I'm not one to disagree with Prost! :-) Good example, SEVNT4!

I think WestSideBilly makes a good point - I'd be willing to bet that a top WRC driver would fare better at F1 than a F1 jockey in a WRC car...

It's really kind of silly to say who is "best" though in a way... F1 and WRC drivers are unhumanly skilled - period.

The $$$ thing is irrelevant.

 

The test has happened a few times, ie: Mick Doohan (bike), Tommi (Rally) and Villenueve (F1) all swaped places and did laps, no one except Doohan rode the bike. I think you will find that Tommi came out on top. Also has been done with Ford as well.

 

Different skill sets involved (with some overlapping) between the two disciplines.

As far as DRIVING you could argue the WRC drivers are more skilled at car control than the F-1 driver but it is an entirely different form of driving. Put them both in a sports car and the F-1 driver would win around a track. Put them both in a Pikes Peak car and the WRC driver will win every time.

Now RACING is another story. That is a whole different skill set. Personally I don't think F-1 drivers are at the top of this heap. I think CART drivers have much more experience racing side by side (laps at a time) than the F-1 parade they call racing. Watch the CART cars (or the IRL cars for that matter) on a high speed oval and you will see some high skill, high stakes racing.

For a combination of a bit of both types of driving you should check out Sprint cars on dirt. Open wheel, side by side racing with short wheelbase 600 HP cars drifting sideways lifting the inside front wheel and flipping over the walls when they mess up.

Of course you can also watch Grand Prix 500 cc motorcycles for a whole different set of skills and phenomenal racing. You will get to see Honda Kicking a$$ to boot. Or try SuperCross. Talk about skills. You have not seen anything until you have seen Travis Pastrana do a complete 360 degree backflip on his bike.

So all these guys are skilled in their own disciplines. It is like asking who is more skilled Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bieg
[B]
...

Of course you can also watch Grand Prix 500 cc motorcycles for a whole different set of skills and phenomenal racing.

 

Valentino Rossi drove a private 206 in rally this year, but I have to say that rally drivers are more skilled. It's hard enough pushing a car to go 100mph in a forest but then you have to also listen to a co-driver who is telling you what is two turns ahead!

 

Look at it this way. There are only 10, maybe 15, truly competitive F1 drivers in the WORLD. How many competitive rally drivers are there? A lot more than that.

Yes, I understand that F1 is far and above more expensive than any other type of automotive racing, and so the chances of racing are fewer, but still - I would say that there are only about 10 guys in the world that can drive the cars to their potential. Rally driving, on the other hand, has far more than that (a lot more classes, too), but the number of competitive drivers there are far greater than F1.

That said, this is an apples to oranges comparison. Racing at 200+mph for an hour and a half or two hours is brutal physically and mentally, especially when you're racing with OTHER CARS ON THE TRACK (unlike rally racing, where you are alone on the "track", generall). You are racing at insane speeds and driving so well that your laps are typically within 0.1s of each other. That, my friends, is driving. No doubt rally driving is draining as well, but it's not (in my opinion) quite as draining as F1 drivers. Ayrton Senna's heartrate AVERAGED 180 beats per minute during many of his races. That's higher than pretty much any professional athlete in any sport in the world...more akin to being in battle than anything.

Rally driving, on the other hand, is all about a different type of car control, plus dealing with unfamiliar terrain and situations. I would think it's a lot more fun that F1 racing, plus less fatal in general, but I still don't think they're as gifted as F1 drivers. When you're racing at speeds of 170+mph constantly (at hitting speeds well over 200mph), you're in a whole different realm of driving skills - reaction times, braking points, cornering styles, etc, etc, they all change or require significantly better driver skills than they do at speeds well below that (such as those achieved in rally racing).

Basically, F1 drivers are given a known track and asked to race at insane speeds. Rally drivers, on the other hand, are given a relatively unknown insane track and asked to race at more sane ("sane" is a relative term here) speeds (I'm still convinced that they're all crazy ). Which requires more talent? While I admire both, my opinion is that insane speed requires more skill than insane tracks. Reaction times that are a 20th of a second off in F1 racing can literally mean the difference between making a corner or throwing yourself into a wall. Rally racing, while it requires fast reflexes, just isn't quite that exacting. You have to be sharp, but I don't imagine quite that sharp.

That said, I haven't rally raced. I haven't F1 raced. The most I've done is karting and ice-racing (that's a bit like rally racing, in that it's tail-out most of the time, with rapidly changing track conditions). This is just my opinion and I cannot base it on anything but what I've read and minorly on what I've experienced.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JonBoy
[B]Look at it this way.

 

I recently read an article about Chris Eckonomacki, the Dean of autosports journalisim in America. He commented that Jim Clark (Great F-1 Champion of the 60's who came over and won Indy Also) was a great driver but NOT a great racer. I was at first taken aback by this statement as Jim Clark was my first racing hero but after some reflection I had to concede that he had a point. Clark was unbeatable in a good car when he got ahead but when pressed hard he often came out second best.

Many great drivers can put in great lap times when they are the only car entering all the corners. You can pick the optimim line and just drive a textbook lap. The REALLY great drivers can put in great laps even with cars dicing with them for every corner. It takes a whole different level of skill to be able to race through corners side by side with another car. Neither of the cars can take their optimim lines. Now do that in a place like INDY where the AVERAGE speed is 225 + MPH, the corners are 90 degrees and flat and a concrete wall awaits any screw-up and that my friends is RACING.

 

I saw this video a long ago and forget who did this.
a rally driver who drives F1 that gives a reasonable time for a lap.
but a F1 driver only crashed the rally car and second try for much more slower time. I believe someone has seem this before.

I will say Rally drivers have more skill, but that doesn't mean who is better than whom. Just Rally drivers has more drifting skill...!!

 

Can Superman beat up Mighty Mouse?