Qualifying Differentials
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Australian GP Edition
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No grid placements. No Williams versus Ferrari. No Williams versus anybody
for that matter. It's qualifying differentials and we are going to keep an eye on the battle
between teammates throughout the season by race and overall totals.
The measurement is simple. We will compare the intra-team difference in seconds on Saturday.
Some may say compensation must be given in the favoritism between the number one and two seats
within the team. We, on the other hand, will not grant that pardon. For better or worse,
our analyses will be on the perfect world of egalitarian status in intra-team rivalry.
So, here we go. The season is an infant, but the differentials have begun. Let's see which
drivers deserve bragging rights (not to mention the same rights for their respective fans).
Melbourne Results |
The Losers |
Diferential in Seconds |
The Winners |
- Villeneuve. Not only did Villeneuve shatter the rest of the field, he dominated
his teammate who qualified right behind him. The former Indycar champion destroyed the opposition.
This situation forces one to recall Villeneuve's 0.138 gap over Hill last year at this same track.
Has Villeneuve matured? Or, was Hill a more competent opponent? One thing for sure, the
highly touted Frentzen, who replaced the "aged" World Champion, was left embarrassed.
- Barrichello. Experience may play the big descriptor here. Barrichello, with four full
seasons behind him, left his rookie teammate there as well.
- Hill. Frantically trying to avoid the 107% qualifying time injected by Villeneuve, Hill
captured sympathetic emotions that some of us have locked away from the hard world of Formula One.
However, his talent showed through when watching the qualifying differentials after he dominated
Diniz by over a full second in the area of the grid we hardly pay attention to.
- Sospiri. While only two years older than his teammate, Sospiri has much less Formula
One seat time than Rosset. Regardless, the extra time spent in Formula 3000 and Benetton testing duties have
apparently given the Italian the edge. Could this shed light on the benefits of Formula 3000
experience in preparation of Formula One?
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