DanielPT wrote:CoopsII wrote:But by getting into that territory it begins to get complicated. Hill was older than his team-mates and, as you say, over the erm, hill, F1 wise. MSC did still beat his team-mates but, well, we know the story with that.
Another thing worth mentioning: All those mentioned (except Scheckter who went worse than Vettel really) changed their cars and it influenced greatly their performance. I think Schumacher 05 is the most similar you have with Vettel this year. He still beat his team-mate and regardless of how he did it, you still won't find anyone saying that Schumacher wasn't the most talented back in the day (ignore his comeback - even then he was not far off the current crop judging from what Rosberg is doing).
In retrospect, when we consider how Rosberg is currently holding his own against Hamilton, I'd agree that Schumacher's relative performance against Rosberg now looks much more favourable than it did at the time.
Speaking of the situation in 2005, there is perhaps one common element between then and today, and that is the fact that there was a substantial shift in the regulations that shifted things heavily against the leading team - the "one tyre per race" rules of 2005 and the change in engine rules for 2014.
Equally, in that scenario it was clear that the outfit that had been the leading team was the one hurt the most by the rule change - Bridgestone's lack of competitiveness then and Renault now - and, in qualifying trim at least, Schumacher's relative form against Rubens did dip for a while in the opening races, much as Vettel's form has dipped somewhat against Ricciardo.
However, as you say, although Schumacher was able to get back on top of Rubens and generally establish himself as something of a threat on tracks that did work a bit better for him, Vettel does still seem to be scratching around a bit for a means of getting back on top of Ricciardo.
DanielPT wrote:I think differently. I think Kimi is actually performing close or even at his best ability. It is just the fact that Alonso is better than him and this should not be chastening as both Alonso and Hamilton are considered the two outstanding drivers of this generation. Kimi just compared better with an error prone Grosjean when he returned and, coupled by a great Lotus car, it twisted perceptions somewhat.
That is certainly true - when he was at Lotus, because the team were not expected to be a front running outfit, the results that he was able to achieve whilst driving for them did come across as being quite striking and therefore caught the attention of a lot of people.
In the process, I think that his success evoked the sort of image that people had of Kimi back in the early 2000's, when he could pull off some remarkable races and developed a reputation for bravery. Remember the moment when some of the McLaren mechanics were seen celebrating as Kimi pulled off a passing move (in the Spanish GP, IIRC)? I think that is the image of Kimi that most people want to have, that of the implacable, quietly spoken Finnish driver who could stun the world with sudden turns of speed.
Unfortunately, whilst many might fondly remember the Kimi of 2004, Kimi's performances a decade later cannot match those fondly remembered races. We wondered how Alonso might react to being paired with a world champion in the off season, and the answer has been to demolish him so thoroughly that he's making Massa look good in retrospect.
It says a lot about how far off Alonso's pace Kimi has been given that, in terms of relative performance against his team mate, it could be argued that only Ericsson has a worse relative performance than Kimi. Now, of course, it is true that Alonso is probably the most gifted driver in the field right now in terms of overall ability, but Kimi's record would still make many expect him to perform more strongly than he has so far...
) very own Twitter feed..
