Moose wrote:Percentage of a teams points are also a poor measure because of the uneven points slope. A dominant driver in a dominant team will score 65% of the teams points (25/38). Meanwhile a marginally better driver in a tight mid field might score 71% (15 / 21 assuming the team averages a 3/7 finish like red bull)
In a tight midfield, if Driver A finishes 3rd in average and Driver B finishes 7th... then Driver A has performed considerably better. If the differences really are small details, then +/-4 average position is massive, and can hardly be understood as a tenth here or there. I repeat, if that's the average finishing position.
It's true that, in pure pace, Raikkonen and Vettel don't seem that far off their teammates but think about this. Kimi has only finished once ahead of Alonso in the whole season, and out-qualified him 3 times. Vettel has qualified much closer to Ricciardo (11-8), but the race head-to-head is not good for him: 12:3 when both finished. Additionally, Vettel wasn't really close to capitalise in either Spa or Hungary. Fun stat from F1fanatic: Vettel has led a single lap this year. That's as many as Jenson Button, and less than either Force India drivers.
EDIT: I forgot to add: since we have a quasi-exponential points distribution, percentage of total points is *exactly* what you want to use, except for the dominant car drivers, and the rare points scorers. Yes, it's far from perfect and doesn't capture nuances such as following your teammate, pitting after him and finding yourself in slow traffic due to an extra lap on old tires. But heck, that's better than nothing.
I am not amazed by F1 cars in Monaco. I want to see them driving in the A8 highway: Variable radius corners, negative banking, and extreme narrowings that Tilke has never dreamed off. Oh, yes, and "beautiful" weather tops it all.
"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future." Niels Bohr
