Coma 1,766 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Apologies if this has been covered in another thread, but after trying to educate myself on F1 I'm curious what the take is on this topic. It reminds me somewhat of football in a sense that the teams that have the most spending power tend to be the teams that are regularly competing at the top. Just curious if all that money goes into the engineering/tech or the driver contract. I suspect it's some combination of the two. If you put Lewis Hamilton into a Haas car would/could he win a championship? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devil-Dick Willie 3,256 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Yes. Unquestionably IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ 15,330 Posted February 22, 2022 Subscriber Share Posted February 22, 2022 49 minutes ago, Coma said: Apologies if this has been covered in another thread, but after trying to educate myself on F1 I'm curious what the take is on this topic. It reminds me somewhat of football in a sense that the teams that have the most spending power tend to be the teams that are regularly competing at the top. Just curious if all that money goes into the engineering/tech or the driver contract. I suspect it's some combination of the two. If you put Lewis Hamilton into a Haas car would/could he win a championship? It's definitely a combination of two, with the car being the key to title chances, and the driver making the difference when the gaps between best cars are small enough. Last year's Haas was way too slow even for the best driver behind the wheel to make the difference. We had a discussion with @Spike about this a while ago, I'll just repost it here... On 17/01/2022 at 02:21, Spike said: How much influence does the vehicle have in this sport? Are the huge discrepancies between vehicles or are they largely similar with minute details making the difference? On 17/01/2022 at 02:49, nudge said: The car is the most important part of the sport, with the driver and team effort (setups, pit stops, race strategies, etc) making the difference when the gaps between cars are small. F1 are not a spec series - all cars are designed around a specific set of technical regulations that might seem quite restrictive (engine displacement, car weight, aerodynamic parts, etc.), but in reality they still allow enough creative freedom for designers and engineers to play with, and every team pushes the limits of the regulations constantly to find something that gives them even a marginal advantage. Visually, the cars all look similar, but the actual differences are extreme enough that one team can't even copy another teams parts as it likely wouldn't work with their design. On 17/01/2022 at 02:51, Spike said: Then why do people put so much more glory on the drivers? On 17/01/2022 at 03:11, nudge said: I'd say it's mostly because in situations where two or more cars are similar, the driver still makes THE difference, and it's extremely exciting to watch. Best drivers tend to push the car to the very limit when it's needed, and are able to shave off a few thousandths or hundredths per lap when it truly matters, even when it seems impossible. So while even the best driver wouldn't win titles without a very strong car, just the car isn't enough, either - you need someone to drive it flawlessly week in, week out, on different tracks under different weather conditions. The other, even simpler reason is probably because the driver is the one who actually drives the car and that's what the fans see - they do not see the effort that is put into building, developing, repairing and upgrading the car, nor do they see hundreds of people behind it. I also believe the glorification of the drivers is strongly linked to racing conditions a few decades ago, when motorsport was extremely unsafe and by far more deadly, so racing drivers were seen as some sort of "gladiators" who braved death every weekend, and that image is branded into the psyche of the fans. Also, some fans simply have little interest in technical aspects of the sport and just support a specific driver, for whatever reason... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber RandoEFC+ 7,672 Posted February 22, 2022 Subscriber Share Posted February 22, 2022 If Mazepin drove a Mercedes and Hamilton drove a Haas, then Hamilton wouldn't be able to get out of Q1. Even the best driver can't defy the laws of physics to make a slow car go faster than better machines. However, Mazepin wouldn't win world championships in this scenario. The best car isn't an automatic ticket to the top of the sport either. It's no coincidence that only the very best drivers win most of the world championships. It is possible for a good but not great driver to win the world championship with a significant enough car advantage. Jenson Button is probably the best example of that in recent history and even he was comfortably in the top 6 or 7 drivers on the grid for the majority of his career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadLinesman 5,938 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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