Fisichella and Sutil- who will be quicker?

[Born Racer]

Some fighting talk from Fisichella here: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64629

"I'm the reference point, the number one driver, thanks to my experience. Sutil comes after that."

The jury's still out on Sutil for me. He's acquitted himself well, and thrashed his team-mates, but they've been pretty poor team-mates to have to beat.

I have no answer to the question, so I thought I'd see what you all think

[Super Hans]

He was paired with a rookie last season, and his experience didn't stop him being made to look distinctly average in comparison.

[Taprobane]

I think Fisi will be an excellent standard against which to test Sutil. Heikki beat him convincingly in his first season, so you'd expect Sutil to have to do the same to have a chance of moving on up in the world of F1.

Oh, and what on earth is Fisi on about with not being delivered a winning car? Did Alonso not take the title in 2005 and 2006 with an identical car to him?

[Chatters]

Why are they arguing about who'll be number 1? Their car won't be fast enough for team orders to come into play. :P

"Adrian, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to move aside and let Fisi through. He really wants that 17th place."

[Born Racer]

Oh, and what on earth is Fisi on about with not being delivered a winning car?

Yes, very curious.

Fisichella, who left Renault after three years, admitted he was disappointed with the French squad.

"Yes, very much, especially because of the many years together. The winning car they promised never came," added Fisichella,

I don't understand this. If he was referring to last year, he had already had two seasons with the team whilst it was producing a winning car.

[Ralf's Girl]

Originally Posted by Chatters

Why are they arguing about who'll be number 1? Their car won't be fast enough for team orders to come into play. :P

"Adrian, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to move aside and let Fisi through. He really wants that 17th place."

Assuming that Fisichella isn't being misquoted, what a lot of drivel he's talking. He had ample opportunities in a winning car at Renault - they hardly won back to back drivers' and constructors' championships by accident.

I fully expect Sutil to be much quicker than Fisichella - I don't even think Fisi will have the early-season advantage this time that he had over Kovalainen last year.

[mjstallard]

Fisi clarifies his comments:

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...11145217.shtml

He means he's going to lead the team, not be the "number one" driver, which makes sense given his experience.

But the "winning car" thing still is a bit odd, I must say. I do hope that he does well and gets back to the performances he used to put in when he was previously in a rubbish car (and we all wanted to see him in a race winning car!).

As several people observed in another thread, he does seem to be a bit of a head case so perhaps having no expectations is the best thing for him. If this is the case, he could well have the measure of Sutil. If not, he could be gone before the end of his 2 year deal

[climb]

Disappointing quote actually; in general there's a question I often repeat:
if you declare a thing that dismisses all you have said in the past, how can you demonstrate you're true this time?

Fisi has qualified himself as a non believable person, since he always said positive things about Renault when he was with them.

Now he's positive about Fporce India: how long will it take to hear hin say the contrary?

Of course you can say Fisi is not the only, nor the first, not even the last F1 driver to behave like this

[ralf fan]

Sutil is quick but i was unimpressed with the number of mistakes he made. I think you will find that Sutil will out qualify Fisi consistently. But Fisi will bring the car home more often.

[f1manoz]

I think they'll match each other IMO. Neither will gain a distinct advantage during the season.

[Red Bulldog]

Depends on Fisi's engineer, it seems he doesn't know when to go fast unless someone tells him!

[Sev]

In brief: Sutil will destroy him.

Fisi's a guy who only performs when everythings going his way. Never struck me as fighting much, but there you go.

[alonso11]

If anything left of what Fisi used to be he should be able to beat Sutil quite convincigly like he did Massa at Sauber.

[Rennen]

Putting aside that they both collided with Davidson twice during last season... which makes them equal in my book...It's really a case of Old experienced driver verses Young inexperienced driver...who will go charging into unknow situations full bore, and the old guy will give up 'pushing' when he realises he can't get any further during the race! So not much between them IMO. ;-)

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by ralf fan

Sutil is quick but i was unimpressed with the number of mistakes he made. I think you will find that Sutil will out qualify Fisi consistently. But Fisi will bring the car home more often.

I think that's because the car wasn't competitive so he had to take risks to try to get a respectable finish. You get the same number of points for DNF and 17th - zilch.

[Bononi]

Wow... what effect this "battle" can have in the championship ?

[cds_uk]

Regardless of what position they are scrapping for i think Fisi will have the edge overall.

[Spudgun]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

I think that's because the car wasn't competitive so he had to take risks to try to get a respectable finish. You get the same number of points for DNF and 17th - zilch.

I came to the same conclusion reading down the thread before I got to your post. Also I bet the car was a bit of a handful compared to the sharp end of the grid. I'm sure its easy to try and overdrive it to try and compensate in that situation. IMO Sutil is one of the better drivers to try their luck in F1 in recent years. I just hope he gets a chance to sample better machinery to prove what he can do.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by Bononi

Wow... what effect this "battle" can have in the championship ?

The nail on the head my friend...and you hit it!

[OZ_HCR32]

I am still waiting to see in Sutil what others are seeing...so will be interesting. Back when the Fisi to Williams, Webber to Renault thing was on the go i was stoked as i liked Fisi. Over the past few years though he has proven to be a bit of a disappointment.

LOL, but now he has reached that age where i find myself rooting for the old guard...just so he can pass into the night with some pride

[Dutton]

Sutil.

[chunterer]

If Fizzi fancies it, he will be quicker than Sutil. If he doesn't then he might end up getting 'benched' and Liuzzi will come in and slaughter Sutil anyhow. I believe Vitantonio is faster than either of them.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Sutil will be ahead of Fisichella for most of the time (Fisi will have his moments though), but the team will benefit greatly from having him on board. Think "Developement Driver".

[mjstallard]

Should we have a poll for this?

[JeremySmith]

We aim to please