CCWS Special Column - Andy Hallbery Looks At The Future Of Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
12/02/2008
Some would say the organization now known as Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing has had it made over the past five seasons. The most stable, most experienced, best-funded team in Champ Car racing, NHLR has had the best driver in the series in Sébastien Bourdais and, with Bruno Junqueira and Oriol Servia as his teammates, arguably the best two drivers.
The result? Four consecutive championships and 36 race wins including a pair of 1-2 finishes in the points.
But now Bourdais is off to Toro Rosso, fulfilling his ambition to compete in Formula 1. In the process he leaves the fortunes of NHLR in the hands of talented Graham Rahal, not destined to turn 19 until January 4, 2008. Is this the point where the team starts to fall apart?
Hardly. Young Rahal is already pretty good -- witness the fact that he finished second to Bourdais in just his third Champ Car start, one of four visits to the podium as a rookie. And like a driver who gets a night to sleep on things after a test day, he figures to make a quantum leap in performance as a sophomore. Just ask the man whose racing boots he will fill next year.
“With Graham I've seen a young man obviously who's got a very big talent, who's grown up extremely fast,” says Bourdais. “In that field you've got to, otherwise you don't last very long. And he's very mature.
“In the meantime he's also shown that if he doesn't start always super-fast off the bat, he's shown that he could learn very quickly and very often in the Saturday morning practice session he was getting very close and sometimes just as fast as we were."
"So I think he's obviously going to be on that trophy of drivers who can compete to win the championship next year. He has one year of relationship with the team already. I'm sure they'll be even better prepared than anyone else to get the job done.”
Few would argue with the Frenchman on that last point. One need only hearken back to the year Bourdais joined the team, fresh off the 2002 International F3000 championship.
He started on pole in his first two Champ Car races, won his fourth and fifth starts and ran away with the Rookie of the Year honors. Bourdais had much to do with that, but so did a team renowned for its depth, experience and resources.
Throughout the turbulent history of the Champ Car World Series, no other team has more consistently found major commercial backing. And when it comes to experience, with the likes of team manager John Tzouanakis, crew chief Don Hoevel, shop manager Colin Duff, and assistant team manager Kenny Siwieck, anyone whose history with the team doesn’t date back to the ‘80s is considered a new kid on the block.
“Nobody is really irreplaceable,” says Bourdais. “Obviously a driver is one part of that success, and Carl Haas always seems to be able to find the right guy for the job, and it doesn't necessarily need to be Sébastien Bourdais."
"It's been other people before, and obviously great names, between Michael, Mario and Nigel and Cristiano. I'm sure they'll find someone else that can get it done just as well and build a new group and start a new adventure.”
If history is any guide they’ll have the luxury of two drivers fully capable of adding to the trophy cabinet. Let’s see, 2006 was Bourdais’ “hat trick,” 2007 was his grand slam. An NHLR quintuple in 2008 anyone?
Andy Hallbery is a former editor of Autosport and currently edits RACER magazine in California.