F1 Half Term Report: Rate the Grid - Pascal Wehrlein

[Paul Jeffrey]

Cocky or confident? Fast or matched with a slow team mate? Pascal Wehrlein divides opinion within the paddock and beyond. Now it's time for your rating too...

Sauber have a bad car - fact. Wehrlein is a fast driver - fact. However buried deep within the Grand Prix grid it is often hard to truly understand the genuine level of a drivers talent, as often the only time one see's the driver in action is when getting lapped by faster cars or after an off track incident. Considering Wehrlein is partnered with a team mate of debatable talent doesn't help when judging the driver on his performance, nor does the apparent snub by mid fielders Force India during the off season. With Mercedes backing and DTM success behind him, it's fair to say the boy can probably pedal a car to a high level.

How good is he in comparison to the best in the field, and has the aloof German does his talent justice this season in the blue and gold machine?

Vote now to tell us how you rate the first half of 2017 for Pascal Wehrlein , and leave a comment below!

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[Peter Klawitter]

kid needs a better seat/ chassis, he will and can beat a lot the better team drivers.

 

[Yapci]

Definitely needs to crash less

 

[Coffer]

8.

Not much he can do while he has #2 status and Ericsson keeps getting all the upgrades. He's still outscoring Kvyat, Vandoorne, Palmer and his teammate and has scored points on two different occasions in a car that had absolutely no right whatsoever to do so. As oorjit07 pointed out, he even did so without getting much of a chance to train as a result of his RoC crash and injury, which is impressive.

He's likely going to lose his seat to Leclerc or Giovinazzi and it's such a bloody shame. He's one of the better drivers on the grid and the whole thing about his so-called personality stopping him from getting the FI drive is a testament to how filthy Mercedes and Force India are and how it's utterly pointless to ever try and work with them. A shame he's too young for Martini's liking, otherwise he would've been a fitting successor to Massa at Williams.

 

[oorjit07]

Considering he spent most of his winter not moving his neck, his recovery was really impressive and I hope he stays in F1 next season. He (supposedly) has an attitude, so he'll need to work on that before he moves forward, but he has the talent to go places.

 

[oorjit07]

8.

Not much he can do while he has #2 status and Ericsson keeps getting all the upgrades. He's still outscoring Kvyat, Vandoorne, Palmer and his teammate and has scored points on two different occasions in a car that had absolutely no right whatsoever to do so.

He's likely going to lose his seat to Leclerc or Giovinazzi and it's such a bloody shame. He's one of the better drivers on the grid and the whole thing about his so-called personality stopping him from getting the FI drive is a testament to how filthy Mercedes and Force India are and how it's utterly pointless to ever try and work with them.

I'm sorry for double post, but I needed to address this. I agree with you in the fact that he deserves a seat, but if does have a bad attitude, then he NEEDS to work on it or he's never going to succeed. I don't how that has anything to do with Force India or Merc.

 

[Coffer]

Considering he spent most of his winter not moving his neck, his recovery was really impressive and I hope he stays in F1 next season. He (supposedly) has an attitude, so he'll need to work on that before he moves forward, but he has the talent to go places.

The attitude thing is a load of bull. The only argument I've ever seen for it was that one time he got stuck in the gravel in 2016, and he was absolutely in the right to try and get it going again. Manor('s dead and desecrated remains) lost a ton of respect from me that day. If you don't have that vicious selfish streak, you do not have what it takes to be a worthy champion, but right now teams seem very content to stick with overly obedient drivers who are happy to maintain the status quo even at the cost of important championship points.

It's one of the biggest reasons why Mercedes are losing to Ferrari in the only championship that matters at the top (WDC) right now despite having a considerably better car overall - instead of building around the driver, they're making the drivers, particularly Bottas, build themselves around the team. The result is two lacking drivers, one inconsistent and the other too slow.

 

[Tom Blackett]

This guy has made zero impact since arriving, the future doesn't look good

 

[GianmarcoFiduci]

This guy has made zero impact since arriving, the future doesn't look good

What????? He scored point last year with a Manor, A MANOR, and this year he scored 5 points with the worst car in the grid, qualifying for Q2 some times also, when Ericsson with the same car never did that.

 

[Coffer]

What????? He scored point last year with a Manor, A MANOR, and this year he scored 5 points with the worst car in the grid, qualifying for Q2 some times also, when Ericsson with the same car never did that.

To be fair, Ericsson would've finished 10th in Baku but had to give the position to Wehrlein, who then couldn't give it back because they were both under threat from Vandoorne. It doesn't say much as Ericsson's car is better than Wehrlein's and Baku was a joke of a race, but he should have a point right now which he sacrificed for the sake of the team.

 

[oorjit07]

The attitude thing is a load of bull. The only argument I've ever seen for it was that one time he got stuck in the gravel in 2016, and he was absolutely in the right to try and get it going again. Manor('s dead and desecrated remains) lost a ton of respect from me that day. If you don't have that vicious selfish streak, you do not have what it takes to be a worthy champion, but right now teams seem very content to stick with overly obedient drivers who are happy to maintain the status quo even at the cost of important championship points.

It's one of the biggest reasons why Mercedes are losing to Ferrari in the only championship that matters at the top (WDC) right now despite having a considerably better car overall - instead of building around the driver, they're making the drivers, particularly Bottas, build themselves around the team. The result is two lacking drivers, one inconsistent and the other too slow.

Seriously? You can't ignore your engineers when they're telling you that you're damaging the car, and this so-called "selfish streak" is only supposed to show when you're fighting for position on track. Not when you've put the car in a gravel trap.

 

[GianmarcoFiduci]

To be fair, Ericsson would've finished 10th in Baku but had to give the position to Wehrlein, who then couldn't give it back because they were both under threat from Vandoorne. It doesn't say much as Ericsson's car is better than Wehrlein's and Baku was a joke of a race, but he should have a point right now which he sacrificed for the sake of the team.

Baku was a race where 12 drivers arrived to the flag, and Wehrlein managed to pull a gap to Ericsson because he was faster (as always). Sauber probably thought that give the place to Wehrlein was the only way to get points.

 

[Jan Larsen]

6. Ebb and flow kinda performances. Brilliant in some races, oddly crap in others. Really needs a better chassis, the car is crap and does no good for his career. Also needs a new team desperately, the team is favoring Ericsson for all the wrong reasons.

 

[Coffer]

Seriously? You can't ignore your engineers when they're telling you that you're damaging the car, and this so-called "selfish streak" is only supposed to show when you're fighting for position on track. Not when you've put the car in a gravel trap.

There is no way he was going to damage the car by trying to get it out. It was a ridiculous excuse on their part and you're out of your mind if you fell for it that badly. You'd have to be an absolutely atrocious driver to cause any sort of damage in that situation.

 

[Coffer]

Baku was a race where 12 drivers arrived to the flag, and Wehrlein managed to pull a gap to Ericsson because he was faster (as always). Sauber probably thought that give the place to Wehrlein was the only way to get points.

Strategy. A 2.7 second gap is hardly a gap. Most likely Ericsson started going very slowly to disrupt Vandoorne's race and give Wehrlein more of a gap ahead - due to the Honda engine, Stoffel was never going to be able to overtake on the straight. If he did it elsewhere, he would then need more time to get to Wehrlein and thus push Sauber out of the points, which would also give Ericsson the opportunity to reovertake on the straight.

If there's one thing Ericsson is very good at, it's defensive driving. We saw it in Canada 2015 where he was a nuisance to many drivers by defending very fairly.

 

[Mitja Bonca]

Hes a mid class driver, not much.

 

[Kasti]

He squeezes this moving road block made by Sauber to results it is not made for. Ericsson shows , always equipped with the better parts, how slow a slow car with a slow driver is.

Strangely they make Ericcson, their "Captain Slow" to No. 1 driver. Perhaps they love to finish last?

Wehrlein shouldn´t hope for mercedes help, they are always bad for german drivers in longer terms. Because they want to show that they are global players.

 

[ale9357]

Wehrlein definitely needs a decent team because he's quick and consistent. Scoring points with a Sauber it's something more than a difficult task.

BTW Ericsson is the no. 1 driver only because he's the Sauber pay driver...

 

[Jolero02]

Most underrated driver on grid possibly- while he has crashed a lot recently, they have not been silly crashes or collisions with other drivers but only crashes when he is trying to push the crappy Sauber way higher up the grid than it should be- he is definatley quicker than the (more experienced) Ericsson and deserves a better car.

 

[Sky]

lance stroll should've had a thread first.