The car or the driver
It is the question that comes back every season, and it almost never gets a number: is he slow, or is the car? It can be measured, and the way to do it is to remove one of the two variables. Take the best driver on a grid and put him in the worst car. Take the worst and give him the best. Repeat it across seasons decades apart so no conclusion depends on one set of regulations. What comes out is uncomfortable for both of the usual positions: the car weighs far more than the people defending a driver will admit, and rather less than the people excusing one claim. The other half of the subject lives here too, the half almost nobody measures: what a weak second seat costs a team, and why the team that loses most points to it is precisely the one that notices least.
4 articles
Every 2026 driver in every 2026 car: 24,200 seasons on how much the seat is worth
We put each 2026 driver in each 2026 car (242 combinations, 100 championships each) to settle the argument that comes round every year: is he slow, or is the car? Verstappen takes the title 97% of the time in the Mercedes and 1% in his own Red Bull. And the grid’s weakest driver in the best car finishes ahead of the best driver in the worst one.
22 August 2026 · 8 min read
What does a weak second driver cost? 1,200 seasons with the seat swapped
Massa next to Alonso, Pérez next to Verstappen: we re-ran four real seasons changing only who sits in the second car. Ferrari 2010 goes from winning 3% of the constructors’ titles to 89%; Red Bull 2024 leaves 179 points a year on the table and does not care.
18 August 2026 · 8 min read
Talent or car? We simulated 2,000 driver careers to find out
Two thousand complete careers, from karting to retirement, measured one by one. Junior titles barely predict anything; the car decides almost everything: those who never drove a top-three car won no races at all, and those who got the best car became champion two times out of three.
6 August 2026 · 8 min read
How much is the car worth, and how much the driver? 600 simulated seasons
We put Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton and Verstappen in the worst car on their own grid, and the slowest driver in the best one. 11,400 races later: the car is worth eight places, it does not hand you titles, and talent pays three times more when the machinery is poor.
5 August 2026 · 8 min read