Quote:
Originally Posted by stephen wilson
Vettel is no stranger to racing or winning, starting in carts at 3 1/2, and winning 18 of 20 Formula BMW races in '04. He may be young, but he has serious talent. And they don't shift automatically, you still have to use the paddles to request a shift..
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no disrespect to Vettel but Formula BMW is hardly the equivalent of F2 (or whatever new name they are using this week). It had neither the depth of talent of GP2 nor the technicality. I'm not sure if it was Gerhard Berger who said this but he was present at the F1 test drive in the Williams BMW (typically the prize for the junior Formula BMW series winner) when Piquet Jr. and Rossberg Jr. were testing. He commented how
in the very first test day these two highly inexperienced teen aged drivers were coming within seconds of the lap times set by the full time F1 test driver. In his view this would have been utterly impossible in the 70's, 80's and early 90's. Clearly the cars have gotten too easy to drive relative to previous generations of GP racing. The lack of a gear lever is a primary reason. The lack of mechanical grip a bigger reason. I don't doubt Vettel is talented, though I would't rank him above Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen all three handle pressure and overtake better than him, but there's no way he'd be a three times champion at barely the age of 24 if he were driving Senna's McLaren or Piquet's Brabham. Those cars required far far more from a driver physically and mentally and not to mention being lethally fragile.