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Originally Posted by Hark Clunt
i'm very new to F1 and trying to learn about it.
how much does driver skill actually come into play? it seems like whoever has the best car is pretty much unbeatable. i watched nascar as a young kid and those races had way more passing. that said, f1 definitely seems to have a cool vibe and aesthetic to it. feels like it takes a lot to really appreciate the little details of it though.
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The car determines your ceiling, pretty much. A good driver can't make a slow car go fast.
Beyond that, there are a lot of variables under a driver's control. First being consistency. Take a look at
https://f1pace.com/ [Not for Melbourne, wet races are too chaotic to get really good data.] How consistent are their lap times? A good driver should have a tight grouping of lap times like a marksman hitting their target. A bad driver [like Zhou last year] will have lap times scattered all over the place. You should see gradual trends as fuel load decreases or tire wear accumulates. Discounting back markers and interruptions, your time should be within a tenth or so [depending on the track] lap after lap. Inconsistent drivers are throwing time away.
Also, take a look at teammates. If one driver is consistently better in the same car, that's an indicator of a more skilled driver.
There are other considerations that aren't so obvious. How aggressive is the driver? How many risks do they take? How do they handle adversity? How do they manage their tires? Can they make tires last longer than other drivers? What kind of feedback do they give the team? A good communicator with good feedback can help the team get the settings dialed in during free practice. A good tune/setup can make a massive difference on race day. The team needs an observant driver to make these settings work.
Part of what makes team changes so interesting is that you get a better appreciation of driver skill. If a driver suddenly gets noticeably faster, maybe their last team had a car that was holding them back. And vice versa. Of course some teams can build a car around a driver's particular style. I'm specifically thinking of Verstappen and Red Bull here.