What’s the best possible driver partnership in F1 right now?
In F1, driver pairings do matter. And it’s not quite as simple as putting the best two drivers on the grid in the same car. It’s all very well having two great drivers but if the chemistry isn’t there it can be costly.
We already know that Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton don’t go together - in fact, Ron Dennis’s masterplan to team them up probably cost McLaren a driver’s title in 2007. Alonso ended up being the spanner in the works - some of that was his fault, but McLaren should have realised that a double former world champ might want top billing within a team.
Lewis and Heikki Kovalainen is the perfect example of how well a driver partnership can work. Heikki accepts his role as No.2, for now at least, and both drivers are seeing the benefit. Would Michael Schumacher have won so many world titles with a stronger No.2? Maybe not. Schumi was at his happiest with a slower team-mate who accepted his status as team leader.
We also think Ferrari could find a better fit than Kimi and Massa. They are both fine drivers, but somehow they don’t work as a pairing. There seems to be no chemistry/interaction between them at all.
If you were a team boss, which two drivers would you put together?
For the record, Grid Crasher would put Lewis Hamilton with Robert Kubica - both are young, very quick and supremely self-confident.
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5 responses so far
1 Berger // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:06 am
Fernando Alonso with Robert Kubica.
Forget Hamilton, he can only work in a team where he is treated like God, like Schumacher before him. Put a talented driver like Kubica alongside Hamilton and it wont be long before his dad Anthony and him conspire to get that driver out of favour with the media and the team and ultimately sacked.
2 broker // Aug 18, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Alonso & Kubica would be the best line-up!
3 One // Aug 19, 2008 at 5:11 am
Mark Webber has the greatest potential of all of the current drivers but has never had the machinery to show it. He’s always had the measure of teammate’s. He’d be a potential world champ in a Ferrari or McLaren and could out qualify anyone. The fact he’s driven nothing but slow, unreliable crap his whole career has worked against him. UN DER RATED! He’d be an awesome partner to Fernando Alonso, who I rate as the most gifted all round driver out there.
Granted, Hamilton is quick, but he seems like he is easily unsettled. Also, I’m not so sure about his ability to set up a car. If he wasn’t in a team with such significant banks of data, could he setup a car himself in a lower ranked team and come up with performances of the likes of Alonso and Webber?
Webber and Alonso for mine.
4 BJ // Aug 23, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Massa and Hamilton seem to get on well and compete well against each other… that would be an interesting pairing, as long as they are in red cars…
5 RustyRuss // Aug 23, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Hey ONE, did you see the British GP this year?!