Maybe he should rename himself Jerome d'Palmeiro de Costa. Seems only way to get any kind of respect on here is if you are a driver with a foreign name.............. So, now GP2 champs have no right to be on an F1 grid? May as well throw the junior formula system out of the window and pick people at random in the hope they;re going to be good. Out of interest, why are so many asking for Vergne to come back? If he was that good he wouldn't be off the grid. Red Bull gave him the flick because he was that underwhelming most of the time. Why do we now think he deserves his place back over new guys? Isn't one of F1's whole problem trying to get rid of average drivers who stick around for too long to make space for new talent to see what they can do? As for Palmer, he deserves his place. GP2 champ, made a good account of himself in FP1's this year. Is at least prepared for F1 and has done it properly, or do we want more Verstappen's so we have a grid full of kids with no experience and just wait for the huge accident and then everyone says there are too many inexperienced drivers on the grid!? Come on!
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/121478 Palmer is allegedly bringing £4-5m in sponsorship as part of his contract, so not massive in pay driver terms. Renault could have got more from a better backed driver if they wanted.
Just keep spouting "GP2 champ" like it means anything out of context. Have a look at the champions that didn't make it to F1. Pantano, Valsecchi and Leimer. Why does nobody clamer for their chance despite their "foreign names"? Perhaps because they won it in their 4th seasons, just like Palmer. So stop talking **** about bias. It's about results. GP2 results are only truly worth looking at if they achieve a high placing in their first two seasons. Thats what the likes of Hamilton, Rosberg and Hulkenberg did. Coming close early on is also what you see from Perez, Grosejan and Bianchi. Palmer as one of the former group does not deserve a seat. Vandoorne as one of the later, does. If you're desperate to find a British driver who deserves a chance i'd nominate James Calado long before Palmer.
Why not wait and judge his results in F1 before judging him outright before he has even had a chance? It's the fact that he has been written off before he has even done anything that is ridiculous. Now he has been labelled as crap, it won't matter what he does now, it will all be down the car, or another driver could have finished higher etc etc. On the basis that GP2 results only count if they do well in their first two seasons, shouldn't the same then apply in F1!? So why is Vergne still being courted by all on here when he had more than that to prove his worth? It looks far sexier if someone comes in and wins outright in lower formula in their first season, but many have still fallen off after that, so in context in means bugger all. Magnussen snr and Verstappen snr came in as young hotshots and totally underwhelmed for their F1 careers. Instant success at junior level does not always mean F1 hotshot. SO what if he has been in GP2 for years? Maybe that will make him more prepared for F1? At least wait and see what happens. As with di Resta, I thought he was going to do well in F1, was happy to admit that in the end he was a whinging pile of poo who missed his chance. I'll do the same with Palmer if he turns out to be rubbish, anyone else going to be honest enough to admit to changing their opinion if he turns out to good, or will they just look for every excuse to berate him? As for Colado, just had a quick check of his career history, is hardly stunning. If it is down to personal preference then fine, but if you are basing it on results then that judgement makes sense.
And I don't get how Vergne was underwhelming? He completely thrashed Kvyat last year almost tripling his score while his car was always breaking down, he beat Ricciardo convincingly in 2012 and the only time he was getting beaten by a team mate was the back end of 2013. His qualifying may have been weak, which was why RB took Ricciardo over him, but his race pace and wet weather ability was easily some of the best out of the midfield drivers, and would make for much better driver than most on the grid now. Also, let's not forget that Maldonado dominated GP2 in 2010. Ahead of the likes of Perez and Bianchi.. Yet look what this forum does to him on a weekly basis.
The problem with the lower formulas is that they are mostly dictated by money and contacts - a large percentage of very talanted drivers never get to drive at this considered feeder level. The only way I can see feeder series working is if they are funded by F1 so it removes the funding and contact weight to secure drives - however in season testing with reserve/test drivers and fixed practise sessions at weekends would be my preferred option.
I'm open to being proved wrong by Palmer. I'm not judging his F1 career before it's started, merely Lotus's decision to hire him over other options. Junior formula results may not be the perfect indicator, but with so few spots on the grid we need some way of determining who most deserves the chance. As for the two years thing. The difference is that since GP2 is a spec series the only differentiators are talent and experience. I'd rather see the chance given to those who won using the former. Calado didn't have a stunning career either it's true, just a notably better one than Palmer (5th and 3rd vs 28th and 11th), so it's definitely still results based. I really only mentioned him since you wanted a positive opinion on someone less foreign. My preferred option would still have been Magnussen or Vandoorne.
Where does that leave us with the World Series by Renault category as a feeder as well? Lots of excitement there for a while with many names being bandied around on here about the travesty of these guys not being on the grid. In a sweeping generalisation, it seems if someone is good enough to be in F1 and are WDC material, with only a few exceptions, most of these drivers go straight from F3 to F1 and skip out the GP2/WSR. Does this almost suggest that these other formulae are almost irrelevant as it means if you're in it, you weren't good enough to go to F1 straight away? Palmer is 24, almost 'old' for a rookie these days, but there has always been the question that are the 'young' drivers too young? Too inexperienced and haven't had the chance to hone their racecraft in a way that is required in F1? Give Max is credit, he has done better than a lot predicted, but you always get the feeling that he is on the verge of a big accident because of it (Monaco being prime example) as his judgement because of a lack of racecraft isn't there. Very dangerous.
Not sure if this would be a conflict with the Manor/Prodrive speculation as they currently run the Aston Martin race programme?
Hmm. There were rumours a while back of Aston buying into red bull with merc power. Is this why manor is all of a sudden getting merc power and having a shuffle in staff.
Vijay Mallya says the Force India Formula 1 team name has served its purpose as he closes on a deal that will rebrand the outfit as Aston Martin Racing. As Autosport reported on Friday, Force India is set for a name change next season if the Aston partnership is completed, while its livery will become blue and gold as part of a link-up with sponsor Johnnie Walker
I wonder how many other sponsors McL are going to loose this season? My guess is Ron is still asking top team money for sponsor space on a back marker car. I can see 2016 McL being just plain colour. Hope McHonda come good in 2016 and are challenging at the front or at least in mid field.
3 compounds per race is interesting. I think using 3 different types in the race will make setup difficult, so my guess a team will choose just 2 compounds for a race weekend. Might spice things up a bit but only till the teams get used to being able to choose the number of tyres of each compound they have and how they actually perform on their car. After 4 or 5 races I doubt it will make much difference.
