Speed v Consistency

[EvilWhippet]

Which is most important?​

It's become a fairly regular occurance to see the Williams of Maldonado crash out of good points, but equally regular is the Williams of Senna being a good chunk of places behind him. Still, I was pretty surprised when I saw the driver's standings today to see there's only 11 points between them. To say Jaws - sorry, Pastor Maldonado must have thrown away at least 20 over the course of the season I shouldn't be surprised, but Bruno's points are never taken in memorable fashion so it slipped under the radar that he was that close to his teammate.​

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In a sense these two drivers are polar opposites. One comes from the most glorious racing heritage possible (until some long lost offspring of Fangio's surfaces) and the other is...Maldonado. One has a friendly, cheesey demeanour in interviews and the other has a stare down to rival Mike Tyson. Bruno puts in safe, anonymous drives and regularly ducks into the bottom half of the points, whereas The Pastor's often fighting with big guns but just as often is crashing out of respectable points hauls. Just about the only thing they have in common is that they both paid there way into to F1. But who's earning their place there on the track?​

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Personally I'm in the camp of consistency can be learned. Speed, on the other hand, is handed out at birth. I don't mean it as a rip on Maldonado, but he doesn't seem to have the brains of his teammate. Nor do I mean this as a rip on Senna, but Maldonado appears infinitely more gifted a racer.​

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But which would you rather employ, regardless of how much they're paying for their seat? Personally I'd take Pastor, but that's because I think he's got a beautiful smile:​

Aw ​

 

[no-FIAt-please]

What you said really... Consitency can be learned, much like it's easier to make a fast car more reliable than it is to make a reliable car fast.

 

[teabagyokel]

Bruno puts in safe, anonymous drives and regularly ducks into the bottom half of the points, whereas The Pastor's often fighting with big guns but just as often is crashing out of respectable points hauls.​

The problem with the minor points, as Senna is discovering, is when your team-mate is at the front, it only has to stick once and he's ahead of you.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

TBH Fair to Bruno he's just feeling his way into the Williams car, Pastor's had a season to get used to a Williams car and you'd expected him to be doing well. Also it doesn't help that Bruno has to give his car up to Bottas every first free practice on a Friday after an agreement was drawn up between Bottas and Williams to allow him to take Bruno's car. If you ask me I think that Bruno is doing a good job and he'll soon turn his results into big points.

 

[Josh]

If he's still feeling his way into the car now I'm not sure he feels anything at all.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Consistency can be learned but only if a driver is willing to learn but I believe speed can be learned also, anyone who followed Damon Hill's career should know this neither speed or consistency is enough though there is something else that is far more important Alonso has it, Jackie Stewart has it, Schumacher has it, Fangio had it and Jim Clark had it in bucket loads I don't know what "it" is but it is real and it definitely exists..

Other sportsmen that had and have it whatever it is are Pele, Gordon Banks, George Best, Mohamed Ali and Ronnie O' Sullivan.

 

[Fenderman]

My opinion for what it's worth:

A drivers' "package" needs to contain a shed load of abilities and attributes and to be the best they all need to be nurtured and honed to the nth degree. Here are just some of them (in no particular order):

• Self belief and confidence
• Spacial awareness - depth perception, ability to maintain peripheral vision
• Physical strength, stamina and endurance
• Focus, enduring attention span and concentration
• Mental agility and intelligence - the ability to absorb, process and prioritise complex information quickly and effectively
• Feel - instinctive "automatic" reactions - connectity of mind and body
• Situational awareness - consideration and judgement regarding others and surrounding conditions

A lot of drivers make it into F1 having different levels of the attributes necessary to compete. Relatively few have enough of all of the goods to stay in the class. If the above ingredients are components of an equation then speed and consistency can be regarded as the result. It's probably not a good idea to focus on one over the other since they are part of the same problem.

 

[EvilWhippet]

TBH Fair to Bruno he's just feeling his way into the Williams car, Pastor's had a season to get used to a Williams car and you'd expected him to be doing well. Also it doesn't help that Bruno has to give his car up to Bottas every first free practice on a Friday after an agreement was drawn up between Bottas and Williams to allow him to take Bruno's car. If you ask me I think that Bruno is doing a good job and he'll soon turn his results into big points.

He's been in F1 since 2010 though and at no point has he had the speed to justify it. OK, the HRT was a dog so I can't blame him for that, but he had no place at Renault based on actual performences. It was thought the seat alongside Petrov was a shootout between Quick Nick and Bruno. They each had a day or so in pre season testing to impress ( http://community.codemasters.com/forum/6915938-post207.html ) and Heidfeld clearly earned his place, as if his previous career achievements weren't enough (in his last full seasons of F1 he'd outscored Kubica).

Now, if I remember correctly, most people were actually picking Bruno to be the best of the two Williams drivers at the start of the season. Is there a teammate prediction thing around here anywhere to prove me right/wrong? Maldonado really wasn't rated by anyone before this season. His pace is starting to impress me, but his errors are earning more press.

Consistency can be learned but only if a driver is willing to learn

Pretty much gets it there. I think Pastor can choose to iron out his faults if he's mature enough. Bruno would face a greater struggle to compensate for any lack of natural talent.

Excellent post yellow faced, afro growing fendergent, speed and consistency would seem to be the sum of many other components.

 

[Slyboogy]

I'll take speed over consistency.

Ask Frank Williams what he would have wanted, possibility of fighting for big points plus a win, or a several 7ths, 9ths etc.

I'm pretty sure that win has done that team a lot of good.

Maldonado did get unlucky at Bahrain when the tyre was ripped off from the rim costing him some points, but the rest he's been a bit wreckless, but that can be changed.

Another interesting fact is, Senna's has traded paint work with cars in 7 out of the 8 races, sometimes more often than once in a race. Add to the fact that he's been in the bottom half in the midfield in races where his team-mate has been in the top half.

 

[Bill Boddy]

.... he's been a bit wreckless, but that can be changed.....

I think that's what you meant. He has, after all, had one or two wrecks.