Man vs. machine

[hollus]

There is a drivers' world championship and also a constructors' world championship. Some how the drivers' gets all the attention. People often ask is the car can really be that important...

Here the results f FP3 in m´Monaco anonymized of driver's names. This is in a track where traffic has an enormous effect and which is considered a test of driver's skill. Yes, I know I am nitpicking a single session of a single race, but still...

Monaco GP, FP3					Gap to		Gap to
						team mate	next team

1 	Mercedes 		1’16.758 			-----
2 	Red Bull-Renault 	1’16.808			0.050		 	
3 	Mercedes 		1’16.874 	0.116
4 	Red Bull-Renault 	1’17.184 	0.376
5 	Ferrari 		1’17.428 			0.620
6 	Ferrari 		1’17.448 	0.020
7 	Force India-Mercedes 	1’17.725 			0.297
8 	Force India-Mercedes 	1’18.074 	0.349
9 	Toro Rosso-Renault 	1’18.136 			0.411
10 	Toro Rosso-Renault 	1’18.166 	0.030
11 	McLaren-Mercedes 	1’18.249 			0.113
12 	McLaren-Mercedes 	1’18.262 	0.013
13 	Williams-Mercedes 	1’18.430 			0.181
14 	Williams-Mercedes 	1’18.542 	0.112
15 	Sauber-Ferrari 		1’18.598 			0.168
16 	Lotus-Renault 		1’18.776 			0.178
17 	Marussia-Ferrari 	1’18.872 			0.096
18 	Lotus-Renault 		1’19.118 	0.342
19 	Sauber-Ferrari 		1’19.149 	0.551
20 	Caterham-Renault 	1’20.271 			1.399
21 	Marussia-Ferrari 	1’20.394 	1.522
22 	Caterham-Renault 	1’20.589	0.318

The driver (plus luck in timing your best lap, traffic, effect of the tire, etc) seems to be worth as much as the distance to the next team in the pecking order. To put it in other words: the driver factor within team mates seems to be worth approximately 1 track position (two at the back). The rest is the team's pecking order.

Nothing that should be new to F1T fellows, but sometimes I wonder why people that are not so much into the tech and development race bother with it at all... and the rest of the time I love it. Go youknowwho! Make you talent worth it two positions!

[FoxHound]

Are you looking in isolation, or will you expand to encapsulate all F1 seasons?

[hollus]

Nah, no time to look at all races. And many are not like this. It really is nitpicking, I know, but this AA-BB-CC-DD structure happens just so often (and already did in the 90s) that I felt like putting numbers to it and sharing.
Bahrain, pretty much at any point in the race was a prime example. But again, it is nitpicking and I know that neither all races nor all sessions are like this.

[bhall]

The World Drivers' Championship effectively determines which team had the best car.

The World Constructors' Championship effectively determines which team had the best drivers.

(To win both essentially means the team had the best car by far.)

Kinda funny, ain't it?

[mnmracer]

One free practice is of course a really bad sample, but I like this idea and will try and build on it.
The difference a driver may not seem that large on an entire lap, but it is exactly that difference which sets the great drivers apart. Look at the last couple of years: if Ferrari had two Felipe Massa's, they'd have been fighting for the lower point positions instead of podiums and the occasional victory; if Red Bull had two Mark Webbers, they'd have been fighting for podiums and lost out on 4WDCs. But they didn't have just those drivers: they had drivers who were able to make a difference. Even just now at Marussia: two Max Chiltons, and it would have been Caterham that got their first points this race.