Gary Anderson is the reason I watch the BBC, although I have now also grown to like David Coulthard, something I thought impossible.

It is no surprise to see Clark so far ahead of the likes of Vettel and others yet his potential was so much greater.
Clark only ever drove for Lotus throughout his career and no other top driver drove for only one team, making Clark's statistics all the more remarkable when you consider the relatively poor years Lotus had in 62. 64 and certainly in 66, where Chapman was unable to provide a good car for his drivers, however, even in the abysmal 1966 season Clark managed a win, in fact the only ever win for a car with more than 12 cylinders, and the mechanics had still been bolting it together on the grid!
Indeed there is little doubt that Clark's loyalty to Chapman cost him championships.
Argueably even in 1965 the BRM P261 was superior to the Lotus 33, and had Stewart a bit more experience he should have been a real threat to Clark for championship honours.
Although I think most observers accept that, given a good car Clark would have won the championship from '62-67. As it was he often had to do with unreliable and less than confidence inspiring machinery, especially until it was sorted, best proven by the 49.

Vettel has arrived at a good time in a good team and is making the most of it, he is hoping it will last a long time and who can blame him, wasn't that the reason why Alonso went to Ferrari at the first opportunity?
Expectations of many fairly easy success's.
What level Vettel's talent is at I don't know for sure although he is seeming better than Webber.

All this talk of Raikkonen to Red Bull next season is interesting.
It puts me in mind of 1985 when Rosberg left Williams to go to McLaren. I think it is fair to say most people thought Prost was going to get a hammering.
However, his knowledge of the car, the team and the systems meant Rosberg was not a threat to him until Adalaide, the last race of the year.
That is precisely why Hamilton has been so impressive at Mercedes. Rosberg has years of experience with that team and yet Hamilton is his match.
A very interesting situation that will be fascinating to watch as it develops.

The Ferrari is looking surprisingly poor considering its relative performance. The car seems very quick when light and on worn tyres. It is always there at the end though. Testing is so productive.

I am unsure of Force India's ability to maintain their current form, especially with such a bad tempered driver!
However it could be that talent shows over the next season or two, but too difficult for me to assess at the moment.

I've got to say, I wish I had written that McLaren assessment. Right in every little detail.

n six osix

to be honest i just dont know the answer to your question , it is a really difficult one to judge as alonso and vettel are always going to outperform anything they drive so naturally the logical conclusion is red bull and ferrari are the top teams at the moment ,

when you have two drivers of that calibre that are decimating there respective team mates in the same machinery it is hard for us to judge how good the red bull and ferrari actually are in relation to merc and lotus -

alonso is at the top of his game and vettel is getting better every year in every dept so basically those two are throwing me a curved ball as to which team has the best machinery out of the top 4 at the minute --

pacific o blue

" i think it is fair to say that everybody thought prost was going to get a hammering "

what parts of prosts career did you miss ?

I think Gary has got it spot on with his assessment of the current teams.

Would be interesting to see how things shape up over the course of the season

Stats mean nought. Put all of the drivers, named above, in the same car and Senna would come out heads above the rest.

I have scientific data to prove this but I can't be ar sed.

You need to keep the government cloning program under wraps Irish!

Sorry Aristodemus but Dolly the sheep was no match for Senna in a single seater.

She drove a Wolf in sheep's clothing.

it is a really difficult one to judge as alonso and vettel are always going to outperform anything they drive so naturally the logical conclusion is red bull and ferrari are the top teams at the moment
------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry to nit-pick, but there isn't any such thing as 'outperforming' a car. You can get the maximum out of a car, but you cannot outperform it. That defies human capabilities.

the great AFL

yeh you are nit picking because unless you have a brussel sprout where your brain should be you knew exactly what i meant

"Sorry to nit-pick, but there isn't any such thing as 'outperforming' a car. You can get the maximum out of a car, but you cannot outperform it. That defies human capabilities."

No need to apologise for being right.
"Outperforming his car", is one of those trite remarks that has become acceptable to many people who should know better, like Martin Brundle and I believe I may have even heard Gary Anderson himself use it.

There was once a famous Scotsman who worked on a famous Starship and he, famously, had the correct phrase off pat,

"You cannae defy the laws of physics, Captain".

Every child is taught it and knows it, though some forget when they become "f one fans."

yeh you are nit picking because unless you have a brussel sprout where your brain should be you knew exactly what i meant
------------------------------------------------------------
I'm inclined to believe that either the Red Bull and the Ferrari have the most to give and Vettel and Alonso are getting the most out of their packages. They are not superhuman.

"You cannae defy the laws of physics, Captain".
------------------------------------------------------------
That's absolutely true, a summary of the point that I was making. It is simply impossible for man or woman to outperform a Formula 1 car. It does indeed defy the laws of physics.

the great AFL

as i said you knew exactly what i meant but as you know you have just joined the thread to nit pick instead of talking about the subject matter of the topic itself --

-------- you could always try talking about the subject matter instead of nit picking

For Christ's sake, I've stated that Red Bull and Ferrari have the most to give, that means that they have the best packages.

I also think that I made a mistake by stating that I was nit-picking. I wasn't, I was correcting an error of fact that you made.

the great AFL

why did you bother trying to correct me in the first place over something so trivial if you knew what i meant ?

why didnt you just comment on red bull and ferrari in the first place instead of nit picking

I'll tell you why I did it. I did it because it is a mistake that I've seen so many people make and you used it to form the basis of your argument. It is simply annoying, much like your constant focus on the word 'nit-picking' is. I regret bring up the word.

*bringing up

the great afl

so you dont think certain drivers by there own special abilities are able to get more out of a car than what is was reasonably designed to do --

No, I don't. I believe that they can extract the absolute maximum out of it, but nothing beyond that.

the great afl

did you ever watch senna on a qual lap with the whole car twitching and dancing going beyond the limits of what the chassis was designed to
do ?

Yes, and I still believe that he got what he could out of the car. Some drivers can get more out of cars than others, in that respect, you're correct. The cars back then were like that, Senna just happened to be able to extract the performance out of car, whether the car was a handful or not.

Still didn't manage 100%, nobody can or ever has.

the great afl

so a formula 1 car is designed to twitch and dance in its goal of setting the quickest time ?

aristodemus

you have lost me mate -- who did not manage 100% of what --

Martial deliberately misunderstanding a post. Well I never