Friday, August 22, 2008

Kazuki Nakajima has done the job

Kazuki Nakajima has overcome suggestions that he was at Williams-Toyota because of ties with the Japanese manufacturer. As a rookie, he has put in a good amount of race mileage and is tied with the more celebrated Nico Rosberg; this despite the fact, Nakajima and Rosberg have been given different upgrades at times.

Nakajima, Williams test driver in 2007, was not spectacular in the GP2 series last year but was rather steady and improved as the season went on; it seems quite similar in Formula One. He has not gotten into too much trouble with his driving. He has had only two collisions and has finished each race in a better position than his qualifying slot.

Rosberg came on the scene in 2006 in blazing fashion setting the fastest lap of the race at the Grand Prix of Bahrain. This year, Rosberg has been quicker than Nakajima but has not been able to string together the performance that was expected and appears that he will far short of his 2007 points total unless he really turns up the speed. Although rumors persist linking him to a drive with McLaren-Mercedes. I am sure there are many that would think you were crazy if you had said, "by Valencia, Nakajima and Rosberg will be tied in points."

In my opinion, given Nakajima's overall experience he has had the best season of all the rookies in F1. He definitely deserves to be on the grid.

2 comments:

Senor Soup said...

I was one of the skeptics at the start of the season, but I have to say that Nakajima has impressed me, he has certainly been helped by Rosberg's decided averageness this year, but he did what he had to, match his teammate.

Pete DaSilva said...

Yes, I certainly agree Senor. Nakajima has done a very good job in comparsion to Rosberg. I don't think Kaz will get much faster, but he certainly has done an effective job in his first season.