The Motorsport Thread 2020

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   Unless I missed it, if so apologies, seems 2019 got bypassed. 
Congrats to Lewis on his 6th title. When I said way back in 07 I think this guy could be the one to take on Michael's records...didn't think we'd actually start to see it

Great drives from Leclerc and Sainz, would like to see the latter get a top ride. 

Congrats to Josef Newgarden and his 2nd Indy title!

Congrats to Fernando Alonso, Kaz Nakajima and Sebastian Buemi on their 24 hours of LeMans, and FIA World Endurance Championship! 

Not sure what else I am missing...uh...
Congrats to Ott Tanak on his WRC title, isn't the first not won by one of two French guys in about 100 years?

Congrats to Tyler Reddick on his NASCAR title. I haven't followed in ages and dont know any of the drivers anymore. 

Here's to a good 2020 of racing! 

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JJLehto Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Prog Reviewer Joined: April 05 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Status: Offline Points: 34550	Post Options Post Reply Quote JJLehto Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: The Motorsport Thread 2020 Posted: December 24 2019 at 17:34
	Unless I missed it, if so apologies, seems 2019 got bypassed. Congrats to Lewis on his 6th title. When I said way back in 07 I think this guy could be the one to take on Michael's records...didn't think we'd actually start to see it Great drives from Leclerc and Sainz, would like to see the latter get a top ride. Congrats to Josef Newgarden and his 2nd Indy title! Congrats to Fernando Alonso, Kaz Nakajima and Sebastian Buemi on their 24 hours of LeMans, and FIA World Endurance Championship! Not sure what else I am missing...uh... Congrats to Ott Tanak on his WRC title, isn't the first not won by one of two French guys in about 100 years? Congrats to Tyler Reddick on his NASCAR title. I haven't followed in ages and dont know any of the drivers anymore. Here's to a good 2020 of racing!

JJLehto Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Prog Reviewer Joined: April 05 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Status: Offline Points: 34550	Post Options Post Reply Quote JJLehto Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: December 24 2019 at 20:13
	Speaking of Lewis, no denying his skill but one has to wonder how much role equipment plays. Well, wonder no more! I stumbled upon this article today that I found quite interesting. A team fro University of Sheffield put out a paper attempting to suss out driver skill from equipment using mathematical modeling and etc The article is here to read in full http://newatlas.com/computer-modelled-top-50-f1-drivers-of-all-time/43147/ But the fun results. Their top 10 F1 drivers of all time, regardless of what they were driving: 1: Fangio 2: Prost 3: Schumacher (based on his 1991-2006 stint) 4: Jim Clark 5: Senna 6: Alonso 7: Piquet 8: Jackie Stewart 9: Emerson Fittipaldi (or Schumacher when taking his full career into account) 10: Vettel Suppose nothing really too shocking there. Rest of the top 50 include names like Lewis, Kimi, Stirling Moss, Damon Hill, Ricciardo appears as does Nico. Kubica slots in at 26th (makes me even more heartbroken to think about how he was about to drive for Ferrari) and sweet validation for Rubens who was famous for being #2 but was rated 31st all time Some interesting ones: 11th Christian Fittipaldi 23rd Nick Heidfeld 28th Tom Pryce (I didnt even know that name) 30th Martin Brundle 43rd Prince Bira (???? Apparently a Thai driver from the 50s) Not in the top 50: Niki Lauda, James Hunt (guess Jackie and Emerson would've been better!) Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell. A little weird to see Brundle (who I always saw kind of mocked on forums) Heidfeld or Christian Fittipaldi ranked above Kimi or Lauda but this is what, according to these folk, the numbers say. I get some 5ths and 4ths in a Minardi is impressive but does this cold hard stat outweigh a career like Lauda? If the 2 were put in the same car would Brundle outperform Hakkinen? Hard to put stats over human performance. I get equipment matters but was a little surprised to see that in 1980, the paper estimates, 30% of success was driver determined. Today its 10% A little harsh to see that the drivers are like "light bulbs" you screw in and work, and that the best quality drivers are there to squeeze that extra out. But guess that's the diff between good, and great. Some of the best teams ever were 88 McLaren 92 Williams 02 Ferrari and 14 Merc but all were driven by top 50 (often 15) caliber drivers. So just an interesting analysis I thought, and good to see driver does still matter even if its just about taking an A car and making it an A+ vs the "real skill" of taking a D and making a B