Total Driver Performance - Post Germany

[F1 Shift.net]

Sebastian Vettel still has a firm grasp on the #1 Total Driver Performance rankings with Raikkonen right up there and Alonso slowing clawing back towards the top. Sergio Perez took a massive drop from 3rd to 13th. Felipe Massa also took a tumble and rightly so after so many self-induced accidents the last five rounds.

 

[Fenderman]

I admire the work that you put into this F1 Shift.net but I'm not sure that it gives a realistic picture of "driver" performance as such. For example we have two drivers, Rosberg and Hamilton now fairly close in terms of points in the WDC but a country mile apart in the chart. As far as I can recall, neither of them have committed a significant driver error (if any) all season and, in theory to my mind, they should be closer together with Rosberg's wins making the difference I guess. However, Hamilton would have one or two wins under his belt but for DNF's whilst well placed to take a win and he is ahead of Nico on qualifying.

Hamilton is also languishing at the bottom of the heap beneath a number of other drivers who have made gross driving errors this season. How does that work? I'm assuming that a lot of the "weighting" in the calculations is based on expectations but that doesn't quite fly with factors outside of the drivers control. If anything, in driver performance terms it could be argued that both Rosberg and Hamilton should be further up the chart since expectations for the performance of he Mercedes was low - implying that they were getting it to places it should not be.

Anyway, good work ... but I'd be interested in some clarification about how arrived at the weighting that you apply to the numbers.

 

[F1 Shift.net]

I don't count finishing position when a driver is out or loses positions because of a mechanical failure, pit stop error (like not putting on a wheel) or crash not caused by them. It's still far from a perfect science b/c the Merc driver, especially Lewis, are hurt b/c of the race pace of the car. I take the average qualifying position and average finishing position to get the +/- positions gained or lost. I throw in their average points scored per race and that's pretty much how I get these calculations. The average positions gained/lost is killing Lewis right now. To be honest though, this is a pretty good metric, it's just that the tires are destroying my theory! Maybe that will change in Hungary?

I'm working on figuring out another metric or two to add in for 2014 so it is a little more driver friendly.

 

[Fenderman]

Heh, heh. It had to be those tyres again! Thanks F1 Shift.net

 

[F1 Shift.net]

Thanks for checking it out. Hopefully the changes for next season will be good. Maybe I'll come up with Team metric too