Grand Prix Rejects

Ferrim wrote:

redbulljack14 wrote:Personally I would have gone for a younger driver, maybe Pedro Lamy.

He's actually younger than De la Rosa.

Maybe that's why you've said it?

If we're going for drivers younger than PDLR, how about Verstappen.

DanielPT wrote:I meant that if Lamy was to drive for Sauber he would leave his Peugeot in the lead in time (his team-mates would clinch it after) to fly for Canada for the race, starting last and ending up taking that fluke win instead of DLR.

Oh rite :-S, soz, that was kneejerk of me then...

However...

I dont think there are planes fast enough to get to the other side of the atlantic anymore.

Concord could, but for some reason they're unsafe these days :-S.

Any bet that the tyres will last full distance without pitting....

Sutil's hit the wall

whos commentating with crofty?

sutil crash right there yet to see pdlr

S951 wrote:whos commentating with crofty?

Maurice Hamilton and GP3 driver and Virgin reserve driver Robert Wickens.

Sutil pulling a Villeneuve here.

And Kobayashi's caused a RED FLAG

kobakrashi...

Now he's unrejectified he can do what the hell he likes

cheers GJJ

koba splat there all hopes on pdlr

Kamui being taken away by the doctor. Should be Ok, but...

S951 wrote:sutil crash right there yet to see pdlr

With Kobayashi causing a red flag, it looks like De La Rosa's not going to get much track time today - thankfully, though, the session is restarting, so De La Rosa will at least get a bit of track time today. It was a pretty unfortunate accident for Kobayashi, and it can't be comfortable for Peter Sauber either, seeing one driver out due to lingering effects from an earlier accident, and seeing the other driver wrecking his car today.

And Jerome makes three!

custard in the wall

D'ambrosio rices his car against Kamui's wall.

ADx_Wales wrote:D'ambrosio rices his car against Kamui's wall.

And now we have another red flag in quick succession - the BBC are reporting that the drivers are not happy with the tyres, with even the super soft not yielding as much grip as they expected (although they are still lapping comfortably quicker than last year). Also, Hamilton is limping back to the pits with a punctured rear tyre - he probably ran over some debris from either D'Ambrosio or Kobayashi.

GwilymJJames wrote:

S951 wrote:whos commentating with crofty?

Maurice Hamilton and GP3 driver and Virgin reserve driver Robert Wickens.

I know we're currently on Custard splattering his Virgin against Kabayashi's Wall, but I heard that when Robert Wickens was driving for A1 Team Canada, he was nicknamed Wicky Robby, in honour of a recent film release at the time (Talladega Nights...).

feeds down again

Emerson Fittipaldi has not turned up for driver steward duties so Herbie Blash (real name Michael Blash!) is fulfilling the role today!

S951 wrote:feeds down again

Apparently satellite transmitter in Geneva is down, according to audio.

Seems an odd place to use the double DRS zone, given that passing into the last chicane was reletively common even in the "no overtaking" formula.

Insert gratuitous Sato overtake here.

pedro ahead of both mercs lol!

Both Team Lotus cars have beaten both Mercedes cars. What does that teach us? Nothing, probably.

So Pedro's only had 20 minutes in a car he hasnt driven for half a year...

Faster than Schuey...

More like 9 months, and he never drove this one, although I guess it's pretty similar to last year's.

Eh? What did Mercedes do in the 2nd session, they were 3 seconds slower than FP1.

Did they dip a set of tires in acid to test what their car will be like when it eats is rears after three laps of the race?

So with de la Rosa joining Schumacher in the field for this one, I was wondering when was the last time we had a race featuring two drivers in their 40s? Must have been quite a while ago, surely?

Paul Hayes wrote:So with de la Rosa joining Schumacher in the field for this one, I was wondering when was the last time we had a race featuring two drivers in their 40s? Must have been quite a while ago, surely?

Yeah, I can't ever remember it happening. It will next year if Barrichello carries on for a 20th season, as Schumacher signed a 3 year contract, so should stay till the end of next season.

redbulljack14 wrote:

Paul Hayes wrote:So with de la Rosa joining Schumacher in the field for this one, I was wondering when was the last time we had a race featuring two drivers in their 40s? Must have been quite a while ago, surely?

Yeah, I can't ever remember it happening. It will next year if Barrichello carries on for a 20th season, as Schumacher signed a 3 year contract, so should stay till the end of next season.

As far as I know, it may have been the Italian Grand Prix of 1980, when we had 40 year old Mario Andretti and 42 year old Vittorio Brambilla on the entry list.

We almost had it in 1994, when Phillipe Alliot and Nigel Mansell both drove at 40 during the season, but not at the same race.

I thought Di Resta did well to get 6th, although no-one really knows what fuel loads the other cars around him were carrying. And Sutil getting 12th (I think), before crashing is good. I can see a few midfield drivers saving a set of fresh tyres in Q2 to use for the race, as tyre wear might be a problem.

ADx_Wales wrote:PDLR is the first "Replacement" of 2011

I was trying to remember when there was an F1 season without driver changes, however its not too long ago...

Why Pedro? They do have an official reserve driver in Esteban Gutierrez. Where is he when his team needs him? Pedro however hasn't been a good match with Sauber so far, yet he is becoming their Frentzen of sorts now. Strange.
But he knows his way round Montreal quite well I guess.

Yannick wrote:

ADx_Wales wrote:PDLR is the first "Replacement" of 2011

I was trying to remember when there was an F1 season without driver changes, however its not too long ago...

Why Pedro? They do have an official reserve driver in Esteban Gutierrez. Where is he when his team needs him? Pedro however hasn't been a good match with Sauber so far, yet he is becoming their Frentzen of sorts now. Strange.
But he knows his way round Montreal quite well I guess.

Apparently Esteban was unable to attend due to being in Mexico.

I'm struggling to work out whether this or 'food poisoning' is a worse cover story for a driver not being selected for a race. To be fair to Sauber (or whoever made that decision), Pedro has at least raced in F1 fairly recently, and in a car which is the evolutionary predecessor of their current one. In contrast, Esteban's GP2 results have been...poor, so far at least.

Enforcer wrote:Eh? What did Mercedes do in the 2nd session, they were 3 seconds slower than FP1.

Did they dip a set of tires in acid to test what their car will be like when it eats is rears after three laps of the race?

From what I understood of the German commentary (here in Italy FPs aren't broadcast free to air... ) Mercedes were testing long runs with lot of fuel. Or I hope so...

Some user on Autosport wrote something about Peter Sauber not wanting Gutierrez in the car anyway, because of the amount of mistakes in GP2

Myrvold wrote:Some user on Autosport wrote something about Peter Sauber not wanting Gutierrez in the car anyway, because of the amount of mistakes in GP2

But also as De La Rosa is wiser he is a safe choice even if he is a bit older now.

Ferrim wrote:More like 9 months, and he never drove this one, although I guess it's pretty similar to last year's.

This car is quite different. Its a lot more twitchy than in 2010. Plus Pedro hasn't used KERS or the DRS yet.

He might have used KERS if he did some testing in 2009 with McLaren. Even straight-line ones.

Both HRT's are barely within the 107% time in FP1 and FP2. Only d'Ambrosio's missed it so far.

Thats a shame considering they had a very good straightline speed at Melbourne.

Guess the updates on other team's cars have stretched that margin.

Looks like De La Rosa had to rush pretty quickly to get into the car - although Peter Sauber had asked permission from Whitmarsh before this weekend if De La Rosa could be a potential replacement for Perez, it was only about 10 minutes before the start of the second practise session that he found out he'd be driving.

"I was finishing lunch when Monisha Kaltenborn [Sauber CEO] showed up at McLaren and asked me, 'are you ready? It's very likely you will have to get in the car'," explained de la Rosa. "I checked my watch and it was ten to two and I said 'but there's 10 minutes to the start of the session!'

It seems that there was another reason why Sauber went for De La Rosa this weekend - because he'd already driven for them last year, Sauber had a fitted driver seat ready for him (which they'd already brought for this weekend). In addition, they already had data on what sort of pedal fitting he would need - although he had to drive this session using Perez's settings, since they didn't have time to modify the pedals.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92164

I have to say, given that he'd be a little unfamiliar with the car, the track conditions and not being entirely comfortable in the cockpit, he did a pretty good job - so even if he was unceremoniously thrown out last year, evidently there is still some goodwill within Sauber towards De La Rosa.

It wouldnt suprise me if Sauber are still going as an F1 team in 10 years time that Massa and Raikonnen would have returned there to see out their F1 careers.
Same thing could be said for the end of Frentzen's F1 career, having started at sauber to finish with them.