His repuation for crashing stems from his infamous Snetterton weekend in 2003 when he was racing for Comtec. He crashed his car in all 3 races, it cost something like 30K! This was the biggest of the 3 that weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG5hJxomhmo
He's quick though, no doubt about that. He set the 3rd fastest race lap in his Champ Car debut behind only Bourdais and Tracy, after making a giant leap from F3. Be interesting to see him in F2.