Is Webber the new Mansell?

[ensign14]

Well, there's another similarity now, both seem to have team managers actively trying to get them out.

[Mekola]

Webber could be the new Reutemann (acting as Jones), as teammate rival to Vettel (acting as Schumacher).

[ensign14]

Say what now?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by ensign14

Well, there's another similarity now, both seem to have team managers actively trying to get them out.

Don't know, there's the MW Arden set up to consider? But Overall F1 talks louder than a GP3 team for sure.

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Plus, he's now come out with some lame comments criticising Hamilton for having his career bankrolled- bla bla bla. Despite the fact Hamilton was good enough for the investment to be justified.

Bear in mind that Mansell is essentially repeating what Whitmarsh has said himself...

“We hooked up with him at twelve and looked after him,” Whitmarsh told the Daily Telegraph. “Most of his decisions were taken for him – in his life, in his career, in everything. It was a pretty artificial existence. How could you become the most balanced human being when your life had just glided along? It wasn't until a year ago that, bang, real-life problems hit him.

“We said nobody was ever going to turn up as a rookie better-prepared, physically and in terms of technical knowledge, but whether psychologically you can prepare, I don't know. He did turn up, and the first nine races on the podium [in 2007] will probably never be repeated. It was the most astounding start to a Formula 1 career.

“With Oliver Rowland, one of the kids who's now with us, we have taken him out of the top karting team and into another team, so he can experience a bit of adversity. We didn't do that with Lewis – he had all the best equipment right through. I think what we have learned is to give them a taste of disappointment, because until the Australian Grand Prix 2009, from the age of eight to 24, every race weekend he went to with the knowledge that he had the equipment capable of winning the race.

“That was perhaps a chink in the armour. Lewis was an experiment – he had a programme. It was all the right stuff, but the one thing you miss in all that is that you don't necessarily equip someone to make life decisions. Jenson is pretty comfortable in his own skin. Last year he won the championship, but previous to that he was perceived as a playboy. He was in the wrong team and not seen to be focussed and applying himself – a wasted talent. He was hammered into what he has become.”

Link: http://www.crash.net/f1/news/158448/...he_is_now.html

[Born Racer]

That's a fair point, but Nigel said it like it was a bad thing. Hamilton has still achieved a good amount in his relatively short-thus-far F1 career, despite some of his errors that have often been brought up. Expectations were high from after the first few races of his first season when it was clear he was pretty much on the pace right away, so he certainly has had it tough- F1 is tough.

And I say what McLaren did was no bad thing because they made it work for themselves and Hamilton. It has taken Ferrari, for instance, a while to cotton onto the idea that such a programme might be a good idea, hence the disastrous decisions to put Badoer and Fisichella in their car last year.

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

That's a fair point, but Nigel said it like it was a bad thing. Hamilton has still achieved a good amount in his relatively short-thus-far F1 career, despite some of his errors that have often been brought up. Expectations were high from after the first few races of his first season when it was clear he was pretty much on the pace right away, so he certainly has had it tough- F1 is tough.

And I say what McLaren did was no bad thing because they made it work for themselves and Hamilton. It has taken Ferrari, for instance, a while to cotton onto the idea that such a programme might be a good idea, hence the disastrous decisions to put Badoer and Fisichella in their car last year.

2 things have come to mind.
1) I'd imagine Mansell is partly bitter that his sons haven't been picked up by any F1 team.
2) Badoer and Fisichella didn't have any experience of a fundamentally difficult car to drive. Badoer despite being test driver hadn't driven that car.
If it's taken Ferrari a while to cotton on, are we talking about they have changed their attitude in 6 months? Massa is a Ferrari project from 2002 when he was placed in the Sauber Ferrari engines supply? What about Bianchi and several other drivers that have had Ferrari experience?
I see the way Schumi has struggled this year, I'm thinking if he had been able to drive for Ferrari last year, he may have looked worse than ever...

[Ralf's Girl]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Just as with Mr Webber, Mr Mansell was considered a journeyman, till he started winning races... then miraculously he became an overnight sensation

However, Mansell is actually in the record books as a world champion, which Webber currently isn't. So only time will tell how accurate that comparison really is.

[Bononi]

Agreed. Comparisions are useless in this case.

[Whosyermon]

I was going to suggest that Webber appears to be a much more pleasant human being. However upon reading several pages of this thread I see that my point has already been noted.