MTosi

None of those aformentioned drivers were fat and out of shape......

The only reason they would not last in modern F1 cars is the G's, and that all comes down to training not talent. If you start young enough with just about anyone you can train them. Other than the G's those cars were everybit as difficult to drive physically and some more so (especially the early cars like the Maserati 250F) not to mention the races were a bit longer and less of a sprint. The 1957 German Gp was 3:30 minutes long (well over twice as long as a this weekends will be), in a car that realy actually needed to be muscled around. Fangio was in shape they way he needed to be at the time, a strong entire upper body, not anorexic with a elephant sized neck (being a little sarcastic, but refer to DC about aneroxic). I guarantee you most of the current field would not only run out of upper arm strength during the 57' German GP but would most likely have crashed and gotten themselves killed before that happened.

This is the argument I have been waiting for, the ohh its just visible so it looks cooler, todays drivers have to do it quicker and are far more precise. Take Monaco for much of the 50's 60's and early 70', there were 6 inch high vertical curbs around the entire track, you got lazy or imprecise on your correction or anything else, you were out of the race right there. Unlike the last two years where the drivers have been bouncing off the walls multiple times during the race and get away with it scot free. Take the vast majority of tracks, the now have giant asphalt runouts, a driver screws up runs wide, spins off (seems to happen alot lately) they just run off and rejoin. Way back instead off nice generous runout, there was generally grass (if they were lucky) then tree's or walls. Did you watch the first 50 seconds off the third clip I posted (note NO missed apexes by ANYONE during that clip and just about the entire 10:00 of the first video)? There is no lurid sliding, its all very smooth and controlled as it needs to be, they are doing a 6:XX laps averaging 125mph around the old Nuburgring (including the extra loop) with zero margin for error, those cars weren't slow. I think its hard to argue that the current drivers are more precise than that, I see more mistakes, running wide, spins and missed apexs in every F1 race than I do at SCCA club formula ford races.....

racer

I think its a bit belittling to say that the folks at the top of the Current F1 roster or recent season champions are not as talented as those who were champions or top of the rosters 50 years ago or 30 years ago or 10 years ago. Its a "blowhard" argument for "the old days" and it just doesn't stand up. Its the same argument of comparing great baseball players from the 40s' to todays stars. Time and money marches on. Technology improves.

SundayDriver

OK, I will (for fun) accept the premise that today's F1 lap times come from the aerodynamicist and that any competent F1 driver can drive to the aero limit. So let's follow the money, as a free market environment tends to answer the question about what is really valuable.

Why would any team spend millions per year for a F1 driver when there are 10 other, fully qualified aero pilots ready to drive who can do just as well. $500k per year would certainly get any of them to pilot that aero device.

WHy don't the aero engineers make 2-3 times what the drivers make? I mean it is their talent that determines who wins?

amaist

Bingo!

It's all geezer talk. "In my day we ran 3 minute miles and our **** didn't stink, blah, blah, blah..."

Comparing driver talent between eras is impossible. The great drivers of the old days were great at driving their cars and the modern top drivers are the best at driving modern cars.

DM993tt

Here's how I look at it. The guys in the 70's were driving their cars to their limit. The drivers today are driving their cars at the limits as well. The limits are vastly different due to aerodynamics and technology. The drivers behind a 70's F1 car and a 00's F1 car drove/drive their cars as fast as they could/can. Put a driver of today in a car from the 70's and he'd have to relearn how to make it go fast bc it was so different. Same thing if you put a 70's driver in a car of today. Given enough seat time I'd imagine the drivers of old at the top of teir game could figure out how to make a nwe car go fast just the same way today's drivers cuold figure out how to make the old cars go fast. That said, there is something really cool about watching the old F1 racers make that old technology go fast, the same way its astonishing to watch the speed new cars can carry through a turn the grip they have and g's they pull.
What is more exciting racing, I guess that depends on what your're into...

I don't really know bc I wasn't born until the mid 70's but it seems like it would have been a more intersting environment to drive in. Whether on the street or on the track. Porsche was turbocharging everything, muscle cars reigned, the Cannonball Run was real, laws rules were less restrictive, safety required common sense and personal precaution in lieu of laws attempting to sanitize everything.