Jolle wrote: ↑05 May 2021, 09:46
If a team needs another driver to “check” the other one, there is something wrong with your data.
I'm fairly confident it happens more often than not. The data only shows the potential. The driver is who brings that performance or potential onto the track.
Vettel was that benchmark for 4 years at Ferrari. His position, even his performance undisputed. Mistakes were not only factored to be his doing, but there were lots of arguments pointing towards the team in how they let him down as well. It took a strong team-mate (Leclerc) next to him, to show that perhaps another driver, a better driver, could have gotten more out of that package and perhaps won the championships he didn't.
Rosberg / Hamilton, even Alonso / Hamilton or Button / Hamilton highlighted every short coming of each driver. On the days that Rosberg outqualified or outraced Hamilton, you couldn't point to unfair advantages. The other driver simply did a better job (baring technical differences of course). Every time that happened - Hamilton looked at that data. How often do you think Vettel was scrutinised over his performance in the 4 years he partnered Kimi and was the quicker driver? He wasn't. He was probably even applauded for his performance -
"job well done, out-qualified Kimi yet again".
That's the glory of having two good drivers. One can learn from the other. They must. If Hamilton loses out, he must learn and better himself. Ergo he becomes a better driver. Bottas has surely become a better driver for the sole reason of losing out to Hamilton race after race, but being able to learn and study the data. It's also one of the factors why Rosberg probably became so good - he was a master of studying data and replicating it, over perhaps the (more) raw talent that Hamilton brings to the table.
Sure, I get the points that having two alphas will net you a higher risk at collisions etc. Or them taking points off of each other. I'd argue that's manageable. As I said - if you have two good drivers, it weakens the position of either driver. If you only have the one, how hard is it to criticise him or his performance? Against what?
If Hamilton and Verstappen would be both driving for Mercedes or RedBull, the championship standings would probably be similar, but the WCC would be quite different between the first team and the 2nd team. We'd be likely talking about domination type performance from that one team vs. the rest.