Pierre Kaffer - how good is he?

BSchneiderFan · 17 Oct 2004, 23:26 (Ref:1126950)

Well, the question's pretty simple.

SALEEN S7R · 18 Oct 2004, 00:09 (Ref:1126967)

Hes very good - not Tom Kristensen standard by any means though IMO. Still he deserves his place in the Audi and is a very good and competent driver, but if I could choose 3 drivers to put into a Audi he woudnt be on my list.

flor · 18 Oct 2004, 03:58 (Ref:1127021)

he was quite okay in F3, although he had a lot of bad luck there and during his first seasons he relied on his grandmothers money to keep racing....

Fab · 18 Oct 2004, 05:17 (Ref:1127037)

I'd say : "how good a pilot who wins ?"...

mikmx · 18 Oct 2004, 07:04 (Ref:1127067)

I think he is pretty good was his first year in an R8 and he did a very good job. Only thing is the Spa accident. I read an article in Evo magazine were Mc Nish defends the much debated burning car in the pits. Its the first thing you think about as a driver to get to someone who can help. Giving his Le Mans incident as an example. So maybe that proves that Pierre's endurance instinct is A+.

Gina · 18 Oct 2004, 10:23 (Ref:1127163)

He's definetely a very good driver who perfectly deserves being in such a great team. You know he is not one of those drivers making their way with the help of daddy's money.That didn't make it easy but with a lot of talent, hard work and a little bit of luck he managed to get where he is today.He should be a part of the Audi Sportscar project next season as well.

**Aysedasi** · 18 Oct 2004, 13:09 (Ref:1127300)

Pretty good.

After all, a certain TGF didn't exactly set the world on fire until he got into a sportscar, so F3 form really isn't much to go on.

Tweed · 18 Oct 2004, 14:07 (Ref:1127351)

He's very good - deserves a long career in prototypes definitely.

tblincoe · 18 Oct 2004, 15:24 (Ref:1127398)

i was definitely impressed by his performances all year, more than earned his position within Audi's circle IMO

gi_gav · 18 Oct 2004, 15:30 (Ref:1127404)

He had such a great chance to learn under Biela and McNish and he's taken it well.

The good thing is that he's willing to learn. I think he'll continue to mature and hopefully become one of the top prototype drivers of the next few years.

GT-Eins · 18 Oct 2004, 18:31 (Ref:1127554)

After talking several times to him I too had the impression that he is very talented and professional. His speed is proven and the results of his first year speak clearly for him.
Regarding Spa - well: fast drivers sometimes go to the limit. He will learn from that.
Maybe he has to get something more relaxed during the weekends. But I´m glad to have such a guy running in Sportscars instead of loosing him to formular-cars.
Hope he will stay some further years with the R8, R10, R11, R...

BSchneiderFan · 18 Oct 2004, 22:10 (Ref:1127797)

Quote:

Originally posted by Aysedasi
After all, a certain TGF didn't exactly set the world on fire until he got into a sportscar, so F3 form really isn't much to go on.

Well, he did win the German Formula 3 Championship. And Macau.

**Aysedasi** · 19 Oct 2004, 01:05 (Ref:1127898)

Fair enough. But I bet more people recognised his talent after one drive in a Merc at Le Mans than a whole season in German F3.......

ASUKTV · 19 Oct 2004, 10:13 (Ref:1128095)

Pierre Kaffer 2004 results: Sebring 12 Hours (sportscar race debut/Sebring debut): 1st ; Monza 1,000km: 2nd ; Le Mans 24 Hours (Le Mans debut): 5th (his four stints totalled 11hr 18s); Nürburgring 1,000km: 1st (Pierre qualified 2nd – ahead of two other R8s); Silverstone 1,000km: 1st ; Petit Le Mans (Road Atlanta race debut): 2nd (Pierre qualified 3rd – ahead of Werner) Laguna Seca (Laguna debut): 1st

BSchneiderFan · 19 Oct 2004, 12:25 (Ref:1128203)

ASUKTV makes a good point (and should know!): granted that Kaffer has had the best equipment, but his performances this year have been pretty faultless. Let's hope he's going to enjoy a long career in sportscars. If a factory Audi team does return, Kristensen, McNish, Kaffer and Capello (say) would be a pretty good line-up, with maybe Lehto, Herbert, Werner and Pirro in America for Champion.

Félix · 19 Oct 2004, 20:06 (Ref:1128718)

And what about Werner? He's there because of Infineon money right? He never impressed this year, although it's quite hard when racing alongside Lehto. Is he good enough? Is the R8 too easy to drive?

tblincoe · 19 Oct 2004, 21:43 (Ref:1128817)

werner is a great driver, and has definitely been impressive at times. the thing about werner is that he is consistently fast and not too flashy and if i were a team manager, thats what i would look for in my endurance drivers.

BSchneiderFan · 19 Oct 2004, 23:25 (Ref:1128923)

I was dubious about Werner in 2003, because he was so obviously in the Joest car because of Infineon money. But he partnered Biela reliably, as he has done Lehto, and at times he's been more than just reliable, he's been extremely quick. Perhaps it's a slight distortion that he's the only double ALMS champion (in P1, at any rate), but he's more than earned his place in an Audi squad.

marcosgt · 20 Oct 2004, 12:33 (Ref:1129397)

How can an Endurance Sportscar be 'Too easy to drive'?

The R8's like a 21st Century 962. Anyone can be quick in it, but not everyone can be ULTRA quick.

Kaffer's done a good job, but as someone said earlier, he wouldn't be in your top 3 choice to put in an R8. Personally, I wouldn't have Biela, either, he's never impressed me as a Sportscar driver.

Stupid question, I'm sure, but who (or what) is TGF?

Cheers.

Kempi · 20 Oct 2004, 19:43 (Ref:1129892)

That German Fellow. (Schuey)

I'm glad, I never had to ask this in the forums, as I had a mate telling me.

marcosgt · 21 Oct 2004, 14:52 (Ref:1130757)

Never heard of him

Yes, he was rather good in the Mercedes, wasn't he... Crashed a lot in other races, though.

Still, he seems to have grown out of that.

Cheers.

Pete Fenelon · 25 Oct 2004, 02:03 (Ref:1134452)

If you watched Sebring, Pierre was absolutely incendiary there - it wasn't that he won, but *how* he won. Pierre had the R8 by the balls and was getting every last ounce of performance out of it. Not bad for a debut ride.

And his REAL endurance drive at Le Mans was superb too.

He looks every bit as good as McNish and Herbert to me in terms of raw talent (maybe not racecraft yet), and he's got a lot less experience.

Regis · 25 Oct 2004, 03:10 (Ref:1134478)

Spot on, Pete."Pierre drives the R8 like it is a go-kart" an engineer with Audi UK Team Veloqx said after Spa LMES. How true. At the UK/Veloqx team test at Road Atlanta this past February, I watched Pierre get the R8 sideways out of T7 lap after lap after lap. Honest to gawd powerslides, on the throttle, opposite-lock exiting the corner. In the five years I've shot ELMS ALMS LMES and Le Mans, I'd only seen this once before, Pirro exiting a hairpin at Donington. Pierre spun the R8 twice at Road Atlanta that day, finding the limits of the R8. Much like Gilles Villenueve spun the McLaren M23 several times at Silverstone during his first test with the F1 team.

Another engineer with Audi/Veloqx calls him a Tom Kristensen in the making. okay so the team jokingly referred to him as "kafferbashers" and McNish as "mckrash" - all in good fun.

I mentioned to the team engineer at that RA test about Pierre's antics and his comment was "yes Piere has a heavy right foot - his fuel consumption is very high. But he is very malleable. He wants to learn. he is good at taking direction."

Several races later - at Silverstone LMES I think - the same engineer said that Pierre was the best of the four Audi UK pilots at conserving fuel!!!

Herbert made Pierre look the rookie at Monza when he caught up Pierre and passed him in an incredible move out of Ascari, on the grass as they split round Danny Sulivan in the 575 Ferrari. into Parabolica Johhny completed the pass after the two touched upon entry and Pierre on the outside line lifted, in deference maybe? Whatever... but did anyone notice on the tv replays Sullivan spinning into Parabolica's gravel behind the dicing Audis? The show in front freaked him out for sure!

Pierre was an ironman at LM, and he thoroughly deserved the win at the 'Ring on his home circuit. Spa was bad luck and the fault of the Ferrari pilot. The PLM incident was just that - a racing incident, and the stop-go was undeserved in MO. Johnny and Pierre brought it from teh back of the field at Laguna and lucked out during the last yellow when Pierre crossed the start stripe ahead of the pit-exiting pace car, gaining nearly a full lap lead over his closest competitors.

All in all a very good year for Kaffer: 2 wins and a 2nd out of three ALMS races, two wins, a 2nd and a DNF in LMES, and fifth at Le Mans after an hour-long rebuild of the car, he and Biela sharing the wheel for 21 hours.

I think there is plenty more good news to come from Pierre in an Audi... time will tell. A sportscar superstar he is, in my book

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