Is Formula One more about the car than the driver?

Question

Would Hamilton be able to still win so many races if he's in a Force India car?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Its a 50/50 split.
The best example I can give is Schumacher in the piss poor '96 Ferrari. He dragged it to 3 wins and 5 poles when it had no place being anywhere.

A good car is flattered by a good driver and vice versa.

Answer 2

No Hamilton would not be able to win races in a Force India. Although currently the cars are as close as ever, there is still deficits in performance between cars. There is nothing wrong with this, it is part of the sport. If you want to watch pretty much equal cars go and watch A1GP. F1 is about competition between teams, not solely drivers.

What you have to do is judge each driver's performance against his team mate. This gives you an idea of his capabilities. In some cases drivers can be favoured by teams, but nowadays they will always get equal machinery and engineers to their disposal.

However, in a Force India Lewis Hamilton would outperform Sutil and Fissichella. He would probably rack up a few points. Who knows, in a wet race he may go even further than that. Many Hamilton haters use the excuse that Hamilton has had a seat in a top car from the off. True, but judge his performance against Alonso last year and you see he is an extreme talent.

Answer 3

The car is way more important than the driver.

Look at Alonso, he won no races in the Minardi but won a stack in the competitive Renault and McLaren.

I'd say the overal performance is 80% from the car and 20% from the driver. Having said that, you need a decent driver to maximise on the car's potential and not make dumb mistakes.

In the wet it evens things out a bit as you can't use the car's full potential, the power for example But even in the wet it's still something like 70% the car doing the work.

Answer 4

The correct answer would be: is a balance between a good performance car and a good driver that can handle the car. Unfortunately it is not like that in reality. There is a couple of F1 champions that purely won it because their car was the fastest in that season. Senna was one of the few that could be a threat on the race track no matter what he was driving, the same goes to Schumi. In some circumstances this theory of well balanced between car and driver is evident on wet tracks, then skill is the essence. If you are placed 5th or further back and still win the Monaco Grand Prix then I would say it was the skill of the driver because speed is not a big factor there.

Answer 5

IMO its a combination of both. you could have a fantastic car, but stick a mediocre driver in it and it won't get brilliant results. If Lewis was in a Force India he would not be leading the championship now as the team don't yet have a winning car. McLaren and Lewis = winning formula because it is a great car and IMO he is a great driver.

Answer 6

the car plays a huge role in the driver's overall performance. if a car is capbale of winning then the driver should do well, if it isn't - then expect nothing. the drivers themselves do have some input but in the end it comes down to the car.

Source(s):

extremely passionate 17 year-old f1 loving aussie chick

Answer 7

he will look like David Coulthard...mayb he will go 1 better than him...but will be smilar to him...

trying to think that Force India is an McLaren ....and causing more accidents....
we may more often would have seen only 10 -12 cars finishing....maybe less too....

but still he will be on podium now and then...and also have many fastest lap.....condition-cutting corner be legalised.

Answer 8

well he had to get into formula one without a fabulous car
so yes, definetley.
hes quick-minded and has talent.
hes worked hard for where he is, and truly deserves it.

Answer 9

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You're only as good as the equipment you're given, which makes me unassailable unless you're wearing crampons... :)

.

Answer 10

aerodynamic is the key for good grip ad a fast car but if you do not know how to set up the car and drive it is worthless

Answer 11

No he would not, a good driver needs to be in a good car and team

Answer 12

unfortunately yes, its mostly about the aerodynamics

Answer 13

no is all about the car.. would michel shumocker won in a williams car...no.