Best driver performance over a season of all time?

[mnmracer]

Don't know how many have seen Peter Windsor's blog, but the link has so far been a fascinating read:

http://peterwindsor.com/category/jim-cl ... 63-season/

The more I read about Clark the more I wish I could have seen him race.

I saw him race a number of times in F1 cars , as well as frequently in other classes ...it was the era when the F1 drivers turned out in the supporting races

his ability to win while nursing a fragile car was legendary
he didn't make mistakes
he was universally regarded by his contemporary drivers as in a class of his own ...when he was killed one of them was quoted as saying...if it could happen to jimmy , what hope is there for the rest of us ?
fangio was once quoted as saying that jimmy was the best ever F1 driver after his era

I have to admit that at the time I was a graham hill fan , graham was a showman whereas jimmy was a taciturn scot , but in my heart I always knew who was the class of the field , the man who could always drive any car faster than anyone else

it is often said by people of my generation that they remember where they were when they learned that JFK had been killed ...I remember where I was when I heard about jimmy

He truly is a legend.
Too many people forget him when talking about the best driver ever, but I feel he has as many rights to that title as Senna or Schumi.

[SectorOne]

First of all there is nothing easy in F1.
Also Vettel doesn't have an easy ride in 2011. He had to dug deep in that year to get some Poles and That enabled him to get victories. The Most Toughest ones he got Poles are Hungary 2011. He doesn't liked the update which altered Balance of the car. then his team changed his Car to Normal version by FP3 and He Duly stuck the car on Pole where Mclaren's are very quick. The Same kind of situation raised in suzuka. The Mclarens are pretty quick and He snatched pole from Jenson by 9 thousands of a Second. And At Abudhabi where he Really dug Much deeper to stuck that car on Pole. If you think those are easy rides too then

By F1 standards that year is an easy year.
A hard year would be winning the title in let´s say 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 just to name a few.
There was actually competition in those years..

You say it was Vettel who had to dig deep to get those poles you mention yet not once you thought that maybe it was Button who dug really deep in an inferior car to just about match Vettel?
Also funny how when Vettel had one of the most dominant cars in history, he makes the difference but now with Mercedes trumping him everytime in qualifying "obviously" it´s the merc that is much quicker.
It´s almost like people allude to the Merc having a bigger advantage in Quali then the RB7 had over it´s competitors.
Which is ludacris of course.

-
Again not saying Vettel is bad. Far from it actually.
But with Schumacher for example, his absolute best years was in the beginning of the Ferrari era.
When he had to fight for everything, that´s where the real Schumi showed what he can do.
Having a superior car and taking it home in first is easy compared to those years.

In the same way i probably rate 07 and 08 as Vettel´s best years, he drover beautifully in those two years, especially in the rain where both he and the STR proved to work extremely well.

[mnmracer]

First of all there is nothing easy in F1.
Also Vettel doesn't have an easy ride in 2011. He had to dug deep in that year to get some Poles and That enabled him to get victories. The Most Toughest ones he got Poles are Hungary 2011. He doesn't liked the update which altered Balance of the car. then his team changed his Car to Normal version by FP3 and He Duly stuck the car on Pole where Mclaren's are very quick. The Same kind of situation raised in suzuka. The Mclarens are pretty quick and He snatched pole from Jenson by 9 thousands of a Second. And At Abudhabi where he Really dug Much deeper to stuck that car on Pole. If you think those are easy rides too then

By F1 standards that year is an easy year.
A hard year would be winning the title in let´s say 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 just to name a few.
There was actually competition in those years..

You say it was Vettel who had to dig deep to get those poles you mention yet not once you thought that maybe it was Button who dug really deep in an inferior car to just about match Vettel?
Also funny how when Vettel had one of the most dominant cars in history, he makes the difference but now with Mercedes trumping him everytime in qualifying "obviously" it´s the merc that is much quicker.
It´s almost like people allude to the Merc having a bigger advantage in Quali then the RB7 had over it´s competitors.
Which is ludacris of course.

Difference nummero uno: Mercedes is putting both cars on the front-row, not just 6 front-rows out of 19 poles.
Difference nummer due: both Red Bull drivers are acknowledged qualifying masters. Button is not.

[SectorOne]

Difference nummero uno: Mercedes is putting both cars on the front-row, not just 6 front-rows out of 19 poles.
Difference nummer due: both Red Bull drivers are acknowledged qualifying masters. Button is not.

No Webber has never been considered a qualifying ace...
One who has is Trulli. That´s a qualifying ace. Like Hamilton, Vettel etc.
The only time Webber shined was when the car was terrible and Vettel was nowhere.

And regarding the Mercs front rows. Different story.
What you have is two extremely fast drivers getting everything out of the car.
With Red Bull you had for the most part one driver getting everything out of the car.

Here´s Vettel´s teammates in Formula one.

Liuzzi, Bourdais, Webber

That´s an impressive resumé right...?
I think that there´s quite the chance of it all being one big bubble wouldn´t you say?

[mnmracer]

No Webber has never been considered a qualifying ace...

[SectorOne]

No Webber has never been considered a qualifying ace...

So Vettel pulled the RB6 and RB7 train to unseen heights like some superman and Webber is a qualifying ace....

Now i´ve heard it all.

[Gerhard Berger]

RB7 had nowhere near the downforce of its predecessor.

I´m not comparing the RB6 and RB7 downforce with each other. I´m comparing it with the competitition in their respective years.

And i´m really not having a go at Vettel, he drove perfectly in 2011 but for me those type of years are considered easy years.
2010 would have been another easy year if it weren´t for reliability.
2013 looks to me like his most impressive year although the competition STILL after 4,5 years not one single team has managed to consistently beat the Red Bull.
Mclaren is the only one that was even remotely close but we all know how that ended.

First of all there is nothing easy in F1.
Also Vettel doesn't have an easy ride in 2011. He had to dug deep in that year to get some Poles and That enabled him to get victories. The Most Toughest ones he got Poles are Hungary 2011. He doesn't liked the update which altered Balance of the car. then his team changed his Car to Normal version by FP3 and He Duly stuck the car on Pole where Mclaren's are very quick. The Same kind of situation raised in suzuka. The Mclarens are pretty quick and He snatched pole from Jenson by 9 thousands of a Second. And At Abudhabi where he Really dug Much deeper to stuck that car on Pole. If you think those are easy rides too then

None of the poles you mentioned actually enabled him tog et victory, but those 3 poles were hugely impressive.

[Gerhard Berger]

First of all there is nothing easy in F1.
Also Vettel doesn't have an easy ride in 2011. He had to dug deep in that year to get some Poles and That enabled him to get victories. The Most Toughest ones he got Poles are Hungary 2011. He doesn't liked the update which altered Balance of the car. then his team changed his Car to Normal version by FP3 and He Duly stuck the car on Pole where Mclaren's are very quick. The Same kind of situation raised in suzuka. The Mclarens are pretty quick and He snatched pole from Jenson by 9 thousands of a Second. And At Abudhabi where he Really dug Much deeper to stuck that car on Pole. If you think those are easy rides too then

By F1 standards that year is an easy year.
A hard year would be winning the title in let´s say 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 just to name a few.
There was actually competition in those years..

You say it was Vettel who had to dig deep to get those poles you mention yet not once you thought that maybe it was Button who dug really deep in an inferior car to just about match Vettel?
Also funny how when Vettel had one of the most dominant cars in history, he makes the difference but now with Mercedes trumping him everytime in qualifying "obviously" it´s the merc that is much quicker.
It´s almost like people allude to the Merc having a bigger advantage in Quali then the RB7 had over it´s competitors.
Which is ludacris of course.

Difference nummero uno: Mercedes is putting both cars on the front-row, not just 6 front-rows out of 19 poles.
Difference nummer due: both Red Bull drivers are acknowledged qualifying masters. Button is not.

Merc locked out the front row from 3 out of 9 races so far this year. A similar percentage as the RB7 in 2011.

When has Webber been referred to as a "qualifying master" ? i think you're exagerating.

[mnmracer]

Webber has been considered a qualifying ace throughout his career. He is even referenced as such on formula1.com
Retro-actively denying someone's record is just poor form...

[mnmracer]

No Webber has never been considered a qualifying ace...

So Vettel pulled the RB6 and RB7 train to unseen heights like some superman

If you have no intention of a serious discussion by putting words in my mouth, you can just not say anything.

[mnmracer]

Merc locked out the front row from 3 out of 9 races so far this year. A similar percentage as the RB7 in 2011.

Race-wise.
When the Mercedes had the pace for pole, 3 out of 6 times they locked out front-row.
When the RB7 had the pace for pole, 6 out of 19 times they locked out front-row.

[SectorOne]

Webber has been considered a qualifying ace throughout his career. He is even referenced as such on formula1.com
Retro-actively denying someone's record is just poor form...

Yep and Narain was the greatest racing driver of all time. Some Indian newspaper wrote about it therefore it must be true.

[raymondu999]

No Webber has never been considered a qualifying ace...

I'm not sure when you started watching F1, but let's take a look at the years when he wasn't in the same machinery as Vettel, until 2008. Webber has always been considered a quali specialist in 2003-2008. Remember when, driving Jaguars, he would nearly grab pole?
Brazil 2003
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxMl0BdrDQ[/youtube]

Malaysia 2004
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-bPqbZIats[/youtube]

Nurburgring 2005
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybXC1Y6tAa8[/youtube]

[sennafan24]

Drivers seem to lose one lap pace once they get older, that could partially explain why Webber is getting such a thumping in qualifying from Vettel this year as he is aging.

Vettel has improved though since 2009, and is a great qualifier. Not the best qualifier on the grid, but would make my top 5.

[Gerhard Berger]

Drivers seem to lose one lap pace once they get older, that could partially explain why Webber is getting such a thumping in qualifying from Vettel this year as he is aging.

Vettel has improved though since 2009, and is a great qualifier. Not the best qualifier on the grid, but would make my top 5.

I think so. For example, Trulli was also previously considered a very strong qualifier but he got hammered in qualifying by Kovaleinen in his final year in F1.