Marc Gené

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MADDOG-99

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BMW WilliamsF1 team has finally confirmed that Marc Gené will replace Ralf at this weekend's French Grand Prix.

"I wish Ralf well for a full recovery, and I hope to see him back racing before the end of the season," team boss Frank Williams commented in a prepared statement, "In the meantime, we are fortunate to have a driver of Marc's calibre to fill the void." - Crashnet.

Is Gene much of a race driver? He has some pretty big boots to fill at williams and i'm wondering how he will go. This could have serious implications on the C.C.
 
Well Gene raced last year, if I am not mistaken, also in place of Ralf. He didnt do too shabbily if my memory serves me right. He would certainly be my choice over Pizzonia or De La Rosa.
 
http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story.asp?id=89526

For the second time in less than a year, Marc Gene will replace Ralf Schumacher at a Formula One race.

BMW-Williams confirmed on Wednesday that Schumacher's injuries suffered in a crash at the U.S. Grand Prix had not healed sufficiently to allow him to get back behind the wheel of a race car.

Recent tests revealed the German, who turns 29 on Wednesday, suffered two spinal fractures and will require a three month healing period.

"I wish Ralf well for a full recovery, and I hope to see him back racing before the end of the season," said team principal Frank Williams. "In the meantime, we are fortunate to have a driver of Marc's calibre to fill the void."

"To be honest, I imagined my birthday would be rather different," said Schumacher on his personal website. "(The) diagnosis was a real blow. But so be it. What's happened has happened. The injury is worse than feared. I have to get through it."

Williams added that while Gene will be in the seat for France, future driver decisions will be made at a later date.

Schumacher suffered a concussion and a back injury after spinning and slamming heavily into the concrete barrier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on June 20. He has said that he has no memory of the accident.

Schumacher's recovery could keep him sidelined until the Grand Prix of China, scheduled for the end of September. That would mean at least six races in which Williams could test any potential replacements for 2005.

"It is a shame that opportunities only come along when one of my colleagues has endured some kind of misadventure, but it is my job to make the best of such circumstances and ensure the team is not compromised by Ralf's absence," said Gene, who replaced Schumacher at last year's Italian Grand Prix following a high speed crash in testing.
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So, Mark is in for France, but they won't commit to who will be in for the next five races (at least). Let the spin begin. (JV?)
 
Won't be JV. It'll be someone in house who already has experience with the car and the team as they operate so they don't have to upset anything - Gene or one of their other regular testers. My choice would personally be to stick with Gene.

Gene has already clocked 13000k in the FW26 in testing throughout the year and has 34 F1 starts, the most recent Italy last year where he finished 5th. So he's certainly no slouch and should hopefully fit straight into the fold.
 
Mike Rotch
Well Gene raced last year, if I am not mistaken, also in place of Ralf. He didnt do too shabbily if my memory serves me right. He would certainly be my choice over Pizzonia or De La Rosa.
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Indeed, 5th at Imola having sat out the Friday practice.

And De La Rosa is a test driver for McLaren...
 
Does anyone else think it is disturbing that the US medical practitioners who treated Ralf never picked up he had fractured verbebrae? I mean, he was treated at the Memorial Hospital that serviced Indy 500 and Brickyard 600 casualties. How incompetant are they, that this was only picked up after he returned to Europe?
 
Well Gene does't have very big boots to fill but I hope he gets a good result.
 
Also, in 1999 I think, when Gene was in Minardi, he finished 6th during the Canadian GP... I think you have to be pretty friggin' good to finish 6th on a Minardi :crazy:

Either way, the guy is one of the commentators during races here in Spain (although his name sounds French, he is Spanish), and he sounds like he has a pretty good idea on what to do... The best thing is that during the US GP, when Ralf had his crash, the guys were joking around saying that of the crash was too hard Marc would get to drive in the French GP... guess they were right.
 
This is why you don't let F1 drivers wrench on the car:

Klien picked up a brake cooling fan in the Jaguar garage and sliced off the top of his right index finger on the blade. However, the Austrian says he has now fully recovered and is ready to race in Magny-Cours. “There’s no pain any more, the new skin has grown over and it looks good," he told Jaguar’s official web site.

I giggled at it after reading he was ok.

As far as missing fractures... it can be easy to do if the fracture is small. If its hairline it takes a very expieranced x-ray tech to see it. We don't know if when he was in Europe the pain in his back got worse, or he felt something odd and decided to get it looked at or what the story is. Hell, a couple of years in testing at Road Atlanta Boris Said trashed the Panoz LMP01, got out of the car and wandered away. The team saw the amount of damage and made him to goto the hospital... only after looking carefully at the x-rays did they find he had a skull fracture. He was fine, inital look over was fine, no head or neck pain.
 
He seems to be doing good so far in practice, not a truly great driver, but I wouldn't mind having him on my team. And yes, hairline fractures are called that for a reason, sometimes then can really be as thin as a hair, making them really hard to find if you don't have any reason to suspect a fracture.
 
I imagine the Memorial guys were more interested in looking for something obvious like a dislocated or heavily fractured vertebra and just overlooked the two fractures, considering he seemed find talking to his brother after the incident and headed back to Europe with no real complaints I take it he along with everyone else had no idea such a thing existed. Why he received another check is anyone's guess, could have been part of a more comprehensive physical to see how long recovery would take.
 
GilesGuthrie
Toyota have now confirmed this. Three year deal.

Weber is a genius.
Click to expand...

...he's a bloody magician to have pulled that one off after Ralfs recent performances!
 
Finnaly he's going to a team that suits his abilities.....:rolleyes:

So should I bring the arguement back up for who is filling the Williams seats?

Webber is all but assured a seat in Williams for next year but there is no official word. But who is taking the other seat:confused:
 
Well the Toyota representative said bother current drivers were in line for the seat, so I guess neither is certain. Publicly.
 

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