Cory M

After this weekends crazy race I thought this would be an interesting topic:

What percentage of the overall success of an F1 team do you attribute to the driver?

multi21

I think this past weekend really showed how much the car means in this series. How can Hamilton (defending WC), Alonso, (2 time WC), Kimi (WC) and Massa (almost WC) -- all multiple race winners last year loose their touch in 1 off season?

The Honda team from last year was aero challenged. Reduce aero downforce by 50% this year, swap Honda power for MB power and you have the same drivers who either didn't score a point all last year (Jenson may have scored 1 or 2, I can't remember) and they come in 1st and 2nd this week... in dominant fashion.

All these drivers are great (Pinquet the exception), the difference may be in race craft and the biggest factor of all NOT MAKING ANY MISTAKES.

Ray S

You need both a good drover and a good car to win in F1 IMHO.

Porsche917K

Duplicate post

MissBehavin'

I think it's a case by case basis, cause there are two drivers plus test driver-all suppossed contributing to success of team.
Modern day examples...In case of Schumi, look what he did for Ferrari, still is. With the crap they gave him in first years, he excelled and gave team feedback it needed to build on. I remember him wrapping a diaper on chassis once he had crashed so photos couldn't be taken of developmental items. Take Kimi and JPM duo, they never gave Mclaren great data on cars like Mika/DC. Juan's post DNF interviews were always harsh of the "team" and Kimi walking away from one million dollar steering wheel at Monaco was classic "my givadamn's busted"!!! Did he ever really test for Ferrari before this year?? So if question was Schumacher, I'd say he contributes 75-80%, Kimi now is zippo. I'm blunt. I wanted Damon Hill to roll over and die when Jacques came to Williams but Hill was the team guy. Again, I'm blunt. Hey and guess what, I cheer for the Kimster every race.

DanR

i think the driver can also have a huge impact through testing and feedback. Clearly Shumacer was the master at this and one of the reasons F were so good for so long. That said........ the drivier may be one of the biggest individual contributors but they cant do it all on their own and remember they are only 2 or 3 out of upto 700 people. Its a team effort but they play a BIG part

Porsche917K

You need a good driver to win of course, but I think the skill level of most drivers in F1 is pretty closely matched. The only major difference between drivers at this level is their ability to be patient, make good decisions quickly, and give good feedback to engineers. They are all quick.

This weekend clearly showed how much the car matters.

ew928

Driver also has the very important task of keeping the car from sharing space on track with another vehicle or guard-wall/rail.

multi21

I think that's a very well thought out post. A. Wayne, will be coming to get you with 2 guns blazing, but it's true. I remember Schumacher telling his team that the tolerance gaps needed to be smaller on the car for better aero. There was never a time in Parc Ferme that Schumacher didn't look at his competitors car, gap tolerances, tires, etc without ever touching the car. A thinking man who is always trying to improve. Schumacher was always making adjustments in the car from corner to corner and never settling for the car being "just good enough". Kimi will tell you if he likes the car or not, but stops short of thinking about gap tolerences and specifics.

I poke fun at Dez (Wanna911) about Hamilton because I love to get a reaction from him, but it's true that this will be a defining year for Hamilton now that his car (at least for now) is not a favorite as it has been during his first 2 years in F1.

The mark of a great driver is the ability to drive a bad car competitively. I look back on that time when Schumacher lost all but 1 gear in a race (I believe he only had 4th gear). He raced with just that 1 gear -- still had to make a pitstop -- didn't stall it leaving the pit box in 4th -- and finished the race in 2nd place. That is a great driver! Or in 2005 during the 1 tire rule for the entire race. The Bridgestones were completely useless and yet Schumacher was able to be competitive and was far and away the best of the Bridgestone running cars.

To a lesser extent, if you look at what Alonso was able to do with the Renault car last year (won 2 races - although 1 was a weird circumstance) you're able to see what he could do with that car as compared to his teammate.

Larry Herman

It's probably obvious, but a driver's contribution to his team's success is directly proportional to how good a team leader he is. A driver who is a more complete package i.e. tester, motivator, analyst and racer adds greater value to his team's effort and as such is more of a factor in the success of that team. I think that back in the day drivers could show up and race, but the cars are so complex and sophisticated today that the driver needs to give feedback every step of the way. Just driving the car well is no longer enough to give the team the tools that they need to build a better car.

1AS

The real questions might be:
1. Take the fastest driver on the grid and put him in the slowest car- how much time will he pick up over a last-place driver?
2. Take the slowest driver and put him in the fastest car-how much slower will he be than the fastest driver?
3. What contribution did the fastest driver make to making his car faster?

My guess is that somebody like Alonso helps a team pick up .5 to 1.5 second per lap over the course of the season, compared to someone who doesn't know how to set up a car or report what is going on.

But, given a fully developed car (like on just developed my Schumi), I would guess the slowest driver could step in and will be less than 1 second back of the best on the F1 grid.

That's a lot, but the best driver helped gain that second thru development. So, without that skill, he'd be back there with the slow guys.
No driver can make up a 20 mph straightaway difference.
To win takes a great car and a good driver.
A great driver in a good car still loses in F1 .
A great driver in a good car can still win in a Nascar road race, but probably not on an oval. AS

A.Wayne

+10 AS

After watching the last GP , I had felt , if it was Hamilton or Alonso in that Brawn they would have lapped the field

What top drivers know to do more so than their average counterpart, is how to win !

chris walrod

A good driver will drive a good car quickly, a great driver will carry an underperforming car covering up many of its problems.