F1 Fanatic

I think I’m missing something here. Da Costa’s results in the other ‘lower leagues’ aren’t exactly all that great. Mitch Evans and Daniel Abt both outclassed him in GP3, and they’re both younger and have less experience than the Portuguese.

What’s so special about him? He seems to have dominated the second half of the FR3.5 season, but if anything that should indicate that the quality of the drivers in this series is lower than in GP3/2.

@pamphlet I think the thing is, when Felix da Costa signed the Red Bull contract, he no longer had to worry about sponsors and money. He is since July much more relaxed, hence why this increase in performance.

And no, the quality of the drivers in FR 3.5 isn’t lower than in GP2/3. Bianchi, Frijns, Bird, Magnussen and others are either as good as or better than Evans and Abt.

@pamphlet I don’t think we can compare him with Ricciardo yet. They’ve never raced against each other, and it’s hard to compare drivers like that. I think everyone has a hard time when entering F1, and AFC will be no exception.

Whilst the incident is a poor way to decide a title, the commentary on that video is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.

That French second commentator’s way better than the English Eurosport guy (not Martin Haven, the other one) – what an annoying whiney voice, and if I had a £ for each time he said “interestingly enough”…

It’ll be fascinating what happens now with these drivers and F1 teams. It wasn’t a desperate or petulant move like we’ve often seen in GP2, and I’d still take a driver who’s raced all year like these guys, over someone like Bottas who hasn’t. But my name’s not Monisha Kaltenborn or Frank Williams.

Frijns’ next challenge will be to try and impress everyone at Sauber. I understand he wins a Red Bull test as well. That could also be in the Abu Dhabi young drivers’ test, so if Gutiérrez is out in the Sauber at the same time, at least Frijns can slow him down…

With da Costa finishing so strongly, it could be a nervous time for Ricciardo and Vergne too, until Toro Rosso confirm their 2013 line-up. Until then, they’ll be making sure they don’t upset Helmut Marko.

Apparently, 25s penalty for Frijns, so championship is secured for him.

Dutch presenter Olav Mol tweeted that apparently Bianchi wants to take Frijns to court over the incident. I think he really did put a lot of pressure on himself to take this championship, with his F1 career in mind. Still, seems a bit dramatic, doesn’t it?

@keithcollantine Yup. Literally translated:

“Jules Bianchi wants to go to court over the shunt from Frijns. Race stewards have given him a 25 second penalty. He is now champion.”

What possible charge could Bianchi take Frijns to court over?

Honestly, that’s only going to hurt Bianchi’s career more than Frijns’. Nobody is going to want a driver who sues the instant something doesn’t go his way. It happened to Andy Soucek (though he took action against a team, not a driver).

The only way this makes any sense to me is if Ferrari promised to place Bianchi at a team like Sauber on the condition that he won the title, but he also knew the team was considering Frijns. Even then, going to court makes him look like a sore loser.

It was a little questionable, but I think Frijns was caught between Bianchi and defending against Magnussen, and made his move too late. It was his fault, but the penalty handed down by the stewards was just.