Webber on Pizzonia

[MRJUCY]

I beleive Mark has a right to defend the allegations the Pizza delivery boy has made but I do beleive he could have worded it better but that could have been a translation thing I guess going from English to Italian & back to English.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Wrex

Italian press huh, hmmm, right up there with the British tabloids.

Gazzetta dello Sport! Those words don't do much for the credibility of a story.

Originally Posted by Wrex

...is'nt he just respsonding to Antonio's comments.

This is what I thought too. Although I do think Pizzonia had a point, but what Pizzonia said had no real bad relection on Webber, more the charlatanic team he was with.

Originally Posted by Wrex

Where were all the downers when Pizza was spraying Webber?

Actually there was a lot against Jungle Boy at this time. A lot of it was OTT. It has surpised me that this thread has gone on too long without thta being repeated, I guess it is easier to see the bad in anyone, other than in both situations seeing (trying to see) the real reasons behing things.

Originally Posted by Wrex

IIRC, Antonia got into Mark and Jaguar (unprovocked I might ad) at Germany, then went on to be cleaned up by Mark's Jag in a Williams. Or did Mark manipulate that too?

I am only talking about the comments made by Pizzonia before his first GP this year. I don't recall those, but they sound OTT.

Originally Posted by Wrex

Anyway, if all of the above is true, I join everyone in being diappointed. Mark, your above it, dont sink to Pizza's level.

I do too, even if it is just a response to Pizzonia's comments then it still didn't need to be said. FWIW I think they'll get on fine. Webber is grown up and will see that his driving does the talking (although I expect Pizzonia to be closer than he was at Jaguar). Pizzonia seems a little immature, but nothing that bad, if he gets some results he'll settle.

[Jordi]

I just think that, even if Mark was right, he shouldn't do this. He would have looked smarter by just keeping his mouth shut or saying "I don't care about Jaguar, I'm a Williams driver now". And I'd like to see Nick teamed up with Webber. Fairly or unfairly, Webber and Pizzonia teamed up once already, I think Nick in a quick car would be a lot more interesting.

[racer69]

I assume the lot of you saying how 'disappointed' you are in Webber are also people who don't complain that the drivers are gagged these days.

I don't know what the problem is, it was child's play compared to other stuff we have seen in the past.

Williams are used to this kind of stuff anyway, after Jones and Reuteman, Rosberg and Mansell, Piquet and Mansell, Mansell vs the Team....

The fact is if the two of them were given different equipment at Jaguar, it wouldn't have happened until they were into the season, why would they have shafted Pizzonia right from the start if he was the quicker one? And isn't it natural, considering the size of their budget, to concentrate on the quicker driver. One fast (ish) car is better than two average one's

[RWC]

What's going on?? I thought i replied to this thread......?
maybe the new design had me pressing a wrong button

Anyway

It looks just like mark is getting thoroughly tired of pizzonia repeating this stuff.Maybe mark felt sorry for him in the past and didn't want to comment?
Now that AP is trying to get into a race seat at williams perhaps MW is drawing the line!
He just doesn't want a slow guy holding the team up


One thing i must say-the oft repeated quote of jag saying that they didn't treat pizzonia very well had nothing to do with cars!
They were refering to the loose talk that went on regarding AP's lack of performance

[Kirk]

On other sites particularly, I have read some very negative comments about MW but always took them with a grain of salt. Now, I wonder if there is some substance to the venom. Pizzo did a lot of complaining in the past, but it was against Jag, not MW. It shouldn't matter anyway; I think Williams will go with Nick, and if so, I will be cheering for him. If I'm wrong and Pizzo gets the ride, then I'm afraid it's too late to avoid another bitter team rivalry at Williams.

[Mike_Wooshy]

Originally Posted by Gt_R

But come to think of it, if Antonio is bullsheeting all these stuffs about inferior equipment and cracked tub and stuff..you'd believe Jaguar would make a very vocal objection about it.
.

Not nessercerly (sp?), maybe they thourght it would be silly and if they responded it would just get into a vicous circle ....... All mark is doing is defending himself, i mean its his credability that antonio is attacking. Now everyone looks and thinks "o well mark got where he did with the jaguar as he had an unfair advantage" ..... maybe he did. but put yourself in marks posistion being backed into a corner, and then you begin to fight and stoop to the levels of those who are attacking you. Im not saying Pizzonia is a liar he knows he is fast, and we have whitnessed it but when you are discharged from a team people ask questions, about your abililty all he is doing is saying the reason HE feels what happened, but at the end of the day they should just talk about instead of both chucking toys out the pram. Im not defending either of these im just trying to see it from both points of veiw.

[BootsOntheSide]

I hardly call Mark 'backed into a corner'. He can prove himself next year -whatever he says, he'll be up against Pizzonia in either racing or testing, and he should be in competitive car. He'd be much wiser to allow people without the facts to argue them out ad nauseum for 3 months, and getting to Melbourne refreshed, prepared and well-placed to prove his view that they're wrong.

[Mike_Wooshy]

yer but boots your not in his posisition maybe thats how he feels ? i dont know im just trying to think why he would say what he has.

[Gabrio]

Well, I'd rather not get into an argument about whether the british press is better or worse than the italian one because everyone is entitled to his own opinion. As usual there are worthy and unworthy members in every family and it is not really interesting if our focus is motor racing.
That said, as a racer I look at the facts :
1) Webber and Pizzonia have won nothing up to now and they had better drive and prove something than talk.
2) The second Jaguar car has never been competitive.
3) While Pizzonia might not be the best F1 driver by my standards, I have to admit that as soon as he was out of Jaguar and back to Williams, he was immediately quick and competitive.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Kirk

On other sites particularly, I have read some very negative comments about MW

Care to provide a link or even some substance to that? Whilst not a fan per se, I've never read or heard anything negative about the man.

I accused him of blocking a few times and I still think he did but I've never thought of him in any negative way. And you know I'm very critical of any driver.

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by Wrex

Secondly, is'nt he just respsonding to Antonio's comments. How long should MW stay silent with Antonio spraying this **** undefended? If somone was dissing me in public, I would respond as well.

Better to respond on track though, which I'm fairly sure Mark is capable of doing.

Antonio was pretty unprofessional/bitter with his comments (whether true or not) and I would have expected Mr Webber to rise above this provocation.

[Peter Mallett]

Agreed Knowlesy.

[mac]

The thing about Pizzonia's hostility towards Jag is that at the start of 2003, the two of them would have been treated equally. If anything, I thought Pizzonia may have the edge.

Now, IF Webber did receive favourable treatment (and I'm not necessarily saying he did), then he had to win it ...... and he did that by consistently being faster than his teammate.

[Wrex]

True Mac. We often hear from many drivers 'the other guy has better stuff than me" and I always think of the same question.

If thats true, why?

I think almost every team favours one driver over another. It has to happen, one out performs the other (mostly) and the team want to get behind the driver that can bring home results.

Again, this does'nt reflect well on Antonio.

That said, I believe after a few races Jag did realise Mark was the lead man (they were both signed on with identicle salaries and contracts IIRC) and put the focus on him.

There is no doubt Antonio is quick. Frank Williams knows drivers as well as anyone. IMO, AP just was'nt ready for a race seat when he got to jag, and it showed. Had he teamed up with Klien, this may be a whole different story.

And Williams still rate Antonio highly, in fact Sam Michael suggested it was one of the reasons Mark got their attention. They could'nt believe Mark blew him away because they knew how fast Pizza was.

Anyway, more testing for Antonia IMO, and hopefully Nick will get the ride.

[hgmonaro]

Originally Posted by Gabrio

That said, as a racer I look at the facts :
1) Webber and Pizzonia have won nothing up to now and they had better drive and prove something than talk.

see response to point2. When was the last time anything other than a Ferrari, McLaren, Williams or Renault has won (not counting Jordans fluke in Brasil). When was the last time anything other than those was on the podium? (Must be a Sauber im guessing but I don't know). Without the right car you've got next to no hope.

Originally Posted by Gabrio

2) The second Jaguar car has never been competitive.

When has the other Jag been competitive? Couple of good qualifying laps (in the hands of one of the drivers... always the same one), sometimes helped by weather.

Originally Posted by Gabrio

3) While Pizzonia might not be the best F1 driver by my standards, I have to admit that as soon as he was out of Jaguar and back to Williams, he was immediately quick and competitive.

Gene's been quick in testing too. Who knows what configuration they are testing in on any particular day... this means little. He wasn't 'that' competitive in the races... he got hosed by a Jag in one!

[AussieGuns]

Posted by Gabrio

3) While Pizzonia might not be the best F1 driver by my standards, I have to admit that as soon as he was out of Jaguar and back to Williams, he was immediately quick and competitive.

So getting his pants pulled down at the German GP by Webber in a far inferior car being quick and competitive?? Did Pizzonia complain that day about Webber having better equipment?? I don't think so!

I can understand where people are coming from and I must say I was a little shocked to hear this from Mark....However, I would be pretty p***ed off too if someone had said I only beat him because I had the better of the equipment!

I hope Pizzonia does get the drive and then gets completely distroyed by Mark.

[Adam43]

I hope Pizzonia gets the drive, is really quick and pushes Webber to new heights.

[Wrex]

Now your talking!

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

If Jaguar were going to favour one driver it would have been Pizzonia, one of the star Williams testers and he even came with a glowing recommendation from Frank himself. Webber on the other hand was a highly rated F1 newbie coming from Minardi.

Pizzonia spitting feathers about Jaguar fielding inferior cars for him is just sour grapes plain and simple.

[nkh]

Is this the Pizzonia quote's Webber responded to? or have I missed some other statements from Pizzonia?

I can't see that Pizzonia is attacking Webber in any way, he just says that he feels the people at Williams treats him better than the people at Jaguar, then he says something about the cars that most people agrees with and he even explains the reason why Jaguar would make unequal cars.

I don't understand why Webber would go out and call Pizzonia a liar and a looser, we all know Mark is fast, he's got his Williams seat, it just sounds like such an overreaction compared to what Pizzonia said... And a very late reaction too..

It would be nice to know what the journalist actually asked Webber, 'cos now he just looks like a spoiled kid who's jumping on the kid who didn't even get to play for a full season. His comments would make more sense if we knew the questions were along the lines of that Webbers car was massively better than Pizzonia at all times or that Jaguar intentionaly made Pizzonias car slower to make Mark look better.

[Wrex]

As I said initially, the whole story sounds like BS to me.

I've also noticed none of the more reputable sites have picked it up. Another sign of an 'invented' story. I find it hard to believe MW would say all this to the Italian press, when all his Aussie and British interviews have said nothing like that.

Sucked a few in though did'nt it

[Raglanparade]

MW is always diplomatic..

It was probably taken out of context.

[zonda]

i find this odd, if F1 drivers say nothing they are called boring and its not good for F1. Soon as an F1 driver gives an opinion that has not been through the PR department he is vilified.

Im not particularly a Weber fan even though im from .au, but I am just glad that finally there are a few people who can liven up F1 outsite the racetrack. If they all said nothing in the off season what would ten-tenths people have to talk about ?

Remember, you can't have your cake and eat it too.


dave.

[hgmonaro]

Originally Posted by hgmonaro

...When was the last time anything other than those was on the podium? (Must be a Sauber im guessing but I don't know). Without the right car you've got next to no hope.

opps, completely forgot BAR... sorry Mr Button!