Ronnie on the Rookies

Frankly, Ronnie Bremer should be driving a Champ Car this year.

Despite switching teams and missing a round in 2005, he finished third in the Rookie of the Year standings. He only needed to start that missed round in Toronto to have ended the season as runner-up to Timo Glock.

But what the Dane doesn't have is money, and the state of play in Champ Cars is still, for now, that the lesser teams need drivers with dosh. But Bremer has kept beating on the door, and has attended all the series' races in '06, striding the paddocks, looking for a deal. And when the action has been on track, he's been in the pitlane, scanning the monitors and making acute observations.

As an observer, albeit in an unofficial capacity, Bremer is the ideal man to give his insight into the 2006 Rookie of the Year battle.

Will Power

Team Australia
1st, 85 points

In the beginning he looked very strong, but he has been a bit unlucky lately. Even though he is a rookie, Will has a fair bit of experience with driving powerful and heavy cars, such as World Series by Renault where he scored a couple of wins. He also had a couple of Champ Car races at the end of last season. But he's doing a good job, and staying reasonably close to his teammate Alex Tagliani.

At Monterrey he was nowhere in qualifying, but then they put Alex's settings on his car for the race, and suddenly he was quick. But that's a typical rookie kind of situation, especially when you're trying to learn the track as well as work out what your car needs to go quick on that circuit. It takes a while even when you have a good teammate.

But if Will doesn't win the Rookie of the Year award, this year, I'll be very surprised. If he could finish eighth in the overall standings, he should be satisfied with that, as that's where Timo Glock finished last year when he won the rookie title.

I think Will could blend in a bit better with his surroundings - he's a nice guy, but a bit shy, and being open and not embarrassed when being asked for autographs would do him a lot of good in terms of PR. But Team Australia have got to be happy with his racing. He could be a star of the series in the future.

Dan Clarke

CTE Racing-HVM
2nd, 79 points

I can't understand why he can't relax more. There is something in his nickname 'Speedy Dan' and he does seem as if he has the pace. But he can't get his act together and just bring the car home on race day. He always has to do something silly.

In Cleveland, I agree he had to take the chance to overtake, but he didn't use enough of the road on the exit of Turn 1, and just put the power down too quickly. On the line he was taking he was bound to spin.

Those HVM Racing-CTE cars are clearly very good, but Dan's doing too many stupid things to take advantage of that. It's a bit sad really.

Jumping from 220bhp in Formula 3 to 750bhp in Champ Cars isn't too big if he relaxed. But he's just tried to make too big an impression from the start and has given himself no time, even though he has the whole season ahead of him. Keith [Wiggins] has faith in him, and at the moment I'd say Dan has the team behind him, but it won't always be that way if he keeps screwing up.

People don't mind if you crash when you're quick, but if you crash because you're being stupid, that's a different thing.

For example, the situation in Houston when he tried to go round the outside of Paul Tracy on that long, long right-hander. For one thing, it's PT and he might play games with you. Second, Clarke wasn't on a hot lap. Third, you know everyone's going left to avoid the big bump in the middle of the track. So what's the point in causing $300,000 of damage and making sure your qualifying sucks?

In his case, it's the opposite of Zwolsman. Clarke might benefit from having a slower teammate, because at the moment he's being a wild boy trying to match Nelson [Philippe, teammate]. Patience pays off in this series: you might be slow at the beginning of a race, but after pitstops you can be quick. He tries to win the race at the start.

Katherine Legge

PKV Racing
3rd, 79 points

A difficult one this, because she moved up too early and she should have had one more year in Atlantics. Even she said that when the decision was made. On the other hand, I can understand why she was moved up, and I can definitely understand why she jumped at the opportunity.

She's a good driver, but another one who needs to relax. She puts too much pressure on herself to perform, because she's worried the team might fire her at the next race if she doesn't. She should chill, learn what she's got to learn and then start going for it when she has the car and the confidence to do it. She's missing the confidence.

If you don't have the experience to tell the engineers what you want, and if you don't believe enough in yourself, your instincts and your opinion, then you end up going for the set-up your teammate has, because at least then they'll know it works. Then you have people making assumptions about the speed you're turning in, knowing that you have the same car as your teammate and thinking it's a direct comparison. It isn't, because two different drivers can't drive the same car the same way.

So PKV are asking her to make her own set-up in the beginning, and when she gets lost, they switch her back to Oriol's. I suppose that could work for her because then at least she'd have the confidence of knowing the time is in the car. It's a tricky one, because a lot of it is in her head. The team is being very, very good about not putting pressure on her, but she puts the pressure on herself and is worrying too much, which is affecting her, not allowing her to use her ability.

I can't criticise her about qualifying too much, because that's not my strongest point either, but she is again worrying too much. It's like if you ride a bike, and you see a stone in the road and say to yourself 'don't hit the stone, don't hit the stone'. Well. you're gonna hit the stone. She goes into qualifying thinking, 'I've gotta get a good time, gotta get a good time', and she overdoes it instead of letting it come naturally.

Jan Heylen

Dale Coyne Racing
4th, 73 points

A very good driver doing a very good job. Coyne seems like they've stepped up a level this year, but they're still not Newman/Haas, and so when Dale gives drivers an opportunity, they still need to grab it with both hands, and I think Jan has done that. He drove well at Cleveland, and got fifth place, but even before that I thought he was showing his speed; a couple of times in their four races together he had the edge over Cristiano da Matta.

He's working with what he has to work with, and I haven't heard him complain about anything yet, even though he's in the No. 11 car and traditionally it's the No. 19 car - like I had, like Oriol Servia had, like da Matta and Mario Dominguez have had this year - that gets the majority of the attention. Jan's just putting his head down and working.

He's like Will Power and Nicky Pastorelli, in that all these tracks, (except for Portland where they all tested) are new - he never even tried them in Atlantics. So for Jan, it is helpful that he can lean on first da Matta, and now Dominguez to at least have the data from the first session. If you're going 110mph through a corner and you see your teammate is doing 120, then at least you know you can and should go quicker.

That's why it's helpful having a quick, experienced teammate. Around half a second slower than Dominguez around a street track, as he was in Toronto, is respectable. He hasn't done a lot of street racing in Europe, and it is different when you're in a big heavy car like these. You know that one mistake is going to damage your car, and put you on the back foot for the rest of the weekend, so you leave a little bit of a margin.

Charles Zwolsman

Conquest Racing
5th, 65 points

He should be going quicker than he is, especially considering he knows these circuits from racing in Atlantics. In fact, considering he won the Atlantic championship he should definitely be better than he is. I know fitness was an issue for him at the start of the year, and then he hurt his wrists in pre-season testing too.

But the way I look at it is, if at the end of one season you know what you're going to be doing the next season, and you get a chance to try out Champ Cars like he did when he raced in the final event in Mexico City and find out what the demands are, then to be unfit at the start of the following season is your fault.

He had all winter to make sure he was fit, and he wasn't: he struggled to even do the Portland test after Long Beach this year.

In terms of speed, he should have been able to lean on his more experienced teammate Andrew Ranger, but if Ranger can't give Conquest a good car, then I guess Charles will struggle.

Charles would benefit from having a much quicker teammate, because then you have someone to compare yourself against and force yourself to go quicker. At the moment, he and Ranger seem to end up roughly the same place on the grids.

Nicky Pastorelli

Rocketsports Racing
6th, 29 points

I don't know too much about him, other than he beat Fabrizio del Monte to the Euro F3000 title... which suggests the series isn't too strong. You can't say someone's stepping up too early until they're there and proving what they can do. Some drivers are good with more horsepower, some drivers are better with less horsepower, and just because you didn't do well in the lower class doesn't mean you couldn't do well in the higher class. You always need the chance.

Too many people are saying Rocketsports isn't good enough, and in response I say 'look what Timo Glock did in that car last year'. I don't know if it's the same chassis, but Rocketsports certainly shouldn't be qualifying last and second to last. So there has to be some blame on the driver's part. So I can't say Nicky's disappointed me, because he's actually where I expected him to be. In fact, it was a surprise when he qualified 11th in Portland.

As a driver you have a big responsibility to go into a team and build it around you. Big budget or no budget, you can change things inside the team. Similarly, a good driver going to a good team doesn't necessarily have success.

If he doesn't fit in, he won't be successful. Then if he goes to a lower team and fits in, he can have more success. A bit like a football team: you can get the 11 most talented players in the world and put them all together, and you might still have a shitty team, because of egos and so on. Well same here: it's a team effort.

People think if you go to Newman/Haas then suddenly you'll become a winner overnight. Well, they may give you a good car, but if you don't fit into the environment then it won't work. AJ Allmendinger is a good example: RuSPORT is a good team, but he didn't win there. Then he goes to Forsythe, fits in well and suddenly they look like Newman/Haas.

Tonis Kasemets

Rocketsports Racing
7th, 20 points

He is a quick driver, and I know that because I raced alongside him at Brooks Associates Atlantic team. But he's too nervous about having a shunt and then losing his ride because he'll then run out of money. It's not easy for him to come in at the fifth race and pick it up from there, but he's not doing himself any favours by always worrying.

Thinking too much about crashing will make you slow straight away, and so the combination of the team not always going in the right direction and him being nervous is why they look so slow together.

If he had funding for the whole season, he'd be quicker. Potentially, he's much quicker than Pastorelli. I know there's a question mark over whether Rocketsports can run two quick cars, but I think that was actually answered last year when Michael McDowell ran those two races for them alongside Glock; McDowell was quicker and closer to Glock than Ryan Hunter-Reay had been.

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