Perhaps the most common criticism leveled against Formula 1 racing is the paucity of passing. This criticism, of course, is framed entirely in the context of the race itself and the driver. To be sure, the race is the most important and, for most spectators (especially television viewers), the most conspicuous of activities. There is also a tendency for viewers and critics to focus on the drivers more than the cars and particularly the teams. I dare say that the criticism against F1 on the basis of the passing issue is myopic. All true F1 fans realize that there is more to a grand prix than the race itself and the driver. Also, there are things about F1 grands prix that make comparisons of passing unfair.
Formula 1 racing is a year-long team effort. Unlike other forms of racing where large teams might involve a few dozen people, F1 teams can have upwards of a hundred members, most of whom never see the product of their efforts on a track. Formula 1 cars are built from the ground up by the team. Each car is unique; they are not purchased and taken out of a box. Given the dissimilarities between cars, there is no reason to expect, or even want, parity. Some teams are large, innovative, and rich, others are small, not so creative, and less rich (I almost said poor, but caught myself). What's the old saying? "Speed is money. How fast do you want to go?" On top of this, add the fact that F1 racing involves months of practice, and each race is a three day event, not simply the race itself. Most F1 fans buy three day tickets, not tickets only for race day. And, true fans follow testing, practice, and time trials, as well, all of which show a remarkable amount of "passing" in terms of lap speeds--a car one day might be significantly faster or slower than another car the previous day. In other words, F1 fans view the race as only the finale of a larger series of events. We don't concern ourselves with simply the "passing" of the cars during the race, but the passing of the teams over an extended period of time.
Were differences in the nature of teams between F1 and other forms of motor racing not enough, there are also differences in tracks, races, and racing. F1 tracks are on the whole longer than tracks used in other racing disciplines. In comparison to NASCAR and Indy cars, the races are also generally shorter in length and time. Finally, until this past year, pit stops were not a factor in F1, whereas they have always played a major role in other forms of racing. Although I do not have figures to substantiate this claim, I suspect that most of the passing that occurs in Indy cars and NASCAR can be attributable in one way or another to pit stops.
All this aside, I decided at the beginning of the 1994 Formula 1 season to investigate passing. How much passing did occur in a race? Who were the most frequent passers, and passees. This last question is not as silly as it may seem at first glance because with the fastest cars starting toward the front and the slowest cars starting toward the back, there shouldn't be any passing other than that resulting from lapping.
The study I undertook is admittedly less than perfect. In no small way this is because I did not have access to lap charts of each race. To complicate matters, there were a record number of drivers last year, some of whom drove every race, some of whom drove as few as one. Some drivers who drove good cars in only a few races may have done better than they would have had they driven more races or inferior cars. Conversely, some drivers who raced only a few times in cars owned by the less prominent teams might not have done as well as they could have had they ran more races or had better rides.
My analysis involved comparing the finishing position of each driver with his qualifying position for each race and calculating the sum of each driver's season-long performance. After every race, I compared each driver's finishing position with the position in which he qualified. I then subtracted, or added as the situation required, the number of positions gained due to shunts or breakdowns of drivers who qualified higher. For example, at the Australian Grand Prix Gerhard Berger qualified eleventh and finished second, a gain of nine positions. However, four drivers who qualified better than him did not finish the race, thereby lowering Berger's gain due to outdriving, or actually passing, his competitors, to five positions. At Japan, Alessandro Zanardi qualified seventeenth and finished thirteenth, but ten drivers who outqualified him did not finish the race leaving Zanardi's gain at -6, a net loss of positions.
Throughout the season I kept a running total of gains and losses. The end result might be considered a ranking of driver ability. There is, however, a bias in this analysis that must be factored in. Drivers who had the advantage of driving the fastest cars and therefore qualifying at the head of the pack are not represented fairly. After all, this is a passing index, and if a driver began near the front he had few cars to pass. Conversely, if a driver had a slower car and began near the rear, he found it next to impossible to pass. In a very real sense, then, this analysis is a rather good measure of the ability of drivers who began races in the middle of the field. Below are the season-long figures of passing that I cumulated. Higher figures indicate a greater ability to pass, lower figures indicate inability to pass.
+9 Herbert
+7 Fittipaldi
+6 Lehto
+5 Brundle Katayama
+4 Irvine
+3 Verstappen
+2 Berger Brabham Salo Lamy
+1 Schumacher Wendlinger Larini Lagorce Gounon
0 Mansell Hakkinen Alboreto Noda Delatraz Dalmas Schiatello Inoue Ratzenberger Senna Gachot Belmondo Alliot
-1 Alesi Adams Barreta deCesaris -2 Coulthard Hill Morbidelli -4 Blundell
-5 Barichello Frentzen Panis Zanardi -6 Bernard
There are some things totally expected in this analysis. Is there any wonder why Eric Bernard lost his Ligier ride and was relegated to Lotus late in the season? The perennial front runners all had passing indices between +1 and -1. There are also some truly unexpected findings. Here is proof that Johnny Herbert is worthy of a Benetton ride this year. Christian Fittipaldi should have never been lost to Indy cars. Ukyo Katayama did wonders with his Tyrrell as did Eddie Irvine in his Jordan. These four drivers literally made the most of their mediocre machines. In contrast, highly acclaimed drivers such as Rubens Barichello and Heinz-Harold Frentzen can only be described as disappointments.
Who knows what this year will bring. One thing is for certain, however. Passing will take place--on the track during the race itself, on the track during practice and time trials, and between teams all season long. Viewing passing as only something that occurs on TV, is indeed a narrow perspective on racing. Furthermore, the seemingly limited passing that does occur during races involves driving skills, not the timing of pit stops.