Why F1's current drivers may never be bettered

In sport, standards generally rise over time. Whether it's the physical or mental conditioning of the athletes involved, the strategies deployed, or the standards of equipment and technology, the push for higher, faster, stronger courses through the veins of competitors.

It's reasonable to say that the current crop of grand prix drivers are, in absolute terms, the best in history (which is why, when attempting to compare eras, all drivers have to be judged according to the standards of the times). But contrary to the trend, you can argue that today's drivers might never be bettered.

The reason lies in the peculiarities of contemporary grand prix racing, specifically the constant battle to keep costs under control. This has led to, since 2003, a gradual increase in restrictions on testing to the point where, in '09, in-season testing was banned outright.

While in-season testing was, in a very modest way, phased back in in 2012, the chance for on-track running outside of grand prix weekend is at a premium. This year, there is only a pair of two-day tests, half of which must be allocated to drivers who have started no more than two world championship races.

And pre-season is hardly busy, with just two, four-day tests this year - and those have to be shared between the race drivers as all testing must be with a single car.

A glance at the net amount of testing completed by the F1 teams from 2000-2016 tells a revealing story. Based on FORIX's comprehensive testing data, albeit with the caveat that there were also some unofficial tests that will have happened along the way, it paints a clear picture of how limited the opportunities to get behind the wheel of a grand prix car outside of a race weekend are.

Compared to the peak year of testing, 2006, teams completed just 15% of that running this year.

As Fernando Alonso once put it, "it's like if you tell a tennis player to touch the racket for [only] three days and then compete in a world championship".

That has changed the demand on drivers, who must consistently be able to jump in the car and nail it, often having been out of the cockpit for a long period. But it has had a more profound effect on the skillset and knowledge base of the drivers.

Take Daniel Ricciardo, for example. Most would agree he's one of the best of the current crop of grand prix drivers, with a strong CV of three grand prix wins despite never having had the best car.

Yet he has fewer testing miles under his belt than James Rossiter, Ryan Briscoe (pictured below with Toyota), and Gary Paffett - three drivers with a grand total of no grand prix starts.

All three of those are very accomplished drivers who should have had a shot in a race seat, but for various reasons didn't. They illustrate how much things have changed in terms of seat time.

Even though race drivers get relatively little testing mileage, so-called test drivers are very rarely thrown into the car, even with the rules forcing rookie drivers to run on half of the in-season test days.

Think what that means for a driver's skillset. Back in the days when testing was seemingly happening every day of the week, drivers would build up vast experience of component evaluation and endless A/B tests, tyre trials, race distances, qualifying simulations, etc. There was time for this.

Now, they don't get this chance. Running on the simulator replaces some of this, so it's not a complete loss, but even the best simulators aren't quite the same in terms of building that vast databank of real world experience.

That's why teams still seek experienced hands to contribute to their work. Take Mercedes, which continues to use former World Endurance champion Anthony Davidson, who has only two dozen grand prix starts to his name but over 50,000 miles of testing in F1 cars.

Davidson was one of an era of what might be called 'super-testers' - drivers who spent years outside of a race seat but racking up enormous mileage. Alex Wurz, Pedro de la Rosa, Olivier Panis, Luca Badoer and Allan McNish all had prolific stints as test drivers.

And it wasn't just the testers (notably, only one of the above drivers ever won a grand prix, and Panis's win came before he was recruited by McLaren as a specialist tester) who racked up the miles - so did the race drivers.

It's no coincidence that we have yet to see a world champion driver who made their debut after the in-season test ban came in in 2009.

Granted, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have spent a large proportion of their career under these conditions, but they still had the chance to accumulate prodigious mileage even when they started running regularly at a time when testing was being reduced. Hamilton, for example, has over two-and-a-half times the testing mileage that Ricciardo has in total, and had 5611 miles prior to debut compared to Ricciardo's 1535.

So taking the total mileage figure into consideration, that's two-and-a-half times as much knowledge, first-hand experience of what happens when you do A, B or C. That counts for something and even the most diligent, attentive driver cannot compensate for all of that experience.

Not to mention the very fact that drivers can sharpen their skills simply by driving the car. Even when running test programmes, drivers have the chance to learn the craft.

Yes, the simulator, combined with training in other types of vehicles - including karts - has its uses, but it's not the same.

Then consider the changing nature of grand prix racing. The number of flat-out laps you might see from a driver has unquestionably reduced in the past few years. So that ability to nail a qualifying lap gets harder to refine.

It's not just about F1 seat time. For very valid reasons, seat time in the junior categories is limited. It's possible, arguably even probable, that drivers making their grand prix debuts will never have competed in anything other than a one-make category.

For example, if your pathway to the top comprises a selection from Formula 4, Formula Renault 2.0, GP3 and GP2, you will have spent your whole career in spec formulas.

Formula 3 is the exception, but even that is ever more restricted. Again, for good reasons - but things sometimes have to be done that have some negative consequences.

Now put yourself in the position of a race team, such as McLaren. It has the choice either to retain Jenson Button or replace him with Stoffel Vandoorne next year.

It's not a straightforward decision. Not only is Button a wonderfully accomplished grand prix driver, a world champion who is arguably driving better than ever, but he also has a vast amount of experience.

He is set to start his 300th grand prix in Malaysia in October, but that is only part of the equation. He also has well over 70,000 miles of testing.

By comparison, Vandoorne has one grand prix start and just under 2000 miles of testing.

As Vandoorne is 24, has proved he can cut it in a grand prix after scoring a point on his debut in Bahrain, is by any measure ready for an F1 seat and is already spending this season treading water in Super Formula having crushed the opposition in GP2 in 2015, it is logical for McLaren to make good on its investment and promote him.

Button will be 37 come the start of next season, and Vandoorne is the logical long-term choice. Clearly, Button has only got a limited shelf life and Vandoorne is the future.

But by dropping Button, it will be throwing away a vast amount of knowledge and experience. While there's a clear potential gain with Vandoorne, it will be accompanied with shorter-term pain.

This is the problem for all teams evaluating future prospects. The last driver to notch up 5000 miles in testing before their debut was Nico Hulkenberg, who logged 5862 miles and caught the end of the testing era.

The driver with the most testing prior to their debut who did not test before 2009 is Jules Bianchi, who notched up 3914 miles for Ferrari, Force India and Marussia before his debut in '13 (not including his nine Friday appearances on GP weekends in 2012). That's an unusually high number for today's debutants.

For those making their F1 debuts from 2006-09, the average test miles logged before a grand prix debut was 6245. Since then, that figure has dropped to 2089 miles - and if you look solely at 2014-16, it's down to 1613 miles.

The days when a driver like Heikki Kovalainen could log nigh-on 25,000 miles before debut have long since passed.

So look at it this way. Those drivers who missed the era of prodigious testing have to deal with fewer miles before debut and fewer miles once in F1 - by a dramatic margin. That experience is hard to replace, even with simulators.

Conversely, you could also argue that this is a good thing. F1 teams have found that the restrictions on testing have made working practices far more lean and efficient, to the point where there is no need for the insane mileage of the middle of the last decade.

Apply the same thought process to drivers, and perhaps this new generation could be considered even better given those constraints. After all, they are still cutting it at the top without anything like the preparation.

Maybe higher, faster, stronger still does apply - it's just that the parameters change.

But for a grand prix team having to make the choice between the experience of the testing era and the inexperience of the new breed, it's far from easy.

Statistics compiled by Joao Paulo Cunha of FORIX