barichello should push

[kart_ferrari]

i think barrichello should push harder to gain the 2nd spot
his driving in spa was not up to the mark
karthik

[Minardi fan]

Abysmal is the only word which could describe Rubens' 'drive' at Spa...

[Wrex]

pathetic and undeserving works for me to

[GanjaGrizz]

What we seen from Rubinho at Spa is what we see at every race this year. Rubinho couldnt finish 2nd with all the help in the world.
Ferrari must look for another driver that knows how to drive a fast car like the Ferrari , Rubinho is out of his league with it.

[AndyF]

The only way Rubens will finish second, is if Michael lets him win the remaining races!

[ttc]

Originally posted by AndyF
The only way Rubens will finish second, is if Michael lets him win the remaining races!

IF?!

How?!!

Tell me how RB could have won IF Michael had wanted to "LET" him win in Spa?

[Minardi fan]

Rubens' performance was, as ever, totally lack lustre. He does not deserve the drive.

But that's why he's there...

[BBKing]

He should push the door out and say goodbye. He is as useless as Zonta. Not even a testing role at Ferrari would be deserving for him.

[Bononi]

Who could expect any other way ?

Now the pressure's on him to catch the 2nd place and make a "perfect year" for Ferrari, we'll see what he's up for... wait for hear excuses for each qualifying and race.

[conemoy_fawlef]

rubens is having a bad year. 1999 was trumendous - i think there was expectation on him to perform after 1999 in 2000, and i think that the pressure of getting fairly and squarely beaten by his team-mate has knocked his confidence a bit.

[AGGY]

I`m shocked at the negativity shown towards Rubens...he`s an F1 driver after all,just like Montoya...please be more positive.

[f1grandprixshop]

Originally posted by AGGY
I`m shocked at the negativity shown towards Rubens...he`s an F1 driver after all,just like Montoya...please be more positive.

on top of it, i think his car has a problem, aside from RB knocking is front wing off.

[Raoul Duke]

Rubens seemed to have a very promising futur prior to 2000. But his performance since joining Ferrari has been completely lack-luster. Not that I expected him to be as good as TGF, but I would at least have thought that he would have been closer in lap times then he is.
And this raises the question, is it easy to overrate a driver when they drive for a mid-field team. Had you asked me in 1999 if I thought that Rubens could be a WC in the right car I would have said "absolutely". But now I can only say that I don't see it ever happening. Frentzen was a very inferiour #2 driver at Williams, but then when he joined Jordan in 99, it seemed to blossom his career(although since then things have gone back downhill for him). Can driving a midfield car make a driver look better then he is?.

[Blackjack21]

Absolutely, everyone considered Kimi WDC material when all he has done so far is stay out of trouble.

[Valve Bounce]

Rubens was driving fine until that race (forget where now) when he wass forced to give up his second place to MSch., which he did after rounding the last corner. He was then offered a new contract almost immediately at a much higher salary, and I posted at that time that Rubens was demoralised, and he would cry all the way to the bank from then on. When a person is shafted after giving his best at a job, it is small wonder that he would try as hard in the future. Up until that very race, he insisted that he was equal No. 1 at Ferrari, and that he could drive faster than MSch. Since then, Rubens has made very little noise about his own capability. To add insult to injury, MSch gave Rubens his trophy at Hungary - that must have been the most demeaning insult to any competitor in any sport. I like Rubens, always have. Too bad his spirit was crushed at Ferrari. I have posted many times that I regretted his going to Ferrari, I just hope that Kimi doesn't make the same mistake. I sure as hell am not going to bad mouth Rubens after the way he had his spirit crushed at Ferrari by John Toad.

[Dino IV]

Raoul, I don't think it does. But the so-called topteams all have their own peculiarities which could mean make or break for a very good driver. Williams is a team in which the driver itself is not allowed to be as influencial as perhaps in others. They firmly believe in their engineering of racing and as a result of that may prefer solutions which are contrary to a drivers preferences because they feel them to be better. In for instance Frentzen's case this totally wasted him. He was not allowed to have his requirements met at developing the car and even worse, was not even allowed to have a major say in the before-hand engineered set-up. He was so unhappy with this and didn't have any confidence in the applied measurements he couldn't extract the usual speed from the car which he could have done when he would have felt comfortable with the car and its set-up. He had major clashes with Patrick Head about this, but pulled the short straw every-time. One time near the end of the 1998 season he was allowed to play around with his own set-up and have it his way and he proved to be blindingly quick.

One of the biggest fairy-tales in racing is that the driver's driving style must be met set-up wise in order for him to be fast. That's not true. Changing regs feature different cars, which have different characteristics, which in turn show different behaviour, which in turn needs specific driver operation to be fastest. Any driving instructor will tell you, racing is something which can be learnt and the idea that any gifted driver will be on top all the time every time is not true. Instead it means that for a specific car and track a specific set-up is required and that requires a specific driving style. There are some tutors around in the paddock whose job is to train drivers to handle their cars differently.

Which is not easy as drivers find it difficult to adapt 'their way' to the driving style required by the car. Faith and trust are a major requirement to stay determined and confident to get every last bit of speed from the car. By changing and adapting to a way which isn't naturally yours it's quite something to remain trustful and faithful in what your doing hence speed decreases. Sometimes a driver which figures out the set-up which meets his style can be very quick, but at the end of the day the determined driver who adapted his driving to the set-up suited best to track and car characteristics will win.

That's one of TGF's biggest assets, as he can adapt quickly and keep his confidence throughout changing circumstances. His engineers fiddle out the best set-up for car and track and they roll through the best way of driving the thing at the limit and he simply does it. In the early days he had the steer-in early\release brake and subsequent outside-step-flic\throttle on, but over the years has changed to all that was required. When the 1998 regs suddenly matched Mika's skills at its best he adopted 'hooking' like Mika. When it rains and the set-up is right it shows as well. From sheer natural abilities and racing skills he'd lose out from quite a few drivers, but they lack the determination he has in changing environments. Those drivers will prevail when the circumstances come to them, he'll prevail by adapting to the circumstances.

Concerning Rubens it's about the same. He's a Prost-like driver with enormous skill, but doesn't get the right environment. And even more important he seems to lack any motivation to change this. He seems to have cracked and is resting his head in the position he's in and does the everyday job uninspired. I don't know what his future plans may be, but he sure needs to get some fighting spirit back. At Ferrari though this will be seen as resistance and he'll be cracked again. When he returns to a more 'user friendly' team like Jordan after his Maranello days, he'll probably pop up again as quite some driver. Which will seem to confirm your question at a glance, Raoul, only the reasons are different. He'd just be glad and feel reborn again with performance to match.

[laxman]

barrichello surely isnt doing great, but that dosent mean he doing that badly.And he certainly dosent deserve the amount of critisism he is getting on this thread.When you compare his performance to Michael's, tell me, in which way did irvine ever match Michael.on top of everything, he also damaged his front wing(though by his own fault).If you consider everything, I think he had a bad race, one equally as bad as Mika Hakkinen.How come nobody has any anything to say about his performance.
......and im saying all this as a person who dosent believe that Rubens deserves his ferrari drive.I think you should put Alonso or Kimi to challenge Schumi.

laxman

[Valve Bounce]

Hello Dino, great explanation. I wonder whether you gave some thought to what I posted also.

[Dino IV]

Oh well ofcourse. You're right I guess. That race was a mental bonecrusher for him and must have made him decide to linger around and don't care too much to preserve himself from getting utterly frustrated fighting a fight he can not win. Tough decision, but he isn't left any other option either by the team. It only shows it's a very bad move to join such a one-man team ... at least if you still have any other ambitions after the contract expires.

[Wrex]

Dino, I agree with your ealier post, about Rubins and MS. But would'nt this have been a good reason not to renew your contract with Ferrari. From here on won't he just look less favourably?

[Bononi]

Dino, it makes me think... is there life after Ferrari for RB ?

I mean, after being there, what team would fit for him ?

[Dino IV]

Wrex > For Rubens himself you mean? McLaren, Williams, BAR, Jordan, Sauber etc are all filled. He'd give up certain securities like being in the best car for some midfield team like Jag at best. And Prost, Arrows or Toyota at worst. I don't think he had much options.

When you mean for Ferrari, I guess they think he's allright. They don't want another superstar, they just want an aide-de-camp. Before Irvine was contracted word was that Fisichella would join Ferrari next to TGF. TGF resisted this ferociously. It even made Niki come forward in the press with comments like what in the world they were thinking not to contract someone with Fisico's capacities. That was the reason they fired him back then. Thinking back of Spa, it makes you think how Fisico could have performed in the Ferrari. On the other hand it's also clear, like Raoul said, that these perfomances can't be transferred equally from team to team.

Bononi > How could anyone predict? Somewhere friendly like Jordan could see him revive like Frentzen did in '99. A tougher environment like BAR could prove already too much to master. We'll see, I guess.

[Jeanburrasca81]

RB is suffering the same illness as every other teammate of TGF was suffering in the past. He sees that he is only a worm in confront of TGF...and this makes him drive even worse than he really is.

best regards,

Julian

[Bononi]

Maybe.

RB has something to prove yet...

not sure what it is

[Liz]

I agree with Valve. He is demoralized.

He is still a good driver but nobody at Ferrari cares. Probably he thought the large salary would console him but if he's really a racer it couldn't possibly - no more than paying a hooker more money makes her Queen of the Nile.

Good point, Aggy - people should not rubbish Rubens just because he's not TGF. Even Roberto Moreno hates TGF for stealing his drive and ruining his F1 career, and that was many years ago now. Does the man have no former teammates that don't hate him?