Fernando's partner next year - who should it be?

Question

You'd assume Pedro de la Rosa but should Lewis Hamilton be promoted ( or Paffett?) or one of these for testing role. Is it too early for Lewis? What do you think?

Answer 1

I think that with Alonso up front, McLaren should try Paffett, de la Rosa is, perhaps, past his best as a race driver after so long testing, so give the race seat to Paffett so he doesn't lose his race craft and put Hamilton into a Spyker for the season.

Answer 2

They should start off the season with Pedro, a proven campaigner, to see how competitive McLaren are in 07. The kiddies can do the testing. If they look like they are in the running for the Constructor's title, then they should keep going with Pedro. (No time for rookies to mess around). If, by half way through the season, they are not in contention, then give the young ones a go - probably Paffett then Hamilton towards the end to give him a little taste of F1. What then in 2008? Pedro can go off to work for someone else (maybe Ferrari? Badoer must be getting pretty close to hanging up his boots), Alonso can be partnered by whoever did better in the second half of 07.

Answer 3

I would say that Pedro would be the best fit for next year, he's a very technically savvy driver and will help to develop the McLaren (to Fernando's benefit). The's also very consistent and can get good manufacturers points. Hamilton will be one of their test drivers and will be ready to jump in when the time is right. He can get some seat time with out the pressure of needing to come up with results.

Answer 4

Well, Pedro de la Rosa has proved himself pretty well in the races in which he competed, Lewis Hamilton's career is carefully controlled by Ron Dennis, who has made sure Lewis doesn't make huge leaps over the years.
That only leaves Paffett, the 2005 DTM champion. But I'm not sure if he is quite ready to race in F1.

Answer 5

How about make it like this...

Give Pedro 1 more year and put Gary on extensive testing role.

Gary can prove his worth on extensive testing.

Lewis can be put in other team or testing for other team.

I would like to see a rookie got his first points in his first race (like kimi, nico and hell lots of other drivers including pedro)

If Ron wants Lewis to learn thru the hard ways...he can put him in tailenders team like Alonso in 2001. If he is really that good, he can be another Alonso ( I would like to say Alonso as Schumi started with a Jordan...not a bad car). But in Alonso case the different between Minardi and Ferrari is around 3-4 seconds while current cars is almost 5-6 seconds. So it quite hard to say how good are those Minardi drivers (baumgartner and the rest)

or to speed up things....Pedro and Lewis are for testing and let Gary show his worth.

Its not worth it to alter drivers as each race is different from each other and the development of the cars is different from each race.

Example in 2004 where Williams use Gene and Pizzonia to replace Ralf( accident in Indianapolice)....while the car Gene was driving was bad...Williams blame it on Gene....after that Williams heavily revised the car and Pizzonia race it and he scored a few times....

while in 2002 or 2003...Williams use Gene (replace Ralf again) at Monza and he scored....so it is not a fair comparison....

So all in all.....Ron better set his sight for his driver on 2008.....groom him for a year and release him with a BANG!!!

I hate to see anyone to suffer like what Davidson suffer.....being a slave for Honda for the past 6 years without a drive....


again...it would be interesting who will challange for teh Championship next year.....

hehehehe

Answer 6

Pedro should be given a chance to prove himself for atleast first half of the season.. If he doesn't shine then move on.. You anyways don't need two world champions on the same team or the points keep getting divided.

Cheers!

Answer 7

I think Pedro because he has the experience