I wonder if a similar chart would look any different for any given 3-4 year period. There are only ever 2 or maybe 3 teams actually competing for wins. When I started watching F1 it wasn't really any different, though it wasn't Mercedes with 80% of the wins.
Huh that is really interesting. I should look into the various eras of dominance and see if they are more like the Red Bull era or the Mercedes era. I know things were very skewed towards Ferrari for many years while Schumacher was amassing all his titles and wins.
I don't care so much if one team is dominant, though it does make the championship boring.
What has been waning my interest over the last few years is the increasing reliance on aero for speed and what that does to passing attempts. That makes every part of the race more boring.
His most dominant season was in 2004 when he won 13 out of 18 races but most of the time he won 8/9 out of 17 in his championship winning years.
2002 he won 11, his teammate won 4, and drivers from 2 other teams won 1 each. That was a very dominant season for them as well. In 2004 other teams won 3 races.
Yes, this era has been worse, but at least there has been a battle between Mercedes teammates.
Wins other than Merc:
2014: Ricciardo won 3 races
2015: Vettel won 3 races
2016: Ricciardo won 1 and Verstappen won 1 (when Hamilton & Rosberg crashed each other out on like turn 4)
2017: Vettel won 4, Ricciardo 1, Verstappen 2
This season has been better. It was a battle until Vettel's retirement in Japan.
In the build up to the Brazilian GP FOM have put up Glock's onboard footage from the last lap in 2008. It's easy to see just how screwed he was by being on dry tyres on a very wet track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhH93grvh84
Members of the Mercedes team have been robbed at gunpoint heading back to their hotel in Brazil. Everyone is (physically) okay, thankfully.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened. There are many unfortunate factors, societal and otherwise, at play that make Brazil especially susceptible to problems like this, and they aren't likely to be solved any time soon. Frankly, the only immediate way of mitigating that risk is for FOM and the teams to take security far more seriously at this event, which is, and should remain, a genuine highlight of the F1 calendar.
Hamilton had a great drive from the back. Great fun to watch him go all out with fresh tyres and a fresh engine. Pit lane to fourth (and nearly higher) is impressive. He did make one mistake when very close to Kimi and that coupled with being held up by Stroll probably cost him a podium spot. His pace was high enough all weekend that I reckon he probably would have won if he hadn't binned it in Q1 (even with an old engine). The best thing about this part of the season is that everyone is just racing for the hell of it.
In contrast, Bottas ultimately looked a bit poor again. Perhaps not an entirely fair comparison between him and Hamilton considering the engine difference (although Merc will be able to account for that), but if Hamilton had got past Kimi on the first attempt he would have been a threat to Bottas. This simply should not happen when you start on pole and your teammate starts from the pit. After he lost position at the start he just didn't seem to have the pace to challenge. Vettel didn't really have to work too hard to secure the win in the end.
On the rest of the pack, a nice send-off for Massa. Certainly a better result than last time. Similarly another great job by Alonso to keep pace and challenge. Ricciardo and Vandoorne were both unlucky to be punted out by others - namely by Magnussen who has already got himself a bit of a reputation. Grosjean also had a terrible drive, the Ocon incident was entirely on him.
I am going to pick on Stroll in particular a little bit here but he really isn't up to F1 standards. Not yet at least. He was thoroughly outpaced by Massa, drove pretty clumsily causing two (ultimately critical) lockups, badly held up lead cars and worst of all seemed unable to cope with the pressure. On the radio at the end stages of the race he just sounded overwhelmed. He's what I'd consider a textbook case of a driver brought into F1 too soon when he really needed more experience in the lower tiers. He has been quick once or twice, mostly around mid-season, but overall it has been a weak season especially when his point of comparison is Massa - who was pretty handily behind Bottas when both were teammates.
To broaden it out a bit, he's certainly not the only driver that wasn't really up to scratch. Palmer and Kyvat come to mind instantly and neither of them will be starting next season. With the midfield contest as tight as it is I'm not sure teams can really afford weak drivers. I fully expect Reanult to finish higher next season with their revised driver line up for example.
Hamilton had a great drive from the back. Great fun to watch him go all out with fresh tyres and a fresh engine. Pit lane to fourth (and nearly higher) is impressive. He did make one mistake when very close to Kimi and that coupled with being held up by Stroll probably cost him a podium spot. His pace was high enough all weekend that I reckon he probably would have won if he hadn't binned it in Q1 (even with an old engine). The best thing about this part of the season is that everyone is just racing for the hell of it.
In contrast, Bottas ultimately looked a bit poor again. Perhaps not an entirely fair comparison between him and Hamilton considering the engine difference (although Merc will be able to account for that), but if Hamilton had got past Kimi on the first attempt he would have been a threat to Bottas. This simply should not happen when you start on pole and your teammate starts from the pit. After he lost position at the start he just didn't seem to have the pace to challenge. Vettel didn't really have to work too hard to secure the win in the end.
On the rest of the pack, a nice send-off for Massa. Certainly a better result than last time. Similarly another great job by Alonso to keep pace and challenge. Ricciardo and Vandoorne were both unlucky to be punted out by others - namely by Magnussen who has already got himself a bit of a reputation. Grosjean also had a terrible drive, the Ocon incident was entirely on him.
I am going to pick on Stroll in particular a little bit here but he really isn't up to F1 standards. Not yet at least. He was thoroughly outpaced by Massa, drove pretty clumsily causing two (ultimately critical) lockups, badly held up lead cars and worst of all seemed unable to cope with the pressure. On the radio at the end stages of the race he just sounded overwhelmed. He's what I'd consider a textbook case of a driver brought into F1 too soon when he really needed more experience in the lower tiers. He has been quick once or twice, mostly around mid-season, but overall it has been a weak season especially when his point of comparison is Massa - who was pretty handily behind Bottas when both were teammates.
To broaden it out a bit, he's certainly not the only driver that wasn't really up to scratch. Palmer and Kyvat come to mind instantly and neither of them will be starting next season. With the midfield contest as tight as it is I'm not sure teams can really afford weak drivers. I fully expect Reanult to finish higher next season with their revised driver line up for example.
While Hamilton's comeback was indeed very impressive (and probably the most impressive of the race), Ricciardo's comeback from the back to place 6 was also pretty great.
Apparently Renault had to limit their engines' performance (and didn't tell the teams till after the qualifying rounds) and the limited performance was noticeable.
Nothing too spectacular so far, no cars out so far for a change, Hulkenberg a 5 sec. penalty for gaining a place by going off-track. Some dueling between Red Bulls and Ferraris.
Pretty boring race so far, only interesting stuff early on was Stroll/Grossjean battles. Bad luck for Ricciardo. Sainz's pit crew messing up with the front left tire. For the rest, everything as usual.
Eh, going to be "that guy" but I thought they made too much of the Massa retirement thing. Especially considering we already did it last year. The "mid track with the winners" thing was too much.
A pretty good race weekend for Bottas. Won the quali battle and held his position in the race. It isn't often that Hamilton is beaten on even terms, so credit there. Hamilton had a decent challenge but with one or two mistakes costing him. Probably would have seen a more determined challenge if it actually mattered though. Had to agree with him when he said "the track needs changed", it's pretty much guaranteed to be a processional race every year.
Good job from Hulkenberg to secure 6th in the constructors for Renault and another impressive drive from Alonso. Pretty poor by Stroll and Magnussen (those spins at the start were amateur stuff).
Edit: Forgot that Ricciardo got screwed by unreliability when he was in a decent position as well. Nothing he could have done about it.
Not a lot to say about it other than that really. Not much happened.
The new logo doesn't stand out as much as the old one.
And that's another season wrapped up. Looking ahead to next season quite a few teams have reasons to be hopeful. It's always fun at the start of the season seeing who has managed to make good on that promise.
McLaren will probably be the big one to look out for next season as they go from the perpetually underperforming Honda to Renault. Their marker will obviously be Red Bull so they should be expecting to finish at least in the 5-6 slot in most races. If that's the case I expect Alonso to be a major player next season. Vandoorne may have to shape up a bit as he'll be under more intense scrutiny. He was generally a good margin slower than Alonso and won't have the rookie tag or a weak engine to cover for it next season. This is if the Renault works out of course.
Renault themselves will have a better driver lineup next season from the start. That alone should make them more of a threat in the midfield. I don't think they'll be Red Bull levels though, there's still a bit of rebuilding to go through before they make a leap up the field.
Sauber might also have a chance next year given that they'll have on-par Ferrari engines rather than year old models. That is, if there is a "Sauber" next season. Rumours are flying that it's going to be rebranded Alfa-Romeo and used as a Ferrari junior team. Wehrlein looks like he's probably out in favour of a Ferrari junior, probably Leclerc, and Ericsson may go as well. Given the low budget and likely turmoil I'd still expect them to be making up the backmarkers, just perhaps with more of a threat of getting out of Q1.
Force India will likely be competing for fourth again, but McLaren may make that more difficult. There isn't really a lot that I can see them doing that they haven't already. They have a good driver pairing that will net them a lot of midfield points (when they aren't tripping over each other) but I can't really see them surpassing Merc/Ferrari/Red Bull unless next year's Merc engine is immense.
I wouldn't hold out too much hope for Williams next season either if I'm honest. Their driver lineup will be weaker than the other teams. Stroll just hasn't been fast enough or consistent enough. He basically matched Massa in points and Massa wasn't exactly the fastest driver on the grid. Their options for Massa's replacement don't inspire a huge amount of hope either. Kubica is probably the best option I've heard but if he's capable over a full race distance or not remains in doubt. There may be other issues like how fast he can get out of the car.
Torro Rosso are also likely to have a miserable season next year unless the Honda is massively better than this year (and the year before that, and the one before that...). Expecting them to be firm backmarkers really.
As for the front three it's anybody's guess. The major factor will be how next year's engines compare and it's far too soon to tell there.
I think you're pretty right on all points there. I hold out hope for Kubica - I don't know if he'd be getting talked up so much, even considering his old reputation, if there wasn't a realistic chance of him being able to handle a race distance. We shall see, though.
McLaren have a big chance next year. They and Red Bull can both put together an awesome chassis, and with the same engine that fight should be immense, even if they're still behind Merc and Ferrari.
I'm hoping the halo devices look less awful on cars built with them in mind, too. There is a reason why racing cars should look good, and the great ones usually do.
I want to see how far they are willing to take this, though maybe their first obstacle will be the game/Codemasters. I don't think they're up to it for an e-sports platform (for a fun game, yeah.)
As the article says, they're expected to run Leclerc and possibly Giovinazzi leaving Wehrlein and possibly Ericsson without a drive for next season. There aren't really any seats free this season either. The only "unconfirmed" outside of Sauber is Williams as far as I know and that currently looks like it's going to Kubica.
Next year should be good for the driver silly season. A load of driver contracts run out at the end of the season, including some of the top seats. There's the potential of Kimi's retirement freeing up a Ferrari seat, Ricciardo hasn't committed to Red Bull beyond 2018, Bottas only had a 1 year extension into 2018. Even Hamilton is out of contract after 2018 (but realistically that one will be extended). Through the grid I'm pretty sure there a few others with contracts ending in 2018 so it could be a massive year for driver changes.
Some more from the rumour mill. Autosport are reporting that Kubica is out of the picture for the Williams seat, with Sergey Sirotkin now the favourite to replace Massa. Reports are that it's simply down to performance data from testing. Kyvat is the backup option. DiResta is also out. While a Kubica return would have been great it did seem a bit unlikely with the time out from racing if nothing else. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/133521/sirotkin-favourite-to-get-2018-williams-drive
That's a shame if it's true. With the way things are in F1 money's worth as much if not more than talent. Still, maybe Sirotkin did perform better overall regardless of how much money he brings, and Kubica has just been away for too long.
MeeqeLord of the pants most fancySomeplace amazingRegistered Userregular
So this last F1 season was my first one I watched and I really enjoyed it! Will be watching in the future, I dug everything about it, the races, the driver drama, the car talk, team management stuff... the works. Found it fascinating.
But what do I watch in the off-season? I want more, and the start of the new season seems far away.
There isn't much to watch right now, but the 24 Hours of Daytona kicks off the racing season at the end of January. It may not be F1, but it's just as good.
Sergey Sirotkin has been confirmed as William's second driver and Robert Kubica is their reserve driver. I would have really liked to see Kubica racing this year, but I'm happy that he's at least back in F1 in an official form.
Amazon Prime has returned to things four-wheeled with its latest original production. It's not another Jeremy Clarkson spinoff, though; it's a rare look at the inner workings of a Formula 1 team. Grand Prix Driver is a four-part documentary—available from today—that gives the viewer an access-all-pass into the workings off the McLaren team as it gets ready for the 2017 Formula 1 season.
Access to teams in this highly competitive and highly secretive sport is unusual, particularly a team as image-conscious as McLaren. So it's a little surprising just how much we get to see, as what's meant to be a turnaround season instead plumbs new depths of despair for the organization.
It's a simple concept: camera crews wander about the breathtaking McLaren Technology Center, the white-and-gray technopalace from which the cars are birthed. They film in meeting rooms, workshop bays, and at the test track, as the 2017 car comes together and the team's two drivers—superstar Fernando Alonso and rookie Stoffel Vandoorne—in the run-up to the first race of the year. But the cameras are visiting MTC at an eventful time.
Ron Dennis has run the team since 1981, during which time it redefined professionalism in the paddock. A technocrat with a truly obsessive attention to detail, Dennis oversaw the vast majority of its World Drivers' Championships (10 out of 12) and World Constructors' Championships (seven out of eight).
But McLaren hasn't had that kind of form of late, and its last win was in 2012. As the documentary opens, Dennis has just been pushed out by the team's other shareholders and replaced by Zak Brown, whose job it is to get new sponsors—and therefore more budget—to get back on top.
If it were just the chaos of a new boss coming in, we might have ended up with an automotive version of The Office. But for McLaren, it gets worse.
SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
I can say, definitely watch that doc if you can, the dichotomy between what McLaren were saying at the time and what they were saying behind closed doors is amazing. You can infer that they decided to throw Honda under the bus even before Melbourne and it was just a matter of sorting out their replacement if any from that point forward, crazy.
Man, I do not remember that McLaren had a rookie driver backing up Alonso. Granted, I wasn't really paying attention to them, but I thought I would have heard something.
Watching it now, middle of episode 2, and the blurring of the new Honda engine and even bolts is cracking me up. Like anyone would try to steal anything from that piece of shit engine.
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far, far less one sided and had twice as many teams win races in that period.
What has been waning my interest over the last few years is the increasing reliance on aero for speed and what that does to passing attempts. That makes every part of the race more boring.
2002 he won 11, his teammate won 4, and drivers from 2 other teams won 1 each. That was a very dominant season for them as well. In 2004 other teams won 3 races.
Yes, this era has been worse, but at least there has been a battle between Mercedes teammates.
Wins other than Merc:
2014: Ricciardo won 3 races
2015: Vettel won 3 races
2016: Ricciardo won 1 and Verstappen won 1 (when Hamilton & Rosberg crashed each other out on like turn 4)
2017: Vettel won 4, Ricciardo 1, Verstappen 2
This season has been better. It was a battle until Vettel's retirement in Japan.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened. There are many unfortunate factors, societal and otherwise, at play that make Brazil especially susceptible to problems like this, and they aren't likely to be solved any time soon. Frankly, the only immediate way of mitigating that risk is for FOM and the teams to take security far more seriously at this event, which is, and should remain, a genuine highlight of the F1 calendar.
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Awesome for Bottas though. First lap is going to be wild with Ferrari behind ripping through second sector essess.
In contrast, Bottas ultimately looked a bit poor again. Perhaps not an entirely fair comparison between him and Hamilton considering the engine difference (although Merc will be able to account for that), but if Hamilton had got past Kimi on the first attempt he would have been a threat to Bottas. This simply should not happen when you start on pole and your teammate starts from the pit. After he lost position at the start he just didn't seem to have the pace to challenge. Vettel didn't really have to work too hard to secure the win in the end.
On the rest of the pack, a nice send-off for Massa. Certainly a better result than last time. Similarly another great job by Alonso to keep pace and challenge. Ricciardo and Vandoorne were both unlucky to be punted out by others - namely by Magnussen who has already got himself a bit of a reputation. Grosjean also had a terrible drive, the Ocon incident was entirely on him.
I am going to pick on Stroll in particular a little bit here but he really isn't up to F1 standards. Not yet at least. He was thoroughly outpaced by Massa, drove pretty clumsily causing two (ultimately critical) lockups, badly held up lead cars and worst of all seemed unable to cope with the pressure. On the radio at the end stages of the race he just sounded overwhelmed. He's what I'd consider a textbook case of a driver brought into F1 too soon when he really needed more experience in the lower tiers. He has been quick once or twice, mostly around mid-season, but overall it has been a weak season especially when his point of comparison is Massa - who was pretty handily behind Bottas when both were teammates.
To broaden it out a bit, he's certainly not the only driver that wasn't really up to scratch. Palmer and Kyvat come to mind instantly and neither of them will be starting next season. With the midfield contest as tight as it is I'm not sure teams can really afford weak drivers. I fully expect Reanult to finish higher next season with their revised driver line up for example.
Apparently Renault had to limit their engines' performance (and didn't tell the teams till after the qualifying rounds) and the limited performance was noticeable.
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Good job from Hulkenberg to secure 6th in the constructors for Renault and another impressive drive from Alonso. Pretty poor by Stroll and Magnussen (those spins at the start were amateur stuff).
Edit: Forgot that Ricciardo got screwed by unreliability when he was in a decent position as well. Nothing he could have done about it.
Not a lot to say about it other than that really. Not much happened.
The new logo doesn't stand out as much as the old one.
And that's another season wrapped up. Looking ahead to next season quite a few teams have reasons to be hopeful. It's always fun at the start of the season seeing who has managed to make good on that promise.
McLaren will probably be the big one to look out for next season as they go from the perpetually underperforming Honda to Renault. Their marker will obviously be Red Bull so they should be expecting to finish at least in the 5-6 slot in most races. If that's the case I expect Alonso to be a major player next season. Vandoorne may have to shape up a bit as he'll be under more intense scrutiny. He was generally a good margin slower than Alonso and won't have the rookie tag or a weak engine to cover for it next season. This is if the Renault works out of course.
Renault themselves will have a better driver lineup next season from the start. That alone should make them more of a threat in the midfield. I don't think they'll be Red Bull levels though, there's still a bit of rebuilding to go through before they make a leap up the field.
Sauber might also have a chance next year given that they'll have on-par Ferrari engines rather than year old models. That is, if there is a "Sauber" next season. Rumours are flying that it's going to be rebranded Alfa-Romeo and used as a Ferrari junior team. Wehrlein looks like he's probably out in favour of a Ferrari junior, probably Leclerc, and Ericsson may go as well. Given the low budget and likely turmoil I'd still expect them to be making up the backmarkers, just perhaps with more of a threat of getting out of Q1.
Force India will likely be competing for fourth again, but McLaren may make that more difficult. There isn't really a lot that I can see them doing that they haven't already. They have a good driver pairing that will net them a lot of midfield points (when they aren't tripping over each other) but I can't really see them surpassing Merc/Ferrari/Red Bull unless next year's Merc engine is immense.
I wouldn't hold out too much hope for Williams next season either if I'm honest. Their driver lineup will be weaker than the other teams. Stroll just hasn't been fast enough or consistent enough. He basically matched Massa in points and Massa wasn't exactly the fastest driver on the grid. Their options for Massa's replacement don't inspire a huge amount of hope either. Kubica is probably the best option I've heard but if he's capable over a full race distance or not remains in doubt. There may be other issues like how fast he can get out of the car.
Torro Rosso are also likely to have a miserable season next year unless the Honda is massively better than this year (and the year before that, and the one before that...). Expecting them to be firm backmarkers really.
As for the front three it's anybody's guess. The major factor will be how next year's engines compare and it's far too soon to tell there.
McLaren have a big chance next year. They and Red Bull can both put together an awesome chassis, and with the same engine that fight should be immense, even if they're still behind Merc and Ferrari.
I'm hoping the halo devices look less awful on cars built with them in mind, too. There is a reason why racing cars should look good, and the great ones usually do.
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I want to see how far they are willing to take this, though maybe their first obstacle will be the game/Codemasters. I don't think they're up to it for an e-sports platform (for a fun game, yeah.)
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sauber-alfa-romeo-returns-partnership-983901/
As the article says, they're expected to run Leclerc and possibly Giovinazzi leaving Wehrlein and possibly Ericsson without a drive for next season. There aren't really any seats free this season either. The only "unconfirmed" outside of Sauber is Williams as far as I know and that currently looks like it's going to Kubica.
Next year should be good for the driver silly season. A load of driver contracts run out at the end of the season, including some of the top seats. There's the potential of Kimi's retirement freeing up a Ferrari seat, Ricciardo hasn't committed to Red Bull beyond 2018, Bottas only had a 1 year extension into 2018. Even Hamilton is out of contract after 2018 (but realistically that one will be extended). Through the grid I'm pretty sure there a few others with contracts ending in 2018 so it could be a massive year for driver changes.
Jean Alesi was, is, and remains one of my all-time F1 heroes. Here's a bit more from him:
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https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/133521/sirotkin-favourite-to-get-2018-williams-drive
But what do I watch in the off-season? I want more, and the start of the new season seems far away.
https://www.facebook.com/redbullracing/videos/1594052120641271/
"Was that who I think it was?"
"Yes."
"F***ing sore loser"
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Wow great photos! And for most of them I crave video context. Like why is that truck nearly running over those drivers?
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-announces-sirotkin-as-stroll-s-teammate-996281/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/kubica-named-williams-reserve-driver-996292/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078WGC9PH/?tag=arstech20-20
I know what I am watching this weekend. 4 Parts, half hour-ish each. It's up on the UK version of Amazon as well, so no worries there.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO