Not to be Cornfuzed' with "The Doctor,"
aka Valentino Rossi of two wheeled fame, who currently leads the MotoGP
championship by single digits with a single round remaining
Nope instead I'm talkin' about Alexander
Rossi, America's latest and current Formula 1 driver who's been acquitting
himself very well in his limited seat-time of five Grands Prix, having made his
F1 debut earlier this season at Singapore.
Yet according to Marshall Pruett of Racer fame,
the 24yr old Californian was one phone call away from becoming an IndyCar
driver this year instead, with Dale Coyne even going so far as tweeting a
picture of Alexander seated in a DCR Dallara DW12-Honda just prior to
Christmas.
Yet Rossi's heart a la Conor Daly's has
always been endeared with Formula 1 which after all is denoted as the pinnacle
'O motorsport for a reason. And has paid his dues by toiling for years as a
Simulator Jockey and reserve driver for the defunct Caterham and Marussia F1
team's along with stints in GP2, the premiere Formula 1 feeder series.
Hence naturally, when he got the chance to
compete for Racing Engineering in GP2 this year, he immediately took it, for
which has paid off handsomely with now three wins along with currently lying
second in the championship behind series winner and McLaren F1 prodigy Stoffel Vandoorne
with two weekend's remaining.
Rossi's final Grand Prix (this season) will
be Brazil before returning to GP2 for Abu Dhabi's season finale, with Bahrain's
penultimate GP2 rounds sprinkled in-between.
As Rossi currently holds second with
169.5-points vs. his closest competitors Rio Haryanto (126) and "S-squared," aka Sergey Sirotkin
(121) with 4-rounds remaining. While ironically, Haryanto is also potentially competing for one
of the two Manor seats next year.
Yet Rossi's been basking in the glory of
being a Formula 1 pilote' instead, with a career best finish of 12th place (to
date) appropriately at his Home track Circuit Of The Americas. (COTA) Having
finished 14th in Singapore, 18th in Japan and 15th in Mexico.
Meanwhile in the A-L-L important realm of F1,
where rule 1 is beating your team-mate, Rossi vs. the somewhat more experienced Will Stevens
leads his team-mate 4-0 in race finishes - with the pair tied two-apiece in
Qualie along with being in lock-step over their first four outings together...
Races SIN Jpn Aus Mex
ROSSI) 20/14 20/18 18/12 18/15
STEVENS) 19/15 19/19 19/R 19/16
