Quote Originally Posted by RS
There seem to be some bigger discrepancies in driver performance compared to their team mates throughout the grid than we have become used to in recent years, perhaps as teams are desperate for money in the current economic climate.

Three who I would pick out as disappointing so far are:

- Gutierrez
- van de Garde
- Perez

I am sure Perez has a lot of potential for the future still but I was expecting more. I agree with Martin Brundle, I would have liked to have seen Hulkenberg in that seat.
you are spot on!

- Gutierrez - simply not ready for an F1 seat. a year of Friday practices like bottas would have helped him. Sauber would have had a better lineup with Hulkenberg and Kobayashi. It is no accident that these teams who got rid of solid drivers are struggling....speaking off

- van de Garde - simply not fast enough, or good enough. Yes I know the machine sucks, but he has made like 10x as man mistakes as pic. And usally has something to say in the interviews how it isn't his fault. Looks like Kovy is getting ready to replace him.

- Perez - simply a disappointing and my previous thoughts about him seem to be holding true. yes he was on fire in Malaysia, and did well in Canada and Monza, but disappeared the rest of the year with a competitive car. In fact, even with those 3 performances, Kobayshi was probably the better driver, throughout the year. He has simply not acclimated to the mclaren in what should be a better car than the sauber. I always thought that hulkenberg should have gotten that seat. But Ron Dennis got caught up with the Perez fairy tale and made a rash decision as well as quickly trying to prove that they had moved on from Hamilton. In many ways trying to usurp the Hamilton Mercedes move coverage.

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.