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We don't get qualifying down here so I was watching the live timing stream on the net.
Garage reaction was excellent as you would expect the guy's were really, really pleased with the lap as they should be in front of 5 cars on merit!!!!:D
Also the reaction wouldn't really support the theory that Albers is on mega light fuel, I just think Fries had a bit of a bad lap.
You can call me Steve but the fact is that in mine opinion Christijan Albers could be a race winner in the future! The guy has great driving skills, he has the brains, he has the technical skills and is totally commited to be succesfull. And he have won Championships like Karting,Formula Ford and Formula 3 champion and vice champion in DTM!!! I don't wan't to say that he is the same as Alonso, but i really think he has it in him to be a very succesfull Formula 1 race driver.
And Steve is good guy:hehe:, if you mean the Dutch Steve (He is not liking Albers at all, so there ain't not much agreements between Steve and me! :rolleyes:
Aww c'mon Albers ia average at best. Webber trashed him in F3000 when they were in the same team, in DTM he couldn't win a single championship with the best car alongside some old have beens, and now can't even beat the inexperienced and ragged Friesacher constantly. Without sponsors he can't count on a drive for 2006 imho.
Aww c'mon Albers ia average at best. Webber trashed him in F3000 when they were in the same team, in DTM he couldn't win a single championship with the best car alongside some old have beens, and now can't even beat the inexperienced and ragged Friesacher constantly. Without sponsors he can't count on a drive for 2006 imho.
You're right but in his defence,
Webber trashed Albers on the tracks he didn't know (which were basically all of them). In DTM Albers didn't just have anyone as a team mate. His team mate had been in that team for a while and was the champion (I think). The second season he was in that car there was a lot more competition.
The times he was slower than Friesacher mostly were caused by bad luck. Overal he was quite a bit quicker than him. Before Patrick's car failed this race Christijan was over half a minute in front of him. I bet he could nearly have lapped him by the end of the race.
Albers has impressed me more than Verstappen did in his Minardi season. And I'm really sorry I have to say that because I'm a Verstappen fan.
I think it's hard to compare Jos with Christijan as in 2003 the car was way behind the rest, now it's a bit closer and Wilson is also a much better driver than Friesacher. Still I think Jos did the best he could with the equipment he had. The fact is Albers has been on par with his team-mate so far this year when you look at all the sessions, and it's interesting that when Friesacher is only able to sort out his setup difficulties and balance his car properly (Malaysia or Monaco) he's always easily faster. I also remember in DTM Albers' racecraft was a bit nervous and lacked assurance, and we haven't really got a proper chance to see if he's matured since then or not.
MONTREAL, CANADA, June 12, 2005 – In a Canadian Grand Prix full of incident and mechanical carnage, the Minardi F1 Team recorded its best result of the 2005 season, Christijan Albers taking the chequered flag in 11th position and recording some competitive lap times in the process. Team mate, Patrick Friesacher, also ran strongly from the start, but his car suffered a loss of hydraulic pressure soon after the second of his scheduled pit stops, and he was forced to retire on lap 39. Like a number of drivers, Albers took advantage of the Safety Car deployment on lap 47, diving for the pits to take on sufficient fuel to finish the gruelling 70-lap race. The Team comes away from the Canadian Grand Prix weekend encouraged by its performance both in qualifying and in the race, and now looks forward to next weekend’s United States Grand Prix – an event that last year yielded a World Championship point for the Faenza squad.
CHRISTIJAN ALBERS Best lap: 1 min 18.462 secs Position: 11th “I’m happy with the result of today’s race. We had a good pace and good lap times, and it was a little bit of a shame that we had a pit stop followed by a blue-flag situation, as I think that’s where we lost position to Jordan. We had a better pace in the early stages of the race, so it was a bit frustrating to finish behind them. I was really fighting hard at the end, but it was just not possible to pass Monteiro. Even so, I think it was a good result for the team, and a good qualifying performance yesterday. Now it’s maximum attack for Indianapolis, where we’ll go for it again.”
PATRICK FRIESACHER Best lap: 1 min 18.709 secs Position: DNF “I think we suffered with the tyre choice we made this weekend, as Christijan was on the harder tyres and I was on the softer compound. I had a really good start, and was right behind him, but I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to, as the car had quite a lot of oversteer in it at that point. After the second pit stop, I started to lose the power steering, and it was pretty clear there was a hydraulic problem.”
PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth “Without doubt, today’s race was Minardi’s strongest so far this year, with a gutsy performance from Christijan to finish in P11. Sadly, Patrick retired on lap 39, with a power steering failure, which resulted in a loss of hydraulic pressure. There’s no question but that there is still performance to come from the PS05, and we now look forward to next weekend’s race, in Indianapolis.”
- Ends -
Chassis allocation – 2005 Grand Prix of Europe Friesacher (No 20) PS05/02 Albers (No 21) PS05/01 Spare car (Friesacher) PS05/03
“Without doubt, today’s race was Minardi’s strongest so far this year,
I think it's hard to compare Jos with Christijan as in 2003 the car was way behind the rest, now it's a bit closer and Wilson is also a much better driver than Friesacher. Still I think Jos did the best he could with the equipment he had. The fact is Albers has been on par with his team-mate so far this year when you look at all the sessions, and it's interesting that when Friesacher is only able to sort out his setup difficulties and balance his car properly (Malaysia or Monaco) he's always easily faster. I also remember in DTM Albers' racecraft was a bit nervous and lacked assurance, and we haven't really got a proper chance to see if he's matured since then or not.
Some notes:
The 2003 car was much closer on the rest then we are now, look at the results and times in 2003. You say that Albers his racecraft was a bit nervous and a lacked of assurance, if you only look at the end of 2004 your wright but if you take his 2003 season when he won the most races and his drive was one of the smoothniss of the field, he won races with more then 10 sec on the number to and that is very fast in DTM. Also you say that because of Friesacher is lack of ability to setup his car he is slower and when he get his setup wright he will be faster then Albers? In Nurburg they had the same setup in 4th practice and Albers was a second faster then Friesacher, if you look at Bahrain, San Marino and spain he was 0,8 seconds faster in qualify (in San Marino only in the first qualy). The only time Friesacher was faster was in Monaco, the track that he had driving for the last 5 years and Albers only in 2000 and had some badluck in practice, one time it was his own fault ofcourse! I think it's a little cheap to say that Friesacher is slower because of his lack of ability to setup up his car wright, Also his driving styles is not the style to drive a Formula 1 car 2005, way to nervous in my opinion (you can call it raw speed, i call it nervous and a lack of driving skills). A good driver must adjust his style to the car he is driving, Albers said it to that you must adjust you driving style to the Minardi, Friesacher got more problems to achieve this. I don't want to say that Friesacher is a bad driver cause he isn't but he must learn to adjust his style to drive the Minardi and he most more foccusing on his Setups then only be the fastest in the practice's. Your wright that you can't compare Albers with Jos at the moment, but i think if you look at the complete picture Albers could be better and more succesfull if he gets the chance. Maybe he don't have the particular talent of Jos but i think he is a more complete driver and he is smarter.
MinardiSquad, do you really think Minardi was closer to the rest in 2003 than they are now?? C'mon now it's not even clear which team will be the worst on which circuit and in 2003 we always knew Minardi would be behind Jordan by 1.5-2s. As for Friesacher. The guy is starting to become difficult to figure out. There is just no consistency. On a good day he can battle with the Jordans and is bloody fast and then other times he's as graceful as a pregnant pig and all over the place. Of course everything counts as you said and so does the setup ability, and Albers is the more complete driver so far. But in terms of raw speed I really think Friesacher is better, and not because of his sensitive steering input. I remember him from F3000 when he used to be peerless and faster than Liuzzi in changing conditions - that's when you can measure raw speed. He has to up his game as soon as possible though, but it's a lot easier to learn a driver not to wave the steering wheel like a flag and to help him understand why adopting a proper setup is in his best interest, than it is to learn how to drive quicker when you already have a well-balanced car and a consistent pace. Anyway both of them will always be in 'competent, but nothing special' category imho. There are worse drivers around, but there are a number better too.
I watched the same F3000 series, but i don't remember that Friesacher was faster then Liuzzi, maybe its about one race. A good driver isn't the driver who scores in 2 of the 16 races but is able to drive constant preformances! And what do you mean with raw speed? If Friesacher has major raw speed why isn't he a F3000 champion or at least at the top (2 or 3), he has driffen there for four years, plenty of time to get his car under control and learn to be consistency? I have seen him 2 years in F3000 and i think he did some good things by occasion. Its about the question: You've got it or you don't (the whole package)? Do you think that Friesacher is able to adjust his driving style for the rest of the season? I can remember the Australian Grandprix with changing conditions and wasn't Friesacher 4 a 5 seconds slower then Albers? Albers got the whole package cause he is fast in every condition and is able to learn quick about the car he is drives and also is able to adjust his driving style to car he is driving. Its just about natural talent! But i don't want to say that there is no change that Friesacher will pick up his pace again, but its the question for how many races? Maybe you mixed up the raw speed of Jos Verstappen( who shows real raw speed) with the way Friesacher drives, i like also to see some aggresive style in rain or when drivers passing other cars but i don't like to see a guy who drives very nervous. But in Monacon i reallly loved the performance of Friesacher because it was looking sensational good and i hope he can show it again for the rest of the season.
Friesacher has got his talents and is a quality driver if every thing is wright but Albers is in the most aspects the better one till now;) I would say: Suprise me Friesacher that i am wrong about it!!!!
MinardiSquad, do you really think Minardi was closer to the rest in 2003 than they are now?? C'mon now it's not even clear which team will be the worst on which circuit and in 2003 we always knew Minardi would be behind Jordan by 1.5-2s.
You're missing my point MinardiSquad. Friesacher hasn't won any titles in F3000 or F3 because as I have already written in this topic he's nothing special. What I only want to say is that he just have much more room to improve than Albers. I don't know if he is able to adjust his driving style and attitude for the rest of the season, but what I'm sure about is that if he is then he has the potential (I was referring to last year's Hungarian F3000 race when saying about Friesacher's raw speed) to be the better of the two Minardi drivers.
Comments
Also the reaction wouldn't really support the theory that Albers is on mega light fuel, I just think Fries had a bit of a bad lap.
Lets hope we can get something out of the race
Eheh, joking...bravissimo albers, great lap, this is driving.
Now let's cross fingers for the race
Well done guys!:D:D
Now for the race!
The guy has great driving skills, he has the brains, he has the technical skills and is totally commited to be succesfull.
And he have won Championships like Karting,Formula Ford and Formula 3 champion and vice champion in DTM!!!
I don't wan't to say that he is the same as Alonso, but i really think he has it in him to be a very succesfull Formula 1 race driver.
And Steve is good guy:hehe:, if you mean the Dutch Steve (He is not liking Albers at all, so there ain't not much agreements between Steve and me!
:rolleyes:
Webber trashed Albers on the tracks he didn't know (which were basically all of them). In DTM Albers didn't just have anyone as a team mate. His team mate had been in that team for a while and was the champion (I think). The second season he was in that car there was a lot more competition.
The times he was slower than Friesacher mostly were caused by bad luck. Overal he was quite a bit quicker than him. Before Patrick's car failed this race Christijan was over half a minute in front of him. I bet he could nearly have lapped him by the end of the race.
Albers has impressed me more than Verstappen did in his Minardi season. And I'm really sorry I have to say that because I'm a Verstappen fan.
[Edited on 12/6/2005 by Stan]
The fact is Albers has been on par with his team-mate so far this year when you look at all the sessions, and it's interesting that when Friesacher is only able to sort out his setup difficulties and balance his car properly (Malaysia or Monaco) he's always easily faster.
I also remember in DTM Albers' racecraft was a bit nervous and lacked assurance, and we haven't really got a proper chance to see if he's matured since then or not.
MONTREAL, CANADA, June 12, 2005 – In a Canadian Grand Prix full of incident and mechanical carnage, the Minardi F1 Team recorded its best result of the 2005 season, Christijan Albers taking the chequered flag in 11th position and recording some competitive lap times in the process. Team mate, Patrick Friesacher, also ran strongly from the start, but his car suffered a loss of hydraulic pressure soon after the second of his scheduled pit stops, and he was forced to retire on lap 39. Like a number of drivers, Albers took advantage of the Safety Car deployment on lap 47, diving for the pits to take on sufficient fuel to finish the gruelling 70-lap race. The Team comes away from the Canadian Grand Prix weekend encouraged by its performance both in qualifying and in the race, and now looks forward to next weekend’s United States Grand Prix – an event that last year yielded a World Championship point for the Faenza squad.
CHRISTIJAN ALBERS Best lap: 1 min 18.462 secs Position: 11th
“I’m happy with the result of today’s race. We had a good pace and good lap times, and it was a little bit of a shame that we had a pit stop followed by a blue-flag situation, as I think that’s where we lost position to Jordan. We had a better pace in the early stages of the race, so it was a bit frustrating to finish behind them. I was really fighting hard at the end, but it was just not possible to pass Monteiro. Even so, I think it was a good result for the team, and a good qualifying performance yesterday. Now it’s maximum attack for Indianapolis, where we’ll go for it again.”
PATRICK FRIESACHER Best lap: 1 min 18.709 secs Position: DNF
“I think we suffered with the tyre choice we made this weekend, as Christijan was on the harder tyres and I was on the softer compound. I had a really good start, and was right behind him, but I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to, as the car had quite a lot of oversteer in it at that point. After the second pit stop, I started to lose the power steering, and it was pretty clear there was a hydraulic problem.”
PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth
“Without doubt, today’s race was Minardi’s strongest so far this year, with a gutsy performance from Christijan to finish in P11. Sadly, Patrick retired on lap 39, with a power steering failure, which resulted in a loss of hydraulic pressure. There’s no question but that there is still performance to come from the PS05, and we now look forward to next weekend’s race, in Indianapolis.”
- Ends -
Chassis allocation – 2005 Grand Prix of Europe
Friesacher (No 20) PS05/02
Albers (No 21) PS05/01
Spare car (Friesacher) PS05/03 huh?
Some notes:
The 2003 car was much closer on the rest then we are now, look at the results and times in 2003.
You say that Albers his racecraft was a bit nervous and a lacked of assurance, if you only look at the end of 2004 your wright but if you take his 2003 season when he won the most races and his drive was one of the smoothniss of the field, he won races with more then 10 sec on the number to and that is very fast in DTM.
Also you say that because of Friesacher is lack of ability to setup his car he is slower and when he get his setup wright he will be faster then Albers?
In Nurburg they had the same setup in 4th practice and Albers was a second faster then Friesacher, if you look at Bahrain, San Marino and spain he was 0,8 seconds faster in qualify (in San Marino only in the first qualy).
The only time Friesacher was faster was in Monaco, the track that he had driving for the last 5 years and Albers only in 2000 and had some badluck in practice, one time it was his own fault ofcourse!
I think it's a little cheap to say that Friesacher is slower because of his lack of ability to setup up his car wright, Also his driving styles is not the style to drive a Formula 1 car 2005, way to nervous in my opinion (you can call it raw speed, i call it nervous and a lack of driving skills).
A good driver must adjust his style to the car he is driving, Albers said it to that you must adjust you driving style to the Minardi, Friesacher got more problems to achieve this.
I don't want to say that Friesacher is a bad driver cause he isn't but he must learn to adjust his style to drive the Minardi and he most more foccusing on his Setups then only be the fastest in the practice's.
Your wright that you can't compare Albers with Jos at the moment, but i think if you look at the complete picture Albers could be better and more succesfull if he gets the chance.
Maybe he don't have the particular talent of Jos but i think he is a more complete driver and he is smarter.
As for Friesacher. The guy is starting to become difficult to figure out. There is just no consistency. On a good day he can battle with the Jordans and is bloody fast and then other times he's as graceful as a pregnant pig and all over the place.
Of course everything counts as you said and so does the setup ability, and Albers is the more complete driver so far. But in terms of raw speed I really think Friesacher is better, and not because of his sensitive steering input. I remember him from F3000 when he used to be peerless and faster than Liuzzi in changing conditions - that's when you can measure raw speed.
He has to up his game as soon as possible though, but it's a lot easier to learn a driver not to wave the steering wheel like a flag and to help him understand why adopting a proper setup is in his best interest, than it is to learn how to drive quicker when you already have a well-balanced car and a consistent pace.
Anyway both of them will always be in 'competent, but nothing special' category imho. There are worse drivers around, but there are a number better too.
A good driver isn't the driver who scores in 2 of the 16 races but is able to drive constant preformances!
And what do you mean with raw speed?
If Friesacher has major raw speed why isn't he a F3000 champion or at least at the top (2 or 3), he has driffen there for four years, plenty of time to get his car under control and learn to be consistency?
I have seen him 2 years in F3000 and i think he did some good things by occasion.
Its about the question: You've got it or you don't (the whole package)?
Do you think that Friesacher is able to adjust his driving style for the rest of the season?
I can remember the Australian Grandprix with changing conditions and wasn't Friesacher 4 a 5 seconds slower then Albers?
Albers got the whole package cause he is fast in every condition and is able to learn quick about the car he is drives and also is able to adjust his driving style to car he is driving.
Its just about natural talent!
But i don't want to say that there is no change that Friesacher will pick up his pace again, but its the question for how many races?
Maybe you mixed up the raw speed of Jos Verstappen( who shows real raw speed) with the way Friesacher drives, i like also to see some aggresive style in rain or when drivers passing other cars but i don't like to see a guy who drives very nervous.
But in Monacon i reallly loved the performance of Friesacher because it was looking sensational good and i hope he can show it again for the rest of the season.
Friesacher has got his talents and is a quality driver if every thing is wright but Albers is in the most aspects the better one till now;)
I would say: Suprise me Friesacher that i am wrong about it!!!!
[Edited on 14/6/2005 by MinardiSquad]
What I only want to say is that he just have much more room to improve than Albers.
I don't know if he is able to adjust his driving style and attitude for the rest of the season, but what I'm sure about is that if he is then he has the potential (I was referring to last year's Hungarian F3000 race when saying about Friesacher's raw speed) to be the better of the two Minardi drivers.