Is Mark Webber being questioned for not achieving any podiums yet this year, or his BMW Williams teammate Nick Heidfeld? On the
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| Anyone with any intelligence knows that it's not JV's fault that he's not keeping up with his teammate. (Photo: Sauber Petronas) |
contrary; with both drivers being praised for pushing the less than ideal FW27 bravely and achieving stronger performances than the machinery at their disposal should allow. Still, getting beat in Melbourne's opening race by aging "wanna-be" David Coulthard in the young upstart team Red Bull, which making matters worse is derived from last year's lackluster Jaguar R5, couldn't have been a very positive experience in the Williams garage, despite the 5th place points finishing position. Webber didn't finish in Malaysia due to getting bumped off the track, but Heidfeld got the team's only podium so far this year. The reverse happened in Bahrain, with Heidfeld out of the race and Webber scoring points in 6th. Not bad, but not what is expected from Williams.
The irony to Villeneuve's situation is anyone with any intelligence knows that it's not his fault that he's not keeping up with his teammate, at least not entirely. First and foremost is the need to look at Massa's times. JV isn't that far behind, and in a C24 that has
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| Despite Massa's lengthy testing and number-one driver advantage, his speed is only marginally quicker than Jacques'. (Photo: Sauber Petronas) |
been primarily set up by the Brazilian driver. If Massa were seconds ahead with each qualifying, and multiple positions ahead after each race was over, then there would be some weight behind JV's critics' complaints, but his position in relationship to Massa's has been similar to the spread in other teams.
Ruling out the Australian Grand Prix, as it experienced some of the wackiest results in recent memory due to near torrential rain during qualifying, results that both benefited Jacques in qualifying and then came back to bite him later on in the race, a quick overview of Malaysia and Bahrain will illustrate my point.
