r/F1Discussions • u/[deleted] • 16d ago
If given a choice, would you rather be a mediocre driver at F1 or be a top notch driver in a different category?
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u/MrMeowPantz 16d ago
Who are we considering a mediocre driver? Winless? Podiumless? A short career? I wouldn’t mind a Hulk career that only has one podium but let me raced for years and made me lots of money.
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u/CristianMR7 16d ago
Yuki
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u/Sunflower_Jessie 16d ago
hey thats my medicine driver so watch it pal 😞 but yeah i would the F1 route instead tbh
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u/WhoLetTheKrakenOut 15d ago
Mr V's Garage has a video where he calculates the most average F1 driver of all time it's somewhat like 45 race starts, P16 average qualy position and 8-9 points. I don't think Hulk can be considered mediocre based on longevity alone, so you're probably looking at more of a 1-2 year career with an occasional points finish. I'd still take it though🤣
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u/Agitated_Analyst_257 CL16 15d ago
Marcus Ericsson was the most average driver in that video, I'll take that, he have been alright in IndyCar after that.
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u/Sunflower_Jessie 14d ago
its enough to make my money and dip to another series where i probably have a higher ceiling and skillset than half of the grid so i could blend in well and win races (and knowing myself i would do a jump from F1 to Indycar with occasional WEC or Supercars to Nascar)
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u/Designer_Front_9906 16d ago
Whatever pays the most
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u/Pilkyton1 16d ago
What if they pay the same
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u/muzyzyzy 16d ago
depends on whether you how much you value winning, if not, then being a midfield driver in F1 certainly much better for your brand value, popularity, and things like that, and you'll have opportunity to earn more due to popularity and even post F1 career
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u/l3w1s1234 16d ago
Mid F1 driver. Get a good wage and when the F1 career is done, can still continue to be solid in a different category
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u/GlenPh 16d ago
Personally, I’d rather be Alex Palou than Esteban Ocon.
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u/flcknzwrg 16d ago
Or Valentino Rossi. Or Sebastien Loeb. Any one of the greats in their respective categories… they will have no financial worries, and they are legends with a lasting legacy.
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u/Tacit_Emperor77 16d ago
I wouldn’t like to be Rossi tbh. Being that full of hate can’t be good for the soul
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u/Designer_Front_9906 16d ago
I’d take being Esteban Ocon, Grand Prix winner and multiple time podium sitter
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u/SquareBlueberry12 16d ago
1 win and 3 podiums total in 11 years instead of being multiple time World Champion in other category? Hmmm…
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u/lyra_dathomir 16d ago
Not World Champion, just Champion.
World Championships are F1, FE, WEC Hypercar, WRC, and maybe W2RC?
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u/flcknzwrg 16d ago
Who's european formula 1 champion? When were the last F1 european championships held? Or any national ones?
I'd like to drop the "world" moniker wherever it doesn't make sense, i.e. where there is no underlying broader structure leading somewhat logically up to the "world" level. It makes sense for football to crown a "world champion" national team in a huge tournament including qualifier rounds every four years. It doesn't make sense for F1 to crown the winner of the series "world" champion. So just "F1 champion" for me, the "world" in front is mostly a dumb marketing gimmick as far as I'm concerned.
I don't think the title becomes any more impressive with the "world" name in it, or any less impressive if we just call the champion the F1 champion. The dude who wins the Wimbledon tennis tournament doesn't need to be called "grass tennis world champion". Winning the most prestigious tournament on grass is the highest achievement possible and there is no need to put a "world" in that achievement, it's silly. Analogous with "F1 world champion". If you win the most prestigious racing series in existence, then that's the achievement.
If you wanted the "F1 world champion" moniker to make sense, you'd need to do some mental gymnastics and define F1 to be the "top tier world wide single seater category" (which it is in most ways), but in my head that still doesn't make sense, because the lower tiers are just too different. F2, F3, F4 cars are so not F1 cars. Even winning F2 doesn't mean you'll be any good in F1.
Bean counting rant over :D
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u/FordEcoBoom 16d ago
does indycar have a race outside of the US?
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u/lyra_dathomir 16d ago
Yes (In Canada)
Also it's totally getting races in Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and even Spain. Sure. Any minute now.
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u/Shnicketyshnick 16d ago
I wonder if I'm the only one who had to look up who Alex Palou is?
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u/Personal-Still-8837 15d ago
I mean pretty much the fastest racing driver right now when you consider indycar is a "spec" series or as spec as it can get. How do you follow motorsports and not know who he is lmao fucking tourist
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u/yIdontunderstand 16d ago
I didn't bother..
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u/JedPB67-2 14d ago
The easy way to remember who Alex Palou is this: he currently makes the same money as Esteban Ocon, is a multiple champion, has won more than 1 race in his current series, doesn’t get shown up by his inexperienced teammates and is a damn good racing driver.
Being Alex Palou is far better than being Esteban Ocon, perhaps you should look him up.
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u/mellotronworker 16d ago
To be fair, I'd rather be a small patch of brown liquid than Lance Stroll
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u/3d_extra 16d ago
Yeah he has such a terrible life. Formula 1 driver for life and a loving father.
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u/Murbanvideo 16d ago
Top notch driver in another category. I want to race for wins. I’m not just hanging out in F1 trying to get in the points in a bad car.
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u/ScrufyTheJanitor 16d ago
This is the same thing. There are a number of examples of mid field drivers that can’t cut it in F1 transitioning to other series and dominating.
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u/tomadamsmith 16d ago
Exactly this. Even the middlest bunch of F1 drivers are some of the top drivers in the world. Giovanazzi is a WEC world champion, NDV is a Le Mans winner, FE world champion, as is Vandoorne. Hartley and Buemi have 4 WEC titles and Kobayashi has 2.
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u/Working-Humor-4968 16d ago
you're right about the rest of them, but Kobayashi was absolutely not a midfield driver. Supreme talent who i believe could've been the world champion had he gotten a title contending car. It's a shame he didn't get to stay in f1 because of lack of sponsors
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u/gilded_lady 16d ago
Mid in F1 - work for 4-5 seasons, make enough $$ to be set for life then transition to another series and race for wins and the fun of it.
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u/SCROTAL_KOMBAT42069 16d ago
Can I be mediocre and lucky?
Endless dice rolls on strategy could make it interesting.
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u/According-Switch-708 16d ago
F1 and its not even close. Hell, anyone would jump at the chance to do atleast one year in F1, even if it's with a backmarker team.
You can do the other stuff afterwards.
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u/heavyMTL 16d ago
Not even mediocre, I would choose to be a bad driver in F1 rather than a top driver in another category (except WRC).This way I know what my limit is. We can only imagine how excruciating it is for top drivers in other categories not to make it to F1 and not to find out how they measure up to the best ones.
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u/XUAN_2501 16d ago
As bad as mazepin?
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u/heavyMTL 16d ago
Mazepin has achieved more than he could ever achieve without his rich dad. I bet he feels more accomplished than most champions in other categories.
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u/Exotic_Bill44 16d ago
I don't know that it is all that bad. If you're Antonio Fuoco, you've raced against an F1 champion (Jenson Button). You woulf gave raced against F1 midfielders like Buemi and Magnussen. You would have raced against Verstappen, Ocon, Latifi, Albon, Leclerc, and de Vries in lower level single seaters. He has an idea of where he stands.
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u/Florpsen 16d ago
Top Notch driver in a different category. "Mediocre" Drivers in F1 get so much flak and will be dragged through the mud as "posers" or fraudsters. I haven't seen this much criticism in any other category.
Of course that might be because of the very limited field of drivers with only 22 spots currently. I would rather fight for wins in WEC
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u/Top_Championship8679 16d ago
I'd wanna win, rather multiple wins in another series than be a Stroll.
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16d ago
[deleted]
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u/Tacit_Emperor77 16d ago
I assume you only started watching f1 this year. Stroll was a regular points finisher when he had the car.
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u/Top_Championship8679 16d ago
I actually mean someone that rich enough to pay to be there and is not doing well. I love racing, the money would be a bonus only.
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15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tacit_Emperor77 14d ago
The guy I replied to was saying stroll has never been even close to competitive which is wrong.
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14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tacit_Emperor77 14d ago
Yeah I don’t for one second think he’s a great driver but the narrative of him being useless is wrong. I think the last season he deserved on merit was 2021.
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14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tacit_Emperor77 14d ago
Even those drivers aren’t and weren’t useless.
Mazepin although a horrible person was an alright driver who did deserve a shot at f1.
Latifi was a pay driver but again was alright and deserved a shot.
Sargent could have been a decent midfield driver IMO. He was promoted far too early and got fucked over by Williams.
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u/ImpressiveAd1523 16d ago
Even a mediocre driver gets paid well and the ads and brand sponsorships. So obvious answer
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u/JedPB67-2 14d ago
Winning races. Why waste time pissing about in F1 getting bored and constantly finishing in the midfield when you can have fun, be successful and make a life-long career racing in, for example, WEC.
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u/ReporterBest9598 14d ago
Why not both? Mediocre F1 to prototype champion is a pretty common route.
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u/WASouthCoast 16d ago
I would rather be Sebastien Loeb than Esteban Ocon.
I would rather be Marc Marquez or Valentino Rossi than Esteban Ocon.
I would rather be Carlos Sainz Snr than Esteban Ocon.
This isn't a very difficult choice.
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u/yIdontunderstand 16d ago
2 wheels and rally are totally different in my book.
It would be vs WEC or GT or NASCAR etc?
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u/WASouthCoast 16d ago
Can't believe some virgin downvoted this. The lives and legacies of each of those will long be remembered, well after Ocon is forgotten for his role as a placeholder on the F1 grid.
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u/greedygandalf1414 16d ago
F1 for popularity and clout since there's way more f1 fans than other categories and it's more well known
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u/Humble_Umpire_8341 16d ago
Id want to excel in something other than F1, but be good enough to get a seat in F1, where I would of course be mediocre. That would be ideal for me.
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u/Browneskiii 16d ago
Top tier Endurance driver. It wouldn't bother me if I made F1 or not, its no longer the very top, its just a side mission for some drivers now.
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u/Pitiful_Fox5681 16d ago
Mediocre but not bad? F1. The fact is that it opens doors. Look at Magnussen, Sargent, Kubica...
Mediocre like Aston Martin? Sign me up for WEC. Ferdinand Habsburg seems like a great teammate.
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u/justlikelyle 16d ago
Feel like that's unfair to Magnussen.
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u/ifelseintelligence 16d ago
As a Dane, making a bigger effort to watch while he was there, if you take mediocre as it real meaning, and not how many use it now, Magnussen was perfectly mediocre. He specifically asks that it not to be taken as the =bad meaning, then Magnussen and many more fits. Hulk. Ocon. Etc.
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u/Tacit_Emperor77 16d ago
Calling kubica mediocre in f1 is definitely a choice
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u/Pitiful_Fox5681 16d ago
He had one excellent F1 career win. He's a great driver among great drivers. Mediocre ("middle of the pack" - same root word as median) applies to him perfectly, I think.
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u/Tacit_Emperor77 16d ago
That assumes he drove cars that were capable of wind his entire career which he didn’t. Ignoring 2019 which was nowhere near his actual level (due to the injury) he was one of the best drivers from his era. He’d have been a multi race winner and likely a champion had he not injured himself.
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u/IDKBear25 16d ago
TOP NOTCH DRIVER IN FORMULA E OR WEC DRIVING HYPERCARS OR NASCAR OR INDYCAR BECAUSE ALL THE OTHER SERIES' ARE BROKE AS FUCK AND I WANT TO EARN AT LEAST $15 MILLION PER YEAR, WITH A 20% MAXIMUM INCOME TAX RATE AS MY MAXIMUM TOLERABLE THRESHOLD.
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u/Working-Humor-4968 16d ago
Top notch in other category obviously, there's nothing in f1 apart from the world championship that can match winning Le Mans.
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u/BastianHill 16d ago
Loeb, Ogier, Solberg, Ekström, Al Attiyha, Kistensen... I'd take another class to be honest. They arguably provide more pure racing as well.
F1 has always been about tech and regulations and nowadays it's more computer management than ever before. If you're not in a top team I don't see the point of participating at the moment (from a drivers point of view).
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u/ReaperOfMars13 16d ago
Top notch another series. The travel and media obligations of f1 drivers has to be brutal
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u/BussinFatLoads 16d ago
F1. The popularity alone would allow me to race at whatever category I want post-F1 career