mikeyg123 wrote:F1 Racer wrote:pokerman wrote:Todd wrote:Does anyone understand why tired old slow Raikkonen is one of the best drivers this year?
One of the best because he's beating Giovinazzi?
Kimi is having a good season but how good is the Alfa, Sainz and Norris are apparently the 3rd and 6th best drivers, how good is the McLaren?
Sainz is almost certainly driving the same as he's always been, a competent journeyman. There is no reason to think that he has found a tonne of pace and taken his driving to a different level that he wasn't capable of before. Therefore Norris is about the same as him and maybe has a ceiling slightly higher than Sainz but that's about it and he will almost certainly never become world champion.
Kimi is definitely driving the same as he was the last few years, which means that Giovinazzi is not up to scratch, but that is fine as Schumacher Jr. needs to find his way into the sport somehow and Giovinazzi will help enable that.
Do you know how rare it is for rookies to outscore experienced team mates?
Only two on the current grid managed that.
We know from other threads how easy it is for a driver to make a difference in Formula One and how someone like Hamilton stands head and shoulders above a competent driver in Bottas. Therefore the platform is there for rookies to be showing up other competent drivers if they are indeed good enough to have WDC potential, (I think most agree that someone like Bottas will not be a WDC winner unless they get a very lucky set of circumstances occurring).
So Norris is showing that he could eventually be a Bottas type driver or maybe a bit better, but certainly not the kind of driver that will definitely be challenging for WDC's by force. If Norris was outqualifying Sainz 80%+ of the time or had say 70+ points in the WDC at the moment, then I would be taking notice of him as either of these goals are achievable for a driver that has a strong future in the sport. Just look at Russell easily beating an experienced driver in Kubica right from race one. Russell is at least making me take notice of him, even though he is further back in the pack and in worse equipment, and this is due to the more one-sided nature of the teammate comparison. Russell could be a great but there is the slight caveat that it could also be down to Kubica's injury, and so Russell's true potential will become known once he is racing someone more measurable, but so far so good.
Norris is competing against someone known and average/below average in Sainz, (an experienced Sainz was outqualified and outraced by Hulk in 2018 and Hulk is average and getting beaten by Danny Ric this year, and Hulk was evenly matched with Perez for many years etc. so Sainz cannot be that good if he lost so comprehensively to Hulk). Norris should be putting Sainz away if he is to be worth getting excited about, but he's not, Sainz is easily beating him at the moment.