As every winter, the F1 inter-season is a time of bold statements from teams and racers, often saying things they will live to regret later. This year, Fisichella has started the trend with this salvo: "I am confident to win the World Championship next year". I hasn't driven the 2007 Renault yet, has never ran on Bridgestone, and has been constantly over-shadowed by his team-mate in 2006, but he has declared his ambition. Hope he is not going to eat his words. Usually Jenson Button is the first to make this kind of stupid comments. "I don't want to go back to Williams, because I'm going to be WC on a Honda", or "Honda is going to win next year". He never learnt his lesson. In between, Kimi stays quiet.
Maybe Fisi will be the new David Coulthard.... Button/Honda had great winter testing times last year but they looked at Ferrari and Renault tailpipes come race day... Kimi is still hung over....
No chance! Coulthard has been a title contender up to the last GP once, and won more GPs than Fisi ever will. I agree that he should retire end of 2007 though... Button is just a big mouth who would say anything to get attention. Usually opens his mouth before engaging his brain. He needs a moderator.
This is why I place an embargo on me reading F1 media until March, It gets tiresome when DC says, “This is my year” or Jenson says, “I can win, again”” and of course the ever ambiguous Autosport headline, “Barrichello Confident!” of what exactly, doing a sub-par job again?
I think it's certainly possible. I don't think Kimi's all that much faster. Then again, I'm also a Sato fan so take that statement for what it's worth.
Despite racing near the very back of the field, Japanese driver Takuma Sato is reportedly among the sport's highest earners. Following the revelation that his 2007 Super Aguri team-mate Anthony Davidson will earn about $250,000 next year, the Spanish newspaper Marca contends that Sato's annual salary - including sponsorship endorsements - is around the (US) $7.7m mark. Estimates earlier in 2006 said back to back World Champion Fernando Alonso would make $7.2 million in 2006, although his salary at McLaren next year is to be reportedly higher. If the Sato calculation is accurate, meanwhile, it would mean that the 29-year-old is also more annually lucrative than names including David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella.
That doesn't surprise me. In Japan alone, his personal endorsements must be phenomenal. He is after all the fastest GP driver they have at the moment, and Super Aguri was more or less created and built around him. Japanese fans were mad at Honda for dumping him. I had great hope in that young man, having seen him win the British F3 Championship with 12 wins out of 13, plus the Macao Lottery, I mean Macao GP of course! That didn't translate very well in F1 though. I heard that Sato basically has a throttle control problem: for him its on or off, like a switch. The telemetry at Honda revealed that; maybe acceptable with 300 hp, less so with 900 hp.
