> I wonder how long it has been since the drivers' championship was decided by a contest of driving superiority rather than the engineering the competing driver

> I wonder how long it has been since the drivers' championship was decided by a contest of driving superiority rather than the engineering the competing drivers were sitting in? I’ve been following F1 since the mid 90’s. It has always been about both the engineering and the driving. That’s what makes it fun (to me). If you put a great driver in a bad car, they won’t do well because the car limits them. If you put a bad driver in a great car, they won’t do well because they limit the car. If you put a great driver in a great car that doesn’t fit their style, they’ll do okay but not great. You need a great car and a great driver and they have to fit. But here’s the thing: A great driver will be able to outperform the car and is more adaptible to variance in car performance. You also have to keep in mind F1 margins are incredibly tight. The first 7 qualifying times were within 1 second in Baku this weekend. 1 second for 7 drivers. The difference between first and last was 2.3 seconds. Over the whole grand prix the distance between first and last amounted to 148 seconds. That means the slowest driver was just 3seconds per lap slower than the fastest driver on average. The margins are absolutely ridiculous when you think about it.