Autosport awards - a complete joke!

[CaptainRaiden]

Was gonna start a thread about this, but good on you Knighty.

As for the award, what an absolute joke. It seems the "fans" who voted only saw the points table at the end of the year, not Lewis' 5 DNFs due to mechanical failures or somebody else's brain farts or the fact that he thrashed Button ridiculously in qualifying and races throughout the year.

As for popularity based on Autosport fans' opinion, I don't know how that is relevant. If it's the same tools who voted on this award, then it doesn't surprise me.

For most die-hard F1 fans, Alonso and Lewis are still considered the best in unison with Vettel a distant third, as far as I have seen.

[F1boat]

Raikkonen is also very popular and respected among fans. I think that it will be nice if we have FIA poll for popularity. I suspect that if German votes are added we may see that Vettel is very popular.

[F1boat]

Button is generally more popular than Lewis as a personality

I didn't know that.

[F1boat]

Most likely not, as Vettel won... Autosport is well liked among fans all over the world

[dj_bytedisaster]

For most die-hard F1 fans, Alonso and Lewis are still considered the best in unison with Vettel a distant third, as far as I have seen.

Not necessarily. I consider myself a die-hard F1 fan and I wouldn't make that particular distinction. First of all, no matter how much people deny it, personal preference always play into it, when 'listing drivers by awesomeness'. Barely any driver has been exposed to so much vitriol like Vettel over the last two years when the only crime he has committed is winning too much. Therefore many people are driven to say that he's a much lesser driver than Alonso or Hamilton, which is wrong. Each driver has his personal strengths and weaknesses.
Vettel is a very fast and talented driver, but his weakness is that he has developed such a specialized driving style, that he's nigh-on unbeatable when the car fits his preference, but when it doesn't - he struggles.
Alonso and Hamilton could drive the wheels off a wheelie bin and still finish in the points, but that means their driving styles are significantly more aggressive and therefore put more strain on tires an material. Hamilton proved the point in Austin, when he almost lost contact to Vettel on degrading softer tires. He simply had cooked them. Only after switching to the harder compound on which the McLaren had been the fastest car over most the year, he could make his move on Vettel.
I sometimes think, people rate drivers by how spectacular their driving looks. Of course it appears much greater, if someone thrashes his car around on opposite lock, but that doesn't mean it is faster or better.
Jenson is probably the most unspectacular of all drivers, but he is efficient. No matter how much faster Lewis appears to be, over the three years they've been driving together, Jenson has won more points than Lewis, just by being reliable. And that is as much part of a complete driver than being blindingly quick. Which is why Alonso was so great this year - he was fast AND reliable. People all point as Lewis' retirements due to technical failures. I've always wondered whether his aggressive style isn't putting too much strain on the mechanical parts.

Long story short. I think most of the top-drivers are championship material, but they need different things to go their way to achieve it and Alonso proved that there is no such driver as one, who would win in any case. They all need the correct circumstances to make most of their strengths and to avoid their weaknesses.

[The Black Knight]

Not necessarily. I consider myself a die-hard F1 fan and I wouldn't make that particular distinction. First of all, no matter how much people deny it, personal preference always play into it, when 'listing drivers by awesomeness'. Barely any driver has been exposed to so much vitriol like Vettel over the last two years when the only crime he has committed is winning too much. Therefore many people are driven to say that he's a much lesser driver than Alonso or Hamilton, which is wrong. Each driver has his personal strengths and weaknesses.
Vettel is a very fast and talented driver, but his weakness is that he has developed such a specialized driving style, that he's nigh-on unbeatable when the car fits his preference, but when it doesn't - he struggles.
Alonso and Hamilton could drive the wheels off a wheelie bin and still finish in the points, but that means their driving styles are significantly more aggressive and therefore put more strain on tires an material. Hamilton proved the point in Austin, when he almost lost contact to Vettel on degrading softer tires. He simply had cooked them. Only after switching to the harder compound on which the McLaren had been the fastest car over most the year, he could make his move on Vettel.

I have been wondering why Hamilton lost that time before the first pit stop. It seems a bit contradictory because his Engineer came on the radio to him and said that the tyres were in much better condition than they expected and that Hamilton could push to the end, therefore, I'm not sure if it was that he cooked them or backed of so as to be sure not to cook them. Either way, I would like to know the real reason.

I sometimes think, people rate drivers by how spectacular their driving looks. Of course it appears much greater, if someone thrashes his car around on opposite lock, but that doesn't mean it is faster or better.
Jenson is probably the most unspectacular of all drivers, but he is efficient. No matter how much faster Lewis appears to be, over the three years they've been driving together, Jenson has won more points than Lewis, just by being reliable. And that is as much part of a complete driver than being blindingly quick. Which is why Alonso was so great this year - he was fast AND reliable. People all point as Lewis' retirements due to technical failures. I've always wondered whether his aggressive style isn't putting too much strain on the mechanical parts.

Long story short. I think most of the top-drivers are championship material, but they need different things to go their way to achieve it and Alonso proved that there is no such driver as one, who would win in any case. They all need the correct circumstances to make most of their strengths and to avoid their weaknesses.

People were wondering this about Kimi once upon a time when he had a a string of failures at McLaren as well in 2003, saying that Kimi's style was putting too much mechanical strain on the car but this is a nonsense theory. If a car is going to break down it's going to break down, it's up to the team to build a reliable car. Just look at Kimi, this year he finished all races, so hardly to do with his aggressive style. If a car breaks down it's the teams fault not the drivers and there have been plenty of smooth drivers in the past that have suffered mechanical reliability. Cars sometimes break and each time the car broke for Lewis this year the team found a reason for it and none of those reasons were "Lewis you're driving too hard".

I pretty much agree with everything you have said though. I will say that I do try to be as unbiased as I can be when judging a driver. Take Alonso for example, I don't particularly like him, but I do believe he deserved this years title more so than Vettel. I think Vettel is quite a nice chap, but I honestly don't feel that he is the overall driver either Alonso or Hamilton is. You're assertion of him is correct, when the car is right, he is unstoppable but I think he is only unstoppable in some circumstances and that either Alonso or Hamilton in the same machinery could beat him most of the time... not all though

[AndyL]

As for the award, what an absolute joke. It seems the "fans" who voted only saw the points table at the end of the year

Presumably they did not even consider the points table, because of course Hamilton was ahead of Button on that score. I'm sure it's only down to which driver the voters found the more likeable. A bit like how being a good musician isn't particularly important on X-factor. You would hope for better from Autosport readers, but I guess not based on Henners' description of their forums.

[acescribe]

I'm fairly sure it is the readers of Autosport Magazine, rather than any of their other platforms, that vote. There used to be a form inside, I'm not sure if there still is as I confess that in these times of austerity, once it hit and passed £3 an issue I stopped buying it. It could well be just in the UK too that votes come in from - I remember buying the issue which would have had the form in when in Australia one year and it had been removed (and the issue was sealed)

I am not at all surprised to see Jenson get voted ahead of Lewis. I agree in that the die-hard fans admire his poweress, and that inclides myself, he would have got my vote, but going on comments that appear on my facebook page for instance, he simply does not have the raport, popularity and support with the average motor sport fan in England/UK that Button has. Add to that certain factions of the Fleet Street press portraying him as a playboy dreamer walking down the yellow brick road on his move to Mercedes etc.

[dj_bytedisaster]

You're assertion of him is correct, when the car is right, he is unstoppable but I think he is only unstoppable in most circumstances and that either Alonso or Hamilton in the same machinery could beat him most of the time... not all though

That is the point where I disagree. Red Bull 2012 is the best example. Mark was on par if not slightly better than Vettel in the first half of the season, because the car's twitchyness suited Marks style and really hurt Vettel's. Once they had recovered back-end stability, Vettel beat the pants off Mark. That's the thing, even the best drivers in the world need a car that fits their preferred driving style. IIRC from seasons past, both Alonso and Hamilton prefer a slightly oversteering car - so one with more glue on the front. Which in theory means, they would make Vettel look like Deletraz in a car, which prefers their style, while Vettel would probably trounce them if the car was tailored to his style, so saying Alonso or Hamilton would automatically beat Vettel in the same machinery is academic and more likely wishful thinking.
Vettel has shown that he's quick regardless of the car in spec machinery. He cleaned out the German Formula BMW by winning each and every race (18 out of 20) except two, where he finished 2nd and third. You don't trounce a complete championship like that by having to rely on the best machinery. He also bowed out of the Renault World series as the leader, when he was called up to drive for BMW and then STR.
People also tend to forget that he's the only one, who ever finished a STR higher than 7. If we would be still running the old point scheme, he would be the only person ever to score points in a STR and he did that several times and one of that times was a win. I think he's better than given credit for, but I think he'll be able to silence his critics when he leaves RB, which will probably be at the end of his current contract after 2014.

[wedge]

This is a little bit harsh as I think that Jenson had a poor season for his own standards.

It reflects his abilities - inferior when the car is not to his liking and can never overcome/extract the maximum in the dry.

Not that much different to Honda except Rubens was not of the same level as Hamilton. Rubens could drive better than JB but Hamilton could destroy JB for a period earlier in the year.