Alright when was that again.....?

[Kimmo Kokkonen]

Merc Sunday Team radio:

Toto: Valtteri, George is faster than you, do you know what that means?
Valtteri: No, what does it mean?
Toto: Never mind, George already passed you in one round, we just try to tell you it will happens soon again so be ready...
Valtteri: WTF!!!?? Is there something wrong with my car?
Toto: No, everything is fine...

 

[Kimmo Kokkonen]

Yes but the Turbos where fragile, and failed at an extremely high rate when they first came into F1, so essentially Keke was in the best car that season. Even if your hypothesis is true, there are outliers in all statistics.

But race-winner Nelson Piquet were disqualified for underweight cars

 

[markg88]

I disagree, Russell hasn't showed the world that a guy at the back can be at the front if they are in the best car. He has showed the world that He, George Russell can come from a back marker car, and lead a couple of practice sessions in the best car. I'm not convinced that anyone can do it. Maybe Russell is a future world champion? All the great drivers had great drives in lesser machinery. Look at Senna in the Toleman, or Alonso in the Minardi. Also, given the chance both Senna and Alonso shined once they were given competitive machinery, like Russell is doing so far.

You seem very defensive.. why? Everyone knows a F1 driver has to at least have an equal car to the best car to even have a chance of being a champion, what's new about that?
What Russell clearly demonstrated today is how much difference the car makes in F1. Unfortunately, it also demonsrates how salty Hamilton fans can get.. although, in this case, you may not be a Hamilton fan, but it is certainly evident in countless posts on forums. They just won't accept how much the car is a factor in someone's success, and who one's team-mate is of course.

 

[TOONS12]

I disagree, Russell hasn't showed the world that a guy at the back can be at the front if they are in the best car. He has showed the world that He, George Russell can come from a back marker car, and lead a couple of practice sessions in the best car. I'm not convinced that anyone can do it. Maybe Russell is a future world champion? All the great drivers had great drives in lesser machinery. Look at Senna in the Toleman, or Alonso in the Minardi. Also, given the chance both Senna and Alonso shined once they were given competitive machinery, like Russell is doing so far.

Still missing the point.
Lewis is 6 times WDC because he could beat Nico and Bottas.

Further to that if Lewis (7 times WDC and possibly best F1 driver ever) got in the Williams he'd have no chance of a win let alone WDC...so it is the car that enabled him...

The best driver on the grid can't win the WDC, ever, in the worst car....

 

[IceColdBeard_24]

Feels good not to see Hamilton around !!! We need the new generation now

Russell !! Norris !! Sainz !! Leclerc !! We get a very interesting future ahead of us

 

[Copef1]

You seem very defensive.. why? Everyone knows a F1 driver has to at least have an equal car to the best car to even have a chance of being a champion, what's new about that?
What Russell clearly demonstrated today is how much difference the car makes in F1. Unfortunately, it also demonsrates how salty Hamilton fans can get.. although, in this case, you may not be a Hamilton fan, but it is certainly evident in countless posts on forums. They just won't accept how much the car is a factor in someone's success, and who one's team-mate is of course.

I don't know what you are on about. I never said the car wasn't a factor.

 

[Copef1]

Still missing the point.
Lewis is 6 times WDC because he could beat Nico and Bottas.

Further to that if Lewis (7 times WDC and possibly best F1 driver ever) got in the Williams he'd have no chance of a win let alone WDC...so it is the car that enabled him...

The best driver on the grid can't win the WDC, ever, in the worst car....

I don't know what you are on about either. I never said the best driver could win the WDC in the worst car.

 

[Copef1]

I'm starting to worry about the ability to read and comprehend by some of the members of this forum. I said that "the best drivers end up in the best cars". I don't see why this is such a controversial statement. It has been said by many ex-F1 drivers, and many F1 team managers over the years. Martin Brundle says it all the time on the Sky F1 telecasts. If you have followed F1 for many years, I would have thought it to be obvious.

 

[pcraenme]

For Dutchmen there is only 1 good driver lol....
All the rest is about the car....

Really? I am Dutch, and yes, of course I want Max to win, but there are more good drivers on the grid besides him who all would win races and maybe even WC’s in the Mercedes... Hamilton (of course), Leclerc, Ricciardo, Sainz, Russell, Norris, Perez, Vettel, Raikkonen.

 

[TOONS12]

I'm starting to worry about the ability to read and comprehend by some of the members of this forum. I said that "the best drivers end up in the best cars". I don't see why this is such a controversial statement. It has been said by many ex-F1 drivers, and many F1 team managers over the years. Martin Brundle says it all the time on the Sky F1 telecasts. If you have followed F1 for many years, I would have thought it to be obvious.

So George is suddenly the best driver? Better than Max, Dani Ric etc etc.

 

[RichardHessels]

The whole paddock is buzzing about it and has thumbs up for Russell this weekend. Almost everybody (except for some drivers) wants to see him succeed this weekend.
Lets see what he can do in Qually tomorrow, stakes and pressure are up twice.

A shame that it's such a lame track, did a 100 virtual testinglaps on it already.
Could see quite some damage, if the simulations are right.

 

[Copef1]

So George is suddenly the best driver? Better than Max, Dani Ric etc etc.

Maybe, we don't know yet do we. He is filling in for this race, and maybe another, I wouldn't call that ending up in the best car. He is getting a shot, and what he does with that shot will influence if he does or doesn't end up in the best car. If he does end up in the best car in the years to come, what he does then will tell us if he is better than Max, Dani Ric etc etc. Judging by the past, arguably the two best drivers in F1 right now are Lewis, and Max, and they are in the two best cars and teams, so like I said, the best drivers end up in the best cars.

 

[fatal4you]

Way to take it out of context. Go back and look at the race logs from that time period and see how many cars failed during a Grand Prix weekend. Attrition back then was much higher than today, which I already pointed out.

Mimimi. You should go back and take a look at the races. It was you who claimed to have watched F1 since the 70s and yet fail to name a significant world champion. Where did you watch F1 since the 70s? On Wikipedia?

Just admit it already. You're a Hamiliton fanboy and can't accept Russel's performance in that same Merc. You're coping, lmao, you're name is literally "CopeF1".

Picture related.

 

[TOONS12]

Maybe, we don't know yet do we. He is filling in for this race, and maybe another, I wouldn't call that ending up in the best car. He is getting a shot, and what he does with that shot will influence if he does or doesn't end up in the best car. If he does end up in the best car in the years to come, what he does then will tell us if he is better than Max, Dani Ric etc etc. Judging by the past, arguably the two best drivers in F1 right now are Lewis, and Max, and they are in the two best cars and teams, so like I said, the best drivers end up in the best cars.

So if a guy at the back, get into a car and in 5 days is at the front..... what has done that?

 

[Fat-Alfie]

It seems Bottas had a damaged floor from kerb riding.

I honestly think that the percentage skill spread amongst all F1 drivers is very small, and that many drivers could win races in the fastest car. But, there is more to a successful career/ season than 'just' driving fast. There is consistency, racecraft, logic, intelligence, teamwork, and even luck.

All of those factors must play a part when drivers are given a seat with a team, which is why certain drivers get the fastest car, and other drivers spend years in 'nearly' teams, because the best teams recognise that they are lacking in certain areas so are not the complete package.

 

[TOONS12]

It seems Bottas had a damaged floor from kerb riding.

I honestly think that the percentage skill spread amongst all F1 drivers is very small, and that many drivers could win races in the fastest car. But, there is more to a successful career/ season than 'just' driving fast. There is consistency, racecraft, logic, intelligence, teamwork, and even luck.

All of those factors must play a part when drivers are given a seat with a team, which is why certain drivers get the fastest car, and other drivers spend years in 'nearly' teams, because the best teams recognise that they are lacking in certain areas so are not the complete package.

Agreed, but here we have a back of the field driver now top in 2 sessions..

Now we can say that the William's was holding him back or the Merc is making him look better...

Either way the ultimate parts of those answers are...the car....

Not every driver could do what Russell has done...but every driver could improve their times in the Merc....Fact..

It proves the advantage the Merc has, and it proves that Lewis couldn't do what he has done over the last few seasons without the Merc dominance or a subservient team mate.

Frankly anyone who can't see that, isn't worth wasting time with..

Bottas now has a very good CV thanks to Merc, had Nico of stayed on till now Bottas would have won nothing had no poles...so really he needs to give his head a wobble and realise how lucky he is...

I would like to see a bit more of a test for winning the WDC and not have rivers going 85%.

 

[dadara74]

All this nonsense about drivers.....who is best and who is not....it's a pointless discussion and the comments in this section are sometimes just fanboy nonsense. Russel did very well but his performance in the Merc so far is as expected as it is by far the best car on the grid, nothing new or unexpected in that regard. I still find him overrated as a driver, not saying he isn't very good, just saying he is not exceptional (I still do not see it). The Merc was fastest in a single lap last week, so it is fastest in a single lap this week. However I did expect Bottas to be on top of him, but apparently his mental state is worse than I thought...2021 will undoubtedly be his last year in a Merc.

F1 after the turbo age of the eighties is 1 TEAMSPORT like no other sport, a driver cant even start his car without a 20 person team to do so; comparing drivers of different teams is therefore pretty pointless, they can only be compared against teammates and even that is disputable (because of the intra team hierarchy, look at Schumacher, Hamilton, Alonso, Senna to name a few who were CLEARLY favoured within their teams). Drivers are just one person of a (in for example Merc's case) 1200 member team, it's silly to state they are the ones who are the decisive factor and what makes a car fast. Drivers especially in the current hybrid era are such a very small component, in race mode they just "run the program" as everything is being calculated in advance and managed in real time at the factory in a control room that literally dwarfes NASA's Houston Control of the Apollo Moon landing project... Energy deployment, tyre management, fuel management...all is managed and controlled in real time, all drivers have to do is execute the program.

In the end the main thing that sets a driver apart from the rest is consistency (making the least errors in a race and let the car perform near to 100% over a race distance), leadership and risk analysis (shown in racecraft), all the rest is purely down to the car. Taking this into consideration in 2020 there are two drivers that stand head and shoulders above the rest of the field based on these three factors and those two are Verstappen and Hamilton, fanboy or hater, no discussion about that because those two are (among the drivers) the two top alpha males in the paddock, and are mentally the strongest and fittest. Both have the ability to drive the car closest to 100% (consistency), take control over the decision making during race (leadership) and know when to take a risk or not (risk analysis). Leclerc, Ricciardo and Perez also have shown this in 2020 but are behind on the leadership component as displayed by VER & HAM imo.

 

[Vincent Valentine]

Looking at race pace, I do think Russell will end up on the podium, but not in first place! I think:

1. BOT
2. VER
3. RUS

 

[ermo]

Lewis tagged his team mate Jenson Button once at Montreal. And Albon whos was looking for a podeom twice. Hes no saint, like he pretends to be.

I never said Lewis doesn't make mistakes or that he doesn't get too eager.

In the instance with Jenson, it was *very* wet and Jenson had trouble seeing him.

With Albon, he put his hand up (1) and apologised (2) like I asserted.

Again, not a fan of LH but personally I feel that it's hard to make the case that he's aiming to be anything other than a hard, but fair racer.

 

[markg88]

It seems Bottas had a damaged floor from kerb riding.

I honestly think that the percentage skill spread amongst all F1 drivers is very small, and that many drivers could win races in the fastest car. But, there is more to a successful career/ season than 'just' driving fast. There is consistency, racecraft, logic, intelligence, teamwork, and even luck.

All of those factors must play a part when drivers are given a seat with a team, which is why certain drivers get the fastest car, and other drivers spend years in 'nearly' teams, because the best teams recognise that they are lacking in certain areas so are not the complete package.

There is truth in that, of course, but sometimes a team evolves into the best team with the best car, as happened with Merc and sometimes the drivers ride along on that success wave. Sometimes a driver, equally talented, gets unlucky and the team and car go downhill.
It is highly unusual in F1 history for a team to maintain dominance for so long, and this will undoubtedly prevent new equally capable (with experience) drivers from having a chance to win, especially when a team operates with a No1 and wingman.