hacker-pschorr

924Superwagen

There are a few drivers that can make the transition from CART to F1... Villeneuve (96-97 then fell off the radar screen), and Montoya come to mind. However there have been equal amounts who haven't been able to make it... Andretti, Zanardi (during his second go at it... could've been due to a terrible Williams-Mechacrome). It's just a question of who can get to grips with the power vs weight and downforce levels produced by F1 cars.

Bourdais may just be another one of those exceptions.

chancecasey

"...Champ Car drivers be as faster or faster..."

Can I go work as an editor for this magazine???

chris walrod

I feel its more about the equipment than the driver, to some extent at least. There is such a gap in performance amongst the F1 grid. Put any top Champ car driver in the best F1 car and I am sure you'd see this person at the front.

earlyapex

The best CHAMP car drivers can compete in F1. The rest of the pack are well the rest of the pack.

Unfortunately, the perception in F1 is the CHAMP car is not a place to look for driving talent.

A.Wayne

I would not put much into this , as nobody knows if the setups , fuel load etc where the same , as they never are .
If he was/is really faster than the regulars, the proof would be he would have a contract/ offer to drive in F1 . Currently the talent pool is very weak in CART and frankly , i don't see anyone making the cut , Montoya was the last one and he was leaps and bounds better than bourdais .
Less not also forget that SB was a Renault Driver , that was parked in Cart and then never optioned . SB at best would be average in F1 lower half of the driver's table .
At this stage i would have to say F1 driver pool is leaps and bounds above Cart!!

Veloce Raptor

I think Bourdais is a very special kind of talent, which is why he is usually so far ahead of the Champ Car pack as well.

earlyapex

SB has had test driver offers with no guarantee of a race seat, but at this stage in his career this would ba a step back. I don't see a reason why he couldn't be competetive in F1. He has proven himself in multiple cars. Unfortunately, it can be about who you know and what manufacturer you are associated with.

Benton

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/34460/

Bill L Seifert

There is absoultly no way to predict exactly how someone is going to do when they get to F1. Everyone thought Zarnadi was going to blow them away, but he didn't .

IMHO I think additude is the biggest predictor, and we can't see attitude. If a driver makes it to F1, and says "whew, I made it" and thinks he is on top, he probably won't do well. If he gets to the top, and thinks he is back on the bottome rung of the ladder, and works his butt off to suceed, he will probably be successful. I think that is what MS did. I think Jacques got to Williams, and the car was so good he could not fail, when he went to a lesser team, he didn't do as well.



Just my opinion.


Bill Seifert

1987 944S Race Car

Matt Marks

See Robert Kubica - goes from test driver to immediately smoking is team mate (heidfeld) the moment he gets in the car. Forces heidfeld to up his game considerably as heidfeld could previously sit back and relax knowing that Villeneuve (for the last 5 or 6 years) was a ******.

Flying Finn

What were the set-ups? Duties (tyre test, old tyres, long runs etc.)?

Without those there's no point comparing. i.e. earlier this year Piguet jr. was faster than Kovalainen on same day but when you hear what they did (Kovalainen had same tyres the whole day while Piquet had fresh fast tyres) you got the confirmation what we know, Kovalainen is better.

Besides, if Scott (slow)Speed is who you're comparing...

This is not to say Bourdais is not fast, I think he could do well in F1 and if i were F1 boss, I'd much rather give him the car that to i.e. Scot Speed or any of the Japanese guys out there at the moment.

Alan C.

Put MS in a Toro Rosso and he would drive the wheels off it but he would not win. Look where Massa was before he went to Ferrari. I don't think he made that big a leap in his skills.

I'd still like to MS, KR and FA all in equal cars. I'd go a long way and pay a lot of money to see that one.

multi21

I would have to disagree with the comment on Massa. In the first couple years he was a crash waiting to happen. I personally didn't think he would make it. But a year as a Ferrari test driver and then back to the racing grid with Sauber (I believe) appeared to make a difference. At the beginning of 2006 he wasn't close to Schumacher, but he eventually closed the gap.

IMHO Bourdais has the skill and attitude to succeed in F1, but he is older now and will not accept a year of testing without a guarentee to drive thereafter. We know that Renault is unlikely to put a French driver in a French car. Ferrari will not likely put an Italian driver in an Italian car, unless they are of exceptional skills.

Here is what we do know: Speed and Luizzi are not confirmed as drivers for 2007. They bring in Bourdais out of the blue and he runs faster than they did in their car? The Flying Finn is going to call me Oliver Stone with this conspiracy theory, but I think they were trying to light a fire under their drivers as if to say, "Hey, a guy that just jumped in your car went faster than you right off the bat".

I'm with the Finn in that we don't know the set ups. It's certainly possible that Speed and Luizzi were on older tires with race loads (longer runs) vs. maybe fresher tires and quali fuel loads for Bourdais and shorter runs. Kubica certainly upped Heidfeld's pace didn't he....

Finally, what others have said about "just getting there (F1)" and then relaxing may be true. Once these guys secure a health contract that will guarentee they won't have to work again, they seem to coast. That is another reason why I will miss Schumacher. The guy had nothing left to race for. He broke all the records, won the most Championships, earned generational money, but he raced like he was a hungry rookie everytime on the track. I still think about his last drive when he was almost being lapped by his teammate after a puncture to come up and finish 4th. Simply Amazing. We may not see a driver like that again.

Alan C.

I think the year long improvement in Massa in catching MS was due to the learning curve of the car and team. It may not have been an absolute improvement in skill. You are correct, he was a crash and burn driver. What I don't like about him is his willingness to blame someone or something when he doesn't do well. The crowning point being the issue with Alonso.

I think Kimi and Massa will make for some interesting racing this season.

As far as cars go I still remember Nigel Mansell's comment on the last Williams he drove in F1. 'A monkey could drive that car' That was at the height of the electronic driver aids.

Like you I will miss Schumacher. However, this year may be a wild one to watch.