Servia’s results show he deserves top ride
Written by Scott Keller · October 20, 2007
The musical chairs in the 2007 Champ Car line up has put several drivers out in the cold. How well is that working out for the teams involved?
One of the most disappointing changes was the ousting of Oriol Servia in favor of Mexican, David Martinez. Forsythe racing made a difficult decision to run a young Mexican in their car, likely due to the upcoming race in Mexico in November. Turn out that Forsythe Racing made a bad move.
Today in Australia, Oriol Servia qualified second, and was out to prove himself. Not only that, but Oriol did it with a second tier team that hasn’t shown a great amount of speed this year. On the other hand, Forsythe Racing has been watching David Martinez running around at the very tail end of the field, and was slowest in today’s qualifying session.
Here are the grades for the teams and their driver changes.:
Forsythe Racing | GRADE: D-
Forsythe is capping of a mediocre year by making the team even weaker. Is this driver change really about the future, or just appeasing the Mexican fans?
PKV | GRADE: B+
I can’t give an A to a team that hired Tristan Gommendy in the first place, but kudos for picking up the best and most qualified driver without a ride, and giving Servia a chance to finish in the Top 5 in points. Now sign him for 2008, and I’ll bump it up to an A-.
Conquest Racing | GRADE: C-
Nelson Philippe is back in Champ Car for Conquest, and will start 12th on Sunday. Ex-driver, Jan Heylen, would have been back there in the bottom half of the field too. Jan and Nelson are both popular with the fans, but I think it sucks to dump Jan at the end of the season for a one-off because the Australian fans are gah-gah over Nelson.
PCM | GRADE: D
PCM gets a D for dropping Ryan Dalziel for Mario Dominguez. Dalziel was a rookie that showed flashes of excitement and speed. Dominguez gets the seat for being “good enough” and being “Mexican” (oh and he probably brough an infusion of cash too). And if they actually dumped Ryan they way he says they did, that would bump them down to an F, but who can really tell what happened.
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Scott, fear not, Australian fans do not go gah gah over Nelson. His victory last year was viewed for what it was, a very luck one off & was then promptly forgotten.
If he has had a little media coverage this weekend its revolved around his dating of last years Miss Indy, not his “ability” behind the wheel.
Scott, buddy,PLUUHEEESE! We are not that blind Down Under my friend. :-)