WDCs

[CHT]

After reading about Alonso little celebration on championship points, I thought about making this report card on current generation of world champions.

[SectorOne]

I like that Vettel and Hamilton are the only two with more poles then wins.

[JimClarkFan]

Just shows how silly it is to compare points, and demonstrates how stats can only tell you so much.

+1 for effort

[CHT]

Kimi has pretty good record for no. of fastest lap.

Vettel dominance is very similiar to MSC. 30% wins, 50% podium finish.

[tim|away]

Very interesting subject. I sat down and crunched a bit of data myself.





Interesting comparisons from the chart above:
Lewis Hamilton won 22 races and was on the podium 54 times in his 124 total races so far. Fernando Alonso won 21 races and was 52 times on the podium in his first 123 races. So HAM is pretty much where ALO was at that point in his career with the notable difference that ALO drove for minardi for a whole season.

[tim|away]

[dren]

Pretty evident when Button was in crap cars.

[megz]

2004 Honda 2nd in WCC - He didn't make much of the good cars he had (barring the obvious 2009).

[adrianjordan]

2004 Honda 2nd in WCC - He didn't make much of the good cars he had (barring the obvious 2009).

To be fair though the Ferrari that year was so dominant that he stood about as much chance of winning a race that year as he does this year.

I do think though that Button's biggest achilles heel is that he needs the car to be within a very small sweet-spot in order for him to get the most out of it.

[PlatinumZealot]

It is all in the car... Vettel's graphs are pretty much the same gradient as Schumacher's when he had a dominant car. Both also had no "rival" cars when the had their surge in stats.

[megz]

2004 Honda 2nd in WCC - He didn't make much of the good cars he had (barring the obvious 2009).

To be fair though the Ferrari that year was so dominant that he stood about as much chance of winning a race that year as he does this year.

I do think though that Button's biggest achilles heel is that he needs the car to be within a very small sweet-spot in order for him to get the most out of it.

True, the Ferrari was pretty dominant that year but Trulli, Raikkonen and Montoya all won in cars arguably inferior to the Honda that year.

Button is sublime when everything is absolutely spot on as you and others have mentioned. The 2 or 3 races he has won in the dry that weren't in the Brawn were amazing in that he was as dominant as Vettel. Problem is, they happen about once every 18 months.

[PlatinumZealot]

2004 Honda 2nd in WCC - He didn't make much of the good cars he had (barring the obvious 2009).

To be fair though the Ferrari that year was so dominant that he stood about as much chance of winning a race that year as he does this year.

I do think though that Button's biggest achilles heel is that he needs the car to be within a very small sweet-spot in order for him to get the most out of it.

True, the Ferrari was pretty dominant that year but Trulli, Raikkonen and Montoya all won in cars arguably inferior to the Honda that year.

Button is sublime when everything is absolutely spot on as you and others have mentioned. The 2 or 3 races he has won in the dry that weren't in the Brawn were amazing in that he was as dominant as Vettel. Problem is, they happen about once every 18 months.

His team-mate had problems in those races he won in the dry when he weren't in the Brawn.

[mnmracer]

Button is sublime when everything is absolutely spot on as you and others have mentioned. The 2 or 3 races he has won in the dry that weren't in the Brawn were amazing in that he was as dominant as Vettel. Problem is, they happen about once every 18 months.

His team-mate had problems in those races he won in the dry when he weren't in the Brawn.

Uhm, sorry, but that's not true.

Japan 2011, dry, Hamilton had a puncture.
Australia 2012, dry, Jenson lead the race from the first corner and was simply the faster man.
Belgium 2012, dry, Hamilton's problem was starting 7th while Button was on pole. Even without Grosjean it is unlikely Hamilton would have even challenged Button.

That's 2 out 3 dry races won without needing Hamilton to have problems.
I fully agree Button's a bit flaky at times, but credit where credit is due.

[CHT]

Extended the table to include some of the former WDCs.

Vettel and MS dominant in F1 is nowhere as bad as the days of Fangio and Ascari.
Senna is the undisputed Pole King in modern F1
Prost is the most consistent podium finisher.

[mnmracer]

His team-mate had problems in those races he won in the dry when he weren't in the Brawn.

Uhm, sorry, but that's not true.

Japan 2011, dry, Hamilton had a puncture.

Australia 2012, dry, Jenson lead the race from the first corner and was simply the faster man.
Hamilton had a sub optimal clutch setting. Engineers admitted fault.

Belgium 2012, dry, Hamilton's problem was starting 7th while Button was on pole. Even without Grosjean it is unlikely Hamilton would have even challenged Button.
Hamilton was given a suboptimal setup here after being assured he would be on pace. The engineers were wrong, Hamilton lost six tenths in ONE sector..

That's 2 out 3 dry races won without needing Hamilton to have problems.
I fully agree Button's a bit flaky at times, but credit where credit is due.

You see, you were so busy watching Vettel's timing sheets you weren't even paying attention to the other team mate battles going on.

Great job on piggybacking a driver in there who has nothing to do with that =D> .
If Hamilton was the faster man in Australia, he would have at least kept up with Button. He simply could not.
And as has already been established that one of Button's flaws is his need for perfect set-up, you can't simply dismiss a bad set-up for Hamilton as a good excuse to qualify almost a second behind.