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As most fans will notice, certain drivers always seem to do better at certain tracks. Sometimes ideal results can be counted on whenever a driver races a particular circuit due to various reasons.
I'm putting together a list detailing driver's different approaches to putting their cars on the limit and what tracks lend themselves to those specific styles. I just wanted to get some feedback from you guys, since a lot of this is guesswork of course and a lot of you are sure to be quite knowledgeable when it comes to the history of different drivers' traits, performances, and specialties. I could be completely wrong in some respects! So let me know what you think. Feel free to suggest more.
Here's a short list first - keep in mind, certain drivers are just good everywhere, so I tried picking just one track where they're especially, or unusually, good:
Sebastian Vettel - Suzuka
Mark Webber - Monaco
Fernando Alonso - Singapore
Felipe Massa - Istanbul Park
Kimi Räikkönen - Spa
Lewis Hamilton - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Jenson Button - Albert Park
Nico Hulkenberg - Interlagos
Juan Pablo Montoya - Monza
Jarno Trulli - Monaco
Nico Rosberg - Shanghai
Nick Heidfeld - Sepang
Jim Clark - Silverstone
Jackie Stewart - Monaco or Nurburgring
Graham Hill - Monaco & Watkins Glen
James Hunt - Zandvoort
Emerson Fittipaldi - Monza
Ayrton Senna - Monaco
Nigel Mansell - Silverstone
Juan Manuel Fangio - Nurburgring
Michael Schumacher - Suzuka
Alain Prost - Jacarepaguá (Brazilian GP)
Niki Lauda - Spa
Gilles Villeneuve - Watkins Glen
Nelson Piquet - ile Notre-Dame/Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Mario Andretti - Jarama (Spanish GP)
Gerhard Berger - Hockenheimring
Damon Hill - Adelaide
Now this is an unformatted bunch of blurbs describing a handful of these drivers' styles, in my opinion only of course.
Starting off randomly with the two drivers who inspired me to start the list, trying to compare their very different styles.
Jenson Button's always been pretty strong around Albert Park, Monza, and Suzuka. He's really great with his switchbacks, he's elite when it comes to gunning through chicanes and fast esses. He needs nice and flowy tracks to really shine which is why he doesn't stand out too much in the Tilke tracks. Stop and go isn't his thing and it shows. He's much more comfortable with progressive increasing-radius corners where he can settle in on his understeer and push on it hard through long exits (Monza).
Lewis Hamilton's great in Canada since braking well consistently nets you a nice advantage there, he's terrific in S1 especially with its tight and tip-toey nature. That explains his naturally quick pace in Hungary as well since the whole track is like that, also S3 of Abu Dhabi. He always does well in tracks like that, with tight transitions and spacing (Monaco and Brazil as well even though he has bad luck there). One of the best ever at braking though. He has a sixth sense for braking at the absolute limit and he uses this over and over again in getting the best over his competition when he needs to. The only other driver that can really out-brake him is Alonso, but he's crazy when it comes to playing 'chicken' into a braking zone. Hamilton almost still drives his F1 cars like he's in a kart. Similar approaches in surprisingly many ways.
He also excels in learning from other drivers though, which is why he was so quick so fast in his first year. Send him out on his own and it may take him longer to really get up to speed, but let him see the lines for himself with veteran drivers and he has a knack of adapting himself for the course and pulling out pace. Also, the more references he gets (braking markers, rubber line, big rumble strips, etc.) the better he'll be off.
Button's choice of more classic geometric lines is both a strength and a weakness depending on the track. He likes sticking to the line that's best on paper, so to speak. But the ideal lines don't always have the most grip, especially on greener, less used, tracks that evolve a lot over the weekend of a GP. He's not as effective at feeling the grip because he isn't as intuitive with his driving as a Hamilton or Raikkonen. He'd much rather just drive the track as it's supposed to be driven by the book than sniff around for grip. It's not that he's incapable, it's just his preference from what we can tell. When it rains though, he takes all kinds of lines to find the right stance in the wet, like everyone else, but by then you have to.
As far as "U" style vs. "V" corner execution style, it's definitely a matter of how the driver prefers to pick up traction out of turns.
A good example that highlights differences between drivers in this regard is Luffield in Silverstone. What used to be turn 16 in the old GP circuit and is now turn 7. It's a long continuous radius turn where you can either hug the inside through the whole thing, keeping things smoother, or go for a faster entry to understeer mid-corner and double apex. Hamilton would go for the latter.
It's hard trying to pick a "worst" track for Hamilton though. Interesting fact: Hamilton's been on the podium for every single track F1's raced in his career, even the countries that switch year to year, all of them - except India.
But I'll have to say Hamilton's weakest track is probably Bahrain. Maybe it's the heat, the dust, whatever, but he's never been dominant there in any respect.
Ayrton Senna da Silva was on another planet at most city circuits. Monte Carlo, Macau, Adelaide, Phoenix, Detroit. It was easier to see how much braver he was compared to the rest of the drivers when the season came up on the Principality, or any track in the wet. In Monaco he was able to go so much faster than anyone else due to his ability to get on the throttle so aggressively and perfectly on the limit. He would also rape his clutch unlike anyone else, but somehow he was still able to keep it so on edge as to keep it working through the whole race. He would manipulate it, and blip the throttle, in places most people wouldn't dare and sometimes only in order to keep the turbo spooling, like through Parabolica in Monza. He definitely loved to utilize his oversteer at times, but those highlight vid's people keep showing over and over again of his car "dancing" around are actually mistakes. The difference with him is that he would power through moments of sudden oversteer like a tightrope walker that would catch his balance yet still maintain his momentum forward rather than pause to collect himself as most others would. His best ability was keeping balance and the attitude of his cars in check no matter what the condition or angle of attack. A complete driver in every sense of the word. He was masterful when it came to finding the best grip and lines lap to lap, he would leave other drivers just dumbfounded. As a result of all these talents, he became the best driver in the wet of all time as well.
Michael Schumacher was king of Suzuka and Magny-Cours. You just couldn't beat him there if he was on even half of his game. Suzuka played excellently into his trail-braking aptitude (he'd go faster in T1 than anyone because of that, Spoon, and Degner as well) and talent for extremely precise and progressive throttle on exit (which is why he would like his Ferrari to have a lean towards predictable and consistent understeer that he could control with the throttle rather than having to 'unwind' the wheel), which is really unrivaled. He had a point and squirt style, with a great ability to control his car in the apex perfectly, with a slight drift in order to better set up for the exit on tighter radius turns. It's almost like Hamilton (who I believe shares a lot of the same characteristics and preferences), but much more controlled mid-corner, as in, godlike control mid-corner. He'd make his teammates look like they were driving with more weight compared to him, just watch some of his onboards. He was never fully off throttle though, which is why he prefered to scrub speed off by breaking traction ever so slightly rather than lifting or tapping the brake as others may've done in certain corners. He was the first to really refine the totally smooth corner approach even starting back in the Benetton years. Everyone would continue to be relatively ragged on the throttle and line up for their exit with hard steering input mid-corner while Schumi would already be ready for it using his special set up that would cause the car to slightly stick its rear out on apex with a really graceful and gradual increase in steering lock, and he could still come in on the throttle very gently at the same time. One could even say he influenced standard set up for modern F1 with this very successful approach to getting the most out of his cars.
He was also known as the Regenmeister (rain master) of his generation in his peak. I don't have to say anything, only point you to the 1996 Spanish Grand Prix.
Alain Prost was incredible at Brazil (Jacarepaguá), Magny-Cours, and he also dominated at the Osterreichring in Austria back in '86. He won by a whole lap to P2. As far as style went though, he was a lot like Button and Vettel are now, very calculated, preferring to risk a lot less than the others. Kept inside the limits, only going to the edge when necessary. The consistency really paid off for him. He drove as Bruce Lee would say, like water. He built teams around him and could drive the wheels off any car of any type or design philosophy. He was very intricate with his inputs. he was much more aggressive on entry than exit, preferring to sort out the oversteer before it could catch him out. He had a great knack for feeling the tires, which is part of the reason he would do so well in developing cars with different teams. He was all about managing traction while others would worry about just keeping their pace up at all costs. He would've done extremely well in this era of racing we're looking at now with the Pirellis. While other drivers would put their thumbs in the air and jump into the deep end of the pool straight away, Alain would start from the shallow end. He wasn't fearless, he was determined to keep himself grounded and would rather score points than win if going for the win meant too much risk.
Mika Häkkinen was great at Spa and Suzuka, he always had a very aggressive approach to all tracks which became refined after his accident in Australia. He became more calculated after that and was very good at bringing his car home ever GP. He didn't like putting up with understeer much, but didn't want to rely on the car stepping out in order to point it where he wanted it. He was very much the in-between driver when it came to style. He needed a neutral set up in order to maintain his optimal stance, which was a later turn-in than most and a nice predictable and correctable oversteer he was comfortable with on exit. He excelled at Spa because it rewards drivers who favor good traction over dramatic full use of the surface. Spa seems like a big open track where drivers can just go for it and get a good time by going wide as possible on exit and digging deep mid corner, but it needs a gentleman's approach. There's a very particular groove to that track and only certain drivers can really gel with it nicely without having to be told, or even really be aware about it. Suzuka's almost the same way, but it is a tighter circuit. Mika did well there because he knew how to keep the car squarely on the faster line, which is all about exit and late apexes - his specialty. One of the few drivers able to outdo Schumi there on an even level as well. He was an engineer's driver for sure though, a great tester and developer. Mechanics wouldn't have to guess at why the car was doing certain things in his hands, he was a robot with consistency and textbook driving.
Damon Hill was really really great at Hungary and Australia (Adelaide). Spa as well. He was extremely good at throttle control, so when he came into Williams after TC was banned (well, any electronic aids at all) it was good timing. He showed how natural of a talent he had been, coming into F1 in his 30's, it'd been like he already had a good few years of experience under his belt. He had a different approach to settling the car out of corners, utilizing the diff by loading the rear with quick jabs to the throttle where others were a lot more progressive. This type of footwork hurt him sometimes, but it was just the way he knew best to get his car where he wanted it. His weakness was that he was a bit impatient when it came to the bigger more traditional circuits, with an exception for Spa, where he excelled in the racing, not so much over just one lap. He just kind of knew where to be around there in order to get on top of things. But usually, the shorter or slower the circuit, the faster he'd be for some reason. Like in Adelaide, he was a monster there in '95, beating P2 by two laps, and it wasn't a wet race or anything either. This may've been due to his slightly lesser ability to handle downforce. Whether this was due to inexperience in slicks and wings racing or just preference on mechanical grip, I'm not sure. But it would explain why he's quicker on the slower circuits. He relied much more on responding to what the tires were telling him through the chassis and his ass rather than "eyes on the air" driving like most drivers are good at these days (more like piloting an airplane with the wheel than driving a car going by the seat of your pants). This was especially evident when he was at Jordan in '99, the first year of four-groove slicks in F1, where he suffered getting to grips *rimshot* with the new rubber. It's too bad he didn't start earlier, he could've probably had a couple more championships.
I'm putting together a list detailing driver's different approaches to putting their cars on the limit and what tracks lend themselves to those specific styles. I just wanted to get some feedback from you guys, since a lot of this is guesswork of course and a lot of you are sure to be quite knowledgeable when it comes to the history of different drivers' traits, performances, and specialties. I could be completely wrong in some respects! So let me know what you think. Feel free to suggest more.
Here's a short list first - keep in mind, certain drivers are just good everywhere, so I tried picking just one track where they're especially, or unusually, good:
Sebastian Vettel - Suzuka
Mark Webber - Monaco
Fernando Alonso - Singapore
Felipe Massa - Istanbul Park
Kimi Räikkönen - Spa
Lewis Hamilton - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Jenson Button - Albert Park
Nico Hulkenberg - Interlagos
Juan Pablo Montoya - Monza
Jarno Trulli - Monaco
Nico Rosberg - Shanghai
Nick Heidfeld - Sepang
Jim Clark - Silverstone
Jackie Stewart - Monaco or Nurburgring
Graham Hill - Monaco & Watkins Glen
James Hunt - Zandvoort
Emerson Fittipaldi - Monza
Ayrton Senna - Monaco
Nigel Mansell - Silverstone
Juan Manuel Fangio - Nurburgring
Michael Schumacher - Suzuka
Alain Prost - Jacarepaguá (Brazilian GP)
Niki Lauda - Spa
Gilles Villeneuve - Watkins Glen
Nelson Piquet - ile Notre-Dame/Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Mario Andretti - Jarama (Spanish GP)
Gerhard Berger - Hockenheimring
Damon Hill - Adelaide
Now this is an unformatted bunch of blurbs describing a handful of these drivers' styles, in my opinion only of course.
Starting off randomly with the two drivers who inspired me to start the list, trying to compare their very different styles.
Jenson Button's always been pretty strong around Albert Park, Monza, and Suzuka. He's really great with his switchbacks, he's elite when it comes to gunning through chicanes and fast esses. He needs nice and flowy tracks to really shine which is why he doesn't stand out too much in the Tilke tracks. Stop and go isn't his thing and it shows. He's much more comfortable with progressive increasing-radius corners where he can settle in on his understeer and push on it hard through long exits (Monza).
Lewis Hamilton's great in Canada since braking well consistently nets you a nice advantage there, he's terrific in S1 especially with its tight and tip-toey nature. That explains his naturally quick pace in Hungary as well since the whole track is like that, also S3 of Abu Dhabi. He always does well in tracks like that, with tight transitions and spacing (Monaco and Brazil as well even though he has bad luck there). One of the best ever at braking though. He has a sixth sense for braking at the absolute limit and he uses this over and over again in getting the best over his competition when he needs to. The only other driver that can really out-brake him is Alonso, but he's crazy when it comes to playing 'chicken' into a braking zone. Hamilton almost still drives his F1 cars like he's in a kart. Similar approaches in surprisingly many ways.
He also excels in learning from other drivers though, which is why he was so quick so fast in his first year. Send him out on his own and it may take him longer to really get up to speed, but let him see the lines for himself with veteran drivers and he has a knack of adapting himself for the course and pulling out pace. Also, the more references he gets (braking markers, rubber line, big rumble strips, etc.) the better he'll be off.
Button's choice of more classic geometric lines is both a strength and a weakness depending on the track. He likes sticking to the line that's best on paper, so to speak. But the ideal lines don't always have the most grip, especially on greener, less used, tracks that evolve a lot over the weekend of a GP. He's not as effective at feeling the grip because he isn't as intuitive with his driving as a Hamilton or Raikkonen. He'd much rather just drive the track as it's supposed to be driven by the book than sniff around for grip. It's not that he's incapable, it's just his preference from what we can tell. When it rains though, he takes all kinds of lines to find the right stance in the wet, like everyone else, but by then you have to.
As far as "U" style vs. "V" corner execution style, it's definitely a matter of how the driver prefers to pick up traction out of turns.
A good example that highlights differences between drivers in this regard is Luffield in Silverstone. What used to be turn 16 in the old GP circuit and is now turn 7. It's a long continuous radius turn where you can either hug the inside through the whole thing, keeping things smoother, or go for a faster entry to understeer mid-corner and double apex. Hamilton would go for the latter.
It's hard trying to pick a "worst" track for Hamilton though. Interesting fact: Hamilton's been on the podium for every single track F1's raced in his career, even the countries that switch year to year, all of them - except India.
But I'll have to say Hamilton's weakest track is probably Bahrain. Maybe it's the heat, the dust, whatever, but he's never been dominant there in any respect.
Ayrton Senna da Silva was on another planet at most city circuits. Monte Carlo, Macau, Adelaide, Phoenix, Detroit. It was easier to see how much braver he was compared to the rest of the drivers when the season came up on the Principality, or any track in the wet. In Monaco he was able to go so much faster than anyone else due to his ability to get on the throttle so aggressively and perfectly on the limit. He would also rape his clutch unlike anyone else, but somehow he was still able to keep it so on edge as to keep it working through the whole race. He would manipulate it, and blip the throttle, in places most people wouldn't dare and sometimes only in order to keep the turbo spooling, like through Parabolica in Monza. He definitely loved to utilize his oversteer at times, but those highlight vid's people keep showing over and over again of his car "dancing" around are actually mistakes. The difference with him is that he would power through moments of sudden oversteer like a tightrope walker that would catch his balance yet still maintain his momentum forward rather than pause to collect himself as most others would. His best ability was keeping balance and the attitude of his cars in check no matter what the condition or angle of attack. A complete driver in every sense of the word. He was masterful when it came to finding the best grip and lines lap to lap, he would leave other drivers just dumbfounded. As a result of all these talents, he became the best driver in the wet of all time as well.
Michael Schumacher was king of Suzuka and Magny-Cours. You just couldn't beat him there if he was on even half of his game. Suzuka played excellently into his trail-braking aptitude (he'd go faster in T1 than anyone because of that, Spoon, and Degner as well) and talent for extremely precise and progressive throttle on exit (which is why he would like his Ferrari to have a lean towards predictable and consistent understeer that he could control with the throttle rather than having to 'unwind' the wheel), which is really unrivaled. He had a point and squirt style, with a great ability to control his car in the apex perfectly, with a slight drift in order to better set up for the exit on tighter radius turns. It's almost like Hamilton (who I believe shares a lot of the same characteristics and preferences), but much more controlled mid-corner, as in, godlike control mid-corner. He'd make his teammates look like they were driving with more weight compared to him, just watch some of his onboards. He was never fully off throttle though, which is why he prefered to scrub speed off by breaking traction ever so slightly rather than lifting or tapping the brake as others may've done in certain corners. He was the first to really refine the totally smooth corner approach even starting back in the Benetton years. Everyone would continue to be relatively ragged on the throttle and line up for their exit with hard steering input mid-corner while Schumi would already be ready for it using his special set up that would cause the car to slightly stick its rear out on apex with a really graceful and gradual increase in steering lock, and he could still come in on the throttle very gently at the same time. One could even say he influenced standard set up for modern F1 with this very successful approach to getting the most out of his cars.
He was also known as the Regenmeister (rain master) of his generation in his peak. I don't have to say anything, only point you to the 1996 Spanish Grand Prix.
Alain Prost was incredible at Brazil (Jacarepaguá), Magny-Cours, and he also dominated at the Osterreichring in Austria back in '86. He won by a whole lap to P2. As far as style went though, he was a lot like Button and Vettel are now, very calculated, preferring to risk a lot less than the others. Kept inside the limits, only going to the edge when necessary. The consistency really paid off for him. He drove as Bruce Lee would say, like water. He built teams around him and could drive the wheels off any car of any type or design philosophy. He was very intricate with his inputs. he was much more aggressive on entry than exit, preferring to sort out the oversteer before it could catch him out. He had a great knack for feeling the tires, which is part of the reason he would do so well in developing cars with different teams. He was all about managing traction while others would worry about just keeping their pace up at all costs. He would've done extremely well in this era of racing we're looking at now with the Pirellis. While other drivers would put their thumbs in the air and jump into the deep end of the pool straight away, Alain would start from the shallow end. He wasn't fearless, he was determined to keep himself grounded and would rather score points than win if going for the win meant too much risk.
Mika Häkkinen was great at Spa and Suzuka, he always had a very aggressive approach to all tracks which became refined after his accident in Australia. He became more calculated after that and was very good at bringing his car home ever GP. He didn't like putting up with understeer much, but didn't want to rely on the car stepping out in order to point it where he wanted it. He was very much the in-between driver when it came to style. He needed a neutral set up in order to maintain his optimal stance, which was a later turn-in than most and a nice predictable and correctable oversteer he was comfortable with on exit. He excelled at Spa because it rewards drivers who favor good traction over dramatic full use of the surface. Spa seems like a big open track where drivers can just go for it and get a good time by going wide as possible on exit and digging deep mid corner, but it needs a gentleman's approach. There's a very particular groove to that track and only certain drivers can really gel with it nicely without having to be told, or even really be aware about it. Suzuka's almost the same way, but it is a tighter circuit. Mika did well there because he knew how to keep the car squarely on the faster line, which is all about exit and late apexes - his specialty. One of the few drivers able to outdo Schumi there on an even level as well. He was an engineer's driver for sure though, a great tester and developer. Mechanics wouldn't have to guess at why the car was doing certain things in his hands, he was a robot with consistency and textbook driving.
Damon Hill was really really great at Hungary and Australia (Adelaide). Spa as well. He was extremely good at throttle control, so when he came into Williams after TC was banned (well, any electronic aids at all) it was good timing. He showed how natural of a talent he had been, coming into F1 in his 30's, it'd been like he already had a good few years of experience under his belt. He had a different approach to settling the car out of corners, utilizing the diff by loading the rear with quick jabs to the throttle where others were a lot more progressive. This type of footwork hurt him sometimes, but it was just the way he knew best to get his car where he wanted it. His weakness was that he was a bit impatient when it came to the bigger more traditional circuits, with an exception for Spa, where he excelled in the racing, not so much over just one lap. He just kind of knew where to be around there in order to get on top of things. But usually, the shorter or slower the circuit, the faster he'd be for some reason. Like in Adelaide, he was a monster there in '95, beating P2 by two laps, and it wasn't a wet race or anything either. This may've been due to his slightly lesser ability to handle downforce. Whether this was due to inexperience in slicks and wings racing or just preference on mechanical grip, I'm not sure. But it would explain why he's quicker on the slower circuits. He relied much more on responding to what the tires were telling him through the chassis and his ass rather than "eyes on the air" driving like most drivers are good at these days (more like piloting an airplane with the wheel than driving a car going by the seat of your pants). This was especially evident when he was at Jordan in '99, the first year of four-groove slicks in F1, where he suffered getting to grips *rimshot* with the new rubber. It's too bad he didn't start earlier, he could've probably had a couple more championships.
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