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Whether fans admit it or not, F1 is a team sport. It is a sport that is in essence a personification of a huge machine with so many moving parts. These parts working in unison are what make the magic happen.
When an F1 team wins it's a function of all parts working in unison in the best way possible and when it is losing it is more or less a result of the weakest link pulling the team down.
When we talk about an F1 team, the driver is an integral part of the unit because, at the end of the day, he's the one on the frontline that is getting the results. Often in F1, we have seen scenarios where drivers are just not able to match the level of performance that is in concurrence with what the team is doing.
Quite often 'pay drivers' fall into this category and it proves to be a major disappointment. The driver in that scenario is unable to live up to the level of machinery under him provided by the team.
In this feature, we're taking a look at the second scenario. The second scenario features drivers performing at a level that is much higher than the machinery under them. In other words, if the driver was not being held down by his team's inefficient operation, he would have achieved much better results.
This is the scenario where the team proves to be the dead weight that is holding back the driver from achieving his true potential.
Which are these three teams? Let's take a look.
#1 Ferrari
This one seems like a no-brainer, isn't it? Ferrari is one team that seems chaotic at the best of times. In the worst of moments, it's a team that seems to have nothing figured out.
When we talk about teams in F1 and we talk about competency in different areas, the whole skillset tends to get divided into a plethora of skills. For instance, a team should be capable enough of building a championship-winning car, it should have a strong driver pairing capable of fighting for the title, it should be able to withstand the pressure of a title battle and so much more.
When we talk about Ferrari, it's hard to refute that the talent is there to build a strong car and even the driver pairing seems good enough to fight for the title. The issue comes up when we look at the team's inability to withstand the pressure of a title battle and its ability to be efficient in all facets.
Far too many times both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are compromised because of this and this is arguably one of the primary reasons why the team seems to be desperate to secure the long-term future of its two current drivers.
When it comes to Charles Leclerc, one can't help but feel that the driver could do a much better job in a better environment. This is precisely the definition of a 'dead weight' that Ferrari has become for its F1 drivers.
#2 Williams F1
For Williams, we can't say that the team has been a dead weight for Logan Sargeant.
On the other side of the garage though this does hold. Alex Albon has been a revelation in F1 over the last couple of years and has been carrying the team on his shoulders. While he does seem indebted to what Williams did when it comes to giving him the opportunity to get back to F1, one can't help but feel he's outgrown the team quite quickly.
Every race he drags a good result out of the car and every time it makes one speculate what he could possibly achieve if the car was more competitive. In so many ways Alex Albon's results are seemingly limited by the car under him.
He could be putting together a much better result if it's not for the uncompetitive car under him.
#3 Alpine F1
This might be one option that could leave the fans confused. More often than not a driver like Esteban Ocon does not get the credit in F1. He can put together whatever results possible but he does not find himself in the good graces of the fans. Having said that, the French driver has been very impressive this season and continued from how he fared last season.
The driver has a podium to his name already and will be hoping to maybe have a better second half of the season. However, while both Ocon and Pierre Gasly continue to perform impressively, Alpine has been a political melting pot for far too long.
At this very moment in the summer break, the team does not even have a team principal in place. With Ocon's former teammate Fernando Alonso stepping up to Aston Martin and producing multiple podium finishes this season, one can't help but wonder what the Frenchman could have done in a better car.
