Alguersuari, the drivers have spoken now what do you think?

[Moanlower]

He surely had great pace during his maiden practice sessions and seems to be able to cope with the pressure and attention very well. I'm quite sure he'll pushing Buemi soon.

I wonder if it's possible that he secretly tested the STR on Mugello? I think i've read something about that.

[sticky667]

I would like to know why they can't give him experience in a year old F1 car, surely they can use an old car to give him experience of the forces and possibilities, before heading for a track...

Is this a Team decision or something the FIA have banned through the testing ban? Are there regulations on using year old cars for young driver training?

the testing ban isn't actually a real ban by the FIA, it's more of an agreement between the teams (FOTA) to reduce costs.

[Moanlower]

I would like to know why they can't give him experience in a year old F1 car, surely they can use an old car to give him experience of the forces and possibilities, before heading for a track...

Is this a Team decision or something the FIA have banned through the testing ban? Are there regulations on using year old cars for young driver training?

the testing ban isn't actually a real ban by the FIA, it's more of an agreement between the teams (FOTA) to reduce costs.

FIA 2009 Sporting Regulations

22) TRACK AND WIND TUNNEL TESTING
22.1 a) Track testing shall be considered any track running time undertaken by a competitor entered in the Championship with the exception of :
i) promotional or demonstration events carried out using tyres provided specifically for this purpose by the appointed supplier ;
ii) three one day young driver training tests carried out between the end of the last Event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year, any such driver having not competed in more than two F1 World Championship Events ;
iii) eight one day aerodynamic tests carried out on FIA approved straight line or constant radius sites between 1 January 2009 and the end of the last Event of the Championship.
b) No competitor may carry out more than 15,000km of track testing during a calendar year.
c) No track testing may take place between the start of the week preceding the first Event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year.
d) During all track testing cars must be fitted with the FIA ECU required by Article 8.2 of the 2009 FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.
2009 F1 Sporting Regulations 9 of 42 24 March 2009
e) No track testing is permitted at sites which are not currently approved for use by Formula 1 cars. In order to ensure that venue licence conditions are respected at all times during track testing, competitors are required to inform the FIA of their test schedule in order that an observer may be appointed if deemed necessary.
f) During all Formula One track testing :
- red flag procedures must be respected ;
- no other type of vehicle is permitted on the track ;
- every reasonable effort should be made to ensure that the recommendations concerning emergency services detailed in Article 16 of Appendix H to the Code are followed.

[DaveKillens]

I remember the last time this argument came up...It was for Kimi Raikkonen.

You beat me to this point, because Kimi faced a lot of criticism concerning his arrival in Formula One.
But the FIA did grant Algueruari a Superlicence, and like it or not, they are the governing body and we have to accept their decision.

Massa cracks me up. In his first season with Sauber (2002) Massa screwed up so many times Sauber dropped him for the next year in favor of Frentzen. In 2004 Sauber brought him back after he had spent a year doing development work. Just look at his history, it goes like this:

Sauber 2002, 2004-2005
Ferrari 2006 to present.

Massa is speaking from experience. His experience was that for the first two years he was a walking disaster, and it took him five years in Formula One before he had matured enough. He was an exception, and his opinion on this matter should be disregarded, because most drivers who enter Formula One learn the ropes quickly, and mature and learn at a quicker rate than Massa.

Give the kid a chance, because he earned the opportunity. Besides, being a Formula One driver is nothing special or much different than many other forms of motorsport. You don't require the special blessing of the Pope to obtain a Superlicence. It's just a freaking race, and every week thousands of people do it, and most do it well.

It's bad enough we have had to endure the crappy politics in Formula One. It's no secret Formula One is saturated by excessive politics. Now some drivers are doing it, too. Just because Massa is closing towards the twilight of his career and senses a threat of replacement by a younger driver, doesn't give him licence to cloud Formula One with more BS politics and slam some young kid trying to break into the big show.

[jshaw]

To be a good racing driver in F1 you need experience, and theres no other way to get experience than racing, so why can't Jaime race?

[dp35]

We can look forward to this happening much more in the years to come. Because of the testing ban, many new drivers will enter F1 with no experience driving these cars.

I agree with the idea of allowing (or requiring) new F1 drivers to test in an older F1 car prior to their race debut.

[safeaschuck]

I'm always wary of building F1 up to be more than it is, a racing series that's better in many respects than other comparable series.
There are plenty of people within the industry who do that far too readily for their own prestige.

Aha, the timing is great, essentially it is about the nuts and bolts of the sport rather than the drivers or the rules, but it's absolutely what I was getting at so I couldn't resist slapping it up here. From the Cosworth CEO's mouth no less.

“When we diversified we thought ‘hey, hey have we got something to offer’ because we are these motorsport hotshots, but we have had to do so much learning about how smart the rest of the world is over the last few years,” Routsis added.

“Actually, I think we are probably bringing back more to motorsport than we had in 2006 courtesy of some pretty hard lessons that have been given to us, particularly by the aerospace and defence boys such as how to really do things properly and efficiently.

“Motorsport has always enjoyed a huge amount of money and we thought as Cosworth that generally we would have less than everyone else and were pretty good at the way we went about it.

“Some of the lessons that we have learned from the wider world have re-set our baseline pretty harshly in terms of just how good the world outside motorsport has got in terms of engineering.

"I think sometimes in motorsport we can believe in our own publicity."

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx ... 3&PO=46413
Full article

[Scuderia_Russ]

What's the big deal? Some people are talking like the guy has never sat in a racing car before. Both Button and Kimi came straight from F3, yes with more testing but I've no doubt he would have done some extensive simulator work.

[freedom_honda]

Does STR even have a simulator?

[megz]

Kimi came from Formula Renault didn't he? Just being nitpicky.

[andartop]

I have to agree that they should just leave the kid alone.. Especially Massa, after all those ridiculous mistakes he made last year for all his experience, should really just s#*t up!

[Scuderia_Russ]

Does STR even have a simulator?

RB does.

[gibells]

So now that he's done 200 odd laps can we give the guy a break. Seems like a much more promising start than a lot of recent rookies.

Well done Jaime.

[Saribro]

He kept out of trouble nicely, which I suppose is an accomplishment for a rookie with barely any car-time :).

[axle]

Acquitted himself admirably all weekend.

Well Done.