2008 half-term driver rankings part 2

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Continuing the driver rankings for the first part of 2008 here is the first part of the top ten.

Don’t miss the top three tomorrow – and share your thoughts on the drivers’ performances below.

10 Nick Hedifeld

2007 ranking: 4

Last year Heidfeld surprised many by leading his team mate Robert Kubica home home more often than not. But over the winter the banning of traction control and associated loss of engine braking, plus the transition from the F1.07 to F1.08, all seems to have played into Kubica’s hands.

Heidfeld has mainly struggled with getting his tyres up to temperature on qualifying runs. After taking time at a test to address this he believes he has now conquered the problem, and his Q2 time at Silverstone within hundredths of Kubica supports his claim, but the damage to his season has already been done.

Ben in the forum said:

Most disappointing driver so far this year. He is in his eighth year in F1, I think he may be a steady Eddie – in F1 for ages with little big success. Sad about this though because he seems like a cool guy and he blew everyone away in F3000.

9 Sebastian Vettel

2007 ranking: 14

Vettel struggled to get to the end of races in the first part of the season, but that was largely down to problems not of his own making.

But he has flourished since the STR3 arrived and took it to fifth on its first appearance in Monaco, from 19th in the grid. Vettel clearly revelled in the wet conditions and it was a pit not to see what he might hae achieved from eighth on the grid in the rain at Silverstone before David Coulthard took him out. Vettel is likely to take Coulthard’s place at Red Bull next year.

8 Mark Webber

2007 ranking: 9

At last Webber has a car that is both quick and consistent. And he is making excellent use of it, finishing in the points with greater regularity than at any other time in his career to date.

He is one of the best qualifiers in Formula 1 – as his fine second place on the grid last weekend showed. His disastrous performance on the Sunday has been the only blip in his otherwise very solid form.

M Smith on the forum said:

Webber has really impressed me this season. Having the same amount of points as Kovalinen show how good a season he is having. 4th was on the cards at Canada if Red Bull had moved him to a one-stopper. Madness there.

7 Jarno Trulli

2007 ranking: 12

Suddenly Toyota is fourth in the constructors’ championship. How did that happen? Most of it is down to Trulli, who has regularly beaten his junior team mate into the top ten.

He even seems to have consigned the ‘Trulli train’ to history – after qualifying fourth at Magny-Cours he raced to the podium against the expectations of many. I’m going to have to stop making jokes about it in the Live Blog.

6 Heikki Kovalainen

2007 ranking: 7

Nine races in and Heikki Kovalainen’s McLaren career has yielded a single podium. But he has been plagued by misfortune in a way his illustrious team mate has not: an ill-timed safety car appearance at Melbourne, electrical failure on the grid at Monaco, and of course that disastrous wheel failure at Barcelona.

He has shown enough pace to worry Lewis Hamilton on occasions – out-qualifying him with more fuel on board at Istanbul for example. There have been fewer mistakes from Kovalainen too although he just couldn’t live with his team mate’s speed in the wet at Silverstone.

5 Fernando Alonso

2007 ranking: 3

He may be back at Renault but, as last year, there are some tensions between driver team, albeit far less destructive ones. Alonso seems to be preoccupied with getting the best results at individual races rather than consistently gathering points in the lower half of the top eight. He is a twice champion after all. But a more conservative approach might have him and Renault higher in their respective championships.

The gambles haven’t always worked and have brought him into conflict with the team. He criticised the strategy used at Montreal and repeatedly asked for extreme wet weather tyres at Monaco before the car got away from him while he was on full wets. Spinning on the formation lap at his home race was another lowlight. But the season opener at Melbourne showed Alonso in his best light – combative and opportunistic, stealing a fourth place that shouldn’t have been there by piling pressure on Kovalainen.

4 Felipe Massa

2007 ranking: 6

Massa has had a down-up-down kind of season. His first two races were terrible, all the fears about him struggling to cope with a traction control-free F1 car apparently realised. He binned his F2008 at the first corner at Melbourne, and threw away second place at Sepang with a spin.

After that it was if some clicked and suddenly Massa could win as he pleased. Was this just because of tracks like Istanbul and Bahrain where he seems to shine? The jury’s still out on that one. Confusing the situation further, after a composed drive to third at a wet Monaco he looked all sea in the rain at Silverstone and finished a disastrous 13th after five spins. Nonetheless, he is still a joint leader of the championship.

Francis in the forum said:

I’m also impressed by Felipe Massa , since the first two races he’s much more consistent with his pace across the calendar – not just winning in his traditional haunts.

Join us tomorrow for the top three. To make sure you don’t miss it subscribe to F1 Fanatic by RSS or email.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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40 comments on “2008 half-term driver rankings part 2”

  1. Let me guess the top 3.

    3) Hamilton (2007 ranking 1)

    Leading the WDC but hasn’t showed the consistency from last year.

    2) Raikkonen (2007 ranking 2)

    Tied with Hamilton and Massa but everyone expected him to run away with the WDC this year. No more new tires, no more new team and no more car that wasn’t made for him. Getting beaten by unrated Massa in both races and qualifying.

    1) Kubica (2007 ranking ?)

    Apart from the spin in Silverstone, hasn’t put a foot wrong. Lets see how he copes with a resurging Heidfeld who seems to be a better racer. I have yet to see Kubica overtake a car on merit like Heidfeld or defend his position either. The season is not over yet.

  2. Actually, I would swap Hamilton and Raikkonen. So it’s

    3)Kimi
    2)Lewis
    1)Kubica

  3. Alonso remains the best driver on the grid, by a hair over Kimi. Kimi is overall the fastest, but if you factor in qualities like fighting spirit, consistency, error-free driving, influence within the team and car/race management, then Alonso is tops.

    Lewis is very good, perhaps the best on a wet track, but not yet in the class of Alonso & Kimi.

    Massa is simply a good driver. Nothing more, nothing less.

    Kubica is very, very good. After these four, there is a significant drop-off to the rest of them.

    My top 3:

    1) Alonso
    2) Kimi
    3) Kubica & Lewis

  4. I think this is not really a ranking of who is the best driver, but a ranking of how they have fared in this season so far. Here I would put it like this:

    3. Hamilton
    2. Kimi
    1. Kubica

    I don’t think Lewis deserves to be 3. alone, I would rate him, Massa and Alonso as joint 3..
    Kimi just made a few mistakes and seemed to be a little bit switched off in some races which he turned around in the last two but was hit with misfortune and wrong tactics. Kubica has done very well this season, the spin in Silverstone was a little harder than what Lewis and Kimi did in their “moments”, but still it could’ve happened to anyone. He will rue the lost points though…

  5. Michael K – exactly, just based on how they’ve done so far this year.

  6. 3. Hamilton
    2. Kimi
    1. Kubica

    Kimi would be first if it wasn’t for his apparent lapse in concentration at the beinging of the season.

    His last 3 races have really shown he’s still at the top, only to be handicapped by something or another, whether that be a pit lane “incident”, a damaged exhaust or a bad tyre choice.

    He’s 6 consecutive fastest laps show he has more than enough pace to win. He just needs to have a little less bad luck. Something that has come in buckets this season.

    Lewis, with his hot headed arrogance really shows that he still needs to mature, both in and out of the car. When the pressure has been on he looks to have struggled, making uncharacteristic (of his career up until the last few races of 2007) mistakes.

    Whilst his brilliance in the wet and his clear desire to win, show at most races, so does his immaturity, both in F1, and life.

    Lastly, Kubica, the nearly man up until Montreal this year, has shown amazing consistency, and I think anyone can forgive his mistake in Silverstone. Whilst never really a real title contender, he’s a decent outsider, and perhaps even worth a trip to the bookies, for a small flutter…

  7. @F1Fan: How can you commend Alonso for his error free driving when he has thrown points away by crashing out a couple of times this year? How can Kimi be the fastest when Massa has beaten him convincingly often this season? For pure pace I would go with Hamilton and Alonso. The myth of Kimi’s superior pace was created by the extraordinarily fast but unreliable 2005 McLaren.

  8. @Internet: I disagree with you regarding Raikkonen’s pace. It is a far cry from a myth as this year alone Raikkonen has consistently churned out fastest laps. While I concede that Massa has so far out-qualified him this season, there is no doubt as far as race-pace is concerned that Kimi is one of the best in the field. If not the best…

    Back to the topic. I agree with Kester and Michael K, my pick would be

    3. Hamilton
    2. Raikkonen
    1. Kubica

  9. @Dorian: Fastest laps don’t really mean anything when the race leader is taking it easy and cruising to finish while you are pushing hard for every extra point.

  10. 1.Kubica
    2.Kimi
    3.Hamilton

    Kubica is only top driver who is driving “not winning car” and he is still doing great job. Would love see him in ferrari. OH BOY.

    Kimi alsways been same. He needs fight and then he wakes up. He is better than Massa in race but not in qualifying. And points give from race right.

    Hamilton is fast and good but he still a little bit pressure weak He even have said that he was think quitting his career if he would not win Silverston. Hamilton do not know yet how drive in midfield, he do not know how to drive bad car either.

    UGH i have sopken lol.

    pst. would be lovely to see 4 top cars start in same start line in race like they did loooong time ago. Would be fun lol.

  11. @Internet: Fastest laps are a useful (but certainly not definitive) guide to ascertain how much a driver can get out of their car. Naturally as far as a race is concerned: 10 points and no fastest lap is better than fastest lap and no points. But we were talking about pace alone. In a race there are many extenuating circumstances that can prevent a driver from bringing home the points that do not directly correlate to the true race-pace that the driver has during said race. Or over an entire season for that matter..

  12. Keith,

    I agreed with you about Fernando. It seems that he is pushing very hard individually because is very worried about his public status of Nº 1 (again as last year? I think we must stop to feed this another hype, guys).

    But looking back to his two championships, Fernando were in most of time conservative in his decisions on track and when took risks the results wasn´t always productive (China 2006!). So it isn´t a new issue…

    Because of that he is very erratic this year:

    1) the crashes in Monaco;
    2) the spun in Canada
    3) and Ted Kravitz has suggested that Alonso has made a new strategic mistake in Britain GP deciding to keep the used tyres in his first pit stop.

    If he gambles in cards as he gambles in races it makes me wonder the amount of money his buddies (Webber and Kubitza) has been taking from him behind the paddock in Saturday nights before the race.

    Because of that I wouldn´t put Jarno behind Fernando and Heikky. The guy has some consistency and has a podium in his pocket that Fernando hasn´t. No complains about the team, no unforced errors and his team mate are far away of Nelson in terms of performance!

  13. Kimi has actually outqualified Massa the last 3 races, and was trouncing Massa in France before the exhaust problem. Also, in sepang Kimi did a great job to get ahead after the 1st pit and then build a lead.

    Massa has really only outpaced Kimi on his tracks, bahrain, turkey.

  14. I am very conflicted about the top three to be honest.

    Kubica has been very good in the least good car of the three but Hamilton’s mistake has increased his points tally over and above what he ‘deserved’ through driving alone. If you take that out of the equation has he really done better than the other two?

    Hamilton can’t be higher than third for obvious reasons, and yet it feels to me as though he has had the better of Kimi and Kubica despite this.

    Kimi was unlucky to be taken out by Hamilton. The Monaco mistake was nothing and easily forgivable, but even without that I don’t get the feeling that he is champion of the first half.

    I agree that they are the top three, but I would put them all joint third. I would like to put Hamilton top, but I just don’t feel I can.

  15. diseased rat
    10th July 2008, 18:19

    I pretty much agree with the rankings so far. I’m tempted to want to see Massa a bit lower, especially after Silverstone, but I suppose he does deserve that spot looking at those below him.

    For the final three I would have to go Kubica at three, Raikkonnen and Hamilton top. Controversial I know but none of them have been entirely without fault this season. Kubica just is not quite top draw yet but clearly has the potential. Kimi has driven some great races but also had some terrible errors. The same can be said for Lewis but his Monaco and Silverstone wins push him into the lead for me.

  16. Fastest laps are often a useless statistiic unless it is backed up by a win or good placing. Its possible for a driver to drive a second off the pace for 65 laps, then set the fastest lap on the 66th, and still finish 1 minute behind and almost lapped.

    Not saying Kimi has often lapped so far back behind the pace, but if u observe closely his fastest laps have been set after many mediocre performance during the races, Silverstone inclusive. where he was consistenly behind in pace all through the races but for 3 or four laps when the tract was drying up.
    He is not very organized is my summation.

  17. @Oliver: Yes, you are correct with your metaphor in your first paragraph which is why I said that it can be used as a guide but is certainly not definitive. Really, my point was that having set so many fastest laps throughout this season, is hardly a co-incidence. Alone it’s not enough to say ‘well Kimi is the fastest’ but there is plenty evidence to back up that statement. It’s just what I happened to throw out there at the time. Perhaps though, it wasn’t the best tool I could’ve used to state my case ;-P

  18. Robert McKay
    10th July 2008, 21:53

    Trulli is indeed the big surprise this year. Given DC and Glock’s relative struggles in comparison to their teammates, the battle for 4th in the WCC is basically becoming Trulli versus Webber.

  19. I would have placed Trulli and Webber above Alonso.

    The problem is how do you evaluate Alonso? Next to Piquet he is genius, but compare him to Webber who also uses a Renault engine then Alonso suddenly doesn’t look so good.

    He did well in Australia yes, but he has also had a few misses in Monaco and Canada.

    I will rather wait for the top 3 before commenting on them.

  20. Great ranking. I’ll agree with most of the comments above that Kubica was, so far, the best driver… Made much less mistakes than his opponents and, far from having the best car, is only two points behind the leader.
    Otherwise, I would pick Hamilton instead of Massa as fourth best, because Lewis’ mistakes were more ridiculous than Felipe’s… But, If I had to respect your choice of Massa as 4th best, my top 3 would be:

    1) Kubica
    2) Raikkonen
    3) Hamilton

    Apart from your ranking, my top 4 would be:

    1) Kubica
    2) Massa
    3) Raikkonen
    4) Hamilton

  21. Internet,

    (a) Alonso is trying very hard to compensate for having a mediocre car by being ultra-aggressive. That’s why he has lost some points and had some crashes. When he was in a top car he hardly ever made a mistake.

    (b) Kimi’s speed was not a McLaren product. Dennis hired Kimi because he was phenomenaly quick when he was w/ Sauber-Petronas. When I ran into Nico Rosberg at the airport after the ’06 Montreal GP, I asked him who he thought the fastest driver was and without hesitating he said “Kimi is usually monstrously quick”. And that was a year when Michael was still racing.

  22. Internet,

    one more thing, since you claim Hamilton is fastest:

    In 26 races that Kimi and Lewis have raced in since last year:

    – Kimi fastest laps: 12
    – Lewis fastest laps: 2

    A 6-to-1 ratio in Kimi’s favor pretty devastatingly proves that he is indeed the fastest driver in race trim. And that is with usually a higher fuel load than the other drivers.

  23. I’m not sure Trulli is as good as some are starting to say, I think he just looks that much better than Glock and hasn’t been caught blocking yet.

    Not to revive the Massa debate, but I think he needs to move lower on the list. It’s not that I don’t like him, it’s that I think on any team in F1 he’d be the second driver, and that our impression of his performance is more about the red machine he drives.

  24. Heidfeld has a real knack for overtaking two drivers at once doesn’t he? In Malaysia, Canada, and twice in Silverstone

  25. Robert Kubica is on the top of my list this season so far, in that he has made the least mistakes. Raikkonen, Massa, and Hamilton have all made gaffes, and on more than one occasion.
    Kubica’s victory in Canada was not unexpected, infact it had been coming all season long. To be brutally honest, the top drivers have not really hit their stride so far, not one of them.
    When Raikkonen won in France and Britain last year on the bounce, you had the sense that Kimi had come alive, finally, following a mixed first half of the season.
    The pressure that he provided ensured that he prevailed, when his rivals made critical errors.
    This season has yet to witness a driver make a serious charge, but there is still time.
    This season is so enjoyable for the simple reason that there is so little to choose from between the leading contenders. They are all pretty much even.
    Fernando Alonso reminds me a little of Raikkonen back in 2006, when he knew that the car wasn’t good enough to win the championship. How frustrating it must be to be in that position, that some would say, and with some
    justification, self inflicted.
    The performance at times has been there. The result in Melbourne, the pole position in Barcelona, the performance in Canada up until the spin of course.
    No, Kubica has the least weight on his shoulders. Raikkonen has a championship to defend, Hamilton the expectation of McLaren and the English masses, Massa
    with the prospect that his seat is in possible risk from Fernando.
    BMW Sauber have made it quite plain that they want Kubica back next year, not so concerning Nick Heidfeld.
    Kubica is this season’s dark horse.

  26. Alonso should be ranked lower, sure he is pushing it real hard and therefore making mistakes since he’s got nothing to loose being a double world champion compared to Webber and Trulli who has everything to win. Nevertheless the ranking is based on this season and not excuses from the past and his driving has been erractic to say the least.

    Top group(3+2): Kubica, Hamilton, Kimi
    Runner-ups: Massa, Heidfeld (3 2nds, taking valuable points, should definitely be higher up the list)

    2nd group(3+2): Trulli, Webber, Alonso
    Runner-ups: Barrichello (overachieving), Heikki (underwhelming, no fighting spirit, embarassing moments in Canada and Silverstone being overtaken while overtaking, maybe due to problems with tyrewear but he needs to sort it out fast)

    Greatest suprise out of top 10: Nakajima

    I mean come-on Keith how do you justify Heidfeld in a BMW 36p being 10th (3 podiums 2nd) and Heikki in a McLaren 24p at 6th (1podium 3rd) if you base the rankings on this season? Great interesting article otherwise, maybe you could compile a half-season review of the races as well? We’ve had a great many memorable ones this year already I believe, half of the races have been on the good-great scale which is more than the normal ratio of 1 in 4 if you ask me.
    Maybe due to global warming and freak weather but still;)

  27. Vettel in the top 10, but Nico and Kaz aren’t? Seriously? While Vettel has been quick he has only had one decent result whereas both Nico and Kaz have had a number of good results. Ofc, this might just be my Williams bias, but I still reckon our drivers should be ranked higher.

  28. @Jian
    Let me tell you first I am an Alonso fan. And I strongly agree with Keith with Alonso ranking as 5. Ok he did make some mistakes but at the same time he made the otherwise very much uncompetitive R28 look like a potential podium finisher in at least 3/4 occassions this year. The two out of nine races he crashed are Spanish GP and in Montreal. In Montreal podium looked certain for him untill that spin which is caused by poor Renault strategy. Same strategic blunder from Renault lost Alonso (as well as Renault’s) some points which would have been enough to get past Webber and Trulli..

  29. @F1Fan & Nirupam:

    A driver can only go as fast as the car can go. The R28 is not as uncompetitive as it looks. The main reason Alonso looks like he’s “placing the car where it shouldn’t be” is because Piquet had been seriously underperforming.

    and I still disagree with F1Fan about the fastest laps. It seems Kimi is the only one who is bothered about this particular statistic. Usually he sets it in the dying laps pushing really car when he has the least fuel and the track is in the best condition while the leader is cruising to a finish. If we look at pole positions (where the fastest lap actually matters) while both of them raced there isn’t much difference.

  30. Oliver…
    “Not saying Kimi has often lapped so far back behind the pace, but if u observe closely his fastest laps have been set after many mediocre performance during the races, Silverstone inclusive. where he was consistenly behind in pace all through the races but for 3 or four laps when the tract was drying up.
    He is not very organized is my summation.”

    What an utter load of rubbish.

    Now here are his latest fastest laps:

    1. Spain, Kimi won, no discussion
    2. Turkey, Kimi came third, not a great performance, but not really bad
    3. Monaco, a little mistake, out
    4. Kanada, drove very well, got taken out by Lewis
    5. Magny Cours, blew everyone away, exhaust broke and still rescued 2nd
    6. Silverstone, drove well, would’ve been challenging Hamilton if Ferrari wouldn’t have cocked up the strategy

    So, out of the last six fastest laps, there were two outstanding races, two very good races, one ok and one mediocre. Now I can look into more of his fastest laps, Oliver, but if you look closely, you wouldn’t want to do that.

  31. @Internet
    I fully agree your view “A driver can only go as fast as the car can go”, thats why Lewis/Massa/Kimi are in a three way tie right now and Alonso is in ninth! Do you think Lewis/Kimi/Massa would have been able to be where they are now with R28 instead of their respective cars?
    If you can remember, during past three years, when Alonso got cars with winning capability, Alonso ran 53 races, finishing 49 times (92.45%), 41 podium finishes(18 1s, 16 2s, 7 3s-77.36%). Not only that, out of 49 finishes, he missed points only once (Hungary 2005).

  32. @Nirupam: The statistics are impressive, but this season he has lost too many valuable WCC points and places for Renault by driving over what the car is capable of.

  33. @Intenet
    That is exactly what I want to mean.. That car is not even capable of finishing 6th/7th consistently. May be had Alonso not taken the risks he wud have helped Renault get a few points(only a few though!). But even after considering those, there would not have been much difference for Renault at WCC

  34. I believe each WCC point earns Renault a substantial amount of money. Had Alonso not thrown away points he would most likely be ahead of Webber and Renault ahead of Williams.

  35. @Internet
    Well…seems like we are far from the actual topic..I would suggest Keith to make another article in this forum titled Performance of Alonso and Renault this year so far.

  36. I’d put Webber well ahead of Trulli, Kovi and Alonso this year…. Although Silverstone wasn’t his finest hour, he’s clearly outperformed those 3 all year.

    Kovi has had terrible luck though…

  37. -I think that Alonso has done till now a great job on the relatively slow Renault…Piquet on the other side is a complete failure…several mistakes (twice in e.g. spain) put him in a really weak position.Other drivers with the same car would have achieved definetly better results.
    -For me Kimi is still my favorite driver….he knows how to score even under the worst circumstances.He even knows how to handle pressure on the circuit.
    The latter is a point I completely miss when I remember his team mate Massa who easily loses concentration-even when he is not under pressure- (spinnng in Sepang,drift in Monaco) and usually wins only when he starts from the front row.Once leading ,the result of the race is almost determined!The F1 racing magazine made a statistic about the 2007 season saying that he is the driver who did the most overtaking maneuvers.Still missing great results!
    -Kubica is the underdog…but he only won when all of his main contenders where out! (Montreal).But I expect much more from him!!
    -Lewis Hamilton was very lucky in Monaco.The French GP was a disaster..But he proved in Silverstone to be a 1st league driver.But still I do not think that he will win the championship this year.When the Scuderia Ferrari is working excellent in terms of startegy and absence of technical failure,no one can beat them.And this is definetly something one has to keep in mind!

  38. I think to put things in perspective, Renault is not as good a car as the Toyota and the Red Bull. The consistency is there, but with out and out pace, it has been lacking in most tracks and ony aggressive strategy has got it up on the grid.

    So that said, Alonso is better than Trulli and Webber. There is no doubt that he is better than Massa.

    Top three thus far:

    1. Kubica
    2. Kimmi
    3. Hammy

  39. How can you rate trulli and webber above heikki and Alonso?
    Heikki has been abysmal this year. And Alonso has done no breath-taking performances that were expected from him in this year’s lottery races ( Monaco, Silverstone, Magny Cours). He did well only at Australia.
    Alonso has been beaten by 4 drivers to the podium: Rosberg, Trulli, Coulthard, Rubens (in a HONDA)

    for me:
    8) Heikki
    7) Alonso
    6) Trulli
    5) Webber

  40. it should be “8 )” and not “8)”
    Apologies

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