Team GB - Who should drive?

[strider]

And Sean McIntosh for Canada. How predictable. Let's forget about Oli Jarvis and James Hinchcliffe...

[nev]

Sean is a good little racer and a really nice bloke. never to up himself to stop and have a chat.

[Penguin]

Both McIntosh and Hinch are good drivers and from what i have seen neither are up themselves.

[Kebab]

So Hinchcliffe has done too many races / too much time in the car to now be considered a rookie?

I am looking forward to a more 'normal' race and some overtaking this weekend!

[nev]

Ok only part way through the race but come on guys - youv'e got to admit this is brilliant from Kerr

[Kebab]

nev, I'm not sure you'll be able to get the pro-Jarvis/Manning crew to eat their words - but yes, a very impressive race from Kerr today. Only Team GB driver I've seen move forward by overtaking! <gasp>

[outflat]

Credit where it's due, Kerr was excellent today.

That's the best performance he's given in A1GP.

[Knowlesy]

It was his best performance in a while I reckon.

Still, his personal ceiling is second place it seems.

[strider]

I agree with the last two posts, but really Kerr should be doing better! After all, the car is now being engineered by ex-F1 man James Robinson, who this year guided Mike Conway to victory in British F3 and the Macau GP...

If you want to use the word 'brilliant, it makes me think of Nico Hülkenberg, not Robbie.

[Kebab]

Kerr had engine problems throughout the feature race (more obvious when the track was drying).

Makes his performance even more impressive IMO.

Lets see how great Nico is when he isn't doing all the rookie/practice sessions AND the races ...

PS I'd take the ex-DAMS engineer who looks after Germany & New Zealand (who ran France and Switz last year) over James Robinson at this point of the season, any day.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Kebab

Kerr had engine problems throughout the feature race (more obvious when the track was drying).

Makes his performance even more impressive IMO.

Where are you getting this information from? There's no mention of it here in the Team GBR report.

Originally Posted by Kebab

Lets see how great Nico is when he isn't doing all the rookie/practice sessions AND the races ...

Irrelevant. Robbie did the whole meeting last year, which gave him far more tracktime than the two short rookie sessions on Friday.

Originally Posted by Kebab

PS I'd take the ex-DAMS engineer who looks after Germany & New Zealand (who ran France and Switz last year) over James Robinson at this point of the season, any day.

You mean Chris Gorne, although I understood his main responsibility is to Team NZ. If he did engineer Germany as well, than I agree he did a great job on that car, but it's curious that the NZ car was left on dry settings in anticipation that the track would dry. Hence Jonny Reid's slide down the order.

[nev]

Originally Posted by strider

If he did engineer Germany as well, than I agree he did a great job on that car, but it's curious that the NZ car was left on dry settings in anticipation that the track would dry. Hence Jonny Reid's slide down the order.

he does engineer both cars also the track was near to dry towards the end of the race so why was he still sliding down the order. Malaysia had a near dry setup thats why when it was drying he went like stink.

Niko did well to get past Jani and he was quick but he also had vision whereas no one behind jani did, even Lapier admitted that.

Also the team GP car did have a missfire all race but it obviously became more of an issue when the speed could be used during the drying part of the race.

[strider]

nev, I know you're Robbie's best mate and all that, and you seem to get regular updates from the meetings, but you're not the best at sticking to the facts, e.g.

Originally Posted by nev

Malaysia had a near dry setup thats why when it was drying he went like stink.

Team Malaysia are saying that they changed the tyres pressures on the second set of tyres, nothing else, and in particular nothing about having a dry set-up

Originally Posted by nev

Niko did well to get past Jani and he was quick but he also had vision whereas no one behind jani did, even Lapier admitted that.

When it's as wet as it was at the beginning, no-one has vision. Think about it; every time you turn the steering wheel the front tyre is throwing gallons of water straight in your face. Later on, Nico was comfortably ahead of Robbie, so they would both have had reasonably clear vision. The lap is so long that there was virtually no lapped traffic to worry about.

Originally Posted by nev

Also the team GP car did have a missfire all race but it obviously became more of an issue when the speed could be used during the drying part of the race.

As I said to Kebab, where is the evidence of this? If there was a misfire, I don't understand why it's not mentioned in any of the offiicial reports that I can find.

[Kebab]

New Zealand and Germany have been the best in qualifying (and usually fastest in races, even if they've had bad luck or incidents) all season so far.

Why New Zealand dropped back and Germany didn't is a mystery! As Nev said, Malaysia were VERY fast at the end of the race. NZ mention their rear suspension may have been damaged due to the early clash with Ger.

I get my information from A1GP.com (worth reading), the TV interviews, TV commentary, etc.. Is it my turn to be accused of being Robbie?

[nev]

Originally Posted by strider

When it's as wet as it was at the beginning, no-one has vision. Think about it; every time you turn the steering wheel the front tyre is throwing gallons of water straight in your face. Later on, Nico was comfortably ahead of Robbie, so they would both have had reasonably clear vision. .

Strider, think about it, when i said it was easier to see i did mention when Niko was infront of everyone. When you are behind a car it is a no brainer that thier is both your water and the drivers in front of you.
I was stating what Lapier said in his interview about the difference between infront of trafic or bieng behind trafic. But hey wat would he know !!

And as far as where i get my information from surely you should know cos if i am Robbie, i was in the car (with Kebab)


Oh and here you go from www.A1gp.com

"We had a problem with the car, throughout the race, getting worse and worse towards the end when France was catching up, but I was happy to be in second position and it is great to come back into the series after a break and looking forward to Indonesia."

save you having to search for it

[Knowlesy]

This vision problem strikes me as something entirely unprecedented in a wet race. You mean to say there was spray and that it made life difficult? Crazy talk!

And it doesn't really need to be said.

Robbie drove well, but once again there was someone better on the day. This always seems to happen! It's not a criticism, it is just frustrating that it seems to be a new country beating GB to the win every race.

[ISPL]

I think that the combination of Jarvis for Friday testing and Kerr for race day worked extremely well. The difficulty for the GB team last season was having only 1 driver per race weekend in the GB car competing against the top 3 Nations all run by the same team sharing data. A 2nd driver in the car for testing will no doubt help the GB team get the most out of the car setup. I agree that there should be competition for the seat, but for my money there is no doubt, not just based upon his last performance, that Kerr is the best man for the job. If Kerr stops performing I would back Jarvis to get his chance.

[Mr Jinxx]

I'm pretty certain after last year that Jarvis will get some opportunities, mainly, I guess, when Kerr hasn't driven the circuit before.

There's no way they are going to drop Robbie - he;s not the quickest or the best driver around, I suspect, but he's a good racer, and most importantly (in my cynical view) the TeamGB folk have funded his drive in WSR last year, and may well do so again this year, and they need to keep their investment in the seat as much as possible.

But I don't think they can repeat last year, which was rather paying lip service to the "give younger drivers a chance", so they must surely have to give Ollie a decent crack this year, for PR reasons alone. Robbie does not engender feelings of "warmth" generally, it seems, with commentators or media folk (although he is a nice guy) and his PR is weak. Jarvis is somewhat better and more natural, but I'm not sure that makes much difference in A1 right now.

My personal belief is that they are persevering with Robbie for too long now, and the motives are questionable, from a sporting point of view - much more obvious from a commercial standpoint. Robbie did all last year in A1, did all last year in WSR and is continuing in A1, with a very good car, looking racy but not special. He's had more than a fair crack at the whip now, surely?

Jarvis is not so well funded that he is going to Euro F3 ... I think he's off to JapanF3, and he needs the exposure more than Robbie now. If the motives of TeamGBR are anything like John Surtees' initial proclamations, they'd give Ollie the rest of the races, and pick a second driver to do a few tests. Maybe they are planning to finish the year with Robbie, giving Ollie a few tests and maybe a race or two, then Ollie takes the lead drive next year, and a new 2nd driver comes in? The winner of the Autosport Award would be a very worthy option, good idea, good PR for TeamGBR, and should make for a competitive drive and some continuity. With my more charitable hat on, retaining Robbie does give some continuity, and he's bound to win sometime soon.

Out of interest, to answer earlier posts in this thread, the furthest Alex Lloyd went to any race in exotic faraway places was Brands Hatch. He was never asked to any other race. There were many problems with TeamGBR last year, not least of which was money, so Alex basically took no part at all. Hopefully they've overcome that this year, hence Ollie now attending the races, and hopefully getting some seat time. Alex was asked to extend his option to TeamGBR for this year, but he felt it more appropriate to decline in order to concentrate on the US scene, where he now appears to be settling quite nicely. He has run as team mate to Phil Giebler and Jonny Reid over the last couple of years, comfortably outpacing them both, so I'm sad he never got a chance to represent TeamGBR, but circumstances were what they were at the time, and appear to have moved on for the better now. I just hope that, now they are able to, they really do give Ollie a shot, because the team is very good, the car is a constant front runner and will win races, and it would be good to see if Ollie can shine.

[nev]

I don't know if they will use Ollie anymore as he isn't under contract and will need to be off testing soon with Jap f3 whereas Robbie has no commitments to next year as far as i know and can be there for the team. Paul Anthony has worked with Robbie quite alot and seems to be heading the team well, as last year they lost thier way abit with chief engineers leaving and such.
As far as who decides will drive im sure surtees has no real say and it would be down to who has a controlling stake in team GB as its thier money.

[strider]

If the team stick to what they have said previously, Oli will do the next race at Taupo, because it is new to all the teams (except perhaps Team NZ), so the benefit of taking part in the Rookie sessions will be greater.

It's the same reason why they put him in the car for Shanghai, only that didn't work out fully as planned because of the circuit shenanigans.

[nev]

I know thats what Srtees said but im not sure they will. but thats just gut feeling.

[Hepatic]

they did the same at Zandvoort with Darren Manning in the car, i'm sure Oli will get his chance soon enough. Manning was unfortunate that we had a wet race, as i don't think he's run in wet conditions for a while (might be wrong, didn't follow stuff Stateside close enough this yr) and so prolly out of practice in those conditions as well as the car. We could have done so well in the last race, shame Robbie just tried a tad too hard...

[Kebab]

Why is everyone yet again ignoring that Robbie had serious car issues in the last two feature races? Even the Team GB engineer said 'we're not sure if it was the car that caused Robbie to go off or a mistake' and gave praise to Robbie's performance. Certainly the stall was probably caused by the missfire (which was mentioned live on TV by the engineer).

Both the commentators and Jardine ate their words upon hearing about these issues Robbie had saying that his performance considering was excellent.

Two wet races, both with a missfire (hence him losing ground when the tracks dried as more time on full throttle) - the last one without power boost as well.

I would have thought the regulars here were more informed ...

[nev]

Originally Posted by Kebab

Why is everyone yet again ignoring that Robbie had serious car issues in the last two feature races? Even the Team GB engineer said 'we're not sure if it was the car that caused Robbie to go off or a mistake' and gave praise to Robbie's performance. Certainly the stall was probably caused by the missfire (which was mentioned live on TV by the engineer).

Both the commentators and Jardine ate their words upon hearing about these issues Robbie had saying that his performance considering was excellent.

Two wet races, both with a missfire (hence him losing ground when the tracks dried as more time on full throttle) - the last one without power boost as well.

I would have thought the regulars here were more informed ...

The car had a missfire different to the issue last race also he had no boosts all race, i know that only helps you when your overtaking or defending but it still has an impact. When Robbie lost it he was entering the corner just at the point you down shift , if it was the missfire that caused him to come off well thats just more bad luck but still no points !!

[ISPL]

Having watched the race back, knowing what we now know about the misfire and boost, I would have to agree with Jardine that Kerr's performance was very impressive.