What in the heck is wrong with Graham Rahal?

[booger]

Graham Rahal is slow as a stone this year. Is it him or his dad's team who he drives for? I notice he spends a lot of time on social media...and I mean a LOT of time. Could this be hurting his concentration? I used to love watching him as he came up through the ranks, but other than an occasional good drive, he's never anywhere near the front in the quals or races. He seems to have a decent sponsorship program, and engineering, and he's part of a two car team. Great personality. Doesn't he know how to set up a car? By now he should, or spend more time learning how. If he weren't part of dad's team, I fear he'd be tossed to the curb for another shoe. Forum's thoughts?

[FormerFF]

I suspect some of it is being with a new team, and some of it being he's just not that fast. In the junior formula, he was going great, but we've all seen drivers who were brilliant at the lower level that just don't make it at the top.

I'm hoping he'll have an A J Allemendinger kind of moment and suddenly find his pace, but as for now he doesn't seem to be any better than Marco. Maybe his career will go like RHR's, fast in the juniors, then not so competitive in the first few years of the bigs.

[Starter]

I suspect some of it is being with a new team, and some of it being he's just not that fast. In the junior formula, he was going great, but we've all seen drivers who were brilliant at the lower level that just don't make it at the top.

I'm hoping he'll have an A J Allemendinger kind of moment and suddenly find his pace, but as for now he doesn't seem to be any better than Marco. Maybe his career will go like RHR's, fast in the juniors, then not so competitive in the first few years of the bigs.
Marco, as much as I don't particularly like him, is doing much better than Rahal. I'm thinking Graham just doesn't have what it takes at this level.

[FIAT1]

Beside few old CART guys that whole field is bunch of jokers, and "at this level" itself is not that high now days.

[DBell]

Marco, as much as I don't particularly like him, is doing much better than Rahal. I'm thinking Graham just doesn't have what it takes at this level.

I agree, about Marco and about Graham. I think what's wrong with Rahal is that he just isn't that good. If someone had said, during Graham's 1st season at Ganassi with Kimball, that 2 years later one of them would be on the rise and the other would be on the way down, how many would've picked Kimball to be the one on the rise? Not me.

[bricarr2]

I find Rahal's struggles curious. He was a Fast 6 regular for a stretch there and looked ready for a breakout. but he seems to have stalled/regressed the last two years.

I wish I had more of a definitive answer but he fact he has been so regularly off the pace is something of a head scratcher.

[Nem14]

and "at this level" itself is not that high now days.QFT.

All thanks to a giant of motor sports business 'vision'.

[Starter]

Beside few old CART guys that whole field is bunch of jokers, and "at this level" itself is not that high now days.
Still higher than the ChampCar days overall and maybe than the last year or two of CART. Not up to F1 levels by any stretch.

[Keyser Soze]

Still higher than the ChampCar days overall and maybe than the last year or two of CART. Not up to F1 levels by any stretch.

Sad really, that today new Indycar is less of a challenge and power when compared to the old spec but still amazing looking and sounding old Champcar . Even more sad and actually tragic is the fact that fans of Indycar are stuck with this until 2019.

[FormerFF]

Sad really, that today new Indycar is less of a challenge and power when compared to the old spec but still amazing looking and sounding old Champcar . Even more sad and actually tragic is the fact that fans of Indycar are stuck with this until 2019.


I'm enjoying this formula quite a lot. Overall, the racing has been quite good.

[FIAT1]

I'm enjoying this formula quite a lot. Overall, the racing has been quite good.

Good for you and everyone at .2

[FormerFF]

He's looking better this weekend, maybe they've got things a little better sorted out, engineering-wise.

I still don't think he's going to be a top rank Indycar driver, more like a Bryan Herta or Patrick Carpentier, occasionally winning a race but never contending for a championship.

[Chris R]

I agree that the top end of this field is not close to equal to the top end of F-1 (there are what, 5 world champions in the current field - none of whom "backed into it") - but once you get away from those 5 plus Rosberg the field drops off pretty quickly..... I would say the bottom 2/3's to 3/4's of both fields would be a pretty competitive race open to whomever screwed up the least and/or had a good day.....

I also think it is a complete fallacy that this field is weaker than anything that CART or Indycar had in the past - you have a lot of race wins and championships out there now and a good amount of talent.....

As for the current cars not being up to snuff - the racing sure is.... AND didn't they just come within a hair of breaking the lap record at Mid-Ohio? These cars may be spec and they may not breath fire like the height of the CART days - but they are darn fast and clearly make up for in handling what they lose in horsepower (they couldn't be flirting with lap records anywhere if that were not the case)...

As for Graham, he has the talent - he just need to get his head out of his ..... and get on with being a professional race car driver (much like Marco decided to do this past off season). Is he the second coming like many of us thought he may be?? No. Were those expectations ever fair or realistic?? No.... If he gets his act together he will have a long career as a decent, if not spectacular Indycar driver who shows flashes of brilliance which he may or may not ever fully realize. If he doesn't, he takes over the family team and maybe pulls off a Chip Ganassi or Richard Childress (mediocre driver to great team owner).... Worse case scenario, he retires to Ohio and somehow plugs into the Rahal enterprises and makes more $$ than most of us.....

[drewdawg727]

You really can't compare F1 talent throughout the grid. Put a driver like Nico Hulkenberg, Paul diResta, or Sergio Perez in a top car and they will be multiple race winners. F1 is far from driver talent as much as it is about engineering. I know that is a complete aside to the topic, but I had to shoot down Chris R's claim there ...

Problem with Graham is, although he's somewhat talented, he really just needs to get out of his own head. The kid is never happy, always points the blame at others, and revels in it, so there really is no chance for him to put together a good result unless everything goes his way. If he has an offseason like Marco had this past year, he will probably throw together a decent season, but I just don't think there's any hope for him at the current time.

I can firmly saying this comparing his season to Jakes' season .. who really does seem to want to succeed and tries his hardest to put together good and clean races, which he has. That kid has definitely been impressive this season.

[Chris R]

I don't know about that, if I had a nickel for every driver who "could be a winner in a top car" I'd be rich.... ;) Who's to say that Dixon, Franchitti, Power, Hunter-Reay etc. wouldn't be running away with the F-1 title if they were the lead Red Bull driver?? Similarly, who is to say that Newgarden, Jakes, Servia etc. wouldn't be walking away with the Indycar title if they were in Penske or Ganassi cars??

As best as I can recall, the only mediocre F-1 driver to ever really be a top Indycar driver was Zanardi. Most F-1 refugees end up running pretty similarly to how they did in F-1...

At the end of the day, it is as much about culture and chemistry as anything.... F-1 expects a more intense driver (regardless of talent) and Indycar favors a more laid back approach (also regardless of talent)... Zanardi and to a lesser extent Montoya thrived in Indycar because the culture of the series fit with them. Similarly, Bourdais and Andretti floundered because F1 did not favor their approach........

At this point you have two series with two very different approaches to racecraft and that alone makes it really difficult to compare relative talents -which is to say - all of this is strictly opinion with no real way to prove or disprove any of it :confused:

[drewdawg727]

You have to remember that Indycar is more of a spec (and I use the term loosely) series than F1 is...which means that a lower budget team (SFHR, Coyne, Dragon, etc) can (and have) show that they can run up front occasionally. That is why a "if such and such driver was in a top car" argument holds a bit more water for F1...as you will never see a "bottom 3" team car make it past the 2nd qualifying session. I wasn't talking about Indycar drivers succeeding in F1...which I got the vibe you were alluding to.

[Chris R]

You have to remember that Indycar is more of a spec (and I use the term loosely) series than F1 is...which means that a lower budget team (SFHR, Coyne, Dragon, etc) can (and have) show that they can run up front occasionally. That is why a "if such and such driver was in a top car" argument holds a bit more water for F1...as you will never see a "bottom 3" team car make it past the 2nd qualifying session. I wasn't talking about Indycar drivers succeeding in F1...which I got the vibe you were alluding to.

Fair enough....

[Spafranco]

Graham needs to race and not act like the son of a millionaire who was also a racer. His dad, Bobby won on merit. All young Rahal can do is cry and moan about other drivers.

He has the audacity to blame Vautier for hitting him and not paying attention "we all know that" ,he said. Well Graham, maybe if you paid more attention you would not have been in the tire in the first place.

Did anyone notice Rahal when he started to answer the question about what happened? He was about to start using or should I say trying to mock Vautier by mimicking a french accent. Classless.

Strange that the two biggest whiners on the circuit are Rahal and pouty (sic) Andretti. One gets the feeling of entitlement.

Hey Graham, you crashed and caused Tristan to crash. It is he that should be angry and receiving the apology not the other way round.