F1 Fanatic

I was speaking to a journalist in Suzuka who also had the job of interviewing the drivers in the Paddock Club for the guets. He knows the drivers and teams very well.

He said that Sauber find KK hard to deal with and he will be replaced next season

@garns Was that before or after Kobayashi got his podium?

I think we won’t find out Sauber’s line up until after Brazil. Kaltenborn said to Sky Sports that Kobayashi is not required to find sponsorship for the team to retain his seat, which I hope is true.

I hope Sauber don’t give Gutierrez a drive next year, he definitely needs at least another year in GP2 or preferbly somewhere else. He showed some promise this year, but he’s also been reckless and downright stupid.

I don’t know what to make of Hulkenberg possibly going to Sauber. I would be a bit surprised if he joined them to be honest. I imagine Force India wouldn’t want their main rivals to take Hulkenberg of them, so I don’t know what’s going to happen there.

Hulkenberg won’t go to Sauber and I’m pretty sure Alguersuari has already signed with them. The question is whether they will get Kobayashi or Gutierez alongside him. It will probably come down to money. I get the vibe that Sauber and Kobayashi is not going to be an item next season.

Hulkenburg won’t go to Sauber, it’s a sideways step for him and he wants to be either moving forward up the grid or staying put.

With Force India’s downright HUGE financial difficulties, he might reconsider that.

OK. Over and over again I have heard on how Kobayashi, Hulkenburg and Di Resta are better drivers and to be honest it is getting tiresome. Not necessary here, but I’ve read it everywhere else on countless occasions. I admit this issue has been bugging me for a long time now, and it’s not just because I am a bit of a fan of Perez.

For starters, time and time again I have heard how both Force India drivers and Kobayashi are more consistent than Perez. Well, for one, the fact that Di Resta is 26, Kobayashi too is 26, Hulkenburg is 25 yet Perez is only 22 simply cannot be ignored.

Age is indeed a very important factor in F1. It gives a driver more experience and focus. The vast majority of people don’t even develop a judgement vs error part of their brain until their mid-20′s. Yes, Perez still does make mistakes, but he will learn from them. Alonso made countless mistakes in 2003-04, and Vettel in 2008-09. So what? Young drivers gain experience like that.

Another thing is that people claim Perez’s podiums were lucky. Well, he certainly wasn’t lucky in Malaysia. He started 9th, and constantly made up places in the pits and via overtaking, and before you knew it he was second. If anything, he was very unlucky due Sauber’s conservative strategy and losing some 7 seconds to Alonso because they pit him a lap later for slicks.

His podiums at Canada and Italy were indeed lucky to some extend, but how come so many other drivers who attempted to go on the optimal one-stop strategy such as Alonso and Raikkonen in Canada, or his own teammate in Monza were not able to achieve the results he did? Because he was able to capitalize on the opportunities delivered to him, taking every advantage of his fresher tires possible. Something neither Mclaren or Lotus haven’t been able to do all season.

Can he save tires? Hell, he can do it better than anyone else on the grid. Is he fast? He certainly is. Can he drive in the rain? See Malaysia for any further reference? Can he race wheel to wheel? He has shown flashes of brilliance but also inconsistency, it will come. Does he have potential? You bet your arse he does!

I don’t want to generalize but I think everyone will agree that Japanese people are more difficult to deal with especially since the language is such a barrier. Plus, it’s hard for them to resonate with the rest of the world. How many Japanese bands do you know who rival Pink Floyd?

Does anyone know Southern All Stars, Chemistry or Chage and Aska besides me?

That being said I do like Kamui Kobayashi and I do hope he does get to keep his seat at Sauber or at some other team in F1. The chances would have been much better for him if there was a Japanese constructor.

As for his performance this year, I think he has done as well as Perez. Obviously, Perez is positioned to score more points through the 1 pit strategy and the difference between them in points is just the 18 points from Malaysia where Perez didn’t make a single pass and got P2… Unfortunately, that put huge pressure on Kamui to do well this season and his score is not really indicative of his ability rather indicative of the pressure of a crazy P2 position by his teammate…

@raymondu999

The Sauber in my view is very good on the tyres – chief designer Matt Morris said as such in the past – that he foresaw that the Sauber would be one of, if not the outright, kindest on its tyres of the 2012 cars.

It’s easy to discredit the driver for what he has done and give it all to the car. You are a Vettel fan, right? Sounds familiar? Sauber is a good car on its tyres, but so are Williams and Lotus.

Let’s not forget that Kobayashi has at times been able to do ultralong stints too – and Perez has at times been unable to do them too.

By far the other way around is more common though.

The inconsistency leads me to believe that for each particular driver’s personal style, it just clicks with certain characteristics of certain race tracks to unlock tyresaving capability

Yes, but Perez has been able to capitalize on these advantages and turn good pace into several podiums, the finisher is often underestimated. Something that despite having a good car, Mclaren and Lotus have failed to do over and over again this season.

@kingshark

OK. Over and over again I have heard on how Kobayashi, Hulkenburg and Di Resta are better drivers and to be honest it is getting tiresome.

I honestly feel as though Perez, Kobabyashi, Hulkenburg and Di Resta are very evenly matched. They have all proven themselves in relatively competitive cars and all look to have enormous potential. There is no point arguing over who is better, as we would just be splitting hairs really. We will see if checo has what it takes to perform at a top team next year, and possibly even to be a future world champion.

As for KK. Well I do feel quite sorry for him at this stage. He is a wonderful racer and very aggresive, which is unique nowadays apart from Hamilton and Maldonado (the latter maybe too agressive). To lose a driver of his racing ability would be quite sad to see. Its just a shame that F1 has become more and more about the money and not because of pure driving skill.

I hope Sauber keep hold of him, or at least that the F1 2012 season is not his last in F1.

@freelittlebirds @shaneb12345678910
Aggressive – as a driver or as a racer? IMO there are more aggressive drivers out there, but maybe not aggressive racers.

The distinction in terms of – Driver being aggressive in terms of their throttle applications, steering inputs, braking etc – how they actually “drive” the corners. Aggressive/smooth racers are more about how risk averse they are – are they a sort of Paul Di Resta type “just keep things clean, and don’t risk too much in overtaking and defines” or the Lewis Hamilton type “I’ll try to overtake him here – and if it works I look a genius, if it doesn’t I look an idiot.”