Underperforming drivers 2013

[steveaki13]

I agree largely with the above.

The real underperformers are:

Grosjean - I thought he would have been on Kimis tail, but it appears he is maybe to worried about his incidents last year and maybe he has lost that spark.

Perez - As said he really hasn't shown much to prove he deserved this drive over Hulkenberg and the likes. He has been behind Jenson and appears to be generally struggling.

Maldonado - The car is a real dog, but he hasn't really looked like team leader and Bottas has outperformed him at times.

As expected:
Bottas - As said above he is doing a decent job but the car is terrible.

Chilton - I think Max was expected to struggle and certainly to be behind Bianchi. So really he is working hard and not making the mistakes the Caterham drivers are.

Overperforming:

Bianchi - He really has caught everyones attention and in doing a sort of Alonso in a Minardi job.

[jens]

Grosjean - I thought he would have been on Kimis tail, but it appears he is maybe to worried about his incidents last year and maybe he has lost that spark.

I can't relate Grosjean's problems to "cautiousness", because last year he had mostly problems at the start of the race. But this is just one part of the big game - where is he during the rest of the weekend? Because he is slower in qualifying (which has nothing to do with those incidents) and in race pace too compared to last year.

Like with Pérez, he probably has a fundamental issue in adapting to the car - something, which probably will be healed during the season. Rumours are that Grosjean has a problem with chassis. Reminds me Vettel from mid-2010, when he had a couple of underwhelming races after which his chassis was changed and he became more competitive again. So we will see.

[steveaki13]

I hope so Jens.

Because Romain was so good in terms of pace last season it just seems strange to see him struggling so far behind Kimi.

Fingers crossed he can improve in Bahrain.

[yodasarmpit]

Finally we come to
- DiResta - who has been under-performing for 2 years now. I hope Force India don't do the same mistake as Toyota did in having a potentially race winning car undermined by solid but not great drivers. the 2013 Force India is easily the 4th or 5th best car depending on the track. Sutil is doing the car justice but sadly, suffering from a string of bad luck and incidents. DiResta just never seems to get the most out of the car. If Hulkenberg had shown just a fraction more patience and passed Hamilton in the DRS zone, we would be talking about Force India's maiden victory. I'd let DiResta finish out the year, then snap up webber for a year, or Bianchi, and then have a 3rd driver waiting in the wings like razia, etc.

Paul certainly under performed in the second half of last season, but the same cannot be said for his maiden season or the first 3 races this year.

Sutil looked good in the second race due to a tyre choice which put him in a false position. When the tyres failed he fell back to where you'd expect him to be.

I would say, though, that Paul needs to up his game this year or he might never get the seat he, desires.

[shaakir11]

I think that all three drivers can do better, but there minds are not on the road, it is on money. They basically having competition under each other.