"It’s the transfer of the season: Sébastien Bourdais joins Superleague Formula!"
SLF boss will certainly try to gain as much publicity out of this as possible.

Well at Forix.com we have put the Superleague Formula Series in our list between GP2 Asia & Indycar,
why? not because it's more popular then Indycar but the SLF cars are very powerfull cars.. with those V12 4.2L engines!

And I do hope Seb will go back to Indycar next year.. because next to F1 that's IMO the single seater series to be in,
but if he can't do that.. SLF or maybe Le Mans stuff will be his thing.

Glad I'm not the only one.

That is quite possibly THE most ridiculous idea for a racing series ever.

I think the whole concept is crap!

The cars are fine...but the tie in with Football clubs..... ?

Most of us turn to motorsport as a sport where the average fan intellect is greater than an IQ of 1, which is the case with the majority of football fans (yes there are rare exceptions)

The last thing I want, is seeing a bunch a footy fans turning to motorsport.... next there will be fighting in the stands on start finish straights...mounted Police and Police Dog handlers roaming the circuits and increased chants from grandstands of a racist nature.... Let along objects being thrown at drivers doing 180mph!

BRILLIANT......

Cars look nice though, which puts it well ahead of (the old) A1GP and, er, Formula One...

I just mentioned on another forum that the racing wasn't too bad when I saw it last year, better than A1GP IMO. I agree about the football club tie-in though, it's a bit silly, just like the "nations" idea in A1.

I love how arrogant people can be in this forum. Great list of ridiculous, irrelevant stereotypes.

You all aren't any better than footie fans at all.

It's not arrogance at all....

The last Premier League football match I went to, was a foul mouthed experience with segregated fans,, a bloody hostile atmosphere and some pretty tasteless chants AND objects getting thrown on the pitch or at players....

HOW is that ARROGANT and STEREOTYPICAL? I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears....

Hostile atmosphere? check McLaren's receptions at Barcelona
Tasteless chants? same
Objects thrown at the pitch? check people dropping snow on the road at the Monte Carlo rally at drivers they don't like

I know TONS of intelligent, well behaved, passionate footie fans. On the reverse side of the medal, i get the exact same feeling that I'm being surrounded by annoying muppets, everytime i go out to either a footie match or to a rally stage. It's the exact same kind of people.

I admit an exception are organized footie support groups, who usually are on a different level, the complete scum of the earth. But the fact you seem to think you're so much better than hundreds of millions of people worldwide, makes me laugh. I don't understand why there should be any kind of rivalry between football and motorsport anyway.

One of the main problems with this series is that there's not a proper drivers championship. If you want it to be a teams championship mainly, ok, but drivers deserve to have a championship of their own too. The other problem I see is the lack of reliability of the cars. And I still don't know haw the heck the points system works.

You'd never survive the lower leagues... Premiership grounds? Hostile? Don't make me laugh. A football match will always create the type of atmosphere that motorsports could only dream of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn7DmzVKLBo.

It's something you get caught up in, especially when your team is involved a brilliant thing.

The tie in with football of SLF may be crap, but please leave your ideas of how football should be off this board.

Another thing to add, at a football match I have NEVER been near anyone taking illegal drugs. Over the weekend at Spa I was able to smell weed most of the weekend.

Seriously, WTF is the point exactly? I know I wouldn't know how it feels to be stoned having never taken drugs but why would pay all that money and travel all that way just to smoke a spliff the size of my arm (as the guys behind me on race day did) and fall a f*cking sleep?


I'd rather be in the hostile atmosphere of a football match than be forced to breath in their second hand smoke thanks, smoking is banned in most football grounds so I don't have to endure other peoples cigarette smoke never mind cannabis.

Euhm.. I always experienced just the opposite of what you tell.. yes not everything is plain positive fun stuff around the track or on the rally stages... but those fans aren't really the ones that we appriciate .. just like the good footie fans hate hooligans.

but for example: I never seen a McLaren fans fighting Ferrari fans,
I'm pretty sure drugs is a social problem, not a sports problem, and it's not something any track CEO would like to see .... and I'm pretty sure some fans use it in football grounds too...
btw I never experienced a body search when I entered a race track? which on most footie grounds is still a common use... before you enter.
I've seen amazing good atmosphere during a GP too... just like you can see it in a football stadium.. but that isn't always beïng showed on TV
.. During last years Belgian GP ..last lap.. that was crazy good stuff.. and no one was fighting with eachother afterwards.

When you go camping on a race-weekend, you make friends with all kind of nationalities... but when 2 football nations meet eachother you have to be carefull you are on friendly ground ...

In my mind motorsports fans are still very different than footie fans.. that's not a disrespect to footie fans.. these are just totally different things to love.

but let's say... there are at all sports good and bad behaving fans...

I don't like football because of the sport and everything that goes with it, hey when I was 10 I watch football on TV too.. but that never held on for long,
and like in the last weekend and the major thing in belgian soccer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vbQyNWR42k .
but I respect that lots of people love it for some reason and it's the biggest sport on the world.

OT:
Let's see what Seb Bourdais will do this weekend in SLF,
but like I said.. I follow the series because of the drivers, not the teams.

How fast are the cars compared to F1 and GP2?

In theory they should be nice cars, but they looked fairly slow on tv.

@ V8 Fireworks, from wiki "Both Superleague Formula and Formula One will be racing at Monza in 2009 where a real time comparision will be possible assuming conditions such as rain are similar."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm3Tjk35mbQ

They sound cool!!!

I guess about 5 seconds slower than F1 cars, so on the pace/just faster than GP2 cars. Kinda hard to judge as Superleague races on mostly different tracks to the F1 circus. Superleague race at Monza in a month, so should get a good idea then.

Good to see Bourdais get a drive somewhere. Hope he does well.

Did I say I was better?? NO...so stop pulling BS out ya ass! Idiot.

I simply advised my experience, its called an opinion and if you bothered your arse to read properly I did not accuse ALL footie fans....

Now troll off somewhere else with your nonsense....

They had Nurburgring in 2008 and Magny-Cours this year.

Fastest lap in a race at Nurburgring was 1:43.463 and at Magny-Course 1:27.284.

In comparison, a 2007 fastest lap around the 'Ring in a F1 car was 1:32.853 and in 2009 1:33.365, while in 2008 the fastest F1 lap at Magny-Course was 1:16.630.

The GP2 cars fastest lap at the 'Ring this year was 1.41.126 while the WSbR did 1:47.166.

So this puts the Superleague somewhere between GP2 and WSbR in performance.