Strongest driver pairing?

[Tommy]

Ferrari for me. 

[nudge]

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost 

In all seriousness, if we're not taking current form into account, but rather just overall racecraft and race pace, that's probably how my list would look:

1. Verstappen/Perez

2. Leclerc/Sainz

3. Hamilton/Bottas

4. Ricciardo/Norris

5. Alonso/Ocon

6. Vettel/Stroll

7. Gasly/Tsunoda

8. Kimi/Giovinazzi

9. Russell/Latifi

10. Schumacher/Mazepin

 

Mercedes drivers would normally be on top due to Hamilton's skill, but I just don't rate Bottas' racecraft at all, and it brings their overall rating significantly down. There's not much difference in strenght between the Ferrari and the Red Bull pairing, in my opinion. I think in terms of pace and skill, Perez and Sainz are very similar, whereas I rate Leclerc slightly lower than Verstappen. 

[RandoEFC+]

On current form, it's Ferrari although we shouldn't undersell Bottas compared to some of the other drivers on that list. If Ricciardo gets on with next year's McLaren a bit better then they have a very strong pairing but Hamilton/Russell will be head and shoulders in 2022.

[Danny]

59 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

On current form, it's Ferrari although we shouldn't undersell Bottas compared to some of the other drivers on that list. If Ricciardo gets on with next year's McLaren a bit better then they have a very strong pairing but Hamilton/Russell will be head and shoulders in 2022.

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to F1, but is that because Hamilton is miles better than all the other drivers?

[Stan]

Red Bull. 

[RandoEFC+]

1 hour ago, Danny said:

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to F1, but is that because Hamilton is miles better than all the other drivers?

You don't really get "miles better" when it comes to F1 because we're ultimately talking about very fine margins, but if you gave them all the same equipment then over the course of the season you could almost guarantee that Hamilton and Verstappen would end up in the top two positions while you'd bet on George Russell coming at least in the top 6 or 7 drivers, possibly pretty close to the top two. Everyone will have a slightly different opinion about this but the other drivers in that same sort of 3rd-8th bracket are generally dotted around in different teams, so it puts Mercedes in a strong position in terms of their driver lineup.

[Eco]

I'd probably rank them as the following.- 

1. Ricciardo/Norris
2. Leclerc/Sainz
3. Verstappen/Perez
4. Hamilton/Bottas
5. Vettel/Stroll
6. Alonso/Ocon
7. Gasly/ Tsunoda
8. Russell/Latifi
9. Kimi/Giovinazzi
10. Schumacher/Mazepin

With the pairing of Hamilton and Russell though, that will be #1 for the upcoming year for me. 

[MUFC]

On 08/09/2021 at 16:16, RandoEFC said:

You don't really get "miles better" when it comes to F1 because we're ultimately talking about very fine margins, but if you gave them all the same equipment then over the course of the season you could almost guarantee that Hamilton and Verstappen would end up in the top two positions while you'd bet on George Russell coming at least in the top 6 or 7 drivers, possibly pretty close to the top two. Everyone will have a slightly different opinion about this but the other drivers in that same sort of 3rd-8th bracket are generally dotted around in different teams, so it puts Mercedes in a strong position in terms of their driver lineup.

With the same equipment? Now that would be interesting. My top 5 over a season in equal machinery would be as follows.

1. Hamilton

2. Alonso

3. Charles

4. Max

5. Norris

[MUFC]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58943184

[RandoEFC+]

I didn't vote in this thread initially. In terms of which pairing you'd want in a championship battle I'd say Hamilton/Bottas. In a non-title winning car looking to maximise your points tally I went for Leclerc/Sainz.