Adam Carroll

[Gaz]

Been wanting to post this message for a while but have only just finally got around to it.

Looking towards the F3 season next year I'd hedge my bets as to Adam Carroll heading the Carlin attack but I have to say I wonder if he is as good as people make out.

I know I'm likely to get shouted down for this one and I'd like to here a constructive arguement but I do get the feeling that the boy is slightly over rated.

Nice lad he his and clearly he is quick but is he this superstar that everyone seems to make out he is.

Firstly, Formula Ford - two seasons of midfield running. Fair does the first season is always a learning year but I expected much more from his second year and he didn't deliver. Again fair enough he drove for Sweeney who couldn't really compete with the works squad but he should have been in there mixing it slightly more often especially as he drove a Van Diemen which had the edge over the Mygales even the Haywood run SJ01s. He did win the final race of 2001 but if your honest it was only after all that went on in the complex on the final lap and that he was the only left survivor.

Scholarship Class this year - wins it by a country mile but you have to wonder at his competition. Look through the entry list and all the class entrants were either newcomers to the UK who were going to need time to adapt to the UK circuits or drivers who never really did much but run around in the midfield of Formula Ford grids in 01. Thinking of Piccione and Colbert in particular although Colbert was more of a front runner in the junior series. As soon as Robert Dahlgren came along Carroll was getting obliterated proving my point that once a talented enough driver such as Dahlgren came along Carroll was left wanting. Fair does he did have to use the show car following his Oulton shunt but Dahlgren was getting on top before that and surely after say a round getting used to the show car there wouldn't be a real difference between that and the one he orginally had. He was also driving for clearly the top team after they inherited all of Jaguar's gear and clearly the team could provide a car performance advantage werever the series went.

Another point likely to crop up is the fact that he did run in with some of the top end championship class cars but you do have to say that that would partly have to do with the fact that he was running in the year old car which clearly still had some advatage over the new one. Yes he did well to qualify it regulary in the top 10 but I do feel if he had been running in this years car you wouldn't have found him there on such a regular basis.

A last point I'd like to make though is that he did develop a cracking ability on cold tyres to jump up the order in the early laps and he was also known as one of the best overtakers in the business by the end of the season.

Anyway, this is just the assumption I've come to. I think the boy is quick but also over rated. If anyone can argue me any different it would be good to here you points. Hope I'm proved wrong to and he does make it big in F1 and F3 next year its just to me so far I haven't jumped onto the Adam Carroll - Future F1 champion ship

[Russfeld]

I agree with you on all points.

[rlinter]

Ooooh Deja vue all over again - can I be the first to point out we heard all this last year about the 2001 Champion and look what happened there!!!

Adam has talent there is no doubt and he has a personality to match (Which can be kinda rare these days...) I think he will do very very well next year.

[Gaz]

Well I wasn’t a member of these forums then so can’t comment on what was said last year but I do believe it was different with Kerr though. The boy had proved himself winning championships and running at the front in the years before he joined the F3 grid. Kerr’s competition was much greater to, he defeated Matt Gilmore who although didn’t do so well this year came into the championship off the back of winning the junior series and Michael Keohane who also came over highly rated from Ireland. In Kerr’s season there was also no dominant team in the class really. Fair enough Fred Goddard was one of the lead runners especially after it secured the title with Paffett the year before but it wasn’t dominant in the way that Sweeney have been this year.

I’ve no doubts that Carroll is quick that’s not what I’m trying to argue its just I here so many people saying that he’s a future F1 champ and to me he hasn’t proved that, he dominated a class with a superior team and with little genuine competition until Dahlgren came along.

Also I would agree rlinter with your comments that he will go well next year, of course he will any driver with an ounce of talent would go well in the lead seat at Carlin (supposing he does sign there which seems likely) but I don’t believe he will win the title as there are drivers around that have so far to me proved themselves much more equipped and much more likely to prove themselves in higher formulae.

As I said in my original post I hope I’m proved wrong as Carroll is a nice guy but the evidence isn’t there to support all these people hyping him up at the moment in my opinion.