Driver of the Season

[Zico]

Some of you might by horrified by this but for me... really hard to seperate Verstappen and Sainz, they were both excellent and fully deserving of the Driver of the Season title imo..

Best of the rest..

Vettel? Outstanding season and would have easily have been my Driver of the season if he hadn't spoiled it by having a couple of very poor races.

Hamilton and Rosberg should probably also have been up there but unlike the rest of the grid, they really only had each other to race... meh!

[The Black Knight]

Vettel. I didn't think he was going to win any races.

Vettel had two very poor races this season. He was top notch for most of the time and, were it not for Mexico, I'd have counted him as driver of the season. I think a driver can be forgiven one off race in a season but two off races in a season is not someone worthy of driver of the season. However, he impressed far more than he did last year anyway.

[The Black Knight]

Some of you might by horrified by this but for me... really hard to seperate Verstappen and Sainz, they were both excellent and fully deserving of the Driver of the Season title imo..

Best of the rest..

Vettel? Outstanding season and would have easily have been my Driver of the season if he hadn't spoiled it by having a couple of very poor races.

Hamilton and Rosberg should probably also have been up there but unlike the rest of the grid, they really only had each other to race... meh!

That's hardly their fault though, is it?

[jens]

Give us your top 3 or 5 or whatever you like of the season.

Obviously Hamilton and Vettel stood out as the best performers.

Ricciardo would be my P3 I think. It may have gone unnoticed, but he lost a chunk of points due to unreliability. Still performed well, even if not quite to the standard of 2014. Kvyat is simply good, and that's why he was close, not that Ricciardo is not-so-good. Red Bull has done a stunning youth work!

The bright sides/positive surprises of the season were Pérez, Verstappen and Kvyat.

Kvyat gave Ricciardo a run for his money.

Verstappen was thrown into deep end. I think most people had a hunch the kid must be talented, but he proved convincingly he is "not too young" either and can easily mix it with the establised elite.

Pérez had an impressive season by his standards - he has been fast in the past too, but also beat Hülkenberg with consistency this time around!

Sadly Button and Alonso had to deal with a crap car, so can't say much about them.

Bottas did okay I think, as did Rosberg. Not great, not bad.

Massa had a string of good performances, but still faded later on.

Hülkenberg - not slow, but surprisingly inconsistent this year.

Grosjean - decent enough. Shame he will get a crap car next year.

Sainz - okayish, but left in the shadow of Max. Probably Sainz will face the fate of Vergne, et al - a couple of seasons in F1 and then out.

Nasr & Ericsson. A few decent performances, but overall not a standout. Kudos for two top 6 finishes for Nasr.

Räikkönen - had some unluck, but overall past it.

Maldonado - interesting that he has almost thoroughly been outqualified by Grosjean. In the past left an impression that he could at least be fast, but he really isn't. While consistency was never there...

[Javi013]

1 Hamilton
2 Vettel
3 Verstappen

[Nitrodaze]

Hamilton
Vettel
Verstapenn
Rosberg
Kyvat
Bottas
Grojean
Perez
Ricciado
Kimi
Massa
Alonso
Sainz

In that order.

[Zico]

That's hardly their fault though, is it?

No, you're right, its not their fault but isn't the point of a thread like this, that we can also show recognition to drivers who performed really well in less competitive cars?

Max just really stood out for me. He made only one mistake (that I can remember) in this, his debut season. Not only quick but unfazed and raced wheel to wheel with the best of them. He also made the most overtakes out of everyone on the grid. Kinda reminiscent of Lewis's first season in F1... and despite being in a lesser performing car compared to the Mac of that time his debut performance was at least right up there with it IMO.

[driveace]

Hamilton head and shoulders above the others,only lost at end of season to appease Mercedes.
Vettel Has developed into a better racer and person now at Ferrari.
Vestapen a true racer more passes than any other
Perez drove his bollocks off ,well most of the time

[CNR]

young max

[dj_bytedisaster]

Sebastien can't be counted as the best driver of the season. He had two races where he made some really basic errors on multiple occassions - Bahrain and Mexico.

There's only one person that can be counted as driver of the season and that's the man that trashed Nico Rosberg to the title - Lewis Hamilton.

You're kidding, right? Hamilton has done exactly nothing. He beat ONE man, that's it. Otherwise he had no competition whatsoever. That Vettel was sometimes in the mix is more testament to Seb's talent than anything else. Hamilton let Rosberg slap him from left to right at the end of the season. The Sennas, Schumachers and Mansells of this world would never have let something like that happen. Naming Hamilton driver of the year is ridiculous at best. He's the Kanye West of the year, maybe, but that's it.

The driver of the year has to be Max Verstappen. What sort of horror scenarios were people painting last year at the idea of a 17-year-old in F1, but he proved them all wrong. He was the overtaking master of the whole grid.