ART: Filippi or Grosjean?

[Jackman]

So Filippi finally got fed up with ART and left - probably should have done that a bit earlier...

[chunterer]

So yes, whatever the reasons for the split, his side of the fence or theirs it's probably for the best, but how much has this horrendous half season cost him in terms of his future chances?

[sceptic]

Hopefully Filippi can recover from this. Though he was probably naive to think he'd get equal treatment at ART.

[Russfeld]

You have to laugh that Sakon has outqualified Luca by a single position. Yeah it's one session, but still...

[alonso11]

I cant help but think Filippi -if he was still with ART- woulda record pretty much the same laptime Yamamoto did. Having said that Yamamoto's wallet is a tad bit thicker, it was just a wise move by the team.

[META4]

There is a report on Italiaracing saying that ART did advantage Grosjean over Filippi. An exemple is the last race at Silverstone, when Filippi was starting from Pole , he was sent by his team with Dry set-up which obviously was not the right one for a completly wet track.It is reported also that some Engineers from ART left the team as well due to this " all for Grosjean"

Lets wait and see what Filippi will do with Arden, i am pretty sure he will get in top 10 today and do Top 5 tomorrow

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by META4

There is a report on Italiaracing saying that ART did advantage Grosjean over Filippi. An exemple is the last race at Silverstone, when Filippi was starting from Pole , he was sent by his team with Dry set-up which obviously was not the right one for a completly wet track.It is reported also that some Engineers from ART left the team as well due to this " all for Grosjean"

Lets wait and see what Filippi will do with Arden, i am pretty sure he will get in top 10 today and do Top 5 tomorrow

Do you belive ART would compromise one of its drivers, they want to win with both cars 1,2 like any other team, Frédéric Vasseur is a professional and knows you dont win the championship with just one car. And to suggest anything else is prepostererous. Grosjean has an exceptional talent Fillipi is average.
Filippi should have stayed with Super Nova he had a great team who belived in him and one of the best engineers in Sean Thompson (who made him) His first mistake was not running GP2 Asia with Super Nova, When he was their first choice. He failed in GP2 Asia dismally, Super Nova found success, winning and podiums with Fairuz Fauzy. Fauzy (4th) finnishing in the championship higher than Senna when he was rated a complete outsider (Filippi rated as favorite). To move to Arden now will be the same story, his new team mate Sebastien Buemi is every bit as good a race driver as Romain Grosjean so when he fails again will he blame his new team of bias. I can't see any F1 team wanting to take a driver who flits from team to team to cover his own failures.

[META4]

time will tell...

[ivanalesi]

Well, if his engineers and mechanics leave the team along with him, it's clear. Btw, I've heard in his F3 days, that Grosjean's father Christian is one of Briatore's lawyers and that is partly the reason for his RDD status. Has anyone else heard that?

[F3 Rocks]

[quote=ivanalesi]Well, if his engineers and mechanics leave the team along with him, it's clear.

Do you know they have left the team or are you like others relying on an Italian web site for that information,(or disinformation) because I for one cannot see ART mechanics following Fillipi anywhere.

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by META4

time will tell...

How much time does this guy need.

Classified 23rd not "top 10" ....................again.

ART top team, Arden top team, where next,

I wonder how the affore mentioned web site will put a spin on this result.

[Jackman]

Originally Posted by F3 Rocks

Do you know they have left the team or are you like others relying on an Italian web site for that information,(or disinformation) because I for one cannot see ART mechanics following Fillipi anywhere.

The story was actually broken by British site www.gpweek.com, not Italiaracing (who admitted in their story they were just repeating it).

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by Jackman

The story was actually broken by British site www.gpweek.com, not Italiaracing (who admitted in their story they were just repeating it).

If thats the case it only goes to show they should have checked out the ridiculous story first, rather than just repeat a story that obviously suited them.

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by F3 Rocks

Do you belive ART would compromise one of its drivers, they want to win with both cars 1,2 like any other team, Frédéric Vasseur is a professional and knows you dont win the championship with just one car. And to suggest anything else is prepostererous. Grosjean has an exceptional talent Fillipi is average.
Filippi should have stayed with Super Nova he had a great team who belived in him and one of the best engineers in Sean Thompson (who made him) His first mistake was not running GP2 Asia with Super Nova, When he was their first choice. He failed in GP2 Asia dismally, Super Nova found success, winning and podiums with Fairuz Fauzy. Fauzy (4th) finnishing in the championship higher than Senna when he was rated a complete outsider (Filippi rated as favorite). To move to Arden now will be the same story, his new team mate Sebastien Buemi is every bit as good a race driver as Romain Grosjean so when he fails again will he blame his new team of bias. I can't see any F1 team wanting to take a driver who flits from team to team to cover his own failures.

Filippi average? And where are you coming from on that basis? He didn't fail in GP2 Asia, look at the luck he had with new team Meritus. He won a race in the wet quite comfortably, but was stripped of his win because Meritus put Yoshimoto's tyres on by accident (not Luca's fault whatsoever). And that result obviously costed him 8th place on the grid and more points for Sunday's race, and a load of championship positions.

You say you can't see any F1 team wanting Filippi, yet you forget (or do not know) that he is in the Honda racing F1 programme, lapping 1 tenth of a second away from Button at Barcelona over the winter. Ok, Luca has had a poor year by his standards, how can you call him average though, looking at his history?! Look at the drivers he beat to 4th place last year.

[Kai]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

Well, if his engineers and mechanics leave the team along with him, it's clear. Btw, I've heard in his F3 days, that Grosjean's father Christian is one of Briatore's lawyers and that is partly the reason for his RDD status. Has anyone else heard that?

Sounds like hearsay but could be I suppose... irrelevant nonetheless, unless you're infering that Grosjean's talent isn't deserving of a Renault Dev. drive. As far as ART are concerned, I find it hard to believe they'd pull somethng shady. Luca obviously didn't want to be 2008's Premat

[ivanalesi]

Kai, that's something I've heard in 2006, and sure it would help having your father advising Briatore to land you in RDD, even though he was in the FFSA team earlier than that, so Jean and .co should have seen something in him. It's all nothing more than speculation.

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by runshaw

Filippi average? And where are you coming from on that basis? He didn't fail in GP2 Asia, look at the luck he had with new team Meritus. He won a race in the wet quite comfortably, but was stripped of his win because Meritus put Yoshimoto's tyres on by accident (not Luca's fault whatsoever). And that result obviously costed him 8th place on the grid and more points for Sunday's race, and a load of championship positions.

You say you can't see any F1 team wanting Filippi, yet you forget (or do not know) that he is in the Honda racing F1 programme, lapping 1 tenth of a second away from Button at Barcelona over the winter. Ok, Luca has had a poor year by his standards, how can you call him average though, looking at his history?! Look at the drivers he beat to 4th place last year.

How can you possibly say that in the GP2 Asia race in Sentul he suffered bad luck. He used his team mates "New" tyres, on a track that is notoriously heavy on tyres. That gave him a distinct advantage over the other drivers the stewards were correct in excluding him. That was not bad luck. To be a good driver you need to show good judgement as well as driving skills. His choice of team for GP2 Asia was bad judgement given their history in Asia, and that Super Nova wanted him as their lead driver. Turning his back on the team and engineer that made him look good in the previous season of GP2. That showed bad judgement also. To say he did not fail in GP2 Asia is beyond me he started favorite and finnished a lowly 17th with only 5 points to his name with a team that appeared to be very well funded.

On to this season you still don't think he is failing, He joined ART one of the top 3 teams probably the best team in GP2. His results dire, not bad luck again. Now he has swithched teams after it being suggested on this forum (from web sites) that ART discriminated against him what rubbish. After this weekends dismal performance with errors associated with rookies do you still insist he is not failing.

F1, what running has he done with Honda this year and what plans do they have for him. I'm not sure if he got some tours of Silverstone with the new Kinetic engine, he may have to give him the milage he paid for. He got the drive at Honda along with Mike Conway because of Super Nova's connections, the team he turned his back on more bad judgement. Motor racing is about now not past performances. If F1 drives were based on past performances Honda would bring Jacques Villeneuve back surely. If you think he has a future in F1 where do you think he could slot in and what usefulness can he bring to an F1 team.

If you don't think finnishing in 17th postion in GP2 Asia starting as favorite, and languishing at the bottom in 16th postion in the current championship having started with a top team a failure thats beyond me.

You criticized me for calling him an average driver after this weekends results he's hardly average.

[META4]

AFAIK Filippi was engineered by Sean Thompson (brother of Peter Thompson, Team Meritus Owner) in GP2 Asia. It was the first year of Meritus Racing at this level of competition


I did not know thre was any connection between Super Nova and Honda, probably it does (has) never exist, if it was the case i guess Conway would still drive for Super Nova...

Just for your information Luca Filippi is managed by Vincenzo Sospiri

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by META4

AFAIK Filippi was engineered by Sean Thompson (brother of Peter Thompson, Team Meritus Owner) in GP2 Asia. It was the first year of Meritus Racing at this level of competition


I did not know thre was any connection between Super Nova and Honda, probably it does (has) never exist, if it was the case i guess Conway would still drive for Super Nova...

Just for your information Luca Filippi is managed by Vincenzo Sospiri

I don't understand what point you are trying to make (Sean & Peter), and obviously you did not know, and yes I know Vince is the manager

We have a saying "The grass is always greener on the other side" racing drivers always put their poor performances down to others and look for "the grass on the other side" they should not let disinformation cloud the issues

[META4]

in reference of that : " Turning his back on the team and engineer that made him look good in the previous season of GP2"

Filippi had the same race engineer at Super Nova and Meritus Racing

Anyway i agree with you that if Filippi does not make it with Arden , then there will be limited future for him in Motorsport

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by META4

in reference of that : " Turning his back on the team and engineer that made him look good in the previous season of GP2"

Filippi had the same race engineer at Super Nova and Meritus Racing

Anyway i agree with you that if Filippi does not make it with Arden , then there will be limited future for him in Motorsport

Sean Thompson engineered him at Super Nova with sucess in 2007, but Sean engineered Christian Bakkerud in GP2 Asia, appart from the Malaysia round.

yes I agree his opptions will be limited

If GP2-F1 is still his aim I would do GP2 Asia back with Super Nova, or if not GP2/F1 go to A1 GP.......... Italy I am sure will put a good team in now the car is powered by Ferrari

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by F3 Rocks

How can you possibly say that in the GP2 Asia race in Sentul he suffered bad luck. He used his team mates "New" tyres, on a track that is notoriously heavy on tyres. That gave him a distinct advantage over the other drivers the stewards were correct in excluding him.

His team put the tyres on, he didn't puroposely use Hiroki's tyres, he was just pulling in for a pit-stop and that happened. That was a complete mistake by the team. 17th in GP2 Asia is just a statistic. He was with a new team and was quick in testing and the races, yet suffered bad luck. Just like Bruno Senna. You have to look at some of his performances on the day, not just a championship standing.

Of course I agree he is having a dismal season, no doubt about it. But you can't call him an average driver.

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by runshaw

His team put the tyres on, he didn't puroposely use Hiroki's tyres, he was just pulling in for a pit-stop and that happened. That was a complete mistake by the team. 17th in GP2 Asia is just a statistic. He was with a new team and was quick in testing and the races, yet suffered bad luck. Just like Bruno Senna. You have to look at some of his performances on the day, not just a championship standing.

Of course I agree he is having a dismal season, no doubt about it. But you can't call him an average driver.

With regard to Sentul, In my opinion he would not have won the race (and he did not win the race) had he used his own worn tyres like all the other drivers had to. The reason all the race tyres were so bad is because they were all degraded in qualifying. The Sentul track was like no other track used to stage an international race meeting on, the cars were shredded let alone the tyres the cars were being armoured by using the metal hordings from track side. Mechanics hanging out the pit boards were being injured, some wearing helmuts so bad was the track. So to use new tyres gave him a distinct advantage. That is not bad luck. I know he had no control over what his team did in the pit stop, but they tried to gain an unfair advantage, thats not bad luck. Apart from Sentul his perfomances were dire his only point scoring race was the first race in Dubai finnishing 5th, his next best finnish was 11th & 12th and 5 DNF's. In his teams home race in Malaysia (where he and Meritus enjoyed 2 full days testing in a Renault V6 just prier to the race) he managed 2 DNF's. It was not bad luck. I saw all his performances unlike many and the results were not down to bad luck. I think to do an international racing series and come out with stats like that can only be called failure. If you don't think he failed in GP2 Asia you must think he was successful, on that reasoning that makes drivers like Enrique Bernoldi and Alex Yoong successful F1 drivers.

Why you insist he is any more than an average driver is beyond me.

Bad luck is what happened to Michael Herck today when Luca ran in to him at the start and ruined his race.

[Jackman]

Filippi had exactly the same condition tyres coming to him as the ones that were marked for Yoshimoto, which is why the team got them mixed up.

And Herck nerfed Filippi today, which was pretty obvious from the replay.

[runshaw]

F3 Rocks- I can see where you are coming from, Filippi is having a bad season which I have acknowledged.

To be honest, you keep lambasting me because I regard Filippi's history as a driver to watch (F3000 Italia champion with Fisi, GP2 winner ahead of people such as Glock, di Grassi, Pantano...who are they?) . You say motor racing is about now, not history. Yet you keep referring to GP2 Asia and how he managed a dismal 17th. Yes, it's a dismal championship standing. But no, that really does not portray Luca's driving ability, (as I'm sure everyone will agree). The Honda F1 team were impressed by his testing, and unimpressed by Zuber, who was testing in the same week.

And as Jackman points out, which was later established, Herck did indeed cause an avoidable accident. Luca did not run into him. Hercks right front side was a mess, as was Luca's left rear, which obviously suggests that Herck was pointing in the wrong direction after his dismal start, which is a trademark of his.