Has been a lot of people saying on the rookie thread that they are unable to judge our friend Jerome due to the car he's been driving so I decided to look at his stats compared to the only driver you can do which is his team-mate Timo Glock and on looking at them he seems to come out quite well.
In Quali Glock wins 5 to 3 however when you look at who finishes in front of who in the race the results are reversed and d'Ambrosio is ahead 5 to 3 - even if you take into account Glocks 2 non finishes and his none start he is still ahead on merrit 3 to 2 in the race (he had one non-finish himself).
What is really interesting is fastest laps during the race. Once again d'Ambrosio comes out on top 5 to 3. Although Glocks fastest lap time in Spain was a full 1 second faster than him in every other race he's faired quite well. In Australia his fastest lap in the race was 1.2 seconds faster than Glock and in Canada his fastest lap was over 2 seconds faster than Glocks - he even finished in front of Glock despite a drive thru penalty as well.
If you compare him to Virgin's closest rivals who are HRT he fairs pretty well too - Canada was the only time he's actually finished behind the HRT's (apart from his retirement in Malaysia where he was classified behind Liuzzi).
Also, all be it on countback, he is the only rookie who is currently ahead of their team-mate in the WC standings. Although you might say this is more because of luck and him picking up higher places due to retirment he still had to beat Glock to do this.
So what do we conclude from all those stats? poor qualifier but good racer? maybe. You also have to take into account Glocks number 1 status and the fact he's more likely to get the new updates - which actually could be why Glock has 3 retirements to d'Ambrosio's 1. You have to conclude though that Mr d'Ambrosio obviously has good race craft as not only does he seem to be able to bring the car home but also seems to be able to get that Virgin to go the fastest race wise.
So what does this mean? Well obviously we're only 7 races in but we have to say that Glock comes highly rated as a GP2 champion, someone who has scored podiums on merit and has been considered for drives higher up the grid. If d'Ambrosio does continue to get the best of him you have to conclude that he has the potential to at least match what we've seen for Glock. If he continues his current form I'd be very interested to see what he could do in a car further up the grid.
I do feel a bit sorry for him as Di Resta and Perez get all the praise as rookies when in actual fact it looks like d'Ambrosio is doing a better job. I just wonder if Virgin was on the same pace as say the Force India whether we'd be talking about his chance of getting a bigger drive.
So What do you guys think? Cream of the crop or just a big pudding?
In Quali Glock wins 5 to 3 however when you look at who finishes in front of who in the race the results are reversed and d'Ambrosio is ahead 5 to 3 - even if you take into account Glocks 2 non finishes and his none start he is still ahead on merrit 3 to 2 in the race (he had one non-finish himself).
What is really interesting is fastest laps during the race. Once again d'Ambrosio comes out on top 5 to 3. Although Glocks fastest lap time in Spain was a full 1 second faster than him in every other race he's faired quite well. In Australia his fastest lap in the race was 1.2 seconds faster than Glock and in Canada his fastest lap was over 2 seconds faster than Glocks - he even finished in front of Glock despite a drive thru penalty as well.
If you compare him to Virgin's closest rivals who are HRT he fairs pretty well too - Canada was the only time he's actually finished behind the HRT's (apart from his retirement in Malaysia where he was classified behind Liuzzi).
Also, all be it on countback, he is the only rookie who is currently ahead of their team-mate in the WC standings. Although you might say this is more because of luck and him picking up higher places due to retirment he still had to beat Glock to do this.
So what do we conclude from all those stats? poor qualifier but good racer? maybe. You also have to take into account Glocks number 1 status and the fact he's more likely to get the new updates - which actually could be why Glock has 3 retirements to d'Ambrosio's 1. You have to conclude though that Mr d'Ambrosio obviously has good race craft as not only does he seem to be able to bring the car home but also seems to be able to get that Virgin to go the fastest race wise.
So what does this mean? Well obviously we're only 7 races in but we have to say that Glock comes highly rated as a GP2 champion, someone who has scored podiums on merit and has been considered for drives higher up the grid. If d'Ambrosio does continue to get the best of him you have to conclude that he has the potential to at least match what we've seen for Glock. If he continues his current form I'd be very interested to see what he could do in a car further up the grid.
I do feel a bit sorry for him as Di Resta and Perez get all the praise as rookies when in actual fact it looks like d'Ambrosio is doing a better job. I just wonder if Virgin was on the same pace as say the Force India whether we'd be talking about his chance of getting a bigger drive.
So What do you guys think? Cream of the crop or just a big pudding?
Sorry, Rasputin my friend, but that's how I feel.
