ROSSI IN PLACE OF MASSA...THE PLOT THICKENS

You missed out Hamilton..

There again lets not go there..

 

Fair call , but then again I would only have noticed LH if he had performed badly, since he was in the best car on the grid. But yes he did well in his first year.

Best
Pete

 

Thank you for that.

I think you're right, alot of drivers reach their natural, average level, safe in the knowledge that the midfield teams would rather play it cautious than take a chance on new talent. From the team's side, it's almost as if the accountants have worked out how much new drivers are likely to cost the team in repairs compared to the racing and points to be gained and the teams are too scared to risk it. It's a shame because having seen some of the GP2 races on TV, those drivers would seriously spice up F1!.

For Me though, worse than the old drivers staying around too long, are the drivers who's biggest talent seems to be the ability to bring a large sum of money to buy a seat in an F1 team, without any real driving talent whatsoever. Meanwhile, a genuinely gifted driver misses out because he can't bring any money with him. I often wonder how many drivers have suffered from this.

I was just looking at his 1996 record and it does support the question you ask, how did he get a seat the following year?. He spent half of '96 trying to keep up with Pedro Lamy and the other half, being replaced by either Tarso Marques or Giovanni Lavaggi !.