Pretty difficult to truly judge a driver with a car that has no hope in the world of being competitive. I wasn't too impressed with Vettle with his first TR outing.

 

During the last race, Speed TV had a great side-by-side comparison of Liuzzi's stats and Scott's stats. To my surprise, Scott had vastly outperformed his teammate in everything from laps completed to cars passed this year. Liuzzi generally out-qualified him, but Scott performed very well on the track.

 

No he didn't. He is being compared to Liuzzi. How about other drivers. To my recollection he has never made it out of Q1. Every accident he was involved in was at least partially his fault. Plus I have lost at least $50 this season because of him. Every time I would bet on him finishing last he would finish second to last.

 

Speed is just an embarrassment to Americans in a global sport like F1. He belongs in NASCAR. If the US actually had a participant in F1, I bet Bernie would have thought twice about pulling out of Indy.

Oh and thanks for the 50 bucks goaljnky!

 

Actually, he made it to Q2 a couple of times.

Even if was had Roger Penske with a all American team in F1, Bernie would have dumped indy. I'm happy he did. It's too bad we don't have any other tracks that could handle F1, but that's the way it goes. Indy sucked.

 

I was at Indy for F1 last year and had a great time - great people, great town, awesome facility. Even if I hated that track, I'd rather have USGP there than no USGP at all. That's just embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as listening to Speed represent the US. No wonder the world thinks we're a bunch of hilljacks.

 

Peter Windsor has lost his mind!

In his ITV column, answering the question "What was the greatest rivalry of all time in Formula 1 and can Alonso/Hamilton match it?" Windsor says:

What?! Lewis Hamilton has had a great half of a season in F1, and Windsor is calling him better than two of the greatest drivers of all time? Better than drivers who between them won 7 championships and 92 races? That's just insane.

 

That's a two-part question and I'll give him credit for nailing the first part. You're right though re the "...and can Alonso/Hamilton match it?" bit. I'd say he's out to lunch, but those words look more like he was just back from a 3-martini lunch and his self-edit switch was turned off. Time may eventually prove him right (I hope not, because this particular "rivalry" bores me), but at this point his words are a tad premature.....to say the least.....

 

+1, you always have to be careful ripping on a driver in a bad car, Ruben's Barrichelo looked incredible in a Ferarri, in a Honda, not so much. Vettel looked like a great talent in a Williams Toyota, not so much once he got in a STR. Fact is, Speed outperformed his teammate, so for them to single him out seems a bit unfair. Until they get someone in that seat who outperforms him, its hard to blame the poor performance on the driver. We'll see how the twin Sebastians do next year, then lets revisit this topic, we KNOW Bourdais can drive, but can he drive an STR to points? I'm not so sure. . .

And yes, Peter Windsor must have had too much to drink that day. Sometimes I wonder if they drink before their broadcasts, what with them making the "Yeeeeeeeeeeeooooooowww" noises sometimes.

 

What's the problem with Peter Windsor stating his opinion? He's not allowed to do that? Please explain.

 

don't think anybody is saying he can't state his opinion, just that we disagree with his assessment that Hamilton is a better driver than Senna and Prost, or more specifically, stating that we believe its too early in Hamiltons career to come to that conclusion.

 

Windsor is allowed to state his opinion. The opinion he stated makes me think he has lost his mind, however.

 

Peter Windsor is a pretty smart guy and I respect his opinion. Time will tell whether he is right or wrong. I'm glad he has the guts to speak his mind.

 

Well, an interesting exercise might be one where Hamilton is driving the 'car' with the worst performance this year. Lets see what he can do with one of the Hondas...

I think one has to posses a tremendous amount of driving talent even for last place...I would settle for being that good. Amazing that the level of competition is so good that best and last are sometimes separated by a fractions of a second...or a hair more. These guys drive in rare air!

 

+1

He can state his opinion, and we, like the rest of the arm chair quarterbacks of the world, can call him crazy (another opinion).

I didn't say I think he's crazy because I think he's very, very wrong, just that he's nutz to jump to such a conclusion -- and post it for the world to see -- without a lot more evidence. He may be right.....I hope he isn't.....

 

I think it would be great if Windsor were right about Hamilton's talent. I would love to be able to watch every race of a great driver's career. I was too young to pay much attention during the Prost/Senna wars (though I was old enough to be in the "anyone but Senna" camp!), and MSchu came to prominence during my college years when I didn't see much F1.

If wonder, if Hamilton is better than Prost and Senna, where does Windsor rank MSchu? I thought prevailing opinion was that Senna was one of the best ever, alongside guys like Jim Clark, Juan Manuel Fangio and Jackie Stewart. Does MSchu belong in that group, or is he in the next tier down? Does that put Hamilton on his level? Above his level?

I hope this comes up during the next F1 broadcast. I'd like to hear what Matchett and Hobbs think of it.

 

I agree. I even almost like the guy. I guess I just hate to see someone jump in and race away with championships right off the bat, without having to struggle at least a little first. I mean, there are very good drivers on the grid who've struggled for years to get closer to the front. Imagine how demoralizing it must be to be one of those guys who feels like he's still paying his dues and he'll get there "one of these days" to watch Hamilton jump in and start collecting trophies from race one. Too bad McLaren didn't have a junior team of sorts they could have started him in. I know, he apparently didn't need it, but it's more fun to me to watch someone show his stuff first (in F1, not a junior series), spice up the mid-field, etc, be recognized doing so, and then end up in a car that makes it easy after proving his worth. We were robbed of the entertainment experience of watching him routinely storm from the rear or middle of the grid! It just seems backwards to see someone start out in the front and stay there.

 

The second part of this headline from first practice today caught my eye "Raikkonen fastest - Coulthard on fire" ..... here are pics for your entertainment:

 

I disagree, Barry Chello looked like an 'OK' driver at best when he was at Ferrari, he never looked 'incredible'. MSchu looked 'incredible' in comparrison - same car etc, Barry looked distinctly lacking in the talent stakes.

Now, yes, I am aware that there where times when he looked good and yes he won a race or two, but over a season, he was, in comparrison to his team mate, distinctly average.

The Honda's, we are told, are rubbish this year and really there is little to choose between Button and Chello, if I had to pick 'best Honda driver' I'd probably not choose Barry.

Edit:

Can you remember how poised Damon Hill looked in an Arrows or even the dog of a Brahbam he drove prior to his Williams adventures ?

A little more recent perhaps, but how about Fred in his Minardi - remember he outqualified a couple of big names in a car that had no right to be capable of the things he did with it

An extreme talent in a slow car can often show through - Scott Speed goes not have an extreme talent.....

Speed never once looked like it was all under control, he was way too random, way too wayward and from all accounts he was pretty poor when it came to giving the team feedback too !

 

I'm a bit tired of Windsor's giddy, giggly glee for Lewis. Sure he's a great driver and worthy of much praise, but IMHO Windsor has gone overboard.

It is wayyyyy too early to be making such comparisons to Senna and Prost. Absolutely ridiculous. Granted, I believe the possibility exists for Hamilton to find himself in that elite circle but please, lets not put the cart before the horse.

Anyway, I've grown a bit frustrated with Windsor, with or without this particular comment. I didn't care for the way he insisted upon misrepresenting the post race conflict between Alonso and Massa. Sure, he's welcome to interpret, but I found what he did in that situation was to totally ignore what had actually happened.

 

I'll get slammed for this but despite the stats I'm not so certain that Scott outperformed Tonio. Granted, the stats tell a different story but my feeling is that Liuzzi was always just a bit closer to breaking new ground. He certainly appeared the more comfortable of the two. I felt Scott more often looked to be fighting the car . . . but who knows.

It is still a shame. I think both drivers deserve a chance to remain in F1.

Vettel (formerly of BMW) will not get much out of that car and neither will Bourdais. They'll be wiping up the back third of the grid next year . . . unless the loss of traction control evens the playing field. My guess is that the exact opposite will occur, where the slow will only go slower.

 

Hurray for LH's 5th place! This championship is really getting good now and Monza should see it get tighter between Ferrari and McLaren. I just wish that the podium wasn't determined, more or less, as a result of the final pit stops.

Boy - Toro Roso must be soooo excited that SV is getting so much more out of the car now that Speed is gone..............not.

And thanks Bernie for making Windsor interview Bo Derek! Too bad she wasn't in her "Ten" outfit.

 

Great result for Ferrari if not the most exciting race ever. I'm still rooting for Massa as he was supposed to get wiped by Kimi this year.

Too bad for Lewis. I think Peter Windsor is just excited by the talent and decision making skills of a young genius and it doesn't hurt that he's British.

Take a look at the tyre situation. Lewis went straight on by choice I think to make sure the flailing tyre shreds would not do more damage. Sure some of it was luck but I think he kept himself in the race. That tyre could have ripped the suspension and front wing apart and caused a DNF. It's that cool headedness that amazes observers.

Sure Lewis has a great car, but so did Fisi, Coulthard, Rubens and Irvine. Sure team orders played a part, but you think Ferrari seriously would have stopped Schumi's teammates if they were consistently faster? I think Schumi would be the first to acknowledge a faster teammate and would work harder and test more to beat his teammate.

I think Alonso is losing it a little with this teammate who won't take any crap and is only getting better with experience. This year's championship is Lewis' to lose I think.

 

Was this Lewis' first non-podium finish?

 

No.