Is It Fair To Compare Different Formula One Eras? (Part 7 of 7: Conclusion)
by Carlos Gonzalez
After following different decades in Formula One over the last six weeks, we could appreciate the differences between each one of them.
From the 1960s where the teams were led mainly by car enthusiasts with ingenuity and a passion for speed and performance, factory teams were the exception, not the rule to the decade that just ended with every team now owned by multi-billion dollar consortiums.
In the ’60s, every team could win a race and have a legitimate chance to win the Championship.
Drivers were not in it for the money; the majority of them were not full-time F1 drivers. They performed tests for established car manufacturers and raced in different categories. Their primary source of income was testing and developing vehicles either for racing or the street. Very different from the multi-million dollar exclusivity contracts for the main drivers of the teams today.
To put this in perspective, with the salary that Bruce McLaren was receiving from Ford Motor Co. and other car manufacturers to develop their sports car racing programs, he was able to fund his Formula One team: McLaren Cars Ltd.
He was racing numerous events throughout the year in various categories, and he tested prototypes on the proving grounds of his employers around the world. Drivers today are contractually obligated to be Formula One drivers exclusively. As mentioned in a previous blog, Fernando Alonso will not compete in the Indy 500 while under contract with Alpine F1 in 2021. The French Team Director expressed that the risk was too high.
Through the decades, there was definitively an improvement in all the aspects of the sport: new materials, manufacturing techniques, tires, facilities, etc., but reliability, and most importantly, safety was the key element that allowed the sport to evolve to the Formula One we know today.
Racing cars, any cars, in the 1960s and before was like gambling, and the odds were not in your favor. In both subjects: safety and reliability, all drivers of the era agree that the chances of finishing and surviving a race, much less a season were considerably against them. The cars broke down continuously, suspensions and bodies were extremely rudimentary and fragile, the latter not much more than fuel tanks on wheels. Tire development was almost non-existent, and the tires were not extremely helpful when racing in the rain.
The drivers before the ‘60s didn’t wear seatbelts regularly since the idea of not being able to unbuckle them on time after an accident and most likely die burned trapped inside the cockpit was very real for them. The drivers “preferred” to be ejected from the car and have a chance to survive the crash with broken bones or fractures. Helmets and racing overalls were not the lifesaver outfits we see today, they were rudimentary, and most of the time, the materials used were not appropriate.
Today the sport is safer since Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna died in 1994. Since then, two drivers have lost their lives in accidents involving F1 cars. Maria de Villota, testing a car for Marussia F1 in 2012 and Jules Bianchi on October 5, 2014, racing for Marussia in the Japanese Grand Prix when he lost control in very wet conditions during a yellow flag and crashed into a recovery vehicle.
Formula One introduced the controversial Halo device in 2018. A piece of equipment fitted above the driver’s head in the cockpit of every F1 car.
Designed to protect the driver’s head in case of an impact, it has saved the lives of Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc, and several others, more recently, Roman Grosjean. Love it or hate it, there is no denying the benefit it has brought to the open cockpit race cars and the overall sport.
As the cars were safer, manufacturers and drivers pushed the limits of speed and power. Formula One cars reached levels impossible to imagine in the ‘60s or ‘70s: from 185 mph (300 kph) to a certified 246.908 mph (397.360 kph). The cars never reached the 247 mph mark on race but were capable of it.
Due to this increase in speed and improvements in tire technology and chassis materials, the cars cornered faster, subjecting drivers to increasingly high lateral or G-forces. Drivers today are endurance athletes capable of withstanding the physical demands of driving a Formula One car for two consecutive hours, losing several pounds of body weight every race.
The trend started with Senna in the 1980s, who hired a personal trainer to improve his physical health and resistance. Famous footage of the Brazilian suffering muscle-spasms and being exhausted after winning his home GP, having difficulties getting out of the car, and holding the winner’s trophy on the podium.
Michael Schumacher was the driver that started the trend of physical preparation during the off-season as we know it today. The German approached this like no other driver before him; extensive mental and physical preparation allowed him to outperform his competition, making him one of the most dominant drivers ever.
After him, every driver started training to get that competitive edge.
Dominance by a team or a driver has been present in Formula One since the beginning. The Silver arrows of the Fangio and Moss era, Jimmy Clark or Graham Hill driving for Lotus, Jackie Stewart for Tyrell, Niki Lauda, and Giles Villeneuve at Ferrari, or Mario Andretti at Lotus are clear examples of this.
Let’s remember that the car is definitively a factor. How the driver manages and exploits its characteristics, getting the right setup is fundamental for success on the weekend and the season.
Formula One drivers need to analyze each circuit and convey their input to the engineers to make the necessary adjustments to improve performance. Before the ‘80s, this performed without any sensors, scanners, computers, or two-way communication devices gave the drivers that edge. The drivers who were able to “feel” the car better than its competitors and communicate it to the garage were going to have an advantage. Clark, Hill, Lauda, and Andretti spent numerous hours after practice and qualifying working with their team to fine-tune the car.
Since the mid to late 80’s the separation between the top teams against their rivals became more evident. Who can forget the Williams vs. McLaren feud from the middle of the decade?
Or the dominance of Red Bull and Mercedes-Benz in the last decade?
Of course, there were “one-offs” during those years, like Senna or Piquet driving for Lotus; Prost, Mansell, and Berger driving for Ferrari or Alonso driving for Renault, and who can forget Jenson and Brawn GP? However, the gap between the top teams and “the rest” began to grow.
There is no denying that Schumacher, Vettel, and Hamilton are drivers that crushed their competition, beginning with their teammates and dominated the sport. As an example, Nico Rosberg mentioned in an interview; that he was mentally and physically exhausted after winning the 2016 Championship, and the main reason he decided to retire.
He also explained that both Schumacher and Hamilton loved to play mental games against their teammates.
Before them, with no team orders or a defined Number One driver, the team with the best car had the main competition in-house.
Who can forget the clashes between Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet at Williams or Senna and Prost at McLaren?
Another factor that changed was the point system, the first iteration implemented in 2003 and the second in 2010. The purpose — to increase competition between the teams and accurately allocate the award money to each team at the end of the season. It moved from awarding points to the top six finishers to the top ten today. In a field of 12 squads (24 cars) before the first iteration, only a quarter of the drivers would get points today, almost half (41.6%) of the grid score points every race, allowing drivers to be more conservative if needed in a particular race.
Several other rules and regulations have changed throughout the years: engine displacement, car dimensions, height, weight, fuel capacity, etc.
So coming back to the question I raised at the beginning of the series: Is it fair to compare different Formula One eras? No, it is not; please let me elaborate; each one needs to be judged in the context of the period when they happened. Of course, there will always be the temptation to compare drivers, teams, and records.
However, drivers reject the idea of comparisons; for example, when Schumacher was on the verge of surpassing Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of five World Championships, a record untouched for 45 years. Michael said in an interview: “The drivers in Fangio’s time were very courageous. It makes you realize how fortunate we are today with the build of our cars and the high safety standards.”
Another example, in the documentary Senna, every driver in the paddock, including Schumacher, asked who was the best driver of all time, all named the late Brazilian.
As recently as 2017, Lewis Hamilton rejected the idea of tying or surpassing Michael’s records; he thought reaching Fangio’s five titles was “very cool.” Let’s keep in mind that it took Hamilton ten years to achieve four titles. So winning seven or even eight was unthinkable at the time. Today the records are falling, and that eight Championship is within reach for the young Brit.
Each era has its challenges, restrictions, and regulations; in the end, each team works to create the most advanced machine with the resources provided, and the drivers then attempt to exploit the maximum of it on the track.
Today F1 Cars are developed using supercomputers, CAD Design, and Rapid Prototyping. An army of designers and engineers working on every inch of the car; using state-of-the-art facilities and technology compared to the old-style pen, paper, rulers, hammers, pliers, wrenches, manual fine-tuning, trial, and error.
Joe Ramirez, the famous Technical Director for McLaren, mentioned that during his time at Tyrell F1 in the ‘70s, there were 32 people in the entire team, they built the cars in a shed in the British countryside, only six team members traveled to the Grand Prix for support. Today the Mercedes-Benz Petronas F1 team employs over 1,500 people in two factories, and over 75 people support the team each weekend on the track.
In conclusion, Formula One will never be what it was before. Legendary racing drivers from the previous decades created what the sport is today, and trying to compare the achievements of those drivers to 2021 is not fair for the former or the current drivers.
Considered the pinnacle of Motorsport teams and drivers competing in the Championship are the best-of-the-best. Every year they compete to define who is the best of them based on the same rules and regulations. In my opinion, that is how we should evaluate them: in the context of their time.
Achievements by Fangio, Clark, Stewart, Lauda, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Vettel, and Hamilton are impressive. But comparing them to each other is unfair because the circumstances for each one were completely different. They were able to find that advantage; some benefited from their driving skills, others from the cars they drove but, I think, the majority from a combination of both.
The sport keeps evolving, we may not like the changes, and some may despise them, but still, that isn’t enough to keep fans around the world from waking up early Sunday morning to watch their favorite teams and drivers and cheer them for 120 minutes.
This year should be a year of transition, and 2022 should provide a more leveled playing field, new rules to limit the development of various components, simplify the design, and budget caps to reduce the overall costs. Will it be enough to close the gap? Let’s wait and see, but it will be a new chapter in the F1 history, and I am excited to see what the future holds.
Please let me know your opinion; do you agree or disagree, don’t forget to share your comments; if you enjoyed the blog and the series, please “like” it and share it with other enthusiasts.
I will continue posting weekly. If you have a subject that you’d like to read, please let me know. Until next week!
