F1 Fanatic

Sorry if this has been asked before!

Who do you think is the best driver and the best car of the 80′s, 90′s and 00′s?

Best Car:
80′s – Mclaren MP4/4
90′s – Williams FW14
00′s – Ferrari F2004

Best Driver
80′s – Senna/Prost
90′s – Schumacher
00′s – Schumacher

+2 Also agree with David A

And the 10s – RBR’s RB-6 ;)

For me, the F2002 was even better than the F2004. Ferrari were simply unstoppable in 2002, aside from Malaysia (where iirc they were still using the F2001), Monaco (which has always been a track which can throw up a strange result) and France (where Schumacher got a drive through penalty) they never even looked like failing to win. The only thing which counted against it was that it was often outqualified by Montoya’s Williams, but that never amounted to much come race day.

In 2004, on the other hand, Ferrari were rarely as dominant, there were few races- Malaysia, France, Canada, Britain, Germany etc which they could quite easily have lost, as well as the three races they didn’t win. And they had no real opposition all season, it was a bit of a transition year, with the decline of Williams and emergence of Renault. Don’t get me wrong, it was a brilliant car- I just think the F2002 was even better!

@ Ned Flanders – Your right, the F2002 has a slightly better wins ratio then the F2004;

F2002 – 17 races – 15 wins ( MS 11 wins, 0 DNF – RB 4 wins, 5 DNF )

F2004 – 18 races – 15 wins ( MS 13 wins, 1 DNF – RB 2 wins, 1 DNF )

F2002 won 88.2% of the races it entered.

F2004 won 83.2% of the races it entered.

But the F2004 is widely regarded as the fastest F1 car of all time. It’s certainly the fastest Ferrari F1 car, which can be seen by looking at the ultimate lap times recorded for various cars around Fiorano during 1000s of km done during testing.

Ferrari F2004 0’55.999 Michael Schumacher 2004
Ferrari F2003-GA 0’56.33 Michael Schumacher 2003
Ferrari 248 F1 0’57.099 Felipe Massa 2006
Ferrari F2005 0’57.146 Michael Schumacher 2005
Ferrari F2002 0’57.476 Michael Schumacher 2002
Ferrari F2007 0’58.366 Felipe Massa 2007
Ferrari F310B 0’59.00 Michael Schumacher 1997
Ferrari F2008 0’59.111 Mirko Bortolotti 2008
Ferrari F399 1’00.226 Luca Badoer 1999
Ferrari 412T 1’00.31 Jean Alesi 1994

You can also look at the fastest laps for the majority of circuits that were mostly unchanged through-out the period, and many are the still the same too this day, and you will see in most cases cars from 2004 hold the records (most times still stand to this day)

Magny-Cours – 1:15.377 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004
Nürburgring GP – 1:29.468 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004
Monza – 1:21.046 – Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari F2004
Melbourne – 1:24.125 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004
Interlagos – 1:11.473 – Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams BMW, 2004
Sepang – 1:34.223 – Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW FW26, 2004
Bahrain – 1:30.252 – Michael Schumacher Ferrari – F2004 ( GP Circuit)
Montreal – 1:13.622 – Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari F2004
Silverstone – 1:18.739 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, F2004. (Bridge Circuit)
Hockenheimring- 1:13.780 – Kimi Räikkönen, McLaren, 2004
Hungaroring – 1:19.071 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004,
Shanghai – 1:32.238 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004
San Marino – 1:20.411 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, F2004,
Monaco – 1:14.439 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004
Catalunya – 1:17.450 – Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004 (Pre Chicane)

(Notable tracks absent from this list are Spa and Suzuka, as they were wet weekends during the 2004 season.)

There is little too separate the F2002 and F2004 in terms of wins statistics, but its clear the F2004 was the faster of the two, probably off all time. So on that that basis, I put F2004 slightly above the F2002.

@ slr – The 2005 cars where certainly slowed by the single set per race tire rules, but the FIA also changed the Aero rules, which attempted to reduce downforce by roughly one-quarter (the teams clawed back most of it by the end of the season).
Engines also had to last two race weekends, double that of the 2004 regulations, which no doubt reduced the power available to the drivers during the races.

Your right, my apologies, Spa and Suzuka where both run on dry tyres.. I was at Spa that weekend and it was spitting on and off around the circuit during the race, but never enough too change to wets.

Suzuka was the weekend of Typhoon Ma-on, and both the qualifying and race were run on the Sunday. I wrongly remembered the track being partly wet during the race, but it was during qualifying where that was the case.

If I were going with the outright best it would be:

Best Car:
80′s – McLaren MP4/4
90′s – Williams FW18
00′s – Ferrari F2004

Best Driver
80′s – Prost
90′s – Senna
00′s – Schumacher

But, to keep things interesting, I’ll say these:

Best Car:
80′s – Lotus 99T. Honda Turbo power, active suspension, Senna, just awesome.
90′s – McLaren MP4/13. Newey rule change genius in silver wrapping paper.
00′s – Brawn BGP001. A bolt from the blue that was mega right out the box despite never being designed for the Mercedes engine.

Best Driver
80′s – Piquet
90′s – Hakkinen
00′s – Alonso