The end of the road...
 

for Coulthard and Fisichella, that is.

So far this season both have put out less-than-stellar attempts at racing, and this race (Monaco GP) was the 'crowning glory' of ineptitude.http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...es/redface.gif

Both drivers (and in this case I use the term, loosely) should start to consider either retirement or moving on to another type of racing, one that does not tax them to bring the car to the finish in one operating piece, rather than in pieces.

I was waiting for this thread.

Yeah, ol' man Coulthard lost it in qualifying and racing.
Fisi is down for the count. Must be those ridiculous spectacles he wears on the paddock.

DC has been very poor this season and completely outperformed by Webber.
Red Bull must be considering his future immediately let alone at the end of the season.
However, Fisi has mostly been faster than Sutil and despite some first corner accidents has been reasonaly competative and may have another couple of years left.

Gascoyne was saying that Fisico didn't have first and second gear.

I guess acceleration in those 20 mph corners of Monaco in 3rd isn't fun.

Still... not much room to defend DC. He's down 15-0 on Webber now.

DC should have left F1 when they showed him the door at McLaren.
Yes he got a podium in Monaco in 2006 (or 2005?) but his team mate was comfortably in front of him in that race before the car let go.
He doesn't have the edge needed to perform in F1, he should let Vettel have his chance in the better team.

Horse manure as always, but if we are talking about potential replacements, wouldn`t Bourdais make more sense than Vettel, he has been the quicker guy so far clearly.

Injuries apart, you mean that the guy who managed to rear end DC today should take his place?!
Seemed to me that Vettel drove a perfect race, not sure why Bourdais decided to park his car in DC's gearbox? He made a mistake?! I see. http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...s/rolleyes.gif

What has Vettel shown outside of Wet races to deem him worthy of any seat? Loads of first lap collisions and getting outqualified by the guy who admits he sucks at qualifying?
I`d pick Bourdais over Vettel in a heartbeat.

Seemed to me that Vettel drove a perfect race, not sure why Bourdais decided to park his car in DC's gearbox? He made a mistake?! I see. http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...s/rolleyes.gif It was weird. Alonso wet off there, then DC and then SB, all in the same lap, following eachother!
But yeah, SB messed up.
Tell me now, how many times has Super Vettel made it past the 1st lap this year?
How many times has he been outqualified by the guy who admits to completely sucking in qualifying?

What an Ace he is.

I think the decision to hire DC for this season was rushed last year by Red Bull. I remember a lot of guys were cheering, when the contract extension was announced, but the new deal was made in the first half of the season just after DC had had a couple of good races (Bahrain, Spain), when Mark was new to the team and was also having a lot of unluck. After those few good races DC showed nothing impressive, was almost always in the shadow of Webber and as this season continually proves, the contract extension has been unjustified.

It's a different case with Fisi and it looks like he has been a valuable asset for the team. He performed very well in Malaysia, Bahrain and Spain. We can't write him off due to Monaco just because he had trouble and unluck basically throughout the whole weekend.

And how many times was it his fault?!

Since when does qualifying 18 over 19th will give points unless you drive a faultless race like Vettel did today.

Bourdais is one solid driver, however Vettel is briliant and knows how to take advantage in the right conditions.

Vettel vs Bourdais again.http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...ies/tongue.gif

Stats says that it is 3-3 in qualifying and it seems a fair comparison. They have been roughly equal.

But we can't compare their racing, since there hasn't been any race, where both drivers have finished. Bourdais has made a couple of mistakes (Malaysia, Monaco) plus a controversial incident with Piquet in Spain. So he seems to be a bit errorprone. Vettel has had several collisions, but in most cases it has been hard to indentify his fault in those.

To be honest, both of STR drivers have looked a bit inconsistent so far, but I'm not saying it's necessarily negative, because both are at the start of their F1 careers and such inconsistency is understandable. On the flip side both have shown some sparks too. But I do have some kind of feeling that in future prospect Vettel has a bit more potential - I think he currently lacks at setting up the car and generally doesn't have such amount of overall racing experience as Bourdais - not talking about driving F1 car, which Vettel has done obviously more, but wheel-to-wheel racing with other competitors, where Bourdais has clearly more experience... I think these are the areas, where Vettel has more room for improvement and from this factor derives my hunch about his bigger potential.

The team said GF quickly lost 1st and 2nd gear, and drove admirably without them on a track with plenty of slow speed sections.

I guess for you and Gloomyday, putting Fisi's performance in context is out of the question.http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...s/rolleyes.gif

Kill two birds with one stone : swap Fisi with Junior, and make DC the new President of the FIA. Actually, that would kill 4 birds with the one stone. http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...ies/tongue.gif

You're only good as your last race, as the saying goes. People forget that Fisi made Sutil look over-rated this year.

I think this year should be DC's last.

http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...s/laughing.gif

I remember that somewhere in Autumn last year there was a rumour like Alonso demanded Fisichella as his lapdog-teammate. Maybe Renault should have listened him.http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...es/biggrin.gif

He wasn't that bad in his last race was he? http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...es/biggrin.gif

Yeah, he didn't take anyone else with him out.http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...ies/tongue.gif

I knew there was a re-deeming feature!! http://www.motorsportforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

So true.

2 days ago we were all saying what a good job Fisi has done and that it's his speciality to overdrive mediocre cars, and that Sutil really hasn't shown anything.

Now... I stand corrected about Sutil. He has proven beyond doubt that he is a wet track specialist, and that means a lot. But I still think Fisi will do a very admirable job for the rest of the season, as he did in Monaco withouth 2 low gears.

No, I just have that nasty habit of looking at a driver's total body of work, both during a season and career to-date, that's all. And while Coulthard's has been near abysmal, Fisichella's has been middling, even for a '2nd banana'. 2 times bringing the car home in 12th at a lapdown (Bahrain, Malaysia) is quite admirable, but the 3 crashes, two of which were his own fault (with Nakajima in Turkey, with Barrichello in Spain), do very little to inspire confidence.

In some ways, it's like watching the same end that Ralf Schumacher's and H-H Frentzen's careers came to, which leaves a very sour taste in the mouth. Hopefully, he does better for the rest of the season, but I believe he will be gone at the end for younger, better priced talent.