Super Aguri worries me a little...

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Elegy

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I know, I know...it was just the first race of the season, things still have to be hammered out, and the team's even supposed to bring in a new in-house car later this season. Still, is anybody else just a little worried that Super Aguri might turn out to be a liability on the track? Yuji Ide RAN HIS PIT CREW OVER, for Pete's sake. They're slow, they seem to have some serious issues with professionalism, and they have a driver that's already notorious for...incidents.

At best, they could just end up being the next Andrea Moda. At worst...ugh, I'm not sure I really want to think of it. :nervous:
 
Elegy
I know, I know...it was just the first race of the season, things still have to be hammered out, and the team's even supposed to bring in a new in-house car later this season. Still, is anybody else just a little worried that Super Aguri might turn out to be a liability on the track? Yuji Ide RAN HIS PIT CREW OVER, for Pete's sake. They're slow, they seem to have some serious issues with professionalism, and they have a driver that's already notorious for...incidents.

At best, they could just end up being the next Andrea Moda. At worst...ugh, I'm not sure I really want to think of it. :nervous:
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Slow ?... IIRC, one the enourmously huge budget Toyotas had more than enough trouble getting by one the Aguris... Don't if that say more about Aguri or Toyota..

They're a new team - Give them one or three races to these little details settled - I don't think there's anything to be worried about..
 
I'm willing to give them a chance to get sorted, but keep in mind that the Toyotas have been having their own weird problems.

Make no mistake, I'd love to see Super Aguri succeed. It's just that their start was a little bit too inauspicious for comfort IMHO. Still, I'll wait and see how they do at Sepang.
 
Elegy
but keep in mind that the Toyotas have been having their own weird problems.
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Which is simply wrong considering they have the highest, or second highest, budget in F1... They should be running with the Top Dogs, yet they'er struggling to pass the lowest budget... THAT would worry me if I was the Toyota boss..
 
Everyone needs to remember that Super Aguri threw their entire car together in four months. This is much, much less time than any other team had to put a car together for this year. Not too mention the fact that the rest of the teams on the grid relegated Super Aguri to having to use a 2002 Arrows car until they could put their own car together. The Arrows car was slow that year and what would be expected of it this year, blisteringly fast pace? :lol: Had the rest of the teams allowed Super Aguri to use an older well developed BAR chassis, things would be at least a little different.
 
Bet Paul Stoddart and Alain Prost would've been interested to know what the future held in store for those Arrows chassis they spent so long fighting over in 2002-03.

Remember Ide isn't the only driver on the grid to have hit his mechanics. Villeneuve did it last year - ran over his refueller's foot - and Michael Schumacher's done it twice in his career.
 
Roo
Bet Paul Stoddart and Alain Prost would've been interested to know what the future held in store for those Arrows chassis they spent so long fighting over in 2002-03.

Remember Ide isn't the only driver on the grid to have hit his mechanics. Villeneuve did it last year - ran over his refueller's foot - and Michael Schumacher's done it twice in his career.
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Yeah, but he missed by like 2 feet.
 
What's wrong with signing Sato? At least he has some F1 experience. For a completely new team, they need at least one person that has had some driving experience in the world of F1.
 
I really like this new team, but they won't have a lot of success before 2007 imo.
 
I think getting Sato was a very good move. I may be totally wrong here, but I thought I heard that it was only because of him that Super Aguri got customer Honda engines.

With as much speculation as there was about whether the team would actually make it to the grid in 2006 or not and the tight timeline in which their car came together, anything they can do to ensure an engine deal is a good move. To sign Honda as a supplier makes the deal that much sweeter - at least they shouldnt have to worry about a weak engine [though, Sato does excel at finding ways of blowing them up].
 
Super Aguri will be lucky to get a finish around 10th place in a race this year. I think they only way it will happen is if there is a whole lot of attrition.
 
I'm personally hoping that the in-house chassis that they're supposed to use later in the season gives them a better pace. Until then, though, they're likely going to be stuck at the tail end of the grid. And if Ide's little takedown attack turns out to be a simple bad fluke, then it ought to be okay. Again, I'm willing to hold off a final judgement until a few more races go by.
 
Their own in-house chassis will be a ton better than the current Arrows one they are running. Midland should be worried that Super Aguri's in house chassis will relegate them to the back row of every race. As it is right now, I really only see Super Aguri being able to compete with Midland; that is unless the FIA restricts the V10 in the STR even further, then I could see Super Aguri also competing with STR. But then again, if Toyota continue their pace of Bahrain, they could be a backmarker also.
 
Someone told me, may not be true, that Super Aguri asked FIA to start the season at race 3. But FIA said they MUST race the whole season, so they raced without preparing everything. :crazy:
That could explain many things... except the fact Ide's slightly missing the point in the boxes :dunce:
 
It's important for Super Aguri to at least sign a pay driver, apparently Ide may have significant backing. I hear when the team does get it's full act together they may give Davidson a run and ditch Ide.
 
To cover a few points, all from my recollection, so even I'm taking everything I say with a grain of salt.-

A) IIRC Ide, before Bahrain had somewhere in the neighborhood of either 40 miles or 40 minutes total time in a F1 car. Performance is not too bad given that.

B) Midland fought the hardest to keep Aguri out of the championship as all they saw was their precious little TV money flying out the window once the new chassis is released. Does make for an interesting battle in the world of the also-rans however.

C) Sato is dangerous, yet one of my favorite drivers to watch. When on his game hard to touch, when off his game, the mech's have to pull all nighters to get the car back together again.

D) it may be called the STR1, but in reality is the RBR1 with prettier livery. Look around the mosport sites, you'll see what I'm saying.

E) Toyota will never win a F1 race. Or, if they do, they'll promptly booted from the championship much like they were in the WRC and for the exact same reasons. Not just my opinion.
 
Of course Midland would fight to keep Super Aguri, how else are they not going to finish last in races?

Sato is somewhat dangerous. But at least he would try to make passes, unlike the rest of the grid.

The STR team is not a different livery RBR. The STR team have to use the chassis Minardi was developing, along with restricted V10 engines. But unlike Minardi, Red Bull can throw a whole lot more money into the development of the car, which makes a huge difference.

The link for the stuff on Toyota is complete crap. Sounds like complete Honda fanboy to me. I have no preference one way or the other, but the guy comes off as a huge Honda fanboy.
 
VashTheStampede
Sato is somewhat dangerous. But at least he would try to make passes, unlike the rest of the grid.
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I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately his passes are rarely clean, or even in the right time/place.

VashTheStampede
The STR team is not a different livery RBR. The STR team have to use the chassis Minardi was developing, along with restricted V10 engines. But unlike Minardi, Red Bull can throw a whole lot more money into the development of the car, which makes a huge difference.
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Although based off the previous Minardi chassis, the bulk majority of the improvements, nee chassis, made to the STR1 come from RBR, which is needless to say well outisde the current regs put forth by the Concorde Agreement. Case in point, do you really believe that an '05 Minardi could have placed as high as it did in practice times in Bahrain? There are rumblings at many of the motor sport sites right now of the "legality" of the STR1, and possible protests made by the lower rung teams. I cannot truly blame STR for what they are doing, all parties involved signed off on the V10 Cossie for Minardi, and Red Bull swept in after the dust settled and looks to of turned a fairly competitive car. However, I cannot be convinced there is no sharing of info between RBR and STR. The appearant turn around of the Minardi Chassis/STR1 is just too much a "coincidence" for that one. 200hp is a big difference, but all the power in the world does no good if the car can't make a turn.

VashTheStampede
The link for the stuff on Toyota is complete crap. Sounds like complete Honda fanboy to me. I have no preference one way or the other, but the guy comes off as a huge Honda fanboy.
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Fanboy-ism perhaps, really just an editorial. Regardless, there is a large difference in the way that Toyota does, and has, operated it's mosport division from the rest of the manufactures. Although BAR/Honda got popped last year (which did make me laugh), Toyota has never been repentant over the means they go to in order to claim victory. Which is why they will never return to the WRC, which is why 3 (should be 4) of their engineers are currently on trial for industrial espionage. I'm interested to see if JPM goes to Toyta as rumored, hopefully not as the scrutiny of the past bears light on the issue of Toyota seemingly spending it's money cheating versus developing it's cars.
 
If nothing else, Sato's the strong link for Aguri as it stands. He's consistently outperforming his less experienced teammate.
 
Elegy
If nothing else, Sato's the strong link for Aguri as it stands. He's consistently outperforming his less experienced teammate.
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A 31 year old F1 rookie frightens me.
:scared:
 
I expect the team to drop Midland by the time they bring in the new chassis, the Honda engine has some power and Sato does have experience of the tracks.

I could see them fighting possibly with STR by the end of the season. 👍
 
I can see Super Aguri jumping Midland fairly easily if their new chassis is much, much better than what they have now. Midland is just absolutely terrible at the moment and Super Aguri is the only reason they aren't getting picked on more.

I could maybe see them competing with STR by the end of the season. I think STR will get the better of them the majority of the time if they are competing, but I could see Taku challenging them some.
 
VashTheStampede
I could maybe see them competing with STR by the end of the season. I think STR will get the better of them the majority of the time if they are competing, but I could see Taku challenging them some.
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Given the less than friendly demeanor of the paddock, I'm fully expecting protestations to be soon made of STR's V-10, although each and every team signed off on it.
Also, using what little powers of prescience I have, I'm also looking for a spotring agreement to be made amongst the teams that all drivers change their engines at each event, thus incurring the 10 place grid penalty to each driver. This will atleast sidestep the rediculous 2 race rule. Endurance engineering has it place, in endurance events, not the pinacle of circuit racing. Knowing full well that at the point of one team not doing such the whole fragile exercise fails, I can still see the argreement being made, Mexican standoff style, keep the lawyers on speed dial boyos.
 

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