Could any driver shine in the bottom 3 teams?

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Di Resta is faster than u

Di Resta is faster than u

Active Member
Apr 20, 2011
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I've seen a few criticisms on Muzz of Pic saying he hardly sets the world alight, and that in 3 years a good driver should have at least got a point in one of those teams and therefore Glock and Kovalainen are also not good drivers, with the other bottom 3 team drivers even further behind.

Too be honest I disagree, I don't think anyone would shine in those teams.

But lets say Caterham, Marussia and HRT managed to get a top driver each and gave that driver undisputed number 1 status and the whole team was there own. If Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso each left their team at the end of 2011 and took one of those teams each do you think any one of them would score a point in the whole 2012 season?
 
Yeah. Hamilton, Vettel or Alonso would get a couple of lucky points for those teams.
 
It would take an ounce of luck for either of to do so... but they'd likely be able to get the car in a position to capitalize on that luck when it presented itself.
 
there would have to be a lot of retirements, I couldn't see them racing their way into the points, there would have to be 11 retirements from the other teams, those cars are just too slow. i think Kovey has done as much as he can, everyone want kovey in the sweepstake or +/-, i think he's shone quite well, I reckon he's gotta be the choice driver to move to fill in the gap made when Merc/Ferrari change drivers. So FI or Sauber, maybe even a Williams seat
 
I reckon that they would pick up the odd point here and there. If you put Alonso/Hamilton in the Caterham I reckon they could get about 4/5 points over a season, but if you put them in the Maurissa/HRT I do not think they would gain any points at all because those cars are painfully slow and a long way off the pace of even Caterham
 
Personally I don't think so. Even the Caterham tends to be a second a lap off the pace in qualifying. A good driver will only do so much (and let's remember, Kovalainen and Trulli were not bad drivers) - let's say half a second per lap? Even then the car is still off the pace of even of the back of the midfield pack, who have at times barely managed to scrape points themselves. (Williams last year, STR this year)

With the lack of attrition these days too it's a lot harder for back-markers to scrape the odd point (I'm thinking how Minardi tended to do well at Monaco). The only solution is for those teams to make a massive jump forward in car design, which I don't think will happen certainly before 2014.

EDIT: Also slightly off topic, on Pic and Kovalainen: Pic has beaten his far more experienced team-mate and even at times taken the fight to Caterham in a car that is really not fit for purpose; the fact that Kovalainen frequently gets near-perfect scores in the sweepstakes (except when I have him <grr> ) speaks for itself. There's room for comparison within those three teams, just not outside it.
 
The cars are to slow and the competition to reliable. I'd like to see the closest one of those cars has come to points, Caterhams best is 13th isn't it? and probably well down time wise.
 
Depends on your definition of "shine". Score points? No Thrash the drivers currently there? Yes.

Kovalainen is the closest to shining but for me his race pace is still suspect.
 
I can't remember exactly, but didn't Kovalainen get 11th or 12th at Monaco?
 
tomtom94 said:
Highest Caterham/Team Lotus have finished was 12th, with Kovalainen, at Japan 2010. I could have sworn he finished 11th once but Wikipedia says otherwise <scratch>
Click to expand...

Yeah, to satisfy my curiosity I just checked, and whilst he was running 11th in Monaco, he finished 13th.
 
Everyone seems to be forgetting when Karthikeyan was running 8th in Malaysia.
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I think a top driver would probably be able to compete with Caterham in a Marussia or HRT, and maybe make Q2 now and then if they were in a Caterham. They'd really be relying on retirements to finish in the points, even in the wet the driver can't make enough of a difference to challenge in one of those cars.
 
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