Let's take the WDC final standings and take last year, 2013. And, say, 2000.
One aspect is very similar in both of these. How countries are represented. Of course in different seasons there are some fluctuations, but some general trends are pretty similar. And across the seasons the top nations and the way they represent drivers has been pretty similar for the last 20 odd years it seems.
Then 80s had a different flow to it with lots of Italian and French drivers. And before that in 70s we got top drivers from relative "outsiders" or "minnows" like Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, South Africa, Sweden, also Argentina and even USA, who after that hasn't been strongly represented in F1 circles.
But since the 90s there have been some clear trends in terms of how countries are represented and from where we have got top drivers.
Anyway, let's compare 2000 and 2013 then.
2000 2013 #1 German driver P1 Schumacher P1 Vettel #1 British driver P3 Coulthard P4 Hamilton #1 Finnish driver P2 Hakkinen P5 Raikkonen #1 Brazilian dr. P4 Barrichello P8 Massa #1 Romanic dr.(I/E) P6 Fisichella P2 Alonso #1 Commonw.(nonUK) P7 Villeneuve P3 Webber #2 German driver P5 R.Schumacher P6 Rosberg #2 British driver P8 Button P9 Button #2 Finnish driver P11 Salo P17 Bottas #2 Romanic dr. (I/F) P10 Trulli P7 Grosjean #3 German driver P9 Frentzen P10 Hulkenberg #3 British driver P13 Irvine P12 di Resta
You may also consider Spain as the odd exception out and unite the trends of France and Italy and you'd get to compare Fisichella's P6 to Grosjean's P7, and a pretty consistent flow of results across the last two decades.
You can also take, say, 1994 and see the best German in P1, the best Brit in P2, then best Finn in P4, the top Romanic driver in P5, the Brazilian in P6, then #2 Brit also in the top 10. With Berger from Austria the odd one out in P3. Although you can add him as the #2 German speaking driver to make it two of them in the top 10.
So... do we expect not much to change in the future either? So in 2026 we will have a top driver from UK, Germany, Finland and some pretty strong competitors from Brazil, some Mediterranean country (Spain, France, Italy) as well?
Edited by sopa, 22 May 2014 - 21:23.