Alguersuari claims Bourdais has lost his seat!

chet Wrote:
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> He hasnt been fantastic but last year had alot of
> bad luck when it good strong posistions. Not quite
> as strong as Vettel but not many can match that I
> bet. Spa just being one example. I felt he did
> enough to earn his seat for 09

Well I think most other people feel that it was fair that he got a second chance, but that he certainly hadn't "earned" the seat, more just reserving judgement on his ability due to some of the bad luck the previous year and his complaints of the car not being suited to him. It wasn't a great first season, Vettel just totally outclassed him consistantly.

, and yes he has
> disapointed this year with some poor performances,
> but its been with a poor team. You know aswell I
> that both Bourdais and Buemi should have scored
> more than the 7 or so points they have. IMO both
> drivers have underperformed. I can accept Bourdais
> being replaced, because he has been the worse.

Did anyone rate Buemi at all coming into the season? Does anyone now rate him? The "most people would get owned by Vettel" excuse doesn't really apply here since as far as we can tell, so it looks like Bourdais got beaten by a total rookie who seems very average. That's poor. I didn't even expect Bourdais to be as bad as that. I think Toro Rosso have a very good reason to fire Bourdais.

> I just think its very silly of STR to replace him
> with a driver who's never driven an F1 car around
> a track. Its not just the driving experience he
> lacks but mainly its the fact that he is being
> pitted against 21 drivers in a furious battle for
> 60odd laps. Mistakes will happen and these
> mistakes could effect other drivers and teams. Had
> he driven a couple of test sessions then mistakes
> would be less probable. Not only that but the
> reason they have not unlocked the true potential
> of there could be down to the drivers. Putting the
> least experienced pairing into a race winning car
> is just complete lunacy and a complete waste!

What's a complete waste is keeping a driver who you're just going to dump at the end of the year anyway, instead of taking the opportunity to give real experience to someone new and unknown, especially with the testing ban. People moaned about new drivers being "dangerous" in the past, Kimi, Tuero I remember particularly, and they both did fine, as I expect Algu-whatever to be. I'm surprised Toro Rosso didn't do it a couple of races earlier, honestly.

Well the only worry is that he's had no testing other than straight line tests, whereas other novices in previous years had the chance to get up to speed. Obviously as F3 champ, the potential is there for him to be a good driver. But it's a sharp step up, and while he could be the next Kimi Raikkonen, I wouldn't be overly surprised if he were the next Yuji Ide at the start.

Both Kimi and Button had over 8,500 kilometres of testing in the pre-season, Vettel had the Friday sessions and after a very average race with BMW he had the pre-season. I expect Jaime to be either a slightly improved Ide or 1s off Buemi's pace which would put him at Bourdais' level straight away .

Vettel had the Friday sessions and after a very average race with BMW

I like that you consider scoring points in your first GP and becoming the youngest ever driver to score a point in an F1 Championship race, whilst doing it with limited testing, is "average".

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The race itself he drove averagely I believe, I remember him making a mistake and could have got better than 7th. Now, rating him in a different scale is a different thing. I rated it average with the same expectations of anyone else on the grid so for a true rookie sure it was better than average.

Like Buemi, his debut I'd say was good for a rookie, I don't really recall him making mistakes (no news is good news in the STR). Rating him the same way I'd rate Massa, Alonso and others, I'd say it was decent too. I hope it's explained now. However you have to agree the BMW was a very good car when Vettel drove it and he himself could have achieved better than 7th. That's why I didn't think it was anything special.

Gui, I also thought Vettels first race not exactly something so shout about, it was not bad but it was not great. The BMW itself was capable of more but as far as I remember he was only 2-4 tenths slower than Nick. At first thought its not bad, but on a 70odd second lap and quite a simple track it doesnt sound too impressive.

Was it not a retirment which allowed him the 7th anyway?? I think of recent years only two debuts spring to mind as impressive, Hamiltons debut was fantastic with an awesome first corner (something many will not forget!) and Nakajima's debut. Minus the pit error his pace was impressive!! However he has not seemed to have improved a great deal.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Chet, I'd add a 3rd debut to that list going back one more year: Yuji Ide .

Bourdais' debut was also quite impressive, running as high as 4th before his engine failure. However, his - like Webber's in 2002 - was heavily influenced by the high attrition rate, but nonetheless, both were great debuts.

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X (@ed24f1)

SchueyFan Wrote:
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> Bourdais' debut was also quite impressive, running
> as high as 4th before his engine failure. However,
> his - like Webber's in 2002 - was heavily
> influenced by the high attrition rate, but
> nonetheless, both were great debuts.

But that was on the crazy 2008 Australian GP where only a few people actually got to finish the race. So 4th in that race wasn't that impressive IMO.

Ed, you're talking numberwise only there and going from numbers Schumi was the greatest of all time when in reality he isn't at the level that Clark and Senna were :P.

Bourdais just inherited his position, I remember him being far back behind a lot of people but they were going off left and right and I kept hoping Frenchie Bou would too but he never did. Driving-wise it was nothing special, he just brought it home.

true, but Bourdais was running ahead of Kovalainen and Alonso before his retirement

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X (@ed24f1)

Alonso had that dog of a car which he overdrove the entire season, Heikki was comming off an erratic 1st season and then adjusting to the McLaren, and as seen with Renault before he needs a lot of time to adjust to cars! Ok though, Bourdais beat Kovalainen, big deal .

Maybe so, but the Toro Rosso STR2B was also an outdated and fairly awful car

Kovalainen also set the fastest lap of the race - so i can't think why he was down in 5th anyway.

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X (@ed24f1)

Didn't he get screwed by the safety car

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Yeah, I remember that he was running in 2nd behind Hamilton, but the safety car ruined his race. Shame, maybe he would've had more confidence over the season if he'd got that 2nd place.

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

Just read over at F1tech that Bourdais was sacked via text message.

[uk.eurosport.yahoo.com]

That is completley gutless. Im just amazed that with something like this that would even happen. What a great guy huh?! What's so difficult to tell someone face-to-face they're underperforming and the team is letting them go.

Though lol@ BOURDAIS, DNT BTHR TRNNG UP 2 TH NXT GP. MATESCHITZ XX

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

chet Wrote:
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> Though lol@ BOURDAIS, DNT BTHR TRNNG UP 2 TH NXT
> GP. MATESCHITZ XX

LMAO!

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[en-gb.facebook.com]

Couldnt stop laughing when I first read it.

[www.f1technical.net]

The first post is hilarious.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Yeah, that is Bourdais side of the story. Anyone who watched CCWS will know how much BS he makes up. He even lies about what happened in races, despite us sitting at home watching replays of it.

Sorry, I call BS on that. It is a classic attention seeking Bourdais hissy fit. He has been paid by STR to drop the contract legal threats, so now he should stop the crying, go away and try and find a drive elsewhere.

Edit: Oh, and Oriol Servia has just been given the Newman Haas seat people expected Bourdais to be given. So boo-hoo Frenchy, go find something else.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2009 08:11AM by DaveEllis.

DaveEllis Wrote:
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> Yeah, that is Bourdais side of the story. Anyone
> who watched CCWS will know how much BS he makes
> up. He even lies about what happened in races,
> despite us sitting at home watching replays of
> it.
>
> Sorry, I call BS on that.

Right on cue, a denial from Franz Tost...

"I told Monsieur Bourdais personally that he is not going to drive any more and did not write any SMS,"

"I can understand that he is disappointed, but his performances were simply not what we expected."

"We wanted an increase in speed from him in his second year and it did not happen, on the contrary: our youngster Sebastien Buemi, in his first season, was better than him."

[en.f1-live.com]

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X (@ed24f1)