good_Ralf wrote:Pedro de la Rosa, another of my favorites, was underrated IMO.
He wasn't amazingly fast, but he deserved more from his career.
No, for me the jury is still out on PdlR. I mean, yes, he did well at HRT and from what I've heard he is a genuinely likable chap, but he never really cut the mustard for me. For example, at Arrows, he didn't exactly destroy Takagi and Verstappen generally had the beating of him. At Jaguar in 2001, he out performed Irvine in my view, but in 2002 an under motivated Irv blew him away completely. He didn't disgrace himself during his super sub days at McLaren but never set the world alight either. Finally, at Sauber, again he never really could match his team mate, but then again his team mate was Kobayashi.
go_Rubens wrote:Button is overrated. 'Nuff said.
Hmmm, certainly in the immediate wake of his title triumph, he could well have been over rated by some, same goes for the immediate wake of 2004. However, I feel that Button, on the whole, has driven brilliantly under the radar, so to speak; 2002 and 2003 being prime examples of this, when he was able to take a midfield car well out of its comfort zone (see Malaysia 2002, USA 2003). Also, his performances in the latter part of 2006 were impressive, and largely went unheralded, despite the fact he scored more points than anyone else in the title run-in. Finally, many people expected him to be blown away by Hamilton at McLaren, but he managed to keep him very much on an even keel for 3 years.