aMessageToCharlie wrote: ↑11 Feb 2021, 11:35
Every metric we apply will be in some way swayed.
Qualifying times are what they are. Points are filtered because they apply a scoring metric that weighs more heavily the higher up you finish. And again; No matter
how dominant a car is, the points awarded are still the same. So you can't use points to compare if a car was more dominant overall. I think this is pretty self explanatory and shouldn't be difficult to understand.
aMessageToCharlie wrote: ↑11 Feb 2021, 11:35
You say that Bottas' bad stats compared to Rosberg's are the result of being disadvantaged by driving worse cars.
I disagree and I pointed out exactly how I came to that conclusion.
And your conclusion is inconclusive for the reasons stated above.
From 2014 to 2016, the Mercedes was the most dominant force bar none. Within those 3 years, there were only
8 wins that weren't achieved in a Mercedes. 3 in 2014 by Ricciardo/RedBull (pretty much luck), 3 in 2015 by Ferrari/Vettel and in 2016 there were 2 wins for Max and Ricciardo (also pretty much luck, i.e. Barcelona 2016). Those are from a total of 59 races.
In just 2017 and 2018 alone, Ferrari amassed a total of 11 wins alone. If we add in the 7 wins from RedBull we have a sum of
18 wins that were not by a Mercedes car in those two seasons alone.
Similarly
in 2019, 6 wins (not counting Canada). This is just counting race wins. How many front row lockouts did Mercedes have in 2014-2016? How many did they have in 2017-2019? Even if you forget the lockout under the assumption that Bottas is a weaker driver, just looking at the numbers and you will see that Mercedes was challenged in 2017 and beyond as the number of poles dropped compared to the 3 previous seasons with Rosberg.
Even ignoring these numbers, it would take a fool not to realize that this has a significant impact on how races unfold. In 2014-2016, the Mercedes starting in 2nd had a relatively easy target to either be in contention for the win or finish 2nd given the relative pace advantage over the next best competitor. Having a bad start rarely had a big impact on the finishing position.
In 2017 and beyond this changed. For one, the cars became wider, more downforce, less overtaking opportunities. And the pace differential between Mercedes and the rest smaller - in fact, they were often on the backfoot compared to Vettel/Ferrari that were leading both championships for a significant time those two seasons. The weaker driver in those scenarios will always have had a tougher time because his position was more compromised, forced to play the team game or be used as strategic pawns to defend the leading driver. Rosberg was never put in that position in his years of the Mercedes dominance - in fact, he even had the benefit of getting alternative strategies to battle for the win.
I'm inclined to agree that Rosberg was stronger as a package than Bottas, so this post isn't to illustrate any other agenda - it is however to point out that Bottas isn't that far behind as your little statistics seem to suggest.