42 replies to this topic

[4ren]

We continously hear about No.1 driver privileges/advantages over No.2 driver, and I try to figure out which are the real benefits. A top team like McLaren is able to provide equal equipment (note I'm not saying equal treatment) to its two drivers. That being true, where does all the difference come from?

Basically, my concern is: which things make you go faster than your team mate for being No.1???

[Orin]

Well, it's a relative term, but it can include:

- taking your teammate's car if you don't like the feel of your own;
- having first call on the testing days;
- having access to all the new bits first;
- one-way telemetry (you can see his, he can't see yours);
- always getting the optimal fuel strategy;
- dictating the number two's fuel strategy;
- demanding the number two plays shotgun when you've qualified 1-2;
- getting the number two to move over if he's ahead on the track; etc.

There are probably more. All in all, pretty advantageous.

[pedrovski]

A few things,
1. Having exclusive use of the spare car.
2. Doing the bulk of the testing.
3.The car will be developed with your driving style in mind.
4.Optimum race strategy.
5.If the no.1 evaluates a new part or whatever and he doesn't like it it gets shelved. An example: Ferrari were testing a new front wing with MS and he didn't see any improvement and it was shelved, eventually Eddie Irvine got around to testing it and in the end was 0.5secs a lap faster.

Edit: didn't see Orins post.

[dde]

Originally posted by 4ren
Basically, my concern is: which things make you go faster than your team mate for being No.1???

Talent.

[santori]

Yes, numbers 1 and 2 are thrown about as if we all know what they mean and that they mean the same things in each case. In the present case:

I don't think Fernando has a problem driving against a driver of similar talent as a joint number 1. Unless Kimi or Juan had decided to leave McLaren long before we knew about it, Fernando was content to be the team-mate of either of them. I'd guess the problem at McLaren is that (once it was clear Kimi and Juan were out) he was, or felt he was, hired to bring the titles to the team and (once it was clear that Lewis was in) to help the team's protégé.
And then Lewis turned out to be even faster than expected. But although he had similar speed to Fernando, he didn't have similar technical ability, so Fernando was doing most of the technical work for the team. And, coupled with Lewis' position as the team's favourite (like Mika, you might say, an emotional number 1) he might have felt that Lewis was being given all the benefits of being treated as a novice as well as all the benefits of being treated as a team-leader. Add to that the frustration and surprise of having his speed matched by a rookie, and I'd guess we have the basics of Fernando's worries which are being covered by 'number one status'. He was happy to use his experience to benefit Lewis and so the whole team, but since Lewis was using his - Fernando's - ability, Fernando felt he shouldn't use it to come between him and the title. It probably became more complex and emotional, but I suspect that that was the core. All just supposition but I think it fits the facts.

[pedrovski]

Originally posted by santori
Yes, numbers 1 and 2 are thrown about as if we all know what they mean and that they mean the same things in each case. In the present case:

I don't think Fernando has a problem driving against a driver of similar talent as a joint number 1. Unless Kimi or Juan had decided to leave McLaren long before we knew about it, Fernando was content to be the team-mate of either of them. I'd guess the problem at McLaren is that (once it was clear Kimi and Juan were out) he was, or felt he was, hired to bring the titles to the team and (once it was clear that Lewis was in) to help the team's protégé.
And then Lewis turned out to be even faster than expected. But although he had similar speed to Fernando, he didn't have similar technical ability, so Fernando was doing most of the technical work for the team. And, coupled with Lewis' position as the team's favourite (like Mika, you might say, an emotional number 1) he might have felt that Lewis was being given all the benefits of being treated as a novice as well as all the benefits of being treated as a team-leader. Add to that the frustration and surprise of having his speed matched by a rookie, and I'd guess we have the basics of Fernando's worries which are being covered by 'number one status'. He was happy to use his experience to benefit Lewis and so the whole team, but since Lewis was using his - Fernando's - ability, Fernando felt he shouldn't use it to come between him and the title. It probably became more complex and emotional, but I suspect that that was the core. All just supposition but I think it fits the facts.

That's probably closer to the truth than any of the propaganda that's out there.

[cordell777]

Originally posted by dde


Talent.

or having lastname - Schumacher ;)

[hedges]

Originally posted by santori
Yes, numbers 1 and 2 are thrown about as if we all know what they mean and that they mean the same things in each case. In the present case:

I don't think Fernando has a problem driving against a driver of similar talent as a joint number 1. Unless Kimi or Juan had decided to leave McLaren long before we knew about it, Fernando was content to be the team-mate of either of them. I'd guess the problem at McLaren is that (once it was clear Kimi and Juan were out) he was, or felt he was, hired to bring the titles to the team and (once it was clear that Lewis was in) to help the team's protégé.
And then Lewis turned out to be even faster than expected. But although he had similar speed to Fernando, he didn't have similar technical ability, so Fernando was doing most of the technical work for the team. And, coupled with Lewis' position as the team's favourite (like Mika, you might say, an emotional number 1) he might have felt that Lewis was being given all the benefits of being treated as a novice as well as all the benefits of being treated as a team-leader. Add to that the frustration and surprise of having his speed matched by a rookie, and I'd guess we have the basics of Fernando's worries which are being covered by 'number one status'. He was happy to use his experience to benefit Lewis and so the whole team, but since Lewis was using his - Fernando's - ability, Fernando felt he shouldn't use it to come between him and the title. It probably became more complex and emotional, but I suspect that that was the core. All just supposition but I think it fits the facts.

Stay on topic eh, your need to make excuses for Alonso is not required here.

Spare car means nothing now days so I think the main advantages are the optimum strategy for race and/or qual and they are probably listened to more during the season in terms of development. Also there would be a mental aspect with it just being a good position to be in but that's tough to quantify.

I don't think the rest matters much, teams have test drivers so pressumably the drivers never want to test as much as there is testing available.

I don't think any driver gets to be a number 1 by accident, they will just be clearly superior to their teammate anyway. Just goes to show the importance teams put on the WDC as well as the WCC.

[MortenF1]

The greatest advantage by far is phsycological.

[Sean L]

Originally posted by cordell777

or having lastname - Schumacher ;)

Is Trulli No.2 at Toyoda?

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally posted by 4ren
Basically, my concern is: which things make you go faster than your team mate for being No.1???

What makes Loeb + Xsara so fast but C4 much less fast? It's the intangible matching of driver and car, allowing excellence beyond the level of the team-mate, and allowing the driver to push harder and harder and somehow actually go faster instead of the crashing that would otherwise be liable to happen.

Also see Tommi Makinen excelling over Burns in the Lancer Group A, Solberg excelling over Makinen in the Impreza WRC or Gronholm over Martin in the 307 etc.

When the team manages to start quantitfying this intangible (which obviously Citreon can't anymore, but Ducati are managing to excel at) then distinct number 1 and number 2 performance differentials on the track is inevitable!!!!

[Frans]

Michael Schumacher has a 101-for dummies on this subject. Try to call him, he's home most of the time......

[miniman]

#1 status is earned, not granted by the team and generally, only, when it suits the greater good of the team. History shows that when any #2 driver assumes the previledges of a #1 the results are second rate.

[andy walker]

Schumacher in 95 could look at Johnny Herberts data, but Herbert could not look at Schumachers.

Thats no 1 driver status. Thats what Alonso wants with Lewis, the ability to steal his set up when his goes a bit to pot.

Also the number 1 driver gets all the new bits for the car. Mansell said that Prost had all the new Ferrari bits on his car in 1990 and he got nowt. But that was maybe Mansell being Mansell.

[santori]

Originally posted by hedges


Stay on topic eh, your need to make excuses for Alonso is not required here.

It's something I thought about after reading the opening post. It's connected. There are many threads on similar topics and I didn't want to make another. What excuses, what requirements? What?

[noikeee]

Originally posted by andy walker
Thats no 1 driver status. Thats what Alonso wants with Lewis, the ability to steal his set up when his goes a bit to pot.

No, it's the other way around, what he wants is for Lewis not to be able to access his setup. Which is still dumb in my opinion, it makes no sense whatsoever to me for teams to create mini-teams within themselves that hide information from each other. It's shooting themselves in the foot instead of pushing all they can to be competitive, basically going against the whole philosophy of F1.

[4ren]

Originally posted by santori


It's something I thought about after reading the opening post. It's connected. There are many threads on similar topics and I didn't want to make another. What excuses, what requirements? What?

Sorry santori, but not at all. The 1st and 2nd driver status is something that comes from much further than Alonso and Hamilton. I strictly wanted to know the advantages that you get for being No.1, and especially those which translate into laptimes.

I'm not interested in any particular case.

[santori]

Originally posted by 4ren


Sorry santori, but not at all. The 1st and 2nd driver status is something that comes from much further than Alonso and Hamilton. I strictly wanted to know the advantages that you get for being No.1, and especially those which translate into laptimes.

I'm not interested in any particular case.

Not at all? It is something I thought about after reading your post. We're hearing a lot about number one and two at the moment, largely because of Fernando and Lewis. Also Kimi and Felipe.

More broadly my point was that you can't strictly know what advantages you get for being No.1. There are only particular cases.

[tkulla]

I think the psychology behind status within a team is very interesting. Too many people want to simplify F1 to the point where they will say that X driver is faster than Y and Z (leaving names out to prevent fanboy outrage). But the real truth is the X may only be faster with A car, while Z would be fastest with B car because it suits him better. And then there are drivers that are great on certain tracks and not as great on others. Contrary to what some people believe, there is (and hasn't been - M. Schumacher included) one driver that is vastly superior to the field. It just doesn't work that way, as romantic as it sounds. Note that Schumacher, undoubtedly the greatest driver since Prost/Senna, still demanded #1 status and non-threatening teammates. You could say that is playing it smart to maximize his statistical success, but it does betray a level of insecurity. Perhaps he understood how small the difference between the best drivers really is.

[armonico]

Originally posted by paranoik0


No, it's the other way around, what he wants is for Lewis not to be able to access his setup. Which is still dumb in my opinion, it makes no sense whatsoever to me for teams to create mini-teams within themselves that hide information from each other. It's shooting themselves in the foot instead of pushing all they can to be competitive, basically going against the whole philosophy of F1.

The way to be competitive is during testing.

During the race weekend, both drivers and his engineers should share the data to have information about how the tyres are performing, but that's all.

But their personal setups are their own. Not to be share except for special circumstances, like one team mate has mechanical problems and hasn't got enough time during practices to try their own setups.

If a team mate is inexperience is not the problem of the most experience team mate. F1 is not a driving school competition. If a team knows that one of his drivers needs time to learn how to setup a car for a race, then they should know that there are somehow handicapped till that driver can gather experience and the experience came with years of technical understanding, mistakes and maybe a year testing.

If a team, like McLaren, feels that Lewis needs to bypass the learning process giving him the setups from an 6 years experienced and 2WDC team mate, then the matter is different and the driver who is given the info setup even before of every qualifying session to better his car performance is something that I call favouritism. And it has been lot of reporting, even form media disliking Alonso that Lewis was seeing running to get Alonso info between qualifying session.

McLaren should have then appointed a more experience driver and let Lewis learn the F1 setup ropes.

The philosophy of F1 is beating your team mate first and foremost and then the other cars. Don't get wrong. If it was a real team sport the driver championship would not exit.

[ex Rhodie racer]

Originally posted by santori
Yes, numbers 1 and 2 are thrown about as if we all know what they mean and that they mean the same things in each case. In the present case:

I don't think Fernando has a problem driving against a driver of similar talent as a joint number 1. Unless Kimi or Juan had decided to leave McLaren long before we knew about it, Fernando was content to be the team-mate of either of them. I'd guess the problem at McLaren is that (once it was clear Kimi and Juan were out) he was, or felt he was, hired to bring the titles to the team and (once it was clear that Lewis was in) to help the team's protégé.
And then Lewis turned out to be even faster than expected. But although he had similar speed to Fernando, he didn't have similar technical ability, so Fernando was doing most of the technical work for the team. And, coupled with Lewis' position as the team's favourite (like Mika, you might say, an emotional number 1) he might have felt that Lewis was being given all the benefits of being treated as a novice as well as all the benefits of being treated as a team-leader. Add to that the frustration and surprise of having his speed matched by a rookie, and I'd guess we have the basics of Fernando's worries which are being covered by 'number one status'. He was happy to use his experience to benefit Lewis and so the whole team, but since Lewis was using his - Fernando's - ability, Fernando felt he shouldn't use it to come between him and the title. It probably became more complex and emotional, but I suspect that that was the core. All just supposition but I think it fits the facts.

Excellent summery of the situation IMO.

[Peter Perfect]

Originally posted by armonico


The way to be competitive is during testing.

During the race weekend, both drivers and his engineers should share the data to have information about how the tyres are performing, but that's all.

But their personal setups are their own. Not to be share except for special circumstances, like one team mate has mechanical problems and hasn't got enough time during practices to try their own setups.

If a team mate is inexperience is not the problem of the most experience team mate. F1 is not a driving school competition. If a team knows that one of his drivers needs time to learn how to setup a car for a race, then they should know that there are somehow handicapped till that driver can gather experience and the experience came with years of technical understanding, mistakes and maybe a year testing.

If a team, like McLaren, feels that Lewis needs to bypass the learning process giving him the setups from an 6 years experienced and 2WDC team mate, then the matter is different and the driver who is given the info setup even before of every qualifying session to better his car performance is something that I call favouritism. And it has been lot of reporting, even form media disliking Alonso that Lewis was seeing running to get Alonso info between qualifying session.

McLaren should have then appointed a more experience driver and let Lewis learn the F1 setup ropes.

The philosophy of F1 is beating your team mate first and foremost and then the other cars. Don't get wrong. If it was a real team sport the driver championship would not exit.

What?! You'd intentionally handicap your own team in order to make sure that the more experienced driver retained his number 1 spot?!

[armonico]

Originally posted by Peter Perfect


What?! You'd intentionally handicap your own team in order to make sure that the more experienced driver retained his number 1 spot?!

The team is handicapped themselves as they have an inexperienced driver. Appoint another driver more experienced and sorted.

Alonso is not a school F1 driver teacher for Hamilton. I know this seems to be hard to understand but that's life.

[Buttoneer]

Originally posted by armonico


The team is handicapped themselves as they have a selfish driver. Appoint another driver more confident of his own abilities and sorted.

Alonso is part of a F1 team with Hamilton. I know this seems to be hard to understand but that's life.

Fixed.

[Peter Perfect]

Originally posted by armonico


The team is handicapped themselves as they have an inexperienced driver. Appoint another driver more experienced and sorted.

Alonso is not a school F1 driver teacher for Hamilton. I know this seems to be hard to understand but that's life.

Well yes, it does seem hard to understand. You seem to be saying that it's general practice for F1 teams to purposefully limit their performances to the experience levels of their individual drivers. I just can't believe that that's the case.

[mmmcurry]

What does driver A lose by driver B sharing set up? All teams want both their drivers to do well, if that means they share set up info, then whats the problem?

I think a lot of this comes down to whether you support the teams or the drivers (and which driver at that).

Steve.

[prty]

Originally posted by paranoik0


No, it's the other way around, what he wants is for Lewis not to be able to access his setup. Which is still dumb in my opinion, it makes no sense whatsoever to me for teams to create mini-teams within themselves that hide information from each other. It's shooting themselves in the foot instead of pushing all they can to be competitive, basically going against the whole philosophy of F1.

You are a Kimi fan IIRC. Let's see what happens in Ferrari then:

"When asked about the info exchange betwen him (Massa) and Kimi during this test.

- Kimi did not (tell me) what he did or what new he found from the car. He does his own set-up, and I do mine. We do share general knowledge of the car between us- as is stipualted by Ferrary work philosophy. That's it."

And he was talking about a Barcelona test, not even a race weekend. No wonder the Ferrari drivers don't appear to have as much issues. Is Kimi going against the whole philosophy of F1? Or not giving away your work during the weekend is just common sense?

[Orin]

Originally posted by armonico


The team is handicapped themselves as they have an inexperienced driver. Appoint another driver more experienced and sorted.

Alonso is not a school F1 driver teacher for Hamilton. I know this seems to be hard to understand but that's life.

You've a funny definition of handicapped: Hamilton has led the WDC for nearly the whole season.

[noikeee]

Originally posted by prty


You are a Kimi fan IIRC. Let's see what happens in Ferrari then:

"When asked about the info exchange betwen him (Massa) and Kimi during this test.

- Kimi did not (tell me) what he did or what new he found from the car. He does his own set-up, and I do mine. We do share general knowledge of the car between us- as is stipualted by Ferrary work philosophy. That's it."

And he was talking about a Barcelona test, not even a race weekend. No wonder the Ferrari drivers don't appear to have as much issues. Is Kimi going against the whole philosophy of F1? Or not giving away your work during the weekend is just common sense?

To be honest I'm a bit surprised by that quote, I didn't think things worked like that. Either way I guess every team has its own "work philosophy", and Ferrari isn't exactly known for doing things in the fairest/most sporting way (remember Schumi vs his #2 team-mates). To me the McLaren way makes more sense.

By the way, I believe all this depends a lot on the driving style of both drivers - Kimi and Massa had pretty different approaches, so probably their setups wouldn't be all that helpful to each other.

[noikeee]

Originally posted by armonico


The way to be competitive is during testing.

During the race weekend, both drivers and his engineers should share the data to have information about how the tyres are performing, but that's all.

But their personal setups are their own. Not to be share except for special circumstances, like one team mate has mechanical problems and hasn't got enough time during practices to try their own setups.

If a team mate is inexperience is not the problem of the most experience team mate. F1 is not a driving school competition. If a team knows that one of his drivers needs time to learn how to setup a car for a race, then they should know that there are somehow handicapped till that driver can gather experience and the experience came with years of technical understanding, mistakes and maybe a year testing.

If a team, like McLaren, feels that Lewis needs to bypass the learning process giving him the setups from an 6 years experienced and 2WDC team mate, then the matter is different and the driver who is given the info setup even before of every qualifying session to better his car performance is something that I call favouritism. And it has been lot of reporting, even form media disliking Alonso that Lewis was seeing running to get Alonso info between qualifying session.

McLaren should have then appointed a more experience driver and let Lewis learn the F1 setup ropes.

The philosophy of F1 is beating your team mate first and foremost and then the other cars. Don't get wrong. If it was a real team sport the driver championship would not exit.

If everyone in F1 had the same philosophy as yours, the average age of the grid would be much higher. Rookies would have a much harder time in finding seats. It makes sense to facilitate the learning process of guys like Hamilton, Kovalainen, Kubica, because they're big prospects for the future of their teams. The teams have all the interest in the world in maximizing the results they can get from these guys, and help them reach their potential.

[Buttoneer]

At the Monza test Alonso used the same car Hamilton had been using in the morning to do his runs and didn't change any of the setup. So it seems clear to me that the information traffic is at least flowing from Hamilton to Alonso.

[prty]

It might work if the two drivers have a similar technical level. But let's be honest, because of experience, their history of laziness or whatever, in the Alonso-Hamilton case all the information is going effectively in one way. It's like what happened when we were kids, if some guy had a 1000€ bike you say "Let me ride your bike. But don't worry, I'll let you ride my 120€ bike too!". Equal in theory, but not equal in practice if both people don't have similar things to offer, because then only one gets something out of the deal.

In McLaren it seems a lot of deals are that way. "Don't have dinner or pay your mechanics because I don't want my drivers to have an advantage in that area". Sure, but Alonso and Hamilton didn't start both from zero because Hamilton already knew the team and has the same cultural background. Equal, but not equal.

[Peter Perfect]

Originally posted by prty
It might work if the two drivers have a similar technical level. But let's be honest, because of experience, their history of laziness or whatever, in the Alonso-Hamilton case all the information is going effectively in one way. It's like what happened when we were kids, if some guy had a 1000€ bike you say "Let me ride your bike. But don't worry, I'll let you ride my 120€ bike too!". Equal in theory, but not equal in practice if both people don't have similar things to offer, because then only one gets something out of the deal.

I must admit I've yet to see any proof of the incompetence of Hamilton with regards to setups. On the one hand we keep being told that he's the most prepared rookie ever in F1 while on the other he's so technically poor you'd think he'd been asking Alonso which way to get into the car, foot or head first....

[Mauseri]

Originally posted by race addicted
The greatest advantage by far is phsycological.

And the psychological advantage can come even with equal treatment (like when KR at McLaren).

[armonico]

Originally posted by Buttoneer
At the Monza test Alonso used the same car Hamilton had been using in the morning to do his runs and didn't change any of the setup. So it seems clear to me that the information traffic is at least flowing from Hamilton to Alonso.

According to some reports, Alonso did 3 laps with the same car configuration Hamilton left in morning. Alonso bested Hamilton testing time. Then he changed the setup.

So in reality it may be that Alonso wanted to make a point to McLaren mechanics. And endeed he did.

[Buttoneer]

Originally posted by armonico


According to some reports,

These would be unbiased and completely impartial Spanish reports, no?

[hedges]

Originally posted by santori


It's something I thought about after reading the opening post. It's connected. There are many threads on similar topics and I didn't want to make another. What excuses, what requirements? What?

As you said there are many threads out there on just that subject. This thread is about what advantages number one status gives you, not the the rights, wrongs or wherefores of wanting/having #1 status. If you want to discuss that you can use one of the many threads you are already aware of.

I wouldn't really care usually if a thread gets off topic but there are enough out of hand pro/anti Alonso threads out there I wouldn't mind if one or two didn't degenerate into that. It's not your post I take issue with as much as the direction it will probably lead.

[santori]

Originally posted by hedges


As you said there are many threads out there on just that subject.

No, that's not what I said. Neither do my other posts say what you think they say. Actually, neither does 4ren's first post, which refers to 'a top team like McLaren', making a discussion of the McLaren situation not exactly wildly off-topic. Posts like these, on the other hand, are, so tinkerty-tonk.

[Mauseri]

Originally posted by armonico
The team is handicapped themselves as they have an inexperienced driver. Appoint another driver more experienced and sorted.

Alonso is not a school F1 driver teacher for Hamilton. I know this seems to be hard to understand but that's life.

No. Team pays Alonso a lot because he except him to help the whole team move forward. It doesnt make sense to hide setups between the teams of both drivers, because the team above both need everything in developing the car anyway. If you hide something from the other driver what the whole team knows, well, what kind of team is that?

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally posted by armonico


The team is handicapped themselves as they have an inexperienced driver. Appoint another driver more experienced and sorted.

Alonso is not a school F1 driver teacher for Hamilton. I know this seems to be hard to understand but that's life.

But unfortunately Hamilton is a top F1 driver and much faster than Alonso??? Making the situation non-sensical. Of coure team use all data to make both cars go as quickly as possible. Why would the Kelly Racing Team not give Murphy's data to Rick Kelly to bring the youngster to speed as quickly as possible for example!?

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally posted by prty


You are a Kimi fan IIRC. Let's see what happens in Ferrari then:

"When asked about the info exchange betwen him (Massa) and Kimi during this test.

- Kimi did not (tell me) what he did or what new he found from the car. He does his own set-up, and I do mine. We do share general knowledge of the car between us- as is stipualted by Ferrary work philosophy. That's it."

And he was talking about a Barcelona test, not even a race weekend. No wonder the Ferrari drivers don't appear to have as much issues. Is Kimi going against the whole philosophy of F1? Or not giving away your work during the weekend is just common sense?

Well they have different driving styles!

But unless they are stupid they both have each other traces and can put the other driver's set-up on their own car if their own set-up is in a world of trouble. Of course each chief engineer and driver's set up philosophy fills tens of folder and gigabytes of data.... it is impossible for the opposite car to fully understand the working method of the other car in the team, why because the opposite car has their own ideas to work with and work on and worry about!!!

[hedges]

Originally posted by santori


No, that's not what I said. Neither do my other posts say what you think they say. Actually, neither does 4ren's first post, which refers to 'a top team like McLaren', making a discussion of the McLaren situation not exactly wildly off-topic. Posts like these, on the other hand, are, so tinkerty-tonk.

You said "There are many threads on similar topics" and this one was NOT on that topic at all. Just about every Alonso thread is addressing the points you discussed.

I think 4ren answers quite succinctly for himself and my interpretation of his post seems more in line with his intention than yours. He was looking for examples of the advantages number one status brings.

I appreciate the point you make later that there is no defined number 1 advantage and had you made exactly that point in your post and then supported it with examples of different drivers drivers appearing to have different but preferential treatment then that would have been a great on topic post. You didn't, your post was purely about Alonso's situation at McLaren and how he doesn't consider he is asking for number one status.

If you look at subsequent posts to yours I'm sure you can see the thread is no longer on topic. That is fine, these things have a way of getting off topic but I am just so sick of the whole Alonso is god, Alonso is crap a thons that is Atlas BB.

[prty]

Originally posted by V8 Fireworks


Well they have different driving styles!

But unless they are stupid they both have each other traces and can put the other driver's set-up on their own car if their own set-up is in a world of trouble. Of course each chief engineer and driver's set up philosophy fills tens of folder and gigabytes of data.... it is impossible for the opposite car to fully understand the working method of the other car in the team, why because the opposite car has their own ideas to work with and work on and worry about!!!

You can always adapt them to your driving style, even if they are different. In Imola 2005, when Alonso couldn't make a single lap in some sessions because of the engine problem, he used Fisichella's setup. Didn't go bad, did it? And Fisichella's style isn't exactly similar to Alonso's when he was at Renault. Same happens with Hamilton, and the same could happen with the Ferrari drivers. But they appear to have more common sense.