[HN Gopher] Engineers, not racers, are the true drivers of succe...
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       Engineers, not racers, are the true drivers of success in motor
       sport
        
       Author : DyslexicAtheist
       Score  : 22 points
       Date   : 2020-10-16 21:23 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.economist.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.economist.com)
        
       | choeger wrote:
       | Interesting analysis, but the main point remains: You can not
       | compare drivers across different eras. Is Lewis the GOAT? Yes. Is
       | Michael the GOAT? Yes.
        
         | jkuria wrote:
         | Hmmh, I took away the exact opposite point. They developed a
         | model to do exactly this and Fangio from the 1950s came out on
         | top. He raced for four different teams and the driver's
         | contribution (versus the car's and the team's) was 58% compared
         | to 19% today.
        
           | giobox wrote:
           | There is no way for Lewis to assume that much responsibility
           | even if he wanted to though, to continue this example. I'd go
           | as far as to argue with constant rule changes it's not even
           | the same sport anymore, especially the gap between Fangio and
           | Lewis etc.
           | 
           | I agree, cross-generation driver comparisons are really hard.
        
       | serf wrote:
       | Whenever any of the 'old folks' of F1 are interviewed (Lauda,
       | Stewart, Williams), they talk about Fangio and Clark.
       | 
       | It's not surprising to me that they're at the top.
       | 
       | The in-car footage of Fangio is breathtaking.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | segmondy wrote:
       | This entire argument is simply because Hamilton is black. He sets
       | records and all of a sudden he can't shine by himself. Of course
       | the team is important and very good but also so is Hamilton as is
       | evident by his teammate who has the same car unless you truly
       | believe Mercedes is giving his teammate a handicapped car.
        
         | focom wrote:
         | Reading the first line:
         | 
         | > Our statistical model finds that neither Lewis Hamilton nor
         | Michael Schumacher is Formula 1's greatest driver
         | 
         | So its lame to play the racist card here.
        
         | Swizec wrote:
         | It's like genetics in other sports. You need the best car to
         | win, that's a given.
         | 
         | But if you can't drive at the car's max, you won't win.
         | 
         | Just like a poorly trained athlete with perfect genetics won't
         | win. But comparing great athletes, the one with best genetics
         | wins.
        
       | olivermarks wrote:
       | Depends on the motorsport. Take drag racing. top fuel driver
       | after reaction time is mostly along for the ride, depends on
       | quality of engineering to win/lose. Alcohol FC is immensely
       | complicated to drive, also pro stock which is pure driving skill.
       | 
       | MotoGP motor cycle racing is highly skilled and is IMO far, far
       | more exciting than Formula One which used to be the fastest/most
       | expensive formula amongst multiple divisions and is now largely
       | an inventors/engineers domain.
       | 
       | As others have noted different eras of racing cars (late 60's
       | early 70's formula one for example) required very different
       | skills and bravery levels.
       | 
       | David Coulthard drives Jim Clark's Lotus 25
       | https://youtu.be/_L1tHavnd9w lovely bit of informative film
        
       | tartoran wrote:
       | If we go down this path we'll watch autopilots racing soon. Not
       | fun
        
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       (page generated 2020-10-16 23:00 UTC)