Rookie of the Year 2011

Who will finish the season ahead?

  • Total voters
    23
Well it was only a matter of time that Di Resta made a few rookie mistakes, he was doing solid, but in Monaco and Canada he was just a bit too oppurtunistic.

Perez, I think he still has potential, but he does seem to make just as much errors as having good races. Can't say for sure how well he would have done in Monaco and Canada.

I will always have my doubts over Maldonado...

d'Ambrosio, he seemed to have a bad race today, can't judge this guy as he is in quite a bad position, he doesn't get the upgrades the same time as Glock, Glock's apparently getting so much out of the car that they have to alter his strategy yet mess up Glock's race and d'Ambrosio gets ahead (well that's what Virgin said this weekend).
 
Maldonado outqualified Barrichello for the third race running did he not? I know that the race is different but he seems to be leading the charge for Williams rather than Rubens at the moment. I know the race wasn't going perfectly but it wasn't terrible either. I don't know why I am defending him but I guess I still see a glimmer of hope.

So far I think it is Perez then Di Resta then Maldonado. I really can't judge d'Ambrosio so won't include him in this. None of the rookies have been terrible though.
 
Di Resta has showed the most out of those four, by a distance, although Perez was very impressive in Australia. Paul has made a couple of mistakes, and been a bit over-excited on a couple of occasions, but he's young, he'sobviously quick, and I'm sure he'll iron out the slight inconsistencies over time. A future world champion I think!
 
Di Resta does seem to be getting a lot of praise and I have to agree that he's looked like a quality driver from what I've seen - which is why I was very suprised when I compare his first 7 races to Liuzzi's first seven races last year.

Di Resta's race results: 10, 10, 11, DNF, 12, 12, 18

Liuzzi's race results: 9, 7, DNF, DNF, 15, 9, 13

which put Liuzzi on 10 points whilst Di Resta is on 2 currently. Now I considered the fact that last years Force India was more competitve than this years so I looked at Sutil's totals after 7 races to compare. This year he has 8 points - which means Di Resta has scored 25% of the points he has. After 7 races in 2010 he'd scored 22 points which means Liuzzi had scored just under 40% of the points Sutil had scored.

Now I know you have to take other factors into account where this is concerned but considering Sutil is being seen as having a poor year this year those stats are very interesting. Is it a case that we're being more forgiving with Di Resta because of the hype around him and, dare I say it, the fact that he's British? Or has Liuzzi just had a rough ride?

I know I haven't taken into account the quali stats because I can't find them - if any one knows how it was at Force India after 7 races last year I'd be interested to see. I imagine that Di Resta comes off better over Liuzzi there - but as I've said before whats the point in qualifying well if you don't bring home the bacon.

thoughts?
 
Rasputin I think Di Resta was somewhat stupid in Monaco with that pass, but that is down to lack of experience. But at Canada he was in 6th was had he not pitted he would have been in 3rd right behind Kobayashi, but he was involved in an incident (racing incident in my book) didn't deserve the penalty and that cost him dear. But I definately think he is stromger in qualifying than in the race, but of a younger Trulli perhaps just maybe not as slow in the race.
 
Maldanado looked lacklustre at the start of the year but he has been improving save the odd mistake.
 
I voted Perez as he is more likely to get points in the Sauber as I believe the Sauber is a better all-round car compared to the Force India, though the Williams does seem to be improving a lot, but I will stick with Perez.
 
oh blimey - the reason I didn't put a poll in is because I couldn't decide. If Perez is ok on his return it should be him just from Di Resta but then recently Maldonado has looked like he could pick up some tasty results.

I'll cheat and hold off answering for a bit
 
at the moment its Di Resta although he's getting himself into accidents typical of a rookie but he keeps beating Sutil in quali and this is despite having to do one less practice session than him except for the street circuits

Sutil is only ahead due to the fortuitous of the safety car at Monaco helping up the grid and then having hit the wall able to restart !

Perez I think after the initial hype is finding it tough now
Maldonado was horrible at the start but his performances have improved ..no Christmas cards for Lewis Hamilton after their Monaco bump

No Ambrosio ??? despite mentioning he's actually matching Glock
 
Perez may have a little bit more car, but my bet is on Paul to win rookie of the year. I believe one day Paul will be the likely candidate to replace Michael, when he retires from Mercedes.
 
Il_leone said:
No Ambrosio ??? despite mentioning he's actually matching Glock
Click to expand

t'is 2 threads merged together and the poll was not done by me so not my doing he was left off. Doubt he'll head either 3 in the world championship though however good he does - but then again anything can happen!
 
d'Ambrosio was not included as he is unlikely to score points and be ahead in the WDC, but I agree that he is a good driver with great potential. This season, however, he would struggle to score points.
 
I fail to see what Di Resta has done that is so amazing.

It's really getting quite annoying now how he's getting so much praise when his results have been merely ok. From what I can see he's 17th in the WDC, below even Alguersairi who's been looking very poor this year barring Canada. The BBC campaigned for him to get a seat so vigorously last year that they would feel embarrassed to have to criticize him. Yes he's out-qualified Sutil more often than not, but Sutil, as far as I know, has never been brilliant on Saturdays.

Not knocking the guy, he has the talent, but you would think he had scored 25-30 points the way people are going on.
 
True I do find di Resta over hyped by the BBC it's not as bad as what they did with Button do.

I think only Sutil has scored points twice like di Resta, one of them being where he and Kobayashi got lucky with the safety car.

So overall di Resta has been out-driving Sutil and was told to move over to let Sutil by in Australia when di Resta was ahead.

I, a fellow Scot, do believe he is overly hyped, but he had a consistent run and is a great driver, just because I think he is over-hyped does not mean I don't like him.

Plus you can easily say Perez is more hyped up after that performance in Melbourne, he has made more mistakes than di Resta.

I feel for these guys, the amount of pressure they are under these days, and people bigging them rather than letting them getting on with their jobs...
 
slyboogy21 said:
True I do find di Resta over hyped by the BBC it's not as bad as what they did with Button do.

I think only Sutil has scored points twice like di Resta, one of them being where he and Kobayashi got lucky with the safety car.

So overall di Resta has been out-driving Sutil and was told to move over to let Sutil by in Australia when di Resta was ahead.

I, a fellow Scot, do believe he is overly hyped, but he had a consistent run and is a great driver, just because I think he is over-hyped does not mean I don't like him.

Plus you can easily say Perez is more hyped up after that performance in Melbourne, he has made more mistakes than di Resta.

I feel for these guys, the amount of pressure they are under these days, and people bigging them rather than letting them getting on with their jobs...
Click to expand
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Part of the reason for Di Resta's overhype is because he is British and DTM champion and in previous seasons he was competitive in year old Mercedes against the regular runners and the key point is he beat Vettel when they were teammates in Euro F3 in 2006.

It is this claim that has got everyone talking about him plus he's managed by Lewis' dad. So there is an expectancy that he is as good as Vettel in competitive machinery

Di Resta may only be 17th but aren't you forgetting he's having to qualify with doing 1 less practice session than Sutil to learn the car and track all the time . Sutil is an F1 veteran now of 4 seasons in Force India/Spyker and last year was making noises he was going to join Renault and did not . So for Sutil the only thing he must do is beat Di Resta. Incidentally they both raced in Euro F3 in 2005 the year Hamilton won.
The fact is Sutil is getting outqualified and generally outraced by Di Resta... Monaco was more down to luck that the safety car and then the red flag came to his rescue when he crashed into the wall.

as for the BBC hyping up Button well he was the world champion at the time and obviously being British it helps to hype up national interest to get viewers watching unlike ITV who marketed the wholeshow around Hamilton despite not even being a world champion at the time
 

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