frijns vs bianchi vs bird - fr3.5 barcelona

[Peat]

Well yes, there was a corner there....

I see that your nationality might be tainting your view on this one. It was baaaaaad.

[nobster]

Originally Posted by Peat

Well yes, there was a corner there....

I see that your nationality might be tainting your view on this one. It was baaaaaad.

It has nothing to do with my nationality, it is just that a rookie driver wins this championship against highly rated F1 testers what does it for me.
If you think that is does has something to do with my nationality Then I can understand your opinion as your guy Bird has not won this championship this year.

[Go_For_Pole]

Originally Posted by nobster

Dear Jules Bianchi : what goes around comes around.....

Indeed, his first corner move smelled desperation, him not giving Robin room later the same

[Peat]

Hey, i was rooting for Frijins too. Just look earlier in this very thread for proof.

His move was never going to work in a million years, he wouldn't have made it round had he not used Bianchi as a brake. As i said, it was desperate.

Who knows, he may have been well aware that if he and Jules didn't finish, he'd be champion. So maybe it was a Senna/Suzuka job. Either way, its certainly not cricket.

[p-matt]

Originally Posted by nobster

Let's wait for the racedirector's decision on this one, pictures on tv not very clear, maybe Bianchi turned in also?

Where could Bianchi have gone? Frijns was pushing him to the edge of the track so he couldn't turn in.

From the TV pictures, it's clear that Frijns has done wrong. It's difficult to tell whether it was deliberate or whether he simply panicked given Bianchi had passed him and Magnussen was about to.

[chunder]

Haha, these days being involved with Ferrari or anyone else in F1 has about as much to do wth talent as you have to do with being British Prime Minister!

He obviously has some guardian angle looking over him as he so far has been on their driver program for quite a while without delivering!

That said, he was unlucky today for me, brave move and taken out by a desperate Formula Ford from the 80's move

[BackmarkerUK]

Originally Posted by chunder

He obviously has some guardian angle looking over him as he so far has been on their driver program for quite a while without delivering!

Probably not for much longer though! Ferrari Driver Academy's official twitter account has been talking about how they have a negative balance for the year, that they are only 'partially happy' with Raffaele Marciello achieving his target for the year, and that they are looking for ways to improve for next season.

[ivanalesi]

Lello is clearly the fastest FDA driver. Maisano should have walked Italian F3, but he finished 3rd. Bianchi got beaten by a rookie & Marciello is the only one impressing in F3ES. I think on pure speed he's easily the fastest, but his confidence grew a bit too much after the 5 wins in a row.
Today Frijns might have been bad boy, it's hard to judge for me as we didn't see the onboard, but Bianchi should have been at the front. Instead of this, Da Costa dominates again, so it's a bit hard to pick the most impressive driver in FR3.5. It was interesting to see Arden and RFR occupying the podium, the two teams which struggled the most at the start of the year, fantastic recovery by both! It proves that FR3.5 is also very challenging for teams and drivers to properly setup.

[Daisy]

Originally Posted by chunder

Good luck driving like that son, no F1 team manager is gonna want that

I can recall certain crashes by a driver called Pastor Maldonado in the same class and Sergio Perez in Formula BMW whom were both at least 10 times worse than this and look where they are now.
The move didn't deserve the beauty price, but if this happend earlier in the season, I doubt would spend so much time debating it. Bianchi didn't lose the title there, he lost much more points earlier in the season. As someone else said, Bianchi isn't the most clean driver either, I remember some crashes from him in GP2 time especially. But he's quick and I wonder what he can do if he's given the 2nd Force India seats besides Di Resta next year.

Frijns was the most consisent driver of the year, well done to him, beating two very experienced drivers (Bianchi and Bird) in his rookie season. I hope can make the most of his Sauber Abu Dhabi test.

[Mekola]

Frijns won the title by consistency, but Bianchi seems to have more possibilities to step up to F1... Remember Vettel wasn't fighting exactly for FR 3.5 title when he was promoted into F1 in 2007.

[strider]

Someone left the poll open, so I just voted for Frijns. Thought I'd better come clean on that.

It grieves me to say it but I agree that Da Costa was the class of the field. I shall be interested to hear bella's comments when she gets back.

[bella]

sorry for the lack of correspondence, the circuit charge 40€ for internet for the weekend and they can park that in an underground carpark frankly. that's not the way to get your event and venue promoted and talked about.

meanwhile...

cannot believe the championship was decided on that move from frijns. he's displayed competence and pace beyond his experience this season, and yet he goes and blows it all in a silly misjudged move almost exactly as daft as bianchi's yesterday.

it's not about "what goes around comes around". it's about a catch 22 situation for the stewards. they had no way of penalising frijns in a way that allowed bianchi to get back his slim - but still existent - chance of winning the title. this is the danger when a title runs to the final race. there's no more chances to right any wrongs.

i feel sorry for everyone involved - for bianchi, who surely deserved to at least be unable to beat frijns at the chequered flag and to concede defeat on those terms, for frijns for having a great season tarred by this one moment of daftness. for the stewards, who were placed in a really unfortunate situation where they simply had no power to deal with the situation. and for us. cause we really wanted more from that great on-track battle than that.

on a side note, it was almost looking like a similarly awkward situation in the eurocup, where kvyat was dealt an unbelievable stroke of luck and had the opportunity to take his drive through penalty for a jump start under a safety car, only costing him 2 places instead of 30-odd seconds and in reality, 15 or so places on the previous lap. before then he had completely wasted his tyres, and the title went eventually to the outstanding vandoorne.

[p-matt]

Despite Frijns' boneheaded move, he was ahead in the championship into the final round. If Bianchi didn't make that ridiculous attempt to pass Magnussen in race 1 he would be champion now. Therefore Frijns deserves it, but it leaves a sour taste in my mouth, and makes me question Robin Frijns a bit as a racer.

[chunterer]

I have now seen both moves in question and here's my 'view'.

Bianchi's initial move on Frijns seemed a bit opportunistic but clean as neither were at that point turning in? Robin gave him the room, or did he just jump out of the way?

The Frijns on jules one into Turn 4 came pretty late I thought as Bianchi was already coming across on his line into the turn?

Does that sound about right or is my 'good' eye playing tricks on me?!

[bella]

read some quotes on italiaracing yesterday in which simon from tech1 said that the data produced in the headmasters office on sunday showed that frijns came into the corner 20mph faster than normal and in 5th gear when normally it's a 3rd gear corner. the renaultsport guy countered that by pointing out that ok, that was true but he changed down a gear and had the wheel pointing to the right, suggesting that he was trying to avoid the collision and it wasn't a deliberate attempt to have him off. thus he just got a penalty for causing an avoidable collision and not anything more serious.

this article by the autosport reporter is also very good - http://plus.autosport.com/premium/fe...e-whole-story/

i think bianchi handled it pretty well, though i'm sure his haters will just say he needs to man up. in my opinion frijns would come out of this far better if he had admitted he totally misjudged it, and been the one to go to jules and speak about it. at the moment to me he just looks a bit immature and schumacher-esque.

such a shame this is how it finished. his excellent drives warrant far more discussion than a simple misjudgement like this do.

and yeah i agree about bianchi's initial move, it was totally clean and fair play. my first thought was "christ, where did that come from?", but it really was a great move. that's the sign of a good driver, isn't it? he messed up on saturday, but he was doing a flippin' good job of remedying it and doing what he had to without any stupids. those who aren't fans of him will look past that, but it was a clean pass on the championship leader in the final round. you can't ask more can you?

[Peat]

It was indeed sublime.

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Something I just realised: Da Costa is only 23 points behind Frijns in the standings.

If there was just one more race, he'd have a mathematical shot at the championship! When you think that he missed the first 5 races, it's just crazy.

[bella]

it was that close?! blimey. he couldn't have been too far behind bird then?

i know it's partly coincidence that the team's pace and competitiveness picked up considerably when da costa turned up but... he is really good. i think having nothing whatsoever to lose really helped him in the same way it helped vergne in '10 in a similar situation, but he has pulled off some very impressive racing as well as some serious speed.

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Originally Posted by bella

it was that close?! blimey. he couldn't have been too far behind bird then?

13 points behind. Frijns 189, Bianchi 185, Bird 179, Da Costa 166.


E: On another topic, if Bird had won the Barcelona race 1, the championship's complexion would have been so much different. Bird would have trailed Frijns by 9 points coming to the final race, and I think that in this case scenario Frijns would have raced Bianchi much more carefully, because a non-score from both drivers would've put Bird very, very close to the title on points!

[chunterer]

Yes, i'm, afraid there is always that element of doubt probably since the Senna v Prost 2 years as to whether a final round shoot out is going to be conducted completely kosher isn't there, regardless of the series or protagonists involved?

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Yes, i'm, afraid there is always that element of doubt probably since the Senna v Prost 2 years as to whether a final round shoot out is going to be conducted completely kosher isn't there, regardless of the series or protagonists involved?

Did that sort of cheating happen before Senna, or was he the first to deliberately do that?
Just wondering because as his is such an idol to every aspiring racing driver (whether they're old enough to have watched him race or not) his acts and mentality would naturally filter down (same with someone like TGF).
Like how Premier League footballers' actions are seen the very next week in parks up and down the country.

[Go_For_Pole]

Well that Autosport article quotes Sam Bird as an impartial eyewitness, enough said. But anyway if Frijns effort to overtake was never on as Bianchi and Abadie say, how can Magnussen's be considered legit? It's the same corner afterall

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Ostrogothicus

Did that sort of cheating happen before Senna, or was he the first to deliberately do that?
Just wondering because as his is such an idol to every aspiring racing driver (whether they're old enough to have watched him race or not) his acts and mentality would naturally filter down (same with someone like TGF).
Like how Premier League footballers' actions are seen the very next week in parks up and down the country.

That's kind of my point Ostro, drivers tended to eff each other over on track much less before that period (it was more the teams and politics that were responsible for it..) In recent times driving has become much more aggressive and robust thanks to Senna and Schu and some drivers more recently promoted to F1 are obvously visible to the less experienced guys. However there have been some excellent examples of progressive, attacking drivers over the years who have largely kept their racing manners above the line, i'm thinking Gilles V, Mansell, Keke, Montoya and Kimi for a start. Thiose are tye guys younf drivers should look to if they want to perfect aggressive but fair overtaking.

Originally Posted by Go_For_Pole

Well that Autosport article quotes Sam Bird as an impartial eyewitness, enough said. But anyway if Frijns effort to overtake was never on as Bianchi and Abadie say, how can Magnussen's be considered legit? It's the same corner afterall

Yes Kevin did appear to dive in on Jules into the hairpin, which made Jules jump a bit I thought!

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Originally Posted by chunterer

However there have been some excellent examples of progressive, attacking drivers over the years who have largely kept their racing manners above the line, i'm thinking Gilles V, Mansell, Keke, Montoya and Kimi for a start. Thiose are tye guys younf drivers should look to if they want to perfect aggressive but fair overtaking.

True - although I'm not sure the Grand-AM people would agree with you on Montoya!


Anyway. Frijns is set for a long-term deal with Sauber: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103708

This unfortunate Barcelona controversy aside, I can only admire his rapid ascension.

[Go_For_Pole]

I see in Autosport that Bianchi is still handling losing his championship pretty well. Oh well