He's been hyped by the press, praised by Murrey Walker and adored by Frank Williams...so he's good. Actually he's very good, he's fast and he's confident but to be honest with you, i'm not particually impressed. In recent testing Ralf has been quicker than him and sometime by quite a big margin. Of course you never can tell with testing. He's a little to sure of himself for a rookie...he may find himself getting into trouble because of it. He WILL make mistakes, He WILL do daft things but if he lets himself learn from these mistakes then he can become a future champion. My rating= 9/10
Strictly speaking it will be his second ever GP at Melbourne, but his first ever season. He stood in for the sick Eddie Irvine at the Austrian GP last year. He was plaged with the Jaguars reliability woes but kept his head and finnished the race outside the top ten. That doesn't sound too sparkling but he didn't have very much set up time before or at the Austrian GP because Eddie's ill-ness came out of the blue at them. The Jaguar testing team rate him highly and i cant say i disagree. He seems incredibly calm and collected...a bit like Button. He should be around for a while yet. My rating=7/10
He's only taken part in 23 single seater races and now he's got his hands on a Formula 1 car. Jumping from Formula Renult to Formula 1 sounds a bit on the crazy side but he was very fast in Formula Renult. He's not done badly at all in testing ever. He is going to struggle at the first couple of races because GP's are very long. He is only use to 30 minute races. However Peter Sauber is an intelligent man and has had him training hard to prepare himself. He could be a disaster, but he could be the next flying finn...we'll have to wait and see. My rating=6/10
The young Brazilian is a very aggresive and a very fast racing driver. However as he's shown in the junior ranks he does tend to under perform when the pressure is on. He won't stay in F1 long if he carries on like that. The incentive of F1 however may be enough for him to overcomemthat problem and experienced team mate Vertstappen may help put that problem right. Could suprise. My rating=6/10
He's a bit of an unknown quantity really even though he was an excellent 4th overall in the F3000 championship. He's very young (19) and might be making the transition to F1 to early and with the wrong team. Although i wish Minardi all the best they are not the greatest place to start your F1 career, however last years drivers haven't done to bad (Gene is at Williams doing their testing and Mazzacane has a race seat at Prost). Frank Williams rates him and Frank Williams is a pretty good judge of talent (Think Button not Zanardi!). My rating=6/10
I hate to be insulting but; Gaston is only at Prost because of the bulging wallet he brings with him. Alain has Pedro de la Rose nicely lined up to take his place if (or more likely when) he dissapoints. Gaston isn't Formula 1 material, he has had little success in the junior formula's but Minardi picked him out as someone who had a good deal of cash to bring with him and who could possibly keep the car facing the right way for more than 20 laps. Gene was much faster than Gaston last year yet he's got a testing role and Gaston's got a drive for the 2001 season. Saying that i'd have chosen a Williams testing job too if i was Gene. Mazzacane seems like a nice guy but that doesn't count for anything unfortunatly. My rating=2/10
back in 1997, Tarso drove for Minardi and did a solid job but with no better offers for the next year he looked for a more competitive drive in another formula. He's back and he's hoping someone will notice him like Eddie Jordan noticed Fisichella in the 1996 season when he drove for Minardi. I hope somebody does because he's a very talanted, very polite and very intresting man. However, driving for Minardi may make it difficult but with the new boss Stoddart, maybe not. He may be able to turn the team round in the next couple of years and Tarso may be able to show the world what he can do. My rating=7/10
Many people didn't seem to notice him last season. In his debut season he battled with the slow and unreliable Prost. The only time we tended to see him was when he was being lapped or hen he was pulling up on the grass somewere with another mechanical woe. That's nothing for him to be ashamed of...experienced and highly rated team mate Alesi was doing exsactly the same. Heidfeld did well when compared with Alesi, he outperformed him on some ocassions. His talent may be more recognisable this year as the Sauber has proven to be fairly reliable in winter testing and he's been quick. He should be able to score his first formula one points this season and has a real chance to impress if he leads the Sauber season well in only his second season. My rating= 9/10
Most of us critisised Frank Williams for dragging some poor 20 year old F3 star into the Williams team to fill the empty seat. Frank was right though! Jenson was a major success. He is quick, polite, educated, calm...everything a racer is expected to be. He is the slightly modern version of the British gentleman racer and good for him. He did fairly well against Ralf last year, scoring a total of 12 points. This year he's on loan to Benetton (and next year as well) while Frank tests out Montoua. If Jenson stays this good while he's at Benetton picking up valuable experience then Frank will certainly be wanting him back in 2003. Watch this space. My rating=10/10
