So who really is the quickest?
Speed. With the possible exceptions of noise and glamour, it’s what drew you to motor racing, isn’t it? Within these hallowed pages this month we embark on the risky business of quantifying speed and establishing who is the fastest, both in terms of the current crop of drivers and the history of the world championship. I say ‘risky’ because any such exercise is bound to be contentious, since it potentially treads on the toes of blinkered fandom and tribal allegiances. So let’s set out our stall right here. Our 2022 ‘Supergrid’ (p38), in which we rank last season’s drivers in order of pace, is as rigorously mathematical and as laden with caveats as it is possible to be, given the obvious differentiator of car performance. Even when excluding factors such as car…