Equality in team-mate battles

[jens]

What is interesting that in 2007 for some reason in most teams the team-mate battles have been very tight. Only in Williams and Spyker one driver has beaten another quite convincingly. If we look at the previous years, then it was a different story - in most teams one driver had a clear edge. Even if you recall last season: only in Toyota, STR and to a smaller extent at BMW we had a close battle.

This trend is even more vividly shown by the WDC standings. At the moment team-mates are positioned consecutively down to the position of 14. It's hard to find something like that from the past. Something similar happened in 2002, when drivers of the first four teams finished in consecutive positions.

But what does this equality show?
Drivers are more evenly matched than ever before? (besides Yamamoto we have no more pay-drivers and all the others have proved themselves in F1 or lower series to justify their seat in F1)
Driving in F1 has become 'too easy', which has reduced the gaps between team-mates?

[ioan]

What is interesting that in 2007 for some reason in most teams the team-mate battles have been very tight. Only in Williams and Spyker one driver has beaten another quite convincingly. If we look at the previous years, then it was a different story - in most teams one driver had a clear edge. Even if you recall last season: only in Toyota, STR and to a smaller extent at BMW we had a close battle.

This trend is even more vividly shown by the WDC standings. At the moment team-mates are positioned consecutively down to the position of 14. It's hard to find something like that from the past. Something similar happened in 2002, when drivers of the first four teams finished in consecutive positions.

But what does this equality show?
Drivers are more evenly matched than ever before? (besides Yamamoto we have no more pay-drivers and all the others have proved themselves in F1 or lower series to justify their seat in F1)
Driving in F1 has become 'too easy', which has reduced the gaps between team-mates?

I'm sorry to spoil the party but all this has less to do with intra-team equality than with the influence the cars have on the results.

It is pretty obvious that the competitiveness of the car is much more important than the driver's abilities.

[jens]

If the car is more important than ever before, then raises another interesting question. How would the team-mate battles end if the car was harder to drive? Can you say, which one of the current "equals" would have an edge and how overwhelming would it be?