Pedro del la Rosa

[Absolutelee]

I'm kind of curious what the general opinion is of Pedro, now that it looks like he's done along with HRT. He seems like a good guy, always happy to help out, although nice guys don't necessarily make good drivers...I've always known him as the older test driver. Everyone seemed to have new guys/prospects in their test seats, while McLaren had Pedro.

I didn't watch before 2010 so I only saw him race with Sauber and HRT. But reading about him it seems that he was a decent driver, but just never a great driver. Similar to how I thought about Heidfeld.

[raymondu999]

Very good test driver - otherwise McLaren wouldn't have kept him for so many years.

[Vasconia]

Yes, he is a good driver but not an excellent one, but his real strength is his role as a test driver. So hopefully he will return to Mclaren, its the best option for both the driver and the team.

[astracrazy]

i can't see him going back to Mclaren again (for the what 3rd time), but i wouldn't rule out him going to another team as a development driver.

[raymondu999]

Why not? The fact that McLaren let him come back the first time is, IMO, quite telling - that he's a fantastic test driver.

[Pandamasque]

Pedro is waaay above average. He raced a bunch of uncompetitive cars in F1, and by the time he got his opportunity to shine as a replacement for injured Montoya he did rather well pace-wise (even compared to Kimi!), but his race-craft was regarded as rusty, which was no surprise after years in the test seat.

IMO, he should join his old McLaren testing buddy in sports car racing. Toyota, Audi, Porsche, Aston Martin works teams might be looking for drivers at the moment.

[flattyre]

There's a very good interview with him on f1.com - not your usual interview, it's one of those 'personal life' quick-fire interviews. I read every one of these, and Pedro's is definitely one of the nicest to read. It shows just what a genuine man he is. http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews ... 14148.html

Anyway, my opinion of Pedro? Solid, but unspectacular. I never saw him race before 2002, but from what I've seen he is actually quite a bit like Nick Heidfeld, as you say. Mr. Reliable. Never seems to get involved in silly incidents, but never seems set the world on fire (which I know is the popular opinion on Heidfeld, but I thought the first half of his career was decent enough. IMO he was better than Webber at Williams)

He scored a podium at a wet race in Hungary, where even people like Alonso spun off. Maybe he didn't get it through sheer pace, but he kept it on the track when no one else could.

As you mentioned, Pandamasque, when he stood in for Montoya at Bahrain he was a bit rusty. It was a shame, because he was actually quite impressive that weekend. The details are a bit fuzzy to me, but I remember him catching my eye, and promptly trying over-ambitious overtakes that saw him out-break himself

But, having just read about him on Wikipedia, I was surprised to find out that he actually raced for McLaren in the last 8 races of the 2006 season. I was following F1 very avidly then. I think that just goes to show - he was a bit anonymous on track, really.

[King Six]

Please no more, enough with these super old drivers. They have had their time.

[Absolutelee]

@flattyre That interview is what prompted me to ask the question initially. That is by far the most sincere on of those interviews on f1.com (bar Kamui's favorite smell being women). The bit about stabbing his cousin in the eye actually got a gasp from me.