Driver & Drivers of 2012

[steveaki13]

Lets talk about the best drivers and invidual drives of 2012. What was epic and brilliant

[wedge]

Driver of the year - Hamilton & Alonso. Both consistently extracted the mwximum from their cars.

Drive of the year - Sergio Perez/Canadiam GP. Considering most were worried about tyres/delta laps Perez came from nowhere to finish on the podium on a one stopper with a long first stint on softer compound.

[jens]

The two championship contenders and Hamilton, closely followed by Räikkönen. Great seasons by them! Honorable mentions to Hülkenberg and Schumacher. I really hope Hulk can get a top car one day, while keeping and improving on the good form he has been showing recently. Then we could have even more contenders!

[The Black Knight]

Alonso and Hamilton were drivers of the season followed by Vettel and Kimi in that order. Kimi really impressed me and to score points in every race upon his return was incredible. Brilliant driver. I think Schumacher was excellent for his age but I've never seen a driver have such bad luck before in my life.

Lap of the year - Schumacher in Monaco.

Drive of the year - Hamilton in Austin, Alonso in Malaysia or Germany. Take your pick they were all incredible performances.

Donkey of the year without doubt goes to Grosjean. The icing on the cake was Saturday in qualifying hitting the HRT. I know the steward's said it was a misunderstanding but looking at the on board from Grosjean I can't come to any conclusion other than him being an idiot. He has the speed but personally I don't think he is rounded enough to be in F1.

Runner up donkey - This prize also must go to donkey Grosjean, because sometimes on donkey award just isn't enough.

Third spot goes to Maldonado for obvious reasons.

Most ridiculous FIA stewarding decision is without doubt handing a penalty to Narain for the incident with Vettel in Malaysia. One of the worst Stewarding decisions ever made - right up there with Belgium 08. Congratulations to the Steward's on proving that they bottle under pressure.

Overall though this has probably been F1's best ever season and although it's a shame the driver of the year didn't win the championship, it went to a worthy competitor nonetheless.

[andyone]

Definitely Hamilton and Alonso. taken out a couple of times. Hamilton's car died twice i guess or more. no driver error for the two drivers.. Grosjean fast driver but too wreck less and he managed to mix-up the championship results

[dj_bytedisaster]

My two minor currency units...

THE WINNERS

The "How the heck did he do that?" Award : Fernando Alonso
for sticking the car consistently where it didn't belong. Despite fading considerably in the last two races, he still took the fight to last race in a car that only was the third best in the field.

The "Leave me alone!" Award: Kimi Räikkönen
for grabbing points consistently, while still providing the best comedy in F1, ever.

The "Biggest Comeback Since Lazarus" Award: Felipe Massa
Four years after being robbed of a WDC due to Renault's race rigging and three years after a near-fatal accident he finally found his mojo back to make his team-mate look fairly ordinary in the last two races. Extra honour for staying loyal despite being badly screwed over by the team in 'Merica.

THE DONKEYS

The "Andrea de Cesaris Memorial" Award: Romain Grosjean
for piling into other cars and the scenery endlessly. That Lotus seat should go to someone, who can actually drive.

The "Homer Simpson Memorial" Award: Vodafone-McLaren Mercedes
for performing the fastest ever pitstop, only to be utter **** at it for the rest of the year. They robbed Lewis Hamilton of a potential championship. Duh!

The "Octogenarian Volvo driver with Hat" Award: Narain Karthikeyan
for being utter rubbish at driving a Formula One car. Button, Vettel, Rosberg, Hamilton,..., there's hardly a driver who hasn't found himself trapped behind this rolling road block at least once.

The "I saw what you did there" Award: Scuderria Ferrari
for the most cynical attempt at race fixing since Renault's stunt at Singapore 2008. Extra donkeyness, because in hindsight it didn't serve any other purpose than opening pandora's box for the future and screwing Massa and three other driver over.

-- FIN --

[F1boat]

For me it is difficult to say who is the driver of the year. Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton had exceptional season.

[A FONDO]

Alonso - solid drives at the very limit of the car, but slower at the end of the season. Sometimes chose the cowardly 1 stop tyre strategy that costed him points.

Hamilton - very strong drives through the season but car reliability and pit crew errors costed him too much, could have been 2nd or 3rd in the season standings.

Maldonado - yet another driver that extracts every possible bit out of the crappy car. Made his first everwin and some incredible qualifyings, but still not able to control his aggressiveness. Its always interesting around him.

Hulkenberg - improving all the time, beating his teammate everywhere and could have won in Brazil had the safety car not appeared.

[The Black Knight]

Alonso - solid drives at the very limit of the car, but slower at the end of the season. Sometimes chose the cowardly 1 stop tyre strategy that costed him points.

Hamilton - very strong drives through the season but car reliability and pit crew errors costed him too much, could have been 2nd or 3rd in the season standings.

Maldonado - yet another driver that extracts every possible bit out of the crappy car. Made his first everwin and some incredible qualifyings, but still not able to control his aggressiveness. Its always interesting around him.

Hulkenberg - improving all the time, beating his teammate everywhere and could have won in Brazil had the safety car not appeared.

Actually Hamilton could have been first but all ifs and buts now

[Rollo]

The "Leave me alone!" Award: Kimi Räikkönen
for grabbing points consistently, while still providing the best comedy in F1, ever.

Räikkönen was the only driver of 2012 to finish in every single race and in all but one, finished in a points paying position*. Everyone else in the field, binned their cars at least once, and the worst that Kimi ever did was get lost and have to use KimiNav to get back in... when he still finished in the points.

*Even then it was in China and because of the team's poor tyre choices. Kimi went from 2nd to 12th in two laps because the tyres went off and rejoined in 16th.