When was that ever the case? I can’t remember any time in the last twenty years that the best car didn’t win. It was just usually the case that the best drivers also had the best cars. Senna had the McLaren, Hill and Villeneuve had the Williams, Schumacher had the Bennetton and the Ferrari, Hakkinen had the McLaren, Vettel had the Red Bull and so on. It’s a long, long time since the car was not a factor at all. Even back in the day Nikki Lauda had the Ferrari.
Generally the best drivers have the best engineers, the best set up and the best design behind them. If a team is serious about winning a world championship the driver is only a factor, the car itself has to be better than everyone else to put their driver in the best position to win, so design, engine, mechanical reliability all become massive factors over the course of the season.
That’s not to say that driver ability isn’t a major factor, Damon Hill won a race driving a Jordan after all.