20 years ago...

[Londoner]

Incredibly, in three days time, 20 years will have passed since the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix. And we all know who Andrea De Crasheris's new team mate was for that race, making his debut in a Jordan...

(Gosh, that makes me feel old, if the 1990s were 20 years ago)

[DanielPT]

20 years huh? Time does fly by...

[cretoxyrhina]

It was already 20 years...







...since Olivier Gouillard and Fondmetal finished for the first time in 1991

[Aerospeed]

Sgt. Pepper told the band to... wait it was that long? Well you have got to credit Schumacher's longevity but he is slower than Rosberg. And that is why he must go.

[DanielPT]

Sgt. Pepper told the band to... wait it was that long? Well you have got to credit Schumacher's longevity but he is slower than Rosberg. And that is why he must go.

OK Michael, Nico is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

[Ed24]

Sgt. Pepper told the band to... wait it was that long? Well you have got to credit Schumacher's longevity but he is slower than Rosberg. And that is why he must go.

In qualifying, undoubtably, but Schumacher's race pace this year has actually been very good.

On pace alone, Schumacher could well be ahead of Rosberg on points, he's just wasted so many opportunities with mistakes.

[WeirdKerr]

Sgt. Pepper told the band to... wait it was that long? Well you have got to credit Schumacher's longevity but he is slower than Rosberg. And that is why he must go.

In qualifying, undoubtably, but Schumacher's race pace this year has actually been very good.

On pace alone, Schumacher could well be ahead of Rosberg on points, he's just wasted so many opportunities with knocking off his nose cone on Petrov's car .

Fixed....

[Peter]

20 years later, another driver steps in to replace a teammate at this very track. Is Bruno Senna the next 7 time World Champion?

[Klon]

20 years later, another driver steps in to replace a teammate at this very track. Is Bruno Senna the next 7 time World Champion?

Nope. Not enough talent.

[TomWazzleshaw]

20 years later, another driver steps in to replace a teammate at this very track. Is Bruno Senna the next 7 time World Champion?

Nope. Not enough talent.

I predict a riot

[Aerospeed]

20 years later, another driver steps in to replace a teammate at this very track. Is Bruno Senna the next 7 time World Champion?

Unless the teammate that was replaced goes to jail...

no.

[Frentzen127]

Eric Lux could still have Heidfeld glass Sutil in exchange for his seat.

[DanielPT]

20 years later, another driver steps in to replace a teammate at this very track. Is Bruno Senna the next 7 time World Champion?

Nope. Not enough talent.

*Wrecks the office in anger*

That is yet to be proved!

[dr-baker]

20 years later, another driver steps in to replace a teammate at this very track. Is Bruno Senna the next 7 time World Champion?

Nope, not making his F1 debut, is he?

[TomWazzleshaw]

20 years later, another driver steps in to replace a teammate at this very track. Is Bruno Senna the next 7 time World Champion?

Nope, not making his F1 debut, is he?

And he actually has driven on the Spa track

[Ed24]

20 years later, another driver steps in to replace a teammate at this very track. Is Bruno Senna the next 7 time World Champion?

Nope. Not enough talent.

*Wrecks the office in anger*

That is yet to be proved!

Apart from the fact that he couldn't convincly beat (or beat at all in many cases) Chandhok, Klien or even Yamamoto?

Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Klien etc. deserve a chance much more than Senna.

[DanielPT]

Nope. Not enough talent.

*Wrecks the office in anger*

That is yet to be proved!

Apart from the fact that he couldn't convincly beat (or beat at all in many cases) Chandhok, Klien or even Yamamoto?

Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Klien etc. deserve a chance much more than Senna.

Let's see... He lost 2-1 to Chandhok in races that they both finished (Senna retired more) but out-qualified him 6-3. He beat Yamamoto 3-0 and out-qualified him 5-1. He got on top of Klien 2-0 albeit being out-qualified 2-1. Yamamoto did not even came close so I can't see how people say he didn't beat him. While Chandhok was a surprise, one must say Senna did not enjoy much reliability but still dominated in qualification. Klien is a more seasoned driver and has more F1 experience than Senna yet couldn't dominate him. Why people keep saying Senna lacks talent? Because he does not dominate like his uncle did? Don't forget that Senna career stopped for 10 years, being those the most important ones, arguably. If Senna is given a chance I can see him beating Petrov within a couple of races, after all, he already did so in 08' GP2 season (yes, they were in different teams, but Petrov team has a better record overall!)...

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

Daniel, you know RRRRRMMMMMNNNNNN is the future!

MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Ferrim]

You know what? I've got the video of that race. Of course Schumacher retires like 10 seconds into it, but it's actually a pretty decent motor race by F1 standards (which, contrary to what we usually read, were not that much higher 20 years ago than in 2010). And [SPOILER] Alesi was already unlucky back then, losing sure wins.[/SPOILER]

I'm gonna watch it again.

Edit: I absolutely love the top four at the end of the first lap, with Senna, Prost, Mansell and Piquet each one driving a different car.

[ADx_Wales]

The onboards of the "full race" on youtube, when the onboard cameras rattled it meant that car is going FAST, I reckon they need to spring load all the onboard cameras on this weekend's cars to shake about a bit.

[DanielPT]

Edit: I absolutely love the top four at the end of the first lap, with Senna, Prost, Mansell and Piquet each one driving a different car.

Well, nowadays you have Hamilton, Button, Vettel and Alonso each one driving its car . Seriously, it's still 3 different cars among them despite one being built by a drinks producer.

[Ed24]

Let's see... He lost 2-1 to Chandhok in races that they both finished (Senna retired more) but out-qualified him 6-3. He beat Yamamoto 3-0 and out-qualified him 5-1. He got on top of Klien 2-0 albeit being out-qualified 2-1. Yamamoto did not even came close so I can't see how people say he didn't beat him. While Chandhok was a surprise, one must say Senna did not enjoy much reliability but still dominated in qualification. Klien is a more seasoned driver and has more F1 experience than Senna yet couldn't dominate him. Why people keep saying Senna lacks talent? Because he does not dominate like his uncle did? Don't forget that Senna career stopped for 10 years, being those the most important ones, arguably. If Senna is given a chance I can see him beating Petrov within a couple of races, after all, he already did so in 08' GP2 season (yes, they were in different teams, but Petrov team has a better record overall!)...

Here is what I said about Senna vs. Yamamoto at the end of last year at a different site. Note that I never said Yamamoto beat Senna, only that Senna failed to be convincing against him. If you look at the results, Yamamoto improved every race against Senna, also.

Code: Select all

Firstly, Germany was awful. He was outqualified by 1.3s. Then, he started the race with the pit limiter on, and then retired because he activated the in-car fire extinguisher.

But after that, he wasn’t too bad, much to my surprise. He was never more than 0.35s behind Senna in qualifying, was within 0.1s twice, and outqualified Senna once. 

At Monza, his fastest lap was only 7 tenths slower than Di Grassi, and just over 1 second slower than Kovalainen and Glock, despite the HRT being in Monaco-spec trim. 

At Japan and Korea, two of the only three in this period where both HRT drivers made it to the end, Yamamoto had a better fastest lap than Senna – and with a gap of 1s and 0.5s respectively, to his team-mate.

As for Klien, I think the average qualifying margin of 0.577s in three races and Klien having a faster race lap on all 3 occasions is fairly damning. Sure Klien is a seasoned driver, but he hadn't raced for 5 years, and Senna had been in the car all year.

I think he's a solid driver, but I think in the world of F1, it's fair to judge someone on a full season. Many others are judged on less.

[DanielPT]

As for Klien, I think the average qualifying margin of 0.577s in three races and Klien having a faster race lap on all 3 occasions is fairly damning. Sure Klien is a seasoned driver, but he hadn't raced for 5 years, and Senna had been in the car all year.

I think he's a solid driver, but I think in the world of F1, it's fair to judge someone on a full season. Many others are judged on less.

Fastest laps is a bit tricky to measure these days. Just an example, Alonso is 6-2 against Massa in the races and everyone knows he is the fastest right? Except that the fastest laps record only counts 6-5 to Alonso. If we ignore the rest and look only for that statistic everyone would say how balanced the Ferrari pair is when nothing could be further from the truth... The only thing I contest is the fact that people say Senna is not talented enough only because in one season he didn't crushed his team-mates. By the way, did you know that in his first season Alonso finished behind his team-mate overall because he only had one 10th against 2 ninths? And that his team-mate was Tarso Marques for most of the season (until he was replaced by Alex Yoong)?

[Ed24]

OK, fair point - but I'd say fastest lap is probably a better measure for a bottom level team because, in general, I suppose they have less strategy divergence between the cars.

Also, in 2010, these fastest lap numbers are a more accurate representation I think, as there were fewer pitstops and the fastest lap wasn't just dependent on who pitted last, as contributes to the discrepancy with Massa vs. Alonso in 2011.