FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[7UpJordan]

Aside from knocking over his pit crew in the last race of last season, and crashing into the back of Kubica under the safety car in Australia, Kazuki Nakajima appears to have made the most impressive rookie of the season so far. He's collected 5 points in as many starts and kept the car on track where many people thought he'd be crashing a lot. He also made a great start in Spain, something he hadn't done in the previous races (only to be blocked by Piquet) and his setup for the car was a better one than Nico had proposed.

Nakajima's performance this weekend will give him confidence, and compared to last year when Nico scored most of the points whilst Wurz was down the field battling Toro Rosso's, Ralf et al (no disrespect to Wurz, he was great at setting cars up, but he's never had the same race pace since that crash at Monaco '98) Kazuki is picking up points too. This gives Williams a good chance of finishing 4th in the constructors Championship whilst Glock, Piquet and Coulthard are busy tripping each other over.

[Denthúl]

Quite. Though you have to say that Bourdais has been quite impressive. He's starting to really out-perform Vettel, who hasn't even finished a race yet.

I thought Nakajima was impressive in Brazil at the end of the last year. I mean no offence to Japanese drivers, but every other driver I've seen from Japan has been poor. Takagi, Nakano, Ide, Yamamoto, even Sato. I mean, Taku is good and I really like him, but he's rather erratic, which causes problems. Kazuki, on the other hand, seems to have a good level of consistency and bar those minor mistakes, he's really been doing well this season too. There's obviously more to his seat at Williams than just their engine deal with Toyota

[Hanwombat]

Poor Vettel, he has barely driven a race

[7UpJordan]

Quite. Though you have to say that Bourdais has been quite impressive. He's starting to really out-perform Vettel, who hasn't even finished a race yet.

I thought Nakajima was impressive in Brazil at the end of the last year. I mean no offence to Japanese drivers, but every other driver I've seen from Japan has been poor. Takagi, Nakano, Ide, Yamamoto, even Sato. I mean, Taku is good and I really like him, but he's rather erratic, which causes problems. Kazuki, on the other hand, seems to have a good level of consistency and bar those minor mistakes, he's really been doing well this season too. There's obviously more to his seat at Williams than just their engine deal with Toyota

Patrick Head did officially reveal that free Toyota engines were part of the reason they brough him in afterall, but also said they wouldn't have brought him in if he was going to be a perennial back-marker. Sir Frank appears to have played ace and suceeded where he failed with Honda 20 years ago when he wouldn't take on Kazuki's father, Satoru, hence Honda pulling out and leaving Williams with the awful Judd V8's.

The best Japanese driver I've seen before even Sato's time was Aguri Suzuki, the first Japanese driver ever on the podium and at the same time scoring the Larrousse team's only podium.

Bourdais has also been very impressive, and I've taken a liking to him. To be fair to Vettel, his confidence will be pretty low after being taken out of pretty much every race so far this year. How will they both go in the STR3 in Turkey? Perhaps Bourdais might frighten Webber?

[Denthúl]

Maybe

But Webber's actually having a decent year now that the car isn't constantly falling apart or his engine exploding. If things stay as they are, he could find himself with a nice place at the end of the championship. His performance in Fuji last year was amazing, until Vettel smashed into him.

And I like Aguri Suzuki. He makes me laugh.

[7UpJordan]

But Webber's actually having a decent year now that the car isn't constantly falling apart or his engine exploding.

Maybe he's obtained "good karma" after the way he rightfully slagged off Mad Max. I've not liked him since his scandalous comments about Williams when he left them, but at least he's redeemed himself slightly through saying what pretty much every F1 fan thinks right now about Mad Max right now.

[Stealthgate007]

I picked Kaz as my second driver in a Fantasy F1 team with a couple of friends. We could have one top performer and a rookie or "B" driver. I picked LH as my prime, however, Kaz is keeping me in the game with consistant decent races. There was something that I liked about him at the end of last year also..

[darwin dali]

I picked Kaz as my second driver in a Fantasy F1 team with a couple of friends. We could have one top performer and a rookie or "B" driver. I picked LH as my prime, however, Kaz is keeping me in the game with consistant decent races. There was something that I liked about him at the end of last year also..

Oh, I'm sorry for your picking LH as your prime...

[Stealthgate007]

I picked Kaz as my second driver in a Fantasy F1 team with a couple of friends. We could have one top performer and a rookie or "B" driver. I picked LH as my prime, however, Kaz is keeping me in the game with consistant decent races. There was something that I liked about him at the end of last year also..

Oh, I'm sorry for your picking LH as your prime...

Hahhahaaa. I'm not too scared There still a chance.

[darwin dali]

I picked Kaz as my second driver in a Fantasy F1 team with a couple of friends. We could have one top performer and a rookie or "B" driver. I picked LH as my prime, however, Kaz is keeping me in the game with consistant decent races. There was something that I liked about him at the end of last year also..

Oh, I'm sorry for your picking LH as your prime...

Hahhahaaa. I'm not too scared There still a chance.

Well, I wish you all the luck you're gonna need to beat the rest. Just make sure you put a plug for Forumula if you win that is, if not then never mind

[Rivelution]

I would have to say Bourdais impressed me the most out of the rookies. No one really talked about him, but he was doing some really good laps during qualifying at Barcelona. He made it into Q2, but something went wrong with his car and he couldnt get a solid time in Q2. But poor Vettel, he's only completed something like 38 and a half laps this season.

[Denthúl]

When you listen to Bourdais talking on the team radio in practice and qualifying sessions, he really knows what he's talking about, what is good for the car and what is bad for it (relative to his driving style). Rosberg is also interesting to listen to on the radio, because he's the same with that kind of thing.

[texasmr2]

When you listen to Bourdais talking on the team radio in practice and qualifying sessions, he really knows what he's talking about, what is good for the car and what is bad for it (relative to his driving style). Rosberg is also interesting to listen to on the radio, because he's the same with that kind of thing.

Most past, present and future WDC's have that technical knowledge which is a must have attribute imho to be a WDC.

[Stephen]

Poor Vettel, he has barely driven a race

He has been in a number of accidents hasn't he - does he bring it on himself?

[texasmr2]

Poor Vettel, he has barely driven a race

He has been in a number of accidents hasn't he - does he bring it on himself?

I would say yes and no.