WS Formula Renault 3.5 Races 1 & 2 - Motorland Aragon, Spain

[Last2LiftOff]

Formation lap, track looks dry.

[ivanalesi]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

I can only guess Hartley's too busy doing his hair. He's been a surprising disappointment to me, really since Alguersuari edged the upper hand in F3. It's all fallen to pieces in WSR really. It's strange that Red Bull dropped Wickens and Bortolotti while keeping hold of Hartley.

He's lost his focus, may be too disappointed to see Jaime jump him thanks to sponsors for F1 seat... Last year he was way too distracted & may be Red Bull ruined his career momentum.

[p-matt]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

He's lost his focus, may be too disappointed to see Jaime jump him thanks to sponsors for F1 seat... Last year he was way too distracted & may be Red Bull ruined his career momentum.

Didn't he himself step down from the test role to focus on his season before Jaime got promoted?

[strider]

Originally Posted by p-matt

Didn't he himself step down from the test role to focus on his season before Jaime got promoted?

That was the official line and it's true that he was switching between F3ES with Carlin and WSbR, but with Red Bull you never know. They may have decided already they had more faith in Alguersuari.

Either way, I am personally disappointed by what has happened since because I really felt a couple of years ago that Brendon had the greater potential.

[runshaw]

I think everyone felt Hartley had greater potential, its intriguing the way his career has gone in the past year and a half. To be honest, even though its mentioned a lot about Red Bull placing their drivers in too many series at once, you can see the ones who juggle it best. Vettel didn't do too badly topping the Friday test sesssions at Grand Prix's in 2006, whilst also challenging for the F3 Euroseries title and being placed in World Series by Renault mid-way through the same year, winning on his debut! Buemi juggled racing in many championships well, too. He was a race winner in F3 Euroseries, FR Eurocup and FR NEC all in the same year, as well as being a podium finisher at the F3 Masters and taking 4th at Macau!!

Brendon has a lot of experience now, its going to be interesting to see if he can improve upon his somewhat very average form. As jondownunder said, maybe he was overated when he won the Eurocup. Because after all, Jon Lancaster won more races than him despite being in his very first year of racing, he was clearly quicker, yet Brendon was in his 4th year.

Moving on, good job by the ever imrpoving Sten Pentus! I'm glad I marked him out as a dark horse pre-season Intersting, he is 28 years old, never realised that. Funny these days, but that seems quite old!

[dank]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

I can only guess Hartley's too busy doing his hair. He's been a surprising disappointment to me, really since Alguersuari edged the upper hand in F3. It's all fallen to pieces in WSR really. It's strange that Red Bull dropped Wickens and Bortolotti while keeping hold of Hartley.

Bortolotti left of his own accord though. When asked to move to Milton Keynes, to be nearer the Red Bull Racing team and their simulator, he refused (some would say a wise decision!), and was promptly dropped from the programme.

Wickens I'm not too sure about. He was the only driver able to match Soucek in F2 last year, but through a mixture of bad luck and mistakes, let frustrations get the better of him. I don't think he really fitted the Red Bull adventurous 'image' like, say, Hartley does...

Hartley, Hartley, Hartley. On his day he can be sensationally quick, yet equally, can be agonisingly frustrating to watch when everything falls apart – which became an all too common theme during last year.

I believe(d) that with a year's experience in FR3.5 under his belt he would come out guns blazing this weekend, but alas, he's done anything but. If he continues to get smoked by Ricciardo then it's game over for his Red Bull funding and perhaps his F1 ambitions.

[WSR Fan]

Whoop, the new season has finally begun, although I was working all weekend so didn't get to see any of it!

Although the weather played it's part over the weekend, it looks like Ricciardo has taken the early upper-hand, but I was really impressed with the drives put in by Aleshin, Zampieri and in particular Sten Pentus. He seems to have transferred his testing pace from the winter into solid results and his rate of progress in the series since this time last year is huge. Perhaps he could even be a darkhorse for a shot at the title?

What I really love about this season is the simplicity of the rules. No SuperPole, no reverse grids, no bonus points, just two qualifying sessions, two races and a simple, easy-to-understand points system. Good times me thinks

[bella]

the only confusing thing is the rookie podium

i was impressed with ricciardo's consistency. two completely different races requiring two completely different approaches and he ended up on the podium for both. it's early on, but i guess that's the sort of driver who is better positioned to do really well in the series.

aleshin is difficult to judge because he got involved in shenanigans at the start of race 2, but he was excellent in the wet conditions on saturday.

i hope autosport do a feature on the many different ways people managed to get back from motorland. charouz said he'd been part of a big road trip, pentus was driving and he lives out there anyway, and ricciardo had absolutely no idea how he was going to get back! i suspect within teams there's an equally wide range of adventures in public transport, hire cars, taxis and HUGE bills!

regarding hartley... it does seem that he's a bit out of his depth for a red bull driver at the moment (everything's relative though isn't it!). i think red bull would do well to look at albert costa as someone to take on next year. he seems to fit the outgoing stereotype they like, he's got an epic spanish fanbase (could be a downside though) and he's pretty quick too.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

They could of course take the ferry to Portsmouth. Bit of a cruise never hurt anyone. Pleasantly surprised by the circuit, thought it was quite good. And who would have predicted Pentus and Charouz running 1-2 on pace in a race this year? Not me, for sure.

[Mak]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Magnusson

They could of course take the ferry to Portsmouth. Bit of a cruise never hurt anyone. Pleasantly surprised by the circuit, thought it was quite good. And who would have predicted Pentus and Charouz running 1-2 on pace in a race this year? Not me, for sure.

They were fully booked.. Heard several teams doing Days of Thunder, with team members playing cards and drinking beer in hospitality areas of trucks tavelling home.. Think they were hoping to be pull up by female cop!!
Pentus very fast in race 2 and Aleshin had storming drive through field after 1st corner trip.

[strider]

Originally Posted by bella

i was impressed with ricciardo's consistency. two completely different races requiring two completely different approaches and he ended up on the podium for both. it's early on, but i guess that's the sort of driver who is better positioned to do really well in the series.

There were times even last year in BF3 when I had the feeling that he was driving with the title in mind, rather than purely on a race-by-race basis.