Educational, this blog, since I had to google ‘Calabria’ and am now a little smarter than the average bear. ;D

If you look at most of the drivers in F1, they ended up in top junior formula teams and from there did enough to keep winning. If you don’t get the deal with one of the right teams you stop winning and the career stops. Hamilton had the McLaren money to overcome a weak year in F3 to move to the best team and dominate in 2005. He was then funded into the best GP2 car and won more closely. At each level you need to be able to adapt to the style of car and Hamilton has the talent to star in all categories. However, if he was Polish there is a much greater chance we would never have heard of him. I’m not saying Kubica is better, just that he didn’t have patronage early on. If you look at the GP2 results and other lower formulae, Piquet would have matched Hamilton, but it would appear that he doesn’t quite the talent for cars as quick as F1. In 10 years he might be the best touring car driver in the world… Provided his dad pays to establish a quality team.

To take another British example, Williams has had a strong bias toward drivers with strong English language skills. Unfairly or otherwise, journalists have suggested Button got the Williams drive largely based on being English. The F1 drive effectively rescued his career.

If you look at it from an Italian business perspective, where would you put your money? F1 is all about Ferrari, so where is the return on investment? In the carbon fibre chassis era (mid 80s on), Ferrari have used reserve drivers in 91, 94, 99 and 09.

Mark Webber used Australian connections to get an okay F3 drive. Norbert Haug saw something in him and from there Paul Stoddart got him into F1. His F1 results have exceeded his prior career, in my opinion.

Ryan Briscoe and James Courtney are two other examples from Australia. Both were international carting stars. Both got good F3 drives and F1 testing roles. Courtney had a crash in Jaguar at Monza, and that effectively ended his F1 prospects. He now wins occasionally in Australian touring cars, not unlike a few Brits in the DTM. Briscoe’s F1 hopes with Toyota basically ended with the signing of Trulli and Schumacher. He ended up in the US and initially had a reputation for crashing, but is now winning regularly for Penske.

There is so much circumstance involved. You can’t compare Hamilton or Alonso’s situation to Usain Bolt. Bolt is the fastest ever, and with sprinting the talent get found, and in a sense the training isn’t too hard (see Bolt’s, or Marion Jones’ comments on the 400 m in comparison). Alonso and Hamilton are contenders for the best current driver in F1. Are they better than Loeb? What does the RoC prove? You know there are uncertainties. Which adds to the appeal.

This blog is primarily written for a British audience, so I’ll forgive all the ‘Anthony Davidson should get a drive in 2010′ comments, along with Paffett, di Resta and others. Paige in the first response shows his US leanings in mentioning Rossi. In the US there is NASCAR. Without USF1, I think his best chance of a race seat would be to be picked up by Red Bull, like Ricciardo. Unless he has family money, or a fanatical sponsor (like a Steve Jobs), then he’d struggle to get that top seat in GP2 that gives him the series win.

Even winning GP2 doesn’t always help. For 2009 there was one new seat – Buemi (sixth in GP2 Asia in 2008 in his second season). We have seen Japanese drivers arrive thanks to their nationality. Nico Rosberg is going to made in England Mercedes team because his mum is German.

There are still important things that will come from the testing. Ricciardo has probably avoided the Jan Magnussen concern of only being quick in F3. Brendon Hartley in the Toro Rosso may have seem a switch in the pecking order within Red Bull based on this test.

None of the drivers will be the finished article after three days, but the engineers will be able to see whether there will be a fast transition, which is important these days.

Right now, being British, German or Japanese is your best chance of getting you bum in an F1 car or more likely the simulator. If you show promise you get another go. If you keep making a progress you get another go. If you are like Hamilton or Alonso, then you are at a high standard early on. If the curve takes a bit longer, you are another Massa.

Massa won four championships in the three years prior to his first F1 season, so his an example of winning keeping his career going. The longer races and the technology make F1 different from the lower classes and this makes the transition difficult for many. The end of refuelling will bring an additional skill requirement. What this does is cause teams to hang on to ‘average’ drivers who have learnt F1 rather than invest in the future as over the season the old hand is likely to do better in the points.

Having said that most will turn out to be Kovi-alike journeymen. Maybe one or two will be the next Hamilton-level sensation.

I’m dying to see what some of these young guns can do – Hulk and Di Resta especially.

Mark Webber in a nutshell.

Ricciardo doesn’t get much press here in Australia, but I think he has a good chance of driving a Red Bull F1 car in 2012.

end of the line for alguesuari & grosjean?

whats happening about tyre warmers – are they banned for next year? i know it was talked about…

Even kart teams will slap on ‘special’ engines and tyres during winter testing to attract drivers into their teams. This kid is the sort of kid that in 12 months time everyone will go “…but he was so fast in testing”

Lap times make up such a tiny part of the data used by race teams. in fact most top flight driver coaches won’t even look at lap times as a primary tool.

Remember that Italian kid who broke the Fiorano lap record? If lap times were so important why did Ferrari sign Bianchi and not him?

He may well be very good, but somehow I doubt he really is as special as that time suggests

Just wondering how much you can read into the times?… How far out am I with this assessment:

2010 cars were very similar on performance (all within a second generally), therefore a fairly level playing field for all the young drivers.

Paffet is the only real experienced tester running so a good yard stick to compare the rest against.

So Soucek did a good job along with Di Resta and Ricciardo?