Hi guys,
I been following F1 for a while now, started in the 90's, then took a break when Schumacher won it all and came back when he left. Now with Vettel/Reb Bull showing some nice dominance, I have once again been thinking about the difference it makes when a pilot becomes the lead pilot of the team.
In this post I'm avoiding the term 'number something pilot' because I see it as an unrealistic one, only prone to generate conspiracy theories and name calling among the forum posters. This is why I write 'lead pilot', but it could be the pilot that has the team's focus as well. Let's just try to keep this nice. I prefer that the thread dies out than becomes a flame war.
There are many benefits that come to mind when envisioning a lead driver of a team, maybe he gets the optimum weight balance for his body when the car is being constructed, maybe his opinions are heard first during testing, maybe he gets the optimum timing for a fast lap on Saturday, maybe he gets the optimum pit stop timing on Sunday, maybe he receives more attention from the pit wall during the race and maybe he has more or better mechanics working on his car during race weekends.
Or maybe not. I really don't know, and this is why I would love to see some opinions or even experiences posted as an response to this post!
Case Red Bull Racing:
Now let's try to quantify the benefits. I say that Vettel and Webber shared Red Bull's focus in 2010, but when Vettel got his first championship he then became the 'lead driver' of Red Bull Racing for 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Vettel's gap compared to Webber in 2010:
In WDC standings: +2
In WDC points: +14
In average race finishing position: +0.375
In number of races finished: -1
In 2011-13 (after India for this year):
In WDC standings: +3.666
In WDC points: +136.666
In average race finishing position: +2.643
In number of races finished: +1
(If any of you want to write up different cases for comparison's sake, please use the same metrics as I did. This way we can compare and discuss our opinions in a structured manner.)
To sum it up, after becoming the lead driver of the team, Seb doubled the gap to his team mate in WDC rankings, multiplied by ten the points difference, multiplied by seven the difference in average race finishing position and inverted the number of finished races.
Now if this is all down to Sebastian shining, or Mark losing performance or something in between, you tell me!
Edited by turssi, 28 October 2013 - 20:09.