Comments on: Lucas di Grassi: Is he F1 material?

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:38:59 +0000

I’m not sure about Lucas di Grassi – despite watching him from his British F3 days he’s never really shown the potential star quality that the like of Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet, Heikki Kovalainen, Nico Rosberg, etc did at similar stages in their careers.

But then I have to confess finding it rather tricky to properly assess the merits of the current GP2 grid, despite the wonderful racing. Giorgio Pantano deserved a proper shot at F1 but has now been around for far too long without really standing out – he needed to dominate this year, as Timo Glock did last year, but he hasn’t. Bruno Senna currently looks good but was blown away by Mike Conway when they both drove for Double R in F3 – I can’t help but wonder whether he looks good now because he’s driving for one of the better GP2 teams, whereas Conway isn’t. Romain Grosjean was a bit of a force of nature in F3 but has been far too erratic to string together a real challenge. Likewise Sebastien Buemi, although sometimes without the consistently blinding speed that Grosjean has.

It would have been interesting to see how several former GP2 drivers would have done in F1 – Alexandre Premat (not dissimilar to Grojean), Adam Carroll and Neel Jani are three that spring to mind.

Formula 3000 generally suffered from being too much of a lottery, with close racing, very limited practice and poor driving standards meaning a driver could win one weekend and be nowhere the next. I sometimes wonder whether GP2 is in danger of going down the same path.

By: Jean

Jean — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:42:07 +0000

Lifes not fair …. I always wanted to race in F1 and never got there …. along with billions of other people ! Trusth is , any driver who has progressed to GP2 , can go up to F1 – and usually the ones who win in GP2 obviously the better and more likely to be chosen. But how they will do in F1 will only really be known when he is actually racing , like Hamilton and Piquet are now.

By: Brar

Brar — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:00:11 +0000

His victory in Macau F3 was over no one else then Robert Kubica.
He is very regular and that seems to be a good thing and also a bad thing.

By: Pink Peril

Pink Peril — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:06:17 +0000

As we don’t get coverage of GP2 here, I really can’t say as I’ve not seen him drive.

But certainly from a PR prospective, his name is not one that crops up regularly like Senna or Grosjean, so if I had to, I’d put money on them before di Grassi.

By: amy

amy — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:50:30 +0000

I’d say Senna has more of a chance but you never know do you, he is a fairly decent driver for sure but F1 material? Time will tell I guess…

By: Racer X

Racer X — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:16:39 +0000

I totally agree with you Donwatters

By: donwatters

donwatters — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:19:38 +0000

Truth be told, one never knows how a driver will fare in F1 until he/she actually competes at that level.

By: santori

santori — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:19:35 +0000

Grosjean has been suprisingly erratic in the main GP2 but it hasn’t changed my high opinion of his abilities.

I also rate Di Grassi highly. I suppose the fact that he isn’t the flashiest performer could count against him, in that he might not grab the attention of lazier team bosses, but it’s the results which should count and his are very good. His lack of championships might make people wonder about his ultimate potential but he certainly deserves a chance.

By: Paige

Paige — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:49:44 +0000

I think one of Senna or Buemi will end up in the vacant STR seat for next year. At this point, my hunch is that it will be Buemi, as Red Bull is keen to keep the STR team as a part of their driver development program. However, if STR is on the selling block, then promoting Senna may be something that sells.

I need to see more out of Grosjean to make a judgment on him. Right now, I definitely don’t think he’s F1-ready, although he’s shown speed with great qualifying efforts.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:33:41 +0000

Paige, I’d agree with you that he hasn’t been great in the current GP2 season, but Grosjean destroyed the rest of the field in GP2 Asia and showed he had a lot of talent. Unfortunately, he has been a disappointment since then.
I also believe there’s a lot of pressure on Grosjean as a Frenchman driving as a Renault protegé. There’s also a lot of pressure on Senna because of his name, so I think Buemi, with a Red Bull team that’s clearly going places, may come from nowhere to be a force in F1 in the future.