Comments on: Jimmie Johnson is NASCAR’s #1 again – but how would he fare in Formula 1?

By: pitt layne

pitt layne — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:30:40 +0000

I don’t know why we haven’t had another Mario Andretti. He won in F1, IndyCar, and NASCAR. What’s the big deal? Driving is driving. You have gas, brake, and steering. We do it all the time. We turn left and right in the city streets. Road racing. On the highways we change lanes. Ovals. Why can’t a racing athlete do the same and win in both disciplines? Mansell was the only one to do a F1 championship and IndyCar championship simultaneously. He did win a few oval races along the way. Incidentally, Michael Andretti went to F1 that same year and didn’t do squat. He did get a third place at a track that used to be an oval. Monza.

By: PipSTA

PipSTA — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:21:31 +0000

For the whole, race them against one another, I had an idea about this wayyyyyy before I saw this, honest.

The idea would be to take 14 drivers, from the following: Formula 1 World Champion, Monaco Grand Prix Winner, IndyCar series Champion, Indy 500 Champion, NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, Daytona 500 Champion, World Touring Car Champion, Bathurst 1000 Winner, FIA GT GT1 Champion, LeMans Overall Winner, World Rally Champion, Monte Carlo Rally Winner, Moto GP Champion, Isle of Man Senior TT Winner.

In places where these would be the same person, then go to second in the championship or whatever. And have one representative from the endurance winners. And also take along their teammates.

Then race tham over a few races, with a varity of machines like each of those, and see who comes out on top. Would be a lot of fun.

By: Paige

Paige — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:13:48 +0000

Johnson would hack up Formula One. He is a very good oval racer, but his team- and in particular, his brilliant crew chief, Chad Knaus- account for a large portion of his success. Johnson’s record on road courses leaves a lot to be desired, and he’s never won a road course race.

The only NASCAR driver (excluding Montoya) who would be a top Formula One driver is Jeff Gordon. He’s one of the most naturally gifted drivers who has ever raced. He holds the NASCAR record for wins on road courses (9), and his technique on them is superb. The only bad race he has ever had on a road course is this past year at Watkins Glen, but his car in that race was inexplicably horrible. He’s defeated Sebastien Bourdais and Nelson Piquet, Jr. in straight up matches at the Race of Champions. It’s a shame he never took the opportunity to jump to Formula One, as he was offered a shot by BAR back in the late-90s.

By: Chalky

Chalky — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:18:39 +0000

You can get a good driver at both, but to excel and be the champion takes that little bit extra.

Having not watched a NASCAR race on TV for donkeys years, I was wondering what sort of braking force the drivers go through. Mainly oval racing tends to a sort of endurance aspect or racing. However F1 is very much G force orientated, especially in the braking areas.

I would think that this would be the hardest thing for a NASCAR driver to adapt to.
F1 to NASCAR would be the reliance on mechanical grip over aero. Having a good feel for the car would be an advantage, but good team work \ setup knowledge seems to be a big plus in NASCAR.

Rather than NASCAR, maybe we should be wondering how would some of our current F1 drivers fare at the Indy 500, if they were still allowed to compete in it?
Maybe bring it back as a round of the F1 championship?

By: GeorgeK

GeorgeK — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:29:35 +0000

Why don’t American racers gravitate to F1? Besides the required indenturement to European feeder series? In the last three years JJ has won the championships, his race winnings are in excess of 38 million bucks. That’s not including salary and marketing income.

Sure Kimi might make 33 mil a season, but there are only a handful of drivers in that salary range, whereas in NASCAR million dollar paydays are more common. Or at least they were before the depression hit.

Which is why Jeff Gordon could not have cut the cord and raced in F1, he wouldn’t tolerate the pay cut.

As far as skills go, I think it would take at least two full seasons of racing and testing to see if JJ or JG could race in F1. My guess would be no, the cars are so different, and the pressure so much more intense.

By: Jess

Jess — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:44:35 +0000

Being that I started watching NASCAR first, I tend to favor it well over F1. To the comment of fake racing, I could get in to this one about what makes NASCAR good but what is the point. I know what I like and will not waste time trying to convince others. NASCAR and F1 are the two bigest in motosports and in there own right have the best drivers for the disipline. Johnson is in a great driver in a great car and a great crew. Yes the new chase system has played in to his favor, but this championship was not won by a landslide and would have been a lot closer had luck not went there way and bad luck for other drivers. But that is part of racing. I think Johnson would fare in F1 about as well as if you put Hamilton straght in to a Cup car with just a few races in the lower brackes as Johnson would if he did a race or two in GP2 and then went to F1. They would suck. You just cant go from one disipline to another. Most open wheel drivers have a hard time in Cup cars caues they are jumping straght in them and that is one hell of a learning curve. Plus truth betold the O/W in Cup are driving for Mid to Backmarkers. Even if you put Johnson a top team he is not conditioned for it. Just like Hamilton is not conditioned for NASCAR. Johnson would fare well in Melborne due to the close quarters and the fact that any hit at all and it is over. Also he is used to have 4 hours and a dozen pit stops to fix his car and has a great realtionship with his crew cheif. Hamilton put in to a Hendrick car would be ok, top team and no experince. No technology to tell him what is wrong with the car, for that matter there is no speedomitor, So he would have to learn to feel the car more. Get in good with the crew and learn how to drive closed cockpit and for 4hours in many differnt types of tracks from .5 yo 2.5 miles. He would also have to learn to deal with getting hit. Also from what I have seen they would have to deal with the big culture shock of the new racing world they are entering. So how would he far. In truth the only way to know is he would have to go through the lower ranks to get to F1 and then we would see the true answer. But that is not going to happen, The same for if Hamilton came to NASCAR, again not going to happen.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:35:53 +0000

Being a F1 fan in a small town in the US, I feel like I am alone on an island. Never had much use or interest in NASCAR but to think Johnson could come over and compete in F1 would be next to impossible. Comparing NASCAR to F1 is like comparing professional “wrestling” to UFC. Totally different discipline.

By: DG

DG — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:23:02 +0000

As for Jimmie Johnson doing well in F1, I think that it would take a long time for him to adapt enough to be any good. Look at how other Americans have done – Scott Speed and Sebastien Bourdais most recently. Montoya didn’t get on that well, and even Villeneuve had problems. I know they hadn’t come from NASCAR, but IRL seems to run on similar tracks, and the drivers need a different mind-set to the F1 guys.
Maybe if F1 does ever get back into North America, it could look at running an oval race, to really challenge the drivers and the engineers to get the right set up, and maybe get more American interest?

By: DG

DG — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:14:00 +0000

Hounslow, great idea, but to be fair I think you would also have to include DTM and WTCC drivers too, and what about the Japanese Touring Cars and Austrailian V8s come to that?
I know that the Race of Champions tries to include everybody, but it is really only half the picture. It would be cool to see maybe a short sprint GP2 race with all sorts of ‘guest’ drivers competing on equal terms

By: Steve K

Steve K — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:42:24 +0000

Put him in a Ferrari or Mercedes and I say within a year he is running up front. Put him in a Force India or a Honda and the guy will suck. It works the same way, Montoya has caught on, but the Dodge engine sucks (JPM’s team has merged with DEI and will be running Chevy’s, he will be MUCH more competitive). A racer is a racer, just give them a year to learn the new car and the new courses.

By: Gman

Gman — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:14:41 +0000

Winterbear,

I had my first comment typed and sitting on my computer while attending to other work for awhile, so forgive my response to your comment in a seperate post.

I’m not a big fan of NASCAR, but the point I disagree with is your comment about “bizarro little towns” making up the series schedule. As you can see above, one of those tracks is a short drive from my home, and our area enjoys the excitement (and revenue) that the NASCAR circus brings to town.

I don’t know where you live or from what part of the world you’re checking in from, but how would you like it if I talked trash about your neighborhood sometime? Daytona is far from isloated, same thing with Phoenix and Las Vegas- both former F1 stops. Sure, some others are out in the woods a bit….but can’t the same be said of Spa? Silverstone? Magny Cours? Oh, and how about Bahrain? There’s some great landscape for you……

Perhaps NASCAR may not have the most exotic locations, but they also aren’t busy securing boring street circuits that feature Bernie’s glitz and glamour but dirt-poor racing and zero passing chances. Oh, and that night racing that you probably adore about an otherwise-boring Singapore circuit? NASCAR had Bernie beat on that concept for a few years as well my friend.

By: Gman

Gman — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:31:12 +0000

First up, great article Keith! I always enjoy the occasional look into other motorsports like this.

Being born and raised here in the U.S. and living a short distance from the NASCAR circuit at Pocono, I see a good bit of coverage on Johnson and the rest, despite not being a real fan of the series. In terms of Johnson and the others you mention making it to F1, I think Jimmie has the raw racing skills and determination and could do well, but open-wheel racing is a bit different than stock cars, so we would never really know until he did some extensive testing.

On one basic note, in a stock car series like NASCAR, things such as physical height and size are not as much of a factor as they would be in F1. I don’t know how tall Johnson is, but there is a chance that some great NASCAR drivers coulden’t even fit into an F1 cockpit if they wanted to.

As for Stewart, he also has raw racing skills, but his physical fitness leaves a bit to be desired, to put it mildly…..

By: winterbear

winterbear — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:00:09 +0000

Bloated clown car sedans going in circles in a fake racing championship… low tech steel brake, tubular frame crap cars… insane point system, rules to keep everyone on the same lap and simple tracks in that require very little skill located in bizarro little towns.

Yeah.. Nascar is terrible stuff. Its a minor league regional racing series that has terrific marketing. Its like Pro Wrestling if they had better PR.

So, IF a nascar driver spent a few years driving in the feeder systems he might develop some skills that would be useful in F1.. But thats a lot of if.

By: HounslowBusGarage

HounslowBusGarage — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:08:51 +0000

Wouldn’t it be good to have a sort of ‘Best of the Season’ type event with the two best Nascar, Formula 1 and WRC drivers competing against each other in their home disciplines.
There could be a Craftsman Truck type race, and a Formula Renault road race followed by a few off-road sections in identical Citroens or whatever.
Winner to be crowned ‘World Motor Racing Champion’?
Should help enliven the dark days from October to March, anyway.

By: Warren

Warren — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:04:04 +0000

I’m an American who grew up an F1 fan and gradually have been watching more NASCAR. The two sports take a completely different mindset for success. F1 has hyper-sensitivity, hyper-performance, limited track time, adrenaline, sprint type racing. Whereas NASCAR has almost 40 races a year, brutally long races, heavy slug-type race cars that nearly flop over when a sway bar breaks, but they do have pretty big power though. The restricter plate races take no skill whatsoever but are cool to watch. And during races they have long stints and shorts stints where they make changes to the car and shuffle backwards and forwards. And deal with grip-in, grip-middle and grip-out of corners in terms of roll, bite and wash, of the same corners over and over again. That being said, the top NASCAR drivers are at the top for a reason. They drive the wheels off those cars a lot more than a road coarse purist would think and for long periods of time. Some of the TV perspectives of how they push those cars were a real eye opener and I gained a lot of respect for what they do. Road course results, I don’t think, are that great of an indicator of potential in NASCAR for several reasons (too few, so drivers never even get on a potential learning curve with them if they didn’t already have experience on them). Put Jimmie Johnson in the number two McLaren for 3 seasons , just my dopey opinion, but I think he would do respectable but never threaten the number one guy. No chance. To be the best on each side of the sport takes two different skill strengths. Great F1 drivers could sometimes be described as brilliant. There are a lot of descriptive words for great NASCAR drivers (skill, talent, knack, feel, know-how), but brilliant isn’t quite at the top of the list. NASCAR is great for the fans, likable characters, it’s on TV all the time, many weekly potential winners etc, but nothing can compare to the purity of performance in F1. Not to mention the last lap in Brazil this year.

By: Seedy001

Seedy001 — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:07:34 +0000

I agree with Charles, Jimmie is a great driver but it comes down to the consistancy versus wins debate because out of those 3 championships he would only have won one under the old NASCAR points system. I think if you wanted to put a NASCAR driver in an F1 car then I’d suggest Jeff Gordon (already tested) and Tony Stewart who are probably the two most complete NASCAR drivers and the best on road courses.

By: Charles

Charles — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:31:49 +0000

It’s obviously hard to say but I think Johnson would struggle because of his relative poor performance on road courses to drivers who have previously driven F1 in NASCAR.