Quote:
Originally Posted by EdM5
IMO Ricciardo is better than Checo. And Max outperformed Danny in their last joint year at RBR.
2018, Max vs. Daniel:
points:249 / 2 wins for Max - 170 / 1 win Ricciardo
Quali: 15 - 5 for Max, average gap -0,145 s.
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If you factor in the DNFs and engine problems, then Ricciardo was arguably still the better driver. As he clearly was in the first two years he was in the same car as Verstappen.
https://drivetribe.com/p/verstappen-...TD-_6vFDiBREZg
Has an interesting analysis of the 2018 season.
"[....]What my chart shows is that with Ricciardo qualifying on average at 6.2 and Verstappen at 5.7 there is effectively very little between them in qualifying and that really was to be expected. From that point on things get interesting.
Drivers ahead of them that suffered DNF’s significantly help Verstappen. 8 for Verstappen and 5 for Ricciardo.
From Verstappen’s adjusted grid position of 5.2 he is finishing a race on average at 4.0, a gain of 1.2 places. Ricciardo however, starts from an adjusted position of 5.6 and finishes a race at 3.5, more than 2 places gained on average per race. So while Ricciardo is on average starting behind Verstappen, he is on average finishing ahead of him and by more than a full position. Clearly, Ricciardo is better at gaining true positions.
The cumulative positions gained is also very illuminating. One the face of it Ricciardo is clearly the big winner, gaining 17 positions to Verstappen’s 12. However, if you remove Verstappens result from Monaco, where he started 20 and gained 8 positions, Verstappen position gain is really just 4. Do the same for Ricciardo and remove his biggest race position gain, which was Hungary where he gained 7 positions, he now has 10. Now Ricciardo leads 10 – 4. Which means Ricciardo is gaining a lot of positions while Verstappen without the Monaco result is essentially finishing where he started. Again advantage to Ricciardo.
In terms of races where either driver lost positions, Ricciardo wins again. He’s never finished a race lower than he’s started, while Verstappen has finished worse than he started twice.
The only category that Verstappen is better in is qualifying and the difference is so small that it’s essentially insignificant. Everywhere else Ricciardo is clearly better.
Regardless of the spin Red Bull have put on Ricciardo leaving, I think it’s pretty clear they have lost their best driver. The implications of that I believe will be significant in 2019. I question whether Gasly is really ready for the move to Red Bull. On paper the Verstappen / Gasly pairing looks weaker than Ricciardo / Kyvat pairing of 2016. And that was probably the weakest team Red Bull have ever had.