Quotes of the Week

UPDATE A reader writes in response to Nigel Mansell's belittlement of Lewis Hamilton's F1 title, Dear AR1.com, Nigel Mansell WAS, IS and ALWAYS will be a big Whiner. He never got out of his car and had anything good to say about it, or his crew or the opposition…….it was always how good he was, and how he managed to somehow drag his car to the finish line. He had great talent, but after that he is just a WHINER.

And his comments about Lewis Hamilton are another great example of this. Does he know that when Fangio won the world F1 championship in 1954, there were 34 drivers, so that makes his championship 24% more credible than Nigel's! Sometimes I'm ashamed to say he is from my country. Stefan Dwornik, Bicester, Oxfordshire, England

03/08/09
"We would've finished first or second, or wrecked trying. We obviously had the better car there at the end. Kurt (Busch) and I were running the same line, so it wasn't going to be easy to pass him. On the last lap, you can stick it off in there wide open to run it against the wall and hope for the best. You can't do that until then." Brian Vickers, NASCAR driver, Red Bull Racing Team, No. 83 Toyota Camry, talking about his battle with Kurt Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday

"Formula One is becoming ridiculous. Maybe we (the FIA) could turn things around completely and grant technical freedom while imposing limits to the budgets. What happens when people have to be made redundant [referring to job cuts in large car companies]? Can it still be justified to invest so much money in Formula One? Nobody can rule out the possibility of having a fax landing on the desk of a racing team's headquarters saying: Sorry, that's it." Max Mosley, FIA President, claiming that Formula 1 possesses a 'culture of wastefulness', and warning teams that more manufacturers could find themselves in the same position as Honda if rising running costs are curtailed in the immediate future.

"At the moment he [Nelson Piquet Jr.] would not win the world championship in a Renault or a Ferrari. He is a mysterious character. His last name is not going to make him any faster. I have tried once again to develop a young guy into an established driver. This year will show us whether we chose the right young guy." Flavio Briatore, Managing Director, Renault F1 team

"No disrespect to Lewis but what's the point of a championship where you only have 18 or 20 cars running? When I won the title, I beat 25 other cars. That makes Lewis' title 20 per cent less credible than mine." Nigel Mansell, 1992 F1 World Champion, claiming his championship success was more "credible" than the F1 crown of countryman Lewis Hamilton

"It is not such an important element like the engine, like the gearbox, like aerodynamics. So we can have a standard KERS. It is like an electronic box, it is not a sexy box!" Luca di Montezemolo, FOTA chairman and Ferrari president

"It's a defining moment when some of the best Indy Car drivers [Justin Wilson, Bruno Junqueira and Paul Tracy] find themselves gravitating towards Coyne's team. It says that Coyne stands out from the crowd as a pure racer, trying to do the right thing. It also says the sport is in dire straights." Gordon Kirby, Veteran Motorsports Journalist

"It's hard to imagine, and you've got to go back and look at some of the videos and photos of the real early years of the [Indianapolis Motor] Speedway and the cars. Those guys were crazy back then, driving some of the things they were driving. That's history that can never be repeated, so it's great to keep it going." Rick Mears, 4 times Indy 500 winner, reminiscing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Centennial Era Gala

"Yeah, probably that 10-20 dollars would have got me another couple of races. Small pieces and small parts. There's a luck factor involved, and luck is an abstract. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. God knows I tried hard and I dominated some races here [Indianapolis Motor Speedway], more so than some guys who won multiples here, but couldn't quite see that last 100 miles. Even though I only have one trophy to show for it, I think I'm one of the all-time (lap) leaders, and while you're leading this race, you're having a great time. So I had a great time here." Mario Andretti, Motorsport Racing Legend, commenting at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Centennial Era Gala that in his 29 starts at the Indy 500, he only had one victory

"It's a handful, man. This is a hell of an excuse for a race car and it's hard to drive. It makes everybody's job harder, even Goodyear's." Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR driver, Hendrick Motorsports, commenting on the Car of Tomorrow's performance at the Atlanta Motor Speedway

"Why have the last race of the season at some Godforsaken area just north of Cuba? They're not doing anything for the sport. Wouldn't it be better off holding the race where you can draw 175,000 people? If they'll give us our date back, we'll fill up the place again and do something major for the sport. If that doesn't work, put it in Las Vegas. We'll add more seats – and sell out every one of them." Bruton Smith, CEO, Speedway Motorsports, Inc., wants NASCAR to yank its final race of the season out of south Florida at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, and return the championship-deciding race to Atlanta Motor Speedway, where it was held through 2001, or Las Vegas Motor Speedway – both facilities he owns.