Tomorrow (3/28/07) Menardi Team USA will announce their drive lineup for 2007. The current drivers listed with the team on the Champ Car website are Zsolt Baumgartner and Robert Doombos.

Both drivers are in their mid-20s and have ties to Formula One, including drives with the Minardi F1 team, then owned by Paul Stoddart.

If Paul Stoddart brings his past Formula One drivers to the Champ Car series, there is a high probability that past chemistry, unfulfilled potential, along with a nice sized checkbook may have played into the driver selection for the team.

Looking at the European road racing track record, it’s easy to see why several drivers from across the pond are finding there way into the Champ Car series.

As promising as new drivers can be at the start of a season, series veterans, many highly qualified, are being left on the outside looking in. Oriol Servia, Mario Dominguez and Nelson Philippe’s experience are being overlooked, most likely due to the lack of financial backing.

With the new working relationship between Rocketsports Racing and RuSPORT, you have to wonder how well these teams will perform with the new mix of crewmembers.

The atmosphere between teams of the Champ Car series is relaxed on most days. Many team members have worked for multiple teams during their career. They fight each other for wins on the track, but in the paddock the feeling is one of relaxed professionalism.

The trick to success is finding the right chemistry between driver, crew and engineers. This task can be a challenging proposition. Changing the formula can switch a front running team one season to a mid-pack filler the next.

The loss of veterans on some teams may change the chemistry, either bringing the team to the front, or send them to the back.

Our interview with Nelson Philippe during the Champ Car open test at Road America last year, is an excellent glimpse into how a driver plays into the chemistry of a team.

Mecca of Speed: Watching you the last two days, you have a rapport with the team. You are not the type of driver that just shows up and drives the car. I don’t know if brotherhood would be the proper word, but it’s that type of relationship I see.

Nelson Philippe: Exactly, It gives me chills that you say that because that’s what I was thinking of this morning. I was looking at these guys and thinking about Cristiano and everyone here, it’s a brotherhood, especially inside the team.

We just want to win. You can win by finishing first, or win by giving it all you got. Of course everyone want to finish first, but sometimes you have weekends where you finish fourth or fifth and it’s a great accomplishment. It’s definitely my personality coming out, because I’m very outgoing and I don’t like people that are too close-minded. I think everybody that is in this team is open-minded and I think that is why we have such a good relationship.