Bahrain: 5 best drivers, 5 worst drivers

Albux · 12 Mar 2006, 15:25 (Ref:1545200)

Who do you think have been the drivers of the race and the biggest disappointments?

I'd say:

5 BEST: Best to worst order
1. Rosberg
For the impressive race, lap times, and overtaking. Brilliant first race!
2. Raikkonen
Last to third and no safety car. Consistent and awesome drive as usual.
3. Alonso
For winning the race and being deadly fast just when he needed to with no overdriving. He will be tough to beat this year too.
4. Button
Completely eclipsed his team mate and had nice fights all over the race.
5. Villeneuve
He was driving a good race, with quiet a heavy car for the first stint and easily outperformed his team mate. Too bad for the engine, I think he could have been in the points.

5 WORST: Worst to best order
1. Massa
He lost his fight with Alonso, and made a bad bad bad mistake just when he needed to keep the pace. Thumbs down...
2. Barrichello
Was he there? I haven't noticed...
3. Montoya
Same as Barrichello... luckily he was driving a Mac, otherwise he would have finished waaay behind.
4. Heidfeld
Outperformed in every aspect by JV. I expected a lot more.
5. Webber
Just cruised to the finish line despite the fact that his team mate got the fastest laps of the race.

A note for MS: I didn't really understand if he was there thanks to the good car he was driving (if so I think he could have squeezed a bit more out of his Ferrari when he really needed to, as he always did past years), or if the Ferrari almost won the race only thanks to his great driving...

Ameen · 12 Mar 2006, 15:28 (Ref:1545203)

Ralf Schumacher also had a bad race, him and Trulli need to up their game for Malaysia

Sodemo · 12 Mar 2006, 15:31 (Ref:1545205)

Montoya was a disaster, though I have no idea why he was so slow.

windsok · 12 Mar 2006, 15:34 (Ref:1545207)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albux

WORST: Worst to best order
5. Webber
Just cruised to the finish line despite the fact that his team mate got the fastest laps of the race.

I dont think that is fair, what is the point of pushing the engine, when you have nothing to gain, and it has to do another grand prix weekend in a week's time?

But I will agree that Rosberg is an amazingly good job.

Albux · 12 Mar 2006, 15:41 (Ref:1545214)

considering he finished only 4 sec. behind Montoya, maybe if he pushed a bit more all over the race he could have gained at least a position.

To be fair I have to say that I hesitated a lot between him and R. Schumacher, but at the end I think that the performances of RS and JT were heavily affected by the Toyota which really was a dog.

Kirk · 12 Mar 2006, 15:46 (Ref:1545217)

I think you are being too harsh. It is o see easy to sit back and judge these guys so critically. There are many, many variables involved and we will hear of only a few of them as the week progresses. For example, Ruben's lost 3rd gear, JPM and Webber were nicely in the points and likely felt that pressing any harder was a lost cause. Massa, yes he spun, maybe driver error but the biggest problem for him was the 1 minute pit stop that ensued. Nick was spun on the 1st lap and never really recovered. I just like don't these types of threads, at least the second half of it.

windsok · 12 Mar 2006, 15:47 (Ref:1545218)

I think that is more a result of Montoya backing off in the last couple of laps. I remember him being about 10 seconds in front of Webber pretty close to the end.

Regardless, the performance of Williams is very encouraging, Bring on Malaysia!

Russ-Turner · 12 Mar 2006, 16:09 (Ref:1545224)

Barrichellohad gearbox problems... that's where he was.

maximus · 12 Mar 2006, 16:34 (Ref:1545240)

Villeneuve was brilliant, but Heidfeld wasn't outperformed as such at all. He was spun on the first lap and made a strong recovery. He was unlucky in the end.

pink69 · 12 Mar 2006, 16:46 (Ref:1545252)

Best 5:

1 - Rosberg - if you were new you wouldn't have thought that this was his F1 debut, fantastic racing.

2 - Alonso - Held his nerve when MS pushed him hard late on. Champions drive.

3 - M.Schumacher - Back to his best, shouldn't have let Alonso nip past him tho. Didn't really test him as hard for the last 15 laps as I expected him to.

4 - Raikkonen - 20th to 3rd never bad

5 - Button - Two great passes on Montoya into turn one. Shame about poor start or could have had podium.

Worst 5:

Massa - Stupid mistake threw away great podium chance, but good late push for 10th.

Montoya - Hardly pushed the car to its limits, twice passed by Button and beaten by his teammate who started last. Could have lost another place to Webber had he been anymore casual

Trulli - Looked disinterested througout.

Heidfelt - Good qualifying, poor race. JV outshone him comprehensively.

R.Schumacher - No way near the pace in either qualifying or the Race, but did better than Trulli.

Can't really critise Barichello as he lost 3rd gear so would have struggled with that. Fishicella either, but he could have insisted on using the spare car knowing of problems.

dsg · 12 Mar 2006, 16:48 (Ref:1545255)

I think you are being quite harsh, but would like to get your opinion.

Rubens had gearbox problems and Button had a bad start. But the passing moves to get the places back were very good.
Massa had a spin but lost most time because of a broken wheel gun.
Nico lost his front wing when he ran into Heidfeld so was his own worst enemy, but had a stunning race.
Don't you think Montoya and Webber backed off to save their cars for Malaysia?
And if not where do you think Webber and Montoya should have finished the race?
Should one or both Toyotas get a mention?

Albux · 12 Mar 2006, 16:52 (Ref:1545262)

I didn't know that Barrichello had gearbox problem (as he said to the press, he lost 3rd gear). So I guess that gives him a bit more credit I initially thought...
But in my opinion even considering his problem I expected a bit more.
IIRC in the past Senna and MS both won races with the gearbox locked in sixth gear...

And in qualifying he took a full second from his team mate and even pitted two laps earlier than him.

ralf fan · 12 Mar 2006, 16:54 (Ref:1545263)

Best

1. Rosberg - What a debut!! could he be the driver that Williams can rally around to get back to the top?
2. Raikkonnen - quashed claims that he doesnt know how to overtake!!
3. Alonso - measured drive
4. Schumacher - He's back it seems...
5. Button - determined effort.

Worst
1. Sato - Cmon even if the team is new, 6 stops is never a good sign.
2. Ide - once again couldve tried to keep the car on the road
3. Trulli/RS - both toyota drivers were lacklustre at best
4. Montoya - Lost out to his team mate despite havinga huge grid advantage
5. Massa - bad error costs podium chance

kristof14 · 12 Mar 2006, 16:55 (Ref:1545265)

I don't think Webber can be criticised really, he drove a good race and beat his team mate. More to the point he had the 4th fastest lap of the race so I would say he was saving his engine for the next race!

Question is, how close would Rosberg have been to the front if he hadn't lost his wing?

Jordi · 12 Mar 2006, 16:59 (Ref:1545267)

Best

1. Räikkönen - Without trouble I think he'd won this race.
2. Rosberg - Very well on his debut.
3. Alonso - did a Schumacher today
4. Klien - outperformed DC and did hold on to the last point.
5. M. Schumacher - he and Ferrari are back.

Worst:

1. Ide - almost hit his crew, but I hope he'll get better

I don't think anyone else was particularly bad... Toyota was, but you can't blame the drivers...

karimbo · 12 Mar 2006, 17:02 (Ref:1545269)

Heidfeld was knocked out by... Rosberg

Nico has been the driver of the race, he would have been on the podium without that incident.

As for Heidfeld he was catching JV before his engine blew. Without the spin caused by Rosberg he would have been way in front of JV.

Kimi was incredible. Next year at McLaren Montoya will be gone anyone can race like that. With Alonso: Paffet or Hamilton.

**Bononi** · 12 Mar 2006, 17:14 (Ref:1545282)

People like lists, 10 that, 10 these and so on.

This is my list :

1-First race of the year, can't judge much from anything.
2-First race with new rules, qualifying, engine specs, so you can't expect much from anyone.
3-First race in new teams for some drivers, you can expect some performance, but not much.
4-Driver performance/Car performance/Team performance are mixed in the race, so you can't entirely blame the driver, unless where it is clearly shown.

Massa : He made a mistake, pushed a little harder where it should not, that'll serve him as a lesson. He could make the pits and back to the race in a position to fight for the points or even a podium. But there was a team mistake... or was it a machinery failure ?

Barrichello : Gear problems, said so. Bad luck, then. But people think he can beat Button fair and square, well, it's something we're about to see... or not see.

enemy-ace · 12 Mar 2006, 20:12 (Ref:1545414)

Quote:

Originally Posted by karimbo

As for Heidfeld he was catching JV before his engine blew. Without the spin caused by Rosberg he would have been way in front of JV.

...and if the ball had gone in the net he would have scored!

Fact is both BMW drivers ran a similiar pace throughout and any difference between them was marginal at best. JV drove a smart consistent pace and Heidfeld showed that he doesn't "just sit there."

Top 5 for me:
1) Raikonnen - obvious reasons
2) Rosberg - see above
3) Alonso - won the race over one of the best of all time
4) M. Schumacher - he's back
5) Webber - hard to look spectacular when your running with the fast guys.

The only driver who I think really underperformed badly was JPM. No real outward signs of distress and yet he was thoroughly outclassed by Raikonnen.

So other than worst drivers I think I will include honourable mentions.

1A) Klien - heavy fuel and racy as always. He doesn't get nough credit IMO.
2A) Villeneuve - possible points if he didn't go boom.
3A) Heidfeld - good aggressive passing
4A) Button - good overtakings but I can't help but think that the Honda is faster than that.
5A) Speed - set the fastest lap of all RedBull drivers.

VilleneuveTracy · 12 Mar 2006, 20:28 (Ref:1545425)

JV was running 8th while Heidfeld had no chance of scoring the points. Even if NH actually was gaining on JV at the end that was likely because JV was driving more conservatively by that point in order to bring home some points. Who had the faster fast lap? Villeneuve...

flor · 12 Mar 2006, 20:58 (Ref:1545452)

Quote:

Originally Posted by pink69

Heidfelt - Good qualifying, poor race. JV outshone him comprehensively.

how can it be his fault when someone scrashes into him?

marzF1rocks · 12 Mar 2006, 21:02 (Ref:1545455)

The season can't really be judged until at least a coulpe of races in... Everyone did a pretty good job today.
there were at least 5 people that have great potentiel to go on and win..

im8457 · 12 Mar 2006, 21:20 (Ref:1545467)

I think Webber drove a good race. He had a points position and he had to think about the good of the team so taking chances and crashing would have been disastrous. He drove a solid race.

**Adam43** · 12 Mar 2006, 21:46 (Ref:1545500)

Here is the driver of the race thread: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...65#post1545465

JeremySmith · 12 Mar 2006, 22:03 (Ref:1545525)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

Here is the driver of the race thread: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...65#post1545465

Good one Adam..

Heebeegeetee · 12 Mar 2006, 23:31 (Ref:1545603)

Jenson? I loved his overtakes and out-braking, but at the end of the day he statred 3rd and finished fourth. Not great.

Top marks for damage limitation, nil point for finishing lower than he started.

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