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20 Sep 2009, 21:07 (Ref:2544540) | #1 | |
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Andy Soucek crowned Formula 2 Champion
Andy Soucek was excellent again in Imola - taking a podium in race 1 and a dominant win in race 2. He has almost double the points of second placed Rob Wickens and has taken the title with apparent ease.
He'll get a test with Williams later this year - does anyone think he is in with a shout of a full time role with the team? I can't see how he could've done any more this season and he deserves a chance. At 24 this is probably his last opportunity. |
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21 Sep 2009, 11:45 (Ref:2544870) | #2 | ||
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His best chance is being a reserve driver, the only way he has any chance at all is with a race seat is if Rosberg and Nakajima leave, but i still doubt he will get a drive.
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Team Australia for the Title :P |
21 Sep 2009, 11:53 (Ref:2544880) | #3 | ||
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I hope he gets a seat somewhere, he deserves it.
F2 has been a revelation this year, separating the drivers who can from the rest without the complication of how much money they have to buy their way up the grid as in British or EuroF3 or GP2. |
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21 Sep 2009, 11:59 (Ref:2544886) | #4 | ||
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But Andy has already been able to afford seasons in World Series AND GP2. And to no expectional results.
The F2 field was quite poor i felt this year... 'Super Formula Palmer' is very apt. I think Soucek could well find himself a seat within someone like Campos or Lotus should they ever materialise..... |
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21 Sep 2009, 12:09 (Ref:2544895) | #5 | ||
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Well, that's an opinion and fair enough.
But the "quality of the field" as you put it is just a sample of who's out there with you at the time. You can only beat who is in your race that day. Maybe next year it will be higher "quality" from your perspective. It must surely be a better yard-stick for judging driver talent than just taking results from series where money buys you a team with better set-up data or a more powerful engine? Which let's face it is the status quo in F3 and GP2. "Super Palmer Audi" or not I thought he, and a couple of others, proved they were a step above the rest. Something you can't always say when discussing other series. |
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21 Sep 2009, 12:33 (Ref:2544922) | #6 | |
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Are you kidding to get to the top in F2 you need more money to seperate the drivers, extra costs example a Ghost engineer £1,000 per day, test days (Many Many test days) €8000 per day this is the one series extra budget does put you to the front its not a level playing field at all. I am in no way suggesting Andy did not deserve to win the championship but money plays a bigger roll in this series than the others..If you only have the published budget forget it or of course if you are over qualified for the series and can't get a Super Licence any other way.
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BOHICA |
21 Sep 2009, 13:05 (Ref:2544983) | #7 | ||
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think his only chance is to bring some cash to one of the new teams, Williams will have the Hulk in one car already they wont use 2 rookies
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21 Sep 2009, 13:19 (Ref:2545003) | #8 | |
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He was one of the most experienced guys in F2 so anything less than a championship would have been a disaster.
I think it is very unlikely we'll ever see him in F1 there are just too many good drivers in GP2 etc with probably some sponsorship as well to compete with and money rules the world unfortunately. I think Di Grassi, Senna, Petrov and Hulkenberg will all step up next year so I've heard so that doesn't leave a lot of space for Soucek. Hes a good driver though so perhaps he'll get a top ride in another series or perhaps even America. |
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22 Sep 2009, 21:04 (Ref:2546278) | #9 | ||
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Beating Jolyon Palmer and Alex Brundles one thing, but could he have beaten Viktor Jensen?
What a pathetic and tragic insult this shhh series is to the name of F2. |
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Andretti, Mario: Auto racing legend owns the rights to an unspecified Spinal Tap song, which he purchased when former manager Ian Faith secretly sold the band’s catalog |
23 Sep 2009, 11:41 (Ref:2546570) | #10 | |
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Not really a worth the effort the above post. Could say similar things about any championship. Not sure that K Jenson rates a call as 99% of people on here would know that Soucek is in a different (highter) class. Are you aslo knocking F3 champion Ricciardo/championship because he only beat the likes of K Jenson ect.. All class suffer with depth these days, but I think F2 has as good as any championship currently.
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23 Sep 2009, 12:43 (Ref:2546609) | #11 | |||
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Andretti, Mario: Auto racing legend owns the rights to an unspecified Spinal Tap song, which he purchased when former manager Ian Faith secretly sold the band’s catalog |
23 Sep 2009, 16:34 (Ref:2546743) | #12 | |
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Ghinzani - Your views are pretty extreme and perverse I must say, and defy all logic. I shouldn't rise to it, but here goes....
Soucek has comprehensively beaten this year: Jousse - Renault 3.5 runner up Wickens - FBMW USA Champion & winner in A1GP, Renault 3.5 and Euro F3 Bortolotti - Italian F3 Champion Sanchez - Spanish F3 Champion Hohenthal - British F3 race winner Aleshin - Renault 3.5 race winner Eng - FBMW World Final winner He's been a class act all year and dominated a very close category of racing by being THE BEST DRIVER. F2 has also given young drivers like Kazim Vasiliauskas the chance to make an instant impact and he's done it through the skill in his driving, not the size of his wallet. He could well have been lost in F3 I suspect. I'd bet money on Soucek doing an excellent job in the test with Williams - F2 certainly needs him to do well to maintain credibility for the championship - but the 'Super FPA' criticisms are starting to look a little thin and tiresome. |
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23 Sep 2009, 18:41 (Ref:2546849) | #13 | ||
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The field was indeed quite strong, but what you have to consider is that Soucek was by far the most experienced driver out there - I think he was the only one to have done GP2, and only Eng, Bortolotti and Piscopo have also driven F1 cars other than Soucek (who tested for Toyota a few years ago). He's a good driver but so is Giorgio Pantano, and winning GP2 at 29 didn't do him any favours
Ironically the one with the best chance of making to F1 as it stands right now is Gachnang, who has finished in the top 10 once next year - she's been strongly linked with becoming Campos' test/reserve driver. Money talks |
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23 Sep 2009, 20:50 (Ref:2546958) | #14 | ||
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Steve McQueen- "Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting." |
23 Sep 2009, 22:48 (Ref:2547030) | #15 | ||
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Ah, forgot about them. Iaconelli's the only real major one out of those. The others have only done 3, 2 and 4 races respectively
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24 Sep 2009, 07:28 (Ref:2547156) | #16 | ||
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Ageism in Motorsport!
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I notice even the Autopsport/McLaren Young driver competition has now been changed to admit drivers only of 21 years and under when it used to be 25. This is writing off a wealth of talent and putting too much pressure on younger drivers to have to have made it by the time they are out of their teens or they are over the hill!!! |
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24 Sep 2009, 08:10 (Ref:2547184) | #17 | |||
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And as for the snobbery surrounding the "Super FPA" taunts all I can say is that as a TV viewer F2 has provided some excellent races this year, including many instances of a manoeuvre rarely seen in F3 called overtaking. |
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24 Sep 2009, 08:53 (Ref:2547205) | #18 | |||
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It was obvious they were not going to get drivers from the top three or four in those championships as the drivers were probably happy with the team choices they made. It was going to get drivers who felt they couldn't afford to run with the best teams? I love GP2 and F3 also but it is very easy to just assume that these are both 'excellent' in their strength in depth, when actually I am not convinced by some of the teams/drivers in either catergory right now. It is just that the talent has been diluted across more championships and you can't blame people without the money who decide to go to something like F2. It has had live TV coverage and pretty good exposure on the whole and I have enjoyed watching some of the races on TV. Don't get me wrong, I am not placing F2 above other things but I think it has certainly proved its worth (and yes we know it is not like the old F2 but times change). As for Soucek, I have been pretty impressed with him as I thought Wickens would take the title. The Williams test should be interesting. |
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24 Sep 2009, 10:11 (Ref:2547245) | #19 | |||
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GP2 and F3 Euroseries are great series with a top class fields but do suffer from drivers in the top teams being able to buy an advantage. BF3 in particular, with so much more grip than power, is more an engineers' series in my view. For example it's taken Chilton three years, three teams and I bet he has no change out of £1.5m, to win his first single seater race. I think even the most hardened "SFPA" critic might at least accept that F2 today offers more value and possibly a more cost effective route for a driver. Time will tell. Let's see who enters in 2010. |
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24 Sep 2009, 13:45 (Ref:2547341) | #20 | ||
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24 Sep 2009, 14:37 (Ref:2547357) | #21 | |
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I imagine he is talking about the fact that drivers can go and do some extra testing in another formula to get extra track time or learn circuits. Not really relevant as drivers in any other formula can do the same.
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24 Sep 2009, 14:53 (Ref:2547365) | #22 | |
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I believe in F2 its not as straight forward and fair as some people think. Drivers have been able to pay for extra test days and also pay for an extra engineer on top of what they get.
I'm not convinced by F2 as a series. On its own its good but to call itself an F1 feeder, well lets face it, its not going to be like GP2 and WSR. My reason for thinking this is in F2 there are no teams, or pit stops. So the drivers miss out on developing relationships with engineers and mechanics to improve performance and get a team behind them. This is important preparation that they are missing because up in F1 its huge with so many people, if you don't have at least a little expereince of that professional environment its difficult to adapt. I will be interested to see how he does in the test, especially in comparison to Hulkenberg. I just think Soucek needs to increase his PR and image a bit to get people talking about him. Hype is a big thing, even really talented guys need people talking about them. |
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24 Sep 2009, 15:04 (Ref:2547369) | #23 | ||
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24 Sep 2009, 19:54 (Ref:2547555) | #24 | |||
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In the end the driver's main relationship should be with be with his engineer, just like in Formula Ford or Formula Renault or whatever. How many mechanics are available to change one wheel at a pit stop shouldn't really matter should it? The total number of personnel in the team really shouldn't matter. Hitting your mark at a pit stop shouldn't take long to learn, I don't see that as a problem. But I take the point that it is a different way of doing things and only time will tell if it's a success. |
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25 Sep 2009, 11:24 (Ref:2547928) | #25 | |
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what about the tyres? I think using Avon tyres is a disadvantage as the Bridgestones are a tricky and exotic compound to understand how to get the best out of.
Soucek will be ok as he is used to already using them with GP2 but I think the young inexperienced guys would find it difficult. In these days of limited testing young drivers don't have very long at all to get up to speed, they are expected to get in the car and go fast straight away. And I do think relationships with the team outside of the engineers is very important from my experience. And pitstops are not easy for drivers at all, a lot can go wrong and even seasoned pros miss their spot even with all their practice, and they stall. |
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