Marc Hynes blows his chance?

[Super Tourer]

Has Marc Hynes blown his chance of a F1 deal with his poor performance in tests this week. He was 3 seconds off on the first day and 4 seconds off the second day, which is a lifetime.

Bearing in mind that both Button and Raikkonen blitzed their first F1 tests, with no prior F1 experience this makes Marc's performance even poorer by comparison.

Marc Hynes has always struck me as enigma, he will be very quick to tell you how he beat both Button and Burti in F3, but he never performs well when it counts. Unfortunately he always has a stream of excuses as to why he wasn't quick enough. The excuses he has just come out with this week, seem very similar to the one's he used when he was beaten by Warren Hughes in the F3000 shoot out.

He seemed to go well in the recent Indy lights test but only against Ralph Firman, who I feel is another driver going nowhere. It seems that when Marc comes up against the very best - he's simply not good enough, maybe if he realised that and had different career goals he way do achieve more.

[robert2000]

I'm a big supporter of Marc Hynes, I think he fully deserved his F3 title. It's not through his fault that he was slow, he's been out of a drive for a year now (disregarding 2 F3000 races). It's a shame that he didn't get a drive. Just think that the British F3 champion always used to jump straight into F1. Don't know what happened to that tradition.

[Super Tourer]

I'm not diminishing his F3 title i.e. his performance over 20 races or whatever, but his ability to perform under pressue when it counts.

If Button, Raikkonen and Pizzonia can jump into F1 cars and be on the pace straight away then Marc should be able to do the same. These young drivers have now set the standard by which all other F1 novices will be judged.

As for your point that its not his fault he was slow, whose was it? That is exactly the attitude that has put him in the position he is in now. If he had beaten Warren Hughes in the F3000 shoot out, he would have raced in Italian F3000 this year, maybe won it and be looking at a decent F3000 drive. He didn't (more excuses - the seat wasn't right !) and he had a year on the sidelines with pnly two very poor outings in F3000.

He gets another chance in a F1 test and blows that. Time for him and the people around him to take a hard look at where they are going.

As for your point about F3 champs going into F1. It seems that from last years series- Pizzonia, Sheckter and Sato will get F1 test drives. Plus both Button and Burti got F1 drives straight from F3, so the tradition is strong. I think F3000 drivers have more to worry about, with only Webber (test drive) and maybe Bernoldi part of the F1 scene next year.

[MichaelC]

This is an example of something which is always going to exist. For every Raikkonen who shouldn't have made it but did, there's going to be an Oliver Gavin who should have made it but didn't.

Marc Hynes is a talented guy, and I wish him the very best of luck finding a seat, but he seemed to have decided that once he won the F3 championship, people would be flocking to sign him up, and got more than a little angry when they didn't.

[Speed Demon]

Wait up - give Raikkonen a fair crack of the whip. He's been impressive in testing so far and until he has completed a season, it's unfair to say he shouldn't have made it to F1.

[robert2000]

Speaking of Oliver Gavins who deserved to make it but didn't, I've heard that Allan McNish (remember him?) may get a Toyota F1 drive in 2002.