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Thursday, March 8
Champ won only two races in 2000
Associated Press
MONTERREY, Mexico -- Winning the CART championship last year
only whetted Gil de Ferran's appetite for more.
"I never had any doubt that this team could be a factor in the
championship," said de Ferran, who helped take the elite Penske
Racing team back to the top of Champ Car racing.
|  | | Penske's Gil de Ferran will try to defend his CART Fed-Ex Championship Series crown in 2001. |
The Brazilian won last year -- his sixth in the series and first
with Penske -- by being the most consistent driver in an amazingly
competitive series, scoring points in 15 of 20 events. Going into
Sunday's season-opening Tecate Telmex Grand Prix, de Ferran hopes
for more of the same.
But he'd like to win more, too.
"Last year, this team worked very hard to find that
consistency, to run up front and to finish races," he said. "We
know how to do all that, so now we'd like to win more races."
Despite starting in the top five 16 times in 2000, de Ferran won
just twice.
"We could have won maybe four or five more, but something
always seemed to happen to put us back, and it was always something
different," he said.
Still, what could keep de Ferran from winning more in 2001 is
the intense competition he will face in the far-reaching 21-race
schedule that begins in Fundidora Park, near the downtown area of
this heavily industrial city of more than 3 million people.
Last fall, eight drivers were in the championship chase with
three races remaining, and five still had a shot at the season
finale in Fontana, Calif. De Ferran wrapped up the crown with a
third-place finish in a race where only six of 28 starters were
running at the end.
His teammate, Helio Castroneves, had a breakthrough year with
his first three CART wins and could challenge de Ferran for the
2001 title.
Despite the spectacular competition -- or perhaps because of it --
there was a major shuffling of drivers this winter, with former
champions Michael Andretti and Jimmy Vasser, as well as highly
touted Cristiano da Matta changing teams, Adrian Fernandez starting
his own team, two-time champ Alex Zanardi returning after a
two-year absence and former champ Juan Montoya leaving for Formula
One.
"It's kind of a new look this year," said Vasser, who moved
from Chip Ganassi's team to join another title contender, Roberto
Moreno, at Patrick Racing. "But one thing that's not a bit
different -- it's going to be just as hard to win."
Andretti, the leading race winner in CART history with 40, left
his longtime home at Newman-Haas Racing to join the new Motorola
Racing team formed by Barry Green, who also will continue to run a
separate two-car operation for returning Paul Tracy and Dario
Franchitti.
"We're not teammates," Tracy said of Andretti. "They're
calling him a technical partner, because our teams will share some
information and computer data."
Tracy established himself as a serious title contender last
year, while Franchitti got a terribly slow start and never found
the chemistry and performance that had made him a preseason
favorite.
"Everyone on the team is hungry for a championship, both on my
crew and Dario's," Tracy said. "We've won races and been serious
contenders for the title the past two years. Now it's time to close
the deal."
Fernandez will get plenty of help on his new team from partner
Tom Anderson, the team manager who guided Ganassi's drivers to an
unprecedented four straight CART titles from 1996-1999.
Zanardi, who won two of those championships, spent a disastrous
season in Formula One before taking last year off from racing.
There is some question, even in the charismatic Italian's mind, if
he can come back with the same kind of talent and drive he had when
he left.
"I've only signed a one-year contract with Mo Nunn," Zanardi
said. "I need to find out if I am as motivated as I feel I am. If
not, I won't stay around."
Team Rahal driver Kenny Brack was another contender last year,
while teammate Max Papis got his first career victory in the opener
then struggled to remain competitive.
"We'll both be stronger this year," said Brack, a CART rookie
in 2000. "Max's team is solid and he just had some bad luck last
year. I know most of the tracks now and have been with these guys
for a year. It should make a difference."
Da Matta, who joins holdover Christian Fittipaldi at
Newman-Haas, also won his first CART race last year as a rookie.
Ganassi, who seems able to come up with new driving stars almost
yearly, has replaced Montoya and Vasser with a pair of rookies --
Bruno Junqueira of Brazil and Nicolas Minassian of France -- from
Europe's Formula 3000 series.
Asked if he can still win with rookies in both of his cars,
Ganassi replied: "Why not? They're both great racers and the team
is very capable. I think we can be a factor again this year."
The big question heading into the opener appears to be: Who
won't be a contender this year? Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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