One of the most common arguments I see thrown against Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamiltons achievements is that they came in an era where driver skill didn't play so big of a role. Ie 2000 - 2009 (for the sake of not going too far back) refuelling era, the racing in this time is described as sprint racing where the driver simply has to go all out between the pit stops, just bomb it all the way and the fastest most aggresive drivers will get the best results. No need to look after tyres because you get a new set soon and the team will deal with the strategy. 2010 no refuelling, this year the strategy for every driver was pretty much the same, do 13 laps in your first stint and then 40 laps in your second stint. The bridgestone tyres were pretty bullet proof and Brundle said many times they could last all day. When one driver would do his long stint first and short sprint at the end, he would be around 2 seconds faster than everyone else - Petrov got the fastest lap in Turkey. 2011/2 It's all about tyres and stategy, the tyres are super fragile, keeping them in good condition is vital as is getting the strategy just right. Driver speed seems to count for less in the races in this mini era, push too hard and you kill the tyres, drivers aren't pushing to the cars limit, they are keeping the tyres in ideal condition. So was driver skill more important in 2000-9 when it was all out speed, in 2010 when as long as you didn't seriously damage the tyes it was still about all out speed, or 2011/12 when its less about speed and more about looking after the tyres and strategies? edit: To make a big simplification there appears to be 2 core skills to each mini era 2000-9: Speed and Strategy 2010: Speed and Tyres 2011-2: Tyres and Strategy
without a doubt the drivers now have alot more to think about than they ever did in the dumbed down refuelling era , the "racing " if you could call it racing was nothing more than a battle between the respective teams fuel stop mathematicians on there state of the art banks of computer wizardry which turned the " races " into nothing more than a series of short uncomplicated sprints for the driver , said mathematicians would effectively do all the driver"s thinking for him with the driver safe in the knowledge he could rag the bullet hard bridgestone"s within an inch of there lives and use as much fuel as he liked in the short sprint knowing he was about to come in for fresh fuel and more coffin nail hard bridgestone"s , was this proper racing for the purists amongst us ? -- must admit many of the races in the refuelling era very often had a coma inducing effect on me - maybe not by accident since the introduction of pirelli tyres and the banning of the fuel stops the really smart drivers such as vettel and to a lesser extent button are now coming to the fore over some of there less tactical not so smart harder on there tyres rivals -
of recent I would say, the most recent! You can tell by how much Kimi has had to learn since his return. you have Tyre Management, KERS management, fuel management, DRS, Break bias, the new points system has made top points more important. More cars on the grid. closer competition. and many more things you may not even know about.
It's hard to say, I would say this year as the cars seem to change their characteristics during a race more. As for KERS and Fuel management, the instructions come over the radio on when and how to use them, (I used to prefer the lap boards myself), so is really only a case of following instruction rather than thinking it out for yourself.
