2011 end of term report – Pedro de la Rosa

Pedro de la Rosa made a one-off appearance at the Canadian Grand Prix, replacing the injured Sauber driver Sergio Pérez.

Season review

De la Rosa drove for Sauber in 2010 but was replaced by Nick Heidfeld from the Italian Grand Prix onwards. The Spaniard then took on the role of Pirelli development driver, before heading back to Woking where he resumed in his role of McLaren reserve driver.

In Canada, Pérez took part in the first free practice session but felt dizzy – a lingering effect from the concussion he suffered at Monaco – and decided to sit out the rest of the weekend. Peter Sauber and Martin Whitmarsh had a meeting and the Briton agreed to ‘lend’ his reserve driver to the Swiss team.
Sauber had anticipated this situation and thus had brought to Canada one of De la Rosa’s seats from the previous season.

The Spaniard had very few time to get acquainted with the Sauber and crashed lightly in FP3 but still managed to qualify in 17th position. He was slower than Kobayashi by only three tenths of a second. He finished the race in 12th place but had been running as high as 9th prior to the interruption.

Conclusion

Pedro de la Rosa’s one-off appearance was respectable as he stepped into a car he didn’t know and had very few time to familiarize himself with it. His 12th place finish allowed him to rank 20th in this year’s championship.
The experienced Spanish driver will be back on the grid next year, at the wheel of an HRT.

Highs
—  Stepped into the unknown in Canada and performed quite strongly

Lows
—  Damaged his front wing at the restart and had to come in to change it

Nextgen-Auto.com marks:
— Olivier Ferret : 14/20
— D.Thys : 12/20
— Sandrine Bouchard : 13/20
— Jean-Michel Setbon : 11/20
— Average mark on the forum Nextgen-Auto.com : 10/20
—  Total : 60/100