[Driver] Chandhok in at Lotus

[bella]

what has been interesting about karun racing this weekend has been the odd insight on twitter into exactly what is really challenging to learn about f1 this year compared to last year. all things considering i think he didn't make a muppet of himself at all.

given the choice between trulli, who may have been quicker but who would have mentioned how unhappy he is with the power steering in every sentence and chandhok who was slower, but had a different view on things... i wonder if the team morale was any different.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by bella

what has been interesting about karun racing this weekend has been the odd insight on twitter into exactly what is really challenging to learn about f1 this year compared to last year. all things considering i think he didn't make a muppet of himself at all.

given the choice between trulli, who may have been quicker but who would have mentioned how unhappy he is with the power steering in every sentence and chandhok who was slower, but had a different view on things... i wonder if the team morale was any different.

Clearly the team would have been happier with Chandok.

They are clearly not there to race, It would have taken about 1 race meeting for a serious club effort to have changed the power steering to suit Trulli.
The fact that they haven't bothered to address their driver's concerns speaks volumes about this whole team! Poor very poor!

[tux]

Unless you work for the team i dont think you should be saying things like this, you do not know what the issue could be.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by tux

Unless you work for the team i dont think you should be saying things like this, you do not know what the issue could be.

At this level - solve it!

Trulli has a perfectly valid gripe!

[bella]

Originally Posted by wnut

At this level - solve it!

Trulli has a perfectly valid gripe!

except it's not a problem for the other 2 drivers who have had a go (in anger) in that car...

[Jacques Rabbit]

WHAT IS TEAM LOTUS' PROBLEM?! YOU WOULD THINK WITH GE AND CNN AS PARTNERS, THEY WOULD TAKE THEIR YOUNG DRIVER ALEXANDER ROSSI AND AWARD HIS INABILITY TO PUT A FULL SEASON OF RACING TOGETHER WITH AN F1 DRIVE! HE ALWAYS WINS HIS FIRST RACE! USA! USA! USA! etc.

In all seriousness, Jarno Trulli's ship sailed before it even got a chance to dock, and Karun Chandhok's ship was more of a raft. I like Chandhok a lot, and can't stand Trulli, from the personality perspective but...I really don't lose sleep when either one's not in the race, and to be honest, when I see Team Lotus saying they will extend Trulli, I cringe a little. There are plenty of drivers who would be better for the team, I think. One of them currently drives a Lotus, in fact, and if Robert Kubica returns...

I was glad to see Chandhok back because he's a good guy, but I have to say I barely noticed he was there. Not that impressive. Then again, nothing in his racing CV really was.

[mac]

The fact is Trulli is a grand prix winner with experience working for some of the biggest and best in the sport... To merely discount his concerns, or not bother, or whatever the case may be, is ridiculous...

Having spent some time with Jarno in the past, I can tell you that he is a very interesting guy... He is also a very nice fellow - he seems to be a little kid, who doesn't quite "get" the whole "being famous" thing. He seems quite shy and reluctant to be the centre of attention... But a genuinely nice and humble fellow.

When he and his car are on song, Trulli is an absolute artist... In the 15 or so years I have spent watching F1, no one has made driving a car look so beautiful... It has been at times depressing watching him trundle around in that Lotus these past couple of seasons.

Chandhok might be a nice guy, but I would have thought that Lotus, if they had any serious interest in improving, would hang on to Kovalainen and Trulli with everything they have - and empower them to drive the team forward.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

WHAT IS TEAM LOTUS' PROBLEM?! YOU WOULD THINK WITH GE AND CNN AS PARTNERS, THEY WOULD TAKE THEIR YOUNG DRIVER ALEXANDER ROSSI AND AWARD HIS INABILITY TO PUT A FULL SEASON OF RACING TOGETHER WITH AN F1 DRIVE! HE ALWAYS WINS HIS FIRST RACE! USA! USA! USA! etc.

In all seriousness, Jarno Trulli's ship sailed before it even got a chance to dock, and Karun Chandhok's ship was more of a raft. I like Chandhok a lot, and can't stand Trulli, from the personality perspective but...I really don't lose sleep when either one's not in the race, and to be honest, when I see Team Lotus saying they will extend Trulli, I cringe a little. There are plenty of drivers who would be better for the team, I think. One of them currently drives a Lotus, in fact, and if Robert Kubica returns...

I was glad to see Chandhok back because he's a good guy, but I have to say I barely noticed he was there. Not that impressive. Then again, nothing in his racing CV really was.

Please no upper case as it looks like you are shouting..

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by mac

The fact is Trulli is a grand prix winner with experience working for some of the biggest and best in the sport... To merely discount his concerns, or not bother, or whatever the case may be, is ridiculous...

Having spent some time with Jarno in the past, I can tell you that he is a very interesting guy... He is also a very nice fellow - he seems to be a little kid, who doesn't quite "get" the whole "being famous" thing. He seems quite shy and reluctant to be the centre of attention... But a genuinely nice and humble fellow.

When he and his car are on song, Trulli is an absolute artist... In the 15 or so years I have spent watching F1, no one has made driving a car look so beautiful... It has been at times depressing watching him trundle around in that Lotus these past couple of seasons.

Chandhok might be a nice guy, but I would have thought that Lotus, if they had any serious interest in improving, would hang on to Kovalainen and Trulli with everything they have - and empower them to drive the team forward.

Very nice post...

[wnut]

Ditto that! Great job Mac.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by wnut

At this level - solve it!

Trulli has a perfectly valid gripe!

They are, an update is coming at the next round. Without in-season testing allowed, how will they know the issue will go away?

It kinda makes sense to stop the negative noise for one round, to allow someone to drive who will do so later in the season, and for Mr Trulli to come back when the update is available.

Can we possibly get Mr Barrichello to drive for 1Malaysia?

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by bella

except it's not a problem for the other 2 drivers who have had a go (in anger) in that car...

That's true, but Trulli is one of their race drivers, so they either need to make the steering to his liking, or permanently replace him. There seems little point in persevering with a known 'issue'.

[Jacques Rabbit]

Originally Posted by mac

The fact is Trulli is a grand prix winner with experience working for some of the biggest and best in the sport... To merely discount his concerns, or not bother, or whatever the case may be, is ridiculous...

Having spent some time with Jarno in the past, I can tell you that he is a very interesting guy... He is also a very nice fellow - he seems to be a little kid, who doesn't quite "get" the whole "being famous" thing. He seems quite shy and reluctant to be the centre of attention... But a genuinely nice and humble fellow.

When he and his car are on song, Trulli is an absolute artist... In the 15 or so years I have spent watching F1, no one has made driving a car look so beautiful... It has been at times depressing watching him trundle around in that Lotus these past couple of seasons.

Chandhok might be a nice guy, but I would have thought that Lotus, if they had any serious interest in improving, would hang on to Kovalainen and Trulli with everything they have - and empower them to drive the team forward.

I completely agree that Trulli is the better option than Chandhok purely from a driving perspective. Chandhok offers very little, if anything, to any of the teams to be honest.

What I really liked about your post, though, was your insight on Trulli as an individual. It's always amusing, to me, that we can all know the same person and have totally different perceptions of them. I do trust that you know him much better than I do, so it's nice to hear that I'm probably wrong in how I felt about Trulli.

Regardless, I still think Trulli's better than he gets credit for, but a bit past it, and under-drove a very competent Toyota in their final season. Not that I can really prove the last assertion. If they retain Trulli, they're doing nothing wrong, but if they replace him with some of the options that may be available, it could be a step up. Still, for the caliber team and the fact they're young, yeah, no harm in having him around, especially if the back-up plan is Chandhok or any of their young drivers.

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

Please no upper case as it looks like you are shouting..

I did it to emphasize the mockery I was making of myself for some of the drivers I support. Just adds to my joking portrayal of me as a forum idiot. My apologies.

[bella]

Originally Posted by davyboy

That's true, but Trulli is one of their race drivers, so they either need to make the steering to his liking, or permanently replace him. There seems little point in persevering with a known 'issue'.

well they are, they've produced yet another update for it. hence i suppose they decided there wasn't really much point in running trulli in germany since it wasn't going to be ready for the race, so why not give chandhok a run, save trulli doing some whinging, and if there's a contracted need to give chandhok a drive, get that done so it's out of the way. simples.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by bella

well they are, they've produced yet another update for it. hence i suppose they decided there wasn't really much point in running trulli in germany since it wasn't going to be ready for the race, so why not give chandhok a run, save trulli doing some whinging, and if there's a contracted need to give chandhok a drive, get that done so it's out of the way. simples.

Half way through the season's kinda late to be introducing such an apparently [to Trulli anyway] fundamental change.

[bella]

this is the second revision at least as far as i can remember? and these things take time to design and develop and test, especially for a smaller workforce...

i'm not making excuses, it's just these things don't materialise from thin air. especially not for the teams at the southerly end of the grid.

[cds_uk]

Lord knows what happens if Jarno doesn't get on with this update though, game over surely, more to the point would Karun get another call up, he was steady at best at the weekend.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Half way through the season's kinda late to be introducing such an apparently [to Trulli anyway] fundamental change.

I just have to agree with you davyboy.

Its just plain incomprehensible on any level, all they are doing is filling the grid and going through the motions waiting for the cheques.
The business of having a closed shop in F1 is just not on.
If anyone brings any car and it is within the spec it should be allowed to race.
Bring back prequalifying!

[awrb]

Why are people assuming we know what is going on behind the scenes at Lotus? We don't know if an update has already been applied to the power steeing, how much needed changing, and how long since they and Trulli decided that the current system needs a redesign, not just tweaking. Maybe Lotus have been lazy, maybe they have taken a bit of time to get to the bottom of the problem, we don't know.

[wnut]

Australian GP post qualifying

from http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...1/3/11861.html

Jarno Trulli (20th, Q1 - 1m 29.342s)
"I've had a few issues with the power steering in practice but the team worked well to resolve that for qualifying and the car definitely felt better than it had this morning and yesterday. We'll clearly be much quicker when we can get the tyres up to full temperature so it'll be an exciting race for us tomorrow and I think we'll be in good shape to push the guys ahead who we were much closer to in the warmer conditions in pre-season testing."

9 GP s later, still the same issue!

Anyway hopefully they solve it asap.

[Bononi]

That's consistency...

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by awrb

Why are people assuming we know what is going on behind the scenes at Lotus? We don't know if an update has already been applied to the power steeing, how much needed changing, and how long since they and Trulli decided that the current system needs a redesign, not just tweaking. Maybe Lotus have been lazy, maybe they have taken a bit of time to get to the bottom of the problem, we don't know.

You're right, we don't know what's happening internally at Lotus. All we can comment on is what we're being told by the team and it's drivers as well as, importantly, the evidence. Which is primarily what we're doing here.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by davyboy

You're right, we don't know what's happening internally at Lotus. All we can comment on is what we're being told by the team and it's drivers as well as, importantly, the evidence. Which is primarily what we're doing here.

And from here it don't look too flash!

[spider]

I must admit, Chandhok has had an easy ride from people on here.

Did he really not embarrass himself?

He was slower on race day than even the HRT's, continuously spun (under power) and finished 2 laps behind his team-mate.

I know it's hardly easy to just jump straight in like that, but that was a terrible showing. I'm sure he'll get stronger (to a point), but that was a shoddy performance.

Though, he is a nice personable guy.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by spider

I must admit, Chandhok has had an easy ride from people on here.

Did he really not embarrass himself?

He was slower on race day than even the HRT's, continuously spun (under power) and finished 2 laps behind his team-mate.

I know it's hardly easy to just jump straight in like that, but that was a terrible showing. I'm sure he'll get stronger (to a point), but that was a shoddy performance.

Though, he is a nice personable guy.

The lack of testing will mean that any newcomer will be lacklustre in comparison to somebody who's had more time in the car. You only need to look at Ricciardo's debut... and he has been one heck of a driver in the lower formulae. In time I expect Karun to get closer to Heikki but it will take time.