ART: Filippi or Grosjean?

[kerrmanningjarv]

Hmm... I did think Filippi was slightly to blame for the Herck incident... like perhaps he should have used his mirrors... did look like he pulled out right into Herck's path to me.

[Jackman]

Herck was in front of Filippi and stalled so the Italian went for the gap, and then Herck restarted again and plowed straight into Filippi: it was pretty clear. Bear in mind that it normally takes Herck 3 goes to get out of the pits: every driver knows that, so it's pretty obvious you'd go for a gap in front of him when Herck stalls, again.

[chunterer]

So where does this Herck guy figure in the all time list of 'ordinary' (choosing my term carefully here...) F2/3000/GP2 drivers?

[kerrmanningjarv]

He must be near the bottom surely

[Jackman]

Somewhere south of Tahinci.

[kerrmanningjarv]

Hmm... Tahinci salvaged some pride with a few decent performances in GP2 Asia. Apart from that, he would probably be below Herck.

[Jackman]

Tahinci is under-rated: he was on for a podium in Turkey before he got nerfed off by Nakajima. He's nowhere near world class but he's way, way better than Herck has shown so far.

[chunterer]

Sorry to keep this moving OT but would it be fair to say that Tahinci is sort of Gary Evans kinda stock at this level and Herck is like Nardozzi or Knycx somoeone like that?!!

[F3 Rocks]

Luca Filippi, had a very good qualifying session in Hungaroring today (21), with a 1m29.873 luckly he just managed to keep infront of Michael Herck (22) 1m30.021.......................... More bad luck!



Romain Grosjean (Pole) 1m27.782,................ more good luck?

[META4]

i think nobody can disagree with you about that one.... i just hope for Fillipi that he will be able "someday" to show up his real pace.

Not bad Qualifying for Sakamoto by the way

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by META4

i think nobody can disagree with you about that one.... i just hope for Fillipi that he will be able "someday" to show up his real pace.

Not bad Qualifying for Sakamoto by the way

Yes big improvement from free practice, could get in the points from there.

[bradrive]

Originally Posted by F3 Rocks

Luca Filippi, had a very good qualifying session in Hungaroring today (21), with a 1m29.873 luckly he just managed to keep infront of Michael Herck (22) 1m30.021.......................... More bad luck!
Romain Grosjean (Pole) 1m27.782,................ more good luck?

Filippi has proved in the past that he is quick, right now he has a bad moment. It can happen to anybody and your judgement is not fair.

N.B.: Herck is not as bad as he appears as well, first year GP2 racing in a heavily restructured team, him needing mileage, he cannot get quickly enough, not enough experience. Judge him in the second year. He had decent speed when testing with ART in F3 and Pons in World Series. His starting difficulties have to do with the setup of his clutch combined with his not yet perfectly healed accidented hand.
He is quicker than Tahinci.

[Channel Super]

Agreed with you bradrive, of course Herck is quicker than Tahinchi and Filippi is a gifted,talented and fast driver. Time will come.....

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by bradrive

Filippi has proved in the past that he is quick, right now he has a bad moment. It can happen to anybody and your judgement is not fair.

N.B.: Herck is not as bad as he appears as well, first year GP2 racing in a heavily restructured team, him needing mileage, he cannot get quickly enough, not enough experience. Judge him in the second year. He had decent speed when testing with ART in F3 and Pons in World Series. His starting difficulties have to do with the setup of his clutch combined with his not yet perfectly healed accidented hand.
He is quicker than Tahinci.

You missunderstand me, I agree Michael is learning the hard way, I have not critised Micheal just used him to show Filippi's current postion in the GP2 field.But I think Michael is out of his depth in his GP2 1st season as he will be in his second.

[F3 Rocks]

I would like to ask Runshaw & Bradrive, what did you see in todays GP2 race to confirm your positive views of Fillipi?

He only managed 21st in quali, he never over took one single car, he was gifted his improvement on his starting position and still only managed 15th.

Pastor Maldonado started 26th and finnished 5th so the race provided opportunity to not only improve from the back of the grid but to gain some useful points. Fillipi was not good enough to follow Pastor into the points.

Whatever his results from now I think his season is over. I wonder what spin will be put on this latest dire result, who will be blamed. He can't blame Arden, Buemi finnished a credible 7th with a good chance of victory on Sunday, By racing.

[bradrive]

Originally Posted by F3 Rocks

I would like to ask Runshaw & Bradrive, what did you see in todays GP2 race to confirm your positive views of Fillipi?

I do not say that he did do a good race, I said that overall he is a quick driver and has proved it in the past and that he is passing a difficult moment.
It has happened to many sportsmen (see Roger Federer)

[F3 Rocks]

This difficult momnet now spans GP2 Asia through GP2 main he has raced with 2 of the top teams in GP2 main with dire results, his season is over already, his career is in ruins. F1 are not looking for under performers race in race out, F1 teams also dont like comments like the ones made about ART, thats the reason I joined this debate. What does the future hold for him now? unless he has very deep pockets not a lot I suspect.

[Jackman]

What comments did he make about ART? "For me, I don’t want to spend any time thinking about what might have been: I am spending all of my time concentrating on what we can build together with Arden."

Yeah, I can see how that could upset people.

[F3 Rocks]

[quote=META4]There is a report on Italiaracing saying that ART did advantage Grosjean over Filippi. An exemple is the last race at Silverstone, when Filippi was starting from Pole , he was sent by his team with Dry set-up which obviously was not the right one for a completly wet track.It is reported also that some Engineers from ART left the team as well due to this " all for Grosjean"


Jackman,

These are the comments I am refering to, They appeared in an earlier post on this forum. (taken from 2 web sites) I have never suggested Fillipi himself gave the statement, but someone did and I would have a good guess as to who that person was.

And statements/spin like that do upset F1 people and the racing fraternity in general, especially when its ART being accused of compromising one driver for another. As I said in a previous post Frederic Vasseur, ART, is a complete professional.

ART must feel totally vindicated now with Fillipi's failures continuing.

[Jackman]

So Filippi is to blame for what websites write now? Awesome.

I could tell you for a fact that he has never been quoted complaining about ART, and nor has he intimated any disapproval in his press releases: I know this because I know the guy. I can also tell you that most of the GP2 paddock knows what set up he was given in the wet race at Silverstone, and while that was the straw that broke the camel's back he still didn't complain publicly about it even when he left the team.

But really there doesn't seem to be much point in telling you these things because clearly you don't want to know, as it's fairly obvious you've got a problem with the guy, for whatever reason. So there's probably not much point going on with this discussion, I guess.

[META4]

Well if you have reliable informations , just let us know

I just did report what Italiaracing said, but obviously sometimes (often) italiaracing is not relating the reality. I guess they tried to get the defense of Fillipi as he is an "Italian Hope"

[bradrive]

Originally Posted by Jackman

So Filippi is to blame for what websites write now? Awesome.

I could tell you for a fact that he has never been quoted complaining about ART, and nor has he intimated any disapproval in his press releases: I know this because I know the guy. I can also tell you that most of the GP2 paddock knows what set up he was given in the wet race at Silverstone, and while that was the straw that broke the camel's back he still didn't complain publicly about it even when he left the team.

If a highly competitive team teams up with a highly competive driver, both obviously have expectations to fight for winning. If this combination is not producing results, it is normal that both parties loose confidence in the other.
Is is human and happens to everybody competitive. Splitting up is the only way. It can be done with or without style. Art have done so in style, Filippi, having to protect his interests has done so as well with the media. Some journalists have personal relationships with the drivers, as GP2 is not as F1, where the drivers communicate with the media trough team-prepared press releases. Everybody is eating at the same GP2 mandatory hospitality unit midday/evening for the whole weekend. So everybody knows everybody. Filippi might very well have ventilated his frustration to some journalists "off the record".
That Filippi wanted to turn page and not think anymore as to why things had not worked out with ART and concentrate on his future with Arden is also normal. Everybody does so in a similar situation, as one has been building up the career for 10 to 15 years and do not want to throw all this work away for one bad "half season".
Filippi's choice to go to Arden is a brave move, putting him under enourmous pressure by his own choice. It proves the guy has character. Hope for him that this works out. It is a difficult task.

[chunterer]

Yes, but we have to conclude that so far it isn't working out at Arden for him.

I would've thought that 4 races with a new team for an experienced category driver, in what after all, is still a good team would be enough for the results to start coming?

[Mekola]

Unfortunately, Jackman, you tend to blame so many drivers on this own series you're working for, but you can't admit that your own criteria dooms Filippi's future if you consider that an erratic driver, despite he could reach podiums and even wins in a situation where he is not enough supported, reflects that driver as "not good enough to be in F1". That's your words, not mine.

You must be more polite and kind with your rival drivers whenever it could not be of your preference, mostly considering there are other GP2 team personnel reading these messages that could not be happy if they read your statements about their drivers.

[Jackman]

I'm sorry Mekola, I'm really not trying to be rude here, but I don't understand what you're trying to say.