By Adrian Musolino
April 20th 2009 @ 7:01am
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The three most underrated Aussie sportsmen
Ryan Briscoe and Will Power. Hardly household names are they? Yet the Aussie pair, teammates at the legendary Penske team in the IndyCar series represent the best chance for Aussie sporting success on the international scene. The third? A familiar name who proved a big point on Sunday.
Power and Briscoe may not command back page headlines but they deserve to, especially Briscoe who, after claiming the opening round of the IndyCar series last weekend in St. Petersburg, is now one of the clear favourites to claim the series title and the prestigious Indy 500 in May.
Schooled in Europe and unlucky not to break into Formula 1, Briscoe has become a polished driver quick on the variety of circuits on the schedule.
Power meanwhile was substituting for Helio Castroneves, the Brazilian who was involved in a highly publicised tax evasion trial. When Castroneves was acquitted and returned to the team, Power jumped into the team’s third car and duly qualified on pole for the race in Long Beach, a stunning performance confirming his remarkable talent on street circuits.
While he is confirmed in the third car at the Indy 500, question marks abound whether the team has the funds and capability to run him for the whole season.
You may be wondering whether IndyCar racing matters but after a decade plus of the devastating split between the IRL and Champ Car, the reunification of the sport into the one series last year has propelled it back into the forefront of motorsport as potentially the second most important open wheeled category after Formula 1.
Sadly the category won’t be returning to the Gold Coast this year, disappointing given we have a potential champion.
As result of the politics and our natural focus on European rather than American based sports the success of Briscoe and Power has gone rather unnoticed. As they continue their remarkable performances hopefully more people pay attention to their exploits.
Meanwhile the much-maligned Mark Webber proved his talent at the rain soaked Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix with a second place behind teammate Sebastian Vettel.
The skeptics will use his inability to beat his younger teammate as fodder for their preconceived and unshakable view of Webber.
But Vettel’s sublime wet weather talent was unbeatable, as it was at Monza last year. Webber too displayed incredible car control to finish in such horrendous conditions and hold off championship leader Jenson Button.
Five months ago Webber was in hospital with a broken leg. We cursed his luck yet again.
Now with a competitive car, finally after years of breakdowns and heartaches, his first win could be just around the corner.
Powerhouse team Ferrari are pointless, defending champion Lewis Hamilton only has four points as the traditional Formula 1 formbook has been turn up.
Thankfully Webber and Red Bull have found themselves on the up in the new order.
Webber, Power and Briscoe deserve high praise for waving the Australian flag proudly overseas even if their efforts are sadly underappreciated in their homeland.
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Sammy C said | April 20th 2009 @ 9:01am | Report comment
After following Mark since his F3 days I pray this is the year we see him on the top of that podium. Great result last night nonetheless for him – he deserves it.
Adrian Musolino said | April 20th 2009 @ 3:49pm | Report comment
It’ll be a great day when he wins a race. Red Bull is in a great position this year.
Greg Russell said | April 20th 2009 @ 3:53pm | Report comment
“The three most underrated Aussie sportsmen”? I will let that pass through to the keeper (Steve Hooker, Matthew Mitcham, Drew Ginn, Duncan Free, Tim Cahill, etc.), because I do not want to start a debate on the extent to which motor-racing is a sport.
However I do want to make two comments on Mark Webber.
First, a confession: F1 interests me as a sport but I find it very boring to watch. So all I ever watch, and this only occasionally, is the post-race coverage. I find it fascinating just how sanitized and pre-programmed F1 manages to make the post-race activities. The way it is all so stage managed makes me think of Bernie Ecclestone’s horrible hairpieces.
I also like listening to intelligent, articulate sportspeople of all types, and I find that F1 drivers are uniformly intelligent and articulate, for obvious reasons. (I also like to practice my German, and honestly, if I closed my eyes I could swear that was Michael Schumacher speaking last night. In case anyone is interested, Vettel said nothing in German that he had not already said in English, and the German word for aquaplaning is aquaplaning.)
I digress. From my 20 minutes of F1 watching yesterday, I found interesting that:
1. The commentators were at pains to point out that Webber only lost time on Vettel due to being stuck behind Button. This does indeed suggest that the Australian can genuinely aspire to winning a F1 race this season.
But I also noticed in the interview that Vettel tried to score subtle psychological points by saying that he did not push his car once Webber got past Button. Translation: he was saying to Webber “I am faster than you, even though it may not look that way.” Is this true?
2. Webber is a very big man by the standards of F1 drivers. Not only could one see this, but when team principal Chris Horner was congratulating his drivers after the race, one of the TV commentators said something like “Actually, he’s only lifting Sebastian Vettel off the ground, because Mark Webber is too big.”
Every time I see Craig Mottram running a 5000 m race at a major championship, it strikes me that he is a head taller than all his competitors, and that surely this makes him too big to succeed (if it were possible to be so big and to win, then there would be others his size!). Does the same hold for Mark Webber in a F1 cockpit?
megatron said | April 20th 2009 @ 5:26pm | Report comment
Will Power – best sporting name ever!
Adrian Musolino said | April 20th 2009 @ 5:46pm | Report comment
It’s a tight squeeze for Webber, especially in the compact design of the Red Bull. His weight and height relative to other drivers will become an issue when KERS becomes compulsory. The weight of the system means the cars run significantly heavier and there is less available weight for ballast.
hazey.the.bear said | April 20th 2009 @ 5:47pm | Report comment
megatron,
His name reminds me of that Simpsons’ episode where Homer changes his name to Max Power…Best quote ever: “Nobody snuggles with Max Power! You strap yourself in and feel the G’s!”
Papa Romeo said | April 20th 2009 @ 5:51pm | Report comment
As someone who first waved the Boxing Kangaroo flag at Webbo at Monza in ‘01 (F3000), I was a pretty happy camper last night.
Greg, a nice introduction to some intelligent discussion. I was going to take the bait about whether or not F1 is a sport (of course it is, tho concede that if you were to rank a list of sports based on ‘purity’, motorsport wouldn’t be near the top) but you saved me the trouble by revealing an interest of sorts.
I will, however, take the bait about Cahill. He is already well rated, as he should be.
To your questions tho, my thoughts are as follows:
1) Prior to the last round of pit stops I turned to my other half (I’m slowly trying to convert her) and explained that once Vettel came out again, presumably still in front of Webber, Red Bull would call off the dogs and inform their 2 drivers that they could keep up a race pace, but not a racing pace. No point chucking a 1-2 into the weeds, is there. You’d think that most teams would do the same thing in that position and McLaren have certainly been exponents in the past. Webbo certainly lost time behind Button but it is questionable whether this had a material effect on the outcome. Once Webbo cleared Button he set fastest laps. Only for Vettel to respond. This will be a fascinating battle, Webbo finally having a team-mate who might just beat him (Heidfeld at Williams doesn’t count).
2) I presume you are saying Mottram is at a disadvantage for physiological reasons? This will apply much less to Webbo, even if there is significant physical demands on drivers. Those demands are ones of g-forces, concentration and dehydration, rather than the predominantly cardio challenges a runner faces. The main disadvantage he may face – it has been muttered once or twice, but never been a serious issue as far as we know – is the need to have the car designed around his size more so than other drivers require. The bigger the driver the more it limits the designers freedom. But, ahh, the weekend’s result – both qualiy in the dry and the race in the wet, it’s worth remembering – put paid to any thoughts of problems in that regards, you’d have to think.
PS: Working with free radicals? Sounds you like you’re with Amnesty International!
And a big thank you to Ch.10 for One Digital
Sammy C said | April 21st 2009 @ 9:07am | Report comment
I think the team pairing of Vettel and Webber is fantastic and arguably the most watched on the track. I genuinely think it will be a good thing for Mark because he’s always outshun his teammates significantly over the years however, Vettel has all the hype as the next of the younger generation of world champions coming through the paddock – if Mark does as well as he’s done in previous years – it’s just going to prove his worth and ability to his team and all the haters.
I remember watching him smash the Jaguar on the front row against Schumacher. I remember him being taken out of Fuji by Vettel under the safety car when there was absolutely no doubt he would of ate Hamilton up and win his first ever GP. The blokes got undeniable talent – unfortunately it’s results that count. This mixed with his ever present bad luck don’t bide well with part time motorsport journalists. I’ve never been more hopefull that this is the year it turns around for him.
Cameron said | July 4th 2009 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
megatron – unfortunately i must disagree with you. That title undoubtedly belongs to Chennai Super Kings’ Napoleon Einstein.