[Driver] Brendon Hartley in F1

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

I've heard of a Paul di Resta though.

Glad you've heard of him. Di Resta is quite well known in F1 circles.

Was there a point to brining up your knowledge of him?

[RWill2073]

Originally Posted by knighty

Totally agree......if Hartley puts in a solid performance at TorroRosso, I think Williams would be silly to not consider him......he has made a good name for himself by winning LeMans and possibly will soon be the WEC drivers champ, quite a seasoned driver........either way, I think he will be better than DiResta and Kubica.......I think we already have the answer for both drivers, Kubica was about as good as Palmer........and for me DiResta is an arrogant type, who thinks he is better than any car he has ever driven, Anthony Hamilton summed him up perfectly in their court case. Diresta quite simply has not yet made a name for himself.

I don't know enough about di resta to know about his arrogance, but I was put off by hearing that he was cozying up to daddy stroll at the last race while the Williams's weren't there. That seems sleazy, even if part of the game.

[S griffin]

Kubica only as good as Palmer? I know Palmer was probably better than he appeared, but Kubica is something else. Unless Williams consider Hartley, he is Williams' best option ATM

[wnut]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Kubica only as good as Palmer? I know Palmer was probably better than he appeared, but Kubica is something else. Unless Williams consider Hartley, he is Williams' best option ATM

Yeah, I agree, Palmer is probably William's best option.

[peebee2]

But is it up to Williams? Or is it up to Lance’s Dad?

[S griffin]

Kubica would be good for marketing, considering his comeback. But Hartley would probably be better should Williams consider him

[Armco Bender]

He has to start off the back of the grid because of a pre planned engine change.
F1 is a %$#@ing joke...

[wolfhound]

Welcome to F1 Brendon you can start with a bunch of grid penalties.

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/132507

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

He has to start off the back of the grid because of a pre planned engine change.
F1 is a %$#@ing joke...

Agreed, they are ludicrous.

[S griffin]

Well not the way he wanted to start. Just like Jenson in Monaco, his one off race has been ruined, although at least you can overtake on this circuit

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Kubica only as good as Palmer? I know Palmer was probably better than he appeared, but Kubica is something else. Unless Williams consider Hartley, he is Williams' best option ATM

I struggle with present tense usage here with Kubica. I've no axe to grind with him at all, but how do we know that Kubica is still 'something else'.....?

[S griffin]

Well he’s shown how good he is in the past, and so far he’s done well in testing, so I’d say there’s no reason ATM why he can’t be as good as before. In fact, I’m thinking more and more his comeback WILL happen

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Well he’s shown how good he is in the past, and so far he’s done well in testing, so I’d say there’s no reason ATM why he can’t be as good as before. In fact, I’m thinking more and more his comeback WILL happen

Being a natural cynic, it makes me wonder why Williams refuse to provide any feedback from their recent test with Kubica. Nothing in the F1 paddock remains secret between rival team personnel for more than a millisecond, so I am fairly certain that other teams will know exactly what he achieved.

Williams' explicit silence on the matter with the media will not stop other teams knowing how he did, so to me it infers that he didn't do that well.

I would be happy to be proved wrong; it's happened once before that I can remember.

[RWill2073]

One thing with Kubicza is that he can't drive Monaco, correct? If he has that much limitation, I find it hard to believe he can be at the sharp end of the grid on pace given all that is required to be at that level. Also, a team hiring him would know any chance at the driver's championship (albeit extreme long shot for Williams) is already weakened, as well as having to find a capable third driver to keep any constructor's championship (again, longshot, I know) alive as well. And that third driver is another cost as well.

[loon]

Originally Posted by RWill2073

One thing with Kubicza is that he can't drive Monaco, correct? If he has that much limitation, I find it hard to believe he can be at the sharp end of the grid on pace given all that is required to be at that level. Also, a team hiring him would know any chance at the driver's championship (albeit extreme long shot for Williams) is already weakened, as well as having to find a capable third driver to keep any constructor's championship (again, longshot, I know) alive as well. And that third driver is another cost as well.

Maybe the question is, do the Stroll's have a veto on the other driver like they do with Prema in F2

[Richard C]

I may be wrong, but I think it has been discussed previously that they have either a veto or strong influence on who partners up with Stroll?

Richard

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I may be wrong, but I think it has been discussed previously that they have either a veto or strong influence on who partners up with Stroll?

Richard

With Stroll's veto, and Massa's earlier statement that his role reminded him of the way Schumacher mentored him at Ferrari, I cannot believe Stroll isn't backing Massa to return, or has the relationship soured in some way?

[Razzzor]

Japan cancelled, Gasly's decision to race Super Formula ends up being the wrong one. But could we see him fly over to the US and replace Hartley?

I'd be seriously fuming if that happened.

[Aysedasi]

Me too!!!

[S griffin]

Just his luck innit. He decides to go to Japan to go for the title, thus missing the USGP and a big chance to gain more experience and show what he’s got and suddenly the race in Japan doesn’t go ahead! Sod’s law, at least it means Hartley gets to live the dream for one race

[Razzzor]

I would say Gasly already knew his car was going to get the 25 place grid drop and that would have played into his decision. There's not much Hartley is going to be able to do from the back of the grid when Kyvat starts 11th, hardly an opportunity to show what you can do. He'll be stuck behind the similar speed Sauber or Haas and that'll be it.

His qualy wasn't too bad - sure it was only 18th but one more tenth and he would have been ahead of Stroll, Ericsson and Grosjean, and he was actually almost 3 tenths up after the first two sectors but didn't get sector 3 together. Not that it really mattered with the grid drop.

[S griffin]

I’m not sure Gasly would have known that soon

[Akrapovic]

I'm sure Gaslys decision was driven by only being half a point off of winning the Super Formula Championship, rather than predicting a penalty. Given his position, I'm sure most of us would've made the choice to try and win the title.

[cds_uk]

Not sure what to make of this, interesting though. http://www.radiosport.co.nz/sport-ne...time-f1-drive/

[BSchneiderFan]

I think Hartley's on the list for next year, definitely. Kvyat's a known quantity and has sometimes struggled; they might take a punt on Hartley and Gasly instead. They could always keep Kvyat on the sidelines in case one of the others doesn't work out.