Quote:
Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
Do you call this 'nothing'?:
- Qualifying third in his first ever visit to Spa (the hardest circuit of them all)
- Becoming the youngest-ever point-scorer in F1 history
- Running Ralf close in the championship as a rookie
- Qualifying 6th for only his 4th race despite the pressure of running at home
- Demolishing trulli in 2002 despite no support form the team
- Hounding a former World Champion into retirement
Fair point about Montoya though - I agree that he's quite a talent.
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I kinda hate replying here, because I don't want it to look like I'm bashing Jenson who is now quite obviously one of the better drivers in F1. Nevertheless...
Yes, he had a good first year! He was a good driver, in a good car, with a good team; how could we expect anything other than a good run at his team mate? This is Formula 1 - if a driver takes 10 laps to learn a circuit then they don't belong on the grid.
"Demolishing Trulli"?!?! You've gotta be kidding. Jarno finished less than half the races that season! If I'm remembering correctly, Jarno had 7 or 8 mechanical retirements that year, while Jenson had 1 or 2. Care to recall the qualifying "battle" between those two for that season? Further, of the handful of races that they
both managed to finish, Jarno was more often ahead at the end.
I think that Jenson's a better driver than Jarno, but my point would be that if he had had some greater pre-F1 racing experience, he would have beaten his team-mate somewhat more convincingly. Or perhaps you were watching a different 2002 season?
"Hounding a former World Champion into retirement"? Jenson beat Jacques fair and square, for sure. My impression, however, of Jacques' performances of his last 2 years was that he just didn't give a rat's anymore. His mechanical reliability during that season was a sick joke and gave me some of the most frustrating times in however many years of watching F1 on TV. Yeah, he beat the ex-WDC, but look at how we can both put our own spin on it - it's not as clear-cut as you might like, is it?
Jenson's becoming a great driver, it would be wrong to argue otherwise. My point would be that if he had spent, say, 2000 and 2001 in another lower category, he would have
hugely increased his impact in his initial 3 or 4 seasons. You would disagree?