@Kingshark “guess” and “correct” are two words that don’t belong in the same sentence. You could guess, and you probably guess that your “guess” is correct. But my point is – these lists should not feature present drivers at all. They should only talk of past drivers, and compare those.
If you put in today’s drivers in these lists, it is bound to spark debate, no matter what you do. In such context, it is a no-win scenario. When these drivers are no longer active, and no longer have fans actively supporting them, then generally tensions calm down, and people tend to think more rationally, and can do a better comparison. Emphasis on “tend to.”
Your point brings up another important point – you don’t know. That is the operative phrase. You never know – how good a car is, and by extension, you don’t know how good the car is, because you don’t know how good the car is. As you say – maybe the HRT is actually the quickest car on this year’s grid – and Karthikeyan and de la Rosa are just rubbish drivers. Maybe the Ferrari is the slowest car on the grid and Alonso is working miracles. Who knows? Nobody.
That even extends to years past though. How do you know that Senna’s Toleman had something particular to his car – whether it be down to setup or design, that just clicked with Monaco 1984? Maybe he was actually driving a car 7s quicker than Prost’s McLaren, meaning he was actually quite a bit off the pace. Maybe, maybe maybe.
