Sauber retain Ericsson, Nasr for 2016

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I wonder what Ericsson needs to do to prove his worth, he outdid Nasr on a few races so far this season but still he's a pay driver with no talent.
I'm not claiming he's world championship material, but I don't see what's so special about Nasr either to warrant the praise he gets compared to all the **** Ericsson gets.

Ericsson had 4 GP2 seasons, and 1.5 GP2 Asia, and managed 14 podiums and 3 wins, Nasr managed 3 seasons, 20 podiums and 4 wins. Also Ericsson is the only driver, who has been looked at as the "first driver", and the one with experience that haven't won the GP2 champ for DAMS since 2010. He didn't even crush Richelmi. Ericsson needs to prove that he can do something spectacular. He haven't done that yet, anywhere.
Just look at the junior seasons. Ericsson won F.BMW UK in 07, and Japanese F3 in 09. In UK his best competitor was Josef Kral, in Japan, the one who have become the closest to a star is Hironobu Yasuda.
While Nasr in his junior wins in F.BMW Europe in 09 and British F3 in 11. In BMW he beat Daniel Juncadella and Robin Frijns. In F3 he beat Kevin Magnussen.

There isn't any wow-factor in anything Ericsson does, maybe with the exception of getting an insane amount of millions in backing, without a single ad on his car, now that is mighty impressive!

Nasr full race seat, Palmer test seated...

..nice to have the banks money behind ya, and he claims he isn't a pay driver

Well, Palmer never set the world on fire in GP2, and Palmer never looked any good in any of the series his daddy ran either...

 

[Tsfc]

I though he looked good last year in comparison to Nasr.

 

[Tsfc]

Japanese f3 is a plenty good series too.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

In F3 he beat Kevin Magnussen.

And what is so special about KMag and beating him?
Ah well, I'm not gonna keep on arguing for Ericsson, I'm not a fan of his and I don't think he'll ever make it to a big team, I just felt he was getting unjust amounts of hate.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I though he looked good last year in comparison to Nasr.

Japanese f3 is a plenty good series too.

Well, DAMS is the team for junior series, and has been for the last years. In 2013 they raced for the same teams, and Nasr was quite clearly the better driver.
The problem with Nasr in GP2, was that we lost a bit of that "wow-factor" he had in lower formulas, he was a fast and quite steady pair of hands. That's a bit of the reason why the Australian GP ended up with that much attention to Nasr, it was something that had been missed the last couple of years.

Japanese F3 is a decent series, it was an awesome series. But when is the last year there was multiple drivers that have had a reasonable amount of success later on? 2006? Sutil, Izawa and Carbone? 05? de Oliveira, Nakajima and Mutoh? I would say 2004 with de Oliveira, Nakajima and Quintarelli.

But since 2007 it have been lackluster.

And what is so special about KMag and beating him?
Ah well, I'm not gonna keep on arguing for Ericsson, I'm not a fan of his and I don't think he'll ever make it to a big team, I just felt he was getting unjust amounts of hate.

Magnussen had a reasonably OK junior-time, but had a very good F.Ren 3.5 season in 2013, which is still more than a driver like Ericsson have managed.

Ericsson is together with Kobayashi, d'Ambrosio, Buemi, Alguersuari, Chandhok and Yamamoto the only drivers since 2010, who have been in F1, but not managed a top 5 in the tier below (F3000/GP2 &/or F.Ren3.5/World Series by Nissan) and been in one of those classes for more than a year.
If we include GP2 Asia the years that was pretty big. We are down to Ericsson, Buemi, Alguersuari (who went to F1 during his F.Ren season), Chandhok and Yamamoto who haven't managed that.
Even Karthikeyan and Max Chilton (who was outscored by Rodolfo Gonzalez in their debut GP2 season, and who, together with Ricardo Teixeira got 0 points in his first British F3 season) managed do that feat! And none of them had DAMS equipment to help them while being one of the most experienced drivers!

Thing is, I don't hate any driver, it's just that I find it kinda sad that some drivers are in F1, and not others. I don't like seeing Maldonado driving for this long, even less without a race-ban, and quite frankly haven't shown anything beside crashing since 2012, but even he have a quite respectable 2nd tier career.

Most drivers in F1 can point to good results in lower classes, much wins, or something like that. I am not of the belief that Ericsson or Stevens can do that. And I do believe one of them won't be on the grid for 2016.


Damn, long post -.-

 

[Tsfc]

I agree, Nasr was more consistent in the earlier years than Palmer certainly, and I suppose given the switch to Dams, one would expect more wins than he scrounged last year. He had some good battles with Nasr and came out looking sharper during a few races last year in my humble opinion.

Re: Formula 3 Japan, in my humble opinion this is still a pretty good series, I don't really value it any less than the other F3 euro. Sure you miss the euro tracks, but what you lack there you gain in experience with a huge scale of weather conditions and then teams in JF3 are all about the racing. Challenging tracks, competitive drivers. Since the mid 2000 I see what you mean less drivers have been recruited from there or less names make their way up the ladder. I suppose you could say this about a few different series really.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Since the mid 2000 I see what you mean less drivers have been recruited from there or less names make their way up the ladder. I suppose you could say this about a few different series really.

Ye, it's sadly not only the European drivers, and recruitment 'back' to Europe that has stalled, but there have been, in my opinion, quite few Japanese drivers that have been able to make the jump from Japanese F3 to Super Formula (F.Nippon) or Super GT the last years. Which is quite sad.

 

[Tsfc]

I am a huge fan of Super Formula and Super GT



They effin' pay their drivers

 

[Robert Rudholm]

I also for one think there are better drivers than Ericsson. But I don't really hate him..
And as said, Maldo gets hate too.
Generally nobody likes pay drivers, but I guess after his 5th in Melbourne people think Nasr was the next Lauda. And I agreed, only for a single race.

Isnt Nasr a paydriver to? The car aint painted cause of the Swedish flag

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Isnt Nasr a paydriver to? The car aint painted cause of the Swedish flag

That's where "the next Lauda" comes from