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Driving superiority is absolutely still an important factor. It's probably more important, since an inferior driver will kill himself in the best engineered ca

Driving superiority is absolutely still an important factor. It's probably more important, since an inferior driver will kill himself in the best engineered car on the planet. It's like saying that because of the new high tech swimsuits and caps, the olympics is a contest of clothing superiority. Technique is still king, but a couple percentage points of advantage from your equipment is absolutely huge at those levels.

jabagawee 2y ago
At least in F1, I would say that the variance in constructor performance matters more than variance in driver performance. There are plenty of instances of drivers doing test runs with other teams and achieving competitive times.
- Mainsail 2y ago
  George Russell with Williams then Mercedes.
rob74 2y ago
In F1 there has been a lot of effort to make sure drivers don't kill themself, e.g. the HANS (Head and Neck Support) which prevents the heavy helmet from snapping the driver's neck on impact, or the "Halo" which protects the driver when cars flip over. And these are just two of the most visible safety measures. Not saying someone completely inexperienced couldn't manage to kill himself, but most people would probably not even get to that point, they would simply fail to get the car into gear without killing the engine...
- ignoramous 2y ago
  Despite the improvements (the halo, most recently), freak accidents may yet happen. I mean, this is a scary pic of one of the best drivers on the circuit almost killing another: https://archive.fo/I6brp https://archive.fo/I6brp from: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/when-have-hamilton-and-verstappen-crashed-before/ https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f...
  - squigz 2y ago
    That picture is scary, but it's not showing him nearly dying - it's showing the HALO device doing exactly why it was added. I'm not denying motorsports are dangerous - particularly F1 - but it has become much, much, much safer over the past 10-15 years.
    - AmericanChopper 2y ago
      You are 100% correct, but that’s a photo of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who were each others primary competitors at the time, and each have rabid fan bases. Whenever they have an incident together the commentary is usually (or at least was at the time) completely unhinged. A lot of people seriously claimed Max was trying to kill Lewis after that incident at Monza.
  - jn6118 2y ago
    Another freak accident where the halo undoubtedly saved a life is Zhou's crash off the start at Silverstone 2022: https://youtu.be/B2XHq9d4OWI?feature=shared https://youtu.be/B2XHq9d4OWI?feature=shared
  - GrumpyNl 2y ago
    Hamilton was not nearly killed, not even a scratch. Its just showing how well the safety measures work for the modern cars.
toyg 2y ago
> It's probably more important No, it absolutely is not - the opposite actually. F1 history is full of mediocre drivers getting catapulted into top spots by rocket-cars, only to fall back into mediocrity once competing teams catch up on the engineering. It's also why everyone knows that, outside the 2-3 top teams that dominate the table on any given year, the real competition is between drivers in the same team, because it's the only fair fight for drivers (since both have basically the same car). Driver skill is definitely a factor, don't get me wrong, but F1 is 95% about the car.

jabagawee 2y ago

At least in F1, I would say that the variance in constructor performance matters more than variance in driver performance. There are plenty of instances of drivers doing test runs with other teams and achieving competitive times.

Mainsail 2y ago
George Russell with Williams then Mercedes.

rob74 2y ago

In F1 there has been a lot of effort to make sure drivers don't kill themself, e.g. the HANS (Head and Neck Support) which prevents the heavy helmet from snapping the driver's neck on impact, or the "Halo" which protects the driver when cars flip over. And these are just two of the most visible safety measures. Not saying someone completely inexperienced couldn't manage to kill himself, but most people would probably not even get to that point, they would simply fail to get the car into gear without killing the engine...

ignoramous 2y ago
Despite the improvements (the halo, most recently), freak accidents may yet happen. I mean, this is a scary pic of one of the best drivers on the circuit almost killing another: https://archive.fo/I6brp https://archive.fo/I6brp from: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/when-have-hamilton-and-verstappen-crashed-before/ https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f...
- squigz 2y ago
  That picture is scary, but it's not showing him nearly dying - it's showing the HALO device doing exactly why it was added. I'm not denying motorsports are dangerous - particularly F1 - but it has become much, much, much safer over the past 10-15 years.
  - AmericanChopper 2y ago
    You are 100% correct, but that’s a photo of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who were each others primary competitors at the time, and each have rabid fan bases. Whenever they have an incident together the commentary is usually (or at least was at the time) completely unhinged. A lot of people seriously claimed Max was trying to kill Lewis after that incident at Monza.
- jn6118 2y ago
  Another freak accident where the halo undoubtedly saved a life is Zhou's crash off the start at Silverstone 2022: https://youtu.be/B2XHq9d4OWI?feature=shared https://youtu.be/B2XHq9d4OWI?feature=shared
- GrumpyNl 2y ago
  Hamilton was not nearly killed, not even a scratch. Its just showing how well the safety measures work for the modern cars.

toyg 2y ago

> It's probably more important No, it absolutely is not - the opposite actually. F1 history is full of mediocre drivers getting catapulted into top spots by rocket-cars, only to fall back into mediocrity once competing teams catch up on the engineering. It's also why everyone knows that, outside the 2-3 top teams that dominate the table on any given year, the real competition is between drivers in the same team, because it's the only fair fight for drivers (since both have basically the same car). Driver skill is definitely a factor, don't get me wrong, but F1 is 95% about the car.