2009 half-term F1 driver rankings part 1
Two have already been dropped - but who's the best so far?
The summer break is the traditional mid-point of the season, and a good time to take stock of who’s doing well and who’s struggling so far this year.
Here’s part one of my rankings of the F1 drivers so far this year including some of your observations from the forum:
21. Nelson Piquet Jnr
Two of last year’s rookies failed to make it through their second season. Piquet complained with some justification that he never had the equipment or support to compete with Alonso. But there has to be more to explain to consistent gulf between them than Alonso getting first choice for new parts. However low Renault’s expectations were of Piquet, he failed to even meet those.
20. Sebastien Bourdais
Shown the door by Toro Rosso halfway into the season, Bourdais had been struggling to beat his rookie team mate Sebastien Buemi. Given that he only narrowly kept Takuma Sato from pinching his seat over the winter, it was no great surprise to see Bourdais elbowed out of F1. A return looks unlikely.
19. Jaime Alguersuari
Jaime Alguersuari made his F1 debut at the Hungaroring
The least-experienced driver to appear in F1 for many years did an entirely respectable job first time out in Hungary. Otherwise it’s too early to assess how good he is.
18. Adrian Sutil
More occasional promise and sad stories of what might have been. But while Sutil was unlucky to be eliminated by Kimi Raikkonen at Monaco last year, his crashes out of the points at Shanghai and the Nurburgring this year were mainly his own doing.
Sutil would never be near a point scoring opportunity under normal conditions, but his seventh place and race tempo in Germany was something special. He might outperform Fisichella in qualifying, but he is absolutely error prone during race and crashes too many times.
AndrewT
17. Kazuki Nakajima
Has had a couple of good races and seems to have improved since last year – until you consider how much better Nico Rosberg is doing with the same car. It’s fashionable to knock drivers who get their F1 seats thanks to benefactors like, in Nakajima’s case, Toyota. But you have to ask whether he’d still be in F1 without them.
Rosberg is getting great results and he is not even getting points.
TommyB89
16. Sebastien Buemi
Made short work of team mate Bourdais and scored points twice in the first three races. Has had a couple of rookie indiscretions and would probably have benefited from having a more experienced team mate. Ten races into his F1 career he finds himself cast in the role of team leader, which is a huge ask.
A reasonable debut season; as much as can be expected from a rookie in a poor car, and he was better than Bourdais.
Andrew White
15. Giancarlo Fisichella
Giancarlo Fisichella was on top form at Monaco
Fisichella has been back on form this year and has come closest to breaking Force India’s points drought with a fine drive at Monaco. Before McLaren’s recent breakthrough he looked on the cusp of winning that first point.
Fisichella impresses me too. I find it bizarre that people say that Fisichella should leave and that Sutil should go to a team like McLaren. The only thing that Sutil has is the odd strategy gamble now and then where he shows himself in the spotlight just before he crashes out. Fisichella drives solid races in that back marker car without resorting to lame stunts.
Patrickl
14. Heikki Kovalainen
Kovalainen must’ve been hoping for rather more from 2009 so far than nine points. The lack of results is, of course, largely down to the problems with the MP4/24 at the beginning of the season.
Team mate Lewis Hamilton has tended to get the latest parts as they became available, but the Hungarian Grand Prix demonstrated why. Despite being given the same specification as Hamilton, who won, Kovalainen was over half a minute behind in fifth.
13. Robert Kubica
Stung by BMW’s disastrous loss of form, Kubica has often struggled to get the better of team mate Nick Heidfeld. This after coming within a few laps of taking second – or perhaps even better – at Melbourne. Seems to lack the motivation or ability to wring the best out of a poor car.
12. Timo Glock
Timo Glock mastered the changing conditions at Sepang
There was clear improvement from Glock throughout 2008, and more of the same was expected this year. But his season has stalled as Toyota has found it increasingly difficult to replicate their early-season form with the TF109.
Third place at Malaysia was far less than he deserved after an astute tyre choice in wet conditions (which is becoming something of a trademark). But since then he’s struggled to keep up with team mate Trulli.
11. Nick Heidfeld
Has been more consistent than his team mate in the truculent F1.09. Heidfeld rode his luck to take half a second place at Malaysia. That aside it’s been slim pickings.
Heidfeld has proved that he still has talent by beating Kubica, but BMW are performing so badly it’s hard to choose between them. Heidfeld’s podium in Malaysia was a stroke of genius on his part, gaining about 10 positions by being more aware than everyone else on the track and in the pits.
adzz36
10. Rubens Barrichello
Infamously railed against his Brawn team for a strategic miscue at the Nurburgring – but arguably the weakest link in the team is Barrichello himself. Has led Jenson Button home only once and trails him 0-6 on wins.
Awful starts, bad tyre management. And has been spewing vitriol against his team all season. But he minimised the damage caused to Brawn GP’s constructors’ championship challenge on the only weekend when Red Bull reigned supreme and Button was off-pace (Silverstone).
sumedhvidwans
9. Kimi Raikkonen
Is Kimi Raikkonen on his way to the World Rally Championship?
Looks less and less like the stealthy fighter that snatched the 2007 championship – on a race track at least. On the rough stuff in Finland he fared better and it would be no surprise to see him switch codes sooner rather than later.
That said, he rose to the occasion at Hungary, bringing Ferrari some cheer with a fine second place. What a pity we won’t get to see him take on Michael Schumacher in the same car.
Do you agree with the rankings so far? Have your say below and check back tomorrow for the top ten.
The rankings at the end of last year
Paul said on 14th August 2009, 1:00
Yes, the R29 is clearly much faster than Ferrari and McLaren this season.
m0tion said on 14th August 2009, 2:05
I believe Button has been both flawless and fast but we are now at the point where his car is not perfect and we all know that that is his weak spot and you can expect Rubens to be well ahead of him from now unless Brawn fix the car. Ross Brawn won’t pull his funny tricks on Rubens either if that is the case and when those dirty tricks get played you don’t get maximum from the driver – just look at Alonso and Ron and what happened to their championship.
I think Hamilton is growing in his driving. He weakness is still that he is ratty when but he is improving. There was never any doubt that he was fast. Vettel is probably one year behind Hamilton on the same development curve. Between the two of them I think Vettel is faster over a lap but that Hamilton is the better racer at this stage.
Webber has always been fast and his confidence boost will hopefully carry him through to full race consistency & learning front driving skills.
I believe both Nakajima and Piquet are at the quick end of formula one drivers in race trim but both need to improve their qualifying runs and Nakajima needs to take a leaf out of Webber’s book on confidence.
Heidfeld moves forward in racing better than anyone too after you equalise for the equipment he has had but he is now too poor in qualifying to stay on the grid and I don’t rate his development skills. Trulli is the opposite, and unless his racing and tendency to always be going backwards in the race improves he should join Heidfeld at the exit gate. And I’m a real Trulli fan in terms of his driving skill over a lap.
Finally I believe Alonso to be the most complete driver and I imagine his pay cheque will keep reflecting that but he needs to take a course about maximising mfg championship points for the team and not eating your teammate.
Melanie said on 14th August 2009, 2:15
No one is saying that is the case. But the Renault have been faster then Mclaren for most of the year, except in the last two races. And they had about the same pace as Ferrari for most of the year, even Piquet has managed to lap around Ferrari’s pace a few times this year.
In the last two races with Renault’s new updates they have actually been faster then Ferrari.
Here is the average lap times from Turkey, Britain and Germany, for Ferrari and Renault (with both drivers from each team):
Turkey: Ferrari – 1’29.404 Renault – 129.711
Britain: Ferrari – 1’22.750 Renault – 123.577
Germany: Ferrari – 1’36.496 Renault – 1’36.327
- Keep in mind that in Britain Piquet was on a one stop strategy so the times will be a bit higher for Renault then Ferrari.
- Piquet’s average pace was properly below an average driver.
- I didn’t do Hungary for the obvious reason that Felipe wasn’t there, and Alonso was out at a very early stage.
So yes, give and take from race to race, I would say that Ferrari and Renault have been around the same pace so far this year.
m0tion said on 14th August 2009, 2:16
I forgot Massa, considering the car he has had and the useless performance of the team & strategists I think he ranks right up there at the top while Kimi has been an underperformer.
Nehpets said on 14th August 2009, 2:50
Interesting…
So quite a lot of people seem to think Button doesn’t deserve to be No. 1 because his car has dropped off the pace, never mind the fact that he drove almost flawlessly in the first part of the season (I don’t remember seeing him put it into the wall like a few other guys), but Hamilton should be No. 1 because McLaren have probably spent 5 times the BrawnGP budget in the last few months to build Hamilton a car he can be competitive in and be called a genius…
I’m not in love with Button he has done a fantastic job this season, As has Webber. Both decent drivers finally being given good opportunities for a change.
If either of them wins the championship I won’t be too disappointed.
BNK Racing said on 14th August 2009, 17:51
button or weber should be #1. i cant really decide which. button has raced flawlessly in the races he has won from pole, but also had to fight in a couple races to get by drivers who took him at the start to get back into a position to win. weber also has had to do quite a bit of overtaking and fighting to get on podium….i cant say the same for vettel tho, he seems to lack an ability to overtake. although he is 3rd in the standings considering his 2 DNFs so u cant knock him down too far.
hamilton has been unlucky in a few races as well as having a horrible car, so for him to have scored 19 points is a miracle.
as for alonso, i think he has been unlucky strategically, others above me have made out renaults performance similar to that of ferrari but alonso’s results aren’t. it seems ppl perceive his car to be slower than it really is because of his teamates utterly dismal performance. im really not sure what to make of alonso this season. maybe because its the car’s completely hideous livery and body to blame for his bad results lol