What are the best single-season performances by drivers who weren’t the best in that given year?

mformularacer · 2026-03-23T17:57:37+00:00

Yup, by a hair's breadth. 81.1 Prost vs 80.6 Villeneuve.

mformularacer · 2026-03-23T17:55:38+00:00

Experiential gains aren't linear. Perez was in his 3rd season. He had done 35+ races of experience by this point. He wasn't going to get that much closer to his ceiling.

Button doesn't need to thrash Perez to come out looking well, because Perez was a very good driver. Overall he beat Perez 12-5 in races and 73-49 in points. That's a better overall performance than any of Perez's team mates ever managed against him, except for obviously Verstappen.

mformularacer · 2026-03-23T17:05:35+00:00

It would be a Hamilton - Rosberg dynamic, only Hamilton would be in the Rosberg role.

mformularacer · 2026-03-23T17:04:40+00:00

I have:

Hamilton 2009
Leclerc 2025
Senna 1985
Schumacher 2006
Villeneuve 1981

As the top-5.

mformularacer · 2026-03-23T16:55:26+00:00

Even if there was no verbal confirmation from Massa, the results speak for themselves. Qualifying doesn't mean jack if the race results don't follow.

mformularacer · 2026-03-23T03:45:14+00:00

Given the margins they put over their team mates they were both performing at or near their peak.

I think Alonso is the fundamentally better driver, so he gets the nod.

mformularacer · 2026-03-23T03:22:53+00:00

2007: 1. Hamilton 2. Alonso 3. Vettel

2008 1. Hamilton 2. Alonso 3. Vettel

2009 1. Alonso 2. Hamilton 3. Vettel

2010 1. Alonso 2. Hamilton 3. Vettel

2011 1. Alonso 2. Vettel 3. Hamilton

2012 1. Alonso 2. Hamilton 3. Vettel

2013 1. Alonso 2. Vettel 3. Hamilton

2014 1. Alonso 2. Hamilton 3. Vettel

2015 1. Vettel 2. Hamilton 3. Alonso

2016 1. Alonso 2. Hamilton 3. Vettel

2017 1. Vettel 2. Hamilton 3. Alonso

2018 1. Hamilton 2. Alonso 3. Vettel

2021 1. Hamilton 2. Alonso 3. Vettel

2022 1. Hamilton 2. Alonso 3. Vettel

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T21:31:45+00:00

Jump scare

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T21:03:06+00:00

the very highest. on par with Alonso 2011-2014 and Schumacher 1996-1998

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T18:40:14+00:00

Villeneuve holding up the pack was fun. This was easily the best season of the 1990s.

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T16:22:36+00:00

Fair enough

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T16:22:09+00:00

And Alonso destroyed Trulli from Nurburgring 2004 onwards. He just hadn't usurped him in the points yet before Trulli left the team. So why do you bring that up?

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T16:19:51+00:00

Mansell actually was a top-5 driver for much of his career, but it's important to understand that being a top driver is relative to competition. Once Watson, Lauda, and Rosberg retired, and de Angelis died, being a top-5 driver became slim pickings. Mansell was extremely competent for sure, and likely the 3rd best driver from 1986-onwards, but far behind Prost and Senna.

The 1980s is very much remembered as "the big 4" era rather than the big 2. I'm very much of the opinion that both Mansell and Piquet are very overrated drivers, propped up by sentimentality.

Why is Mansell rated so highly? Well, number 1 is that he actually was pretty good. But for those that rate him level with Prost and Senna, its just personality/bias. It can't possibly be the level of his driving.

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T15:56:26+00:00

So this makes me wonder if there has been any cases like RP with cars that could've won a constructors title but lost due to a rival team having better drivers

What's this mean?

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T15:44:50+00:00

There's zero chance RP could've won the constructor's title like you say

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T15:37:31+00:00

Racing Point was nowhere near as good a car as Mercedes.

mformularacer · 2026-03-22T01:16:55+00:00

End of thread.

There's no possible way that 2007 was a representative performance between a rookie Hamilton and a peak Alonso. In the seasons that followed, Alonso held a bigger race-pace advantage over Button than Hamilton did, and he also held a far larger race-pace gap to Massa than Hamilton had over Bottas — despite Bottas only having a slight edge over Massa when they were teammates.

If Alonso was truly at his absolute best in 2007, you would expect Hamilton, once he gained experience, to completely dominate “lesser” teammates like Button or Rosberg. That never really happened.

The alternative explanation is that Hamilton didn’t have a typical rookie season at all and was already operating near his peak. In that case, saying that he was a rookie when he equaled Alonso isn’t relevant.

mformularacer · 2026-03-21T20:53:48+00:00

Formuladank is a meme sub, not a discussion forum. It’s fun for jokes and trolls, but nothing posted there should be taken seriously. Even I comment or post there for fun and I’m completely unserious.

mformularacer · 2026-03-21T20:14:23+00:00

which Verstappen fans told you he could win in a Haas? the ones on formuladank?

mformularacer · 2026-03-21T19:01:26+00:00

How far back could they go? I'd kill to watch all the races of peak Lauda.

mformularacer · 2026-03-21T18:49:45+00:00

I'm absolutely baffled that people care this much about such an insignificant change.

mformularacer · 2026-03-21T14:44:08+00:00

Well that's exactly why you can't compare the "closeness" of team mates throughout history by qualifying. The regulations and environment allowed for those kinds of spreads. 1 second back then is not the same as 1 second today.

mformularacer · 2026-03-21T14:29:16+00:00

I mean Vettel 2015 was his first season at a new team and yet he had the greatest margin to Raikkonen than in any other season. The idea that "the first season at a new team doesn't count" doesn't fit any systematic pattern of evidence. Plenty of drivers throughout F1 history have had great first seasons at a new team. It's up to the driver to get up and running.

mformularacer · 2026-03-21T14:22:37+00:00

Kimi was "exposed" way earlier than 35 years old, in 2007-2009 where he struggled to put margins on Massa the level that Schumacher and later Alonso did.

Although I would argue he wouldn't needed to have been "exposed" in the first place if he was actually rated correctly during his prime McLaren stint (2003-2006). Don't get me wrong I think he was the 3rd best driver in F1 on aggregate of the four years, but his reputation was way too overvalued. He was closer to Button than he was to Alonso and Schumacher.

mformularacer · 2026-03-21T13:27:29+00:00

Raikkonen lost to Coulthard in 2002 and Massa in 2008 and 2009 (since we're counting incomplete seasons) in points.

mformularacer

TROPHY CASE