Scott Dixon

[Senna_NZ]

Would anyone else here like to see him in F1? He had those tests at Williams in 2004 but nothing came from it. I fear it's too late for him now but who knows......

[Ranger]

Well in terms of the state of US racing, I think it is too late.

Bourdais is only one year older than Dixon but he also has an F3000 title.

Dixon, on the other hand, has only raced in NZ, Australia and America, where the type of racing is different and the level of talent is lesser.

[jens]

Hiring drivers from North America doesn't seem popular these days, especially as there is a very strong feeder series named GP2 for F1 now. Also several F1 teams have their junior drivers' programmes, from where new F1 drivers emerge.

In some way IndyCar seems to be like another world - very little movement between them and F1. Unless a driver has some right contacts (like Marco Andretti and Honda rumours), then it really looks like a driver must become a multiple champion in the States to have any chance of getting into F1 and even then it's not sure.

[markabilly]

Who is Scott Dixon? Is he Danica's team mate or something???

[wedge]

Would anyone else here like to see him in F1? He had those tests at Williams in 2004 but nothing came from it. I fear it's too late for him now but who knows......

I think he's missed the boat.

He was also in the frame for the Toyota F1 drive which went to Christiano Da Matta but I thought it should've went to Scott Dixon.

[Tallgeese]

Would anyone else here like to see him in F1? He had those tests at Williams in 2004 but nothing came from it. I fear it's too late for him now but who knows......

Love to see a Kiwi in F1, but from what I understand (I just looked him up) he's an IRL driver, & I don't think IRL is a good feeder to F1.

[cy bais]

IRL driver ... nah pass.

[Fangio]

IRL is a feeder series to NASCAR, so I must agree with the general sentiment here.

[Nikki Katz]

I don't think that the IRL is currently too relevant to F1. There have only been road courses on the calendar for a couple of years, and the majority of the tracks are still ovals. You need a totally different set of skills in F1.
ChampCar was a little more similar to F1, but it was largely overlooked in recent years due to the series being on its last legs and most of the talent moving elsewhere, plus results of champions that did make the switch before were quite mixed. Bourdais made it because he won the championship 4 years out of 5, plus he won F3000 (albiet on a very dodgy ruling). I'm still not 100% sure he'll be around next year, though I hope he will be.

[CNR]

i think it may be to late

i think his only way would be if paul stoddart or Kevin Kalkhoven was to buy one of the teams up for sale.

[ShiftingGears]

Love to see a Kiwi in F1, but from what I understand (I just looked him up) he's an IRL driver, & I don't think IRL is a good feeder to F1.

I don't know how good he is on road courses but if he has talent then that translates in any series.

[scotty09]

I don't know how good he is on road courses but if he has talent then that translates in any series.

He's pretty damn quick on road courses, i think he has the highest ratio of wins per starts on road courses (apart from graham rahal who's only raced 1 and won 1) for the IndyCar series.

2005(with awful toyota engine):

St. Pete Start: 11 Finish:6
Watkins Glen Start: 4 Finish: 1
Sonoma Start: 9 Finish: 7

2006:

St. Pete Start:2 Finish: 2
Watkins Glen Start: 4 Finish: 1
Sonoma Start: 1 Finish: 4

2007:

St. Pete Start: 4 Finish: 2
Watkins Glen Start: 2 Finish: 1
Mid Ohio Start: 6 Finish: 1
Sonoma Start: 5 Finish: 1
Detriot Start: 3 Finish: 8

2008:

St. Pete start: 13 Finish: 22 (DNF - Mechanical)

Overall winning ratio is: just under 40%, the next closest is Kanaan (i think)?

I personally thought if he had any shot of getting into f1 at his age it would've been either Super Aguri (no longer with us) or Honda (Indycar enginer supplier).

But this is Formula One we're talking about and stranger things have happened before with drivers (e.g. Raikkonen in 2001 F1 from F3).

However on a side note, I think the next kiwi in F1 will be Brendan Hartley (racing in British F3 with Carlin) with 1 of the 2 Red Bull backed teams.

[wedge]

I don't know how good he is on road courses but if he has talent then that translates in any series.

He's fantastic. That's what won him the IRL title last year, IMHO, he was almost untouchable on road courses.

[Senna_NZ]

Scott dominates on the road courses. He's a road course driver that got stuck in oval racing.

[gm99]

He's fantastic. That's what won him the IRL title last year, IMHO, he was almost untouchable on road courses.

Ehm, Dario Franchitti was last year's IRL champion. Dixon won the title back in 2003 (when incidentally no road courses were on the schedule).

[wedge]

Ehm, Dario Franchitti was last year's IRL champion. Dixon won the title back in 2003 (when incidentally no road courses were on the schedule).

Ha ha ha!!!

That's right! What was I thinking?!

I meant he was on a terrific run in the second half of last season to come from behind and almost win it.

[Jag_Warrior]

I think that Dixon is very talented and he just gets the job done, without a lot of drama. His problem would likely be the formula that he currently runs in. I'm not slamming the IRL, but the hp/weight ratio of the current IRL car is very similar to GP2. If the IRL ran street & road courses as a majority of its schedule, and Scott dominated (in Zanardi or Bourdais fashion), I think he would have a better chance to step right into F1.

Anything is possible. But best case, if Scott made an attempt to go to F1, he'd probably be asked to do a season of GP2 first. He should probably just stay in the IRL and then explore NASCAR when he feels the time is right.