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My vote goes to Walter Boots. While it's debatable whether he or Bianchi have been the better rookie, the fact that Maldonado in the right car is a racewinner is to me an added bonus.
raymondu999 wrote:My vote goes to Walter Boots. While it's debatable whether he or Bianchi have been the better rookie, the fact that Maldonado in the right car is a racewinner is to me an added bonus.
Same here.
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe."Murray Walker, San Marino 1985
Embarrassed his teammate and has at times competed with and beaten a faster car in the Caterham. Other than when mechanical failure has hindered his efforts, he has outclassed Chilton in race craft and qualifying every weekend, most of the time to a hefty degree.
Bottas is a close second. The rest have not made any serious impression in my opinion.
Bottas because we know how strong Maldo is in terms of pace. Bianchi looks promising but Chilton definitely does not so it´s hard to quantify just how good he is.
(no doubt he´s probably very good but Bottas seems like the obvious one here)
"If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother that person is a piece of sh*t"
Too early and impossible to say. Tricky season, especially for rookies. The way they were selling 2012 as "a lottery" applies more to 2013. Not a lottery of course but variable and difficult conditions, Toro Rosso's or Force India's form and drop of form, tyre approach, tyre approach changes, tyre change, Barcelona/Canada/Hungary type of results, teams' struggles - Williams, Sauber, poor ones. Also it's hard to follow them without TV coverage.
Gutierrez - Sauber had some doubts about him and maybe it shows? Over one lap too far behind Hulkenberg, the rest impossible to say, car not consistent enough, I remember him being quite good in GP2, not against the best competition ever though, wasn't he rather aggressive/inconsistent there? Still young
Bianchi - good start, a bit oversold no doubt thanks to association with Ferrari, only proof - being better than Chilton, OK, had good results against Caterham too
Chilton - way behind over one lap, blaming tyres? Average in GP2, young, may get better?
Van der Garde - same as Chilton over one lap, had this one good race, decent racer
Bottas - decent, quite close to Maldonado, hard to tell with a car, took it easy in Canada, maybe it's the car maybe it's the approach - finish, don't risk, learn. You may give it to him or Bianchi but what's the point? It's not NBA.
I think that some of them won't be in the championship next year but I think we are going to see bottas again because he is doing really well (qualifying 3e in Canada).
"Tazio Nuvolari was the greatest driver of the past, the present and the future."
Ferdinand Porsche
Bianchi would be kicking Bottas' ar$e driving the same car.
Education is that which allows a nation free, independent, reputable life, and function as a high society; or it condemns it to captivity and poverty.
-Atatürk
Shrieker wrote:Bianchi would be kicking Bottas' ar$e driving the same car.
If someone asked me at this stage to say which one was the better driver I would say Jules, but it would be pure speculation as a direct comparison is hard to come by. Both compete in very different cars, Jules is at the back of the grid and Bottas is usually around mid field in positions like 12-14. Bottas you could argue performs against a better teammate in Pastor as well.
Its hard to base such a argument with such little evidence to go on. We are all guilty of this mind, I think Alonso would beat Vettel in the same car, based only on relative performance and perception of what machinery they have had in the past to support my claim