It's been ages since we (the Belgians that is) had a fellow countryman in F1. About the only claim to fame the Belgians ever had in this pinnacle of motor racing was Jacky Ickx. Thierry Boutsen was the only other Belgian who managed to actually win races (he won three), and then we had the likes of Eric Vandepoele (tintin) and Bertrand Gachot (who was instrumental in the start of the career of a well known 7 time world champion, ask Eddie about that).

Allow me some patriotic pride (and then I'll stop)

he did quite well, whithin 0.2 second of an experienced team mate

Itd be interesting if he can keep up this form in second practice

d'Ambrosio only drives practice session one. Yes within 2 tenths was an excellent performance by Jerôme.

I've just got in and seen the times and I'm impressed. And pleased. I was afraid that DAMS' form this year might have scuppered his chances.

impressive, it was indeed, but timo ran the wrong tyres in hindsight, plus he had a problem with steering. Compared to lucas, who knows, could be pretty close!

Yes, and the previous Belgian in F1 was Bas Leinders driving for Minardi in 2004 - in the same role as d'Ambrosio, only driving in Friday practice sessions.

Befor Leinders David Saelens was also a Minardi test driver. When Alex Yoong was sidelined by Minardi for a couple of races Saelens should have replaced him but he couldn't find the budget in time and Anthony Davidson, who did find some money, took that seat for 2 races. I always rated Saelens very highly, at the time I was convinced that he was F1 material and a bit better as Leinders. Saelens beat Franck Montagny to the French F3 title.

Another impressive Belgian (especially in F3000, ended twice 3rd in the standings) was Marc Goossens, he also should have made it in F1.

Another fast Belgian that is often forgotten was Thierry Tassin. He was vice-champion in British F3 (after Jonathan Palmer) and once tested for Brabham and drove for Eddie Jordan in F3000. He was very fast but a horrible crash in F3000 (a bit similar injuries to the crash of Herbert in Brands Hatch) that ended his single seater carreer. He still did some stock car races and won 3 Belgian touring car titles and 4 times the 24h of Francorschamps in his carreer but he would have certainly found an F1 seat without that crash.

Going back a bit there was Paul Frère (more famous for his writing than for his driving but a very good driver) and drivers like Willy Mairesse, Olivier Gendebien and Lucien Bianchi, the grand-uncle of Jules.
I think Boutsen is very underrated. If he rather than Patrese had been kept by Williams, I'm not sure Mansell would have beaten him.

Here's an article from 2000 by Joe Saward on Belgian racing drivers.

At the time I was a huge fan of Patrese as a kid, he had such a nice personality. Since I am Belgian I also supported Boutsen, but when he was paired with Patrese I wanted Patrese to beat him and looking back I am really not so sure who of those 2 was actually the better driver. But I doubt Boutsen would have been able to beat Mansell, not because he was a weaker driver because he was probably the best car developer of that era, in terms of setting up a car Boutsen was better as Mansell, but he wouldn't have beaten him because Mansell had the absolute nr 1 status when he came back with Williams, it was a condition for him to come back to Williams. Patrese did clearly not receive the same equipment and the same treatment as Mansell did, and in 1991 Patrese was more often driving better as Mansell than opposite. Williams in their history have switched drivers quite a lot, in many cases those drivers didn't deserve to be ditched but it was often because of commercial reasons (Renault for example demanded that they gave Prost a car). In 1990 Mansell had anounced that he would quit F1 but somehow Williams convinced him to continue and come back to Williams, Boutsen was then ousted and moved to Ligier where he had a very bad car, it killed his carreer.

What's interesting is that Thierry Boutsen has often said that Jerôme d'Ambrosio has exactly the same driving style as he did. He even supported d'Ambrosio early in his carreer.

According to Boutsen d'Ambrosio is a driver who needs confidence of the team and his environment and that he is someone with a lot of technical knowledge who is outstanding in setting up a car. According to Boutsen d'Ambrosio is a driver that will usually not be instantly super fast but that he is rather someone who searches for a good race set-up during practice instead of focussing on practice pace. He is more a racer (like Glock) than a qualifier (like Trulli). Boutsen says he really needs to have a good set-up to feel confident and that F1 will propably suit d'Ambrosio's driving style much better as GP2.

Because he wasn't allowed to race with his own set-ups when he started at DAMS (he was initially hired as 2nd driver after Kobayashi because Toyota was paying all the bills for Kobayashi) and because there is no testing during the season in GP2 d'Ambrosio never was able to completely set-up the car to his likening, in the Asian GP2 championship they did end 1st & 2nd in the tables though. In the main GP2 series he solidly beat Kobayashi two years in a row, even though Kobayashi was their 1st driver.

This year his performance improved especially after Romain Grosjean was driving next to him. This is according to some observers because before that he had with Ho-Pin Tung a very weak teammate who was not strong at finding a good set-up. With Grosjean & d'Ambrosio as a pair they suddenly had 2 drivers who are good at setting up a car thus with the feedback of 2 good drivers their performance improved. With little practice time to set-up a car and no in season testing it's really important for a GP2 team to have 2 solid drivers who give good feedback. Interesting is that Grosjean wasn't able to beat d'Ambrosio yet since he came back to GP2 but then one can argue that Grosjean missed most of the season. Personally I am convinced that d'Ambrosio would have achieved far better results in GP2 had he driven for a better team as DAMS because his team made far too many mistakes and he suffered from reliability problems (in Hungary broken gearbox running 2nd, in Spa broken engine running 1st).

Things are getting pretty strange strange when DAMS isn't seen as a top line team

As for d'Ambrosio himself so far you can describe him as... reasonably competent. He's done nothing to justify as F1 seat as yet and if he gets one this season it's obviously a case of having the right contacts. That's not to say he won't be a contender for the GP2 title next year, of course.

They've been no more than a midfield team in GP2 ever since GP2 started, for a while they were even backmarkers. Success from the F3000 days is long gone, except for that GP2 Asia season when Kobayashi and D'Ambrosio absolutely dominated everyone, only to return to midfield anonymity in Europe again.

They're as good as any other team in GP2 effectively, they just haven't had the drivers.