Comments on: Heidfeld gets Mercedes test role

By: huuu

huuu — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:09:44 +0000

It’s true Kimi said he didn’t want to reveal if a new part worked well because then they would have taken it away from him and give it to Nick. This was when it was known Kimi was going to McLaren. It’s clear the team favoured Nick over Kimi after they learned Kimi is not staying with them for another season. Kimi’s interviews from 2001 are pretty revealing, he wasn’t hiding his displeasure at how the team was behaving.

By: huuu

huuu — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:04:13 +0000

In 2001 once it was clear Kimi was not staying with Sauber for another season Nick was clearly favoured by the team. Go and read some interviews… it is clear from what Kimi was saying back then that the team wasn’t really trying to get him better results any more. In one race they let him race a broken car throughout the whole weekend, did nothing to try to fix it, it was broken in a practice and they let him race that without bothering to do anything to correct the problem. Irresponsible behaviour from the team – if the car is broken then they either fix it or don’t race it at all because it’s a safety risk.

By: Mario

Mario — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:10:21 +0000

it is quite difficult to explain this one, it has everything to do with my personal beliefs and very little to do with mainstream beliefs regarding ones ability to create circumstances and chances.

By: john g

john g — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:08:45 +0000

i agree with most in that it’s a real shame heidfeld doesn’t have a race seat this year. however, his only alternatives were teams likely to be uncompetitive and who needed sponsorship money, neither of which would have interested him.

so he’s gone for the best seat available to him, it’s F1’s loss rather than his.

maybe there are questions over schumachers neck or lasting ability, i’d also add rosbergs talent, so we may see him back.

in the mean time, he’s being paid a nice wage to enjoy time with his wife and two little kids with a potential shot in a decent car in the future.

By: Matt W

Matt W — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:45:49 +0000

I just feel that Nick has gone to Merc in the hope that Schumacher won’t make the full season. Should the Merc turn up off the pace, I just can’t see Schumacher doing the full season.

I know he has a three year contract, but in reality this means nothing if Schumacher decides he no longer wants to race.

Time will tell of course.

By: David Hamilton

David Hamilton — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:50:03 +0000

CHOOSE?

By: David Hamilton

David Hamilton — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:46:10 +0000

If by that you mean that you make your own luck by working to get your own sponsors, in order to make you attractive to teams, then I agree. Certainly, if Nick had been able to bring significant personal sponsorship, he would be sitting in a Sauber race seat now.

Not sure that you can make your own luck in racing so much, though. The outcome of a particular decision on the track is only obvious with hindsight, and even then it’s only the wrong decisions that are obvious.

An example is Damon Hill’s collision with Schumacher in Adelaide in 1994. Was Hill unlucky to go for that gap or was it a bad decision? The difference in speed of the two cars meant that it was a split-second decision, and most drivers at the time said they would have gone for the gap…

By: ani

ani — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:41:54 +0000

no … my point is … u said Nick would have done all the development work and Kimi just drove … so i was just telling you i ve read different .
and now its not about favouritism , if its true ,the fact that Sauber wasnt willing to cater to Kimi after he ditched Sauber for Mclaren, needs to be accounted when people compare his performances to Nick . thats all
( again : i dont have proof for sauber not giving kimi the support / parts after he signed the contract with mclaren )

By: David Hamilton

David Hamilton — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:51:39 +0000

I’m not entirely surprised under the circumstances:

Kimi had been given an opportunity to learn the ropes by Sauber (I mis-remembered him as being ‘placed’ at Sauber by McLaren, but the ever excellent grandprix.com news archive has set me right on that), given that he had obvious talent but had only completed 23 car races – in any type of car! The news archive reminds me that there was huge controversy at the time in even granting Kimi a superlicence, with Max Mosley publicly criticising the decision (and unsurprisingly being proved wrong).

The expectation by the team in those circumstances would be to rely on the more experienced driver for feedback, and for testing out the new parts.

Some might see it as favouritism, but it just sounds like common sense to me.

By: James Allen

James Allen — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:43:34 +0000

It doesn’t really work like that. They developed the car because they had to. A real dog might not be worth developing, but being able to develop a car is all about resources, efficiency and manufacturing capability.