Sorry to be getting away from the topic of motors, but I'd be willing to bet that if someone like AMB would come up with a system where there were several timing loops on the track, and the layout could be broken down into sections, with sector times displayed along with lap times, we'd really learn a LOT about just what makes someone "fast".
I'd almost guarantee that the "fast" guys might be maybe a tenth of a second faster down the straight, but a tenth quicker through most of the corners. Figure a typical layout with anywhere from eight to a dozen corners, and motor RPM starts to look fairly insignificant in the equation...