SectorOne wrote:so if you talk about Massa´s post crash effects then it´s purely mental and has nothing to do with the actual crash itself. In terms of physical damage. And if you agree with that, then i agree with you in saying it´s purely mental problems rather then physical.
I see no reason to comment everything else that you wrote, as here I think we have gotten to the bottom of what seemed to be a big disagreement. I do not claim (nor dismiss) that Massa has physical damage to his brain that hurts his performance. I simply state that his crash may be the reason why he seems to perform worse now than before the crash. Whether the reason is mental or something physical in his brain that for some reason doesn't disqualify him from racing, makes no difference with respect to that statement.
We know quite a lot of the brain today actually, and it´s quite far from being a harddrive, it´s actually a lot more "beautiful then that" and much more complex.
It´s really not the ideal comparison as a hardrive and a brain is lightyears from each other in terms of pure technology.
I was simply comparing a function that you find both in brains and in harddrives: The ability to store information/data. Experience and knowledge is very much comparable to data stored on a harddrive (not in every way, as the mechanisms used are different), and as long as I never made any further comparison beyond that, it's an excellent comparison for that specific purpose.
Stradivarius wrote:By the way, if you look at all types of sports or competitions that exist, you will find that those who win at the top level are generally relatively young. Even in competitions where experience is known to be a valuable factor. Isn't this enough to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the performance sooner or later drops with increasing age? When did we last see a world champion above 40 years in formula 1? What is the highest age of any world champion in formula 1 ever? Is it Fangio at age 46?
No it´s not enough to prove anything i´m afraid, that´s not how science works.
It's not a definite proof, but it still removes any reasonable doubt in my opinion. And actually, in many cases this is exactly how science works. I can't proove that you will be dead in 200 years, but I think any doubt of this statement is unreasonable. Science is often about observing trends and patterns and make theories based on the observations. The knowledge that we have about the placebo effect has been acquired that way.
Maybe it´s the physical body that is taking a beating. the physical body of an F1 driver needs to account for G forces on the neck.
Not run 200M as fast as you possibly can. F1 is different to all other regular sports in that sense.
Why do you say that F1 is different to all other regular sports?
I didn't say formula 1 was directly comparable to running 200 m or to any other competition in particular, I said that you can look at any sport or competition that exist and you will see that they are usually won by relatively young people. Some of the activities are physically very demanding. Some of them aren't. Formula 1 is quite physically demanding in some ways, but I suppose once the driver reaches a certain minimum of fitness, his performance is mainly determined by other factors. But it doesn't really matter what qualities are important because I am talking about all types of competitions on top level. It is a fact that competitions are generally won by young people, not only physically demanding competitions, but competitions in general.
The best football player in the world is 26 years old. The best tennis player in the world is 26 years old. The best alpine skier in the world is 24 years old. I could go on and look at the best ranked competitors in other sports as well, and maybe I would find some people above 30 years old. Maybe I would even find someone above 40 years old as well. But I think the pattern seems pretty clear. I won't find anyone above 80 years of age, or 70 years of age. I strongly doubt we will find anyone above 60 years of age as well. Maybe there are some above 50 years of age?
In formula 1 you can't look at the results and say with certainty who is best. Many people think Alonso is a better driver than Vettel, although Vettel is leading the championship and has won it the last 3 years. But you can still observe the age of f1 drivers and compare the age of those who win to the age of those who win other competitions. In that respect I can't see that F1 is different to all other regular sports.
