Alexander Wurz and Jackie Stewart seem to be starting a new era of "driver coaches" this could soon become the norm 4-5 years down the line. So for (fun), which F1 Veteran (retired or still driving) would you advise to help "coach" a current driver to improve their performances. What important bits of experience or assests made you choose that coach for that current driver? Do the whole grid if you so wish, you can repeat coaches if you like as well. Driver - Coach: Vettel - Schumacher. Teach Seb how to develop a team around him better and quicker, get rid of the niceboy attitude as F1 is no fairyland and maybe learn to take no prisoners with his team mate. Webber - Rubens. Both drivers very experienced and Rubens could show him how to keep his form going until his 40's and still take it to better drivers. Jenson - Mansell. Use Mansell to kick some aggression into Jenson's mindset and tell him to stop complicating things and just drive the damn thing. Lewis - Hakkinen. Put more of that controlled aggression into Lewis' driving, teach him to save that energy for the next fight rather than punching the wheel when things go wrong. Massa - Stewart. A very wise head is needed to help Massa get through this troubled patch and considering Jackie has been there before with a major incident when he was driving he can help him mentally and physically! Alonso - None. None needed for Alonso I believe, though having a guy like Schumacher wouldn't go a miss with bits of advice around. Kimi - Hakkinen. Same kind of mindset and Mika could possibly be the only man who could keep Kimi entirely focused on his F1 Driving rather than being distracted by the calls of rally driving. Grosjean - Prost. Stewart isn't really that needed for Romain, I think a famous French driver is needed here to help direct Romain to a modern day world champion mindset rather than the nice guy. He has to learn to take things more seriously and stop making mistakes etc... Schumacher - None. Doesn't need it as there's nothing anybody could teach him. Rosberg - Schumacher. I believe there's real talent in Nico, he just needs the right direction and push by Schumacher to help him keep doing it at every GP rather than having hot and cold spells of performance. Pastor/Senna - Wurz. Nothing to add really since he's already there. Perez - Lauda. A smart man is needed to break Perez's temper and there's nobody more vocal and understanding of directing aggression than Lauda. This partnership would be the most vocal but the rewards would highly benefit Perez in the long run when he's older. Kamui - Hakkinen. Unlike Perez, Kamui is a nice guy and would be mentally broken if he had somebody like Lauda or Prost coaching him, he needs a soft tutor to guide him like Mika to try and reduce his erratic behaviour behind the wheel and improve his consitency. Di Resta - Stewart. Two Scottish heroes that would work well together, Jackie would sort out that arrogance he keeps bringing up about beating Seb 7 years ago and also keep him on the real target on good results in F1 and do his talking on the track. Hulkenberg - Rubens. The talents there, he just needs a recent and highly experienced driver to help him keep doing it at every GP and bring the resuts home rather than mess things up.
Kimi wouldn't need a coach, more of a stunt double who's comfortable in front of the cameras to handle all the interviews and promotional 'bullshit'.
Lol... But where would the fun be? Bloody glad he didn't get paired with Hakkinen. I'd have to switch over to 1970's open university during interviews.
Good thread Silver, you really have took time to do this, so credit where credit is due. Schumacher- None, damn right, he has forged his own path for 20 odd years, and is still going. But looking after Nico and Seb is probably what would be great for them as you have mentioned, maybe even Glock and Hulkenberg when he decides to stop racing.
Yes, quite true Bando. However, Massa lacked the intelligence to see that this automatically made him subservient. Very few drivers in the history of F1 have been (or still are) so servile.
Its a great idea, but theres one thing that I disagree with. With the 'nice guys' you've said about making them tougher and more, well, the opposite of nice. Wouldnt that make the actual drivers a bit boring? They'd all have the same sort of personality, surely interviews would become a bit predictable?
More like personality musical chairs. For instance, you suck the steering wheel bashing out of Hamilton with Hakkinen, then the king of steering wheel abuse, Mansell, injects it in to Jenson. Somebody grab a lightening rod!!!
You could have Maldonado mentoring Schumacher. He'd never have a failure like the Villeneuve move ever again.
According to the Daily Mail, Lewis is quite capable of that by himself. Well, himself and a whole troupe of 'totty'.
