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12 Responses to “ Do You Think F1 Drivers are Pompous Asses? ”

1. 
   Dan Sep 27th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

   pompous. spellcheck’s a wonderful thing.

2. 
   Keith Sep 27th, 2007 at 9:11 pm

   You can call Scott Speed ‘pompous’, but you certainly can’t call him an F1 driver - not anymore, anyway. ‘Pompous ex-F1 driver’ anyway.

   When he was in F1 I always wondered if his attitude was because of a complex about his ability. His nationality and name did a lot to get him where he was in F1 - it’s not as if he won anything in GP2.

3. 
   Kevin Sep 28th, 2007 at 5:35 am

   With your negative feelings you should join the “fans” over on Red Bull’s Stock Car Ticker blog.

   Here: (NOTE: link edited to correct format ’cause “Kevin” has no clue what those button thingys are at the top of the comment box - ed)

   They don’t seem to think very highly of him either…

   Me? I think Scott’s alright - read his comments again and picture his tongue in cheek and see if they sound any better.

   I’ve raced against him (albeit a long time ago when he was a “younger” youngster…) and he struck me as a decent kid - still does.

4. 
   peterg Sep 28th, 2007 at 7:40 am

   Well it appears Scott is duplicating the same errors in ARCA that he did in GP2 & F1……letting his mouth do the talking instead of his driving.

   While I don

5. 
   Marc Sep 28th, 2007 at 8:23 am

   Thanks Dan, my stupidity has been corrected, normally I catch things like that. Unfortunately this time I didn’t

6. 
   Marc Sep 28th, 2007 at 8:29 am

   Keith:
   

   His nationality and name did a lot to get him where he was in F1 - it

7. 
   Marc Sep 28th, 2007 at 8:39 am

   Kevin:
   

   With your negative feelings you should join the

8. 
   Kevin Sep 28th, 2007 at 9:08 am

   First off, thank you for the remedial how-to-post information; I appreciate it.

   You see it because you are a fan. Whatever a

9. 
   Clive Sep 29th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

   Spend a little time on the net and you’ll soon find that Americans and Brits speak a different language. This is not obvious because the same words are used but the emphasis and meanings differ quite surprisingly. As a Brit who has lived in the States for three years, I can assure you that Scott was laughing at himself when he said those words - and they are not something any Brit would say, for fear of being called pompous.

   I suppose that more fuss was made about Scott’s occasional utterances while he was in F1 purely because he was American and so often misunderstood. We make allowances for the Spaniards, Italians, Frenchmen, Finns, etc. because English is not their native tongue (I’m quite sure that Alonso does not mean to sound as insulting as he does to the Brits at times) but with Yanks we think they speak the lingo. They don’t - they speak American.

   To say that Scott was out of his depth in F1 is, frankly, just evidence of a refusal to look at the facts. Whatever the reason for his being there, the statistics show that he improved steadily in his first year until he was as fast and more consistent than Liuzzi (who was once the Golden Boy of F1). In his second year he continued the improvement so that it was clear to anyone who bothered to look that he was faster, more reliable and with greater racecraft than Liuzzi.

   The much-hyped Vettel has struggled to get on terms with Liuzzi so far, yet Scott was regularly beating the guy by the time he was forced out of the Toro Rosso team. How that can be said to be “out of his depth” defeats me.

   I have often been called “the Scott Speed Fan Club” and it makes me smile because he has had few fans indeed in the F1 world. But my support for the guy derives from actually looking at his performances, rather than making blithe assumptions based on a prejudice against Americans. I am ashamed of my countrymen that they should be so blind to real talent wherever it happens to be.

10. 
    Don Speekingleesh Sep 30th, 2007 at 4:45 am

    Whatever about his other comments, there was nothing wrong with his comments on the seatbelts - there isn’t enough room in F1 cars for the drivers to belt themselves in, so they need someone to help them. No big deal that he forgot first time out in a different series.

11. 
    verasaki Sep 30th, 2007 at 8:32 am

    I think Montoya still has someone buckling him in but, he can probably afford that. I was going to say I’d report you to Clive, the official Scott Speed fan club, but, apparently he reads this already. Yes, Red Bull had alot to do with Speed making it to F1 but, I assumed the name was a coincidental-and admittedly a cool one…Michael Andretti-now there’s a name that captured the ride and, as much as he made me cringe at the time, I don’t think it was entirely down to him…I’ve just never been sure if he/his had brokered the deal better it would have made a difference. I think an American will make it in F1 when neither their name nor their nationality are the draw. How likely is that in this age of marketing value?

    Yet another case of reading too much into drivers, who actually do have larger brain pans than say, an NFL fullback, feeling they have to prove themselves in front of the microphone…sooner or later they’ll learn to stick to the formula…”I think we/I have a really good oportunity because everything’s in place now”… “wherever you go, there are always transitions to be made”…”this is a real challenge to me/us and I/we love challenges…”we I did our/my best today, we/I just didn’t have anything for them”

    I hate American football by the way. But I do see why their team owners are confident when they turn the talent loose on the press.

12. 
    bernie freeman Oct 26th, 2007 at 8:41 pm

    Despite the fact that F1 does come off as ELITIST, there is no doubt, only the very best drivers in the world are given the nod to get into those machines. What the UK F1 fans do not realize is that there are a number of Americans who could certainly drive AND compete in F1…Jeff Gordon certainly comes to mind and he proved that, when in his first ever opportunity to sit in and drive and F1 car at Indy years ago, he was able to run off laps only a second behind Montoya (at the time a winning F1 driver); this accomplishment, with only a handful of practice laps. Scott Speed does need to rid himself of the F1 elitist residual, however, do not underestimate this kid. He was picked from a very extensive program run from Red Bull to find an American worthy to run F1. He’s still young with lightning reflexes and phenomonal driving aptitude. Of all the new open wheel drivers coming into NASCAR, I think you will find Speed being the most successful (because of age) in the next several years.

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