Skip to main content

Quick Nick in, Pedro a go-go

Image
By
Good bit of news today.

Well, I say good. Good if you're Nick Heidfeld. Not very good at all if you're Pedro de la Rosa.

Heidfeld has been twiddling his thumbs this season whilst being Mercedes Test Driver, which in real terms means he's done rugger ball since the start of the year except for wearing headphone at races and generally looking as cool as possible without actually being in an F1 car. A bit of excitement (not to mention a bit of driving and some dosh probably) came his way recently when new-for-next-year tyre suppliers Pirelli wanted someone to drive the completed Toyota that didn't get a run this year with their new rubber on the corners, to see how it all went.

It's unclear if this helped him get the seat at Sauber for the rest of the year, if it was his undoubted talent, the fact that he's driven for them before or (and this seems most likely) because Pedro de la Rosa was a bit crap. Kobayashi has substantially outperformed him this season, and he was pretty hopeless when he did a few races for McLaren.

Heidfeld on the other hand is a reliable driver who largely slipped under the radar in his career. Regular podiums and some quality drives, but he remains in that range of drivers including Fisichella, Frentzen and many more. Give them a decent car and they'll do a fine job, but they'll rarely set the world alight. Nick also holds the record for most podiums without a win, and he'll be unlikely to alter that unfortunate stat in a Sauber.

But I'm pleased to have him back - I always hoped he could have achieved more and he still deserves a place on the grid.

In a similar vein, Kimi Monsosyllabic Raikkonen has apparently be talking to Renault about driving for them next year. If he can be bothered, I guess.

How many more ex-drivers can we get back? Villeneuve hasn't made it but Schumi is back. How about Damon Hill? Alain Prost? Gerhard Berger? Ralph Schumacher?! Maybe not....

(Cassette of the night: Jean Michel Jarre's "Jarremix" from 95. Funnnnnky!)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going Underground

By
The US presidential election and Brexit must have made me more nervous than I’d realised. It seems I’ve created an underground bunker without realising I was doing it. Still – we’ve all done that at some point, right? No? Ah... In that case, the fact that I have inadvertently turned my cellar into a rudimentary survival shelter, just in case it all kicks off, demonstrates a severe case of bunker mentality. Fretting about Donald and his wall, and Hillary and her emails, clearly made me more paranoid that I thought about the possibility of WW3 kicking off. Whilst attempting to find a specific size of imperial washer the other day (turns out I’d mis-filed it in the nut cabinet – Tsk!) I was struck by what a lot of jam and chutney we have in the cellar. And I do mean a LOT. There are boxes of boiled-up sugar and fruit and more boxes of boiled up vinegar and fruit. We’re still only part way through 2015’s output too. Then there’s the plastic containers holding pasta in various for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Faking it for real

By
As Donald “I’m really great, everybody says so” Trump is so fond of pointing out, there is a lot of fake news around nowadays. Honest. Your friends at Facebook think so too, and have recently been publishing their top tips for spotting false news – by placing them as ads in newspapers. Considering they came in for considerable criticism themselves, that’s like shouting “Squirrel!” and pointing at a tree whilst you hastily kick away the prize begonias you just trampled. To help you make sense of this (and because I’m a caring person), I thought I’d run you through their suggestions and help to explain them for you. I know. I’m lovely. 1. Be sceptical of headlines READING THIS ARTICLE WILL IMPROVE YOUR SEX LIFE!!! And explain that catchy headlines, or stuff all in capitals might be a bit iffy. 2. Look closely at the URL You can find out more about this at www.wowyouregullible.com if you want to understand how phony web addresses are a sure sign of dodgyness. 3. Investigate...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is it cold? Snow way...

By
Lunch out? Not unless you want snow balls... I’ve got a confession to make.  Lean in a bit, because I’m going to whisper it. Bit more. Did you have curry for tea? OK, good. I’m a weather nerd. There, I said it. When I was growing up, I didn’t want to be an astronaut or a fireman – I wanted to present the weather on the TV. I was lining myself up for a career at the Met Office when, at about 18 years of age, I discovered I was allergic to studying. Anyway, despite a jam-packed and varied career over the subsequent years, I still have a fascination for the world of meteorology. I even have one of those clocks that projects the time and the external temperature onto the ceiling at night, so I can see how cold it is outside whilst lying awake worrying that I might have wasted my life and been more successful with girls if I’d been more into cars than clouds. So far this year, I’ve gazed at a chilly reading of -5C a couple of times, and been grateful for previous sensible ch...
Post a Comment
Read more