Couldn't concentrate at school today... so tired!!!

The last few laps were so tense (for me, at least) watching the Webber-Button battle. Really thought Mark was going to spin out but Jenson got excited too I guess and made a few small mistakes... I think Kobayashi is going to be really great to watch next year. I like the fact that he is so confident and calm under pressure. He may or may not deliver next season, but from what I've seen so far, he looks like a strong competitor in the future.

Kobayashi, the first good Japanese F1 driver?

Quote from Mustafur :

Kobayashi, the first good Japanese F1 driver?

Maybe the first you can remember, but you've only been watching F1 for a couple of years haven't you (judging by what you know)?

Quote from tristancliffe :

Maybe the first you can remember, but you've only been watching F1 for a couple of years haven't you (judging by what you know)?

name one then?

and so?

some people were not there to watch senna when he raced but it doesn't mean they can't have a valid opinion about him.

Sato was a very good driver in F3, perhaps if he wasn't so accident prone he might have been in F1 too.

Satoru Nakajima (Kazuki's uncle I think) was fairly competetive at times, if massively outshone by his teammate Senna and was very successful back in Japan.

Even Ukyo Katayama was consistantly in the top 6 with Tyrrell in 1994, but his car kept breaking on him. He turned down a contract for a better team in 1995.

EDIT: I think it was a bit of a mistake to bring Eddie Jordan out on the grid walk, he kept getting under everyone's feet.

That's three. You wanted one, so take your pic.

You don't need to have watched Senna to have a valid opinion, but you do need to research his cars, his competition and his history to make that opinion. Just like when claiming a driver is the best Japanese driver so far you ought to look into previous Japanese drivers, at least a bit.

Either way, i like this driver alot.

Hope to see him in Toyota next year.

Hes been holding his own at least, well more than holding his own. Unlike most of the other 'replacement' drivers.

Quote from tristancliffe :

That's three. You wanted one, so take your pic.

You don't need to have watched Senna to have a valid opinion, but you do need to research his cars, his competition and his history to make that opinion. Just like when claiming a driver is the best Japanese driver so far you ought to look into previous Japanese drivers, at least a bit.

none of them are decent and i knew them all before anyway.

Sato wasn't that good in F1, 2004 was quite good but he still got heavily outscored by button and in 05 he got shamed like nakajima did by rosberg this year.

Satoru wasn't that successful in f1 allthough he was in a quite good team at the time he got outshone pretty badly.

never said kobayashi is the best Japanese f1 driver ever at all it was a question more of like a wow did he just do that, we will have to wait see what he does next kinda thing(hence the question mark at the end of it).

Quote from Mustafur :

never said kobayashi is the best Japanese f1 driver ever at all it was a question more of like a wow did he just do that, we will have to wait see what he does next kinda thing(hence the question mark at the end of it).

Didn't you? My mistake. I assumed that the sentence below was written using the normal rules of English.

Quote from Mustafur :

Kobayashi, the first good Japanese F1 driver?

Some nice Wiki-Research there on Japanese drivers. Shame it misses out on all the detail of the drivers. Maybe you should do some more. You'll see that Ukyo Katayama, Satori Nakajima and Takuma Sato were a bit better than your research lets on.

yeahhh Kobayashi were great It was a really nice battle between Webber and Button! Soooo closee

Quote from rich_hobo94 :

Couldn't concentrate at school today... so tired!!!

The last few laps were so tense (for me, at least) watching the Webber-Button battle. Really thought Mark was going to spin out but Jenson got excited too I guess and made a few small mistakes... I think Kobayashi is going to be really great to watch next year. I like the fact that he is so confident and calm under pressure. He may or may not deliver next season, but from what I've seen so far, he looks like a strong competitor in the future.

Quote from Mustafur :

none of them are decent and i knew them all before anyway.

Sato wasn't that good in F1, 2004 was quite good but he still got heavily outscored by button and in 05 he got shamed like nakajima did by rosberg this year.

No denying that he had speed though, not everybody wins the British F3 Championship, Marlboro Masters and Macau GP in one year and then go straight to F1.

Japan has had some awful drivers too though, Aguri Suzuki for example.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Didn't you? My mistake. I assumed that the sentence below was written using the normal rules of English.



Some nice Wiki-Research there on Japanese drivers. Shame it misses out on all the detail of the drivers. Maybe you should do some more. You'll see that Ukyo Katayama, Satori Nakajima and Takuma Sato were a bit better than your research lets on.

But not as F1 drivers. which is what was implied in my comment, even though it was a question of future potential.

Sato was great to watch cause he would pull off the craziest banzai moves, but overall he never really set the world alight. I remember his great pass on Alonso at the Canadian GP a few years back - that was pretty special. Kobayashi is doing a pretty solid job, obviously not afraid to defend hard, whether he'll turn it into constant success is still too early to tell in my opinion.

Edit: Sato vs Alonso

lol at peoples japanese driver comments. Satoru is Kazuki's dad, Ukyo was crap, as was Suzuki, don't even think. Satoru had 16 career points in 4 years, if you people think that's good, then damn you got low standards.

Sato only had 44. There hasn't been [to my knowledge] a Japanese winner in F1.

Aguri Suzuki got 8 career points and out of 95 starts Ukyo Katayama only got 5 points through his whole career. The point it, statistically, if Kobayashi carries on the way he is going he will be the best Japanese F1 driver in a very short time to come. 44career points is a reasonable points tally over 90starts or so, but I think he can be better than Sato.

There just ain't good Japanese Formula 1 drivers... Then again, when did you hear of a Japanese driver winning ANY major motorsport competition?

So I agree with Mustafur, there ain't any good Jap drivers cos none of them have won a GP. Or had more than two podiums.

Japanese drivers have fared well in other forms of motorsport such as LeMans and in comparison to a lot of failed British (and other nationality) drivers, Sato did pretty damn good.

Also, there's a lot of drivers from every nationality that come in and suck at Formula 1. Everyone remembers Scott Speed

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Japanese drivers have fared well in other forms of motorsport such as LeMans and in comparison to a lot of failed British (and other nationality) drivers, Sato did pretty damn good.

Also, there's a lot of drivers from every nationality that come in and suck at Formula 1. Everyone remembers Scott Speed

Name a famous jap driver that hasn't been an F1 driver and isn't Tsuchiya.

Now you're bending the rules. I can play this game too.

Name an F1 driver that has won 5 WDC titles that isn't from Earth.

See, now I'm being as moronic as you are. Bending rules to make something you're saying to be true by excluding exceptions.

Moron.

I didn't know there were any rules.

Alain Prost comes pretty close, hes won 4 WDCs and is an android from outer space.

Quote from 5haz :

is an android from outer space.

He's French then.

Quote from BlueFlame :

Name a famous jap driver that hasn't been an F1 driver and isn't Tsuchiya.

Nobuhiro Tajima

Toshi Arai

Quote from 5haz :

Japan has had some awful drivers too though, Aguri Suzuki for example.

Yeah the first Japanese driver to score a podium is "aweful".......

Talking aweful, you should be talking about say Takagi and Nakano.

Ukyo katayama is another decent japanese driver imo.

Takuma Sato is surely a decent F1 driver considering he didn't do karting at all and was a competition cyclist, and only moved to racing cars at the age of 19, I don't recall much driver started racing cars so late and still make it to F1.

Sadly, people look at points to determine driver talent (and claim it's reasonable research).

Quote from BlueFlame :

There just ain't good Japanese Formula 1 drivers... Then again, when did you hear of a Japanese driver winning ANY major motorsport competition?

So I agree with Mustafur, there ain't any good Jap drivers cos none of them have won a GP. Or had more than two podiums.

Japanese drivers can be as fast as anyone else, what they lack is just experience racing in europe and a legit top car opportunities, they come from a country where domestic motorsport has big money, and the compeitition is intense, however it also created a pull factor that prevented most of them to venture into the world stage, most of them don't speak english and this can be a career suicide for them.

Winning races in F1 has to do alot with opportunities, and there was never a japanese driver with a top drive.

There are definitely decent japanese drivers, Ukyo Katayama stayed with Schumi in Hockenheim driving a tyrrel until it blows up, and Suzuki Aguri scored a legit podium in Suzuka in a Larrousse. Oh, and Takuma Sato made the pass of 2007.

Quote from JJ72 :

Yeah the first Japanese driver to score a podium is "aweful".......

Talking aweful, you should be talking about say Takagi and Nakano.

Ukyo katayama is another decent japanese driver imo.

Takuma Sato is surely a decent F1 driver considering he didn't do karting at all and was a competition cyclist, and only moved to racing cars at the age of 19, I don't recall much driver started racing cars so late and still make it to F1.

Takuma was probably the best jap F1 driver but i wouldn't call him good i would say hes Average at best. Katayama had enough time to prove him self and it didn't work out so really we wasn't as good as some people here make out him to be(beaten by his team mate Mark blundell in hes best season 1994 as well).

I agree with what Tristan said though points don't show talent by any means, it shows the driver/car combination.

But it still doesn't hide the fact there hasn't been a good(a driver who can win and can atleast put some kind of bid for the title with the right car) Japanese f1 driver so far.