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When thinking of a post for the 'best driver performance' thread i got set off down another avenue of thought... which drivers past or present have been criminally underrated? It's easy to notice the guys at the front fighting for the title but i think there were many noteworthy drivers who never got that kind of attention down the years. I have a few in mind already and i'll get round to posting about them, but it'd be good to hear about drivers you think are or have been underrated and why!
(A search on this here came up with nothing relevant and i think it's an interesting thing to discuss.)
I would suggest Jacques Villneurve is not the joke some make him out to be. After his Championship year he was never in a competitive car again really, after some bad business choices and the incompetence of B.A.R. But that may rank under "missed potential" rather than underrated.
I would say Button's performances this year have been quietly underrated, getting the results he has had given the quality of the car at his disposal in the past two race weekends has been super duper. And I say that as a Lewis fan.
Vettel is a odd one, gets underrated by some and overrated by some in my view.
There are lots of names that I could mention, so I won't even attempt to make a complete list.
Stefan Bellof - His F1 career was short and not very successful at all and unfortunately he passed away in Spa at the Eau Rouge before his peak. In other racing series, the man was blisteringly fast and a lot of well respected drivers that were his team mates can attest that they've never seen such skill before. Unfortunately, Stefan Bellof isn't a name many people can associate anything with.
Nico Rosberg - When teamed up with 7-times World Champion Michael Schumacher, the conclusion was that Michael was past his prime rather than Nico showing genuine pace. At the moment being paired Lewis - arguably the fastest guy on a single lap on the current grid - there appears to be little appreciation for how close Nico and Lewis in terms of pace really are.
Kubica (i personally feel he´s up there with the big four)
Maldonado - has shown he can race with the absolute top and never folds under pressure, just need a good car.
Good driver for F1 in terms of the "show".
There´s quite a few of them i think. Just need a frontrunning car to really showcase their skills.
"If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother that person is a piece of sh*t"
When it comes to Formula 1, I always try to convince myself not to talk about the past, as it was a totally different era.
Present - Nico Rosberg, Kubica and Di Resta.
I wouldn't really consider Kubica to be underrated. In fact I have almost never seen anyone denying that Kubica may be one of the fastest drivers in Formula One of recent years. Almost everybody rates him highly, and rightly so as well!
I tend to agree about Villeneuve though. He was immediately on the pace and fighting with Hill the moment he stepped into an F1 car, and he remained to be so while at Williams. The struggles in 1998 though led him to follow his manager to an incompetent, yet wealthy team. He became rich, but had dogs of cars. Jacques had the tendency to overdrive cars that weren't that good, leading to crashes that led him to being ridiculed by many, even crew members at BAR. The team was a total joke really and he had no chance once Richards came in. Sadly I also have to admit that he wasn't all that impressive in Le Mans either, nor in that one-year supercar V8 formula (Alesi very much was there!).
Tomba wrote:I wouldn't really consider Kubica to be underrated.
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I tend to agree about Villeneuve though.
+1 for Villeneuve. For Kubica what I really meant is that he has never had the chance to drive a really fast car and unfortunately couldn't make it (not yet) into a larger team capable of winning the title.
tim|away wrote:
Stefan Bellof - His F1 career was short and not very successful at all and unfortunately he passed away in Spa at the Eau Rouge before his peak. In other racing series, the man was blisteringly fast and a lot of well respected drivers that were his team mates can attest that they've never seen such skill before. Unfortunately, Stefan Bellof isn't a name many people can associate anything with.
Yes! Senna would have had serious racing competition if Bellof had not been killed. None of the wreck-to-win Prost drama.
Heaven: Where the cooks are French, the police are British, the lovers are Greek, the mechanics are German, and it is all organized by the Swiss.
Hell: Where the cooks are British, the police are German, the lovers are Swiss, the mechanics are French, and it is all organized by the Greeks.
I wouldnt really call Bellof nor villeneuve underrated. Bellof was always praised, his career just was cut short by the crash and with that, his death. For Villeneuve, he had his success when starting his career, after that it was absolutely nothing, and yes, that was partially team choice, but he chose for it himself, his team might had been bad, but he chose to be there and stay in that car for the nice paycheck he was receiving. I'm sorry, but I dont see why he deserves more praise for his own terrible career choices. His effort in the 2004 Renault, 2005 Sauber and 2006 BMW Sauber weren't succesful either.
As of underrated drivers, from the past I think of a few drivers.
Vitaly Petrov - Yes, he might not have been a superb driver, but I am confident that there was more in him than he showed. He had quite a few shunts in his debut year, but when he didnt have those he was there on the pace. In 2011 he showed to be much improved and was, in my view, much more consistent. A huge problem for him was his language barrier, having a hard time understanding your team cant be good for your performance and teamwork.
Heikki Kovalainen - He was pretty quick and showed to be a good driver, he won once in the McLaren. altough he wasnt as quick as Lewis back then he was on a good pace for a 2nd driver and did what was asked for him. He now simply got caught out by the career choice to switch to Lotus/Caterham.
Timo Glock - His debut in 2004 wasnt spectacular, then went on to win the GP2 and return in F1 for the then improved Toyota, he had a few heavy crashes, but he has shown to be on the pace and had a good 2 years with Toyota. Then switched to Virgin/Marussia and just like Heikki got eventually caught out for a seat there by the need for a pay driver.
There might be a few more but these are the 3 I can think of right now.
I think Damon Hill deserves a lot of credit in recent years. He was up to a serious task debuting alongside Prost. He was in even harder situation having to lead the team when Senna perished. Yeah, he was outshined by Schumacher, but IMO the Williams team just couldn't bring out best in drivers. He also gave very respectable performance in Jordan and that 1997th Hungarian GP is classic.
Jos Verstappen. I would've liked to seen what he could've done in a good car, his stint with Benetton was to short
I think with Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve, it's more a lack of respect then being considered underrated.
Whether it's because of their fathers success, or that they only won 1 title each in the best car ?
Leaving the joke aside, I agree with what Wesley said about Petrov.
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe."Murray Walker, San Marino 1985
You probably mean overrated.
