What will become of Alex Wurz

[oziengineer]

When is this guy gonna get a break? He is too damn good to be a tester, even if it is with a team of Mclaren's calibre. His third in San Marino cemented that fact. Maybe the fact that he's Austrian could land him a Red Bull drive in the future...

[grandprixdiary]

Agreed he is 'good' but if he was 'great' then he wouldn't have spent the last five years being a test driver. Not sure the nationality thing will help him, another Austrian, Gerhard Berger has said pretty much the same thing about Wurz. Take the £1.5 million McLaren salary for as long as you can Alex, then follow the old sportscar route..

Rob

[BSchneiderFan]

Wurz has a good record in sportscars, too. Remember he's a Le Mans winner.

[oziengineer]

Granted he has been a tester for five years, and I'm not saying he's a great driver, but for someone not to race since 2000 and then go out and score a podium is pretty damn good. If he returns to the Le Mans circuit, he'll problem be a legend.

[BootsOntheSide]

While Wurz was roundly trounced by Fisichella for the last 2 1/2 years they were team-mates at Benetton, that may not be conclusive. Giancarlo was supposedly the team favourite and got all the modifications first. However, ALex's main disadvantage is his build, which makes it harder to get his car down to the minimum weight, and thus limits the chance of using ballast to alter the car's Centre of Gravity. He is lucky he didn't reach F1 before the rules were changed so that the minimum weight includes the driver (1995 I think) as he would have been even less likely to be competitive.

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

Good driver but not the best F1 has ever seen. Any sensible human being would milk the McLaren salary for all it's worth while they can but I suppose Wurz is eventually going have to decide if he wants to test forever or leave F1 and go back to racing sportscars again.

That said, the reason the new McLaren wasn't big enough to fit him is because Newey thought Wurz would have a race seat this season with another team.

[Born Racer]

. Any sensible human being would milk the McLaren salary for all it's worth while they can

I disagree with this (or maybe I'm just not "sensible" )

You don't get as far as Wurz has in his racing career (i.e. F1) without having such competitive spirit. Therefore, seeing as he will have already banked several million from his Mclaren years, surely he would like to race if a good opportunity comes up.

[Logrence]

It's a difficult decision - you've got a job driving one of the best F1 cars on the grid, what sense does it make to go and race for something worse? If you're doing it just for the sport you may as well have stayed in FFord or something.

[mixxer]

I was surprised with all the back-slapping of PDLR on this forum that Wurz's recent performance hardly rated a whimper.
Hopefully Alex will go on to better things but you can do a lot worse than be McLarens test driver

[Kicking-back]

I think Alex is happy at McLaren and will probably stay there for the remainder of his F1 career.

Maybe he'll go back to the DTM again after that.

[Born Racer]

It's a difficult decision - you've got a job driving one of the best F1 cars on the grid, what sense does it make to go and race for something worse?

A lot, because it's racing!

[Russ-Turner]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

Giancarlo was supposedly the team favourite and got all the modifications first.

Even then the car was still a dog by all accounts. He did put in a few good drives though.