The most dominant cars in F1

[TR]

The season there has been plenty of media hyperbole about the red bull being the "most dominant car ever" (or similar statements). This got me thinking, can we quantify this notion? Of course, one can simply count the number of wins or the number of points scored in a season as a measure. However, I don't think this quite captures the oppressive feeling of dominance exerted by the current Red Bull, the 2014 Mercedes, or the early 2000s Ferrari. It isn't just that these cars win a lot, but how they win. Instead lets look the margin by which they win. I will look at two measures that I will refer to as the "qualifying advantage" and "race advantage".

The obtain the qualifying advantage, for each race we obtain the fastest qualifying times for the WCC of that year and the fastest competitor (in that session), and take median difference over the entire season. Taking the median will reduce the sensitivity to outliers, e.g. caused by crashing out in qualifying.

The race advantage is similar but takes the finishing times. Double DNFs essentially count as -infinity, but will have minimal impact due to taking the median.

I obtained data for the races and qualifying from this dataset (Formula 1 World Championship (1950 - 2023)) from Kaggle. Unfortunately their qualifying data is incomplete pre-2003, so there is no data in this table from before that season. The table below shows the 10 most dominant cars for qualifying:

Year	WCC	Qualifying advantage
2015	Mercedes	0.719 s
2014	Mercedes	0.545 s
2020	Mercedes	0.538 s
2016	Mercedes	0.531 s
2004	Ferrari	0.370 s
2011	Red Bull	0.265 s
2023*	Red Bull	0.239 s
2017	Mercedes	0.213 s
2010	Red Bull	0.181 s
2018	Mercedes	0.093 s

*Date up to and including Austin 2023.

The qualifying advantage is dominated by the V6 turbo hybrid era Mercedes cars, which probably doesn't surprise anyone. This year's Red Bull shows up only in 7th place, and isn't even the most dominant Red Bull.

For the race results the dataset goes back much further. I decided to only consider data from 1980 onward. F1 prior to that was simply too different from modern F1.

Year	WCC	Race advantage
1988	McLaren	41.828 s
2014	Mercedes	23.604 s
1984	McLaren	21.784 s
2002	Ferrari	17.730 s
1992	Williams	17.579 s
1986	Williams	16.283 s
1996	Williams	15.607 s
2023*	Red Bull	15.290 s
2015	Mercedes	14.592 s
1987	Williams	12.016 s

*Date up to and including Austin 2023.

We now see some of the true beasts of F1 history show up like the McLaren MP4/4 and the 2002 Ferrari. This year's Red Bull now takes 8th, but is second only to the 2014 Mercedes of the cars considered for qualifying.

So, while this year's Red Bull is certainly "upper there" with some of the most dominant cars in F1 history, it cannot really by called the "most dominant". At least not based on these measures.

 

[Dartman]

With the advance of aero from the 80's to the present day driver input is less to to the cars dominance, previously the dominant car had exceptional drivers. Dominant drivers today tend to be verging on the dangerous rather than pure skill

 

[TR]

Updated data for the end of the 2023 season.

The 2023 Red Bull's qualifying advantage has dropped slightly to 0.196 s, dropping it one spot in the rankings (since 2003).

Year	WCC	Qualifying advantage
2015	Mercedes	0.719 s
2014	Mercedes	0.545 s
2020	Mercedes	0.538 s
2016	Mercedes	0.531 s
2004	Ferrari	0.370 s
2011	Red Bull	0.265 s
2017	Mercedes	0.213 s
2023	Red Bull	0.196 s
2010	Red Bull	0.181 s
2018	Mercedes	0.093 s

The race advantage has also dropped to 12.534 s, again dropping the 2023 Red Bull one spot.

Year	WCC	Race advantage
1988	McLaren	41.828 s
2014	Mercedes	23.604 s
1984	McLaren	21.784 s
2002	Ferrari	17.730 s
1992	Williams	17.579 s
1986	Williams	16.283 s
1996	Williams	15.607 s
2015	Mercedes	14.592 s
2023	Red Bull	12.534 s
1987	Williams	12.016 s

Note that at the summer break the 2023 Red Bull's qualy advantage was 0.239 s (putting it in 7th on the ranking), and its race advantage was a whooping 22.654 s, placing it 3rd overall.

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Does having Sergio Perez as a driver, make the Red Bull of 2023 seem less dominant than other cars of years gone by. Also the Williams of 1986, is sixth on that list of race advantage,yet niether driver won the drivers championship that year.

 

[Brogan]

It's guaranteed that Verstappen was cruising at the front, doing only what he needed to do to maintain a comfortable lead, so the real advantage of the RB over a race distance was never known.

 

[TR]

Does having Sergio Perez as a driver, make the Red Bull of 2023 seem less dominant than other cars of years gone by. Also the Williams of 1986, is sixth on that list of race advantage,yet niether driver won the drivers championship that year.

To the first, as far as these numbers go, only indirectly. The numbers themselves are insesntive to whatever the second car is doing. However, without a team mate breathing down his neck Verstappen was, of course, more free to temper his pace.

Regarding the second point: I think that points to how good a job Prost did that year, winning the championship while going up against a dominant car.

 

[TR]

It's guaranteed that Verstappen was cruising at the front, doing only what he needed to do to maintain a comfortable lead, so the real advantage of the RB over a race distance was never known.

This is a general issue with the race advantage. On the other hand it has been true for many of the very dominant cars.

The qualification advantage suffers much less from this issue (but points are awarded on a Sunday not a Saturday).

 

[Brogan]

On the other hand it has been true for many of the very dominant cars.

Indeed.

The difference with the Mercedes though is the team mates were challenging each other, so they were pushing the car all the time, unlike Verstappen in the RB.

So in my opinion, the RB is much higher up the ladder than the data would suggest.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think having that 1988 Mclaren sitting at the top of that race pace list is an anomaly as well to be honest. That Mclaren was in no doubt the strongest car in the field but when you have the two best drivers on the grid, arguably their generation, even more arguably of all time, driving them hammer and tongues determined to beat the other one because they despise them.....then I think we have to factor in that 40 seconds is not all down to the car!

 

[FB]

I will offer you another way of looking at dominance, thinking about longevity rather than wins in a season.

I'll start with the McLaren M23 which raced from 1973 to 1978, winning 2 World Championships for Emerson Fittipaldi (1974) and James Hunt (1976). The car won 16 races out of 83 starts.

And then on to the Daddy of the all, the Lotus 72. Introduced in 1970 the car raced on until 1975, also winning two World Championships, Jochen Rindt (1970) and Emerson Fittipaldi (1972). The car took 20 wins out of 75 races.

The last time I can recall a car being used for consecutive seasons in recent times was the McLaren MP4/19 in 2003 and 2004.

 

[F1Brits_90]

i thought id do some stats to see how Red Bull & verstappens current run stacks up compared to previous dominant years.
& 2 of the interesting parts are that currently we dealing with the most dominant driver in the 2nd most dominant car in F1 history. & Senna is only 12th individually, despite in the most dominant car. showing how close them 2 were as teammates

Most Dominant teams statistically

Year	Team	Wins	Teammate Spilt
1988	McLaren	15/16 94%	Senna 50% Prost 44%
Red Bull Current run	Red Bull	34/37 92%	Verstappen 84% Perez 8%
2016	Mercedes	19/21 90%	Hamilton 48% Rosberg 43%
2002	Ferrari	15/17 88%	Schumacher 65% Barrichello 23%
2014	Mercedes	16/19 84%	Hamilton 58% Rosberg 26%
2015	Mercedes	16/19 84%	Hamilton 53% Rosberg 37%
2004	Ferrari	15/18 83%	Schumacher 56% Barrichello 11%
2020	Mercedes	13/17 76%	Hamilton 64 % Bottas 12%
1996	Williams	12/16 75%	Hill 50% Villeneuve 25%
2019	Mercedes	15/21 71%	Hamilton 52% Bottas 19%
2013	Red Bull	13/19 68%	Vettel 68% Webber 0%
2011	Red Bull	12/19 63%	Vettel 57% Webber 5%
1992	Williams	10/16 62%	Mansell 56% Patrese 6%
1989	McLaren	10/16 62%	Senna 38% Prost 25%
1993	Williams	10/16 62%	Prost 43% Hill 19%
2017	Mercedes	12/20 60%	Hamilton 45% Bottas 15%
2018	Mercedes	11/21 52%	Hamilton 52% Bottas 0%

Most 1 sided Teammates Battles in those years

Year	Team	% Driver wins
Red Bull Current Run	Red Bull	84% Verstappen
2013	Red Bull	68% Vettel
2002	Ferrari	65% Schumacher
2020	Mercedes	64% Hamilton
2014	Mercedes	58% Hamilton
2011	Red Bull	57% Vettel
2004	Ferrari	56% Schumacher
1992	Williams	56% Mansell
2015	Mercedes	53% Hamilton
2018 & 2019	Mercedes	52% Hamilton
1988	McLaren	50% Senna
1996	Williams	50% Hill
2016	Mercedes	48% Hamilton
2017	Mercedes	45% Hamilton
1993	Williams	43% Prost
1989	McLaren	38% Senna

 

[cider_and_toast]

In 1963, Jim Clark won 7 out of the 10 races that season and took all of Lotus's wins.

That's a 70% win rate with 100 percent by the driver.

In 1972 Emerson Fittipaldi won 5 out of the 12 races that season but more remarkably became the only world champion to score all of his teams points while his teammate scored none.

I think you may need to review your stats to include older races.

 

[F1Brits_90]

In 1963, Jim Clark won 7 out of the 10 races that season and took all of Lotus's wins.

That's a 70% win rate with 100 percent by the driver.

In 1972 Emerson Fittipaldi won 5 out of the 12 races that season but more remarkably became the only world champion to score all of his teams points while his teammate scored none.

I think you may need to review your stats to include older races.

yeah i just did the "modern" tv years to match the era as a simliar comparison to what the thread started with

 

[cider_and_toast]

Following FBs excellent point about longevity, the Lotus 25 took part in 49 races between 1963 and 1967 winning 14. It won the 1963 drivers championship and was used once to win a race by Clark on his way to the 1965 championship.

 

[FB]

Let's go right back in time.

The Alfa Romeo 158/159 (more on the difference or otherwise later) took part in 41 Grands Prix, winning 37 of them, and 13 F1 races, winning 10. This was between 1938 and 1952. There was a bit of a break between '39 and '45 when the Italians were "on holiday".

The difference between the 158 and the 159 (see, I told you I would let you know) was the 159 had twin superchargers, rather than the single one on the 158, and a de Dion rear axle, rather than a pendulum axle. Now you can all get your nerd on and find out the difference between a pendulum and de Dion axle.

The Alfa 159 "Alfette" should not be confused with the tin box Alfa Romeo used the same name on in the early 2000's

This is the F1 car.

This isn't, although it is quite pretty.