My opinion of Formula 1’s 2016 season remains pretty much the same 9 months later and has in fact been reinforced by the on-track action. 2016 has again been a two-horse race or rather “two jockeys on one horse” race as the other “horse” in the race has miserably failed to prance. Even as the driver’s title stands on a cliffhanger, the inevitably of it falling in Mercedes’ hands is not enticing to say the least. The title fight going to the last race does not justify the largely boring on-track action throughout the season. Races like Brazil don’t happen too often and even then Pirelli’s rubbish wet weather tyres nearly managed to spoil the show. Having grown up in awe of Senna’s and Schumacher’s driving prowess and personalities, I think Verstappen’s drive has given me a reason to get behind someone since the vacuum left behind by Schumacher. Few great personalities have arisen in F1 since then and I have filled the void by devoting greater allegiance to Rossi as MotoGP has become the motorsport to beat.
Coming back to F1, this time I have decided to present the 2016 season in graphs based on public available statistics from f1.com and f1fanatic.co.uk, both of which are great resources for any F1 fan. The statistics can be said to mostly favour Rosberg because all things considered, he has been the consistent one. Keeping Hamilton’s engine gremlins aside, he still qualified outside the front row on few instances, something that Rosberg hasn’t done all season. Also, the fluffing of the starts can’t be put down to the car alone, so Hamilton must take his fair share of the blame even as his race pace has been better on most occasions. Having said so, even Rosberg has been untouchable once he’s in the race lead, so one can draw one’s own conclusions. Perhaps, having a new champion might be a welcome change going in to a new F1 era in 2017. I have always been on the “more power, mechanical grip and less downforce” camp, so the 2017 rules are not far reaching as far as I am concerned. But I guess anything will do to disrupt the status quo.
While all the other websites will judiciously update the stats following this Sunday’s race, I am going to let this one be as it stands to put forth the perspective going in to the season finale, irrespective of who wins it all.
Race: (Click on the images for an enlarged view)
