Over the past two years we have had some great driver pairings at Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull, and it has been interesting to see how competitive the drivers are within their teams. I only mention these teams as a case study.
What I have noticed is that when the cars have been poor we have seen a greater difference in performance between the drivers and when the cars have been dialled in the performances have been much closer. The conclusion I reach from from this is that the differential between these drivers is their abilities to react and have a natural feel for the way the car behaves when it is not absolutely planted. It's not so much about the drivers ability to smoothly turn the steering wheel and operate the throttles and brakes (simple driver input), which I believe all the drivers are capable of, but how they react to feedback from the cars handling (complex driver input) that gives us the best measure of a driver's ability.
So the interesting thing here is that if we want to compare two drivers we should not put them in the fastest car and see how they measure up, rather we should put them in the worst car and see how they measure up.
This may be pretty obvious to many and some may disagree but I wanted to share my thoughts and observations on the matter.
What are your thoughts?
(Please beware of making this a my driver is better than yours thread. I realise this is a risky topic.)
What I have noticed is that when the cars have been poor we have seen a greater difference in performance between the drivers and when the cars have been dialled in the performances have been much closer. The conclusion I reach from from this is that the differential between these drivers is their abilities to react and have a natural feel for the way the car behaves when it is not absolutely planted. It's not so much about the drivers ability to smoothly turn the steering wheel and operate the throttles and brakes (simple driver input), which I believe all the drivers are capable of, but how they react to feedback from the cars handling (complex driver input) that gives us the best measure of a driver's ability.
So the interesting thing here is that if we want to compare two drivers we should not put them in the fastest car and see how they measure up, rather we should put them in the worst car and see how they measure up.
This may be pretty obvious to many and some may disagree but I wanted to share my thoughts and observations on the matter.
What are your thoughts?
(Please beware of making this a my driver is better than yours thread. I realise this is a risky topic.)