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Autumnpuma

Dissection Of A Rookie

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Ok, it's almost the end of the season and we know as much as we can about this season's crop of rookie-meat. Here's my impressions of each; without consulting any websites, commentaries, facts or figures. I'm doubtless going to be wrong, but I hope we can all refine this enough to find the truth.

I'll do a comment for each of them, but feel free to pick and choose as you like.

Yuje Ide: Immediately struggled to get to grips with the car. He didn't seem confident enough to push into the rarified air the average F1 driver lives in. He seemed to me a bit afraid of the sheer speed and physical forces involved in F1 racing and never acted fit enough to handle even a few laps of testing. I can bottom-line my thoughts on Ide: no courage.

Robert Kubeetza: He was fast in testing but that didn't prepare me for the impressive race form he had. He was 'on it' from word go. He's a keeper and quite worthy of being in F1.

Nico Rosberg: He started well but then slipped in form. I'm not confident of his ability to set the car up for races. He seems a bit confused about what he wants from his car to make it go fast. I give him a 'maybe' for another season---basically, let him race next season if no better option is available.

Scott Speed: Out of all the Americans to choose from, Red Bull pick Speed....He's not doing badly, but he's not fast enough for me to give him another year. Take away his sponsorship and let's see if any team grabs him on talent alone....is that crickets I hear?

Sakon Yamamoto: Closer to Sato's pace than was Ide, but still too slow, when he even finishes a race. We only need one token Japanese on the grid and if you're not better than Sato, you get the boot.

Franck Montagny: I really wanted him to be fast. My high-opinion of french drivers (Alesi, Prost, Arnoux, etc.) was dashed a bit by Franck. If a French team like Renault opt to pass on him, I will too.

Christjian Albers: A good, consistant racer, but not stunning enough for me. I expected him to dominate Tiago...he hasn't seemed to do that so far and anyone that CANT dominate the Portuguese (Narain anyone?) frankly doesn't deserve a drive. EDIT: As was pointed out to me by some astute people, Albers isn't a rookie, so please ignore him....and feel free to pelt me with rotten tomatoes for my stupidity... :blush:

Okay, scalpels to the ready......begin :D

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Ok, it's almost the end of the season and we know as much as we can about this season's crop of rookie-meat. Here's my impressions of each; without consulting any websites, commentaries, facts or figures. I'm doubtless going to be wrong, but I hope we can all refine this enough to find the truth.

I'll do a comment for each of them, but feel free to pick and choose as you like.

Yuje Ide: Immediately struggled to get to grips with the car. He didn't seem confident enough to push into the rarified air the average F1 driver lives in. He seemed to me a bit afraid of the sheer speed and physical forces involved in F1 racing and never acted fit enough to handle even a few laps of testing. I can bottom-line my thoughts on Ide: no courage.

Robert Kubeetza: He was fast in testing but that didn't prepare me for the impressive race form he had. He was 'on it' from word go. He's a keeper and quite worthy of being in F1.

Nico Rosberg: He started well but then slipped in form. I'm not confident of his ability to set the car up for races. He seems a bit confused about what he wants from his car to make it go fast. I give him a 'maybe' for another season---basically, let him race next season if no better option is available.

Scott Speed: Out of all the Americans to choose from, Red Bull pick Speed....He's not doing badly, but he's not fast enough for me to give him another year. Take away his sponsorship and let's see if any team grabs him on talent alone....is that crickets I hear?

Sakon Yamamoto: Closer to Sato's pace than was Ide, but still too slow, when he even finishes a race. We only need one token Japanese on the grid and if you're not better than Sato, you get the boot.

Franck Montagny: I really wanted him to be fast. My high-opinion of french drivers (Alesi, Prost, Arnoux, etc.) was dashed a bit by Franck. If a French team like Renault opt to pass on him, I will too.

Christjian Albers: A good, consistant racer, but not stunning enough for me. I expected him to dominate Tiago...he hasn't seemed to do that so far and anyone that CANT dominate the Portuguese (Narain anyone?) frankly doesn't deserve a drive.

Okay, scalpels to the ready......begin :D

You're just wrong about Scott Speed man.. Give him a Ferrari and he will win a championship, or you know what? give him a Williams and he can do it. I have faith in him. GO SCOTT SPEEEED

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I think your spot on in most of the cases, the two I have something to say about are Kubi and Nico.

First the Pole: He has driven very impressively. In Japan NH should have let him through, Kubi was faster but was held up. Every race so far we have seen him drive superbly. Makeing up Grid spots at the start, pulling of very well timed and executed passes, like button in China, he just flew by him. But we do see him make rookie mistakes but thats mormal considering hes a rookie. Or he has his race stratgy destroied by events out of his control. Namingly, his DQ, then turky where his onestappoer was ruind by the SC and in China where it might have been his call or teams call, i dont know, to switch to drys. For Hungry you cant blaim him. For Turky neither. he accutaly was 22th at one point and then came all the way back up to 13th. In china i think he was the lab rat for dry's to see if Nick should switch and that cost him the rae, but once he was on dry's for the second time he was off again.

Now Nico: He set fastest lap in the opener, since then he has been plauged by an unreliable car and poor development. Williams isnt the williams of 5 years ago. it is now a low midfieled car. I think if he is smart he will try and get out of his contract for 08 and find a new team. in may races in the first half he was ruing in the points and then the williams gave up, and then in the second half williams pretty much just gave up totaly.

to sum it all up:I think both can become very good drivers and from what ive seen from Kubi, if BMW get their act togeather over the next few years or he moves to another team that sees that he is very good he could become the first Polish WDC. I think Nico may not become a WDC but I think that if he moves to a good team he could become a type od DC, Scoring tons of points, wining and being a real spoiler in may championship fights

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I think your spot on in most of the cases, the two I have something to say about are Kubi and Nico.

First the Pole: He has driven very impressively. In Japan NH should have let him through, Kubi was faster but was held up. Every race so far we have seen him drive superbly. Makeing up Grid spots at the start, pulling of very well timed and executed passes, like button in China, he just flew by him. But we do see him make rookie mistakes but thats mormal considering hes a rookie. Or he has his race stratgy destroied by events out of his control. Namingly, his DQ, then turky where his onestappoer was ruind by the SC and in China where it might have been his call or teams call, i dont know, to switch to drys. For Hungry you cant blaim him. For Turky neither. he accutaly was 22th at one point and then came all the way back up to 13th. In china i think he was the lab rat for dry's to see if Nick should switch and that cost him the rae, but once he was on dry's for the second time he was off again.

Now Nico: He set fastest lap in the opener, since then he has been plauged by an unreliable car and poor development. Williams isnt the williams of 5 years ago. it is now a low midfieled car. I think if he is smart he will try and get out of his contract for 08 and find a new team. in may races in the first half he was ruing in the points and then the williams gave up, and then in the second half williams pretty much just gave up totaly.

to sum it all up:I think both can become very good drivers and from what ive seen from Kubi, if BMW get their act togeather over the next few years or he moves to another team that sees that he is very good he could become the first Polish WDC. I think Nico may not become a WDC but I think that if he moves to a good team he could become a type od DC, Scoring tons of points, wining and being a real spoiler in may championship fights

Ya their future looks bright. I even think Albers is going quite well in the spyker car before his car let hm down compared to his teammate. given the right car i think he can prove his worth.

Mike you missed a few drivers. like luizzi( who has done quite well i think) and monterio(who has done really badly this seaon, sato beating him)

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I have been disappointed in Rosberg overall, not sure if Frank is simply holding on to his cards hoping they pay out or he has seen something this year that we haven't.

I like your honest assessment of Speed :D

Montagny might yet have a plce on the grid, though certainly not at the top - as with Albers it is difficult to judge the bottom team drivers, made even more difficult by the fact that Sato's teammates were not getting the same car.

I have been trying to keep track of Albers as far as possible, it is difficult when all you get really is rare footage in the race and the official team notes. Annoyingly, because of his press unfriendly image, F1 Racing too ignores him, and there hasn't been anything in autosport either as far as I can make out. He has ben consistently faster than Monteiro, but I expected a bit more.

Am I the only one who is completely sick of seeing Monteiro in F1 Racing?

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Nico would have had a better and more impressive first season in a midland than in that Williams. Nico has a HUGE ability to set up the car and that's well known in the paddock.

Kubica is a future WDC, no doubt about it

Albers doesn't deserve the drive?? He's got the Sh#tland past the 1st knockout TWICE!

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Nico would have had a better and more impressive first season in a midland than in that Williams. Nico has a HUGE ability to set up the car and that's well known in the paddock.

Proof of that is where? To my eyes he isn't doing so well in that area. His driving skills seem solid but he's off Webber's mark and that's who I'm comparing him to (I will rarely compare drivers of different teams/cars). Being off the mark as Nico is points to either lack of driving skills, lack of fitness, or lack of knowledge on how to set the car up correctly. Which is it?

Albers doesn't deserve the drive?? He's got the Sh#tland past the 1st knockout TWICE!

Albers I wavered on. You are probably right about him.... :D

Albers isn't even a rookie at that.

Really? I must have forgotten...did he sit in an F1 car for more than one race prior to this season?

AJ, Liuzzi and Montiero aren't rookies..they've raced in more than three GP's last season (that's my qualification for a 'rookie').

Cav, I am also sick of Montiero in F1. He's the poster-child for mediocrity.

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Really? I must have forgotten...did he sit in an F1 car for more than one race prior to this season?
About 19 actually :lol: with Minardi.
Cav, I am also sick of Montiero in F1. He's the poster-child for mediocrity.

I meant the magazine, but I agree there too.

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About 19 actually :lol: with Minardi.

I meant the magazine, but I agree there too.

:blush: Whooops...shows how much I pay attention to the soft-end of the grid, eh?

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About 19 actually :lol: with Minardi.

Wasn't he in the Jordan??

Rookie of the year has to be Kubeetza for me!I expected more from Nico and I was actually happy to see him put a strong performance in his 1st race and thought he would contribute to a very interesting season.Well maybe next year :D .And I wouldn't write Speed off just yet.He is qualified to be an F1 driver for sure and seems pretty fast and consistent!But I don't think he 'll ever get the chance to drive a top car to prove it!Like so many others... :eusa_think:

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well as girls aloud would say, something kinda oooh jumping on my tu tu.

Therefor, Albers and Kubica have been jumping on my tu tu and are the only tu worth keeping, though really Kubica is the most valuble.

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Proof of that is where? To my eyes he isn't doing so well in that area. His driving skills seem solid but he's off Webber's mark and that's who I'm comparing him to (I will rarely compare drivers of different teams/cars). Being off the mark as Nico is points to either lack of driving skills, lack of fitness, or lack of knowledge on how to set the car up correctly. Which is it?

I thought that Nico was as smart as the engineers at Williams. Didn't he ace some test that Williams make their drivers complete before they are allowed in one of the cars??? Someone mihgt be able to comfirm that.

I think Nico is lacking in the fitness side of things compared to Webber. He did admit that he was struggling with his fitness earlier in the season.

I'm still undecided on Nico, I will give him another season and make judgement from there like most people I should imagine.

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i think Nico didnt do so well because he isnt used to having to set up a car that totaly underproforms. The williams this year was just crap. And the reason webber did so much better was because hes used to driving for under proforming teams

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i think Nico didnt do so well because he isnt used to having to set up a car that totaly underproforms. The williams this year was just crap. And the reason webber did so much better was because hes used to driving for under proforming teams

Good point, Webber has become quite good at getting the best out of a poor car.

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Sorry, I thought that you where implying that he stuggled with the actual setting up of the car to extract maximum performance, not his lack of driving the car to it's full potential.

Did that make sense??????? :unsure:

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It made sense, but perhaps I'm not explaining myself correctly. I think it's a bit of both, actually. I think Nico is a smart kid. Smart enough to pass the written 'test' Sam Michael invented and gives to rookies. This doesn't mean he can actually set up a car effectively under racing conditions. No test can simulate that, in my humble opinion. Knowing that a bumpy track surface requires X amount of suspension softening and know that a tyre drops off on lap 13 in Monza doesn't prepare you for the whole experience of a race, where you're juggling brake-bias, rev positions, tyre conservations, pit strategies on top of the actual business of racing down opponents, defending your track position, etc.

I think that Nico is trying to digest a big chunk of raw reality with many more facets than his GP2 reality had. I could be totally wrong, but that's how it seems to me.

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No, nico is fantastic at working on the cars, if you had watched ANY of GP2, you will know this and this has carried out through to F1. However, he did say that he was lacking on the fitness side when he came into F1, given time this should improve.

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No, nico is fantastic at working on the cars, if you had watched ANY of GP2, you will know this and this has carried out through to F1. However, he did say that he was lacking on the fitness side when he came into F1, given time this should improve.

well surely this shows a lack of preparation and anticipation on his behalf!!!! Everyone knows that motorsport is extremely tough physically, especialyl F1 - should he not have been super fit already to be top of his game in GP2 - and surely if this is the main reason for his lagging he should have been working day & night to rectify this and by now it wouldnt be as big a problem- maybe hes just lazy :eusa_think:

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In order of best to worst with the line separating those that belong in F1 from those that do not:

Robert Kubica

Nico Rosberg

_________________________________________________________________

Scott Speed

Sakon Yamamoto

Franck Montagny

Yuji Ide

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