The most dominant car in F1 history

[i70q7m7ghw]

Thought I would create a new thread for this. A few of us have been debating what the most dominant car in F1 might have been, and if the W05 is possible it. I've put together some charts just to how some figures:-



NOTES: Qualifying formats have obviously changed. In 2004 they had 1 lap qualifying with race fuel. Using today's format, it is quite likely the F2004 would have taken more Pole Positions.

[Blanchimont]

Nice graphs, but i would also look at technical difficulties/driver errors/crashs that lead to non scoring results or poor qualifying results. It would complete the results imo.

And don't forget that the fastest laps today are influenced by the Pirelli tyres. Did you adjust the points to a common points scorig system?

[santos]

In 2004 there was one less race and the point system was different too...

[PlatinumZealot]

What about the RB8 in 2013?

[deterherligt]

What about 1-2s for a team?

Edit: And front row lockouts...

[Pingguest]

NOTES: Qualifying formats have obviously changed. In 2004 they had 1 lap qualifying with race fuel. Using today's format, it is quite likely the F2004 would have taken more Pole Positions.

I fail to see why. Since the introduction of the post-qualifying parc fermé in 2003, cars must have the same specification in both qualifying and race. Ferrari have always been stronger in the race than in qualifying, thus the post-qualifying parc fermé obviously helped them. With mid-race refuelling being banned since 2010, the post-qualifying parc fermé have been somewhat relaxed.

[SectorOne]

Do one where you map the average delta between the car at hand and it´s competition.

[i70q7m7ghw]

NOTES: Qualifying formats have obviously changed. In 2004 they had 1 lap qualifying with race fuel. Using today's format, it is quite likely the F2004 would have taken more Pole Positions.

I fail to see why. Since the introduction of the post-qualifying parc fermé in 2003, cars must have the same specification in both qualifying and race. Ferrari have always been stronger in the race than in qualifying, thus the post-qualifying parc fermé obviously helped them. With mid-race refuelling being banned since 2010, the post-qualifying parc fermé have been somewhat relaxed.

They only had 1 lap, it was very unforgiving. I think with multiple attempts the F2004 could have scored more poles, BUT that's just my opinion.

EDIT: Some good suggestions for additional charts, I'll start putting them together.

[elf341]

Thanks for making this thread, I find it an interesting topic.

Here is a metric of dominance which records the percentage of 1-2s and 1-DNFs over the season. I've called it 'Race Supremacy' because of the implication that no other car is able to beat the car in that race.
Including 1-DNFs may not be exactly to some people's tastes, but I think it makes more sense when you consider the inverse metric (i.e. 1-this_metric), which records the number of races where another car is able to beat our car of interest - the higher the inverse metric the lower you would assess the dominance of such a car.

Observations:
The "Race Supremacy" metric also assumes that if there is driver disparity (e.g. only vettel being able to 'switch on' the RB7), then this penalises the car. Therefore, according to this metric much of Red Bull's domination in 2011 appears to belong itself to the man-and-machine combination: that it is Vettel+RB7 that dominates, not just the RB7 itself.



This again shows that the MP4/4 is the most dominant car, but the W05 is a real rival to it!

[i70q7m7ghw]

My personal opinion is Webber/Barrichello really squandered the benefits of their cars. Webber was truly nowhere in 2011 compared to Vettel. I don't think this is a fair reflection the performance of the car, but each to their own.

[elf341]

Another observation of Race Supremacy of the F2002 vs F2004. According to this metric, the F2002 was the more dominant car!

[elf341]

My personal opinion is Webber/Barrichello really squandered the benefits of their cars. Webber was truly nowhere in 2011 compared to Vettel. I don't think this is a fair reflection the performance of the car, but each to their own.

Yes, three car teams would make our job much easier!

The Barrichello argument in particular I find compelling, he also drove the BGP-001 in early '09 when it was meant to have a second a lap advantage, yet you wouldn't think it from some of his early race results!

[WaikeCU]

I think the MP4/4 must be a 'handful' to drive compared to the W05 or the F2004. I don't think Rosberg or Hamilton would have done a better job than Senna and Prost. Would Senna and Prost have done better in the F2004 or W05? Those are what if's and what if's don't count imho. Also the sport has evolved. I doubt budget back in 1988 were as high as in 2004 or 2014. Also regulations back then were less restricted as today. Back then, backmarkers were really slow. Compare it as a WSR 3.5 car driving around at the back. Zakspeeds, Osella's were 10 seconds off the pole time. Technologies were also less advanced as today.

So I remain with saying that they are not comparable. Those are just a few cars that can be categorized as 'one of the most dominant ever'.

[astracrazy]

Webber was truly nowhere in 2011 compared to Vettel. I don't think this is a fair reflection the performance of the car, but each to their own.

I see it the opposite. If I remember, the ebd really helped this car and Vettel was able to drive a way which meant he got the most out of that - where webber couldn't. That to me would say the rb7 dominance came from Vettel + Rb7 not the rb7 alone.

where the w05 this year had no such requirements.

[Andres125sx]

I wouldn´t consider fastest laps, as they´re usually achieved in the last laps and it depend on the race circumstances, the leader might be dominating so much he could be cruising around, for example, RB7 did it frequently

It also depend on the teammate, Senna and Prost were usually threatening each other so they were forced to push hard, while Schumacher or Vettel usually were so dominant with their teammates far away they didn´t need to push that hard