Rookie Hispania Racing driver Karun Chandhok says that the critics of F1's new batch of teams should "look back in history" to remind themselves that the likely speed gaps in the F1 grid this year are the norm, rather than a major issue.
The new Virgin and 'Lotus' teams have struggled to get on the hugely competitive pace of the established nine teams in pre-season testing, and Chandhok's own HRT squad have not completed any testing on their own car.
As a result, a number of F1's drivers and teams have spoken out on the "dangers" that may arise from the slower backmarkers, with other suggesting that the new teams will end up causing issues in practice and qualifying, in a debate that is driving a wedge between the established F1 teams and the three newcomers.
But ahead of his debut F1 weekend, Chandhok has reminded the F1 elite that relatively large differences in lap time on the F1 grid are common throughout F1 history, pointing out as an example that the opening grid of the 1997 season saw pole man Jacques Villeneuve qualify over six and a half seconds faster than last-placed man Pedro Diniz.
The Lotus and Virgin teams have lapped, on average, between four and five seconds slower than the frontrunners in testing, though there is no way of telling if those times were set on comparable fuel loads.
Chandhok said that although he can appreciate the concerns to an extent, he can't see he and his fellow slowcoaches causing too many problems.
"I can appreciate these concerns to some extent – because if I was in their situation then I would be concerned as well," he said in an interview with Autosport, "The last thing you want in Q3, on the last lap when the circuit has cleaned up, is to get someone in your way.
"But first of all I would be amazed if any of the new teams get to Q3. And secondly, at the end of the day I am quite fortunate in that I have a great respect and a great sense of history in F1 – and I remember not so long ago, just look at the early 2000s, the gap between the front and the back wasn't like it is now."
He added that: "Then if go further back, look at 1997 for example when Jacques Villeneuve was on pole [in Australia] with Heinz-Harald Frentzen was alongside him, they still had the same five or six seconds gap [from the front to the back of the grid].
"So, all those guys [complaining] are only thinking of the last two or three years. But F1 is not about the last two years if you look back in history, which I do. Maybe they need reminding of that."
But despite trying to calm the F1 elite with his impressive knowledge of history that happened 13 years ago, he admitted that the HRT squad faced a "bloody tough weekend" in Bahrain, with the Indian driver and his fellow rookie Bruno Senna set to get their first taste of their new car in FP1 on Friday morning.
"It is going to be extremely tough. We haven't even done a shakedown - so it's no secret it is going to be a bloody tough weekend," he sobbed mournfully, though he added that the team would still benefit from the Dallara chassis design, the development of which should have been unaffected by the HRT team's winter financial issues.
"I think if you look on the plus side, at least Dallara are a respected [racing] car manufacturer and they have built cars before, so we should be in a slightly better position than if it was with someone else doing it independently. And the people involved are good people."
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