SiLo wrote: ↑23 Sep 2022, 10:32The only thing that anyone is able to grasp to as some form of mitigating fgctor is that Perez is nowhere compared to Verstappen. RB have not been dominant all year, it's just recency bias. They have certainly made a big step with Max since the summer break, and Ferrari being Ferrari has artificially made the gap bigger than it should be.
7 points behind Vettel by round 12 of 2017 season.
8 points behind Vettel by round 10 of the 2018 season.
38 points ahead of Vettel by round 13 of the 2015 season.
In 2014 Ricciardo won 3 races and got done over by his team at least 3 times(DSQ in Oz, pit stop error, suspension failure) Yet when we discuss dominance, it's ok to microcosm 2022 to say the RB18 is nothing special but the W05 was dominant.
There are various factors involved, and those that come to my mind are very evident.
2022 is NOT about single lap pace. We saw this clearly at several races where the fastest one lap car was severely compromised in the race...the Austrian GP comes to mind as do several others.
A fast car that can utilise it's speed consistently and has a wider strategy window is way better than a fast car that goes off the boil after 10 laps, regardless if that car was sitting on Pole or not. As does a fastest lap have no bearing as the factors that influence it are subject to the above, new boots and a couple laps do not mean a car is fastest over a race distance. As prescribed by various occasions we see a Ferrari go backwards in the race, only to bang a fastest lap at the end of the race with an RB18 in the distance.
Then comes the arbitrary moving target of what defines a dominant car. 1 second a lap faster than anything else?
0.5?
Why should there be a set figure? Should it not be a car that can win capably beyond anything on the grid?
It's amazing to me that anyone would actually even dispute the RB18 to not be dominant, and in the same breath suggest Mercedes would. For me, that's recency bias.