Development drivers?

[godlameroso]

I've had a theory since last year. I think that once the number one driver is established, the other becomes basically a development driver, where they test all the experimental stuff. This won't necessarily make a driver slower or faster, we saw Button last year running experimental parts, and we saw it this last race at the Nurburgring. I think the same happens at Red Bull, and at Mercedes, and at Ferrari, and now that team orders are legal, along with the limited testing, it certainly seems plausible.

[marcush.]

I think the development parts area is very sensitive nowadays with no testing away from the race weekends.
Drivers are what they are ,and in their mind is always :I´m the best so i deserve the best -first ..- So i bet in all those teams there is a fightand jealousness when it comes to new parts..If they were not better why even bother mounting them?..so I think it took the teams a while now to precondition their drivers that this is testing and evaluating and validating of new parts and not a game of who is preferred.
I ´d think guys like Schumacher are fully prepared to commit to evaluating development parts and let the other guy do the setup stuff.
But as we have seen there is definitely a sort of tension in between camps in the teams when it comes to new parts even though logic would tell you put the lower placed driver in the championship on a riskier rail ....and evaluate and get experience on newer development steps...which could accellerate your progress if things work but at least do not hurt your top gun in the standings.

[godlameroso]

Well, if a development part actually works, then he might have an advantage over the other driver, but if it doesn't or it's prone to reliability issues, then not much is gained, it's a double edged sword for sure. A development piece might help you in the race, but hinder you some in qualifying, or vice versa.