Can fans and journos judge modern F1 drivers?

[WhiteBlue]

Mike Lawrence makes this interesting statement:

http://www.pitpass.com/45460-Who-Are-We-To-Judge

I wonder how the readers of F1technical opine in that matter. I tend to agree with Mike that we do not have the finer information. We can compare team mates to some degree but even that is not a simple thing. When you start comparing three drivers who have been team mates at different times for instance I think it is not right to do so. You have to consider that drivers develop over time. Jenson Button for instance had a long learning curve and is probably only now on the top of his driving performance.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Jenson has been good for many years, not just the last 3. Machinery is the denominator along with tyres and your background technical crew that can give a driver what they require.

Look at Schumacher. He may have lost a tenth or 2, but he struggles with tyres. Yet in race I reckon hes still the same.
I agree that different seasons and different drivers is no real barometer of judging, although I can safely say Alonso is better than Massa...

[Giblet]

We are, for the most part, complete and total idiots. Often we think we know what is going on, yet the teams have their noses buried in telemetry and know every muscle movement of a driver.

If a proper F1 team evaluates a driver as good or not good enough, it usually is a good a correct rating. We never get to see a Yuji Ide in a Red Bull, but as far as I know he might be as good as Webber when inspired by a machine that doesn't fight you every turn. Some drivers are good in any car, some are not. Massa is a good exmaple of a driver when everything is right is one of the best, but not when things are not perfect.

These guys who are actually in the sport know it better than us. They see the youngsters banging on the door, and they know who the talent is before they are teenagers now. They even have to care on days they wake up and just don't want to go to work.

We are super fans, but we only get to see a light glaze that is on the sport, not the actual nitty gritty.

[bhall]

I have no problem letting the results tell the story.

[strad]

I think he makes some valid points but I don't totally agree with him.
I have been wrong in my driver assessments, that and Alonso cost me an expensive bet, but overall I think you see it, sense it. I think, for the most part, we just know when a driver has that special something extra.

[jordangp]

We can all make judgements, but at the end of the day, we don't have the data and knowledge the teams do, so our judgements will always be inaccurate.

[raymondu999]

What jordangp said. We can make judgments, but at the end of the day, these are judgments that are based on what seems to be true; but aren't necessarily true. The F150 looked like it couldn't heat the hard tyres; and so we adjusted our views of the Ferrari drivers' results as such, but we don't really know if it really was the car, do we? It could be that it was the drivers who really disliked the balance of the hards. I'm not saying this is a case, this is just an example

[timbo]

Nothing can stop fans from judging. It's a part of entertainment.
But a guy has a point.
In a nutshell, I'd say -- give guys respect. They are the creme of the crop!

[Gerhard Berger]

Well I agree with the part that drivers develop/regress over time.

Hence Hill beat Villeneuve, Villeneuve beat Frentzen, and Frentzen beat Hill, for example.

[RacingManiac]

Consider the fact that such judgement is true in just about anything(sports or otherwise), I don't see why its more an issue here than anything else. Sports reporter judges players in stick and ball sports regardless if they play them. Investment firm judges potential of companies based on their press releases. Car magazine judges relative merit of car technologies regardless if they know how they work or not....so on and so forth...

[raymondu999]

You're not quite right in terms of the investment firm viewpoint, but I do see your point, and totally agree with it

[RacingManiac]

That was definitely an oversimplifying point, but my main point is that they don't necessarily know the industry that they are rating it on, but they are judging them based on available metric, which really is not that different from any other cases....

[Gerhard Berger]

Well in F1, the cars are different which makes it hard to compare drivers who aren't team mates. That is what makes it more difficult to judge a driver rather than judging a footballer for example.

[PlatinumZealot]

F1 is like a game to me.. and the best not at their best may not win.

[yace]

We are, for the most part, complete and total idiots. Often we think we know what is going on, yet the teams have their noses buried in telemetry and know every muscle movement of a driver.

for this i agree, but there is signs that shows you the level of the driver, for exemple the number of mistakes they make in the season (i know that some drivers take more risks than others etc...). another mark, the performance of the driver on difficult tracks (monaco, spa and suzuka), if the driver is in better position there than on other tracks, that means he is good