2012 FIA World Endurance Championship

[Hampus Andersson]

Johnny Herbert is a good example as well.

Le Mans 24H winner with Mazda yet he only has 3 wins in F1 and got outqualified by Schumacher by a whooping 1,5 seconds.

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

He's still not as bad as Nakajima, he only scored 9 points in his three seasons of racing (although only two of them were full seasons).

A better, contemporary, comparison would be Davidson, although Davidson had a far worse car than Nakajima. I still maintain that if Nakajima wasn't Japanese he wouldn't have gotten the seat.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

He's still not as bad as Nakajima, he only scored 9 points in his three seasons of racing (although only two of them were full seasons).

A better, contemporary, comparison would be Davidson, although Davidson had a far worse car than Nakajima. I still maintain that if Nakajima wasn't Japanese he wouldn't have gotten the seat.

Nakajima never had a car capable of winning races. Herbert did as proven by Schumacher.

Then explain how he got the Williams seat, Williams is not japanese owned

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

Williams like big cheques, Nakajima had a big cheque.

Nakajima had a car capable of getting into the top 10, which he very very rarely managed. Herbert had a car capable of winning and won it.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Williams like big cheques, Nakajima had a big cheque.

Nakajima had a car capable of getting into the top 10, which he very very rarely managed. Herbert had a car capable of winning and won it.

Yea 3 wins in eleven years, highly impressive there!

They are both non-great F1 drivers but they are certainly good enough to win Le Mans.

In 95 schumacher won the world championship while Herbert ended up 4th.
He got beaten by Barrichello in 99 as well.
96 Heinz-Harald Frentzen beat him.

Same type of driver as Nakajima, not bad by any means but cannot cut it in F1.

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

If you can win in F1 you can cut it in F1, Nakajima wasn't even good enough to score in the top 3 drivers in GP2.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

If you can win in F1 you can cut it in F1, Nakajima wasn't even good enough to score in the top 3 drivers in GP2.

The car obviously wasn´t that good to win any races in F1, or in GP2 but he did come 5th while Lapierre came 12th.

Lapierre who has driven the Peugeot 908 for the past two years.
The old one at that which won Sebring 12hours.

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

He came 6th

And, Lapierre took two wins to Nakajimas zero.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

He came 6th

And, Lapierre took two wins to Nakajimas zero.

Still he managed to beat him.

Nakajima took one 2nd place, five 3rd places.
Lapierre took no 2nd places, no 3rd places.

Best he did apart from his wins was a 7th place.

And he ended up in 12th so Nakajima without a doubt did a better job that season. Lapierre wasn´t even a rookie in GP2

 

[Fredrik Arbegard]

Just because you doesn't do good in F1 it doesn't mean you won't do good everywhere else.
Just look at the top drivers in Le Mans you'll find plenty of 'bad' F1 drivers doing great,like Franck Montagny, Allan Mcnish, Ricardo Zonta, Marc Gené and so on...
Neither of them was running good in F1 but they were all signed by top teams in Le Mans.

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

Maybe we are blinded by the fact we consider Nakajima only a 'bad' F1 driver, when, in actual fact, he was bloody awful.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Maybe we are blinded by the fact we consider Nakajima only a 'bad' F1 driver, when, in actual fact, he was bloody awful.

That´s your opinion. 09 was a bad year but he did good in 08. Only one person between him and Rosberg at the end of the season.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Maybe we are blinded by the fact we consider Nakajima only a 'bad' F1 driver, when, in actual fact, he was bloody awful.

If he was awful, how do you then compare him to, well, like the guys I mentioned? Lavaggi and Deletraz?

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

That´s your opinion. 09 was a bad year but he did good in 08. Only one person between him and Rosberg at the end of the season.

And thats your opinion

 

[Hampus Andersson]

And thats your opinion

It´s backed up by driver position at the end of the year.

Just as he did good in GP2

 

[George Talbot]

Nakajima is useless, Money goes a long way in motorsports, in most top forms of motorsport, its not about ability as Petrov, Maldonado, Ide and Sato have all proved..... McNish has established himself as one of the top Proto Drivers in the world, will Nakajima do that, I highly doubt it.

What are all these guys doing now?

-Sakon Yamamoto
-Takuma Sato
-Yuji Ide - Super License revoked by FIA....
-Shinji Nakano - 24hr Results - DNF DNF DNF DNF 5th

What are they all doing now???

There is one success story,
Kamui Kobayashi

Can I see him in a P1 car? No.

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

Actually, I found something that Nakajima could do well...pit stops.

Oh wait, no, he couldn't do them either

I hope to be proved wrong but I still see this as an utter disaster for Toyota.

-Takuma Sato

He's trying to reinvent himself as a Indycar driver, with varying levels of success.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Richard was quicker.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

I guess this old man can´t do pitstops either. Or it´s just an underlying hate towards the guy, i don´t know.
There are plenty more idiotic stuff from high level drivers.

Doesn´t mean they suck though.

 

[Richard Sobolewski]

Don't get me started on that cheat!

I don't hate Nakajima, I just think that for a factory team wanting to make an impression in the WEC he is a very poor driver choice.

I want Toyota to go well, and to make a decent impression in Sportscars, thats why I think putting a complete unknown in the form of Nakajima into the lead car (as we assume he will be) is a massive risk. It would be much better to have Davidson or one of the job-less Pug drivers take the 3rd seat and stick Nakajima in the second Toyota, that why they actually have a chance.