Today In F1

[dribbler 6]

I remember the good 'ol days of ongoing development well.... tin snips, sheets of ally, chalk drawings on the floor, Araldite, duck tape and a box of Pro Plus, bet it's not changed. Much.

Oh I think it's still pretty much the same, John. Look at their front wing; until Spa it was made of fag packets.

[Medilloni 6]

Oh I think it's still pretty much the same, John. Look at their front wing; until Spa it was made of fag packets.

IMPOSSIBLE!!! Fag packets are stronger than their front wing

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Sorry Brad. Living with a pregnant woman gets you in the mode of ignoring rantings whenever you can.

Haven't a clue if it's against the rules. It's more of a gentlemans agreement, I think.

oh ok

[Insider 0]

They say Villeneuve/Durango are trying to buy HRT. I imagine they aren't alone in that regard. At this point, HRT won't even last if they land the Communist PDVSA funds from 2010 GP2 Least Worst Driver Pastor Maldonado. At the end of the day, money can't change the fact the team has nothing resembling a 2011 car and ran their Monaco wings at Monza.

So did Jenson

[JHS 1]

Perez for Sauber in '11.

Good. I rate the guy. He's put in some really good performances in GP2 over the past two years. Some cynics will probably see him as a buy rider with the Telmex deal, but I think he's talented.

[Eric 0]

I don't rate him too highly, personally. The GP2 field was weak this year, and Pérez' performance were typically better in the sprint races when he benefited from the inverted starting grid. Likewise, when he did well in the feature, he was never really able to get back up the field in the sprint. He's not terrible, but I don't see him getting higher on the grid than Sauber. He's been inconsistent his whole career, too.

Still, it's an interesting signing for Sauber, and young talent isn't always predictable. Slim's involvement in F1 is a positive, too, and certainly paves the way for Gutiérrez (who I do rate) to get to F1 in the future (he's already signed as the reserve for Sauber). Doubtlessly, it will boost interest in Mexico, and perhaps even gain some interest among Mexican-Americans in the U.S.

[Argento Reloaded 1]

Peter Warr passes away. Part of the history of our beloved sport, he worked besides a legend -Colin Chapman- and helped his team to win!

RIP Peter you earned a place in the F1 Racing Heaven!

[JHS 1]

Not too familiar with the guy, but R.I.P all the same.

[HandyNZL 1]

I don't rate him too highly, personally. The GP2 field was weak this year, and Pérez' performance were typically better in the sprint races when he benefited from the inverted starting grid. Likewise, when he did well in the feature, he was never really able to get back up the field in the sprint. He's not terrible, but I don't see him getting higher on the grid than Sauber. He's been inconsistent his whole career, too.

Still, it's an interesting signing for Sauber, and young talent isn't always predictable. Slim's involvement in F1 is a positive, too, and certainly paves the way for Gutiérrez (who I do rate) to get to F1 in the future (he's already signed as the reserve for Sauber). Doubtlessly, it will boost interest in Mexico, and perhaps even gain some interest among Mexican-Americans in the U.S.

I dunno Eric, he has a pretty good minor formulae CV...even a touch better than Hamilton. GP2 like F1 requires a good team to do any good. The cars might be the same, but good teams get more from them.

[Eric 0]

I dunno Eric, he has a pretty good minor formulae CV...even a touch better than Hamilton. GP2 like F1 requires a good team to do any good. The cars might be the same, but good teams get more from them.

P11 in Skip Barber is bad.

P14 and then P6 in FBMW is bad.

His Formula Three records aren't bad, and his GP2 is okay, but he doesn't strike me as much of an overtaker. He started at the front and stayed there; he started at the back and stayed there.

There are better guys out there, but we'll see how he does, I guess.

[JHS 1]

P11 in Skip Barber is bad.

P14 and then P6 in FBMW is bad.

His Formula Three records aren't bad, and his GP2 is okay, but he doesn't strike me as much of an overtaker. He started at the front and stayed there; he started at the back and stayed there.

There are better guys out there, but we'll see how he does, I guess.

Funnily enough, he's actually been credited as one of the best overtakers in GP2 in recent times. Guess you haven't seen much of the GP2 action recently.

[Eric 0]

Oh, I forgot. Pérez won Silverstone, so he's a god.

We'll see how he goes. I don't rate him at all, but some do. Maybe he'll prove me wrong; I've been wrong before. I never rated Glock, Pantano, or Senna. None of them really have accomplished much, though Glock was admittedly better than I thought. At the same time, I never rated Vettel, Kubica, or Kobayashi. I was dead wrong on all three.

[JHS 1]

Nope. If you look on numerous other websites and such, you'll see that he created a BIG impression on F1 team bosses this year. It's not my view, it's their view, I'm just reporting it.

[HandyNZL 1]

It's ok Eric...we know you get dizzy watching all your short track, and then can't keep up with them slow poke cars that turn left and right

We will indeed see how he goes...how bad is he going to be? Piquet Jnr bad maybe? Or he may be Lewis good. You never know till they have some bum time.

Speaking of which, i.e. comparing rookies, only Hamilton has come into F1 in the last six years and actually been dominant from the get go and not taken 3/4 of the season to keep it on the track. This is why I feel he is the most gifted natural racer on the track today. It wasn't the car, as he matched his vastly more experienced teammate, and no other rookie has done that in yonks. Then you have Kubica, who slots into the race-the-wheels-off-it category, but also the damn-did-I-just-stand-in-dog-poo luck category.

[JHS 1]

It's ok Eric...we know you get dizzy watching all your short track, and then can't keep up with them slow poke cars that turn left and right

Thanks, that made me smile.

I'm not saying he's going to be brilliant and I'm not saying he's awful. Clearly you have to be a pretty decent driver to get second in a highly competitive championship that is just one level below Formula One, however easy it looks on the TV. I just don't understand what Eric's comment about the quality in GP2 isn't that high. Of course it won't be, these guys are learning all the time. Give them a break, some only started racing in the last few years, so clearly they aren't going to be good as the drivers in F1 yet. It's a learning process, as it is for all junior formulae.

[wapi 4]

Speaking of which, i.e. comparing rookies, only Hamilton has come into F1 in the last six years and actually been dominant from the get go and not taken 3/4 of the season to keep it on the track. This is why I feel he is the most gifted natural racer on the track today. It wasn't the car, as he matched his vastly more experienced teammate, and no other rookie has done that in yonks. Then you have Kubica, who slots into the race-the-wheels-off-it category, but also the damn-did-I-just-stand-in-dog-poo luck category.

Hamilton is one special rookie in more ways. Rookies usually do not come to top league teams, they usually do not have as much support of team principal, they usually do not have all team resources on their disposal to prepare for the season, they usually to not get so much support from Bernie and FIA....

Having said that, he is one of the biggest talents I have watched in 34 years of F1, he was lucky that he did not have to fight through Sauber or Minardi...

[HandyNZL 1]

I think though even if he had been farmed out, then he would have shown his talent. And in some respects to do a season in a Minardi type team is actually an easier route, as you're expected to do nothing better than not crash. Zero pressure to learn F1.

His term with McLaren was not just a free ride from Formula to Formula....he had to keep at a top level, and he did that. He had never raced an F1 car prior to his first season, and even in that first season he could match an established star, which no other rookie has done in a long time. To say that he was lucky to have had such a development is unfair, and inaccurate. He had to work for it, every step of the way. Just because it was McLaren, which some people love to hate, seems that it gives them licence to take something away from the guy. More likely jealousy.

Also the car being good is not a valid point to say he was lucky and thus overrated his talent, so to speak. The first thing you have to do in F1 is to match or beat your team mate in the same car. And no other driver in certainly the past ten years has done this in their rookie season.

Not to mention absorbing all the pressure that came from being expected to perform and score points as well.

One thing that bugs me is that Alonsonites always dredge up that quote from Ron Dennis that he made at China(?) that "we're racing Alonso" had some deep ulterior motive that the team was against Alonso, when the simple fact was that McLaren were just so dominant and the two cars on different strategies that they simply didn't consider the other cars a threat. They were just racing each other, and the question was in regards to Hamilton's race strategy, not McLarens team policy or mission statement.

Re your last statement....Hamilton will fall into the age old debate of "was he the greatest?" ten or fifteen years from now. People that have been watching long enough, and actually read news reports etc, rather than just react to some biased news bite on some shoddy website, see that....and have seen it in other drivers, like Schumacher, Prost, Senna etc. The question to be answered, is will he join those ranks (likely) or will has natural talent end up being wasted (like Hakkinen), and whom of the current crop will earn the right to also be included in that age old debate in ten years?

[HandyNZL 1]

Hamilton is one special rookie in more ways. Rookies usually do not come to top league teams, they usually do not have as much support of team principal, they usually do not have all team resources on their disposal to prepare for the season, they usually to not get so much support from Bernie and FIA....

So in saying that, then you think that certain football players whom have been developed by clubs to the Premier Leagues of the world, too, are less of a football player and shouldn't looked at in the same light as others? Or the athletes coming out of the Australian Institute of Sport are cheating because they have had access to the best coaches and best equipment and have been able to focus on their sports?

Life is abut unfair advantages. But these advantages are worked for every bit as hard as those that take a long and winding path. I recommend you read Mark Donohues book The Unfair Advantage. Good read.

Even though Hamilton was a junior Mac....so too was Heidfeld, and Rosberg was a team mate through the years too. All the talent on the grid has been helped by F1 teams at some point along the way. Hamilton has just seemingly made the best use of it. And he wasn't even chosen to race for the team until a month out from Australia....a race he performed very admirably in, and becuase of this early success, he has been derided ever since. Tall poppy syndrome if ever I saw it.

And anyone that champions the guy is pegged a Lewisteric and on some sort of make believe media band wagon. No....we just see a true racer, and applaud it in these PC times of F1.

[HandyNZL 1]

Is Renault not a top league team then, too, by the way? So Petrov receives his free ride of no expectation or need to chop away at any future glories he might go on to have.

Ferrari will never take on a rookie.

RBR, might....but they have yet to do so...they have this other team Toro Rosso.....

Williams were top flight....now they are in another league, but their history within the sport must still put them on the same footing as that of Ferrari and McLaren. And they take a chance on rookies, but the rookies have never truly shone like Hamilton.

McLaren took a huge gamble. Piquet minimus used to keep up with Hamilton....but look at his career..... Macca was brave, took the risk, didn't expect him to play anything more than a support role to Alonso (afterall he was the current 2x WDC, and surely the man the top brass were going to build their title challenge around), but he (Hamilton) grabbed his opportunity by the short and curlies, so much so he rocked Alonso so much he turned from fan favorite to spoilt whinging pain in the neck pretty much over night, and came within a whisker of a drivers championship in his first year.

To take any of that away with the comment "he was in a top team and had support of a team principle and the FIA" is just petty.

[Eric 0]

Is Renault not a top league team then, too, by the way? So Petrov receives his free ride of no expectation or need to chop away at any future glories he might go on to have.

Ferrari will never take on a rookie.

RBR, might....but they have yet to do so...they have this other team Toro Rosso.....

Williams were top flight....now they are in another league, but their history within the sport must still put them on the same footing as that of Ferrari and McLaren. And they take a chance on rookies, but the rookies have never truly shone like Hamilton.

McLaren took a huge gamble. Piquet minimus used to keep up with Hamilton....but look at his career..... Macca was brave, took the risk, didn't expect him to play anything more than a support role to Alonso (afterall he was the current 2x WDC, and surely the man the top brass were going to build their title challenge around), but he (Hamilton) grabbed his opportunity by the short and curlies, so much so he rocked Alonso so much he turned from fan favorite to spoilt whinging pain in the neck pretty much over night, and came within a whisker of a drivers championship in his first year.

To take any of that away with the comment "he was in a top team and had support of a team principle and the FIA" is just petty.

Petrov received nothing. His country ordered him to be an F1 driver with Renault, and so he did.

True. Look at their Young Drivers' Academy roster. Other than Pérez, none of those guys are ever going to land rides, Ferrari or otherwise.

Vitantonio Liuzzi called. He doesn't want anything back, though. But he did drive for the big team in 2005. Christian Klien did, too, though he wasn't actually a rookie; he just drove like one. A really bad one.

They have no way to regain top form without taking risks. There's not enough money to sign a proven star, so they get the unknown cheap. If GP2 cars ran closer lap times to F1 cars, and drove more similarly (as the 2011 is supposed to do), and if testing was allowed, they might have a bit more success with their rookies.

I agree. Not everyone needs to do it the way everyone else did it; likewise, not everyone deserves to do it differently from everyone else. Hamilton is this era's driver; arguably the best I've seen in my time watching auto racing (1998-present, but F1 only 2006-present, so I hardly saw Michael).

[JHS 1]

Heidfeld linked to Force India now to add to the growing list of names associated with that team. Liuzzi, Sutil, di Resta, Chandhok and now Heidfeld. Apparently Mercedes will half the price of the engine cost if Force India go for an all German line up.

[Ikyrotz 0]

The first thing you have to do in F1 is to match or beat your team mate in the same car. And no other driver in certainly the past ten years has done this in their rookie season.

While I agree with you on Hamilton, this comment nevertheless is inaccurate. The very same year Lewis came to F1, Kovalainen, another rookie, beat his much more experienced team mate.

[wapi 4]

So in saying that, then you think that certain football players whom have been developed by clubs to the Premier Leagues of the world, too, are less of a football player and shouldn't looked at in the same light as others? Or the athletes coming out of the Australian Institute of Sport are cheating because they have had access to the best coaches and best equipment and have been able to focus on their sports?

I am not underestimating LH neither I think he is not one of the best, I just say that it is a bit less wonderful achievement given his carrier path than if he would be forced to go usual rookie avenue (Sauber, Torro Roso, HRT...)

[Argento Reloaded 1]

Tony Feranades is delighted with Japan GP result! Is he nuts or only silly enough? Lotus Team only outqualify 1 Virgin car and 2 HRTs... the rest were involved in accidents or had mechanical failures.

[Delta 0]

Tony Feranades is delighted with Japan GP result! Is he nuts or only silly enough? Lotus Team only outqualify 1 Virgin car and 2 HRTs... the rest were involved in accidents or had mechanical failures.

10th place in the WCC gives him a huge cash boost. When you are at the back of the grid fighting for the lesser scraps, team bosses don't give a crap about how they achieve their results, anything that puts money in the bank is a huge bonus. And I personally think Lotus deserve it, they are the only one of the new teams that have impressed me this year.