To premature to give a reasoned opinion yet I know, but what do think? how does he stack up against the rest? or there because of the money?
Hes obviously talented. But way too overhyped who's in for money for Renault. And because of his surname
got a bit caught out in the start, went to go passed Webber, then had to take avoiding action to miss whoever it was in front of him when they broke suddenly and hard, then had to pit fr a new nose, then got a drive though (not liking these drive-throughs for this sort of accident, racing incident surely). was good in qualifying and made his way from the back of the grid. lets See how he gets on at Monza.
no, crashing proves he's a Senna. At the end of the day I want him to do well because people have it in for him simply because of his name, at least Vettels annoying finger salute and Hamiltons attitude are an actual reason (pathetic or not) to dislike them.
Yes there's talent. But loads of rookies have demonstrated a more circumspect approach in their early days. Senna's mistake today was a real novice's error; something that thankfully, F1 sees little of these days. (To illustrate my point, consider how often we see Turn 1 incidents of this type these days compared with years ago: it is relatively rare because of the general level of professionalism of the whole grid). And only an ignoramus would suggest Heidfeld lacks talent…
In my opinion, it's a bit too early to say. Unfortunately for him, his name carries a lot of weight and he's always going to be under the microscope. Personally I believed he was making a mistake jumping back in at this point but his qualifying proved otherwise. The start was unfortunate for him... maybe he should have been more conservative and concentrated on keeping it in one piece, but either way.... it's all experience. I hope he does well.
Although it isn't a true Lotus (or any part Lotus for that matter)... I wonder how he felt stepping in to that black car...
Exactly. This is F1 Bhaji. It is not a day out in a restricted Formula Ford for would-be racers trying to learn the basics. What he did today was a very basic error: that of trying too hard in a known unfamiliar situation, i.e. that he knew it would feel different, yet failed to act on this knowledge. It may sound harsh but this is inexcusable and embarrassing at Grand Prix level.
I hear what you're saying Cosi... but in some ways, the lack of in-season testing, teams chopping and changing drivers for a few quid mid season and the fact that drivers are allowed to just hop in to drives in this manner just begs for trouble.
True… I admit to having a firm attitude with incompetence from 'qualified' drivers. I teach at various levels and find this sort of thing rather embarrassing when I'm telling people it is unacceptable in lower formulae, especially in open wheel racing where it can be extremely dangerous. I'm not saying he's untalented: clearly he is if he out-qualifies Petrov. But from what I've seen of him in F1, he has looked untidy and undisciplined right from the word go. I have watched him carefully on several occasions and have been surprised with his inaccuracy. Most drivers at the top of their game - and especially in F1 - can pick braking points and clip apexes within a far smaller window of error. i.e. they are more consistent. His lack of running in F1 is no excuse here, as attested to by other 'rookies' such as di Resta and Maldonado. And in fact Senna is not a real rookie in any case! I'm still not impressed by Senna; and although Petrov was out-qualified this time, I'd not hesitate to choose the Russian first; or for that matter, a German who was given Jack's boot but never attracted much money…
He seems to be talented, but he still needs to learn a lot. If he is able to avoid making the same errors twice he could be a good driver i guess. Time will tell. I prefer a brasilian driver like Brunno Senna over Barichello any day.
Yeah, I agree with the general tone of the replies here and I think he needs a proper and sustained chance to develop, which he hasn't yet had. Yes, it was an elementary error yesterday but an understandable one, given the circumstances. On Saturday, I worried that he wouldn't be able to get into that car and prove anything positive compared to his competitors who've been driving all season but he did. And it was a respectable recovery drive which also showed that he has a degree of maturity in that he kept his cool and carried on. As I said, a secure drive over a full season would give him the opportunity to prove his talent. Last year in the HRT doesn't count for me.
I think qualifying seventh and dominating his team-mate proves he's undoubtedly talented. He also did well to get as close as he did to Kobayashi and company after his first corner incident, damage, traffic, and so on. Bit more start practice for Monza and who knows?
He will come good in the end, after all this is the dawn of his F1 career. At least he is in a much better car to be able to prove himself.
Too early to say, qualifying was great for him, but needs more time getting used to heavy fuel loads.
I think he is very talented and people just wont cut him any slack. His qualifying was excellent - out-qualifying both his teammate and a certain Mr. Alonso! The start was just very unfortunate - remember people that this was his VERY FIRST time driving that car on full fuel and he just misjudged his braking! Others did so as well such as Timo Glock who also made contact by braking too late and there were also a few others who braked late and ran wide at la Source! I don't think we can be too critical of this because of the circumstances and afterwards he drove a solid race from the back up to 13th.
At this level, drivers need to learn very fast. Senna is not a novice and although some people are discounting his time with HRT, it very much did give him the necessary experience! This is not a guy who's walked in off the street. Like anyone else in F1, he has been racing for a very long time and although previously at the back, he knows what F1 cars can do: he's witnessed enough of them flying past him! I genuinely cannot think of another driver on today's grid who has made a 'slower' start to his learning curve. As I have been saying for some time, I am less than impressed so far but I hope this changes soon and I wish him well.
oh come one, by the first corner the HRTs were miles behind, how can you get exeprience of a proper strt when the other cars are 100 yards ahead? You don't like Senna at all do you Cosi, you are far more critical of him than any other driver. Less than impressed, he trounced Petrov in quali and was unlucky the carin front of him as he came to the corner had broke so hard, he tried to avoid (Rosberg?), who had almost hit Vettel, and clipped alguersuari. It's not like he didn't bother with his mirrors and drive into him, lose it in the wet and try to take out one of his WDC challengers, tried to swipe someone in a bit of afters. And he was by no means the only person to **** up his start yesterday and hit someone.
