F1

Rookie of the year… so far

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  • #127690
    plushpile
    Participant

    So who’s your rookie of the year so far?

    So far Petrov has been my rookie of the year. Though it’s really difficult to tell if Kubica is driving the wheel’s off the thing and Petrov is doing a great job to even be in spitting distance, or if the car really is good enough to be considered in the same league as the Merc/Ferrari and he’s merely doing an adequate job.

    I’d expect it to be somewhere in the middle.

    #134519
    Ads21
    Participant

    Petrov, but its pretty hard to rate the preformances of Di Grassi and the HRT drivers as the cars have been so temperamental. Hulkenberg hasn’t met expectations though expectations were very high around the Hulk, but I think he’s likely to improve.

    I hope we’ll be talking about another rookie soon in Paul Di Resta who deserves a drive.

    #134520
    plushpile
    Participant

    Yeah, I can’t see Liuzzi even lasting til the end of the European season.

    How have Di Resta’s prac times been compared to Sutil/Liuzzi’s?

    #134521
    SamS
    Participant

    Petrov has definitely made the biggest impact this year i think. I do like Chandock too though, especially his attitude off the track to the media

    #134522
    Dougie
    Participant

    Petrov has definitely made the biggest impact this year i think. I do like Chandock too though, especially his attitude off the track to the media

    This pretty much sums up my view. Petrov for his driving, and Chandock for his all round just being such a nice guy.

    #134523
    Scribe
    Participant

    Unfortunatley Petrov is the only rookie in a position to make such an impression. On the other hand he’s certainly outracing Hulkenburg. I’m just not convinced by him though.

    #134524
    Katy
    Participant

    Petrov as my official Rookie of the year, but as for being a great guy, it’s gotta be Chandhok :-D

    Although he’s not technically a rookie, it’s his first full season, Alguersuari has been raaaather impressive so far this year. Although it’s hard to compare him to Buemi who’s has some rather awful luck being taken out so many times!

    #134525
    GQsm
    Participant

    Petrov has done ok but hardly an amazing start to the season. Hulkenburg disappointing so far. Rest of them can’t really mix it up with the big boys because their car is too slow or like Koboyashi it fails before the finish. He’s only finished two races and has got a 10th and a 12th result. He’s also out qualified his team mate 4 out of the 7 races so as a rookie the potential is there for him to be rookie of the year if Sauber can sort out their reliability issues.

    #134526
    Metrium
    Participant

    Solely comparing Kubica vs Petrov to Barrichello vs Hulkenburg in qualifying, I’d have to go for Hulkenburg as my rookie of the year. While I’m under no illusion that Barrichello is at the same level as Kubica, 2009 showed that the former is no slouch, and while the latter has destroyed his team mate in qualifying, Hulkenburg has managed to beat Rubens a couple of times.

    It’s just too difficult to compare the unfortunate rookies that have found themselves in a newly formed team for their first year in F1.

    Also, I feel much more television coverage of the mid/backfield is needed to really establish an opinion on this, and I haven’t seen nearly as much of the rookies as I would have liked so far this year.

    #134527
    wasiF1
    Participant

    I have to day Petrov, he is doing a great job in that car. Bit unlucky in Malaysia when his car broke & in Turkey when his tyres had a puncture while racing with Alonso.

    #134528
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Petrov seems pretty impressive – he held off Alonso for a while at Turkey.

    What about Kobayashi? Does he qualify as a rookie? I don’t think he’s even in the discussion for rookie of the year….yet. But, if he stops getting in accidents he could be looking pretty good. I loved the way he raced at the end of last season, and he made it in Q1 at Turkey

    #134529
    Harvs
    Participant

    Kobayashi for me, he’s doing a good job beating de la rossa when the car isnt breaking down

    #134530
    Casanova
    Participant

    Kobayashi and Petrov have impressed on occasion. Hulkenberg has been a disappointment, even given the uncompetitiveness of the Williams this year. Chandhok has done much better against Senna than many expected, given their respective names and their record as GP2 team-mates – hard to tell if this is down to one of them doing well or the other badly since the HRT is such a dog. Alguesuari has also come of age I think – he is transformed from the few races he got last year.

    #134531
    Tom L.
    Participant

    I generally agree with what’s been said – Petrov has been the most promising of the ‘true’ rookies while Alguersuari has improved no end. Kobayashi’s doing a solid job too.

    Most disappointing: Huelkenberg, after all the hype of his pre-F1 career. I’m wondering if he’s going to end up as the next Jan Magnussen – promising so much but only ever showing flashes of brilliance. (Malaysia quali for example.) And also, perhaps rather inevitably, Bruno Senna – obviously there’s little he can do in the HRT but the expectation will always be there because of Ayrton. Personally I did expect him to outpace Chandhok on a more regular basis than has been the case, due to their respective GP2 records, but that may be more because of my underestimation of the latter.

    One name I will throw into the mix though: Lucas di Grassi. He’s been solid if unspectacuar, but two things that have really impressed me about him: firstly, that he’s avoided getting frustrated with the car’s lack of pace and making silly mistakes, a phenomenon we’ve seen in various new-team drivers this year and not just the rookies. He may have slipped under the radar somewhat but it’s because he hasn’t been sticking it in the wall! When the car has allowed him to get to the finish, he’s been there. The second one is that on the rare occasion that he’s been able to go wheel-to-wheel with bigger names (Australia vs. Schumacher, Monaco vs. Alonso coming to mind) he’s proven himself to be a gutsy racer and will not give in without a fight. Although it could be argued that this loses him time in the long run, it shows a true racer’s spirit, rather like that displayed by Kovalainen on his do-or-die last quali run in Monaco.

    #134532
    sw6569
    Participant

    Completely agree about Hulkenberg. I really thought that he would shine this year, I thought he was the new Hamilton. Unfortunately I think that it proves that the step between GP2 and F1 is massive! Well impressed with Petrov though. Its really hard to rate Senna, Chandhok and Di Grassi. Probably on balance i’m not impressed, same with Kobayashi.

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