Is the talent level of the current field better than in the past?

[Born Racer]

I often read people here referring to how the overall standard of drivers is better than ever before, or better than ten years ago, but am unsure this is the case.

Certainly, there are no rent-a-drivers now, so perhaps the average level is that bit better, but in general in the top teams, are we really seeing a particularly golden era in this respect?

I suppose nowadays you have Hamilton, Kovalainen, Raikkonen and Massa in the top two teams, as opposed to Hakkinen, Coulthard, Schumacher and Irvine ten years ago. Apart from Schumacher, I think that the present drivers are a bit better and closer to each other in talent.

[BootsOntheSide]

I think it's about as good as it's ever been. The current drivers are capable of overtaking and putting in consistantly good laps. Drivers are coming through from a wider variety of backgrounds, and usually after real success in important feeder championships. There are so many driver development programmes that a talented kid has a better chance of being spotted. I think 1994-2000 was a relatively weak era, between Senna-Prost-Mansell and Alonso-Raikkonen there was only Michael and Mika who are really among the greats. The current generation may be even better.

[Marbot]

Yes.Unless of course you enjoyed the likes of Mazzacane,Ide and ****** * purely for entertainment value.

*Rosset

[doug911]

Why have the rent-a-drivers disappeared anyway.....what's changed?

[Ralf's Girl]

I would have said the lack of pay-drivers is down to the smaller teams disappearing and those that are left not needing the money so much.

I think this year's field is one of the strongest in recent years. The playing field is much more level among the top drivers than it used to be, nobody dominates in the same way that Schumacher did for all those years, and to a lesser extent Hakkinen in the two years that he won the title. I can't say with absolute conviction who's going to win the title this season, which is great.

I don't think there's one driver who's head and shoulders above the rest as there was when Schumacher was around - IMO none of the current crop are quite at his level, but there's less difference between the top few drivers.

[Super Hans]

I'd say that, on the whole, the level of talent is indeed higher than it's ever been, although the top drivers in today's field tend to make more errors than those of the past.

[cptkablamo]

I think the drivers today are better then they were 10 years ago but for 20, 30 or 40 years ago, I am not so sure...

[gttouring]

since the Schumacher-Hakkinnen era this is the best crop
not to take anything away from Barrichello or Coulthard who come from that time with less than the results of their then teammates but look who is scrapping away with a pile of a renault which appears to have gone under less evolution than the Maclaren or the Ferrari. Look at Vettel bring home that TorroRosso, and Trulli and Rosberg Glock showed he might have it
except Raikkonen who skipped most junior championships to vault in F1 (as if he needed the lower formulae to slow him down) everyone else has a championship title in some pretty serious machinery right?

the talent pool now is tremendously good.

[pirenzo]

This year's grid is certainly of a generally greater quality than previous years. No pay drivers as already mentioned, and with so many young drivers coming through plenty of old hands looking to up their game.

Of course, there's no reason why the overall talent pool is any different now to how it's ever been.
If I have a criticism it's that young drivers aren't made to ply their trades in the lower formulae enough, and there aren't enough shoestring teams to make drivers appreciate the value of a little discipline.
Then again, heavy manufacturer and sponsor involvement right down to the lower reaches of the racing ladder has brought through a lot of very good drivers who simply wouldn't have had the money to get themselves noticed 10 years ago.

[FPV GTHO]

Are there really no pay drivers though? Theres an abundance of drivers brought up to development programs, but is that really any different?

[Bleu]

Originally Posted by FPV GTHO

Are there really no pay drivers though? Theres an abundance of drivers brought up to development programs, but is that really any different?

I think it's very much different. In current development programs (like Renault or Red Bull) if you fail to bring results you will most likely lose the backing. So talent is big part of backing as well.

[climb]

The current level is good, probably better than the post Senna 90's grid; nevertheless I think that the 80's had more.

[Wrighty05]

Look at the drivers in the slowest cars, the Force Indias'. they're both pretty handy, for the cars they're in.

[Fish_Flake]

Cars also have better reliability than they have in the past, meaning that their drivers are showing their skills on the track much more often and compiling better records on paper. Today's grid is better than the grids of the 1990s, but I'd still contest that the greatest fields of drivers established were those of the early 1980s, the transition years between the Cosworth era (extended by ground effect) and the turbo era. The styles of the drivers then were as diverse as the cars on the grid.

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by doug911

Why have the rent-a-drivers disappeared anyway.....what's changed?

There are pay drivers, there are... but their form to be paydrivers are highly subtle than before...

[Graz]

The current grid is better than it has been in a number of years but there have been some great grids in the past, 1982 springs to mind, some awesome talent there. In about 3 or 5 years I'll guess we'll know if this current grid is really really great.

[JeremySmith]

Just different...

[spider]

I think the difference now is the amount of money it costs to run these F1 teams makes it almost pointless hiring a pay driver to race for you. The five million dollars a pay driver may bring to your team is such a small percentage of the overall budget, it makes more sense to budget for a talented pro. Having said that, if they're backed by a manufacturer and are bringing you paid-for engines, then it's worth taking them on...

[chunterer]

It's true that there is any number of drivers who we could say are genuinely good enough to win titels or at least plenty of races given the chance and not so many average joes.

There's Alonso, Raikkonen as the established stars, Hamilton and arguably Massa and Kubica have joined them then there a handful of guys who get the job done/or are giving everything to maintain/establish their permanent F1 careers like Webber, Rosberg, Glock, Vettel and maybe a few others.

The start of the decade was imo, the last time there was massive anticipation about an F1 grid. New drivers; Montoya, Raikkonen, Alonso and Webber all came in with fireworks to try and shake the order up and all at certain times took on Schumacher.

Prior to that you'd have to say the early 90's gave us a grid with many established names facing many excting newcomers and then again prior to that the early 80's when there were at least 4 WDC's and a dozen race winners on the grid.

There does tend to be a clear out at the end of a decade with a new bunch coming in, just coincidental I think.

However what we don;t get these days is lots of seasoned campaigners hanging on and preventing potential aces having a seat. In the early to mid 90's there were many 'old boys' but today there's only 3 or 4. But that may just be because there aren't as many drivers any more?

[ivanalesi]

There is something strange in the recent years for which I don't have full explanation, in '92 Mansell could lap 1.5 sec. faster than his team-mate and now 3/4ths of the field is within 1.5?! Back then even if Senna was 0.5 behind his teammate, it wasn't such an issue, he was just faster. May be more appropriate example will be Senna and Prost at Monaco, two legends, and yet Senna could be so much faster than him? Now Kimi is by 0.3-4 slower than Felipe, and he's got no chance, sleepy weekend and blah blah... If you take the average difference between teammates from the past and now, it's really big and qualifying now is so much harder to master than before! Why do you think it got so close between teammates? Is it because the cars from the past were a lot harder to drive and thus it was impossible to do mistake free lap? Or is it because of data exchange?

[Graz]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

There is something strange in the recent years for which I don't have full explanation, in '92 Mansell could lap 1.5 sec. faster than his team-mate and now 3/4ths of the field is within 1.5?! Back then even if Senna was 0.5 behind his teammate, it wasn't such an issue, he was just faster. May be more appropriate example will be Senna and Prost at Monaco, two legends, and yet Senna could be so much faster than him? Now Kimi is by 0.3-4 slower than Felipe, and he's got no chance, sleepy weekend and blah blah... If you take the average difference between teammates from the past and now, it's really big and qualifying now is so much harder to master than before! Why do you think it got so close between teammates? Is it because the cars from the past were a lot harder to drive and thus it was impossible to do mistake free lap? Or is it because of data exchange?

IMO the advances in aero and electronics in the past few years have brought the gap closer. The best drivers will still shine through however, just not with the same kind of gaps as before. Previously the drivers reached their personal limit before the car so the best drivers could eek that extra bit out. Even simple things like missing a gear can't happen anymore.

These days, through electronics and enormously efficient aero, the cars reach their limits quicker so more relatively mediocre drivers are not as exposed. Even though there is no traction control this year, the aero is still so efficient so as to have this equalising effect - hopefully next year will change this.

Probably a little bit of an extreme example but when it rains is when you see certain drivers being able to push that little bit more to the edge than others who may not have the comfort to do that. If the cars had less grip in regular dry conditions, you would see a similar effect, just not to the same degree but you get my point.

You can see something similar happening in MotGP where in the last couple fo years traction control has been introduced. Rossi hates it as he feels it robs him of that bit extra he had over the other riders simply by taking the limits of the bike further.

[ivanalesi]

Yeah, I thought about aero and probably that's the reason. Some months ago I watched a movie about '78-79 seasons and many drivers were complaining back then just as today. They said their role is less, Mario Andretti said that before it was 60% the driver, 40% the car and after ground effect it was the other way round. Their complains were sooo similar to the complains we used to hear about TC. Also they said they are less exciting to watch, it was a bit deja vu to me I think they should turbo these frozen engines, to overpower the cars against aero grip + it's a technology we need to develop in order to have more efficient engines!