rec.autos.simulators

Since they've been together at Williams, RS has qualified better, had better
race results, less crashes, and only one less mechanical failure (despite
what people seem to think).

Before he can be considered for a second to be a serious challenger to MS,
JPM has to at least be the #1 driver on his own team.

I'm more impressed by younger and less experienced drivers like Raikkonen,
Button, and even Heidfeld.

David G Fisher

My impression is that there are anti-CART fans who wants him to do
bad, some snobish F1 elitist who think that he cant be a good driver
since he was in CART and so on. Note those who dislike JPM also
dislikes Jaques Villeneuve.

And then there are those who followed him in CART (and earlier) who
appreciate the talent, and those who didn't and also appreciate the
talent.

The main thing however is that he represents a fresh breeze into F1,
which we haven't seen for almost ten years.

Ralf was the experienced one, and are a bit more cold headed (or whimp
if you like). The second half of last season was JPM's all the
way. And JPM has 4 pole positions already.

There are no #1 and #2 in Williams.

They are good drivers, indeed.

If you listen to what the drivers or F1 teams say, I can't find much of a
Montoya hype there. This hype comes from the press, the media. Their hyping
JPM is probably simply for the purpose of making the whole F1 story more
interesting and getting themselves more spectators. I get the impression at
least in Germany that the press is looking for sensations, and since usually
there aren't any, they simply talk things up a lot, and declare someone or
something to be a sensation. Just business interest IMHO.

If I try and remember the number of 'next best things' that's been hyped by
the German media in the past years, a long driver list comes to mind -
Heidfeld, Button, Trulli, Fisichella, RS (yes, he also once was TNBT <g>),
Frentzen, Salo (!), Raikkonen, that Brazilian guy (I even forget his name
now), Verstappen - the media jump on everyone and try to make a hype of
them, and if they don't perform (i.e. create headlines) they're dropped just
as quickly as they were hyped up.

Montoya at least creates headlines :-)

Achim

They are the same age, JPM raced in F3000, was a F1 test driver, and had
plenty of CART experience.

The season was RS's. I'd say the last quarter was JPM's (at the tracks best
suited for the Williams), but it's widely known that RS had his mind on
other things after MS clinched the championship like the birth of his son
and the WTC bombings. He and MS almost decided not to even race. This season
has been RS's as well. He out qualified JPM at Melbourne, has a win, and a
second.

Maybe not officially, but the results say who's #1 and that's still RS.

-John

Achim

-John

Now go back a little further to a time when RS was being left behind by Hill
in qualifying and throwing Jordans up the road in races like  tennis balls.

Ralph has matured into a fine driver in a period of time exceeding half a
decade. Anyone with a bit of savvy can surely see the same raw material in
JPM that was once RS in only his second season.

MS

I think it's because he's put some e***ment back into the sport, he's
agressive.. yet likeable, he goes for it when many other drivers wouldn't..
it's cost him plenty, I think his move in last years Barzillian race was
superb, and if it hadn't been for the Arrows forgetting where the brake
pedal was, he probably would have won it.

Ralf is the more mechanical of the two at Williams, but let's not forget
that RS was much like JPM is a few years ago... how many accidents did he
cause, how many times did he take out his team mate?

Absoloutely, at present RS is the main competitor to MS.. I just think that
people want to see MS dethroned, I think many people are getting tired of
him.

Well I'm gonna be biased towards Button as he's a fellow countryman, and his
debut season was a very good one indeed... he out qualified RS on many
occasions (More so than JPM) but also showed his inexperience with silly
mistakes... Remember when he went of when the safety car was out because he
didn't realise the cars in front were doing slow/fast moves to get heat into
the tires... he came screaming down the straight, had to swerve to avoid
hitting the car in front and into the wall... rookie mistake.

Heckler

But then a similar thing happened when Mansell cam over to race in the US..
and look at that, won the championship in his rookie season. (Yeah I know
great car and all that, but still quite an achievement)

Plus he's a very likeable bloke, all of his interviews have shown how
friendly and personable he is.. unlike MS, who shows his arrogance and
superior attitude.. he acts all.... Well German.  :o)

Yup.

Plus RS was in a similar situation a couple of years ago and made plenty of
stupid mistakes himself.

Heckler

Thanks for clearing it up. Ferrari still don't get their own rules
though, which was the point of the article in the first place...

Nick.

As for the quote, if they left out that much of Patrick Heads comments,
I'd complain to the TV station, loudly, it completely changes his
attitude about the issue at hand

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy

http://www.theuspits.com
http://www.teammirage.com

"Animation isn't the illusion of life; it is life"
--Chuck Jones (1912-2002)--

'During initial scrutineering, each competitor may have up to forty
four dry-weather tyres and thirty six wet-weather tyres for each of
his drivers ready for marking in his garage. Tyres not marked during
initial scrutineering can be marked at other times by arrangement with
the FIA technical delegate.'

'From among the twenty-eight dry-weather tyres chosen for each car for
qualifying practice, warm up and the race, the FIA technical delegate
will choose at random six*** tyres (eight front and eight rear) which
are the only dry-weather tyres which such car may use in qualifying
practice.'

Notice the words 'SUCH CAR'. To me, this implies that each car can
have four sets of dry-weather tyres for each car. The FIA confirmed
this. The kicker, though, is 80E, which Ferrari would have used
anyway:

'A competitor wishing to replace an already marked unused tyre by
another unused one must present both tyres to the FIA technical
delegate.'

If the F2002 car had been wiped out in that Bernoldi / Medical Car /
Heidfeld incident, for example, Ferrari could have taken their unused
F2002 specification tyres to the FIA technical delegate, and had them
replaced with unused F2001 specification tyres.

It's always handy to keep a sporting regulations book around :-)

Nick.

David G Fisher