Hacker News Reader

Comment by itsoktocry | Hacker News Reader

>The driver is merely a pilot doing what is instructed over the radio

I think this severely understates the skill of some of the highest paid athletes on the planet.

Not taking away anything from the drivers. All of them are exceptional and possibly the best on the planet. That said, when you are racing over ~20ish races , as a team, it pretty much boils down to long term strategy and tactics.

Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey were 2 epic motorcyclists in the 90s. Schwantz had more individual wins, but it was Rainey that had more championships titles, because he was more consistent in his races and made fewer mistakes (Even Schwantz admits this in an interview)

This is kind of fascinating to think about from an evolutionary perspective: Does it pay off more to have truly exceptional individuals that can outperform everyone else at times, but may be lost due to risk taking - or - is it better to have people that can perform consistently at a very high level?

Consistency is the true mark of a good racer. I can’t remember who the quote is from but it goes like this: ”Yeah I was a great driver! On a good day I could beat anyone, Senna, Schumi, Prost I was up with the best and beating them. But that’s the thing, on a \good\* day. The real champions, they don’t have good and bad days. They’re always great. At every race, every corner.

They have immense skill. The problem is the competition is nearly equally as skilled.
We've seen this in a lot of different sports over the decades- as the field of play elevates, the variance from athlete to athlete shrinks.

That's why races in the Olympics are timed to the thousandth of a second. It's nuts.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com