Panis

[Skam85]

Another thread on last weeks GP, Olivier Panis' drive went largely unnoticed. In fact, I don't think I've even heard anybody mention it. I think it was his best drive since Brazil 2001 when he was very unlucky to not finish 3rd (BAR bungled his pitstop).

To be honest, I like Panis. He has been a solid driver and one can only wonder what would have happened in 1997 if he didnt have 'that' shunt. Would he have been picked up by a top team? Would he have challenged foe the championship? I think although he is 37, he has still at least 2 years left and he would be very unlucky if he doesn't drive next year. (unlike Toyota getting rid of Salo at the end of 02, he was past it in 2000!!!)

[climb]

I do hope he will be allowed to prove fast being given a good car.
As far as now, he can just hope for a goo dperformance here and there, but he's condamned to a mediocre standard.

[Adam43]

You can vote for Panis as the driver of the USGP: Click here!

[Hugh Jarce]

Do you reckon he should enjoy the drives while he can?

[shiny side up!]

Flying the bird (Melbourne, was it?) at your pit crew doesn't win too many points in my book. But he does seem to be a solid racer with consistent pace. Not sure about that swerve on Taku last weekend, though...

[N I Tram]

That swerve was shameful, especially from such an experienced driver. In a race which already had one driver in hospital, he could've done the same to Taku. He should've got a 10-second penalty for it.

ALl the same, his voerall weekend was very strong. A Toyota starting so high up the grid usually indicates ultra-light fuel, but this time he was there on merit, and made use of all the incidents to pick up a good result. It's probably the best he's driven a Toyota, and it should galvanise him for Magny-Cours.

[spider]

Shows the power of the Toyota. Panis is a solid driver, and it was a solid drive, but IMO not a racer - more of a solid benchmark, in that if he's nowhere the car is poor, but if he's up there, you know the CAR is solid...

[paulzinho]

I think the swerve wasn't as bad as it looked, i think he started to move across then realised he was wrong so jinked back to the right.

The most noticeable part of the swerve from what I remember was away from Taku.

I think he's a solid driver, very good at testing and developing which makes him a useful asset to Toyota at the moment.

[NiceGuyEddie]

I don´t like Panis at all. He is a dangerous driver. At the Nurburgring he almost delibratly ran Leinders off the road, just to make a point about not getting in his way. At Indy he looked prepared to accept the risk of putting Taku off track at a very high speed. His general behaviour is one of complaining or being downright rude.

And he isn´t that quick to begin with. So, I´ll be happy seeing him replaced by whoever. Well, except Jos of course.

[Kicking-back]

Olivier Panis is a solid driver and I hope he continues at Toyota.

He's in that difficult position of being the oldest driver on the grid so gets the inevitable retirement speculation all the time.

[BootsOntheSide]

Originally posted by NiceGuyEddie
I don´t like Panis at all. He is a dangerous driver. At the Nurburgring he almost delibratly ran Leinders off the road, just to make a point about not getting in his way. At Indy he looked prepared to accept the risk of putting Taku off track at a very high speed. His general behaviour is one of complaining or being downright rude.

And he isn´t that quick to begin with. So, I´ll be happy seeing him replaced by whoever. Well, except Jos of course.

This really does smack of bias. Plenty of drivers have done aggressive blocking swerves in the past, not least a certain German (let's not go there....), and it has caused accidents.

To say that he was never quick is ridiculous though. Especially before the Canada accident he was frequently right up there in a Ligier. His pace at McLaren was equal to DC's, and at BAR he did enough to rattle Villeneuve.

On both occasions his contribution to the car's development was immense, which is one of the mainr easons Toyota went for him. Notice how mcuh Prost fell away in 1997 after he was injured (other than Austria, a track which suited Bridgestone immensely) and again when he was fired for 2000.

[mp356a]

Originally posted by NiceGuyEddie
I don´t like Panis at all. He is a dangerous driver. At the Nurburgring he almost delibratly ran Leinders off the road, just to make a point about not getting in his way. At Indy he looked prepared to accept the risk of putting Taku off track at a very high speed. His general behaviour is one of complaining or being downright rude.

And he isn´t that quick to begin with. So, I´ll be happy seeing him replaced by whoever. Well, except Jos of course.

This post could not be more to the contrary of every team and teammate Panis has ever had. Are you sure that you are talking about the right guy? In fact, he has been described as one of the nicest, straight-shooters in the paddock. He never plays any mind games, just gets on with the job.
It's hard to believe he's French! That's a joke, relax......
Mike

[alesi95]

Itwas a soilid drive. But not a spectacular one.
Only Raikkonen on a 40 stop strategy, Coulthard(?) and Zsolt bum-gardner where behind him.

[Andre the Giant]

Panis = ultimate journeyman.
Nothing wrong with that.

[Svend]

Originally posted by NiceGuyEddie
I don´t like Panis at all. He is a dangerous driver. At the Nurburgring he almost delibratly ran Leinders off the road

With the exception that you would really like him when there's a Championship at stake

[Tye]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
This really does smack of bias. Plenty of drivers have done aggressive blocking swerves in the past, not least a certain German (let's not go there....), and it has caused accidents.

To say that he was never quick is ridiculous though. Especially before the Canada accident he was frequently right up there in a Ligier. His pace at McLaren was equal to DC's, and at BAR he did enough to rattle Villeneuve.

On both occasions his contribution to the car's development was immense, which is one of the mainr easons Toyota went for him. Notice how mcuh Prost fell away in 1997 after he was injured (other than Austria, a track which suited Bridgestone immensely) and again when he was fired for 2000.

I think some of Panis's success was due to the Bridgestone tyres he and a few others had for that 1997 season, and that isn't meant to take away from his obvious talent behind the wheel. Bridgestone announced to the F1 world that they'd be entering the sport in 1996, however their testing went so well in 1996 that they decided to enter the fray in 1997. I think they made the right choice.

No one rattles Villeneuve!

I completely agree with you about his car input and development skills both as a driver and test driver.

Tye

[garcon]

Panis never seems to have been spectacular, and has never quite managed to join the elite of F1 drivers, but to have been around for so long and still be getting a (relatively) competitive drive he's certainly doing something right. I suspect the difference is in the elements of his job that aren't quite so obvious to the fans. I imagine he's providing invaluable input to the Toyota technical team in helping them to develop the car, even if it's just by being a damn good test driver who can tell his engineers precisely what's going on with his car.

I did think his little lunge at Sato at Indy was a bit out of order though. Not too serious, but worthy of a friendly chat from Charlie Whiting along the lines of now, Olivier, you should know better than that at your age...

[Kicking-back]

Olivier's incident with Sato actually looked worse because of the violent move AWAY from the BAR if you watch it closely.

[Seton Fanatic]

Olivier is a good driver. I remember him doing a spectacular job with the Ligiers and the Prosts from 1994 to 1997, when he broke his legs. His accident seemed to take the edge away from his driving for 11/2 years, which cost him his Prost seat, in what was essentially HIS team. He did a creditable job behind the wheel of the McLaren, but has not set the world on fire at either BAR or Toyota, it must be said.

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally posted by Tye
I think some of Panis's success was due to the Bridgestone tyres he and a few others had for that 1997 season, and that isn't meant to take away from his obvious talent behind the wheel. Bridgestone announced to the F1 world that they'd be entering the sport in 1996, however their testing went so well in 1996 that they decided to enter the fray in 1997. I think they made the right choice.

No one rattles Villeneuve!

I completely agree with you about his car input and development skills both as a driver and test driver.

Tye

I think in the right team Panis could've risen to the Coulthard/Berger/Patrese sort of level - someone who would always be in the running for a win, but probably not a Championship.

I was there at Monaco in '96, he was clearly quicker than his car all through practice and qualifying, and was by far the smoothest guy on the circuit. OK, he won a race of attrition, but in 96/7 he overtook pretty much everyone at least once. His racecraft was, at the time, first rate. Alas, his qualifying was dismal.

1997 - well, there was nothing wrong with car, engine, tyres or driver. The results were solid right up to his crash. Think what Trulli did in Austria - put Panis into that car....

I think had Olivier not broken his legs, and gone on to a big-three team in '98 or so, he would now be sitting on at least half a dozen GP wins.

[Skam85]

Agreed, Pete. Put it this way, if you were Toyota, would you go for technical specialist Panis or CART champ, inexperienced and sloppy da Matta to partner Ralf next year?

[Kicking-back]

I don't think Ralf Schumacher is any step forward over Panis, so I'd keep the current line-up for at least another year.

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally posted by Skam85
Agreed, Pete. Put it this way, if you were Toyota, would you go for technical specialist Panis or CART champ, inexperienced and sloppy da Matta to partner Ralf next year?

I reckon Panis has got a couple of seasons left in him still - mind you I'd run Panis and Scott Dixon

[Logrence]

Isn't it funny how people watching the same thing can interpret it in different ways? I agree with paulzinho - that swerve, if you can call it such was nothing aggressive, he just didn't seem to expect Sato coming past - the move was only exacerbated by Sato lunging over to the opposite side of the race track.

But anyway, I think whilst Panis isn't the speediest driver on the track, McLaren, Toyota, et al. have done well to have him around as an exquisite test driver.

[N I Tram]

If Logrence's account is to be believed, he doens't seem to know much about Sato's aggression level.

In any case I think Panis is a good driver to have on your team. It's a great shame he had the crash in Canada, as he could've found himself in a top team for 1998 in other circumstances. While he never had the edge to be a champion, he deserved to win more than 1 race.