Nakajima out to beat Rosberg this year.

[Valve Bounce]

It's true; this is what the guy says: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65341

Of course, I for one will not be holding his breath. :rolleyes:

[Ranger]

...but behind that Toyota money is potential.

Not many drivers race an F1 car for the first time and set a faster lap than their team-mate. The ones that do are generally pretty handy (Rosberg being the case in point).

[maxu05]

Good on him. I think he is setting himself a goal, and I hope he does well. I think he is also realistic enough to state that it will be difficult, but not impossible to beat Nico :up: I wish him well.

[wmcot]

Not really any news. Isn't the first goal of any F1 driver to beat your teammate?

[Ranger]

Not really any news. Isn't the first goal of any F1 driver to beat your teammate?

Preposterous suggestion! :rolleyes: ;)

[woody2goody]

Not for Rubens and Eddie at Ferrari ;)

Seriously though Nakajima looks good. I thought in early testing that he wasn't going to be close to Nico this year, but he's really picked it up in the last month or so and has been really good.

I hope he does well and we get another Japanese driver on the podium at some point this year.

[AJP]

Good on him. I think he is setting himself a goal, and I hope he does well. I think he is also realistic enough to state that it will be difficult, but not impossible to beat Nico :up: I wish him well.

good call...

[wedge]

Not for Rubens and Eddie at Ferrari ;)

Actually, Rubens had a habit of starting his seasons off by saying he would challenge for the WDC, whereas Irvine kow-towed by saying Schumi is the greatest.

Rubens had the belief and ability to beat Schumi on occasions whereas Irvine took the money and deserved a victory or 2 at best.

Actually, Rubens had a habit of starting his seasons off by saying he would challenge for the WDC, whereas Irvine kow-towed by saying Schumi is the greatest.

Rubens had the belief and ability to beat Schumi on occasions whereas Irvine took the money and deserved a victory or 2 at best.

Well, that's one way of looking at it.

Another is that Eddie was being honest and up-front, while Rubens was talking bollocks.

Barrichello knew what the situation was and who 'the man' at Ferrari was. If he didn't, then he was really dumb.....and I don't think he is dumb.

[SGWilko]

Well, that's one way of looking at it.

Another is that Eddie was being honest and up-front, while Rubens was talking bollocks.

Barrichello knew what the situation was and who 'the man' at Ferrari was. If he didn't, then he was really dumb.....and I don't think he is dumb.

Personally, I think that arrangement suited Irv the Swerve well, a mediocre driver paid gazillions to be, well, mediocre.

Match made in heaven.

[wedge]

Well, that's one way of looking at it.

Another is that Eddie was being honest and up-front, while Rubens was talking bollocks.

To a large degree it's true but at least Rubens made the effort to beat Schumi. People want to see a race and not a procession and Rubens was the moral victor more than once on the same piece of tarmac.

But hey, that's F1 and Schumi took full advantage of the situation with team orders more than necessary.

[F1boat]

Nakajima might be good, but I doubt that he will beat Nico.

[ioan]

Personally, I think that arrangement suited Irv the Swerve well, a mediocre driver paid gazillions to be, well, mediocre.

Match made in heaven.

You might call him mediocre (your opinion, and a very wrong one), but he battled it out with Hakkinen for the 1999 WDC title, and he was looking good.
He also managed to put the Jaguar F1 on the podium! :eek:

Let's see how Jenson Button compares with Eddie Irvine after more than 100 GPs! :p :

[wedge]

You might call him mediocre (your opinion, and a very wrong one), but he battled it out with Hakkinen for the 1999 WDC title, and he was looking good.
He also managed to put the Jaguar F1 on the podium! :eek:

Irvine made a bad job of it, IMO, he even had the benefit of team orders and had won races which, on merit, he shouldn't have won - Malaysia and Germany.

Irvine is a decent driver and had that amazing podium with Jaguar in Monaco but you have to put him with your Fisichellas who never made full use of top class machinery simply because their world class team mates and nearest rivals made them look stupid.

[jedii]

Irvine made a bad job of it, IMO, he even had the benefit of team orders and had won races which, on merit, he shouldn't have won - Malaysia and Germany.

Irvine is a decent driver and had that amazing podium with Jaguar in Monaco but you have to put him with your Fisichellas who never made full use of top class machinery simply because their world class team mates and nearest rivals made them look stupid.

it was monza

[ioan]

it was monza

;)

[jens]

Irvine was on podium in Jaguar both at Monaco (01) and Monza (02). ;)

But about the topic. Nico is a very good driver and it's gonna be really hard to beat him. Matching him would be a more realistic goal. Last year's Brazilian Grand Prix showed that Kazuki has raw speed, now he needs consistency over the whole race distance + ability to excel in qualifying. Very hard to predict anything about someone, who has been in F1 for such little time. What we know that last year he was beating his GP2 team-mate Lapierre quite conveniently, like Kovalainen had done against the same driver two years earlier. Impossible to tell at the moment whether we can draw a comparison now from that one, but who knows.

[Ranger]

You might call him mediocre (your opinion, and a very wrong one),

It may be wrong, but it's really not that far off the mark.

Given the exact same machinery (in Jordan), he was slower and scored less points than Barrichello, whose performances were rather mercurial.

And only when given title-winning machinery in 1999 did he manage his only wins, 2 of which were gifts (Germany, Malaysia), and one due to attrition (Australia).

So IMO he was a bit average.

[wmcot]

So IMO he was a bit average.

Average...but rich! :)

[ArrowsFA1]

You might call him mediocre (your opinion, and a very wrong one), but he battled it out with Hakkinen for the 1999 WDC title, and he was looking good.
Just shows what a good driver can do in a good car with the full backing of the team...not quite win the title :p

[ioan]

Just shows what a good driver can do in a good car with the full backing of the team...not quite win the title :p

Let's not bring up that missing wheel problem then! :p :

[SGWilko]

If Irv was as good as some suggest, why was he never a lot closer to Mike's times than he was.

As for the missing wheel, do you mean headless chicken's in the Ferrari pit crew syndrome........ ;)

[ArrowsFA1]

If Irv was as good as some suggest, why was he never a lot closer to Mike's times than he was.
Can...open...worms...everywhere :p :

[pino]

Let's go back to the original topic...thanks ;)

[Garry Walker]

Rosberg is overrated, so I wouldn`t be too surprised to see KN match him or even beat him in qualifying pace after some races already. Race pace will be different, I don`t think he is consistant enough. Yet.

[jas123f1]

I think Nico is a very good driver - in fact - one of the best on the track. In my opinion fully equal to Lewis and Kovalainen – i don’t want to say anything negative about Nakajima and i think he deserved his Williams drive, but to me it’s hard to believe that he will beat Nico, however during 2008 season (and my opinion is that it will very difficult also 2009).
Looking for the winter testing results I shouldn’t be too much surprised if we can se Nico on the podium all ready this season. :)

[Valve Bounce]

You might call him mediocre (your opinion, and a very wrong one), but he battled it out with Hakkinen for the 1999 WDC title, and he was looking good.
He also managed to put the Jaguar F1 on the podium! :eek:

Let's see how Jenson Button compares with Eddie Irvine after more than 100 GPs! :p :

Is Eddie taking over from Rubens at Honda?? I didn't know that :confused:

[Valve Bounce]

Average...but rich! :)

Yeah!! and he made a bit more after Senna whacked him on the head! :D

[Dzeidzei]

Rosberg is overrated, so I wouldn`t be too surprised to see KN match him or even beat him in qualifying pace after some races already. Race pace will be different, I don`t think he is consistant enough. Yet.

What do you mean overrated? FW certainly thinks he´s top class. McL wanted him before Vettel and Kovalainen. So do you think they overrate him? You´d say these guys are somehow wrong on Nico´s abilities?

I dont know what youre on, but keep on at it. Its entertaining, so dont you start making sense :)

[Ranger]

What do you mean overrated? FW certainly thinks he´s top class. McL wanted him before Vettel and Kovalainen. So do you think they overrate him? You´d say these guys are somehow wrong on Nico´s abilities?

I dont know what youre on, but keep on at it. Its entertaining, so dont you start making sense :)

Wasn't exactly brilliant in his first season - just mercurial at best.

Wurz did make him look good last year. Note that Alex was pretty well smashed by Fisichella and spent the best part of 5 years not driving an F1 car competitively. There was a reason he didn't get a full-time drive in that time. And even so, Rosberg didn't smash him on points.

Adding to that, Rosberg is still quite terrible in the wet. Crashed on the first lap at the Nurburgring, got spooked off the road in China, and was looking pretty poor in Fuji before an electronics failure.

So I don't know about FW's comments, but Rosberg is probably the best driver he can get in one of his cars, as far as he's concerned. But Rosberg hasn't been successful against good drivers yet so we'll see after this year.