Nico Hulkenberg
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To be honest it’s not like Paul Di Resta has outperformed the Hulk by a lot.
Nico was unlucky in Australia after a stronger qualifying performance than Paul. In Malaysia, he finished just a couple of seconds behind his teammate. I think China was a race that Paul was just outstanding, and Nico was poor. It’s too early to start commenting on Hulkenberg’s performance. Before the season started, I tipped the Force India teammate battle to be the closest, and I’m pretty sure it will not be Paul with the upperhand for much longer.
Either ways, I don’t think any of the Force India drivers are a better replacement than Sutil.
@Todfod
Di Resta once again made Hulkenburg look very poor in Bahrain. Likewise, it was Sutil who seriously out-performed Di Resta in the second half of 2011, when he finally got his act together. So I disagree when you say Hulkenburg’s better than Sutil, he’s not.He was taken out on lap 1 in Australia, he was close behind Paul in Malaysia. He lost his front wing and had a lot of traffic in the first stint in China, so he lost out a lot. In Bahrain he had a clutch problem, which meant a poor getaway and again a lot of traffic and time loss.
He seems to be behind Paul in qualy so far, but there’s only been a wet race so far where we can draw a straight comparison, and they were very close there. It’s far too early to say anything.
Sorry, I meant Bahrain not China in my last post. Di Resta has only convincingly outperformed the Hulk in Bahrain
Also meant that both DiResta and Hulk are not as good as Sutil
Also meant that both DiResta and Hulk are not as good as Sutil
Oh, sorry, misread it.
Anyway, I agree with you on that. It seems like people have forgotten very quickly that Sutil did indeed substantially beat Paul last year; and that’s a fact the British media have flushed down the toilet.I think that Force India’s biggest problem is that although they’ve made progress from 2011, other teams have made more progress. It’s getting very crowded at the front end, with McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Lotus demonstrating excellent pace, and Ferrari are doing well because of Alonso’s ability to drive a car beyond its limits. In the meantime, Force India are busy squabbling with Sauber and Williams and Toro Rosso (when the drivers are actually driving). It’s really difficult to judge their overall position because of the topsy-turvy nature of the season, but it’s conditions like these that normally allow a highly-rated driver to rise up and make a name for himself. And where drivers like Perez have done that, Hulkenberg hasn’t – and he really needs to.
I’m willing to bet that he could be one of the first drivers to be replaced this year (the others being Bruno Senna and one of the Toro Rosso drivers) unless he lives up to the hype.
@Prisoner Monkeys
Now it strikes to me, you are right; the Toro Rosso drivers have been very disappointing so far this season. I’d love to know what Helmut thinks about this. Having second thoughts about dropping Sebastien and Jaime?
Oh, and I highly doubt Senna will be replaced by the way he drove in China and Malaysia. He’s ahead of Maldonado in the standings, after all.@kingshark I wouldn’t say they’ve been too bad. Vergne has shown some amazing race pace, whilst Ricciardo has shown great promise all around, but seems to have done a complete reversal of last year, doing better in qualifying than in the race. They’re still better than Jaime, at the very least, but my feeling is that that isn’t as noticeable simply because the STR is easily the worst of the midfield cars.
I think it’s way too early to comment on any of the mid field driver and teams. We have had a lot of unpredictablity in the flyaway races… I would give it till midway in the season to judge the inter team battle.
One thing is for sure, that this is the closest midfield battle we’ve ever had. Williams has shown strong race pace, Force India has shown a bit of both, STR has shown strong quali pace. Sauber seems be slightly ahead of all 3 on race pace and quali, but only by a hair.
Now it strikes to me, you are right; the Toro Rosso drivers have been very disappointing so far this season. I’d love to know what Helmut thinks about this. Having second thoughts about dropping Sebastien and Jaime?
I don’t think he’s having having second thoughts. But it wouldn’t surprise me if Toro Rosso dropped the lesser-performing driver at the halfway point in the season and drafted Buemi back in to give the other driver a better benchmark to race against. And if that were to happen, then it would probably have been the team’s plan from the start.
Oh, and I highly doubt Senna will be replaced by the way he drove in China and Malaysia. He’s ahead of Maldonado in the standings, after all.
China was one good drive. Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain were three poor ones.
China was one good drive. Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain were three poor ones.
What was so poor about his 6th place in Malaysia?
He lost his front wing on the first lap. The team decided to gamble on the wet-weather tyres, and it paid off.
I’m not sure how to rate Nico’s speed at this point. He’s spent so much of the season so far dogged with bad luck that I’m not sure I’ve seen a representative race from him yet. While drivers getting entire seasons of bad luck sometimes get dropped in favour of “luckier” drivers, that is unlikely to help us understand why Nico is getting all the mechanical failures and other-parties-responsible collisions in the Force India camp.
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