Somehow it´s not a real honest way to compare Pic and Giedo over the first part of the season. Charles Pic had already a full season of experience in the bag, and was getting all the new parts of the car as first. Giedo needed to get some experience first, and learn how to find his way in F1.
Giedo was getting the badge of `paydriver` when he got the Caterham seat, because of the money of his father in law Marcel Boekhoorn, owner of McGregor. But even before his son in law got his seat McGregor has been sponsoring teams like Spyker and Williams. So McGregor is not a personal sponsor of Giedo, he just got the luck that he married the daughter of Boekhoorn. If Marcel Boekhoorn would not see a future and potential in van der Garde, he would not invest millions of dollars in him.
And let's not forget, Giedo van der Garde was successfull in GP2, never had the best car, but still won races and brought Caterham GP2 into a subtop position. Look where they are now ... And Giedo won the World Series by Renault FR 3.5 , battled guys like Vettel and Hamilton in Formula 3, and was a lot of times the faster guy, in an older and underpowered car... and let's not forget he was in the McLaren young drivers program. So he really showed his talent over the years, and is not just a paydriver...
Dutch drivers do need to bring money all the time. Why? The Dutch market is to small to be interesting for big companies like Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault or big multinationals. It's as simple as that.
Look at Robin Frijns. He has won the most titles of all young drivers at the moment, has even more titles then Vettel when he entered F1, broke record after record, and is as big as a talent as Kubica, Raikkonen and Vettel. But why in Robin Frijns not in F1 already? Simple answer : no sponsor, no money, no F1 seat ... even if you are the next Ayrton Senna of Schumacher ... you need to bring money ... and did these guy not bring money in there first races/season of F1? Yes, even they did at the time.
So it´s not really fair to say say Giedo is a paydriver.
Who is not a paydriver nowadays? Almost every new young driver needs to bring money or some kind of support of a supplier. Even Bottas could not make his debute without bringing in a serious some of money.
That being said, Giedo has done a very good job in his first year, and is still growing. The new Pirelli tires seem to fit him, and Pic does not have as much advantage of his experience anymore. And look what happens ... Giedo starts to develop himself as the better driver of the two. And getting Q2 on tracks like Monaco and Spa ... not the least of tracks, do say a lot. Ofcourse he needed the weather conditions, for the simple fact that Caterham is like 4 or 5 seconds slower then the top 5. But it shows that Giedo can deliver, and has potential to become a respectable driver in one of the bigger teams.
Still tho, to be really really really honest .... I really hope to see Robin Frijns in F1, he is a "once in a generation kid" ... And we can not be sure Giedo is ...
If i had to choose .... give me Robin Frijns. And I guess i'm not the only one.
