Quotes of the past week

CRAIG GORE, Champ Car team co-owner, Team Australia
"Tony George is single-handedly responsible for f—ing up open wheel racing in this country," Gore declared. "He took what was the greatest racing series in the world, no doubt about it, and screwed it. I don't understand the guy at all. A lot of people have tried to work with him, but it never happens. We all know the best thing would be to have one series, but that's not possible and we need to get on with what we do. We need to define ourselves and brand ourselves and Champ Car needs to be much more aggressive about it," Gore added. "There's got to be one clear, strong message and they've got to get on with selling it. And obviously, it's all about these places — Long Beach, Surfers Paradise, Toronto — the great city street race festivals. It's about fantastic racing and a hell of a party too."

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, Champ Car driver, Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
"It [ticks] me off," Bourdais said in the post-race Long beach press conference. "I think if we are a professional series, we should have professional drivers. And when you hear the figures and you hear people asking drivers to bring $3 million to get a ride, it's not right." (After a great job subbing for the injured Paul Tracy in the Champ Car race in Long Beach Sunday, Sebastien Bourdais lashed out at the fact Servia, who filled in for Tracy, does not have a fulltime ride.)

BERNIE ECCLESTONE, President and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration
"I wish people wouldn't keep on talking about him [Lewis Hamilton] being colored and all that because he doesn't need to have the praise because he happens to be colored," said Bernie. "He is just bloody good. He is also young, good looking and talks to people. That's important. The point is he is selling the business — 100 per cent." (Bernie Ecclestone has urged the F1 media to stop referring to the color of Lewis Hamilton's skin. He suggested in Bahrain that the McLaren rookie was doing a good enough job this year without needing endless references to his record as the sport's first ever black driver.)

RUBENS BARRICHELLO, Formula 1 driver, Honda Racing
"(The car) acts like a parachute on the straights," Barrichello said. "Sometimes you just need to voice off some truths," said the Brazilian, who described the Brackley based team's error of not having the T-car adequately set up when he needed to use it at Sepang as "amateurish". (Tempers are starting to flare at Honda, as the depth of the Japanese squad's crisis with its dreadful RA107 single seater became ever clearer at the Malaysian grand prix.)

MARK WEBBER, Formula 1 driver, Red Bull Racing
Webber said in the press release that his fuel flap becoming stuck open at Sakhir was "bloody frustrating", before his RB3 single seater's gearbox broke. The release also quoted him as saying: "The pace was good, but the result is the same even so." In the raw, however, Webber did not mince words, explaining that the faulty fuel flap is a recurring problem at the Milton-Keynes based team so far this year. "It's frustrating to say the least, and it's not good enough," he angrily told reporters in the paddock, insisting that the Adrian Newey-penned car breaks down "too often." Teammate David Coulthard's Red Bull also failed with a fiery driveshaft problem, having impressively overtaken more than ten cars after starting from the back. Team boss Christian Horner said: "We need to get on top of these reliability issues very quickly, as obviously they're unacceptable." (Comments made by members of Red Bull Racing after the Bahrain Grand Prix)

JACQUES VILLENEUVE, 1997 F1 World Champion
Commenting on Giancarlo Fisichella: "He just doesn't cut it. He can't compare to Alonso."
Commenting on Kimi Raikkonen: "A complete driver will spend time setting up the car and pushing the team, but Kimi doesn't give a sh*t."
Commenting on Scott Speed: "He hasn't shown anything to justify his place in F1."
(Observations made by Villeneuve in F1 Racing magazine about some his former F1 competitors )

FLAVIO BRIATORE, Managing Director, Renault F1 team
"We need hospitality and we need room, we need hotels, we need service; and, in some places, really this does not exist, like in France," Briatore, who is Italian, said. Briatore said he backs F1's switch of focus from Europe into new markets including Asia and the East. And he added: "Magny Cours is not a good example of what is there for the future of formula one. That is my view." (Briatore may be the boss of the French carmaker's formula one team, but he has refused to lend support to the embattled French Grand Prix. Amid Magny Cours' doubtful berth on the 2008 calendar, the Renault principal suggested that the sport does not need to be loyal to traditional hosts like France)

JUAN MONTOYA and TONY STEWART, NASCAR drivers
Asked about whether he was disappointed over finishing eighth was a sign he expects to run up front every week, Montoya said his car owner, Chip Ganassi, doesn't pay him to "run 20th every weekend."

"And I didn't come here to run 20th every weekend," Montoya said. "Is it going to happen? Yeah, it's going to happen a lot of weekends, but our aim is to run up front."

A reporter relayed that quote to Stewart, who apparently thought the question referred to Montoya racing hard every lap.

To which Stewart replied: "I guess we'd better get out of his and Chip Ganassi's way then."

Still, Stewart said, Montoya needs to show more patience.

"Maybe Ganassi doesn't pay him to run in the back, but you might want to be just a little bit more patient just long enough to learn everything and how everything's done over here," Stewart said. "He didn't make friends with me today so he won't get any help from me in the future."