Fisichella and Force India.

[ralf fan]

Just wondering. Fisi finished 13th, set 11th fastest time of the race in Bahrain.
Also he brought the car home in 12th at Malaysia ahead of a Honda and the two Williams'.
He has generally been about half a second quicker than Sutil. So then is Fisi out performing the Force India. Or are they just that much quicker this year. Perhaps people were too early to jump onto the Sutil bandwagon?

Also the burning question with Fisichella is why couldn't he do this in the better cars. I remember in 2004 he had a superb season with Sauber which led to the Renault drive. Then had two extremely ordinary seasons in championship winning cars.

[koper]

That bothers me as well

Is Sutil that bad ot Fisi that good...
and than...if Fisi is that good how good is Alonso...

Maybe Force India is much quicker this year and maybe Sutil faced some problems...

maybe...

[Knowlesy]

The usual story. Fisi wakes up in a mediocre car with no pressure on his shoulders. It is the only situation he can cope with.

I expect Sutil will pick up soon, but it's been a sad start to his season.

[Hugh Jarce]

Maybe the car is alot better with the strengthened technical squad and 24 hour aero testing, and he's happier at work and Sutil has had some bad luck with setups.

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by ralf fan

Perhaps people were too early to jump onto the Sutil bandwagon?

People said similar things about Kovalainen last year.

He too was best by Fisichella early on, but turned things round and finished up on top.

[BootsOntheSide]

Fisichella is always stronger in situations when he's not under pressure. He did well at Minardi, then excelled for Jordan in 1997. He did well for a while at Benetton, especially against Button in 2001. He made the best of a faltering team in his second Jordan spell. And then he flopped when finally given a competitive car at Renault. Now that he has nothing to lose again, he is back on form.

Force India look stronger than Spyker so far, and I don't think Sutil is particularly driving badly. We haven't seen the errors he's made in the past, it's just that he hadn't had a decent team-mate until now.

[Teretonga]

I spent yesterday with an educational psychologist talking about problem children (my job) and we were discussing performance pressure and stress.
In general stress, pressure and expectation (arousal) causes an increase in performance. However at a point that pressure becomes to much and when somone reaches their point of no return performance falls away.
The trick is to live at a threshold well below the point of no returns so that when the pressure comes on you can lift performance without losing it...

Maybe Fisichella doesn't handle the 'top drive' pressure/stress as well as he did earlier in his career with the likes of Jordan (where he was highly regarded) and others...

[Ralf's Girl]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

The usual story. Fisi wakes up in a mediocre car with no pressure on his shoulders. It is the only situation he can cope with.

Hit the nail on the head there, I think.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Sutil get the better of Fisichella later in the season, but for now Fisichella seems to be benefiting from the fact that nobody has any expectations of him.

[JeremySmith]

Except himself...

[GTRMagic]

I thought the question might have been around how much better would Mr Alonso be in the Force India car than either current pilot

[Ralf's Girl]

Well he'd be at least 6/10s faster...but let's not bring him into this.

[Peter Mallett]

Webber would have won by now!

[OZ_HCR32]

I made this comment last year when ppl were saying he should just retire.

He had the chamce to collect a wage for another year, be part of the F1 circus and had nothing to lose. His rating/standing as an F2 driver was on the decline and Sutil was talked about being the new gun.

Alongside Sutil he had every opportunity to repair his image by convincingly beating a well rated rookie....and as others have said Fisi has always been a little weak mentally. Some champions are motivated by pressure, for some it takes an edge of their performance.

He is obviously enjoying this season with no pressure and no Flavio in his ear saying that he has to win.

Hopefully he can bring it home all season, i personally cant see Sutil getting the better of him this year...LOL i never saw what others were seeing last year, and still dont see it this year

[mjstallard]

I must admit, it's nice to see Fisi doing well again. I did rather expect to see a return of the Fisi of old - he did run well at Jordan and it's essentially the same team.

Still, I don't think we'll get back to how people rated him in the Jordan days (if I remember correctly, that is!) - I remember the media talking of him as being "one of the top 4 drivers in F1" and it being a shame he didn't have a top car to drive. What is a shame is that his talent went to waste in a top car due to his inability to handle pressure.

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by ralf fan

Also the burning question with Fisichella is why couldn't he do this in the better cars. I remember in 2004 he had a superb season with Sauber which led to the Renault drive. Then had two extremely ordinary seasons in championship winning cars.

Couldn't only remember his 2004 superb season, but his weird win in 2003 Brazilian GP in the Jordan-Ford, exactly the same factory where is he now with Force India.

[Knowlesy]

2003 was one of Fisi's worst years, that slightly lucky win excepted.

[pirenzo]

Fisi just needs the right conditions within his team, like every driver does. We might point Fisi out for his contrasting fortunes, but there isn't a driver on the grid who can't be made to look mediocre.

There is a definite winner's attitude though isn't there? Fisichella responds negatively to a team mate like Alonso who just wants to hammer him on every sector of every lap. Alonso on the other hand seems to need someone like Fisichella to establish a feeling of superiority in his own mind, in order to do well (consistently).
It's too early to say where Sutil fits into that, but he strikes me as being more of a Fisi than an Alonso.

Force India themselves are definitely much improved though. In recent seasons we rarely saw them trouble the back markers, but this year they're comfortably on the back of the pack, thanks to some typically Gascoyne-esque development strategies.

[mjstallard]

Yeah, Gazza seems to be working his magic They've had their budget increased quite sizeably (doubled, I believe) and taken on ~40 new staff in the past couple of months. Looks like they're well and truly on the up.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by pirenzo

Fisi just needs the right conditions within his team, like every driver does. We might point Fisi out for his contrasting fortunes, but there isn't a driver on the grid who can't be made to look mediocre.

There is a definite winner's attitude though isn't there? Fisichella responds negatively to a team mate like Alonso who just wants to hammer him on every sector of every lap. Alonso on the other hand seems to need someone like Fisichella to establish a feeling of superiority in his own mind, in order to do well (consistently).
It's too early to say where Sutil fits into that, but he strikes me as being more of a Fisi than an Alonso.

Force India themselves are definitely much improved though. In recent seasons we rarely saw them trouble the back markers, but this year they're comfortably on the back of the pack, thanks to some typically Gascoyne-esque development strategies.

Great post...

[Hesketh]

[QUOTE=Knowlesy]The usual story. Fisi wakes up in a mediocre car with no pressure on his shoulders. It is the only situation he can cope with.



I totally agree with this.

Natural talent (he has a planty) is not enough.

Commitment + talent + personality + a touch of nonchalance are the tools.

[Hugh Jarce]

Drivers have more input and technical value in the smaller team.

That's not saying that the likes of Lewis doesn't have technical feedback - for example I'm sure he was able to explain why he wrote off the car in Bahrain practice, but I bet Fisi gets more factory interaction at Force India. That must make you feel better.

It's all about having someone who values you and believes in you. Some managers just aren't as good as others at that. I wonder how many 1/10ths of a second that belief is worth?

Perhaps we should ask the likes of Ralf Schu who seemed to lose their edge and confidence and then get frozen out.

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by Hugh Jarce

It's all about having someone who values you and believes in you. Some managers just aren't as good as others at that. I wonder how many 1/10ths of a second that belief is worth?

I agree.

Drivers have differing personalities.

Some of the more sensitive souls need to be cossetted and constantly reminded of their worth in order to give their best, whilst others perform better in a tough, high-pressure environment.

[f1manoz]

Hasn't Fisichella also had the newer car to play with while Sutil has been stuck in an updated version of the old car?

I think Fisichella has felt he has had something to prove after three fairly ordinary years at Renault. He was hammered by Alonso and then made to look rather ordinary once Kovi found form.

But Fisichella has always done well with smaller teams. The environment seems to suit him a lot better and he always excels.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by f1manoz

Hasn't Fisichella also had the newer car to play with while Sutil has been stuck in an updated version of the old car?

As far as I know they both have the same car.The 'new' one is a while off yet (July).