SPORTS
Friday, May 24, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
F1 eyes may have opened after Alonso’s Indy 500 fl op
By DAVE SKRETTA
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS
—
Alexander Rossi had no idea
what he was getting into
when he moved from For-
mula One to IndyCar.
Turning left the whole
race? Looks easy.
But as Rossi soon found
out — and as two-time
world champion Fernando
Alonso and his McLaren
team learned in failing to
qualify for the Indianapolis
500 last weekend — getting
around Indianapolis Motor
Speedway at speeds eclips-
ing 230 mph is a lot tougher
than it looks.
“I didn’t understand what
oval racing was. I didn’t
understand what Indy-
Car racing was, because
there is no exposure to it
in Europe,” said Rossi, an
American who moved there
as a teenager and made his
F1 dreams come true with
seven starts during the 2014
and 2015 seasons.
“So when guys haven’t
been a part of it,” Rossi said,
“they don’t understand how
diffi cult it is, how unique
it is to everything they’ve
done. On TV, let’s be honest,
it doesn’t look that challeng-
ing, so being a European
driver, in your mind you’re
at the pinnacle of the sport.
You think, ‘Of course I can
go over there and do that and
it wouldn’t be a problem.’”
That inherent arrogance
was underscored two years
ago, when Alonso showed
up at the Indy 500 for the
fi rst time. He ran near the
front all race, only for his
Honda engine to let him
down.
Naturally, many F1 driv-
ers were quick to pounce on
their rival open-wheel series,
claiming it must not be too
diffi cult to win in IndyCar if
Alonso could be competitive
right out of the gate.
“I looked at the times
and, frankly, for his fi rst-
ever qualifying for Fernando
to be fi fth — what does that
say about Indy?” fi ve-time
F1 champion Lewis Ham-
ilton mused to L’Equipe
shortly afterward.
“A great driver,” he said,
“if he cannot win in Formula
1, will look for other races to
win.”
In other words, Ham-
ilton was calling IndyCar
second-rate.
That’s part of why so
many eyebrows jumped
at McLaren’s spectacular
disappointment.
“Fernando may have
done well in 2017, so there
may have been a feeling like
all he has to do is show up
and take it over,” said Mark
Miles, the chairman of Hul-
man & Co., which owns
Indianapolis Motor Speed-
way. “I think this causes that
sense of, ‘Hey, this is harder
than we thought.’”
AP Photo/Michael Conroy
Alexander Rossi listen to the teams’ radio during a break
practice for the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar auto race at India-
napolis Motor Speedway on Thursday in Indianapolis.
The team that bumped
the well-funded, England-
based team with the rich rac-
ing heritage from this year’s
fi eld? None other than Jun-
cos Racing, the tiny team
founded by Argentina-born
Ricardo Juncos and to this
day run on such a shoe-
string budget that it was
still signing up sponsors
on Wednesday.
Indy 500 is so diffi cult is it
tests the machines — and
how they are tuned — just
as much as the drivers. Man-
ufacturers such as Mercedes
and Ferrari can pump $300
million into their teams
and essentially buy the cru-
cial tenths of a second they
need to win races, but Indy-
Car teams work with a rela-
tively stock setup that puts
the onus on crew and driver.
“A big team like McLaren,
and you see a small team
like Juncos, it just shows this
competition, it’s not easy no
matter who you are,” three-
time Indy 500 winner Helio
Castroneves said. “It is one
of the toughest places on
Earth to get in, and you’ve
seen big teams like Penske
have failed.”
Rossi has so far bucked
the trend, winning the 100th
running of the Indy 500
in his 2016 debut. He was
second the following year
and fourth last year, each
time benefi ting from the
experience, equipment and
resources that his Andretti
Autosport team has poured
into its efforts over the years.
“Fernando is a world
champion. You expect him
to do a good job,” Rossi said.
“But at Indianapolis to fi nd
speed, it’s experience, kind
of the tricks of the trade that
money can’t buy, and I think
that gets lost on a lot of peo-
ple, and I think that was on
full display this past week.”
The moment Kyle Kai-
ser put their car in the fi eld
last Sunday was the moment
McLaren’s world collapsed,
leading to the fi ring of Bob
Fernley, who headed its
IndyCar operation.
“We got it wrong,” the
team’s boss, Zak Brown,
said Thursday ahead of this
weekend’s Monaco Grand
Prix, the showcase race on
the F1 calendar. “There are
little stories behind each of
those individual issues and
how they transpired, but you
know, we didn’t execute and
therefore we didn’t qualify
for the Indy 500.”
In doing so, they showed
just how diffi cult it is to win
the “Greatest Spectacle in
Racing,” and perhaps earned
IndyCar drivers a certain
measure of respect from
their F1 counterparts.
“You’ve got to be a good
driver, but setup and all
those things at those mar-
gins is so important,” said
F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo,
who has never driven an
Indy car or raced on an oval.
“I don’t know the ins and
outs, but everything needs
to work right and that’s the
thing with race cars. It’s a
love-hate relationship. Obvi-
ously, this year for (Alonso)
was more of a hate one.
“It’s sad to see,” Ric-
ciardo added. “Obviously
as part of the F1 family, we
want him to do well.”
One of the reasons the
Mercedes head Wolff pays moving tribute to friend Lauda
By JEROME PUGMIRE
Associated Press
MONACO — His emo-
tions still raw, Mercedes
head of motorsport Toto
Wolff said losing his friend
Niki Lauda left him feeling
crushed and cast a “huge
black cloud” of sadness over
Formula One.
“I feel we have lost what
was the heart and soul,”
Wolff said Thursday at the
Monaco Grand Prix. “The
last 48 hours were terrible.
I feel like a zombie, I keep
looking at the pictures (of
Lauda) and fi nd myself with
tears in the eyes every half
an hour because he’s not
there anymore.”
Lauda died on Monday at
the age of 70, less than one
year after a lung transplant.
The Austrian won two of his
three F1 titles after coming
back from a horrifi c crash
that left him fi ghting for his
life in a burning car at the
German Grand Prix in 1976.
He remained an infl uen-
tial fi gure in F1 long after
his retirement from racing
in 1985. He had a hugely
successful partnership with
Wolff at Mercedes, with the
Silver Arrows dominating
every year since 2014.
As non-executive chair-
man at Mercedes, Lauda
played a key role in get-
ting Lewis Hamilton to join
Mercedes from McLaren in
2013. Under the guidance of
the Austrian duo of Wolff
and Lauda, the British driver
has won four world titles,
with Hamilton’s ex-team-
mate Nico Rosberg also
clinching one in 2016.
Wolff wore a black arm-
band on his the left sleeve of
his white shirt, as did other
Mercedes staff members in
the team’s motorhome on
Thursday.
“It’s not an easy sit-
uation to try to go back
to racing, especially not
in Monaco with so much
media attention, trying to
keep it together emotion-
ally when speaking about a
friend,” Wolff said, deliv-
ering his words slowly as if
to contain his inner grief.
“This is what matters most,
what hurts the most.”
The way Lauda was
able to come back from his
life-threatening crash had
long sealed his place among
the most admired drivers in
F1, along with seven-time F1
champion Michael Schum-
acher and the late Ayrton
Senna.
“He was an iconic per-
son. What he achieved in the
sport was phenomenal,” Red
Bull team principal Chris-
tian Horner said. “Just the
most remarkable story.”
After being trapped in a
burning cockpit during the
German GP in 1976, Lauda
was read his last rites in the
hospital as he fought for
his life. The third-degree
burns to his head and face
left him scarred for life and
destroyed most of his right
ear, while the toxic gases
from his fl aming car heav-
ily damaged his lungs. Yet
just 40 days later, Lauda was
back racing at the Italian GP.
Given the circumstances, his
fourth-place fi nish at Monza
in 1976 cemented his myth-
ical status.
EASTERN OREGON
marketplace
Place classified ads online at www.easternoregonmarketplace.com or call 1-800-962-2819 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
After hours, leave a voicemail and we’ll confirm your ad the next business day. Email us at classifieds@ eastoregonian.com or fax: 541-278-2680
East Oregonian
Deadline is 3 p.m. the day before publication
211 S.E. Byers Ave.
333 E. Main St.
We accept:
Pendleton, OR 97801 Hermiston, OR 97838
ern
104 Special Notices
104 Special Notices
360 Garage Sales
360 Garage Sales
CLASSIFIED LINE AD
DEADLINES
Ginormous garage sale
Friday May 24th 10-4,
Sat and Sun 9-4.
Follow directions in Echo.
Go to Estatesales.net for
more info.
Neighbors Yard Sales!
523 SE Byers
and
602 SE Byers
Friday/Saturday
8:00 am to 2:00 pm
East Oregonian
2:30PM the day prior to
publication
Hermiston Herald
10am Tuesday
PLEASE CHECK YOUR
AD ON THE FIRST DAY
OF PUBLICATION.
While we are happy to make
any necessary corrections,
we can not be responsible
for errors appearing for mul-
tiple days. Thank you!
1-800-962-2819
classifieds@eastoregonian.com
184 Personals
Use an attention getter,
color, or border to make your
ad stand out!
GREAT YARD SALE
From Friday to Saturday,
May 24th and 25th.
8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
570 Wade Street
Adams Oregon
Sporting
goods,
archery
equipment, earthquake tiller,
steel chain saw, tools, jewelry,
and household items.
WELL WORTH THE DRIVE!!
501 Open Houses
King bed frame, dressers,
night stand, mirror, retro
leather couch, club chairs,
oak desk, coffee table,
hutch, Pyrex, glassware,
dishes, oak table, lots of
collectibles, yard art, vin-
tage planters & vases,
shelves, stools, kitchen
items, old bottles & cans,
tins, and much much more!!
HOMES SELL FAST IN CLASSIFIEDS!
501 Open Houses
360 Garage Sales
502 Real Estate
TURN HERE REALTY to find
your New Home Call Kerry 541
377 6855 for prompt courteous
service and Turn into the Home
on your wishlist.. (One Realtor
accessing all listings available
in our area)
Turn Here Realty and Travel
305 SW Court Ave.
to find your New Home.
Multi-Family yard sale!
May 24th to May 26th.
8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Tools, Household items, and
many more from five different
families!
Come see it at
High street in Adams Oregon
502 Real Estate
How Much is your Home Worth?
Call Matt Vogler, The Week-
end and After Hours Realtor,
for a free Market Analysis.
541.377.9470. More Listings
needed to meet current buyer
demand!
John J. Howard & Assoc.
(541) 377-9470
Come Cuddle a Koala--Sign
up for the Oct tour Down Un-
der-TURN HERE REALTY &
TRAVEL Drop by the office-
Look for the big blue arrow on
SW Court and or Call Kerry 541
377 6855 for all the details.
Turn Here Realty and Travel
305 SW Court Ave.
to find your New Home.
501 Open Houses
501 Open Houses
Contact Rowan or Chloe at
classifieds@eastoregonian.com
1-800-962-2819
to place your classified ad!
360 Garage Sales
CLASSIFIEDS
CLASSIFIEDS
Something for everyone in the Classifieds
Its so easy to get your
Classified ad! Just call
800-962-2819
3 family yard sale - Sat, 25th
8:00-4:00 @ 679 W Johns,
Hermiston: 25 leather chairs,
fishing poles, camping gear,
yard tools, clothing, household
items & so much more.
ANNUAL AWESOME YARD
SALE
414 N Main, Pendleton Sunday,
May 26
8am-2pm. Home goods, furni-
ture, books, art, teen & adult
clothes (many new or rarely
worn), great shoes, baseball
gloves, patio seating & pillows,
light fixtures, kitchenware and
more.
IT WILL SELL
Open House
FRI., MAY 24 Th , 5:00 pM To 7:00 pM
3006 SW RIVER VIEW dR., peNdleToN
$174,500
WHITNEY & ASSOCIATES
SAT., MAY 25 Th - 11 AM -1 pM
503 NW 4 Th S T ., p eNdleToN
Jerry
Baker
Broker
DO NOT MISS THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY! Very well kept 3
bedroom, 2 bath manufactured home with 1620 sf(m/l) of living space.
New roof on the majority of the home. Great views of the river basin.
Fenced backyard and double car garage make this a must have!
Jerry Baker 541 969-6378cell. #19030061
EMAIL : CLASSIFIEDS @ EASTOREGONIAN . COM
I N C LASSIFIEDS !
!
e
s
u
o
H
n
e
p
O
!
$379,900
Majestic North Hill turn of the century
Craftsman. Large rooms, 4 bed, 2.5
baths. Refurbished wood floors and new
carpet. Remodeled custom kitchen and
master bathroom. Awesome sunroom
for quiet reading. F/A
gas heat, tankless
water heater.
Vinyl
windows.
Basement
storage, outdoor pantry.
Private, fenced patio
for entertaining guest.
Marsha
Morgan Double car garage with
loft for storage, plenty of
Broker
541-377-5152 parking.
37 SE Dorion Ave
37 SE Dorion Ave
541-276-0021
541-276-0021
www.coldwellbankerwhitney.com
WHITNEY & ASSOCIATES
www.coldwellbankerwhitney.com