In a recent post I expressed my mystification at Sebastian Vettel's reputation; on reflection, it seems to be entirely the product of Michael Schumacher having picked him as a star of the future after watching him in a gokart race. Another rookie that seems a bit over-hyped to me is Adrian Sutil.
Adrian Sutil
Don't get me wrong - I think he is talented and he has already done sufficient in F1 to confirm this. But he seems to be given credit for outstanding performances when I can see nothing above the norm for new F1 drivers. To date he has done little but prove that he is quicker than Christijan Albers and several second tier drivers.
So it is interesting that Force India have chosen to pair him with Giancarlo Fisichella. In Fizzy we have a known quantity that we can use as a measure of Sutil's abilities; and Sutil had better be quicker than the veteran pretty quickly or his reputation will soon suffer!
The problem is that, so far, it isn't happening. At the Jerez test last week, Fizzy was the quickest Force India driver by far. Fisichella managed a respectable time of 1:20.695, Liuzzi was almost a second slower at 1:21.553, and Sutil's best was 1:21.705. Even taking into account different fuel loads and weather conditions, that's quite a big difference.
Remember, too, that this is the car that Sutil has been driving for almost a year. He should be pretty used to it by now, whereas Fizzy and Liuzzi were having to learn its characteristics from scratch. Suddenly the German doesn't seem quite the future star we thought.
Part of the equation is that both Fizzy and Liuzzi have been under-rated of late, thanks to the poor machinery they have had to work with. They are actually a good deal better than last year's results imply and now they have a chance to redeem themselves. Put that with the fact that Sutil is a promising young rookie and no more, and it is understandable that he may find it difficult to outperform his team mates.
And that is my point really - that Sutil has not earned his reputation as yet. I expect that he will turn out to be pretty good eventually but, at the moment, he shows some promise and that is all. If McLaren were genuinely interested in his services for the second car this year, they must have noticed something that slipped by me.
But that's where I can be proved wrong, of course. I thought Hamilton would blow Kovalainen away, even in testing, and that certainly hasn't happened. But I have to tell it the way I see it and, at this moment, Sutil and Vettel seem over-hyped to me. If only the season would start and we could get some real evidence for all this...
Adrian Sutil
Don't get me wrong - I think he is talented and he has already done sufficient in F1 to confirm this. But he seems to be given credit for outstanding performances when I can see nothing above the norm for new F1 drivers. To date he has done little but prove that he is quicker than Christijan Albers and several second tier drivers.
So it is interesting that Force India have chosen to pair him with Giancarlo Fisichella. In Fizzy we have a known quantity that we can use as a measure of Sutil's abilities; and Sutil had better be quicker than the veteran pretty quickly or his reputation will soon suffer!
The problem is that, so far, it isn't happening. At the Jerez test last week, Fizzy was the quickest Force India driver by far. Fisichella managed a respectable time of 1:20.695, Liuzzi was almost a second slower at 1:21.553, and Sutil's best was 1:21.705. Even taking into account different fuel loads and weather conditions, that's quite a big difference.
Remember, too, that this is the car that Sutil has been driving for almost a year. He should be pretty used to it by now, whereas Fizzy and Liuzzi were having to learn its characteristics from scratch. Suddenly the German doesn't seem quite the future star we thought.
Part of the equation is that both Fizzy and Liuzzi have been under-rated of late, thanks to the poor machinery they have had to work with. They are actually a good deal better than last year's results imply and now they have a chance to redeem themselves. Put that with the fact that Sutil is a promising young rookie and no more, and it is understandable that he may find it difficult to outperform his team mates.
And that is my point really - that Sutil has not earned his reputation as yet. I expect that he will turn out to be pretty good eventually but, at the moment, he shows some promise and that is all. If McLaren were genuinely interested in his services for the second car this year, they must have noticed something that slipped by me.
But that's where I can be proved wrong, of course. I thought Hamilton would blow Kovalainen away, even in testing, and that certainly hasn't happened. But I have to tell it the way I see it and, at this moment, Sutil and Vettel seem over-hyped to me. If only the season would start and we could get some real evidence for all this...