I think this season was rather boring and like you, I would have liked to see more of a fight at the front. Unfortunately, that's what we got - a string of Mercedes wins only interrupted by hiccups in Spain (if you'd call THAT a hiccup) and Malaysia. It was often interesting to see who'd get third place, but as soon as one of the Merc drivers made it past the first two turns, you could almost certainly know who'd be standing on the top of the podium. And predictability is not what we like to see. Hopefully next year things will get better and we'll have more straight fights for the win.

I also find Verstappen to have been one of the highlights of the season for often spicing up races, but when looking at his results alone, I find he's quite overrated. He's been beaten by Ricciardo both in qualifying (10-7) and races (9-7, not counting the gearbox failure at the USGP). I think it's fine and he's got the talent to justify his hype, but just like last year when racing Sainz, it's not like he's proven to be clearly superior to either of them. But then again, we're talking about comparing him to arguably two of the most talented drivers in F1 - and Ricciardo in particular keeps proving that he's WDC material.

As for the rest of the grid, a few comments:

- I'm surprised that Pérez beat Hülkenberg. After his Le Mans victory, pretty much everyone felt that the German would be hot property, but it's not like he seems to have the speed to be at the sharp end of the grid. I also wouldn't have bet on Force India getting fourth place in the constructors championship - kudos to them, but will that prove costly in 2017?
- It's a shame that Williams lost out on that fourth place, but it's what they get for falling a lot behind in the development race; this year they don't have such a big engine advantage and it shows in their reslts. Massa's results compared to Bottas show that his time in F1 is rightfully over, and hopefully the young Stroll will be a faster driver.
- As for McLaren, well, sixth place is not that terrible considering how last year went, but it's still quite meager for a team of their standing. Alonso seems to have been doing what he excels at - driving the hell out of an underperforming car and foulmouthing the team at every possible chance. Meanwhile, Button seems to have been rather far from his teammate this season; the points gap in the WDC standings might not be really representative and he might have had a bad season, but like Massa, I think he's done with F1. He'll be missed, but hopefully the young Vandoorne will live up to his Bahrain performance.
- In Toro Rosso, Sainz finally got a reliable car after last year's handful of mechanical breakdowns, but unfortunately it was down on power. Even so, he seems to have quite a bit of speed and has been occasionally mixing it up with people with faster cars. As for Kyvat, well, I think the only reason why he's keeping his seat is because RBR haven't found a replacement who is ready for next season, but I'm betting that the Russian will be gone in 2018.
- That Haas car was unbelievable fast at the start of the season and it would have been lovely to see them keeping it up. However, they decided to switch their focus to 2017 and as a result they fell behind quite heavily. I'm hoping it'll pay them dividends, though.
- Renault were nowhere for the whole season. This season didn't do lots of good for Magnussen, who's found it difficult to beat his teammate (12-9 is not a massive advantage if you ask me). As for Palmer, I don't honestly think that he belongs in F1, but I haven't been playing close attention to his season. Hopefully Renault will bring a proper car next year and we'll see how good he is.