There is no evidence that the Force have had a better car than Sauber over the course of the season. The argument that they have is based on the points tallies, which are skewed by Sauber's loss of 10 points and Force India's gain of 3 points in Australia. The Force India was clearly the better car in Singapore, but Sauber were clearly ahead in the first half of the season.
Sauber had the better car at the start but Force India's billions have overtaken them now. Force India were on Par with Sauber around Valencia and clearly outdeveloped Sauber by Hungary-Belgium, now they are close to Mercedes and have a better package than Renault who are having major problems with changes. Kamui was on track to dominating his last years result of 27 points with only a 3rd of the season gone, now it looks like he will be lucky to achieve it with the car going backwards and their game plan to go long with the tyres, compared to Sutil and Di Resta's cars and attitude to just go for it etc... I'm not saying they are inferior to Kamui and Perez, but come on that Force India is taking on both Mercs now, with 5 races to go, they are looking good for a record season.
I think it's because most of the teams have stopped developing this years car and instead concentrated on next years car while force india (this is a rumour by a way) are continuing their development for the Indian grand prix where they are hoping to challenge for a podium. So FI may get better yet.
That's pretty accurate. But there were seven races before Valencia, and there have been six since. If the season stopped now, I'd say that Di Resta and Perez have had equal equipment in 2011. So let's hypothetically stop the season now. Di Resta has 20 points (19 without Australia), Perez has 9 points (15 if you give him the Australia result). Neither driver has to my knowledge been at fault for a retirement this season, although Perez missing two races was in part down to driver error. Perez has produced more excitement, Di Resta more consistency. Perez has beaten his team-mate 4 times (5 if you count Australia), Di Resta 7 times (7 whether or not you count it). Kobayashi is widely considered to be a brighter prospect than Sutil. But the German has done a strong and steady job over a number of years, whereas Kamui, regardless of how poor his car is, has put in some bad performances of late. On balance, I'd say Di Resta and Perez are neck-and-neck in terms of performances vs team-mate, bearing in mind their relative strengths and weaknesses. All-in-all, I'd rather watch Perez, and he certainly has a big future. But apart from overtaking, I cannot see any measure on which Sergio has done a better job than Paul this season.
Thats a good view, but I suppose you would also have to include other things like that Renault were knocking on the door of the top 3 at the start, reducing the point tally for both Saubers until Silverstone when the blown difusser ****e started to come up. But in Force India's defence Mercedes put all their efforts into reducing tyre wear and fuel problems at the start making life hard for them which would go into Saubers court. But then again Mercedes said they were focusing on 2012 after Spa, so the likes of Force India would be able to challenge more now after the last few races, giving the same sort of advantage similair to Saubers. I think we both agree that we want Webber, Massa and somebody at Mercedes replaced and to bring in the likes of Perez, Di Resta and Kamui to the top flight, that would justify buying Sky, only to see the carnage of the WDC fight.
Agree that I'd like to see Webber and Massa replaced with better drivers, although I want to say for the record that I think they're both great guys. People are talking about the Hamilton-Massa incident last weekend, but it's important to remember just how gracious Felipe was when he lost the title. Disagree with Mercedes. I want to see Rosberg and Schumacher battle it out in a car capable of fighting for the occasional victory, to settle once and for all the question of whether Schumi was right to come back, and whether Rosberg is capable of following in his father's footsteps.
