19 replies to this topic

[Branislav]

 

 

So, who is the best driver in the world? Who knows? It’s like having a tennis match between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, only Federer’s half of the court is grass and Nadal’s is clay. —Kabir Chibber

 

 

Great article https://medium.com/t...rt-4595b5284a05

[FortiFord]

Tennis is not a team sport. 

 

Formula 1 is a team sport.

 

What a silly comparison. 

[Branislav]

Tennis is not a team sport. 

 

Formula 1 is a team sport.

 

What a silly comparison. 

He said it's like RF on grass and RN on clay

 

I hope you understand

[noikeee]

Yes a 2014 blog by some dude with 160 followers needs a thread.

[DeKnyff]

Motorsports are the man and the machine. Always was, always will be. And that's how I like it.

[NixxxoN]

Comparison with tennis: Its like some players have an automatic self moving racket that lauches the ball at 300 kph and others don't so dont have a chance to win.

[Anderis]

Yeah, F1 is a team sport and not so much an individual sport and there's nothing a driver can do when the rest of his team doesn't do their job as well as others (even if only for the reason of lack of funds).

 

I thought pretty much every person on this forum already understood that and there's no need to start a thread with such a trivial point?  

[Branislav]

Yes a 2014 blog by some dude with 160 followers needs a thread.

The original article by Kabir Chibber on Quartz. Kabir Chibber is journalist

 

But nevermind I see you don't like it

[MKSixer]

Can I get the 3 minutes of my life back that it took to read this drivel?  

Some moron who doesn't understand the sport writes about the sport as though he is an authority. The only two "likes" are from the author himself and one of his co-workers. That tells you what a flaming pile of crap this piece actually is in the pantheon of opinion pieces.

[P123]

It's not exactly some profound statement.....  were they perhaps trying to compare a rally driver with a circuit racer?  Whatever, doesn't match at all with the topic title.

 

Unless yet again there is a basic misunderstanding of what F1 and motorsport is.

[noikeee]

The original article by Kabir Chibber on Quartz. Kabir Chibber is journalist

But nevermind I see you don't like it

Who?

Also, is this something we never debated here or something?

Edited by noikeee, 05 January 2021 - 23:04.

[Stephane]

no **** !?

[ANF]

He said it's like RF on grass and RN on clay
 
I hope you understand

How does that work when they switch sides?

[pdac]

Tennis is not a team sport. 

 

Formula 1 is a team sport.

 

What a silly comparison. 

 

 

Comparison with tennis: Its like some players have an automatic self moving racket that lauches the ball at 300 kph and others don't so dont have a chance to win.

 

 

Can I get the 3 minutes of my life back that it took to read this drivel?  

Some moron who doesn't understand the sport writes about the sport as though he is an authority. The only two "likes" are from the author himself and one of his co-workers. That tells you what a flaming pile of crap this piece actually is in the pantheon of opinion pieces.

 

 

It's not exactly some profound statement.....  were they perhaps trying to compare a rally driver with a circuit racer?  Whatever, doesn't match at all with the topic title.

 

Unless yet again there is a basic misunderstanding of what F1 and motorsport is.

 

The article may or may not be drivel. That's not the point, though. The proposition is that "F1 isn't a drivers sport".

 

The answer, though, is obviously "correct, it's not". F1 is about the car - it's about building the best car and proving that by racing it. The driver is there for that purpose. Obviously, the better the driver, the more they can get closer to extracting the maximum from the car. But the challenge of F1 has always been to build the best car.

[jjcale]

I wonder if they have "Horse Racing - not a jockey's sport" threads over at HorseRacingForum.com ....

[PlayboyRacer]

But the challenge of F1 has always been to build the best car.

And get the best drivers in said car to - not only extract the maximum possible from it - but also see off the opposition and their drivers.

I'm amazed at how many so called Formula 1 fans don't understand the objective of this sport from a drivers perspective. The idea is to perform to such a high standard prior to Formula 1 and during that a team fighting for World Championships identifies that you have the talent, speed, toughness and work ethic to deliver the desired result.

There is a genuine reason loads of drivers through history have never been given those opportunities and, even more obvious, there is a genuine reason why alot of drivers who have been given said opportunity... still walk away with minimal wins and zero World Championships. The cream rises to the top.

I've been seeing alot more of this nonsense recently ("Hamilton only wins because of his car LOL") and it's driven by frustration due to Mercedes' dominance and the fact Verstappen has been around forever already and still hasn't got close to a World Championship.

He's not entitled to the best seat. Sure does he deserve the chance? Absolutely. He's proven that. But they chose long ago to hitch their wagon to the Red Bull cause and it hasn't worked out. Not so far anyway.

Time will tell whether the decisions they've made... will pay off or not. Unlike back in 2017 for instance - Max isn't the only young gun around anymore.

[OS X]

He said it's like RF on grass and RN on clay

 

I hope you understand

 

 

How does that work when they switch sides?

 

They had to change shoes at every changeover.

 

http://youtu.be/ZNyhjLPmz0U

[OS X]

Comparison with tennis: Its like some players have an automatic self moving racket that lauches the ball at 300 kph and others don't so dont have a chance to win.

 

That's an incredibly bad analogy.

 

Put a F1 car on pole, fire it up and see how far it will go without a driver.

 

For the tennis example, the player would still have to run for the ball (assuming he is not wearing autonomous ball-chasing footwear) and have a shoulder and body to resist a racquet being repeatedly swung at 300 km/h thousands of times a day for 100 matches per year.

 

Realistically, the same disparity occurs in tennis, it is just a lot more subtle.

 

Some players use racquets that Wilson make; the superstars have Wilson make bespoke racquets that perfectly suit their playstyle i.e. Wilson RF97A [Roger Federer autograph racquet]. It's a bit like Ferrari and Bridgestone back in the day.

 

Lower-ranked players play almost every tournament, hoping to earn €25 000 - €50 000 a season to be able to survive another year on the tour.

 

Superstars play a limited schedule geared around peaking for Grand Slams. To incentivise these players to play at smaller tournaments, they receive appearance fees up to €500 000 per tournament. This is more than most lower-ranked players will earn in a career.

 

Lower-ranked players fly commercial to save money, stay in regular hotel rooms and sometimes cannot afford to bear the cost of having a coach, family member or anyone else travel with them. Superstars travel on private jets with a full team of nutritionists, coaches, trainers, masseurs, racquet stringers, family members, entourage et cetera, often staying in 5-star hotels.

 

Lower-ranked players often have to pre-qualify for certain tournaments, having to win up to 3 matches just to arrive at 'Round 1' of the tournament. Superstars are given byes at the first round of certain tournaments to allow them to rest and help them go deeper in to the tournament.

 

But when World No 1 and World Number 237 face each other, they step on to the court as equals, both having a 50% chance of winning. Yeah right. 

 

We shouldn't pretend that similar inequalities don't exist in every sport; it's just more obvious in F1.

 

Just as Mercedes provide the best tools for Hamilton; so do Wilson, Nike, Luxilon and so many other brands for Federer.

 

No sportsperson does it on their own.

[HeadFirst]

 

They had to change shoes at every changeover.

 

http://youtu.be/ZNyhjLPmz0U

 

 

And string tension.

[PayasYouRace]

Can we not start threads for every random thought that enters your head?