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[madbrad]

The quesion was for most dominating car, so I took the drivers out of the equation.
I do think the McLaren was the best car in 88 though. I just don't think it would have beaten everyone by such a large margin if driven by anyone besides Senna and Prost.
I have thought more about my 92-93 Williams thought. Between the two, I am going with the 92, because it was driven to so many wins and a very early title cliching by someone who IMHO was nowhere near the driver of Prost or Senna.

The fan car, I had not thought of that. It dominated its only race in a fashion not seen before or since. To extrapolate that to the rest of the season, or to average it out to a whole season, is to come to the conclusion that It HAS to be by far the most dominating car.

[madbrad]

RB6,

Both drivers are really good but just imagine if it had 2 great driver

It is the bench mark for modern F1 cars

It is the best car of 2010, but it isn't running away with anything easily. It may be dominating now, but it isn't close to the most dominating of all time, which is what the question is, if you go by the size of the margin to its closest competitor. If you put whomever you believe is the best driver pairing in place of Webber and Vettel, it might as you point out have more points now, but not by a huge amount IMHO.

[vaptin]

The fan car, I had not thought of that. It dominated its only race in a fashion not seen before or since. To extrapolate that to the rest of the season, or to average it out to a whole season, is to come to the conclusion that It HAS to be by far the most dominating car.

Yes, but is one race really enough to make a confident extrapolation?

[darwin dali]

The fan car, I had not thought of that. It dominated its only race in a fashion not seen before or since. To extrapolate that to the rest of the season, or to average it out to a whole season, is to come to the conclusion that It HAS to be by far the most dominating car.

Yes, but is one race really enough to make a confident extrapolation?

Plus, the other teams would have come up with their own version of a fan car in 4 races' time or so if it were deemed legal, thus the advantage would have diminished drastically.

[Big Azza]

The STR3 2007.

No I would have definitely voted for the 88 McLaren as well.

[hounddub]

The straight answer to the thread is the 1988 MP4/4.

But imagine if Brawn F1 in 2009 had more money to develop their car last year. For the first half of the season it was untouchable!

[bud]

The fan car, I had not thought of that. It dominated its only race in a fashion not seen before or since. To extrapolate that to the rest of the season, or to average it out to a whole season, is to come to the conclusion that It HAS to be by far the most dominating car.

Yes, but is one race really enough to make a confident extrapolation?

Plus, the other teams would have come up with their own version of a fan car in 4 races' time or so if it were deemed legal, thus the advantage would have diminished drastically.

4 races time back then? I think it would take longer than that I was reading an article on the MP4-4 and it had 6 guys that worked on the design of it, just 6!

[madbrad]

Bernie thought of that and bought up all the good fans.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

The fan car, I had not thought of that. It dominated its only race in a fashion not seen before or since. To extrapolate that to the rest of the season, or to average it out to a whole season, is to come to the conclusion that It HAS to be by far the most dominating car.

Yes, but is one race really enough to make a confident extrapolation?

Plus, the other teams would have come up with their own version of a fan car in 4 races' time or so if it were deemed legal, thus the advantage would have diminished drastically.

4 races time back then? I think it would take longer than that I was reading an article on the MP4-4 and it had 6 guys that worked on the design of it, just 6!

Chassis design in 1978 was much more laborious than it is now. Not only was the BT46b pre-CAD/CAM, it was pre-PC. Everything was done by slide rule and there were no computer simulations. To complicate matters, the fan in the BT46b did in fact assist in engine cooling so the competitors' efforts likely would have had to do the same to justify their use as other than a strictly aerodynamic feature. I don't think they could have modded their existing chassis to do this, I think they'd have had to start with a clean slate. I can't see that happening in four races.

Even if they did, the Brabham car already would have had four races-worth of race development on it, which would have given them considerable advantage over the newcomers. Consider last year, when Brawn 'introduced' the shadow diffuser. They remained dominant through 13 races, despite the fact that it now is possible to do the whole of development and much of the manufacturing process (especially the carbonfibre bits) via computer.

Bernie thought of that and bought up all the good fans.

[MattMK45]

How do you measure "aerodynamic efficiency" on an F1 car? I can see in a road car all they're concerned with is the Cd so then the lowest one is the most aerodynamically efficient, but an F1 car needs alot of wing which produces drag, so they never have as low a Cd as they could. In F1 does "aerodynamically efficient" mean the lowest Cd while still producing the required downforce? The trouble with that is they change the wings and their angles every half hour, and the cars with less power cannot run as much downforce as the big boys, and so would have a lower Cd.
This isn't stirring up poop it's a real technical question. What dou you mean exactly by "aerodynamically efficient" in an F1 car?

Well I guess produced the most down-force while at the same time producing only a small amount of drag. That is my guess, wikipedia are never very clear in their articles.

[Robert12010]

cant really trust wikipedia.....mclaren mp4-4.. is and is STILL the best!

[texasmr2]

cant really trust wikipedia.....mclaren mp4-4.. is and is STILL the best!

Can you trust the opinion of someone who witnessed both cars/season's?

[MattMK45]

cant really trust wikipedia.....mclaren mp4-4.. is and is STILL the best!

Can you trust the opinion of someone who witnessed both cars/season's?

Sure can. I'd love to see the mp4/4 in action for real if you know what I mean.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

They 6-wheeled Tyrell P-34 was an aerodynamic leap. It, too had simple wings and probably the cleanest front end of any car in F1 history by virtue of the 10" wheels. It never reached its potential because Ken Tyrell could never get Goodyear to take a serious interest in developing its 10" tyres.

[FormulaOnboardHD]

one of the top 10 good lookin cars.