54 replies to this topic

[Wander]

I read an interesting thing regarding Räikkönen in a Finnish mag today. Jani Backman, who raced Kimi as a junior in go-karts said the following:

"I raced Räikkkönen in Karts in junior years and I would have never thought that he would become an F1-driver. He was good, but didn't really stand out from the other drivers. His ability started to show only in his last seasons in the Karts and in the smaller Formula series after he turned 16 or 17."

I just found this particularly interesting considering how quickly he then jumped into F1. By comparison, Backman says that the other two F1 Finns he has seen drive as juniors, Kovalainen and Bottas were top material already early on.

Just an interesting example of how different drivers evolve at different rates if nothing else.

[mnmracer]

Came across the Vettel v Bourdais thread yesterday, and people were expecting Seb to beat Seb, because "what has he done in junior formula"? And as the year continued it turned into "let's first see if he can keep up with Webber".

Some things are quite funny in hindsight.

[Jackmancer]

[Rob]

What does it mean that Mark Webber didn't enter through single seaters? He was doing F3000 the year before.

[William Hunt]

De la Rosa was the last guy coming to F1 from Japan! And actually from SuperGT.

Pedro De La Rosa was reigning F. Nippon champion when he promoted to F1, he combined that with SuperGT and was a dominant champion in both series.