Comments on: Sebastien Bourdais’ troubles show why IndyCar drivers struggle in modern F1

By: Pertudit

Pertudit — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:40:41 +0000

Methinks you have the title wrong. Shouldn’t it be….

“Sebastien Bourdais’ troubles show why drivers shouldn’t go from a top team of one series to the dungheap of another”

By: dwp

dwp — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:59:17 +0000

@doctorvee

he was outclassed by his team mate, not just Raikkonen, but Ralf Schumacher too. Ralf Schumacher — not the most well-regarded of drivers — won twice as many grands prix as Montoya did while he was at Williams.

Is there a good source for these statistics? I looked and found this site but it doesn't show wins but if you look at the record it points to Montoya having a better one than Ralf Schumacher Ralf JPM They were both at Williams 2001-2004 and if you add up their total points for those years, from the site linked above, you get Ralf with 173 and Montoya with 201. Ralf was in F1 more years than Montoya and had 7 wins vs Montoya's 6, hardly a fair comparison. So, what's wrong here? BTW Montoya was far more interesting to watch than Ralf.

By: dwp

dwp — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:26:19 +0000

Forget about the drivers, comparing CART cars to F1 cars is apples and oranges. Different brakes, tyres, engines, etc etc

By: Gman

Gman — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:56:35 +0000

JLS, I have in fact heard JR mentioned by a few sources for the USF1 seat. I know he drove the last few A1GP races for Team USA this year when Marco was unavailable. If I am correct, he’s still young and coming up, so many people who were mentioning those drivers may not yet have heard of him. For sure he’ll be a talent to watch in the very near future.

By: JLS

JLS — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:23:34 +0000

Ever since the split, US drivers only adapted just on
ovals. It is a huge discrimintation towards US drivers
when the split occured. And despite the reunification,
we still see only 5-7 US drivers on the grid. And even
in Indy Lights, only 4 or 5 are in the grid.

The possible US hopeful from Indy Car who can run a
USF1 car would be JR Hildebrand. Everyone has shun
him since USF1 announced their 2010 entry. His name
was never mention. Everyone think it will be Jonathan
Summerton, Scott Speed, Danica Patrick, Kyle Busch,
Ryan Hunter-Reay among current drivers. But JR
should be on that list.

By: Patrickl

Patrickl — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:13:40 +0000

@Damon,

Don’t be ridiculous. We would know. Buemi obviously isn’t that good either.

Besides, Bourdais got trashed by Vettel already. It was Bourdais who made Vettel look so “great”. Now that Vettel is up against Webber he suddenly isn’t so amazing anymore.

By: Patrickl

Patrickl — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:07:24 +0000

What are you talking about? Alonso is doing a whole lot better than Piquet in that car.

By: DMW

DMW — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:58:05 +0000

“Ralf Schumacher — not the most well-regarded of drivers — won twice as many grands prix as Montoya did while he was at Williams. That doesn’t look like the record of a top driver to me.”

So I am more convinced that the article’s first premise– Montoya’s poor abilities — is the main pillar of this article. (The second, car complexity, is not compelling in its own terms.) By my math, Montoya had more than 2X as many poles as the vaunted team-incumbent Ralf Schumacher in the Williams, and Montoya’s 30 podiums bests Schumacher on half the race entries. So the conclusion that he was “outclassed” by Schumacher, in any event, has no support in the facts.

The article presumes that Montoya was forced out because he was too fat and too slow. And as the recent high-water mark for U.S.-talent in the sport, his fate is used to establishes the conclusion that F1 is not for yanks. The premise is not accurate. The more reasonable hypothesis, that good U.S. drivers are drummed out or drawn away for other reasons, is the one that needs proper investigation.

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:35:55 +0000

Thanks Gman. It’s the best way. I’m not here to tell anyone what they expect to hear – there’s no point in that. I like to save my more thought-provoking articles for F1F rather than my own blog. Normally there is a big debate on my articles here, which I’m happy about.

By: Williams 4ever

Williams 4ever — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:32:50 +0000

But only a small handful have made the transition from Indy Car to F1 in recent years.

This doesn’t necessarily mean lack of talent,it only means lack of opportunity in F1 because of limited number of seats.And if you have seen in past decade how many drivers without any connections to right people have made it to F1? The driver (Sebass) on whose recent ejection from F1 this article was written,if he had agreed to have Flavio as his manager (along with team principle of Renault), Sebass would have got F1 ticket immediately after his F3000 success. Most of the drivers who decided to make career in the US didn’t do out of choice, They honed their skills in Junior Formulae and beating their competitors didn’t necessarily convert into offer from F1. So they had to make a choice and went to other series rather than waiting for the call that may or may not have come. Irony is case some drivers who made it to F1 were not necessarily setting the Junior formulae on Fire, but found RIGHT MANAGER and RIGHT PR which proved useful in getting good publicity. Classic Example is Jenson Button, He wasn’t exactly setting the world records in Junior Formulae. His fame to glory was 2nd position in Macau behind Darren Manning But the Right PR (and assistance from Brit Press) got him “Driver with Smooth driving style” title and that has seen him through so far. When the car sucks, and his team-mates are scoring better, his PR has ensured that his reputation stays intact. And Point to Note is through his entire tenure with BAR-HONDA-BRAWN Car has been designed around his needs and not his Team-mates. In BAR years the car was always designed to his needs making Sato look like fool. The History is repeating with this years Brawn and 2007-08 the car was still being built taking Jense’s needs in mind. Its time for you to follow up with article on “Honest Evaluation” of current breed in F1.