Comments on: Not enough seats to go round

By: Vince T

Vince T — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:35:18 +0000

“Tony Stewart dose indeed have the natural gift of speed, but I believe his fitness standards are a bit below F1 driver spec”

HA!!! I just saw him on SPEED this morning…you are right on with that one!

By: Gman

Gman — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:38:04 +0000

Sorry for hitting the send key too early… Kyle Busch is planning to test for Toyota in the off-season, and at 23, he’s got time to build a championship career in NASCAR before perhaps trying his luck in F1. Still, I don’t know how much winning on the ovals of NASCAR would give him in a pursuit of an F1 seat.

By: Gman

Gman — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:35:01 +0000

Good stuff Vince T! Tony Stewart dose indeed have the natural gift of speed, but I believe his fitness standards are a bit below F1 driver spec, so I don’t know if he’d want to make the commitment. Gordon is a much more realistic chance- he did jump in JPM’s Williams a few years back at Indy for a few laps, but I don’t think he’ll leave the relaxed NASCAR life for a shot at F1.

While I don’t see any of these guys making a move, I know Kyle Busch is planning to test in F1

By: chunter

chunter — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:29:09 +0000

Of the list, I honestly believe Davidson and Liuzzi will find the way back to F1.

Justin Wilson may stay in Indy if he adapts to ovals and the sport actually begins to grow, otherwise I think he might have his age against him as well. Same goes for Montagny if I’m remembering right.

I agree strongly that Sato, Yamamoto, and Albers are definitely finished, and it’s too bad; they seemed to be nice guys, but the results just weren’t there for them.

Villenueve is finshed because he wants to be finished.

Somebody tell Vince T that Jeff Gordon tested already, I think he just doesn’t want the F1 lifestyle.

By: oricon

oricon — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:05:37 +0000

Do miss JPM…
remember how he toy around with michael schumacher..??
he do bring some entertainment to the sport..

By: Vince T

Vince T — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:50:17 +0000

An excellent list and a few wonderful obsservations.

How about two drivers that probably will never get a shot but would be such fun (and interesting) to see try???

Tony Stewart – can just flat out drive anything on wheels and be quick.

Jeff Gordon – legendary car control by NASCAR standards. Also pretty good turning left AND right.

I’m not saying these guys would be running at even near mid pack or anything, but I would love to see how their skills translate to F1

By: Pink Peril

Pink Peril — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:08:11 +0000

How about seeing Black Jack Villeneuve back in F1?
As long as he doesn’t sing, that is

By: Manatcna

Manatcna — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:32:32 +0000

I think Sato deserves another shot, but if one more team goes, you/we may end up with 27 cars on the grid. 9 teams each fielding 3 cars?
That would be interesting.

By: patrick

patrick — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:30:06 +0000

Andy – I don’t recall Albers having much trouble beating Monteiro at Spyker, or whatever they were called that year. Was rather shown up by Sutil though.

By: Gman

Gman — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:59:34 +0000

Out of all the names mentioned by Keith, I think Davidson has a good shot at getting back in through a testing role, at least. Many of the others drove in F1 before I started watching the sport, so I’m not truly qualified to make an assesment on many of those names.

As for Speed, he was dismissed from STR just as I took up an interest in F1. It disappointed me a great deal that the only American on the grid was pushed out of the sport, and far too soon according to many of my friends with more F1 experience. He’s currently enjoying the stock car life here in the US, and I think JPM fits into the same catagory- they find NASCAR and the like more relaxing and less stressful than the F1 life. I woulden’t bet on seeing any of them back in F1 anytime soon.

With only 20 cars on the grid, and with many teams developing their own talent in the form of Hamilton/Vettel/etc.. it may be tough for many of these guys to get another shot.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:32:27 +0000

I don’t think we’ll see Wilson back in F1 again, simply because he’s now with Newman/Haas/Lanigan and, after a pause while they get their heads around their new machinery, he’ll be up there contending for the IRL title. Which means he’s as likely to seek an F1 drive as Dario Franchitti and Dan Wheldon are.

The best of the ex-Minardi drivers, I reckon, is undoubtedly Robert Doornbos – he’s shown pace and competitiveness in both F1 and Champ Car (compared with his team-mates, anyway) and if I was setting up a new team and had my pick of recently ex-F1 drivers, I’d grab him like a shot.

The other I’d chase is Alan McNish, who I think was cruelly used by Toyota, but I doubt he’d want to shift from where he is, either. I mean, he wins races, right? Why give that up?

I think we’ll see Davidson again, but only in the way we saw Alex Wurz again – after such a long period as a test driver that everyone had forgotten he existed, and he’d forgotten how to race.

Klein’s under-rated – he’d be worth re-hiring. And Karthikeyan won a couple of races in A1GP – his problem is fragile self-confidence, not lack of ability.

Liuzzi has never impressed me, but I’ll give him a fair chance if he steps up into a race seat again and see what happens. Montoya never did either, and I see he’s now throwing a strop about his team… some things never change. Depressingly, Albers has finally found a team-mate he can beat in Katherine Legge.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:48:52 +0000

You say Tiago was smiling? he was estatic. For a few moments I had a feeling he had won a very tough race.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:28:46 +0000

Speed did do GP2 – he was third in 2005 behind Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen, although he somehow managed to do it without winning a race…

By: DG

DG — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:20:35 +0000

Scott Speed – he never really got the hang of circuits, he should have been put into GP2 first.

Ralf Schumacher – I think he has potential in the right car (why isn’t he on Ferrari’s books?. But he’s gone to DTM and will probably enjoy it more.

JPM – had his moments, but a bit like Villneuve and Speed, he never fully got into the F1 mentality for some reason. I hope he is successful in NASCAR.

Davidson does deserve another go, but since he never really got very far, I see him becoming a distant memory

Sato – is far more likely to be partnering Jenson or Rubens next year (since Honda like to have Japanese drivers around)

By: Alianora La Canta

Alianora La Canta — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:23:58 +0000

I was impressed with Monteiro’s behaviour on the podium precisely because he remembered that it was, at the end of the day, supposed to be a race. If everyone else had remembered that, then we wouldn’t be discussing that podium now because the race would have occurred in a reasonable manner. There are a lot of people who would have been unhappy with him if he’d not celebrated his podium when he got there (as well as a lot of people who were unhappy with him for being so exuberant under the circumstances), so whatever he did on there was bound to be controversial…

Apart from that (and thinking Sato would be a good team leader for a small team, if such a vacancy becomes available in the future), I would agree with Keith’s list.

By: Pete Walker

Pete Walker — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:49:49 +0000

I think everybody is being pretty harsh on Tiago Monteiro. Yes, the USGP of 05 was hugely embarassing for the sport in general, but Tiago raced his Jordan to third on merit. It wasn’t his fault that the Michelin runners weren’t able to compete.

Good on him for making the most of a result that will never come his way again.

And lets not forget, in his rookie season, he brought the car home to be a classified finisher in just about every Grand Prix. More than can be said of many fresh fish.

As for the rest of the list, Liuzzi and Davidson definitely deserve another shot.

By: Rohan

Rohan — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:13:27 +0000

Keith, alas I don’t work for Williams. I’ve just taken to saying “us” (meaning Williams) as one would when talking about the football club one supports.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:20:52 +0000

Cooperman – I was mainly thinking of drivers who’d already been in F1 but had been dropped. I’m going to do something on other drivers who should be in F1 soon. (You’re thinking of Katherine Legge with the Minardi test by the way).

Of the new suggestions so far I think:

McNish – Maybe
Da Matta – Maybe
Karthikeyan – No
Speed – No
Yoong – Do you have to ask?
Ide – Stop it! You’re killing me…

Milos – I’d ignored the older ‘retirees’ but as I’ve said before it would be great to have Montoya back.

By: Robert McKay

Robert McKay — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:10:14 +0000

…and milos, Scott Speed should be brought back for the brilliant Team Radio comments that guy gave us, at the very least

By: Cooperman

Cooperman — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:04:25 +0000

How about Danica Patrick?
She didn’t test well for Minardi a couple of years back but it must have been a publicity shot by Paul Stoddart – how many drivers used to test well for the Minardi team?

Danica’s just started winning in the US. If Bernie’s intent on peddling F1 around the world to increase audiences, he could do worse than get some female F1 drivers involved.