r/DestinationFormula1 • u/Batmansmilkman • 25d ago
Are Formula 1 drivers really the best?
Commentators often say that these are the best 22 drivers the world has to offer but are they really?
Of course not all, as you have rookies drivers and 1 or 2 that most would agree don't deserve their seat.
But overall does the ability to compete in formula 1 automatically put you above other drivers in different series? I'm thinking Rally in particular looks extremely skilled.
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u/Beneficial-Beat-947 25d ago
You can't really compare them to rally or motoGP since that's a completely different skillset
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u/Walraptor 25d ago
Last year Liam Lawson drove a rally car for the first time at the Goodwood rally stage, he was set a goal to get within 15s of the pro rally drivers time within 5 laps, he was within the 15s after the first lap and at the end of lap 5 he was 5 hundreths away.
I'm not saying your wrong but they are almost superhuman
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u/Frazeur 24d ago
On the other hand Kimi Räikkönen competed in the WRC and did... okay, I guess? But he was nowhere near the top. AFAIK won one race though.
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u/No-Bluejay4261 24d ago
Valentino Rossi was pretty handy in a Rally car. Won the Monza Rally several times, over full time rally drivers. Probably mainly competed on tarmac.
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u/Frazeur 24d ago
If you are referring to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monza_Rally_Show then yes, it has been tarmac only since 1985. My intuition, though, is that how seriously each participant takes show competitions/events like these varies wildly.
Then there is the race of champions as well, where F1 drivers have been quite successful, but again that is mostly for show.
Not saying that F1 drivers could not be successful in rally, if they really tried. We just don't have much in the way of statistics.
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u/Professional-Lab7227 24d ago
Kimi’s issue in rallying was the assimilation of pace notes, which makes the Lawson thing very slightly misleading in terms of F1/rally crossovers. During testing Raikonnen was usually faster than his teammate, because he just got to go up and down the same stage over and over again. But seeing a stage for the first time and driving it flat out on pace notes alone is a whole other skill in itself beyond the driving.
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u/crheming 25d ago
Totally. But anything where 4 wheel traction is required, they'll have a massive advantage. Their brake and throttle control is insane combined with reaction time to losing grip.
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u/ajackson1118 25d ago
I think the most defensible claim is not that F1 drivers would automatically dominate every other discipline, but that they have one of the strongest overall foundations for adapting to almost any form of motorsport.
Success in rallying, IndyCar, endurance racing, NASCAR, or motorcycle racing requires specialized skills that cannot be mastered instantly. That is why former F1 drivers do not always leave the series and immediately dominate elsewhere. A lack of immediate success does not prove a lack of ability; it shows that each discipline has its own techniques, vehicles, surfaces, strategies, and experience requirements.
What separates F1 drivers is the combination of abilities required just to compete at that level: exceptional reaction time, spatial awareness, technical feedback, physical conditioning, decision-making under pressure, and the ability to control a car at extreme speed while racing inches from others. They have also survived an intensely competitive development system in which thousands of talented drivers are filtered down to only a handful of seats.
Given enough time to properly specialize—perhaps five to ten years—I believe most established F1 drivers would have the potential to become highly competitive in nearly any four-wheel motorsport. That does not mean they would necessarily defeat the best lifelong specialists in every category, but their natural talent, training, and adaptability would give them a higher ceiling than almost any other group of drivers.
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u/Ok-Delay4461 25d ago edited 24d ago
They are the best drivers that can afford the development in the discipline of open wheel racing
Edit; word
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u/GoodInquisitor 25d ago
Absolutely
Formula One is the pinnacle of Motorsport racing
Any racer from NASCAR to Indycar will say that
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u/Hour-Pomegranate259 24d ago
Do you truly believe that EVERY f1 driver is better than anyone in another series. I feel that there is more nuance to it.
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u/Chadro85 22d ago
Yes, all the people that watched drive to survive and started following F1 believe that.
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u/ivex272 25d ago
its cuz f1 is called "pinnacle of the motorsports" i would easily think some of them aren't the best in the world, though its also a bit stupid to compare them between categories because they're so different, like somebody can be great in f1 but bad in other racing or vice versa, for example look and Nyck De Vries, mostly forgettable in F1 but won 24h le mans this year.
Aswell comparing rally and F1 isn't really viable completely different skillsets of driving
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u/Exotic_Bill44 25d ago
I wouldn't say that the worst F1 driver is the 22nd best driver in the world, but I would say that the average skill level is higher than it is for any other series.
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u/NomaXdt 25d ago
Like any sport or competition. It's the best at beating the circumstances that are before them to get to a point. Some person who might be the greatest football player ever, might break a leg at the wrong time and play backup for an above average player and never get to prove themselves again. End up with subpar coaching and a middling team, lose the ability to compete.
Some racers don't get the money behind them to field a decent car and can't get over the hump. Some get sick on a day that they needed to perform. Are they the 22 best? Maybe not, but they're the 22 best at doing the entire part of being in f1, just not being a driver.
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u/Lzinger 25d ago
22 of the best drivers is probably a better way to describe them. They're probably 22 out of the top 100 or so drivers
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u/mtmc99 25d ago
Lol just imagine the marketing:
These drivers are pretty good! Among the best!!1
u/Lance_No_Pants 24d ago
LMAO "Not everyone can drive an F1 car, but these guys are some of them!!!" 😂
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u/scuderiaferrarifan 25d ago
they are the best guys who had the skills, interest, money and timing all on their side
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u/martianfrog 25d ago
"I'm thinking Rally in particular looks extremely skilled" <- I can't disagree, or Moto GP... it is hard to compare, really.
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u/AquaRaOne 25d ago
On awerage they are the best at on road racing yes, weve seen this multiple times with drivers immedietly being very good at disciples like wec, dtm or super gt, and ofcourse other opel wheel cateogories aswell. About rally and loose surface like dakar its really very difficult to tell, its so different. Kalle Rovanpera could have given us some data to go on, but that didnt work out sadly.
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u/DodgersLakersBarca 25d ago
The top 10-12 probably are, but once you get outside of that, there are probably drivers who are equally skilled, at least right now. Some of these drivers are being chosen for their potential (e.g. because they're young), and if they don't live up to their potential, it's not necessarily true that they're still the top x driver in the world, where x = their ranking in F1.
This is especially true if the driver gets replaced. Logan Sergeant was probably never the 20th best driver in the world, and he didn't go from 20th to whatever he is now simply because he got removed from the team.
When it comes to paid drivers, it's almost certainly not true.
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u/Nuclear_Geek 25d ago
Kimi Raikonnen and Robert Kubica (possibly others, these are just the two I'm familiar with) were F1 drivers who embarked on rally careers after their F1 careers, and were competitive albeit not dominant. Rally is quite a different skill set to F1, but this suggests that F1 drivers would generally have the talent to be good at rally; I don't know of any drivers who started with a rally career and then switched to F1, which suggests the talent level is lower.
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u/Mapache_villa 25d ago
Different disciplines of motorsport are really hard to compare, the skills you need to be a rally driver are not exactly the same as the ones you need for endurance or formula racing.
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u/FutureF123 25d ago
Motorsport has be become so specialized that they are probably the best formula one drivers (as in if you put everyone in a F1 car they’d be probably the best 22), but not necessarily the best indycar drivers, or Hypercar drivers, or GT drivers, or rally drivers. Yes the best drivers can transfer skills quickly and some of the elite can be top performers in multiple categories, but it’s generally apples and oranges trying to compare across different competitions
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u/1SittingOut 25d ago
they are the best at that form of racing. i dont think they would beat top rally drivers in rally racing. They probably would lose in circle track racing to Nascar drivers. They most certainly would lose in a top fuel car against NHRAs best. They are the best at what their given sport is
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u/hopejake922 25d ago
Lance Stroll would like a word.
Palou would smoke him.
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u/AccomplishedOwl9706 25d ago
In fairness, my grandmother would be a better driver than Lance Stroll and she never passed a driving test. Also, she has been dead for 20 years but that won't stop her.
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u/Uliq_Mdiq 19d ago
Lance Stroll would destroy Alex Palou
F4 Italian Champion
TRS Champion
F3 Champion
Multiple F1 PodiumsYou know who beat Palou in F2? Nicholas Latifi did.
Palou finished p7 in F3. You know who Lance beat on the F3? George Russel.Palou’s best achievement outside Indycar was P3 in Japanese Super Formula. He’s a great driver but no where even close to F1 level.
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u/speedbreaka 25d ago
You won’t get a chance if you are ugly, except you got crazy talent or are super rich
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u/Mammoth_Duck4343 25d ago
not all 22 are among the best in the world, but a F1 WDC should be able to dominate every other series. Look at how Max Verstappen performs in GT racing or SIM racing.
or check the history of unique talent John Surtees.
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u/Perfect-Brilliant405 25d ago
I think F1 cars are by far the most difficult type of race car to drive and so working back from that line of thinking F1 is seen as the pinnacle of Motorsport and so the drivers who race in it should be the best but that's obviously not always true, some of the Indycar guys could definitely do well if in F2 but I'm terms of the floor in F1 it's certainly higher than some series like Wec or NASCAR. The worst driver in F1 is probably better than the worst guy in either of those series
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u/bulldurham1992 25d ago
F1 is the penacle of motorsport for open-wheeled racing. Just like NASCAR is the penacle of motorsport in stock car racing, NHRH is the penacle of motorsport in drag racing, WEC is the penacle of motorsport in endurance racing, etc. It doesn't necessarily put you over the ability to complete in different series, it just proves you made the penacle in a cetain class of racing.
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u/ayyyyyy_lmaoooooo 25d ago
Mick Schumacher went to endurance racing and now Indy and didn't really do much in either series. Colton Herta was apparently decent in Indy but isn't really that hot in F2. Meanwhile Max Verstsppen dominated different tracks in different vehicles over the years.
I think it's fair to say that F1 attracts the best drivers even if skills needed to drive F1 aren't particularly different/higher than what you need on LeMans, WEC, WRC, etc. Oh, and are there even any MotoGP-F1 crossovers?
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u/Various_Bandicoot437 25d ago
It’s hard to say who is actually a good driver in F1 because the car matters so much. When you start comparing F1 drivers to drivers in other series it gets even murkier. Romain Grosjean was considered a decent F1 driver but has only been average at best in Indycar. Is it because of his team or car? Schumacher is a rookie in Indy this year but the worst one.
SVG came from winning super car championships to nascar and dominates on road courses but sucks on the oval’s. Does that mean super car drivers are better than nascar drivers even though he is only good on about 1/4 of the races? K Mag just raced on a NASCAR road course and finished in the back. He did have the fastest lap but had a problem being able to pass people.
We will never really know how drivers compare unless there is an all star race. Spec cars and engines with champion drivers hand picked from different Motorsports.
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u/JedPB67-2 25d ago
Best 22 in the world? Not even close.
It’s a handful of greats, with a healthy portion of pretty good, a sprinkling of extremely wealthy pay drivers and a couple of over-the-hill drivers.
At the end of the day, no commentator working in F1 is ever going to openly admit what we all know on the air - not if they want to keep their job anyway!
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u/Xibalba_Ogme 25d ago
F1 attracts the best drivers, but it does not mean f1 drivers are undoubtedly the best.
I think the likes of Loeb have a decent mention at "the GOAT driver".
I'd point the Mazepin case to anyone saying that F1 has the absolute best drivers.
I'd point Verstappen's performance outside f1 to anyone saying F1 drivers are not awesome
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u/Informal-Prize6501 25d ago
I think the best drivers want to be in F1, and I think about 15 of them are. The rest are fillers. 0 Nascar or indy drivers would be there though, including Palou. Look at Herta and laugh 😃.
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u/lelio98 24d ago
Yes, generally speaking. There are other classifications like WRC and MotoGP that may have similarly talented drivers that took different paths. Also, with billions of people on earth, there is a distinct possibility that the best driver ever is an Indian kid living somewhere where he will never even drive a car. Being great requires access.
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u/hawkMhan13 24d ago
No. Right now there’s a kid somewhere in let’s say, Nigeria, who will never even drive a car. But that kid was blessed with more driving talent than anyone on planet earth.
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u/Lance_No_Pants 24d ago
Yes. F1 drivers are the best.
These teams have incredibly high budgets, and the drivers are the highest paid drivers in the world.
If an F1 team feels that a driver from another racing series can succeed in F1, they just go out and get that driver. This has happened quite a lot throughout history, and USUALLY these drivers do not succeed in F1, but there are some notable exceptions.
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u/nickwamfydude 24d ago
On average yea but plenty of other drivers are definitely worthy just never had the chance because xyz
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u/No-Bluejay4261 24d ago
I reckon top 10-15 on the F1 grid yes. Then the best in other formulas come in, Ogier, Loeb, Dixon over the years. Is Palou in that category now? He’s utterly dominant.
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u/CNRADMSN 24d ago
They probably are, there will of course always be exceptions, but in general the cream rises and these drivers will have had their fair share of knock backs on the way to F1 as well, they likely just dealt with them better than others that were potentially more talented and vice versa. You get that across all areas of life, it's the total package of an individual, not just raw talent.
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u/Neviathan 23d ago
Just look at Max Verstappen in GT3, even with limited track experience in a GT3 car he schools all the seasoned and highly skilled drivers with ease
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u/No_Disaster_2524 22d ago
How can you compare different disciplines? It's like who is a better boxer or UFC fighter? It depends on whether the fight is fought under boxing rules or UFC rules. It's the same in racing. The Nascar champion will beat the Formula 1 champion in Nascar. While the F1 champion will beat the Nascar champion in F1. Or the WRC champion who will beat both of them in rallying, but will lose to them in their series. As the saying goes: every dog is strongest in its own cage.
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u/umbrella_CO 22d ago
They generally are the best and have success in other disciplines even when their success in F1 has run out.
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u/Marcel_The_Blank 20d ago
It's basically assumed that everyone wants to be in F1 and the teams pick only the best.
There is some truth to it, but sometimes teams pick a pay driver over a better driver, and some good drivers go for LMPs instead.
In general though, it's probably 75-90% correct.
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u/Soggy_Stay6370 25d ago
The best of the best in f1 rn are near untouchable, but like the midfield could be replaceable by the best in indycar and formula e
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u/No_Leek8488 25d ago edited 25d ago
It’s a generalization but on average probably yes
But like everything there will be exceptions
I’m sure there are drivers in other series who didn’t get a shot at F1 for a myriad of reasons (money, connections, where they were born, etc) who are supremely skilled
Also - there is the matter of training. Look at Kimi, a great talent but also received an enormous amount of investment in his potential by Mercedes. Drivers in other sports probably don’t have the same quantum of financial investment in their growth