Jean-Eric Vergne confirmed new test driver

Not a bad decision IMO.

 

Nice aquisition...

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204424463144247&set=a.1063059769336.2012859.1011232329&type=1&theater

 

Congrats to Vergne, a good option for him given the lack of available race seats.

Ha, I'm sure de la Rosa's departure had nothing to do with the departure of Alonso...

 

Good choice. Too bad Esteban is buying the other test/reserve role. A complete waste of time but oh that wonderful Telcon money though.....

 

This is a very good move. He is 24 years old, soon to be 25, and already has 58 GP under his belt. And he has shown that he can be very fast even in a STR. He could easily move up after Kimi's contract expires.

 

Supposedly De La Rosa got the job for his experience with the McLaren simulator but at this point his experience must be pretty outdated. Also no experience with turbo cars and closing the age of retirement.

Hate to admit it because he's a cool guy but I think this is a good move for Ferrari.

 

... hanging right in there with Ricciardo in 2013, blowing Danil Kvyat's doors off in 2014, in a perfect world when Jean-Eric Vergne should otherwise be sitting in a Red Bull, or a McLaren, he's wound up a Formula E refugee; a Ferrari second-stringer.

Opting for known quantities, defaulting to burned-out name recognition drivers Vettel, Raikkonen, Alonso, Button, that they didn't pluck Jean-Eric Vergne when the time was ripe lends support to the contention the Honda people and Ferrari people aren't particularly good, spotting raw driver talent.

Especially so, Helmut Marko. His success looking increasingly more like happy chance than scientific method, recent oversights (e.g., Buemi; Vergne) suggest Marko's been shooting from the hip on Red Bull's driver development program -- asj.

 

Good to see JEV in the wings to replace kimi mid season when he comes up pointless. They'll bring him in to salvage their constructors placing

 

A nice guy but as useful as De La Rosa. They should be scouring the bushes looking for another Villeneuve or Hamilton or Alonso or Kubica. 15 grand in neutral. Disappointing tbh.

 

He did very well against Dan who beat Seb this year.
Very good addition to the team.

 

He's a good driver so I think it is a good move.

That is Dan's only claim to fame though. It reminds me of that DiResta fellow trying to earn a reputation by beating a champion rather than being one. I say let's wait and see what he can do for himself. Vettel has already shown us 6 years of crazy good driving so our team looks tight. I am 100% in.

 

A little harsh. Firstly, I don't think its his only claim to fame and secondly its a pretty handy achievement.

 

Yes it is a good achievement and he is a talented driver. But he still has to make his reputation by winning titles for himself. Nobody remembers Watson, they remember Lauda. Anyway, our driver has done so much more like the drives for the titles and the drives in the Minardi, that his talent is clear. All top drivers get beat, but they bounce back.

So it is not a good comparison to say that because Vergne beat Dan one year and then Dan beat Vergne the next year and then Seb after that, means that Vergne will now match or beat Dan or Seb. It just doesn't work that way. Maybe you beat a driver but it does not mean everyone who beat you will also beat that driver, or that either of you will ever achieve what the driver you beat achieves. Every driver has to do it for himself. But I also like the signing because Vergne is experienced and has talent.

 

Is he bringing $s?

 

I don't think so, but I don't think he's asking for any either

 

Thanks

 

I really don't see why people get exited at Vergne landing a simulator seat at Ferrari.
Same for Gutierez really.
What so good about it? I think the position leads nowhere.
What has de la Rosa, and Badoer in the past, done at Ferrari?
Maybe they got a good wage, but they stopped racing.
With the limitation on testing, they couldn't haver many track miles under their belt in the last few years.

Since there was no seat available for him in F1, it would have been far better for Vergne, in my humble opinion, to climb down to a lower formula (DTM, GP2, GT, WEC, ELM, Super Formula), or look for Indy racing, or else, but a least KEEP RACING, which is all important.

I thought that for a racing driver, RACING was all important.

 

Some think that once you're out of F1, you're out for good. That's the reason why some stick to test driver jobs. For De La Rosa it worked: he's been jumping from testing to racing for years, even when it seemed that his career was dead and buried.

 

Unless I am mis-informed, there is no record of Pedro de la Rosa ever driving a F1 Ferrari in a GP.
His racing career stopped with the doomed HRT team in 2012.

What he has been doing at Ferrari is anyone's guess, but it certainly not racing.

 

But he got drives at Jaguar, Sauber and HRT after loosing his seat and accepting test driver jobs at Prost and McLaren. At McLaren he also replaced Montoya for half season. He has not won a lot but he's been very good at surviving in F1.

 

But that was then, before the ban on testing.
As far as I know, De La Rosa hasn't driven a Ferrari in a race since he joined the Scuderia, because there was no track time allowed.

My point is that these "testing" jobs are really a blind alley nowadays.
Real racers want to keep racing, not spend hours in a simulator.

When he couldn't race F1, Kimi did rallying, NASCAR, anything to keep racing.
I think Vergne has drawn the curtain on his racing career, by accepting this simulator job at Ferrari, unless his contract allows him to

 

But that was then, before the ban on testing.
As far as I know, De La Rosa hasn't driven a Ferrari in a race since he joined the Scuderia, because there was no track time allowed.

My point is that these "testing" jobs are really a blind alley nowadays.
Real racers want to keep racing, not spend hours in a simulator.

When he couldn't race F1, Kimi did rallying, NASCAR, anything to keep racing.
I think Vergne has drawn the curtain on his racing career, by accepting this simulator job at Ferrari, unless his contract allows him to