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

[astracrazy]

is Alguersuari too young? Do you agree with the drivers?

Personally i dont think age matters too much if he is good enough, but i think the FIA should step in here. I consider it dangerous he has not done 1 lap in a F1 car and now his doing a race. What will his reaction be If he is in the middle of a pack going into the first corner after the long pit straight?

I hardly see what torro rosso is gaining from this. Surely worrying about results this season is far gone? How can two rookies develop a car? atleast boudais had previous experiance. Why didnt they wait until the end of the season then Alguersuari can be put throught testing first?

[bjpower]

any tester hasnt gone through a full race start.
also when is he ment to do testing? - it has been banned.
and hell probally take his first race start easy - hopefully
allso the other drivers are experneced.
how many times have you avoided an accident (on normal roads) because of anoter drivers mistake.
as for his age i dont think it matters. we have had young drivers before alonso, halimiton etc.
ya it could be an issue. but hes not just a guy that drives a honda civic with the wing from a boing 747 and the lighting of a u2 concert.
hes a driver and as there is no testing you can say the driver has to have xlaps under his belt before driving.
bring back a 3rd car and allow test drivers driver around.

[natef1]

Age doesn't matter when you're good enough.

I just hope the team doesn't put too much pressure on him. They kinda already have, saying for the first 3 races they don't expect anything.

Anyway I think it's really, really too early to say whether I agree or disagree with the drivers.

I mean, the drivers should know, 'cause they've been there, done that, but let's just wait and see how he does before saying whether it was too early.

[fer200979]

I guess Massa is scared about this young competitor and he sees how Alguersuari and young F1 drivers can hurt their career and their bank account...

[Saribro]

he has not done 1 lap in a F1 car and now his doing a race.

I wonder how this is possible. Didn't one have to have done at least 300km in an F1 car before a superlicense is granted?

[Jersey Tom]

I guess Massa is scared about this young competitor and he sees how Alguersuari and young F1 drivers can hurt their career and their bank account...

Nope.

[Giblet]

It's amazing what a real race driver, even a young one, can do on a track, with a car he has only driven in the simulator for a few hundred hours and a straight line test.

He will have studied tapes, learned all the braking points, and everything else. With his friday and saturday practice time under his belt, and his previous championship winning racing experience, he should be able to adapt quickly, so long as he keeps his nose clean and stays out of everyones way.

What worries me is the intangibles, like hitting another car on a parade style lap (Vettel), the hitting of marks in the pits, reacting properly in the pits, pressing the wring button on the wheel in a corner, etc.

[nosh]

hartley would have probably been a better choice since he did have some experience in the str and rbr in winter testing, which although it was ages ago is still better than nothing

[gibells]

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

Give the guy a chance. It's not like he doesn't know how to race. He got the superlicence by wining the British F3 title, and is making the leap, same as Jenson did, same as Kimi did.

Let's slate him after a couple of races, or indeed mistakes. Not before he's even turned a wheel.

[Miguel]

I think that he's good... but too young. He's a bit too young to experience the pressure* that Toro Rosso puts on its drivers and he might be a tad reckless on the start. On the other hand, he knows the Hungaroring and his results seem to indicate he's quite talented. By the way, he is improving considerably in World Series by Renault, although his teammate (Oliver Turvey) seems to have adapted better.

I'd finally like to say that I'm wary. It seems very likely to me that if he doesn't have a Vettel second half, his F1 chances will considerably diminish, something sad for a promising 19 year old driver.

* Regarding pressure, Alonso once said that the pressure in F1 is nothing compared to what he used to feel in the lower categories, when not winning could easily mean an early end to his career.

[axle]

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?

[Miguel]

People here may be interested to know that, after FP1, Alguersuari has finished last, 0.23s off his teammate. I haven't followed the live timing closely, but he seemed to lap with a decent consistency, and not much slower than his teammate. Oh! and after the new updates Buemi has done 37 laps and Jaime has done 42. All seemed to be long stints, but I could have missed a glory run.

[timbo]

Not bad ATM.
But I think that Massa is right that such an early start may cost him if things wouldn't go well. It's too easy to write down a guy.

[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.
Is it more dangerous than any other form of motorsport? I'm inclined to say no. Examples? It's hard to pin down something that's consistently more dangerous, if you were to rely on statistics Senna was the last person to die while racing an F1 and there were no other cars involved.
Is MotoGP more or less dangerous? those guys are breaking bones on a weekly basis but deaths are uncommon. What about Le-mans, should they shorthen the length of the drivers stints because 'tiredness kills'? should they ban racing in the dark?
It's not as if this kid has never raced open wheelers before, he's had a 4 year master-class in everything you can drive to prepare yourself and if he's not ready now, when will he be ready? when he is educated to the point of boredom about every aspect of a formula 3 car?
Is Nakajima any safer despite his extra years of experience? I doubt it.

I think fer200979 had a point about the potential risk to older 'name' drivers paycheck's.

[natef1]

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

Give the guy a chance. It's not like he doesn't know how to race. He got the superlicence by wining the British F3 title, and is making the leap, same as Jenson did, same as Kimi did.

Let's slate him after a couple of races, or indeed mistakes. Not before he's even turned a wheel.

Nobody's slating him.