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[zurich_allan]

... would Williams still keep Nakajima? A lot is being made of the performance of Alonso compared to Piquet at Reault, but to me a much more glaring difference in performance can be found at Williams between Rosberg and Nakajima. Rosberg on 25.5 points, consistently running 4th - 6th ahead of a lot of very good cars (Brawn, Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota & Red Bull all at various times this season!), and Nakajima on a big fat 0.

I can (kind of) forgive Piquet for not scoring as the Renault is simply not a good car (except in the hands of Alonso, who manages to drag that car to positions it simply shouldn't be!). The Williams on the other hand has been consistently quick, not necessarily front-running quick, but quick all season long. And for this reason I think Nakajima's performance is actually worse than that of Piquet in comparable circumstances.

It's a shame as I thought Nakajima showed great potential in his first season and a bit, but this season he has simply gone backwards.

By contrast, surely it can't be long until Rosberg is brought to one of the top teams. (Which sadly Williams are not one of any more )

Your thoughts please.

[Gilles 27]

When i saw the title of this thread, i thought you were going to be asking us if we could think of anything that wouldn't have happened in the world if Toyota had never existed. Of course, Toyota have contributed nothing of any consequence to the world and we would have come to the conclusion that they may as well have never existed at all.

Back to the actual topic, I always thought Nakajima had some pace whereas I fail to find any redeeming feature about Piquet. I'm not sure how great thew Williams is in relation to the Renault, I think Rosberg and Alonso are flattering both cars enormously.
On Nakajima's form this season, it seems to me that he is pretty quick in the practice sessions but then bottles it in quali but this could be down to Williams's obsession with shocking heavy fuel strategies this season.
All in all, he is probably the 2nd most useless driver to have started this season but I don't mind him all that much.

[Amanda]

... would Williams still keep Nakajima? A lot is being made of the performance of Alonso compared to Piquet at Reault, but to me a much more glaring difference in performance can be found at Williams between Rosberg and Nakajima. Rosberg on 25.5 points, consistently running 4th - 6th ahead of a lot of very good cars (Brawn, Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota & Red Bull all at various times this season!), and Nakajima on a big fat 0.

I can (kind of) forgive Piquet for not scoring as the Renault is simply not a good car (except in the hands of Alonso, who manages to drag that car to positions it simply shouldn't be!). The Williams on the other hand has been consistently quick, not necessarily front-running quick, but quick all season long. And for this reason I think Nakajima's performance is actually worse than that of Piquet in comparable circumstances.

It's a shame as I thought Nakajima showed great potential in his first season and a bit, but this season he has simply gone backwards.

By contrast, surely it can't be long until Rosberg is brought to one of the top teams. (Which sadly Williams are not one of any more )

Your thoughts please.

I find it interesting that you brought this up because I've been thinking exactly the same thing. Rosberg is consistently performing well, and should reap the reward of a better seat next season. Nakajima not so much, he's lying 18th in the rankings whereas Nico is up in 5th. Is there a bigger gap anywhere on the table? No, with the exception of Renault. In fact, Piquet is closer to Alonso than Nakajima is to Rosbeg, at least in terms of points and positions.

[Gilles 27]

I don't think it's a particularly surprising situation at Williams in the context of comparing it to the Renault situation. Nico is a potential world champion, I'm sure and Nakajima is in the Piquet/Bourdais category of perhaps not being quite cut out for F1. Basically the same situation as at Renault

[Amanda]

I don't think it's a particularly surprising situation at Williams in the context of comparing it to the Renault situation. Nico is a potential world champion, I'm sure and Nakajima is in the Piquet/Bourdais category of perhaps not being quite cut out for F1. Basically the same situation as at Renault

I agree, but he's not getting the push unlike Piquet, not yet anyway.

[Gilles 27]

I'd like Nakajima stick around for at least the rest of the season as he has shown some genuine pace on occasion, unlike Piquet. If Toyota were to pull out like people were saying they might around Monaco then they would surely take Nakajima, Fuji and their mediocrity with them, which would hardly be the end of the world imo

[southern cross]

I think Bourdais showed more potential than both Nakajima and Piquet. This year he scored a couple of points, very close to his team-mate's three, and in an inferior car which is the Toro Rosso. Last year he was close to a very good result in the wet race that Vettel won.

[Gilles 27]

yeh Bourdais should have been allowed to finish the season too.

[EwanM]

Nakajima and Piquet should form a team together.

[Hexagram]

Its goes like this.

Bourdais > Nakajima > Piquet.

Toro Rosso are ruthless with their drivers so even though Bourdais wasn't that bad he got the axe. Nakajima imo has improved alot! While he may still have no points he has really impressed me of late, points are just around the corner for him.

Piquet is f**King s**t. So Renault will be letting him go now over the next 4 weeks, once this next race ban stuff gets sorted out.

[Gilles 27]

^^^^ what he said

[Gaz]

I've said this before Williams must be contractualy obliged somhow to have Nakajima he was terrible at the start of the season and still somhow is managing to avoid the points.

And there's several rookies that would be much more deserving of a seat in that williams.

[cap-dude]

No!
Nakajima > Bourdais > Piquet.

I don't believe Nakajima is still there because of Toyota. In fact, I think it's nonsense. Nakajima has already admitted that Toyota are not helping him retain that seat in any shape or form. If williams want to, they will drop him.

But heres the thing. Patrick Head, likes Nakajima. I don't know why exactly, but Patrick Head sees something in Nakajima. And fair enough, Nakajima has continued to improve this year. He deserved points at Turkey, Silverstone, and Nurburgring. But bad luck has been a crux for him. A botched pit stop a turkey, lost him several places. Silverstone his strategy was all wrong, and Nurburgring, he got hit by Truili into turn 1, a race were he started ahead of Rosberg (who finished 4th)

So again, unless Rosberg leaves, I have feeling Nakajima will still be around.

[EwanM]

I think Nakajima has been heavily unlucky this season.
Take yesterday for example. If he had been able to stay ahead of Button after getting ahead of him at the start I'm sure he would have taken at least 8th place.

And he was right behind Trulli at the end of the race - same last time out in Nurburgring he was right there.

[zurich_allan]

A mixed bag of responses then... so some believe that he's useless, and others think unlucky.

Would some perhaps think that Nakajima then suffers from the DC scenario of being a poor qualifier and then due to the difficulties relating to overtaking cannot get to the same positions that Rosberg seems to maintain? I'm quite certain that DC (being in general a good strategist, which at times made up for his lack of outright speed) would have scored quite a few more points for Red Bull certainly in 2006 / 2007, and possibly in 2008 had he had the raw pace to qualify in similar positions to Webber. Do some think that Nakajima is in the same boat? I know he's qualified ahead of Rosberg once or twice, but the vast majority of the time Rosberg is substantially ahead on the grid. Possibly a decent racer but poor qualifier?

Or is he just rubbish?