Outscoring a team mate in F1

[jonnylayze]

Hamilton and Button and Vettel and Webber scored very similar numbers of points this season and all appear pretty evenly matched as drivers (subject to the usual ongoing PH arguments about such things but if you look at some of the other teams there are some very stark indicators of relative driver performance.

Ferrari (for reasons done to death on here) is a bit of a distorted picture but even without the 16 point swing in Germany, Alonso comfortably outscored Massa.

Elsewhere Rosberg (142) scored almost twice as many points as Schumacher (72); Barrichello and Sutil (both 47) scored more than twice that of their team mates Hulkenberg and Liuzzi (22 and 21 respectively.

The stand out performances of the season (outside the top 5 drivers) came from Kobayashi and Kubica however. Kobayashi scored nearly 3 times as many points as his teammates combined while on 136, Kubica scored more than 5 times Petrov's points haul of 27.

I thought all of this was quite interesting - particularly in the context of people like Liuzzi, Petrov and Hulkenberg potentially struggling for drives next season - and thought it might start an interesting debate...

[RedexR]

On Rosberg V Schumi , didn't someone once say having a family will cost a racing driver about a second per lap , time to hang up that Helmet or go and do DTM instead.

[jonnylayze]

RedexR said:

On Rosberg V Schumi , didn't someone once say having a family will cost a racing driver about a second per lap , time to hang up that Helmet or go and do DTM instead.

I hadn't thought of that angle but I suspect that may be true. I have no experience at anywhere near that level (understatement of the year)- I am not a racing driver and haven't done any real motorsport since my children were born. I did race a kart when my daughter was a few weeks old and found it was certainly a distraction that I was aware of and have found the same thing when tackling tricky downhill off road sections on my mountain bike - the 'what if?' scenario plays more heavily on the mind these days. It is as if there is a switch somewhere deep within which urges one to play a percentage game. For those of you who race properly and have children it would be interesting to hear whether you think it impacts on the way you drive.

In Schumacher's case I suspect that it is simply a matter of age and that his reaction times and ability to adjust the car at the ultimate limit are now below what they were 10 years ago. Arguably, he had struggled from 2004 onwards to compete with both Alonso and with Massa. Massa's performance against Alonso this year makes Schumacher's performance (and that of Raikonnen) against Massa as team mate positively ordinary.

Barrichello never really had the outright talent to compete at the same level as Schumacher (and I am certainly no Schumacher fan) and yet in spite of his age he has seen off Hulkenberg who ought to be fitter, with better reflexes and better stamina. I think that the performance of Schumacher relative to Rosberg (who is clearly quick but not Alonso/Hamilton/Kubica quick) really puts Hulkenberg's mediocre performance (Interlagos qualifying aside where I thought him spectacular, whatever Eddie Jordan claimed afterwards) against Barrichello into perspective.

[Mazda Baiter]

RedexR said:

On Rosberg V Schumi , didn't someone once say having a family will cost a racing driver about a second per lap , time to hang up that Helmet or go and do DTM instead.

Schumacher won championships whilst he had kids iirc.

As did these drivers off the top of my head. Moot point.
Brabham
G.Hill
Rindt
Stewart
Lauda
Andretti
Scheckter
Piquet
Prost
Mansell
D.Hill
M.Hakkinen