Rating the drivers

[woody2goody]

I was wondering about who is good and who is great in F1. Could you guys put the 2008 drivers into four groups for me?

World Class

'On their day'

'Happy to be here'

Also rans

[woody2goody]

Here are how they rate for me as they are this season:

World Class: Raikkonen, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Button, Rosberg, Kubica

On their day: Webber, Fisichella, Trulli, Massa, Glock, Vettel, Bourdais

Happy to be here: Nakajima, Sutil, Coulthard, Sato, Davidson, Piquet, Barrichello,

Also rans: None. I think all drivers are good enough to be in F1 this season.

[yodasarmpit]

Here are how they rate for me as they are this season:

World Class: Raikkonen, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Button, Rosberg, Kubica

On their day: Webber, Fisichella, Trulli, Massa, Glock, Vettel, Bourdais

Happy to be here: Nakajima, Sutil, Coulthard, Sato, Davidson, Piquet, Barrichello,

Also rans: None. I think all drivers are good enough to be in F1 this season.
I tend to agree with the exception of Button, I'd drop him to "On their day" and I'd swap Coulthard and Webber around.

[Cozzie]

World Class: Raikkonen, Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Kubica, Rosberg
On their day: Trulli, Vettel, Fisichella, Coulthard, Barrichello, Webber, Button, Glock
Happy to be here: Sato, Nakajima, Sutil, Davidson, Piquet, Bourdais
Also rans: None.

[Valve Bounce]

I was wondering about who is good and who is great in F1. Could you guys put the 2008 drivers into four groups for me?

World Class

'On their day'

'Happy to be here'

Also rans

To have a realistic grading, you'd have to put them all in Ferraris (except the two Ferrari drivers), let them get used to the cars, say around 50 laps each, then see how they go.

The Ferrari drivers will have to be put into McLarens.

That way you will have a realistic comparison.

[Hawkmoon]

To have a realistic grading, you'd have to put them all in Ferraris (except the two Ferrari drivers), let them get used to the cars, say around 50 laps each, then see how they go.

The Ferrari drivers will have to be put into McLarens.

That way you will have a realistic comparison.

How come the Ferrari drivers have to get stuck with McLarens?

Oh wait, the McLaren is a Ferrari, just painted a silver. I'm with you now Valve! :D

[wedge]

Heidfeld is a strange one. You'd think his worthy of a race win and yet he drives very conservatively and is quite happy to pick up the points - Melbourne this year being a good example. Being in his position you'd probably take the opportunity trying to beat Hamilton on restarts.

And Barrichello is dangerously close in being in the 'unworthy' category. Second half of last season he looked completely lost and hopeless and Bunsen got all the credit for dragging Honda out of the quagmire. Ross Brawn won't put up with it that's for sure.

Barrichello and DC are my candidates who need to push their weight up in races else they'll be out of a drive next year.

[pino]

World Class : Kimi, Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Kubica, Rosberg.

On their day : Trulli, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Webber, Fisichella, Button, Vettel, Glock, Bourdais.

Happy to be there : The rest of them :p :

[Tazio]

I was wondering about who is good and who is great in F1. Could you guys put the 2008 drivers into four groups for me?

World Class

'On their day'

'Happy to be here'

Also rans

World Class ??

'On their day' ?

'Happy to be here' All of them ;)

Also rans ?

[F1boat]

World Class
Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton

'On their day'
Felipe Massa, Heikki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Sebastian Vettel, Sebastian Boudais, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella

'Happy to be here'
Nelson Piquet-jr., Timo Glock, Adrian Sutil, Anthony Davidson, Takuma Sato

[Ranger]

I was wondering about who is good and who is great in F1. Could you guys put the 2008 drivers into four groups for me?

World Class

'On their day'

'Happy to be here'

Also rans

Pretty poor choice of categories, because they all cross over. I'm sure every driver on the grid is 'happy to be here' when you boil it all down. Likewise, most drivers in top-tier seats will automatically become 'world-class' in the eyes of most.

[ArrowsFA1]

Raikkonen & Alonso rank above the others because the proof is there that they can win one or more WDCs.

Then there are those who have shown they can win races:
Coulthard, Barrichello, Massa, Hamilton, Fisichella, Trulli, Button

Then there are those who have been capable of scoring points:
Heidfeld, Webber, Sato, Kubica, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Vettel, Glock, Nakajima, Bourdais

Then there are the rest :D

[leopard]

World Class
Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton

'On their day'
Felipe Massa, Heikki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Sebastian Vettel, Sebastian Boudais, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella

'Happy to be here'
Nelson Piquet-jr., Timo Glock, Adrian Sutil, Anthony Davidson, Takuma Sato
Agree, previously I rate Alonso and Hamilton are very close, but another fact that Kimi will not be champion if he is not a world class driver.

[woody2goody]

Pretty poor choice of categories, because they all cross over. I'm sure every driver on the grid is 'happy to be here' when you boil it all down. Likewise, most drivers in top-tier seats will automatically become 'world-class' in the eyes of most.

Yeah to be fair this ideas sounded good when I was typing it but I realised it wasn't the best when I'd posted it! :)

[Ranger]

Yeah to be fair this ideas sounded good when I was typing it but I realised it wasn't the best when I'd posted it! :)

Yeh fair enough... but I'll try and categorise them anyway :p : :

1: Raikkonen, Alonso,
2: Hamilton, Massa, Kovalainen, Trulli, Webber, Heidfeld, Kubica
3: Rosberg, Coulthard, Button, Barrichello, Fisichella, Vettel, Bourdais, Glock
4: Nakajima, Piquet Jr., Sutil, Sato, Davidson

*List subject to change... frequently. :p :

[jens]

Good to see grouping method being used here, which I think is a lot fairer than giving concrete positions for everyone. But sure it's also not totally fair as it's often hard to find a dividing line between groups.



World Class: Raikkonen, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Button, Rosberg, Kubica

On their day: Webber, Fisichella, Trulli, Massa, Glock, Vettel, Bourdais

Happy to be here: Nakajima, Sutil, Coulthard, Sato, Davidson, Piquet, Barrichello,


I tend to agree with the grouping, although I'd probably add Webber into the World Class group. I have been impressed by his consistency and speed he has shown at Red Bull and also the small amount of mistakes (Canada last year is the only case I can recall). The jury is still out on Vettel and some other rookies, so it's hard to group them.

I'm not sure, where to put Barrichello and Coulthard. If we look at DC's seasons, then it has been usual that he has about 2-3 races per season, where he really shines and on other occasions he is in the shadow of his team-mate (except when his TM was Klien), racing almost unnoticably, but steadily collecting an acceptable amount of points by the end of the season. I wonder whether those 2-3 great races of the season are still to come?!

Barrichello in an average car like Honda does not look as spectacular as he looked in average cars in the 90's, so I guess 2008 might be his last season too? I guess he got a new contract for this season largely thanks to a strong first half of 2007 (contract was extended somewhere in summer), when he managed to match or even beat Button, but since then he has seemed quite unimpressive...

[jas123f1]

It's not that easy, but with reservation that i can change my mind to morrow :)

Raikkonen, Alonso, Massa, Kubica,
Hamilton, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Trulli,
Button, Glock, Piquet, Webber, Fisichella, Barrichello,
Nakajima, Vettel, Sutil, Bourdais,
Coulthard, Davidson, Sato.

[ShiftingGears]

Barrichello in an average car like Honda does not look as spectacular as he looked in average cars in the 90's, so I guess 2008 might be his last season too? I guess he got a new contract for this season largely thanks to a strong first half of 2007 (contract was extended somewhere in summer), when he managed to match or even beat Button, but since then he has seemed quite unimpressive...

I agree - although I don't think theres anyone out there who would be a better choice for the second Honda seat.