The influence of dominant race cars and the imbalance they create

I would disagree with this point of yours: "Since 2010, however, with the Red Bull, and then into 2014 to now with the Mercedes, designs were hampered by tight restrictions on testing and developments, and driver input to these areas stifled, and some might argue, almost negated. It is now the designers car, and the designers winning the championship, and a drivers skill only really counts towards the inter team battle between teammates, with one ultimately getting the upper hand by being a little better than his peer in the same vehicle."

I would suggest that the lack of testing makes the driver even more important because he is the one that has to actually make everything work. What would Lewis or Seb or Max do in a Williams? I think they'd be doing a good bit better than this season's Williams drivers. But I don't think the same of Kimi or Bottas or Ricci.

I think a return to more open testing like drivers in Michael's era enjoyed would give more importance to team work of drivers and designers. I also think that what Haas has done with the rules is a blueprint for other privateers to become competitive in the mid pack. And with open testing, they might even challenge for the front now and then.

 

Agreed, the in-season testing ban has taken away a lot of the thrill of F-1. It used to be that during the season,
the teams would do a race and then go straight off to another track for 2-3 days of testing, bringing along new
developments and engines. They would routinely have several evolutions of engines provided by the manufactures
during the course of a season.

This, and the fact that teams came to each race with multiple back-up cars instead of the single car per driver
we see now. This was all done in the name of cost cutting but as we see, the teams find new ways of spending
their budgets, it was reported about a month ago that Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari budgets were in excess of
$400B/ea even without the in-season testing and back-up cars.

They're putting their budgets into developing aero changes which they develop through CFD, tested on simulators
and bolted onto the cars at race meetings. As Giorgio Piola's reports on Motorsport.com indicate, this seems to
happen for each race as teams are adapting different aero treatments for each of the tracks such as the speciality
has grown especially for the top teams.

Does this make F-1 any less exciting? Perhaps. But, if they didn't have these rules in place, the minnow teams would
really be drowning for lack of budget to keep up with the top teams, it's been a constant dance in racing from it's
very beginnings.

Looks to me as though the grandstands are full at the various venues, not sure about the live TV audience but as
with most things these days with the various means one may watch live sports, may not be a true indication as to
how many are really tuning in.

But, gauging by the attendance of the F-1 Fan Fest event in Miami in October, there is plenty of enthusiasm for
F-1 and if we're fortunate enough to get a Grand Prix here, it wouldn't be surprising to see 250K people in attendance.

BHW

 

Truth is before the 1984 season and if we forget 1952, 1953 years and then the first silver arrows, never teh sport was so dominated by a team. After that, mclaren gained years of domination wich led to Prost and than Senna to win a lot more races than before. before that great drivers could win a couple of championships but with litle mote than 20 victories. Looks at Lauda, Piquet, Stewart, Moss, Fangio, Clark....they are all around these numbers, because there weren't that many races and a team could only be dominant for a couple of years in succession. Then, all of the sudden team begun to dominate over the course of several years, and driver started to rack up an impressive number of titles and victories. Prost and Senna were the first to profit from this, although they were very good, their impressive stats are above all due to the fact that they had at their disposal top cars during most of their respective carreres...after that arrived Michael, and Ferrari domination for 5 straight years made hi win a number of races no one ever dreamt possible! Now it's common place to win 3, 4 5 championships, Seb and Elton just show how any good driver (but not a genious one) can have an amazing set of race wins and championships. So i think that such long periods of dominance from one single team are indeed very bad for the sport, and above all create such false idols, that basicaly have all their reputation built upon the vast superiority of the cars they were able to drive for a period of 4, 5 or more years. This is why fans with many f.1 years are so reluctant to consider current drivers as good as the "old" ones, despite their larger number of titles, this is also the reason i really don't care for stats, i care for driving skills, and those are seen during the races, not after them when you count the points.

 

I think you've written a very long winded and inaccurate jab at "Elton" as you call him. Ferrari enjoyed a faster (or more dominant) car many times this season- and still found ways to lose. The driver does make a difference as this season proved.

 

Mario Andretti won his World Championship in 1978 with Colin Chapman's Lotus 79 which was a
revolution not just in F-1 but across all forms of open wheel and prototype racing which stands
to this day.

Lotus had such an advantage with the 79 that Gordon Murray put a giant fan on the back of
the Brabham in an attempt for Lauda to keep up.

With the way the rules are today, none of these innovations could have come to pass.

And, while we're at it, the best drivers are in the best cars for a reason. Bet if you were to
ask Toto Wolff he could rattle off dozens of reasons Hamilton is in the car over the other
18 drivers on the grid currently.

BHW

 

..So you mean there's no better driver than Bottas for the other merc seat ?
Was Damon Hill driving for Williams because he was the best driver in the field? or the second best?

 

Why would they need a better driver than Bottas? They have won multiple WDC and WCC with this lineup. What more can you ask for.

 

Merc also won these titles with Nico and Lewis together.
Great competitive battles.
Sadly no more with Bottas the butler.

 

True, but Bottas cost a lot less than Nico and provided the same result with less tension in the team.

 

Mercedes knows that Ferrari and Red Bull are getting closer, they can't afford having a Rosberg stealing points from Hamilton anymore.

 

The absence of a fast team mate has certainly helped Lewis. He's been very relaxed since Nico's departure and his results have flourished as a direct consequence

 

Lewis has No1 status ?

 

Don´t ask Bottas.


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I think most team owners/managers recognize that it's not wise to put two bulls in one pasture.....

 

He is a disgrace , I'll bet the Finnish people aren't too happy with his subserviant attitude

 

But Bottas is a prime example of the impact of a dominant car. As we have seen in this era of cars whoever is on the front row is likely going to be the winner. Bottas has been able to put Ferrari on the 2nd row enough to make LH job in the race much easier, and also garner enough points to ensure the WCC. He was paid to be a #2 in a dominant car and in that respect he did his job admirably. In many respects he was fortunate to be chosen for that position, rather than languish with the middle/lower tier teams.

 

Wolff stopped being his manager a while ago.

 

Parity created by opening up the testing and development = good.

Parity created by instituting more controls for the sake of parity = bad.

The NFL is a good example - mind-numbing boredom, there are no more dynasties other than the Patriots. This isn’t because the league has actual parity - it’s because of salary caps, drafts, balancing of schedules, etc. FFS, teams are rewarded for LOSING so they “tank” if the season goes south. That’s LUDICROUS!!!!

Now compare that to (say) the English Football League Championship - teams are fighting tooth and nail to a) get promoted to the Premier League and b) not get demoted to the first division. Rarely do you have 800lb gorilla teams, because that would require a lot of spending and many Championship teams simply can’t afford that. They have to really think about their coach, their players, etc to get promoted. It’s pure brilliance.

Not a perfect analogy, but if you want to make F1 (and all open wheel) exciting again, the rules need to be relaxed and teams actually fight for their positions near the top IMHO.

 

A joke driver and a fool in a race suit? Are you really this rude in real life?

And Toto stepped down as his manager when he signed at Mercedes. At least get your facts right.