Giedo van der Garde

Giedo van der Garde. The man, the myth, the legend.

Okay not really. He is a okay driver though, and after years of speculation and hype in his motherland he finally made his Formula 1 debut last season with Caterham. Not exactly the best team to make your debut with but van der Garde did what he's always done: drive the car without making a complete fool of himself.

His path to a race seat in Formula 1 was a long and unspectacular one, spending a lot of time in lower series without winning a championship apart from the 2008 Formula Renault 3.5 championship, which he won with a 29 point lead over the next competitor. Unfortunately for him that was the end of his winning ways, moving up to GP2 in 2009 and managing only one more top 3 championship finish, in the 2011 GP2 Asia Series.

After one more season in GP2 his hard work was finally rewarded when he managed to get enough money to buy himself a racing seat with Caterham. His steady but unspectacular driving continued and he was only able to finish in front of Max Chilton. After that he did not get a new contract with Caterham, signing with Sauber instead, as a test driver. It looks as if his F1 adventure is all but over...

Or is it? Reports from the Netherlands are saying he could return as early as this season, replacing Adrian Sutil at Sauber.

What do you make of van der Garde? A guy who simply needs a chance in a better car (he was part of the McLaren Young Driver Programme at one point) or a future page on f1rejects.com?
 
Good article. Is this in response to my comment on the Erikson thread that he is the only driver in recent times to not have his own thread?

Can't say I rate him but he seems like a nice enough chap.

I could probably list at least 25 drivers more deserving of a drive than him though.
 
Van der Garde seemed like he was quite the wet qualifying risk taker last year; if he brings money to Sauber he can't score less than 0 points, can he?
 
Good article. Is this in response to my comment on the Erikson thread that he is the only driver in recent times to not have his own thread?

Haha, I thought about that as well :D

Well, I think the guy got a couple of Q2's last year? I don't really remember his races, he was too far back. Nonetheless I'd rather have him in than Chilton or Ericsson. And that is absolutely unrelated to their relative performances to each other. :D
 
Giedo did have some fun getting in the way of the leaders last year - Canada especially - but yes he took some gambles in the rain and got into Q2. He managed it at Spa last year but still got out qualified by Bianchi and Chilton!
 
Just read that Van Der Garde has won his case. 'Application has been succesful and will be enforced'. Not sure what that means.

Does that mean Van Der Garde will be forcing himself into one of the Sauber cars this weekend? If he does will the team even bother to change his tyres?
 
Just seen more and appatently this does mean Van Der Garde will be in a Sauber this weekend! This is all a bit crazy.
 
Well that's the Fantasy league and team mate prediction tables buggered if he does. Not that anyone would pick him.

I wonder which of their two drivers they are going to drop? It sounds crazy to me. He's had no time in the car.
 
Apparently he's expecting to go to the track and have a seat fitting today. Can a court really force Sauber to race him? Crazy.

I imagine it'll be Ericsson who is dropped as Nasr's sponsors are obviously putting more money in because their name is on the car.

I still can't get my head round a driver forcing his way into a race seat through a court injunction.
 
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