Motorsport Off Topic Thread

petridish said:
Some interesting thoughts, clearly some common ground on the more clear cut pairings but interesting @Mr Jack you'd put McLaren as 'ordinary difference'. I'm inclined to agree with @Jono8 that they're pretty closely matched with Norris just ahead at the moment, though I'd agree with you that I think Piastri might invert that difference over the next year or so. Either way this particular pairing interests me the most at the moment.

On RB (Alpha Tauri) the other thing to throw in the mix is Lawson. Not sure I can place him relative to the other two yet but if he gets some more time in the car this year it'll be interesting to compare them all (I'm sure the team already is). Riccardo isn't quite on the upward trajectory he needs to be to widen the gap between the three of them so I might well put all three of them into the closely matched group but with (potentially) very different prospects...
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Yeh McLaren is a bit more tricky, but mainly as Oscar is only starting his second season in f1. He showed amazing potential last year at many points, but Norris still seems to have the edge most of the time. I do expect them to end up fairly equal eventually.
 
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Jono8 said:
Yeh McLaren is a bit more tricky, but mainly as Oscar is only starting his second season in f1. He showed amazing potential last year at many points, but Norris still seems to have the edge most of the time. I do expect them to end up fairly equal eventually.
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Exactly. Last season, despite some fantastic results from Piastri (including that Sprint Race win) and him being closer at the end of the season, Lando finished with twice the points of Oscar. This season they're much closer on points, but Lando is 3-1 up in both races and quali, and Oscar has been ordered to let Lando past because Norris was sufficiently faster on pure pace. To me, that's the sort of normal difference you expect between a better and slightly worse teammate. Oscar's currently good enough to get the better of Lando sometimes; but overall you expect Lando to come out ahead more often than not.

Personally, I doubt that will still be true for much longer, but I'm calling it on current/recent performances not future expectation.
 
Mr Jack said:
Exactly. Last season, despite some fantastic results from Piastri (including that Sprint Race win) and him being closer at the end of the season, Lando finished with twice the points of Oscar. This season they're much closer on points, but Lando is 3-1 up in both races and quali, and Oscar has been ordered to let Lando past because Norris was sufficiently faster on pure pace. To me, that's the sort of normal difference you expect between a better and slightly worse teammate. Oscar's currently good enough to get the better of Lando sometimes; but overall you expect Lando to come out ahead more often than not.

Personally, I doubt that will still be true for much longer, but I'm calling it on current/recent performances not future expectation.
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Yeah fair point, I think I was letting my feeling that Piastri is getting better sway me that they're closer but you're right, the order so far is consistently Norris first. Not a slight on either of them just sensible team orders based on current performance. Piastri I'm sure will have his day.
 
I think once Oscar gets his race craft sorted out he'll be better, but he has now become more of challenge to Norris, who in turn seems to have lifted his performance somewhat...
 
petridish said:
This goes with something my wife and I were discussing before the race this weekend: which teams have the most disparate drivers.

I grouped Red Bull, Aston Martin and probably Williams as the three teams with the biggest gulf between drivers. Granted Perez performed better this week so might look a bit harsh but I don't think I'm out on a limb saying there's a huge gap between his and Max's skill levels. Sauber hard to place as I don't think I've seen enough to judge, Merc are a bit up and down the list but probably close enough to eachother overall not to add to this group. Similar with RB.

On the other end of the scale I'd probably put Ferrari and McLaren as having some of the most evenly matched drivers. Maybe even Haas close to them as well, possibly Alpine too.

Thought it was an interesting discussion and different to the usual 'who is out and out the best driver' debate. Thoughts?

Edit: removed spoiler just in case
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I'd agree.
I also think perez would look a lot worse if RB was a mid field team. Ie he often gets stuck where max does not. Add that to poor qualifying and he could look much much worse than now
 
413x said:
I'd agree.
I also think perez would look a lot worse if RB was a mid field team. Ie he often gets stuck where max does not. Add that to poor qualifying and he could look much much worse than now
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Similar to Bottas. When the Merc was at its strongest he’d be near the top but as soon as the performance deficit closed he disappeared backwards. I’d take Bottas over Perez though..
 
Interesting to see leaving F2/F3 outfit Prema committing to a two-car team in Indycar from 2025; we've seen an increased move of European lower formulae (lower than F1) drivers moving across the pond in recent years; will be interesting to see what Prema do
 
KiNgPiN83 said:
Similar to Bottas. When the Merc was at its strongest he’d be near the top but as soon as the performance deficit closed he disappeared backwards. I’d take Bottas over Perez though..
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A weak teammate is bad for the better/no.1 driver too in terms of the championship (when you have a rival in a different car who can challenge), especially when it comes to a safety car situation. If Bottas could have at least sort of kept up with Hamilton, Max wouldn't have been able to take advantage in safety car situations as much as he did.

As Lewis and Max were so far ahead of everyone else, the person in 2nd always benefitted massively when there was any sort of safety car as they knew they wouldn't lose positions and would simply gain free time.
 
john_smith said:
I’ve often thought about this. If bottas was a better team mate then Lewis would have won 21.

Perez did more to slow down Lewis in various races in 21. Bottas I can’t remember ever doing anything that helped out Lewis in a similar way.
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To be fair to Bottas, he did take out both Red Bulls in Hungary right at the start :D As you say he's not done as well as Checo but you also need to give Max some credit as in couple of races he made his overtakes in places where no one expected it. Russia before the rain springs to mind
 
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