He's been complaining about Turn One all weekend. Max to take the lead, IMHO.
Poll: Sakhir Grand Prix 2020, Sakhir - Race 16/17
- Thread starter Shimmy
- Start date
He's been complaining about Turn One all weekend. Max to take the lead, IMHO.
Associate
- Joined
- 10 Sep 2008
- Posts
- 1,646
I'm not sure it does - he's highly rated by mercedes and regularly gets the williams further up the grid in quali than it should be.
If you put a known terrible driver in that car and it still was on the front of the grid - that might settle the argument.
Caporegime
Get out of town. When Schumacher broke his leg in 1999. Mika Salo was miles off the pace when in his car.
Cars are just far too advanced now that the % where the driver makes the difference is just getting smaller and smaller.
Caporegime
Russell is clearly a good driver but he has the following against him:
Car doesn't fit him
Hasn't driven the car before
Has experience in a completely different and much worse car
Car is set up for another driver for the most part
Massive amount of pressure being given the championship winners car to drive.
I'd say this show just how damn good the Mercedes is.
Well remember when Luca Badoer returned to F1 in 2009 for Ferrari to replace the injured Massa. The 2009 Ferrari was a fast car but he still only managed to qualify 20th in Valencia and last in Belgium and was seconds off Räikkönen's pace.
Soldato
Not taking anything away from George but I would bet Maldonado, if he had still be racing would have gotten the car on the front row also.
He's probably more familiar with the car than Hulk was of the RP, and he qualifies in 3rd, having not raced in F1 for the season. Russell on the other hand has driven a Mercedes, and has been racing all season.
IMO he has performed as expect.
It's normally when the car is difficult to drive that you see the large gaps between performances. Take the 2009 Ferrari for example. No-one other than Kimi could drive it. The 2009 Ferrari was a terrible car, certainly not fast. It did get better as the season went on though, as did the McLaren which was also terrible.
Interestingly, looking back at 2009. Vettel should have won the championship that year, but for the massive 5 retirements.
Caporegime
I think George is a good racer but I also think Bottas is massively average.
As adam has said. This is just proving how good the Mercedes is and how much of F1 is dictated by the car (unsurprisingly really).
Caporegime
All you are saying here is that the Mercedes is easy to drive be super fast. F1 in its current state is just trying to kid everyone that there is more than a one horse race. If GR wins tomorrow it just puts even more egg on everyone's faces.
Caporegime
Schumacher won 94 and 95 in the second best car. As did Senna in 91 and Prost in 86.
Exceptional drivers but four times in the last 34 years, all with drivers who are in the running for the best drivers ever. If anything it makes my point.
Also Lewis in 2008
Caporegime
Of course
No ones winning F1 in a metro. The question is always where that line sits. 90/10? 80/20?
Of course
Surely we'd never be able to quantify this unless we put every driver in every car and compared all their times. So all we can do is compare team mates as thats the only time they are driving equal machinery. But even then we have the issue that a particular driver may not be driving his preferred setup or style due to team setup/car design. (Like people say is Albon's issue although i think he's done regardless now..)
Caporegime
I wouldn't say exceptional. I was also just providing examples. There are plenty more if you look. Although next to none after 98. For those who can remember F1 has been pretty boring since the 98 rule change. All this banning engine development and car testing is rubbish. Whoever aces the big rule changes gets a big monopoly on everyone.
Of course
I'd go with 99.5% car in terms of pure speed over 1 lap
The average Max / Albon qualy difference is .5 seconds based off an average lap time of 120 seconds thats a .41% difference. So a good driver can contribute around .5% of the cars performance.
This is based on pure speed and doesn't account for racecraft which could potentially add a lot more in terms of performance
Caporegime
08 McLaren was just as quick as the Ferarri. Especially as the season progressed. Kovalainen managed to win with it even. That would be the last season when two manufacturers went toe to toe though. 10-20 has just been a RB and Merc fest.
I will say reducing the opportunities for teams to catch up is a bit silly but i can't see it changing as its at odds with cost cutting. But the days of someone coming in, buying a small team/starting a new team and winning are long gone.
Maybe next years test time should be increased the lower down the order you finish in the championship at the end of the year? i.e. everyone gets a standard amount and its boosted the worse you are? i don't know.
Next year the championship positions this year dictate how much CFD and computer time they can use so may go some way to balancing the field.