Vassago wrote: ↑3 years ago
Johnson was struggling big time. Kobayashi handed over the car with 18 seconds lead and Johnson lost over 16 seconds to van der Zande in ca. 30 minutes during the ninth hour.
It was already clear to me when his teammates said he 'made big steps' and 'we saw him grow over the weekend' that he is just slow.
But he kept it on the island, which is a start I guess.
I wouldn't bet on him becoming the IndyCar champ this year
MonteCristo wrote: ↑3 years ago
Not too well I'm afraid. I imagine he'll be fighting with Dalton Kellett.
I hope I'm wrong though. It would be nice to see him semi competitive.
Hmmm.
My deep, dark fear was that he'd be very competitive, and provide fodder for the cab boys who think NASCAR is the best full stop. After all, there were a number of openwheelers who have failed going over to tin tops.
But I have to say that so far he's been worse than I thought he'd be. His pace is about where I realistically thought he'd be at this stage. But the total inconsistency isn't a good look.
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erwin greven wrote: ↑2 years ago
How great was Montoya in NASCAR? And Räikkönen? We talk about GP winners. A F1 WDC even.
Montoya was actually about as good as they come, wasn't he? I think he got a number of podiums and even won one or two.
But the likes of Franchitti, Patrick and Allmendinger were all failures. Someone like Tony Stewart doesn't really count - he started on ovals (and the IRL those days was all ovals as well).
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erwin greven wrote: ↑2 years ago
How great was Montoya in NASCAR? And Räikkönen? We talk about GP winners. A F1 WDC even.
Montoya was actually about as good as they come, wasn't he? I think he got a number of podiums and even won one or two.
But the likes of Franchitti, Patrick and Allmendinger were all failures. Someone like Tony Stewart doesn't really count - he started on ovals (and the IRL those days was all ovals as well).
Dinger, like Montoya, wasn't a total failure. Won a Cup race, and has recently redeemed himself in the Xfinity Series.
I'd put Jacques Villeneuve in the 'fail' category, as he had the tendency make an utter ass of himself in NASCAR's feeder series; in championship-winning Penske equipment no less.
He's overall been a little slower than I expected.
I thought he'd start very slow (totally understandably, too), but get into it more by the end of the season. I thought he'd be around 20th or so in qualifying out of 24-28 cars. Ahead of the Kellett and Wares, etc, and one or two others each race.
Instead, he was ahead of Kellett on pace most of the time, but that's about it. Given how crap the Foyt car is, that's not saying much.
I am glad he's in the series though. He's brought a heap of attention. But I really thought he'd be a bit racier.
Oscar Piastri in F1! Catch the fever! Vettel Hate Club. Life membership.
Underwhelming is the word that comes to mind, but that might be too complimentary.
I thought he would end up more towards the midfield by now than he has
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Everso Biggyballies wrote: ↑2 years ago
Underwhelming is the word that comes to mind, but that might be too complimentary.
I thought he would end up more towards the midfield by now than he has
Yeah, I thought there would be a few races where he'd be solidly midfield, when certain tracks might naturally suit him better. I think the most disappointing thing was that for almost the entire season you could just run an egg timer on him spinning by mid-race.
But to be fair to him, he also got hurt by the shorter session times this year.
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Jimmie only won 1 road course race in his NASCAR career so I'm not that surprised that he struggled, especially with the shorter practice times. I think if he ran a full schedule which included ovals his stats would probably seem better.
He was where I expected him to be and his trajectory was as expected. He's too old to make much of a difference anyway. Great attention for the series though.
he had a very rough season, not unexpected though. it's a completely brand new class of car to him, of course his rookie season was going to be a shocker.
Certainly seemed more at home. At the start I was thinking "Oh god, he's even slow on ovals." However, he warmed up. But I can't see him around next year?
Hopefully this result gives him some extra confidence with the car when it comes to turning right.
Oscar Piastri in F1! Catch the fever! Vettel Hate Club. Life membership.