Car-Addicted wrote

It's the money that makes it fast!

dradernh wrote

is it more about the driver, the car, or some identifiable and communicable combination of the two?

• "He is the greatest talent I have ever met." (Jackie Stewart, 1984 in "Der Spiegel")
• "Every German racing driver knows who Stefan Bellof was." (Sebastian Vettel)
• "Stefan was the best of all drivers. He was a thoroughbred racer who could also get the last out of a rubbish car." (Rudi Walch, technical engineer at Brun Motorsport)
• "Bellof was a mix between Schumacher and Gilles Villeneuve." (Michael "Herbie" Blash (FIA))
• "Regarding his talent and everything what he has recently shown, without a doubt, he is one of the very, very, very best." (Hans-Joachim Stuck)

Roman wrote

It's the car. Period. Full stop.

There is a greater disparity between cars than there is between drivers. On a scale of 1-10, the worst driver on the grid is a 6 or 7 but the worst car on the grid is a 2. Lewis Hamilton will never win a race in a Williams.

Let's take the 2020 season as an example. Mercedes is dominant (and that's an understatement). Williams is not. Lewis Hamilton is untouchable in his Mercedes. George Russell is constantly a back marker in his Williams. Lewis Hamilton gets covid and is forced to miss a race. George Russell gets to drive his car. If not for a botched pit stop, George would have won that race. How do you go from always finishing P19 or P20 to P1 in the span of a week? Did he suddenly develop driving skills? Did he take a class during the week to improve his driving?

IT'S

THE

CAR.

To be clear, I'm not taking anything away from anyone's favorite driver. Just take the blinders off and look at the objective facts. Why did it take 3 years for Lewis to win a race? Valteri used to win races when he was with Mercedes but he hasn't won squat with Sauber and he didn't win squat when he was at Williams. So he was only a good driver when he was at Mercedes? Nonsense.

It's the car.

Roman wrote

There is a greater disparity between cars than there is between drivers. On a scale of 1-10, the worst driver on the grid is a 6 or 7 but the worst car on the grid is a 2.

Roman wrote

It's the car. Period. Full stop.
It's the car.

///M Power-Belgium wrote

And in the rain ?

Roman wrote

Most definitely driver skill and ball size dependent.

MJE60 wrote

If it is all the car then please explain the gap between Verstappen and Perez or why certain drivers have with rare exceptions consistently outscored their team mates.

dradernh wrote

Full disclosure: I tune in to F1 very infrequently. That's because, I think, and as one who does tune-in only rarely, most of what I've observed have been processions. That is, little in the way of what I think of as racing.

Having observed from afar the vagaries of total studs' results after changing teams, a total noob like myself feels compelled to ask the experts: is it more about the driver, the car, or some identifiable and communicable combination of the two?

My purpose in asking is that I'm a very technically oriented person, and I'd like to get enthused about F1 if there's space in there for me to do so.

All replies gratefully accepted!

MontyB1 wrote

As above from all need a good car and in F1 you still need a good driver.

But if it’s a Mercedes and your Lewis Hamilton it’s all the car.
If it’s a Red Bull it’s not the car and it’s all Max Verstappen.

The above it’s absolutely stupid I hasten to add the best drivers can and do get more out of a car than their team mate. Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton, Verstappen all fall in that bucket.

RichardInCA wrote

Max knows how to set up his car to get the most out of it - Schumacher was the same.