Who's the most natural driver?

[SSbaby]

There's very little in it in terms of ability between (who I rate as the best) Skaife, Murphy, Lowndes, Ambrose, Ingall and S Richards. But looking at the incar footage and analysing each driver's effort appears to reveal a marked difference in their style. When you analyse the way Skaife drives the car from the incar shot, he doesn't appear to be the most effortless or smoothest driver. However, his car looks completely opposite on the track - poised and perfectly balanced. Lowndesy appears the most natural driver judging from his incar shots. I regard Murphy in a similar boat. Skaife and Ingall look to be busy and hard working behind the wheel while Richards and Ambrose look like technicians behind the wheel with the bare minimum of body language shown. I know the incar shots can be misleading as it's hard to judge a driver behind the mask. I know their heart rate would be similar.

What are people's thoughts here?

[mac]

I would throw Bright in there as well.

In terms of pure natural speed, I think we saw a good demonstration yesterday of what Lowndes can do. He was demoralising them early, but screwed up a touch.

Ambrose would probably be next followed by the clump of Skaife, Bright and Murphy in no particular order.

I think Ingall and Richards are just a touch behind these, needing a close-to-perfect set-up to beat the others - but still blindingly fast on their day.

Jason Rishards must be pushing to be included as part of the sport's elite group as well.

In terms of racing, I think in close-quarter combat, Jason Bright is the best racer out there. I don't think anyone else pulls off as many clean moves as he does - he just seems to have a knack for pulling off moves without taking himself and the other car off into the scenery.

[Mattracer]

They're all so good it's hard to split them. All their styles are different but they get the cars to do what they want them to more often than a lot of the others which is the gauge by which they are judged. Skaife's downchange style always jumping down gears and Murphy's left-foot brake style are impressive and very interesting to watch, and remind us of the loss of this art in top level open-wheelers.

[Sultan]

All very close but I'd probably put Lowndes at the top of the pile.

[SRabbit]

remember about 2 years ago Ford had the medical team with the drivers swallowing those monitor pill thingys and had all the monitors on them while they were in the car? what they found was when Craig got into a car and into a race his heartrate actually DECREASED. They couldnt beleive that he could do it that easy so they gave him some tasks to do whilst in the car such as spotting a certain person in the crowd as he went past as 260km/h etc. and they determined that he only uses around 50% of his required concentration level to race - basically he is built to drive fast and the reason he looks bored in the car sometimes is because he is!!

[James63]

Seeing lowndes with his arm resting on the window sill, at of all places indy, makes me think he is the most natural....comfortable driver.

[KE30MAN]

CL. No question.

[Beatcha]

I remember a lot of years ago being at Calder and HDT was doing tyre testing with Dunlop, I was talking to Stuckey who was very frustrated as they got these new tyres that by all accounts were as sticky as super glue. They bolted a normal set of tyres on and Brock went off and did a good lap time, so everyone was pretty excited about bolting on these new sticky ones. On they go and Brock does some laps and comes in with almost the same time (1 tenth faster if a recall) well they couldn’t work this out and changed the car setup and different tyres and always around the same lap times. One of the Dunlop boys checked an old set on the car that were pretty shagged and out goes Brock and actually did his fastest time for the day. The only conclusion they could come to was that Brock was changing his driving style to suit the car without realizing he was doing it. The others who tested the car had times all over the place with the different tyres and Dunlop actually go the data they needed from them but Brock was just doing the same lap after lap. I think CL is along the same lines, i have heard that when he says the car is ok others think it is junk.

[James63]

Originally Posted by Beatcha

I think CL is along the same lines, i have heard that when he says the car is ok others think it is junk.

He managed some good results in that cat car, havent seen much of that same car this year with bright at the wheel.

[Razor]

I think Brad Jones, Russell Ingall, Todd Kelly, Rick Kelly, John Bowe, Greg Ritter and Steve Owen are godd natrual drivers. Sure that some have had bad seasons but when the occasion arises, they are brilliant behind the wheel

[Grimace]

Originally Posted by KE30MAN

CL. No question.

LOWDES absolutely no contest- he does it so easily (similar to Peter Brock)

His amazing 4/10th on Skaife in qualifying ...

and the easy way he pulled away from Ambrose at the start of the race says it all.

His raw speed now needs to be contained over a long race like Bathurst.




Who feels he was going so hard at the start to provide a cushion for Muller??

Thats the ONLY explanation for the pace he was setting himself-even Ambrose commented how quick Lowndes was at the start and the man himself said he should have backed off half a second a lap!

damn shame the car stepped out on him and ruined his race!!!

WHO CAN FORGET> When Lowndes in Adelaide got relegated to the back of the grid in the second race and carved thrrough THE ENTIRE PACK and WON

Absolutely the super talent in V8 Supercars!!!

[Mattracer]

Yes, it was a shame but first on the last lap is always better than first on the first lap.

[The Hrt Kid]

adelaide that year was amazing and from memory there wasnt even a safety car in that race.

[mac]

Originally Posted by James63

He managed some good results in that cat car, havent seen much of that same car this year with bright at the wheel.

Don't know about that.

2005 Championship Points:
Bright > 7th

2004 Championship Points:
Lowndes > 20th

Yes, Lowndes probably had more reliability dramas, but the notion that he extracted a tonne more speed out of the car than Bright is a complete myth.

[SRabbit]

Championship points are irrellevant - Lowndes had around 7 DNF's in the CAT car as he said the thing blew up at 7800rpm - Prodrives response? dont miss a gear !!

Lets use Bathurst as an example of FPR not going anywhere - especially not forward, after all they all pride themselves on taking it up a notch for the great race, right? Now remember that Lowndes had the Beehag bowl of soup and Bright had for this round the you-beaut-from-the-ground-up new FPR car :

2004 Qualifying Lowndes 2.08.3637 Race 1 2.08.9075
2005 Qualifying Bright 2.08.7959 Race 1 2.10.3801

speaks for itself really.....

[SSbaby]

Originally Posted by Beatcha

I remember a lot of years ago being at Calder and HDT was doing tyre testing with Dunlop, I was talking to Stuckey who was very frustrated as they got these new tyres that by all accounts were as sticky as super glue. They bolted a normal set of tyres on and Brock went off and did a good lap time, so everyone was pretty excited about bolting on these new sticky ones. On they go and Brock does some laps and comes in with almost the same time (1 tenth faster if a recall) well they couldn’t work this out and changed the car setup and different tyres and always around the same lap times. One of the Dunlop boys checked an old set on the car that were pretty shagged and out goes Brock and actually did his fastest time for the day. The only conclusion they could come to was that Brock was changing his driving style to suit the car without realizing he was doing it. The others who tested the car had times all over the place with the different tyres and Dunlop actually go the data they needed from them but Brock was just doing the same lap after lap. I think CL is along the same lines, i have heard that when he says the car is ok others think it is junk.

What a post!

I always enjoy reading the informative posts over the one line answers.

Good stuff.