Driver(s) of the season

[N4D13]

Just opened this thread to see if anyone could find a reason not to have Vettel in his top 3. :D

I suppose I'd pick Vettel, Alonso and Button, in that order. What about you? ;)

[AndyL]

I suppose I'd pick Vettel, Alonso and Button, in that order. What about you? ;)

Challenge accepted ;)

1. Hamilton.
Let's not forget what professional sport is all about: advertising. The sponsors pay the money, and what they're paying for is to get their brands on TV. Despite not being in a championship-winning car, or even being in the top 3 in the WDC, he still managed to get more coverage and provoke more debate than any other driver. Garnish with a sprig of "no publicity is bad publicity" and you have a delicious puff-pastry P.R. pie.

2. Petrov.
By mid-season he was beating team-mate Heidfeld so badly that he got the guy sacked from the team. The fact that he was beating Heidfeld by a negative number of championship points at the time just emphasises how dominant he was in that team. And let's not forget that during his time at BMW, Heidfeld was pretty competitive with Kubica, so it's no stretch to say that Petrov would surely have inflicted the same humiliation on Kubica.

3. Schumacher
Michael took some stick in 2010, when he only scored half as many points as Rosberg. But Rosberg is good, and Schumacher is not the first team-mate he's outscored 2-for-1; Michael can count himself in the company of Alexandre Premat and Kazuki Nakajima in that respect. This year we saw the old Schumacher race-craft back on show, and in finishing only 13 points down on Rosberg he surely demonstrated that his 7 world championships were no fluke.








;)
If I were being serious I'd pick the same 3 as you, not sure what order though.

[Dave B]

Vettel obviously, he gelled perfectly with his car from day one and looked like the Schumacher of old for most of the season. Even when he had a bad day he was still 4th! Yes it was partly down to the car but you only need look at the margin to Webber most weekends to know that Sebastian is on another level. Age is on his side, and it's frightning to think just how successful he could become.

Alonso - though it pains me to say it - humiliated his already downtrodden team mate and was a constant feature on the podium even when it didn't look like the car was particularly brilliant.

Button - came into a team where many expected him to be battered by Hamilton, but instead took 3 wins including that wet-weather masterpiece in Canada.

Honourable mention to Hamilton - I can't put him in my top three as his head wasn't screwed on right for much of the year and there were far too many errors, but when he was good he was very very good indeed. He also bagged the only non-RBR pole of the season, so he deserves a mention simply for making sure that not every Saturday was predictable!

[aryan]

It's a close one between Vettel and Button for me, but I'll have to hand it to the German as he was so dominant this year.

Button a close second, followed by an as-always-impressive Alonso.

Donkey of the season? Truli, and as much as it pains me to say this, Barichello as well. The time has come for both of them.

[ioan]

Well, there was Vettel and than there were the others.

[steveaki13]

Top 3 is same as most others here

1. Vettel - He dominated everything about the season and just crushed everyone. An awsome performance in a great car

2. Alonso - He is ahead of Button because the Ferrari I feel was a fair bit off the Mclaren and time and time again Fernando outperformed the car and was so strong with it that he was nearly always ahead of his par position

3. Button - A great season expecially in the second half he was so composed calm and consistant that he outperformed Lewis by more than the points suggest.

4.Adrian Sutil - I orginally had Di Resta as having a better season than Sutil because it was his first in F1, but the last 2 or 3 races Adrian Sutil showed a real class he really drove well and has surely made sure a team hires him for 2012

5. Paul di Resta - I think he has had a great debut season scoring points and battling up the field. He must build on this and have a Sutil style season next year if the car is at this sort of level. Force India done a fine job this year.

6. Sergio Perez - Similar to di Resta he has shown speed, nouse and ability to make me sure he will hang around for a few years. I think he was actually disadvantaged by Sauber constantly going for slow 1 stoppers earlier in the year.

7. Final in depth mention for Heikki Kovalainen - Easy to ignore those drivers back there but the race pretty hard this season and Heikki smashed Trulli in Quali and races and won the Div 2 title I would have thought.
He also began to battle with the midfield, I think he will score Caterhams 1st point next season.

Other ranking
8. Lewis Hamilton - Had his troubles but won 3 races
9. Daniel Ricciardo - Done a fine job out performing Liuzzi and Virgins
10. Kobayashi - 1st half of season in my top 5. But tailed off as Sauber failed to develop
11. Rosberg - Done another solid job in a average car. Beat Schumi again
12. Webber - A good season in many cars but not in a Red Bull.
13. Alguersuari - Actually had a solid season scoring a lot of points mid season
14. Schumacher - A better season but still to many mistakes/incidents
15. Heidfeld - Thought he was doing OK and over the season would have picked up more points than Vitaly. But didn't get the chance
16. Senna - 2 points but actually gave away chances of a few more points
17. Vitaly - A good podium early on but other than that left me cold
18. Buemi - An average season half the points of his team mate
19. Massa - Terrible season in a decent car, crashed/spun and was slow.
20. Barrichello - A poor season but did score more points than Pastor
21. Maldonado - A poor car but he didn't do much for me
22. Karthikeyan - I thought he would be miles off everyone but actually did OK
23. d'Ambrosio - A young driver who has struggled but it is his first year
24. Glock - Tough for Timo this season better luck next year
25. Liuzzi - A poor car but has not beaten a debutant teamate as he should
26. Trulli - A good driver who has had two shocking years may be his last.
27. De La Rosa - An average one off drive
28. Karun Chandhok - One very poor race finished way behind HRT & Virgins

[wedge]

Vettel - just nicks for showing the world that he can be a racer when he fancies it.

Alonso - always a threat for a podium and causing some sort of trouble.

Di Resta - his rookie year was so brilliant that it gave Sutil a wake up call. Been in the wrong end of split strategies in some races recently which hampered his form.

[jens]

The most impressive ones were indeed Vettel, Alonso and Button, like already mentioned. Rosberg outscored Schumacher again, but this year this was much less convincing and seemed to struggle on quite a few occasions.

Midfield was very tightly contested with different constructors in front in different races (in the first half of the season mainly Renault and Sauber were strong, FI and STR were shining in the second half), but I get the impression Force India had the best driver line-up of them. Their drivers seemed to be a bit more consistent pace-wise from track-to-track, while others had bigger fluctuations. For instance Alguersuari was nowhere in the I half of the season, Kobayashi was mostly good only in the first half, Pérez in the second half, etc.

At the back Kovalainen was doing very well, but due to the performance of the car it was difficult to evaluate him, because Team Lotus was in no-mans-land most of the time - well clear of other new teams, but behind all established ones. I think Glock and Ricciardo were doing well too, but they had even less opportunity to really get noticed.

[Big Ben]

Well, there was Vettel and than there were the others.

deep

[ioan]

deep

Suck it up.

[kfzmeister]

Well, there was Vettel and then there were the others.

No prob.

[555-04Q2]

The Vet. Cleaned up not only the whole grid with the best car, but also made his teamate Webbo look very, very ordinary this season.

[rjbetty]

It's aki13's fault. He layed down the gauntlet by reviewing all the drivers. I've taken up the challenge. :)

28.Karun Chandhok: Tough to choose who to put last - Qualified a good 20th
for his one-off race with little practice and seat time. Race was shocking
though so he gets the wooden spoon in a field where again there were no
standout 'rejects'.

27.Narain Karthikeyan: Likewise, no recent practice but did well
considering. Didn't seem to be wild and crashy, but sensible which must
have been appreciated by his short-on-cash team. Despite lack of recent
practice, shone against Ricciardo on his return in India.

26.Jerome D'Ambrosio: Acquited himself well and compared decently to
experienced Glock, outqualifying him nuch more often than Lucas di Grassi
did last year - though the car was more reliable and more sorted, making
the task easier.

25.Vitantonio Liuzzi: Rubbish in a good car, but a real asset to the
smallest team on the grid - Tonio was quite a catch. But he didn't appear
to excel or exceed himself in any way.

24.Pedro de la Rosa: Again, lack of recent seat-time played against Pedro,
but considering that he did well in Canada by not embarassing himself in
qualifying and finishing a crazy race in which his team-mate incurred
damage and a repair bill.

23.Daniel Ricciardo: Franz Tost declared that he expected Daniel Ricciardo
would "best Liuzzi after 3 races" - it took longer. Liuzzi fought back and
outperformed him in Brazil as well. Was also outperformed by Karthikeyan on
Narain's Indian return. So all in all, I still wonder if he really is THAT
special. But then I thought the same thing about Sebastien Vettel when Seb
was in the same situation in 2007...

22.Rubens Barrichello: It would be a shame to see Rubens squeezed out of F1
when he wants to stay. Trouble was, he did not clearly outperform rookie
Maldonado, who is not exactly the next Ayrton Senna (more like Bruno). He
failed to qualify once in the top 10 - Maldonado did so 3 times.

21.Jarno Trulli: Outclassed by Kovalainen, in absolute terms Jarno would
still rank fairly well, but he is so far short of his best now (and with a
bad attitude to boot) that the time is now right for him to move over and
relinquish that seat to a hungry talented youngster.

20.Pastor Maldonado: In a bad car, still started in the top 10 on 3
occasions. He didn't appear to be quite the wild beast that was expected,
and from what I know did not spend the season exloring many different ways
to destroy cars. Very unfortunate in Monaco. Not bad.

19.Sebastien Buemi: One of the most anonymous drivers of all in recent
years, again precious little stood out, and frankly I've never understood
what Red Bull see in him. There as a good drive to 8th from the back in
Hungary, and he relentlessly outqualified Alguersuari early on, but ended
up with just over half his team-mate's points total. Unimpressive.

18.Bruno Senna: Another driver hurt by lack of seat-time in the car, Bruno
started out with 2 bangs at Spa - by qualifying 7th, and then wasting it by
hitting Alguersuari. Unfortunately, Bruno proved to be a disappointment
because the truth was, he was outperformed by Petrov who is not much more
experienced. And I wonder if Bruno would have scored a podium as Vitaly
did.

17.Kamui Kobayashi: After making a real impression in 2010, Kamui started
2011 well with a string of strong points finishes, but faded badly in the
second half, perhaps fazed by the performance of Perez...? Needs to
rebound.

16.Nick Heidfeld: One of the disappointments of the season. It's hard to
say how much spending time out of F1 and racing affects a driver, but the
fact is Heidfeld was outclassed by Petrov (who isn't the greatest
benchmark) in qualifying, and Nick's points total was not significantly
higher. That is not what he was signed for...

15.Vitaly Petrov: A quite brilliant podium in Australia proved to be a
false dawn as Vitaly struggled to replicate that kind of showing anywhere
else. But a lot of credit has to be given as Vitaly showed much improvement
by avoiding the many crashes that almost cost him his drive last year. He
was also the teams' strongest qualifier, a notch above Senna in the races
too. All in all a good job, though may find himself out of room with the
arrival of Raikkonen and probably Grosjean.

14.Timo Glock: The fact that Virgin racing were actually further from the
pace than they had been in their first year must have proved a great
discouragement for Timo, and the way the way that D'Ambrosio outqualified
him on several occasions caused some wonder whether Glock was still giving
his best. Things have to improve - another soul-sapping season might just
be too much to bear.

13.Jaime Alguersuari: Were he being judged solely on race performances,
Jaime Alguersuari could be considered a star in his own right, and would
very possibly win the interest of other teams. Some of his race drives into
the points from the back were highly impressive and he garnered almost
twice the points of his more experienced team-mate. Unfortunately, his
qualifying performances do take the shine of things. Clearly behind the
un-stellar Buemi, some of Jaime's saturdays were woeful. Still, he appears
a very mature driver for his age and deserves a place in the business
(sport).

12.Sergio Perez: Because of the fact that Perez brought a stash of cash
along, not too much was expected. But by impressvely getting the better of
Kobayashi on saturdays, Perez had earned a place in F1 on merit. Very very
good and clearly a top 2 finish in the rookie of the year standings.

11.Adrian Sutil: It is a harsh situation for Adrian Sutil. Initially
outperformed by Paul di Resta, it seemed Sutil was unsettled, perhaps
having grown too comfortable with being unchallenged by a team-mate. In
fairness, he raised his game and fought back, asserting himself over the
rookie. There were several strong performances, such as Germany and Brazil.
These did beg the question, where was this form in the first half of the
season? But truth be told, with Hulkenberg behind the scenes, the writing
was probably on the wall before the season started that Adrian was on his
way out, especially knowing thow Vijay Mallya was seriously put out by the
desire Sutil showed to fly the nest for a space in a top team. It is a
shame to think after such good performances in the season's second half
that Adrian might find his F1 career even over! A tough business.

10.Felipe Massa: A singularly flat and unimpressive season. Massa failed to
finish higher than 5th in a season where his team-mate ascended the podium
in about half the races. The truth was he was only a couple of tenths off
Alonso, but scored only half the points. He is still ranked 10th on account
that his performances in absolute terms were still better than much of the
field. Massa's fans insist he's never been the same after 2009, but the man
himself says otherwise. I think the truth is closer to being that Felipe no
longer has the best car, and more pertinently the quality of his opposition
in good cars has increased beyond his reach. I have to say I think Felipe
is over-rated in the way he was expected to beat Alonso when Fernando
joined Ferrari. He is simply not in the class of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton,
and the REAL Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, and that is simply
showing now. In fact, he seems to be quite a bit further behind Alonso than
Giancarlo Fisichella was, which is telling. I believe a driver should be
judged by not only their good drives and years, but also how they are in
their bad ones.

9.Michael Schumacher: His many critics will declare that Michael Schumacher
again experienced another catastrophic season, but look below the surface
and things look much more promising. At age 42 and still overcoming a 3
year absence, Michael may have again outqualified Nico on no more occasions
than he managed in 2010, but actually the time gap was probably more than
halved. Adding up all the qualifying segments in the season in which both
drivers set representative times, Michael beat Nico many more times than in
2010. Often, he started just a little gap behind. The problem is that
people don't seem to understand F1 and only look at surface results, which
show that Michael was again behind Rosberg in both qualifying and points.
It was on race pace that Michael really shone though. For the most part he
was on Nico's pace or faster, and on occasions such as Monaco, Silverstone
and Spa made his younger countryman look silly. The problem was, this often
failed to show because the final result was much compromised by errors and
incidents. Michael came in for much criticism for his less than laser sharp
racecraft, failing to take into account the huge 3 year absence. In truth,
things were still all coming back to Michael and it's only a matter of time
before the racecraft is fixed. When you realise what Schumacher's results
would have been if things had gone his way, things suddenly look very
promising. He would have probably easily outpointed Rosberg. The truth was
that Schumacher's 2011 was actually much improved over 2010. It was just
that the relative performance of the car had dipped and the top teams were
also more reliable. This disguised the apparent lack of improvement in
actual results. In fact, if the season had ended after India, I would have
ranked Schumacher 6th (even 5th). As long as he keeps improving, and if
Mercedes can close the gap to the front, then this could get very
interesting.

The post is so long I exceeded the character limit! To be continued...

[rjbetty]

PART 2
=====
8.Paul di Resta: Perhaps a little highly placed considering Sutil outshone
him in the second half of the season. Let's see if he's as good as he
claims to be.

7.Nico Rosberg: Same here. Nico seemed less imressive than in 2010. Last
year there were 3 podiums - in 2011 there were no finishes higher than 5th.
Doesn't look good. However, this owes to the fact that the car was
definitely a step backwards in relative performance. What has really taken
the shine off Rosberg somewhat is the way that Michael Schumacher
outclassed him at Monaco, and finished 17 seconds behind at Silverstone -
but having lost 50 seconds early on. Things like this raise questions as to
how much Rosberg is really getting out of the car, though his motivation
must undoubtedly have suffered due to again finding himself without a
chance of winning.

6.Mark Webber: A textbook example of how fickle and silly "experts" are. Last
year the crowds fell over each other getting onto the bandwagon for Mark
Webber. This year, the same people rushed to discard that bandwagon and
instead rush to get on the one for knocking him down, saying "retire" and
all that stupid stuff. I'm afraid this proved to be my most spot-on
prediction for 2011 - the comedown. This was because even after Korea in
2010, Webber had seemed tired from the effort of extracting the form of his
life from within himself to continue hanging onto the coat-tails of some of
the greatest ever drivers. I openly wondered well before the season how
much Webber would be able to find in 2011 and didn't expect him to do so.
You can read all about it on my dormant-ish website www.rjbetty.weebly.com (http://www.rjbetty.weebly.com)
(but ignore the fact that I stuck my neck out and predicted that Red Bull
might have a McLaren 2006 style comedown and only finish 3rd in the
championship!). Webber is 6th because in absolute terms I think he should
still be around there, and also for the fact that he did finally win.

5.Heikki Kovalainen: A surprise choice maybe, but those in the know say
Heikki extracted everything possible from his car, and did so consistently.
If he had done that in a top car, then the reason for this ranking would be
obvious.

4.Lewis Hamilton: A bad year, but even so was able to show his genius on
occasion.

3.Jenson Button: A great example of how to extract the optimum performance
possible out of the circumstaces. Was always there to pick up pieces and
make the most of the situation. Again he often headed Lewis this way, but
impressively also did so on several occasions through pure performance and
merit, such as in Japan and Brazil.

2.Fernando Alonso: If Jenson showed how to extraxt the maximum possible
from a situation, then Alonso was even better, almost toppling Jenson in
the standings despite driving a significantly inferior car. Was just pipped
by Webber in a car which enjoyed a huge advantage over the Ferrari, and
actually did finish ahead of Hamilton for the second season in a row.
Didn't put a foot wrong all year as far as I could tell. Missed out on
number one in my rankings by nothing.

1.Sebastian Vettel: The continuing put-downs and general bad feeling
towards this young man are getting increasingly tiresome. The constant
bleating about the best car is now sounding like a stuck record, and it
does a huge disservice to what is an outstanding year of achievement. This
is how you know you are witnessing a genius - when he makes a car look
dominant when it really isn't (nearly as much as people claim). For
evidence, check out team-mate Mark Webber (so nearly winless, so nearly
beaten by a Ferrari as well as a McLaren). What is really telling is not so
much Webber's lack of wins, but his lack of 2nd places. Think about that.
I'm making myself look like a real Vettel fanboy when the truth is I'm
really not that fussed on him and prefer Webber and the McLaren drivers -
I'm just giving credit where it's due. You can tell when a driver is really
on special form by not just the wins, but the fact they still finish 2nd on
bad days, which is how it was for Seb this year. In a resentful attempt to
belittle the lad's achievements, people rely on making this big issue about
an apparent lack of racecraft and questioning what he would achieve in a
car that's not the best (that was actually at least partially answered in
2008). I have confidence that for his next trick, Sebastian will now grow
in these areas too, leaving the critics to try and find some other apparent
weakness to try to latch onto and magnify - perhaps his well-known finger
gesture will soon be the only target left, to which I say - give him a
break.

[jens]

Rjbetty, impressive effort to write up such a long thoughtful evaluation, so I had to use the 'like' button. :)

But if I personally had to rank drivers in 2011, I would do it strictly based on how they performed in 2011, which means I would put Sutil and Kobayashi above their team-mates, not the other way around. Pérez and di Resta may have been rookies, but 'theoretical potential' doesn't count at the moment. If they improve and perform better in subsequent seasons, their rankings would improve anyway.

[Zico]

Just opened this thread to see if anyone could find a reason not to have Vettel in his top 3. :D

I suppose I'd pick Vettel, Alonso and Button, in that order. What about you? ;)


+1, couldn't/wouldn't argue with that.

[tfp]

1. Bunson - every day of the week. Especially toward the end of the race, when he pushed, he would take the fight to the man who completely dominated this season....Only bunson took the fight to vettel in a much slower car.

2.Vettel. His performance cant be argued with, he made sure he was at the front at all times. He has by far the best car, but having the best car with a poor driver just wont work.

3. Di resta - Rookie of the season, I thought he'd play second fiddle in the team to Sutil, but proved me completely wrong!!

[F1boat]

1 Vettel 2 Jenson 3 Alonso - the WDC is an accurate reflection of the class shown by the drivers IMO.

[The Black Knight]

In order, here are my top of the season:

1: Vettel - It was close between him and Alonso but you have to give him driver of the year becuase he extracted the most from his machine and whenever made mistakes it was in free practice. Incredible performances for a guy his age and I'm looking forward to watching his talents on show in F1 over the coming years.

2: Alonso - I was torn between him and Vettel as to who to put first but he did make more mistakes than Vettel. He finished 3rd in the championship in a heap of **** Ferrari and won a race. I think that he more than deserves to be ranked 2nd.

3rd: Button - Although I feel he was being made look better because of Hamilton's woes, I do also feel that he has progressed massively as a driver and he put in some fine races. Japan was his best race in my opinion. People get too carried away with Canada. Anyone that is in the pits 6 times during a race and wins has to be counted as lucky. He drover magnificently the last 10-15 laps of the race but it has to be put into context with the rest of the race. Nevertheless he still had to drive like he stole it those laps to win and he did it in style. Outstanding performances throughout the year and he has improved massively as a driver. To outscore Hamilton is not an easy feat. And he is also a very nice chap indeed.

4th: Hamilton - A turbulent year which has seen the wonderkid lose some of his prestigous speed. He will improve next year. I do expect to see him outscore Button in 2012. Nevertheless, considering how many collisions he had this year, to finish 5th and not too far off the 2nd 3rd and 4th is still quite impressive. He is still the best driver on the grid on his day, he just hasn't been able to show it this year. 3 wins, 5th place in championship. Next year should be different.

5th: Kovaleinen - This might surprise some of you but I think his performances have not got the attention he deserved. He has been beating Jarno Trulli throughout the year, outperforming him all the time in race and qualifying. I think he has improved massively as a driver and got his confidence back after the demolishing handed to him at McLaren by Hamilton. Big improvement and consistent throughout the year. I'm now looking forward to seeing him in a car capable of scoring points again.

[rjbetty]

Snap. Pleased to see you agree with my top 5, especially Kovalainen - it's easy to forget about him.

[Malbec]

Couldn't resist a long reply to this thread.

Instead of ranking all of them I put them into key groups. In no particular order:

Not impressed:

Karun Chandhok - Binning a Lotus exiting the pits in his first FP1 session was a low. A great ambassador for the sport outside the car and best kept there.

Jarno Trulli - Utterly dominated by his teammate despite his exceptional experience and one lap pace. Didn't improve once Lotus got the power steering to his liking. Getting on a bit and I question his motivation too. I really like him as a character and I think its best he chose to leave the sport with dignity intact rather than carrying on and fading away.

Rubens Barrichello - Claims to be as motivated and quick as ever, yet his not particularly highly rated teammate was soon matching or beating his pace. Was prickly off track as well making some pointed comments about his team which although probably true would not have endeared him. As with Trulli, nice guy who should leave the sport now with his head held high rather than have another season like this to spoil his memory with.

Vitantonio Liuzzi - Kubica supposedly recommended Renault take him instead of Heidfeld because he's supposedly a better driver. Supposedly. Rather underwhelming performance this year where he failed to trash his teammates in the way I'd expect someone of his supposedly great talent to manage.

Flashes of brilliance but...:

Narain Karthikeyan - Excellent performance in his one race at India beating his much vaunted teammate who Red Bull rates so highly they are prepared to buy a seat at another team for him. Still, doesn't make up for his previous lacklustre performances in years gone past.

Timo Glock - Often quick, occasionally blindingly fast taking that Virgin places it shouldn't be going, mixing it up with Loti of the green sort. At other times though he was quite vulnerable to his teammate and got beaten by HRTs sometimes too.

Jerome D'Ambrosio - Beat his quick teammate on more than a few occasions. Would have been nice to see him at a midfield team so I could properly see his talents but there are plenty more drivers with a similar level of talent.

Bruno Senna - Impressive start at Spa and did well to cope with the pressure of entering a struggling team halfway through a season but thats about it. Did nothing to vindicate Boullier's decision to replace Nick with him mid-season and hopefully there are few people left who genuinely believe he is anywhere near as good as his uncle.

Pastor Maldonaldo - Apparently a bit of an idiot off-track, he still managed to match Rubens early on in the season and IIRC the only times a Williams popped into Q3 he was at the helm. Impressed me more than Hulkenberg did the year before. At some races like Monaco he was on fire until Lewis found him, but at too many others he could be found fending off green Loti and serving drive throughs. Might well improve a lot next season though.

Pedro de la Rosa - Good job squeezing into a Sauber at the last minute. Was trashed by his teammate who was running second at one point in Canada while Pedro never threatened to score a point but given the late notice merely finishing the race was an achievement.

Sebastien Buemi - Makes John Major look like an extrovert party animal. Somehow instantly forgettable even when he puts in tremendous performances but over the full season he was unable to match his teammate. Will probably be kicked out for next year but then again so might his teammate...

Sergio Perez - Stupendously quick on some tracks especially street circuits but at Monaco he looked like an accident waiting to happen, and it did. Scored a few points towards the end of the season often by splitting his strategy with Kobayashi and having luck fall his way. Might improve next year with a little more experience though.

Good but I know you can do better:

Michael Schumacher - Better performance than last year but this is not the Schumi from before still. Seems more comfortable within himself though. Must beat Rosberg next year...

Vitaly Petrov - Definitely improved from last year and did well to race as well as he did while his team self-destructed around him. Wasn't fazed by Nick at all. Found more consistency this year but he needs that final touch before he can be considered good, speed.

Nick Heidfeld - Dumped for political or financial reasons but that doesn't change the fact that he should have done better and probably could have done so. Should have stamped his authority all over the team and his teammate, failed by a big margin.

Felipe Massa - Usually the sixth quickest out of the cars capable of winning a race. Showed a bit more pace towards the end of the season but we know he can do better and so does he. Seems to have lost a lot of confidence on the Pirellis. Obviously lost out colliding with Lewis but it says a lot that Massa was often running at his natural pace trying to fend off a quicker but recovering Lewis when those accidents happened.

Mark Webber - This might be harsh but unfortunately his teammate showed exactly what could be done with an identical car, Mark's pace just didn't measure up. Should have come second on a regular basis but didn't even manage that sadly. The pole position stat for this season says it all.

Lewis Hamilton - Showed that he has the pace he's famous for but made far far too many errors, many of them unforced. Great drivers should not be making this number of mistakes. Still hopefully he'll enter 2012 in a better frame of mind and his old form should return but judged purely on his 2011 performance he was a disappointment, perhaps the biggest of the year.

To be continued...

[Mia 01]

Vettel!!!

[steveaki13]

It's aki13's fault. He layed down the gauntlet by reviewing all the drivers. I've taken up the challenge. :)

...

You took up the challenge and smashed me into the distance.

Brilliant evaluation. Well Done

[The Black Knight]

Snap. Pleased to see you agree with my top 5, especially Kovalainen - it's easy to forget about him.

Belated snap. Hadn't read your post actually. But yeah, I think Heikki had a fantastic season and deserves all the credit he gets. Jarno may have had his woes with the power steering, but Heikki still ruined him.

[Knock-on]

Top 3 are pretty easy for me.

Seb takes the top spot. Not only did he have a near perfect year with few mistakes but he dominated his team mate in the process. The car was .1 to .5 a sec quicker than anything else out there but he converted it beautifully to a well deserved 2nd championship.

Button gets it by a country mile for 2nd place. He managed his machinery wonderfully and was the only one really pushing the much quicker Red Bull. If the McLaren was a bit quicker, could he have challenged for the championship? Who knows but you wouldn't bet against it, would you.

Third is a tricky one. Alonso was pretty strong although we don't know how good because his team mate was woeful again. Is anyone else getting fed up with Rocky pleading with his driver to pick the pace up a bit. Get him the feck out of there for gods sake. Then we had Paul di Resta. Great début and really kicked-started Sutil into action. On balance, it must go to Alonso although I'm really looking forward to see what Paul does next year.

A few mentions:

Rosberg. Again he beat Schumacher by a nice margin but his race craft just doesn't really impress me much. He only really showed some fire when Schumy tried to bully past him and he had enough of it. Lets hope he keeps a bit of fire in his belly and destroys the seat waster next year.

Lewis. Up and down like a tarts knickers this year but when he was on it, nobody could touch him which his 3 wins proves. Come on buddy, sort it out in 2012!!

Sutil. Once he took up the challenge from the rookie, looked in good shape again and finished the season strongly. I've always been a fan of his but was starting to lose patience. Glad he found his mojo again and hope he continues the momentum into 2012.

Kamui had some good races, Alguersuari impressed at times and Trulli battled gallantly.

As for the rest, special mention for the Renault and Williams drivers who were crap all year. Woeful.