Zsolt 'rubbish'

[Skam85]

I just bought the latest F1 Racing magazine yesterday and it believe it was one of the most controversial I've read. Mika Hakkinen rubbishes most teams, saying there must be an unwritten rule that Minardi are last and then I was reading the driver pairings for 04 and was shocked to read a journalist write that Zsolt Baumgartner is 'rubbish' judging him by his short stint in F3000. A bit early to judge a guy that's only driven twice in an F1 car and wasn't THAT bad?!

[Comtec Renault]

he is only in F1 because he has money,sorry but true if he had no cash he would not even be in F3.fact

[corkholio]

7 points in 27 F3000 races, with 8 of those race with a top team (Coloni).

[gomick]

he aint the 1st who got into f1 with money.... dont need to read a mika hakkinen article to know who is worthy of f1 and who aint

will wait and see on zolts - would rather see someone fresh than old news like verstappen!

[DriverT]

The magazine is right IMHO, but it is quite a strong opinion for F1 Racing Magazine!

[ensign14]

More headlines from F1 Racing:

Sun "comes up in morning"

Fire is hot

Bears **** in woods

[f1manoz]

It doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out Zsolt is rubbish. You can smell stink like that a mile away...

[BootsOntheSide]

Zsolt's pre-F1 record marks him out as being severely inferior, and it is clearly money that got him into F1. His 2 races for Jordan made him look like another Yoong - got the drive through money and nationality, not exactly fast, but good at staying out of the way and driving responsibly, bringing the car home and maybe getting the odd point on reliability.

[DriverT]

Originally posted by ensign14
More headlines from F1 Racing:

Sun "comes up in morning"

Fire is hot

Bears **** in woods

My God! Where do they get these revelations?

[Skam85]

All I'm saying is, he may be decent and adapt well to F1. This doesn't happen very often though, but F1 Racing DO have a habit of being VERY VERY wrong sometimes. Laughably wrong in fact, like when they had that big thing on renaming BAR to Lotus!!!

[Kicking-back]

They're not wrong on this one, though.

[ATF]

The ITV preview also gave off similar thoughts, although not as strong as F1 Racing!

[Cadete]

A Portuguese site states that Tiago Monteiro might be moving to Minardi as the third driver, who knows, if it proves true and Tiago shows how fast he is, he might replace Zsolt

Still according to the same site, official information regarding Tiago's plans for 2004 will be released this Wednesday.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Skam85


Laughably wrong in fact, like when they had that big thing on renaming BAR to Lotus!!!

To be fair to F1Racing. It was the BAR management who came up with the idea, and were open to suggestions, and this included the possibility of the Lotus name. F1Racing, were only reporting it.

[Skam85]

And David Richards laughed off the rumour stating that you can't just adopt an old teams name and hope you have the same successes as that team (or something to that affect)

[Skam85]

Dug up this old thread.....

I wasn't wrong!!

Anyone willing to discuss this further... feel free

[Kicking-back]

Baumgartner was a hard worker - but does not have the talent needed for F1, as expected.

[Mr V]

He did score a point which is more than his (previously?) highly rated team mate did in 2004.

[Kicking-back]

Yes, but that was through hard work and attrition.

[ensign14]

By whom was Bruni rated?

[Kicking-back]

In 2003 when Bruni was the third driver at Minardi, several observers (including Martin Brundle) reckoned him the best driver of the three in the team (Verstappen and Kiesa being the others).

I don't know if that equates to rating him though

[BootsOntheSide]

He certainly wasn't as rubbish as a lot of us expected - he did a lot bette rthan Bruni, worked hard and didn't embarass himself. If anything, it's a shame he's not in contention for a 2005 drive (althoguh rumours seem to link him to Jordan now).

[Tweed]

I think, without sounding too harsh, far too many people rate him as 'ok' because of that single point. IMO, you could take the top 10 out of the major F3 series and they'd do a better job than him.

[Ryo28]

Reguardless of Zsolt's point, which was obviously achieved through attrition, he did a solid job, and improved throughout the year. His qualifying lap in Brazil was less than 3 seconds off pole, the closest Minardi got to the fastest runner in '04. He also seemed to gain the respect of his team through his hard work and good attitude. It was only his first full year in F1, and if he got another chance I reckon he could do much better and become a 'pay driver' who gains the respect of the whole paddock, just like Pedro Diniz did in his years at Arrows. I hope he gets another chance, which is something I never expected to be saying at the start of 2004. If not, at least he can say he has scored a world championship point, which is something few racing drivers ever achieve.

[BootsOntheSide]

Brazil's the shortest lap in terms of time though - being 3 seconds off the pace there is like 4 or 5 at many other tracks. I'd say Diniz had more natural talent than Zsolt - I can't imagine Baumgartner outqualifying Damon Hill in equal machinery at Spa, for example. I would like to see Buamgartner get another season, and by all accounts he could end up at Jordan.