Joel Holland

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  • #223841
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    I can’t see much point in him doing GP2. You don’t need to prove yourself there if you’ve just won 3.5 as a rookie against the best junior field in decades. Or is this a case of ‘he can’t be considered truly great until he’s proved himself against Ricardo Texeira, Daniel de Jong and Rodolfo Gonzalez :p

    #223834
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    He’s been liked with DTM, tested a DTM and said he’d like to do DTM, so I’m feeling that DTM may be his only option.

    #207308
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    @adrianmorse Yeah, we’re getting a bit off-topic! But I will say that Frijns has the benefit of an F1 deal to go to the DTM with. Di Resta had has Mercedes ties which helped him back to F1, hence it not being a dead end for him. Similar situation for Robin, who has far more buzz aout him than Mortara, Vietrois etc. Also, he’s only 21. Mortara (as an example) was 24 when he did his first DTM season, so already ‘past it’ F1-wise. So I’d be really pleased to see him there.

    #207305
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    @adrianmorse I think Frijns is looking at doing DTM as his racing alternative this year. One problem with GP2 is if you race you can’t run free practice in F1 (hence Bianchi going to FR3.5 this year). Frijns is likely to be hoping for some FP runs. DTM would keep him race sharp and teach him some things he’d not learn in GP2, which is a lesser series than he was in this year. You are right though, learning Pirelli tyres wouldn’t be a bad thing.

    #207298
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    Early days indeed but this already has more potential than 2012 put together. With Calado back at ART and Nasr in his second season, and also ‘going home’ with a return to Carlin, two very talented drivers are in plum seats for 2013.

    Anyone else notice that MP tested Rodolfo Gonzalez in their Auto GP car recently. A move to their GP2 team on the cards? (hardly inspiring, I know!)

    Also… err, who are AF Racing?!

    #200681
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    I’m a little worried about it. 47, not driven a single-seater in a decade, down-on-power Lotus engine, first time at Indy… frankly I think it’s a stupid idea from all sides. I’d be very happy to be proven wrong, but Lotus are incredibly good at PR own goals. Alesi being considered unsafe to race or leaving the circuit in an ambulance would follow that theme.

    Not that I think Alesi is rubbish. It’s the combination of factors that makes me think he’ll have a tough time.

    #200096
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    It’s been said that HVM are committed to the programme and that they were on-board with Lotus very early on. But if Simona is qualifying last every weekend and has absolutely no-one to share data with it’s going to be incredibly difficult to keep it going. This has been a PR disaster for the brand.

    #200094
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    Roger Penske on his son’s team’s engine switch: “I want to see him in the race (Indy) with a good engine because he’s got a helluva driver in Bourdais. I want to see him be successful.” From Marshall Pruett’s story on SpeedTV.com.

    #200091
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    It’s giant-killing because of the team. Coyne last year and now Dragon have nothing like the sort of resources Penske, Ganassi, Andretti and KV have. He was mighty last year too – his run of top-six finishes over the second half of the season was very impressive. The only cars beating him were those having several times the money thrown at them. People were falling over themselves to praise him after Barber, and not just people on forums: people in the sport and in the know.

    #200089
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    Curt Cavin just tweeted that Dragon have terminated their Lotus deal.

    And then there were two: just Simona and Alesi in Lotus powered cars for Indy, presumably occupying positions 32 and 33. Wow. Shame my predicted battle between Jean and Katherine Legge for 32nd on the grid won’t come to fruition.

    At least now Bourdais will get a chance to show what he can do. He was mega at Barber, hopefully with a decent engine he’ll be able to do a bit of giant-killing as he did last year in the Coyne car.

    #199754
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    A good question that @keithcollantine!

    Looking through the 2010/11 entry lists, I can tell you he is not. Stefano Coletti did the last few races of the 2009 GP2 season before racing GP3 in 2012; Mikhail Aleshin raced in GP2 as long ago as 2007 and contested a GP3 round in 2010. Meanwhile, Alex Rossi and James Jakes both did GP2 Asia before competing in the inaugural GP3 season. So not a lot of cases, but Ceccon isn’t the first.

    #200677
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    Alesi is going to be scrapping with Katherine Legge for 32nd on the grid then. Can’t see him having more than Bourdais and Simona in the other B class cars.

    Or, if Jay Howard gets a deal in a Honda/Chevy powered car, Jean will just be hoping to qualify. With a career like his it seems a bit of a waste of time, as much as I’m looking forward to seeing him compete at the Speedway.

    #200528
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    @prisoner-monkeys I would say he could cut it in F1, but at 31 he’s almost certainly too old. And unless someone offers him a winning seat what’s the point anyway?

    #200476
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    Quite pleasantly surprised by Haryanto too. He’s very close to Chilton, who has two full seasons in GP2 under his belt. Dillmann looks handy enough too. Be interesting to see how he and Nasr get along off the front row – and whether Valsecchi can come through to make it a perfect run of wins in Bahrain.

    #200084
    Joel Holland
    Participant

    @prisoner-monkeys No bones about it – this is fantastic news for DRR and Herta. Both have solid teams and very experienced drivers and so will be far more competitive with a proper engine.

    Bourdais has said “we’re going to get murdered” at Indy such is the power difference. If it is 35 entries the NQs will be Lotuses, unless someone else has a problem or Lotus seriously up their game. Alesi and Legge would be the marginals, given de Silvestro and Bourdais’ experience.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 180 total)