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[What's Burning?]

I'm a driver not a magician, was a quote from Jarno Trulli about his chances with Lotus this year. What's your opinion on how much effect a good driver in a mediocre car or a weaker driver in a competitive car has on lap times?

It's clear that this can be a completely different poll in a qualifying versus race environment because so many other factors come into play during a race, so let's keep this based only on qualifying lap times.

*Because there are only 10 poll options I left out the Driver 100% and Car 100% options since they're the most unrealistic.

[f1ea]

*Because there are only 10 poll options I left out the Driver 100% and Car 100% options since they're the most unrealistic.

Driver 100% and car 100% is actually 50-50

If you want to improve on the poll, change the options to something like this:

Driver - Car
10 - 90 %
25 - 75 %
50 - 50 %
75 - 25 %
90 - 10 %

[scotty]

20% Driver 80% Car. Maybe even a higher percentage to the car.

If you put an Alonso or a Hamilton in a Hispania they'd still be near or at the back wouldn't they?

[What's Burning?]

*Because there are only 10 poll options I left out the Driver 100% and Car 100% options since they're the most unrealistic.

Driver 100% and car 100% is actually 50-50

If you want to improve on the poll, change the options to something like this:

Driver - Car
10 - 90 %
25 - 75 %
50 - 50 %
75 - 25 %
90 - 10 %

I though about it, and they're both limited in a way. I chose the way I broke it down ultimately because it's basically your same idea but I could put a couple more options to get it a bit more granular.

[f1ea]

20% Driver 80% Car. Maybe even a higher percentage to the car.

If you put an Alonso or a Hamilton in a Hispania they'd still be near or at the back wouldn't they?

In fact, i think the drivers are pretty much equal, compared to the cars... they have a HUGE margin.

The 20% for driver meaning somehting like Kubica getting a podium in Monaco in a car suited for P6 or so, but then you'd get several other races at P8 or DNF and in the end, the results of a driver like Kubica over the 'average capability' of the car... will not be so far from 20%

The same with most other drivers, with the exception being when there is a sensible struggle with the teammate to throw off the 'car capability' with crashes/DNFs and basic struggle. Such as Heikki, Massa right now and Piquet jr. The 2007 season... 1 pt. The veteran drivers are almost all equally good.

[What's Burning?]

I struggled with it as well, I wound up going with the car having 70% of the effect of the outcome. I keeping my choise limited only to qualifying a qualifying lap where the DNF and racing incidents won't factor. I guess the best example would be in a same team driver pairing where there is clearly a difference in driver ability like last year in Mclaren.

[texasmr2]

20% Driver 80% Car. Maybe even a higher percentage to the car.

If you put an Alonso or a Hamilton in a Hispania they'd still be near or at the back wouldn't they?

I originally chose the 50/50 option but in hindsight should have gone with the '70/30 driver to car' option, more realistic.

[f1ea]

I struggled with it as well, I wound up going with the car having 70% of the effect of the outcome. I keeping my choise limited only to qualifying a qualifying lap where the DNF and racing incidents won't factor. I guess the best example would be in a same team driver pairing where there is clearly a difference in driver ability like last year in Mclaren.

Yeah, but last yr also strategy counted as 'car'. Heikki was ussually heavier for some reason, they thought his were good strategies

This yr Q is more straight forward... Lewis and Vettel the best Q'ers. With Kubica, Alonso, webber and Rosberg very good... Jenson, Massa ans Schumacher not doing so good...... but in the race, they're all pretty equal.

[myownalias]

I would say car 60/40%; a good driver can win in an average car, driver skill is vitally important, for example Lewis Hamilton managing to get every last ounce of lap time out of last years McLaren while his team mate Heikki Kovalainen was the proverbial country mile behind Lewis at most races.

[What's Burning?]

I originally chose the 50/50 option but in hindsight should have gone with the '70/30 driver to car' option, more realistic.

Really? Following that logic, Mercedes being a mediocre car, Nico would be the better of their drivers this year by a good margin. Since you're Schumacher fan I find that surprising.

[texasmr2]

My choice was based on F1 history and the years I have been following F1 and not just the last few seasons which imo would be a more realistic outlook.

[f1ea]

I would say car 60/40%; a good driver can win in an average car, driver skill is vitally important, for example Lewis Hamilton managing to get every last ounce of lap time out of last years McLaren while his team mate Heikki Kovalainen was the proverbial country mile behind Lewis at most races.

Yeah, but look at the average position of Mclaren (car capability) in the final standings... you will see that Lewis' results were not more than 30% ahead of what the car could get... (but like i said, the car capability would have to be subjective as Heikki/Piquet Jr etc were the example of a driver struggling). The same with Kimi last yr.

What i'm saying is... Mclaren was what... the 3rd or 4th best car for the whole of the season? that means around P6-P7.. Lewis got P5. not much of a difference there.

[myownalias]

I would say car 60/40%; a good driver can win in an average car, driver skill is vitally important, for example Lewis Hamilton managing to get every last ounce of lap time out of last years McLaren while his team mate Heikki Kovalainen was the proverbial country mile behind Lewis at most races.

Yeah, but look at the average position of Mclaren (car capability) in the final standings... you will see that Lewis' results were not more than 30% ahead of what the car could get... (but like i said, the car capability would have to be subjective as Heikki/Piquet Jr etc were the example of a driver struggling). The same with Kimi last yr.

What i'm saying is... Mclaren was what... the 3rd or 4th best car for the whole of the season? that means around P6-P7.. Lewis got P5. not much of a difference there.

Yes overall but no-one scored more points than Lewis Hamilton in the last half of the season including the world champion, plus he had one 4th place result taken away and rightfully so for lying to the stewards to gain an advantage! I don't think that the McLaren was a winning car last year without a top driver at the wheel

[What's Burning?]

I would say car 60/40%; a good driver can win in an average car, driver skill is vitally important, for example Lewis Hamilton managing to get every last ounce of lap time out of last years McLaren while his team mate Heikki Kovalainen was the proverbial country mile behind Lewis at most races.

Yeah, but look at the average position of Mclaren (car capability) in the final standings... you will see that Lewis' results were not more than 30% ahead of what the car could get... (but like i said, the car capability would have to be subjective as Heikki/Piquet Jr etc were the example of a driver struggling). The same with Kimi last yr.

What i'm saying is... Mclaren was what... the 3rd or 4th best car for the whole of the season? that means around P6-P7.. Lewis got P5. not much of a difference there.

If you exclude races and just look at qualifying the difference is greater.

[What's Burning?]

20% Driver 80% Car. Maybe even a higher percentage to the car.

If you put an Alonso or a Hamilton in a Hispania they'd still be near or at the back wouldn't they?

It's hard to put a number down because there is some wiggle room. But your point here is the the way to test this. Put Chandhok in a Red Bull and see what his Qualifying time is, and put Vettle in an HRT and see what his qualifying time is.

I believe the sweet spot is going to be the driver can impact around 30% of the outcome the rest is all car.