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.

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.