"Today, only the machine counts" - Former F1 driver believes the sport has changed massively in this regard

Former driver Thierry Boutsen believes cars make a bigger difference in modern F1. The Belgian claims drivers cannot compensate for a weaker car with more aggressive driving.

Boutsen believes that long gone are the days of compensating for a weaker car with stronger driving styles. Instead, he believes, the sport as it is today relies more heavily on engineering a faster car than having a faster driver.

While Boutsen's theory might hold true in most instances, there is a case for some drivers outclassing their teammates in equal machinery. A good example of this could be seen in Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo's performances for McLaren, where the former outperformed the latter on nearly every occasion. The former Williams driver believes, however, that drivers like Max Verstappen can sometimes make up the difference by driving in stellar fashion.

As reported by Warmup-F1, Boutsen said:

"This drivers' championship is completely distorted by the difference between the cars. Nowadays, a driver can no longer compensate for the weaknesses of his car by driving more aggressively. It's not like before where the pilot was able to make a small difference. Today, only the machine counts"

The 2022 season was perhaps proof of Boutsen's theory as Lewis Hamilton failed to win a single race all season long due to the woes he experienced in his Mercedes W13.

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F1 rivals wanted harsher penalties for Red Bull over cost cap breach

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem claimed some F1 teams wanted Red Bull to be given a much harsher penalty for breaching the 2021 F1 cost cap. The Milton Keynes-based squad was found to be in breach of last year's budget, leading to widespread criticism of both its members and drivers.

Despite a hefty fine and a reduction in wind tunnel time being handed out to Max Verstappen and the squad, Ben Sulayem claims some teams wanted much harsher penalties for Red Bull. He told the media:

"I believe that there was a balance between [the financials] and the sporting penalties [handed to the team]. But we learned a lot [from the process] and a big review is going into it, because who knows in the first year [of the cost cap] what is going to be the outcome? If you look at the other big teams, they will say we have been light on them. [In terms of] the penalty, some of them want [Red Bull] to be hanged, they wanted to see blood, and the teams themselves see this as [a] huge [thing] themselves."

It seems the 2022 constructors' champions will be disadvantaged in their title defense this year - in which case, Boutsen's theory will be put to the test. We will, however, only get a realistic idea in pre-season testing of how the financial penalty and reduced wind tunnel testing time will affect Red Bull.