Keeping Ralf's toys in the pram

[Glen]

In this quote from F1i, about recruiting Trulli to partner Ralf at Toyota in 2005, Gascoyne makes a pretty amusing remark about little Schumacher's temprament:

"…(Gascoyne) seems to think the Italian, 31, makes an ideal team-mate for the moody Ralf Schumacher. ''We need someone who will not wind him up,'' the Briton admitted. Schumacher, 29, also said Trulli would suit him 'fine' at Cologne."

Well that's a remark calculated to wind Ralf up in itself! Personally, I've gotten tired of Ralf's sulky attitude, so I'm looking forward to Trulli beating him - in a nice way of course.

[climb]

*unexpectably climb agrees with Glen*

[Stephen Green]

And I guess Mike knows more about Trulli than the rest of us from the days they worked together at Renault.

[Kicking-back]

And Jordan.

[Stephen Green]

Ahhh I was forgetting that one!

[Stephen Green]

That was Ralf of course...

[Kicking-back]

No, Trulli was at Jordan with Mike Gascgoyne.

I think Mike joined midway through Ralf's 1998 season at the team.

[Testure]

There's an article/diary from Sam Michael at Silverstone in the current F1 Racing mag and he had some interesting comments about Ralf... Basically, he was just saying (without any prompting) how much the team needed Ralf back for his technical feedback. I know we all tend to say (almost as an afterthought) that his technical skills are better than Juan's, but it hadn't occurred to me how much it throws off their entire weekend. He wasn't being malicious at all, but mentioned that Juan couldn't take on the role that Ralf has in the team.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting. Despite what we may think, Williams need Ralf back and they know it.

[Glen]

As a Juan-fan and a non-fan of sour-faced Ralf it pains me to say that I completely agree. JPM is all too often all at sea on car set-up and Williams will pay dearly in the closing races because of it. I think Juan's attitude to the car says it all really - he usually moans that Williams haven't given him a good enough car, as opposed to taking his share of the responsibility for making the car better... since he is comparitively weaker at car development he tends not to express that as being part of his job.

Toyota will be well placed on the other hand, with Ralf and Jarno - both very meticulous and technical workers. Good pairing for a team in their stage of life.

Mind you, williams have done exactly the right thing to rectify this particular weakness in their team for next year - Button and Webber both being extremely competent on set-up and development.

[Mr V]

Juan's problem is that he will always drive round the problem, rather than rectifying it. That said, even had Rafe been about these last couple of races, with the exception of the 2nd Williams driver, i doubt that the Williams would have been any further up the finishing order.

[Glen]

With the kind of driving form that Ralf has been in (before his crash), his technical input is more useful to his team-mate than to himself! Maybe if Williams could get the tyre wear problem ironed out Montoya could creep up a place - his driving is as good as usual, but he can't go beyond a certain mark.

[BootsOntheSide]

I think Trulli can beat Ralf if he gets established in the team, and I agree that Ralf's main benefit to Williams this year has been in set-ups, which is JPM's one major weakness.

Mike Gascoyne has to be careful of saying things like thes; I can imagine Ralf taking offence, considering how thin-skinned he is.

Conversely, he might feel that the team is bearing his needs in mind, and choosing a driver to suit your existing driver is only a small step away from building a team around a driver.

[RWC]

Fully agree with the monty comments.
He's a great driver but he's not a setup genius.
Oh well.Wiliams will do OK next year.Jenson seems to do OK(?) and mark is certainly in tune with getting the best from a car

[grumpy1]

One would have to say thats why they signed Webber and Button for next year.

The Grumpy1

[Kicking-back]

It's funny how none of us, I assume, have worked as JPM's engineer, but many of us seem sure he lacks set up ability!

They've signed Webber and Button because Ralf and JPM quit the team.

[1200Datto27]

What's Kimi like setting up a car? Maybe Mac need to finish fifth so that they can have Wurz or Panis running on the Friday to find a setup for the drivers.

[Kicking-back]

Kimi didn't have any problems with his setup at Silverstone or Hockenheim.

Or all of last year.

[Mike_Wooshy]

just kimi has had problems with the car blowing up or failing on him.

[BootsOntheSide]

Isn't Coulthard widely regarded as being among the best at setup? That could be significant at McLaren, and they could suffer next season for finishing 4th or better this year, as they'd lose out on Friday testing.

[Stephen Green]

But they don't particpate in Friday testing now, so I don't see why it should make any difference?

[Kicking-back]

The team isn't going to put itself in a situation where it has drivers who don't know how to set up a car.

Ron knows more about the relative merits of Kimi, David and Juan than we do.

[ralf fan]

i think Kimi is a good car setter.... last year kimi's Mac seemed to be perfect and able to challenge the Ferraris even when it was the previous years car.... DC in most races looked all at sea being out qulied by Kimi easily... and whatever you think of Kimi he isnt a second quicker than DC

[fog_shadow]

JPM quit, in all fairness Ralf was told to go fish.

[hamsmith]

Originally posted by Glen

"…(Gascoyne) seems to think the Italian, 31, makes an ideal team-mate for the moody Ralf Schumacher. ''We need someone who will not wind him up,'' the Briton admitted. Schumacher, 29, also said Trulli would suit him 'fine' at Cologne."

Where did you get the quote from? i would like to see the full context in which it was written.

Did it occur to anyone that it might of been aimed at JPM? The guy was always winding Ralf up and the way he spoke about Ralf in public was a little unprofesional. You might find it hard to believe but not everyone wants to have a dig a ralf.

[Glen]

I got it from F1i, like I said in my post. That's F1i.com I guess I should have said. well, www.F1i.com to be precise.

I just thought it was an amusing remark, that's all. It could have been aimed at JPM, or really any driver that is motivated to beat their team-mate. JV gave us a classic example of it with the Button season - the difference being that Button was able to make him regret it!