A Word About The Rookies - Who Impressed You The Most?

Jeanburrasca81 · 7 Mar 2001, 23:42 (Ref:69280)

Finally a season starts with a lot of very promising rookies. In my eyes Raikkonen and Alsonso did the greatest jobs. Nothing against Montoya...but these two impressed me a lot more. Don't forget Bernoldi...he was ok...not too fast but not someone like Mazzacane last year...or the comeback-man Marques...lol...poor Tarso!

So who is your favorite rookie...who impressed you the most? and why?

In my case Raikkonen impressed me with his incredible coolness. To do what he did and say that's his job..it's nothing special is amazing. I see similarities to other champions. Even if I prefer the more emotional driver this was great.
Alonso impressed me with his skills and speed. Always remember he drives a Minardi with about 100 HP less built within 4 weeks and 2 days..as Brunner said...lol. I think this was incredible.

Now let me hear what you think!

Valve Bounce · 7 Mar 2001, 23:59 (Ref:69284)

Jean, may I dirct you to the Alonso all-star fan club inthis forum? No need to go any further.

botsquad · 8 Mar 2001, 00:14 (Ref:69289)

Kimi Raikkonen:

a future star no longer.

what that guy did in his first f1 start was more than remarkable.

kuchi · 8 Mar 2001, 12:54 (Ref:69382)

In my heart it was JPM, but I must admit that what Kimi did on melbourne really impressed me. Not only on the race but on qualifying, he was great. And the saubers were very strong all weekend long. So hooray for Kimi. Now let me think, I'm also a member of the Alonso all-star fan club, so I might add that this spanidh dude did a great job too.

**bella** · 8 Mar 2001, 18:44 (Ref:69415)

well, jpm was just dangerous, and he did just as well as i expected.
alonso was, well, alonso. amazing considering the car that he had...and getting a pit lane speed penalty, and crashing someone..... he kicks...
kimi was good. very calm, very good during the race, although he was helped by attrition.
burti, well, he'll get it going sooner or later.
bernoldi, well, didn't notice. wasn't impressed, cause pdlr could have done much more with that drive. but that's in the past...

it's a really close one between kimi and fernando alonso....

i don't need to say who won.

Ralf's Girl · 8 Mar 2001, 19:13 (Ref:69426)

I find it very difficult to decide on one, so I have one for qualifying and one for the race.

Qualifying: without a doubt it was Alonso. I was so impressed that he qualified 19th in a car that people didn't even expect to make the grid that I declared myself a Fernando Alonso fan straight away.

The race: it'd have to be Raikkonen. I was again very impressed with Alonso (12th is pretty damn good in a Minardi that was built in six weeks!), but Raikkonen gets it for clearly being a natural talent. He was calm and controlled, and pulled off some good overtaking manoeuvres. He deserved to become the 50th man to score a point on his debut race.

Sharky · 9 Mar 2001, 00:34 (Ref:69533)

I would say that Juan but I knew that he would do well so....he doesn't count. Same goes for alonso as I also expected him to drive well (though it was a bit better than what I expected).

I was very VERY impressed with Kimi. To tell you the truth I was one of those who thought that he was too inexperienced for F1. But he did one hell of a job.

RT · 9 Mar 2001, 02:35 (Ref:69546)

I'd say Kimi and Alonso both deserve a joint mention. I cannot truly say who was better all things considered.

However, I'd like to throw in the discussion the name of an "older rookie": Olivier Panis (penalty aside) did an outstanding job after being away from F1. He proved that his earlier Monaco win was no fluke.

RALFANATOR · 9 Mar 2001, 07:26 (Ref:69560)

JPM HOW CAN I SAY IT . WELL FAILURE IS ONE WORD DUE TO THE FACT THAT HE DNF'D QUALIFED POORLY FOR THE CAR HE WAS IN . SEE ITS IS ALL RELIVENT TO THE CAR THEY DRIVE AND IN THAT CASE SCORE BOARD WUOLD SAY
KIMI 1
ALONSO 2
BURTI 3
JPM/ENRIQUE =5

RAIKKONEN & ALONSO ARE DRIVES TO WATCH

Airhead · 9 Mar 2001, 07:58 (Ref:69569)

On this RT gets my vote,

I agree Kimmi and Alonso excelled, it was but one race however.

Minardi fan · 9 Mar 2001, 16:47 (Ref:69652)

I would say the honour goes jointly to Kimi and Fernando - both were incredible.

(P.S Check out Cool Sites for the link to my soon-to-be-updated and generally lovely Kimi Raikkonen website!)

Ralf's Girl · 10 Mar 2001, 18:12 (Ref:69885)

Ah, good old Minardi fan and his good old website plugs...what would we do without them?

Mania · 10 Mar 2001, 20:56 (Ref:69909)

Raikonnen was certainly the star of the race - no doubt.

But for me, Juan Pablo Montoya drove as good a race as Raikonnen. Montoya didnt make too many mistakes in his first F1 drive, and he was pretty much on the mid field pace which is expected of Williams this season.

Jeanburrasca81 · 11 Mar 2001, 00:40 (Ref:69954)

Yeah...I liked JPM...even if he wants to be called just Juan without the Pablo now...lol. But if we think of the only 23 races in Kimi's bolid carreer untill now...well...he impressed much more than Obi Juan with his Champ car seasons...

Big D · 11 Mar 2001, 23:34 (Ref:70264)

Montoya will be hurled back to CART next season just like Zanardi.

SPOONERBORO · 12 Mar 2001, 00:12 (Ref:70279)

Alonso for me was top rookie showed speed in an under tested car i mean cmon look what comparitively experianced marques did sweet fa was a fair assumption, throught bernoldi was a pile of poo also far too aggressive by contrast burti was quite and steady similar to his ausrian gp debut last year, montoya was lively in practice but never lived up to it in the race but watch this space and of course dont forget get wonder boy raikkonen superb drive and points and that is what counts - are you watching leighton walker!!

Speed · 12 Mar 2001, 16:14 (Ref:70463)

Quote:

Originally posted by Big D
Montoya will be hurled back to CART next season just like Zanardi.

???????

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
The Japanese driver who impressed	karting legend	Formula One	5	14 Oct 2005 13:49
Impressed	The Tool Man	Announcements and Feedback	24	9 Oct 2002 13:49
DTM : who's impressed you so far	alesi95	Touring Car Racing	10	7 Jun 2002 18:00