Lotus49 wrote:
mikeyg123 wrote:
KingVoid wrote:
Faster
I think some might be sure. I think others would be all at see if you put them in a mid 80s turbo with manual transmission and no power steering. I really slim guy like Ocon may not even have the muscle to keep the car on the track.
And on tracks they don't know very well that can kill them at every corner. It's not nostalgia, it's actually thinking the question through.
Picking up a modern driver and dumping him in that situation changes absolutely everything about how he can approach the race weekend, and not for the better. The car isn't set up for him in a simulator and full chassis dyno before he gets to the track. He can't do thousands of laps preparation on the sim or at home on his Xbox. He can't just go all out attack and extract every bit of pace from the car safe in the knowledge if it goes badly he'll be fine. He can't get on the radio and ask for some help.
It's a totally different sport and the idea a driver from the 80's picked up and put in a modern car with masses of d/f,power steering, seemless shift gearbox. fully set up properly and on tracks you can attack every corner with zero fear and that he has done thousands of laps in preparation on would somehow struggle to extract pace from it is weird.
The fundamentals of driving don't change, the obstacles put in front of you when trying to extract that pace from the car do. And in the modern era they are all but completely removed, both physically from the gearbox,extra d/f and power steering, to mentally with the safety measures and better preparation in the sim.
That's why the pace between drivers is closer nowadays, just as much as the earlier start on karts or advances in physical benefits.
That is all true. People often underestimate the effects of the modern level of safety. Guys can go absolutely flat-out without fear of lethal crashes. For an accident to be lethal in modern F1 would require series of flukish and unfortunate circumstances. No ordinary impact would kill a modern F1 driver in these cars. The technology also does help as well with the use of simulators and just the general heightened access to meaningful data.
The one thing I would mention that makes things substantially harder for today's drivers is the heightened competitive landscape. There are more kids getting into karting from a younger and younger age nowadays compared to 40 years ago. The talent pool is deeper and the level of ability and talent you need to make it is significantly higher. The type of obsessive focus that used to make Senna stand out from the pack is now arguably par for the course. Year-round training and top physical fitness are the norm now and the G-forces that these cars put the drivers through are on a totally different level than anything you saw 30-40 years ago. Not all of the physical demands have been reduced, in fact the physical strain on the body is much greater in some ways (though it manifests itself differently). Additionally, the current drivers have a much larger mental exercise to do while driving the car. They have to monitor so many different systems and gauges, keep track of engine modes, battery charge and discharge, KERS, ERS, DRS, managing deltas, etc. It's not a walk in the park.
The main thing is to understand that there is no meaningful comparison to be made between drivers of different eras because the sport itself changes so much and the requirements to be great change too.