The Le Mans General Discussion Thread
- Thread starter arvin charles
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Well, Di Grassi as far as I can tell never actually made it that far to F1 so I'm not sure if he actually counts.
Besides, Sportscar racing in General has been a refuge for former F1 drivers (Lehto, Herbert, Johansson) so I find that stigma silly and only based on the fact that the most recent are drivers that have had bad F1 careers.
Besides, Sportscar racing in General has been a refuge for former F1 drivers (Lehto, Herbert, Johansson) so I find that stigma silly and only based on the fact that the most recent are drivers that have had bad F1 careers.
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F1 'rejects'? Not everyone had the chance to show their potential in F1. Nakajima went on to be Super Formula/Super GT champion. Davidson and Buemi just won the wec. Wurz has won Le Mans twice. Kobayashi did well in a GTE Ferrari etc. Not every F1 driver is going to get the team behind them or lucky enough to have a front running car. Half these 'rejects' are possibly better pilots than these pay drivers you see taking up the f1 seats. Chilton, Ericsson, Maldonado, Gutierrez, Perez, Nasr etc.
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- catamount39
To even be average in F1 you need to be better than good, so it isn't surprising that those who don't find prolonged success in F1 end up in other forms of motorsport. Look at Jan Magnussen even.
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1. Nakajima isn't a Super Gt champion, though he is a top driver there regardless.
2. Chilton aside, those 'pay' drivers aren't exactly hopeless drivers. Nasr and Perez are actually very impressive drivers, Maldonado has proved himself by winning in GP2 and beating teammates in F1, Gutierrez was competitive in lower formula and Ericsson was brilliant in F3. Why are they not potential champions outside of F1, while fellow pay drivers (Nakajima and Sutil) are?
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I never said they were failures, I was using them as an example of how F1 drivers in Sportscar racing does not make it a "Dumping ground" for F1 Rejects.
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I don't care about the glassing incident. It was having to listen to a guy praise the hell out of Sutil years ago when he first got to F1 like he was the greatest thing ever.
I'm sure there are other drivers who are better than Sutil out there that could race an LMP1.
I'm sure there are other drivers who are better than Sutil out there that could race an LMP1.
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I always thought the Sutil hype machine was rather odd. Before his year off everyone was acting like he was the next big thing, than when he came back everyone seemed to be on the opposite end of the spectrum.
As for him driving for Nissan, it depends on what they want out of him, if they just want a driver to run a few stints at Le Mans to help them develop the car he may be a good fit.
As for him driving for Nissan, it depends on what they want out of him, if they just want a driver to run a few stints at Le Mans to help them develop the car he may be a good fit.
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I never though Sutil was much good in an F1 context either, but neither were Nakajima, and Davidson, and Montagny, and Klien, and McNish, and all five are/were blistering quick in relation to their peers in prototypes.
It's a different level of competition and the cars have different characteristics. I imagine Sutil would at the very least be competent, but his ultimate pace and competitiveness is impossible to establish until he actually gets a ride in the category.
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Wasn't Sutil the fella that absolutely owned Spa in the wet with a Spyker F1 car in '07? He's got skill, just always got overlooked for one reason or another, hopefully the WEC gets Raikkonen, he's a fantastic driver and a great personality, limited by F1,
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Nah, it was definitely at Spa, may have been '06
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Nope it was definitely Sutil in '07, just checked my DVD of the F1 '07 season, watched it live, was a challenging race, though the highlights reel doesn't really show Sutil's progress, he made around 8 overtakes on circuit,
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That's great but the guy wasn't that good in F1 and was beat by all of his team mates even the mediocre ones like Guttierez. He's also known for being a pay driver which is something a lot of people peg against him, because it shows means over actual skill.
That said, he is a solid driver that could transition (if wanted) to the same category of racing many other former F1 drivers have (successful and not successful) and have done pretty good if not great.
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