Who was better, run on equal terms
The argument about who was better always jams in the same place: they never shared a car. Here that excuse is removed. Both drivers get identical machinery, the championship is re-run until luck stops deciding, and we look at who ends up ahead. Some of it we did not see coming. Between Senna and Schumacher, what changes the answer is not the circuit or the rain, it is how many races the championship lasts. Of seven dream transfers that never happened, four would have changed nothing, because those cars won with anybody inside. And the age curve has a trap worth seeing before you use it to win an argument.
7 articles
Alonso has won 14 of his 15 team-mate duels: every intra-team battle counted since 1988
Your team-mate is the only rival driving your car. We counted the 243 intra-team duels with a full shared season since 1988: who won, the 15 whitewashes where somebody took every single Sunday, and the 23 pairs that finished level. Plus a number no standings table shows: in 11.9% of duels, the driver who wins more Sundays loses the year on points.
21 September 2026 · 9 min read
Vettel and Schumacher: 11 titles between them, and what if they had overlapped
Vettel drives a lap at Monza in tribute to Schumacher. Between them they hold 11 championships, 144 wins and 125 poles, and since 1988 Germany has more titles than any other country, eleven of them belonging to these two men. Since they never raced each other on equal terms, we put them in the same car for 150 seasons.
3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Eleven legends, one car, 8,250 seasons: the greatest-of-all-time league
We put eleven GOAT candidates in the exact same car and ran them against each other: 55 duels, 150 championships apiece. Verstappen and Schumacher pull clear; Senna, Prost and Hamilton finish in a dead heat no amount of simulation can break. And the rain did something that sent us looking inside the engine.
22 August 2026 · 9 min read
Senna versus Schumacher, same car, 2,400 championships: length decides everything
We made them team-mates in the same car and ran the championship at six different lengths. Over one race it is a coin toss (48.5%); over twenty-four, Schumacher takes two in three. He does not win more races: he loses fewer. And in the rain the simulator falls short, for a reason we spell out.
22 August 2026 · 7 min read
Seven transfers that never happened, actually run: four would have changed nothing
We genuinely placed each driver in the car he never drove, against that year’s real grid. Alonso in Vettel’s Red Bull wins exactly what Vettel won: that car won with anybody in it. The one that does swing is Hamilton in the 2017 Ferrari, where Vettel takes no titles at all and Hamilton takes 87%.
22 August 2026 · 8 min read
What age is a Formula 1 driver at their best? The curve and its trap
Fifteen hundred careers measured by age. The chart says drivers keep improving until 36, and it lies: between 28 and 30, 74% of the grid disappears. What is left once you correct for survivorship bias.
6 August 2026 · 7 min read
Twelve teammate duels, in exactly the same car
Senna against Prost, Alonso against Hamilton, Hamilton against Rosberg: twelve real pairings, five seasons each, machinery exactly equalised. The most famous duel in history ends in a technical draw; four others finish 5-0.
6 August 2026 · 9 min read