Priaulx not in Autosport's Top Ten

[wedge]

He was listed 15/50 of 2007's top drivers in this week's mag. Shocking when Dario Franchitti was 7th and considering Priaulx was voted best tin top driver a few weeks ago.

[VkmSpouge]

Depends on who are the other drivers ahead of him.

[ATF]

Kimi was 1st, ahead of Lewis in 2nd...can't remember many more?! Gronholm was ahead of Loeb and both in the top 10. Gio was in the 40s and JP not in there at all.

[AndyRAC]

Has a non-F1 driver ever come first, Autosport is biased in favour of F1 far too much.

[NoahsGirl]

Can anyone post a run down of the list?

[Robinho]

1-10

Kimi
Lewis
Alonso
Gronholm
Loeb
Button
Franchitti
Scott Dixon
Webber
Heidfeld

11-20

Massa
Kubica
Kovaleinen
Rosberg
Priaulx
Kanaan
Trulli
Fisichella
Mikko Hirvonen
Jimmi Johnson

21-30

Menu
Vettel
Bourdais
Romain Dumas
Jeff Gordon
McNish
Barrichello
Glock
Coulthard
Castroneves

other Touring car drivers
31 Spengler
35 JT
40 Ekstrom
45 Yvan Muller
49 Gio
to be fair i think the list is pretty good, Priaulx well up ahead of some pretty impressive drivers in bigger faster machinery

as for the complaint of being behind Franchitti, he won the IRL, the Indy 500 and won the Sebring 12hrs in LMP2 as well, hence top non F!/WRC driver.

and as for F1 (and to some extent WRC) dominating the top spots, why is that unfair, these are the fastest, hardest and most dangerous machines to master, at the very top of the field against the best opposition

i'll add 31-50 in full if anyone wants?

[I am evil Homer]

But still...Button ahead of Franchitti and Priaulx?!!?? What did Mark Webber do exactly? Ran around at the lower end of the points in F1. Andy won a World title.

[thetrooper_uk]

F1 may be the fastest but driving round the track following the rest of the drivers and finishing up the same as where you started(unless someone breaks down) is not that great. I mean come on Jenson Button 6th. Oops I forgot he's done so great since joining F1, winning all them err.....and of course beating errrr......and not to forget helping his team win errr........and finally growing a beard. Lets all say well done 2 a great career in F1.

[I am evil Homer]

Exactly to be one place behind a guy who has just won his 4th WRC crown in a row and ahead of peopel who have achieved more is silly.

[Robinho]

Button was credited with driving the wheels off a dog of a car, i agree in some respects that maybe others have acheived more, but its the stage they've acheived it on that counts. Sure Andy has won multiple world champs, and as a result he is top Touring car driver - rightly or wrongly Autosport rate driving well in a bad car higher than winning in a good car in a lesser series.

Equally, on stats Webber was nowhere, but he was top 6 qually 4 times, could have won in Japan and put the car where it was not expected to be.

its always going to be difficalt to rate drivers from alternate series,and fans who favour won series over another will always feel "their" drivers should be higher - i think what Autosport have put together is largely a very fair list, and i say that as someone who has followed or attempted to follow BTCC, WTCC, DTM, Aussie V8's, WRC, F1 this year.

[wedge]

its always going to be difficalt to rate drivers from alternate series,and fans who favour won series over another will always feel "their" drivers should be higher - i think what Autosport have put together is largely a very fair list, and i say that as someone who has followed or attempted to follow BTCC, WTCC, DTM, Aussie V8's, WRC, F1 this year.

Pretty much agree, but IMHO, I found rating Fisichella and Trulli higher than Jimmie Johnson totally disgraceful!

[BDunnell]

It is probably inevitable that such a list in a British magazine will be a bit more Euro-centric, hence the likes of Fisichella and Trulli being ahead of Jimmie Johnson, as hard as that is to justify. Can you imagine what the same sort of list would be like in an American magazine?

[thetrooper_uk]

Button was credited with driving the wheels off a dog of a car, i agree in some respects that maybe others have acheived more, but its the stage they've acheived it on that counts. Sure Andy has won multiple world champs, and as a result he is top Touring car driver - rightly or wrongly Autosport rate driving well in a bad car higher than winning in a good car in a lesser series.

Equally, on stats Webber was nowhere, but he was top 6 qually 4 times, could have won in Japan and put the car where it was not expected to be.

its always going to be difficalt to rate drivers from alternate series,and fans who favour won series over another will always feel "their" drivers should be higher - i think what Autosport have put together is largely a very fair list, and i say that as someone who has followed or attempted to follow BTCC, WTCC, DTM, Aussie V8's, WRC, F1 this year.

Could have and did are two different things altogether. There are lots of drivers that could do better given a better car to drive in. It's the winning that counts as you don't get trophies for just finishing a race in a bad car do you.

[RaikkonenRules]

For some reason Autosport never rates touring car drivers very highly. Priaulx was lucky to even be 15th. It even says he's up 8 positions from last season.

IRL drivers somehow get high on the list though both Dixon and Franchitti were in the top 10.

I reckon that Autosport favour the drivers that are in what they think are the most challenging forms of racing.

[I am evil Homer]

Ha ha...put an F1 driver in the WTCC or BTCC and see just how easy they won't find it in a sport where there's genuine racing, late braking and contact!

[wedge]

It is probably inevitable that such a list in a British magazine will be a bit more Euro-centric, hence the likes of Fisichella and Trulli being ahead of Jimmie Johnson, as hard as that is to justify. Can you imagine what the same sort of list would be like in an American magazine?

True, SpeedTV (IIRC) has a similar ranking system biased towards the Americans but Autosport is supposedly the industry bible.

[ShiftingGears]

But still...Button ahead of Franchitti and Priaulx?!!?? What did Mark Webber do exactly? Ran around at the lower end of the points in F1. Andy won a World title.

I think Webbers a bloody fantastic driver. But I see your point.

Also, Bourdais being so far down in comparison to Dixon and Francitti is an odd one. Also, Gronholm over Loeb.


Also, spare a thought for the V8 Supercar drivers :p :

[Bezza]

Has a non-F1 driver ever come first, Autosport is biased in favour of F1 far too much.

And rightly so - F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. Putting a driver from another series above the F1 champion would just not make any sense.

[BDunnell]

And rightly so - F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. Putting a driver from another series above the F1 champion would just not make any sense.

Not necessarily, because someone in another series may be deemed to have performed better in their chosen field. I wouldn't like to say that, for example, Kimi Raikkonen is automatically superior to Sebastian Loeb merely because Raikkonen is the F1 champion and Loeb the WRC champion. The two series aren't comparable and therefore a judgement has to be made.

[AndyRAC]

And rightly so - F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. Putting a driver from another series above the F1 champion would just not make any sense.

Who said so? F1 thinks it's the pinnacle, I'd say they're a bunch of snobs who look down at other series. I wouldn't have had Raikkonen as No 1.

[Bezza]

The fact is if you stick Touring car drivers in F1 then they will embarrass themselves. Stick F1 drivers in touring cars and it works - Larini, Tarquini, Morbidelli, etc.

F1 has always been the pinnacle of single-seater motorsport, and it is true that the vast majority of touring car drivers started off in single-seaters but ultimately failed and therefore went to Tin-tops. There is no shame in that, but F1 drivers are in F1 for a reason, except maybe Sato who is there for $$$

[MattSmith]

Frentzen, Alesi and Hakkinen hardly walked all over everybody in the DTM. Mansell stuggled in the BTCC.

I wouldn't argue with drivers like Raikonen, Alonso and Hamilton being rated as top drivers but to assume that the whole field is superior just because they are in F1 is ludicrous.

Some of todays F1 drivers are paying, at least indirectly, to be there. They got into F1 because they could bring the support (either a sponsor, manufacturer or a suitcase full of money) that teams wanted at some point, not because they were necessarily the best drivers.

[thetrooper_uk]

The fact is if you stick Touring car drivers in F1 then they will embarrass themselves. Stick F1 drivers in touring cars and it works - Larini, Tarquini, Morbidelli, etc.

F1 has always been the pinnacle of single-seater motorsport, and it is true that the vast majority of touring car drivers started off in single-seaters but ultimately failed and therefore went to Tin-tops. There is no shame in that, but F1 drivers are in F1 for a reason, except maybe Sato who is there for $$$
Don't forget how well Derek Warwick did in the alfa, he didn't do well apart from his crashing.

[Robinho]

but most of these guys were at the end of their F1 careers, then all did reasonably against younger guys who had be racig tourers for years.

IMO opinion if you took any of the top 10 (maybe15) drivers from F1 and gave them a top drive in any touring car championship they would immediatley be on the pace and with a season or so under theor belts to learn the cars/racing etc they would be at the very top.

the same does not apply the other way round.

Priaulx is excellent at what he does, was a good single seater driver and has tested F1 cars - if he was good enough he'd be there, same with the likes of Gary Paffett, knocking on the door, but unlikely to excel in F1, great Tourer.

with the exception of a couple of the top, top guys in DTM and WRC i don't think there is anyone who could drop into F1 and be competitive,