Brazilian F3000 driver tests with Cheever

[goldstein]

Riccardo Mauricio from Brazil tested the Red Bull Cheever car at Kentucky. According to motorsport.com http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=108029 he did 100 laps with a best of 220.6. He seemed to adapt to IRL & ovals with no problems, as Buddy Rice did a 220.8 in 105 laps.

[Grinder-Tank]

Well, at least he won't follow Sam Hornish to Winston Cup.

[JoeBob]

He's passed the "speed phase" of his rookie test: http://www.indyracing.com/press/story.php?story_id=630

I wonder why Cheever went through the effort to get him licensed to race so early in the off season.

[gofastturnleft]

Mileage out the old Infinitis before retiring them to the show circuit.

[BADGER]

Four years in F3000 with a best finish of third place. I suppose he is being picked solely on talent. It sure is good that the IRL has saved us from the Alex Zanardi's and Montoya's in US racing. It seems that the only advantage the IRL is giving American drivers lately is that the talent they are bringing over pales in comparison to the drivers that CART brought over.

For a link on why Cheever is so high on European trained road racers, you might want to give this a read:
http://espn.go.com/rpm/irl/diary/cheever/0911.html

I especially liked this comment:

"That was where all the best young drivers from all over the world met in all types of formula series. It was the most cutthroat form of racing I have ever been involved in. If you didn't win races, you were done."

Fortunately for Under, that didn't apply to his years spent in F1 or CART and for the most part the IRL. Eddie is much too arrogant for his talent level.

[220mph]

thanks for sharing your small minded opinion with the class badger. perhaps you might want to read the whole article and use that little thing called "context".

Pretty much everything I read in it seemed factual. American ladder series racing is generally NOT the same level of competition as European competition. More important regardless of which "competition" is better, the F1 biases are towards Euro racing and racers in Euro series.

Those that make broad, "political" biased statements like this about those who they have little real knowledge of, show just how small-minded they can be. Many know better, and know how ridiculous and unfair statements like this really are.

And that is my opinion . . .

[BADGER]

Originally posted by 220mph:
<STRONG>thanks for sharing your small minded opinion with the class badger. perhaps you might want to read the whole article and use that little thing called "context".

</STRONG>

I keep it small minded so that you might understand. Getting back to the point, maybe Cheever should not be so fond of dissing American trained formula drivers because there are a significant number in the IRL that currently kick his *** . When Under can beat Hornish, Helio, Barron and a host of others consistently (like that will happen ) then maybe he can write about all his wins in Europe.

[Della Cruz Racing]

He did as well as Vitor Meira in F3000. Meira seemed to do well in IRL, so why not? Brazilians have natural talent and can adapt to different tracks better.

Cheever needs to find a teammate for Buddy Rice. Max Papis & McGehee didn't fair as well as Tomas or Buddy did, so he's testing new talent. Note, the word testing!

[ October 01, 2002: Message edited by: Della Cruz Racing ]

[ensign14]

Mauricio did better than Meira in F3000 because Mauricio was racing in the international series rather than the Italian series. However Ricardo had 4 years with the big guys, albeit with teams of middling competitiveness (sponsored by Rod Bell or some such).

Yet again, tho', more talented drivers get the shaft...

[Mackie]

Often, even in CART, drivers that have run other series for the same sponsor are "rewarded" with seat time with the "big team," why not? No reason to get your shorts in a knot, yet.