nixxxon wrote:mds wrote:nixxxon wrote:mikeyg123 wrote:Sure but the 1st season does make a difference in terms of performance.
Yes, but it is often exaggerated, thats what I'm saying. Usually drivers have raced for so many years before F1 debut, except for some rare cases like Max Verstappen. Therefore they have experience in racing. Alonso for example had something like 12 years of racing experience when he made his F1 debut at 18
Driving karts, or F3's, or almost anything else, is something entirely different to F1. The step up to F1 is huge. It's revolution vs evolution: rookies have to learn an awful lot, it's unlike what they've experienced before. The years after that the learnings are incremental and not even remotely comparable to what they have to take in during the rookie year.
See you're exaggerating here. Most of aspects are the same. The difference is the competitiveness and the performance of the cars.
Maybe many years ago the difference between F1 and lower categories was enormous, but not anymore
I'm not exaggerating. There is a lot to take in when going to F1. There's a plethora of procedures to take in (both car related as well as non car related), the technology is far more advanced and needs time to get a feeling for. Even things that should be simple (and are in lower categories) can be vastly more complex. Just look at the steering wheels for an example of that.
A driver like Magnussen, with a good CV and the reigning champ in one of the main feeder series, has shown us 2 things:
1. the cars are not wild beasts to tame anymore so they are reasonably mild (when compared to before) to drive around the track
2. the cars definitely take a while to get a feeling for. Tyres, driving style, manner of operating, ... . You have to master it all to be able to stand up to someone with experience.
And yes, all of that you have to take in in your rookie year, and in your second year you're used to it all and the changes are far smaller than the step up to F1.
Karts are entirely mechanical. F4's, F3's, even FR3.5's or GP2's are basically straightforward go-fast machines. GP2 has the tyre dependency which a driver has to take in but other than that the operation of a GP2 car is pretty straightforward. I mean, when a driver like Salvatore de Plano can buy a test session in a GP2 car during winter testing and is able to not make a complete joke of himself (other than just being a bit slow), I know enough. A man like that wouldn't be able to run an F1 car around a track at speed if his life depended on it.