Peter Sauber Expresses Great (albeit understated) disappointment in JV!

[chillibowl]

despite all his faults (i.e. his inability to brake properly into any corner imaginable) he is still only one of two active world champs, his success in indy car, and as the only north american driver mean there is no way sauber can afford not to have him arround for indy and montreal. f1's a business and sauber needs money and will not chance loosing out on the huge sponsership amounts jv can bring to the table.
besides who got the most coverage in austrailia - jv slowing down the whole pack - how do you put a price on that?

[hgmonaro]

according to the graph, their fastest laps occured within a lap or so of each other, when they both would have been carrying similar fuel, so that "it's really a bigger gap" comment seems a bit of a stretch. Team Principals (who invented that term!) sub-major in statistics and accountancy... however, for whatever reason Massa did better!

[Wrex]

hg, would'nt they have had the same fuel load every lap after JV competed his final stop?

No matter which way you spin it, this was a poor performance from JV. Anyone that thinks otherwise needs to change glasses.

That said, I would hate to see JV, or any driver for that matter, have a contract torn up because of one lousy race performance. JV knows it was, the team know it was bad, we know it was bad. But I would put good money on the fact they will do everything possible to change it.

Few more races before we start pitching drivers out I think.

[Dixie Flatline]

Totally agree with you Wrex.

It seems fairly obvious that Jacques was unhappy with his performance on the weekend, at least as shown on his website. Having said that, JV said there was room for improvement in the car, which Sauber's Technical Director Willy Rampf concurred with.

Formula One is a global business these days - it's all about satisfying the sponsor. JV's notoriety, particularly in the USA and Canada, would have been very attractive to Sauber as it would generate more interest in Sauber as a whole. Never before have I seen so many Sauber caps worn by the average fan at the Grand Prix than before last weekend - and that's only in Australia!

I'm sure that Jacques has his pride and he won't take this performance lying down. It wasn't a good one, but the flipside is that there is room for improvement!

[Dixie Flatline]

Let me be the first to welcome you, chillibowl, to the forums. Hope you enjoy your time here!

[Setantra]

He should have been fired a along time ago. Oh, wait, he was. Williams, then BAR, then Renault, now Sauber also? Not much from a world champion

[Super Tourer]

He wasn't fired by Renault, he was only contracted for the races he replaced Trulli in.

[ASCII Man]

Yep, but don't let facts get in the way of a good bashing though!

[Kicking-back]

He wasn't fired by Williams either - he chose to leave.

[Gabrio]

I'm not particularly a fan of JV. However, I can't help but notice the fact that most of the people here think that driving an F1 in race trim is easy.....Well it isn't. I would wait to judge a driver for his performance may have been affected by a set of tyres, a chassis problem, a driveability problem, a lack of fitness and whatnot.... I simply refuse to believe that somebody who has won a WC has forgotten how to drive a race car. Nobody can judge a driver on one race. I cannot seriously consider the last three races of last year as a test.
Let's wait a few races and we'll see where the problem comes from before crucifying a driver. We simply do not have enough elements at the moment to attempt a logical analysis.

[Glen]

A lot of people on this thread are saying that we shouldn't bash JV on the strength of one race - that's not what this thread is about! This thread is about Peter Sauber's view that JV's second per lap discrepancy is not easy to explain, and indeed that Jacques himself hasn't satisfactorily explained it.

[ASCII Man]

Bash away for all I care, which I don't...

[Don K]

Do you mean that apart from not bashing, we are also not alowed to talk about Peter Sauber's statement (which happens to be the subject of this thread)?

[garcon]

It's perfectly valid to quote Peter Sauber's statement and discuss it. What isn't valid is to use that as an excuse to bash the driver. And by that I mean hurling insults at him, not merely saying he had a poor weekend in Melbourne.

As ever, those who see only in black and white and lurch from one race weekend to the next without any thought for a longer - or even historical - view, will allow their opinions to be formed and reformed by what happens over 90 minutes at the latest circuit.

Others, including Peter Sauber, may venture a comment or two on each race, but will reserve judgement a little while longer before making any hard and fast assessments of the season's prospects.

[Mosport67]

What worries me about JV is that the rust still seems to be showing. He doesn't have enough seat time to get rid of it and Sauber's lack of testing doesn't help.

When Jacques struggled after coming back last season there were several drivers who said it would take a number of races for JV to get back to 100% race pace.

I'm not giving up on him yet. He is a competitive guy and will psuh himself to go faster. It really still remains to be seen if he can get it back (and yes there is no doubt that he once had it).

[Kempi]

Sorry mate, but he's had a winter of testing. If he still is not up to it, he won't be, imho. Sauber's had 6517km of testing, Renault 7859, even Ferrari only had 8761 (for their 2005 cars [Ferrari F2004M]), so you can't really say they totally lack testing km.

I guess JV will just have to pick it up or call it quits.

[Jordi]

In 2005 Sauber has had 8574 km of testing, true, but Ferrari are over thr 26000 km mark and Renault neear the 20000 one. I suppose though that one thing is testing and the other is racing - something our racers should tell us.

Look, I don't think the Jacques fans like me (and proud of it) are saying he drove a good race, or that he finished higher than Massa. We are all acknowledging that. We are just saying that he'll do better. That's because we're his fans and we want him to do better and we have confidence in him to do better.

I don't think that what Sauber said will change much from here to Malaysia.

[AussieF1]

I guess if we are going to judge drivers by one race and the places in that race "lost ten/gained ten", then we should ask Schumacher to hang up his helmet, Button should retire to avoid further embarrasment, and finally hand the WC to Alonso, Massa 2nd & Rubens 3rd!!!!!

[Wrex]

Should be noted Michael had a shocker too. Only one race, is that enough to pass judgement he is past it and should be given the boot?

Back on topic, JV drove a poor race. PS acknowledged his disappointment. They dont know why (even though some here seem to), but they will look into it and work on it for Sepang.

IF Jv does'nt improve over the next few races, then we can start talking about his potential future in the team.

[Snrub]

The lap time graph gives JV a LOT more credibility than simply looking at the end result. You can't say he's utter garbage looking at the first two stints relative to Massa. There are really only three posibilities, he messed up his tires (or the tires mess up on him), a mechanical problem occured, or his physical endurance was lacking. The difference in the last stint is too large, Peter Sauber must know at least approximately what the answer is, but he's not saying. I don't think it's fair to say JV drove a poor race without knowing this answer. JV had a poor race result.

[Kirk]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned. Apparently this interview took place only moments after the Melbourne race. Obviously PS, JV and the engineering team had not had a chance to talk in any detail. If the same questions were posed today, we may hear a different response from Peter.

[Jordi]

That's also what I heard. Which makes you wonder: why wasn't it mentioned the first time the interview appeared?

JV-bashers would say that we're using this as another excuse, but it really makes a difference. Teams are supposed to have meetings and technical debriefs during the whole weekend.

[enemy-ace]

JV by his own addmission has been having a hard time getting up to speed and says it's a matter of learning to work with the team. I think there is a lot of truth right there. Remember JV has pretty much worked with just one engineer (Jock Clear) his entire F1 career. I can only imagine that their relationship was at the point where they were able to finish each other's thoughts.
I do know from my karting experience that having a good tuner can greatly improve your performance. Multiply that by a million for the F1 driver and his engineer. I am not sure who JV's engineer is this year, but he also has to learn a new driver. One who has been rumoured to be rather eccentric in his car setup preferences.
I hope for his sake that he is able to develop a solid relationship that enables him to race competitively. I doubt JV has any great ideas about winning the WDC in a Sauber, I think he wants to just be able to be competitive. It would be sad to see him fail to do otherwise.

[Bellof]

it's not as this was the only poor race/result we've seen from jv. '03 he was beaten by jb, after he had quiet a lot to say about jenson. then, when he drove for renault the last couple of races in '04, he didn't really set the world on fire either. all winter testing, he was trailing massa by a similar margin as in the race. there seems to be some consistency !?

as for getting used to the car and a possible lack of fitness, that's something he already mentioned last year, so how long should it take a former worldchampion to come up to speed ?

btw, something that I didn't find in this thread, was that peter sauber also mentioned, that they took of some revs on massa's engine, so he would save fuel, apparently the only way he could do a one-stopper.
furthermore, on the question for the reason of jaques performance, peter sauber said that they don't really know yet, 'cause 'problems with the car in certain stages of the race' was about all they could get out of him...


the whole interview with peter sauber (sorry, in german):
http://emagazine.credit-suisse.com/a...=85492&lang=DE

[Jordi]

Giampaolo Dall'Ara is Jacques' engineer.

Jacques mentioned he had no fitness trouble so he seems to have solved that.