The Man from Sao Paulo - Senna to Williams in 1992
- Thread starter FickleCrossroad
- Start date
I have liked pretty much of all of it, but I think if you follow OTL history you will have a few problems crop up - the banning of active suspension and ABS will still make 1994 a rough season (maybe keep ABS, under the theory that it allows drivers to lean harder on their cars), and Chrysler's funds made Lamborghini's F1 program possible, and when they sell it the company is gonna have a hard time maintaining the funds for it. (Maybe the successful Lamborghini F1 project and Chrysler's growing 1990s profile makes them want to keep Lamborghini and Maserati rather than sell them off, and Lamborghini design input improves subsequent Chrysler products?)
Firstly, make sure your mental health improves. We can all wait, you getting yourself better is most important.
As far as ideas and inspiration, I always what could have been if Tony George had used his (massive) financial resources and enthusiasm to build up CART as a partnership between the team owners (though CART) and Indianapolis and other track owners and commercial parties. Tony George had enthusiasm and connections, and he would later be a team owner in the IRL (and is the godson of AJ Foyt, who was and is a team owner), and if you make him dump his money in IRL-size quantities into the sport, providing for the best to move up (you're already doing that ITTL and it's awesome, but it can go much, much further), he'll end up if not running CART from its executive offices, then running it through his connections to the other owners.
CART didn't have tracks like Walt Disney World or Las Vegas on their radar, despite the commercial possibilities they provide. Make those two in particular succeed, and your possibilities are considerable. (A Disney-Pixar movie later on around Indycar? Disney World becoming the regular start to the Indycar season, and being advertised as the 'The Beginning of Racing Season in America'? A 'Junior Indycar' series of some sort, with the flagship being part of the Disney World racing weekend in front of all of the CART teams? CART approving of betting on its races in Vegas? The casinos supporting the races, maybe even the Las Vegas race is a Saturday night wild show with a massive prize pot?) And what if the United States 500, instead of the attempt to upstage the Indy 500, is instead meant to be its wingman? The weekend of the 4th of July, the Vanderbilt Cup to its winner, $5 million in the prize pot (and the winner gets $1.5 million of that), three-wide starts, a limited field that you have to qualify for that you may get bumped from.
1996, instead of the IRL's problems of IOTL, sees the wider Indycar world sees Tony George announce his arrival through the United States 500 (in partnership with Roger Penske, who owned Michigan International Speedway at the time) and the races at Walt Disney World and Las Vegas. The following year, The Texas 500 and California 500 join up, both of them as wingmen to the 'great' 500s at Indianapolis and Michigan, complete with new special trophies for those events? And Tony George, through his company's ownership of the rights to the Astor Cup, has it introduced as the championship trophy for the 1997 Indycar season?
Senna before his death had started working on improving safety in Formula One (as well as other elements of motorsport), so the losses suffered in 1994, even without his death, may well have seen him use his fame to kick-start the improving of safety in racing. And perhaps a possible cross-over between the worlds: Tony George's long-held desire to improve safety at Indianapolis is said to have been driven by the loss of Jovy Marcelo during qualifying for the 1992 Indy 500 - it's said he saw it and that it rather haunted him. If that is indeed the case, can you imagine the most famous racing driver in the world and one of the wealthiest racers in the world joining forces on improving safety in open wheel racing? Maybe that makes the SAFER barrier happen sooner, or perhaps makes the SAFER barrier start showing up on Formula One circuits.
As for Senna, as he aged he was developing many other business and charitable efforts, including developing road cars, selling Audi cars in Brazil (they entered that market through his companies) and his charities, which massively expanded in size after his death. If he's staying with McLaren and Lamborghini (and Chrysler), I could see him one day acting as a driving development supporter for McLaren and Chrysler (can you imagine the McLaren F1, Lamborghini Diablo SV and/or Dodge Viper having their chassis tuned by Senna, as the Honda NSX got so much of its finesse and prowess from his support of the project?) and perhaps he also does the same thing for other makers, perhaps even the creation of a development company (a la Lotus) for cars.
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I had a lot planned out through the 1990's a list, to include a list of tracks. I do remember the discussions upthread over expanding the season too far, and my priority remains to include venues outside of North America, including encroaching on F1 venues like Silverstone, (pre-mutilation), Spa, Monza, Hockenheim, Suzuka, and Interlagos. (Not all on the same season, but at least the European tracks on a rotation. With Brazilian drivers and Japanese engines, Interlagos and Suzuka/Motegi would be on the calendar IIRC, by the end of the 90's.) In the US, with team owners getting more and more into the track owning business, the US schedule would more or less solidify. I don't see the season expanding past 22 races, and eventually contracting back to 20 after the dotcom bubble blows, because the US market will be a priority, and I am not budging from my commitment to keep IndyCar on a schedule that fills, but does not exceed the gap in the NFL season. Thus, the second Sunday of February through the first Sunday of September will remain hard limits once the evolution towards where I am going is complete.
I was already addressing the F1 1994 season upthread, hence the Williams entry being stouter than OTL, think late 90's safety. Senna is going to IndyCar in 1995, but isn't done with F1 completely. Regarding the Audi bit, do you have good sources for that?
Tony George will flex his muscle as a team and track owner, I have plans for him since I humbled the shit out of him earlier in the story.
An alt-US 500 is definitely a road I will consider, probably as the last 500-miler of the year. That may be at Pocono, though, as I have plans for that place since it's my "home superspeedway" and going to the 2017 IndyCar race there was literally the happiest day of my life. (Being a Will Power fan, getting my ticket autographed by him and a selfie with him, my best friend let me get Sato to autograph the other and keep it after the race, so I have those tix framed, being the only 500-miler winners that year. Also, Power's defense against Newgarden towards the end was epic, when nobody could keep the lead all day, Power held on. Pocono will NOT be messed with, only improved for safety, capacity, and concessions. It's personal.)
I am not going to do the huge prize race, watching Wheldon's crash at Vegas is still burned into my brain, and even with the intent to improve safety, I have no idea how to write something like that without being disrespectful. Besides, Indy needs to have the biggest payout at the end.
Also, yes I know it should be proportionately shorter in places and proportionately longer, but I did this up years ago as a concept for the 1994 Williams.
That's good art.
F1 is outside my relm as I was always more NASCAR/NHRA before I drifted away from racing. But still this seems like a well thought out idea and timeline.
F1 is outside my relm as I was always more NASCAR/NHRA before I drifted away from racing. But still this seems like a well thought out idea and timeline.
A lot of 2000's aero ideas went into that, like horns and the F-duct.
Not yet.Ready for some friendly competition between TL's?
Even though my therapist is seeing improvement, I have a lot of shit to sort before I can start writing again. Most I have been able to do this year is the first few paragraphs of a Jaime Lannister SI fanfic. I really have to go through this TL, find my old research sites, and figure out how to continue.
Thanks, man.
One of the things I am trying to grapple with in the story is how to deal with driver safety without some aesthetic monstrosity like F1's Halo or IndyCar's Aeroscreen down the line. Hell, I get the need. I remember watching Justin Wilson taking a nosecone to the head in 2015, knew it was going to be fatal before it was announced, and got shitfaced that night.
The idea I have is something like a half-aeroscreen without the Halo, basically like a front roll-bar in the forward part of the cockpit, with a sturdier bubble of plexiglass or something, so the sides of the cockpit are still open, but still enough to deflect a flying nosecone (Wilson), or spring (Massa), while admitting that Bianchi's death was too much of a fluke to plan against, as well as Alonso's near-miss in Spa 2012.
Sorry, not an update, but I was thinking about something that is part of what I want to tackle in this story, racing's development ladder. As part of IndyCar's budget is towards lower series, and how dirt track racing almost gave IndyCar Jeff Gordon, and leased it Tony Stewart...
*Crossposted from the Sports What If thread*
WI: Dirt Track racing ran as many (short) road course style layouts as they did ovals? It wouldn't take much more space, hell, for the cost of elevating the stands a bit, the fans would get to see as much of the action. "Roval" layouts wouldn't cost much more to build, either. Just have sections of the oval wall to move as needed.
Yes, the sprint cars would need to be balanced to turn right as well as left, but it would give fans more races to look at, and drivers more seasoning to advance up the ladders, possibly leading to more Americans in F1.
*Crossposted from the Sports What If thread*
WI: Dirt Track racing ran as many (short) road course style layouts as they did ovals? It wouldn't take much more space, hell, for the cost of elevating the stands a bit, the fans would get to see as much of the action. "Roval" layouts wouldn't cost much more to build, either. Just have sections of the oval wall to move as needed.
Yes, the sprint cars would need to be balanced to turn right as well as left, but it would give fans more races to look at, and drivers more seasoning to advance up the ladders, possibly leading to more Americans in F1.
Nascar heat 3 and 4 have a fictional road course (I think Tony's new game does too?). The course isn't fully dirt, it's more like rallycross. Something like that would be interesting.
I've got no issue with rallycross, I was just spitballing an idea that could help domestic driver development.
Maybe sprint car racing in NFL stadiums during the NFL offseason?