Kimi Raikkonen voted top driver of 2009
Kimi Raikkonen got the most votes in our 2009 F1 driver of the year poll.
But as sumedh pointed out in the forum, it seems we have had a large number of visitors from a Kimi Raikkonen community after the poll was put live. It’s clear from traffic patterns to the site this has had a deciding effect on the results.
I respect the right of people to choose who they wish to vote for. Raikkonen was among the most voted-for drivers before the influx of new visitors. I’m sure the regular F1 Fanatic visitors who picked him had sound reasons for doing so – many of which were persuasively argued here.
But it’s clear the poll has been unduly influenced by a group of people only interested in support for a particular driver who do not ordinarily contribute to the site. We may have to make changes in future to make sure future polls are a fair reflection of what regular F1 Fanatic readers think.
Here are the final results:
2009 F1 Fanatic driver of the year voting
| Rank | Driver | Votes |
| 1 | Kimi Raikkonen | 1,414 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | 540 |
| 3 | Jenson Button | 534 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | 501 |
| 5 | Robert Kubica | 204 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | 98 |
| 7 | Kamui Kobayashi | 76 |
| 8 | Rubens Barrichello | 64 |
| 9 | Mark Webber | 60 |
| 10 | Felipe Massa | 41 |
| 11 | Luca Badoer | 37 |
| 11 | Jarno Trulli | 37 |
| 13 | Nico Rosberg | 33 |
| 14 | Nick Heidfeld | 17 |
| 15 | Nelson Piquet Jnr | 13 |
| 16 | Adrian Sutil | 12 |
| 17 | Heikki Kovalainen | 9 |
| 18 | Sebastien Bourdais | 8 |
| 19 | Giancarlo Fisichella | 6 |
| 20 | Timo Glock | 5 |
| 20 | Kazuki Nakajima | 5 |
| 22 | Romain Grosjean | 3 |
| 23 | Jaime Alguersuari | 2 |
| 24 | Sebastien Buemi | 1 |
| 24 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 1 |
It’s my epxeirnece that Raikkonen fanboys are desperate to see their over-paid, under-achieving hero stay in the sport and seem to think that if they skew the results of a poll, then a) Raikkonen will stay in the sport and b) no-one will pick up on what they’ve done.
well Massa(Schumacher),Hamilton,Button,Alonso fanboys had all the chance to come ond vote for their overpaid and underachieving heroes…link to the poll was published on man Hamilton,Alonso and Button sites to, not to mention forums where people discuss whole formula 1 batch of drivers, so every driver got their part of his fanboy votes. It’s not Raikkonens fault if Massa,Hamilton and Alonso stinkers don’t have as much fans as Kimi does. Well, Kimi would have won the poll because he won in Spa with a car that didn’t get any new parts for weeks, against drivers in cars with new parts. so I think Kimi is TOP DRIVER of 2009
It’s not that Raikkonen has more fans, it’s that he has more OBSESSIVE fans. The ones who seem to think they can get him a 2010 drive by stacking a poll.
Agree with both your posts, PM. It’s only a poll, yet somehow “it matters” in their eyes.
@ Itcheyes
“It’s only a poll, yet somehow “it matters” in their eyes.”
Then why r u cribbing about it?
Precisely what did you pick up on honestly …
That Kimi is loved more than your liar pseudo champ … Hamilton!
Why don’t you just accept Kimi has a great number of fans because he really is good.
It is true that Kimi is the only reason for someo people to keep watching the race. But please agree that, on other hand, Kimi attracts audience. This is exactly what the organizers want to see. So they can make money. Kimi does have a lot of fans and they voted. However, does Hamilton or Button have no fan at all? Their fans must have voted too. Can that be called “skew the results of the pool” too?
Yeah Keith something stinks big time here, when I voted it was no way that lopsided. As I recall Button and Hamilton were on top about even with Kimi quite a way back in third or fourth?
What do you expect? this is a brit site?
I agree with Bud it was head to head with Button & Hamilton,I am not disappointed that Kimi won it but he got 3 times more vote than Hamilton!!!.Hope next time we can have a better way of choosing the drivers.I think one of the best way would have been if you only allowed the member of the Fanatic to vote only.
Hope Kimi gets a race seat if not in 2010 but surely in 2011.
This was the same case when KR stole the title from Alonzo and Hamilton in 2007.
I dont think “something stinks here”. People came here and voted for KR, that is it. It was very similiar to last year whith Kubica and his Polish fans :}
but Kubica deserved the title last year, so does Raikkonen this year. Since Hungary he was fantastic, and not bad in first half of the season.
How exactly is he “fantastic”. This is the man who won a race in Belgium, and then two races later was struggling to hold onto tenth place. That’s certainly less than “fantastic” in my book. A fantastic driver for 2009 was someone like Jenson Button, who took seven wins, three podiums and scored points in every race he finished.
It is completely subjective opinion.
To me KR was “fantastic” in 2009 even though he was not in a fight for a championship.
Just watching him driving that F60 was a pleasure, I couldnt feel that when I was seeing Button.
And I am not a member of some Raikkonen community. Never was.
The same “fantastic” Button who struggled to outscore Raikkonen in the second half of the season in a vastly superior car? (and don’t say the car wasn’t great, Barrichello got 2 wins and a pole with it.)
Also what about the ‘fantasic’ lewis hamilton, who struggled to finished 15th(?) at Silverstone?
i’m sure that f60 was the top car all year round,right? Watch F1 sometimes, don’t justlook for posts on the web where you can bash the driver you don’t like because your favourite had a hard time with him
Dude !! Have you heard of something called double diffuser ??
Button was not fantastic His car was ! If KR or Vettel or even Hamilton had Buttons car they wud have won 10+ races ,,,
Do watever .. just dont compare Kimi with Button ,, They are too far apart mate!
@Prisoner Monkeys
I guess you are new to F1, but you really need to learn to differentiate between car performance and driver performance.
You can’t make claims about how good a driver is looking simply at his position in a race.
And if Button had been in a Ferrari? Look where Fisichella ended up, and he creamed Button in 2001 when they were teammates..
With a great car that is! try giving him a dog car…
No No No
F1 isn’t politics and the results are not decided by public opinion, they are decided by race results. The Kimi/Ferrari results just weren’t good enough and they were beaten by 5 other drivers. Therefore there is no way kimi deserved the title.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
It’s the same people were routing for John and Edwards, I suppose.
Don’t worry and don’t bother, F1fanatic. **** happens. I just put my little blog back on line after a too long downtime. I understand your frustration.
I look forward to your next poll. Thx
I specifically use this site to escape that horrible show and now the names have invaded my joy of F1. How could you jm!
You might just want to change the title of the article to something like: F1 Poll hacked by Finn fans, or something like that, tho.
Complete rubbish. Raikkonen fanboys voting for their driver, knowing fair well he was not the best. Cheat! Cheat!
Prisoner Monkeys, you mean Raikkonen FanGIRLS!
I’m glad all this Kimi fangirl-ism soon going to be OVER! Good riddance!
Please add one more vote for Kimi.
I am a Kimi fan, and didn’t see this poll. :p
If this poll has been manipulated two years in a row, why wasn’t anything done to prevent it?
how can it be manipulated? one IP-one vote. maybe it’s just that more Kimi fans come to this site than fans of other drivers
well,Keith wasn’t glad about the result, so he had to say Kimi fans came and trashed the poll. but still,why didn’t massa boys come in flocks and vote for him? 
Because it isn’t about who has the most fans lol
So how are we going to prevent Kimi fans from voting next time?
That was a different subject – the question that time was “Who’s your favourite driver”:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2008/07/14/which-f1-drivers-do-you-like-poll/
Perhaps we should do a new poll asking that question again and see if all the fan clubs want to chip in?
very funny with Badoer in the top 11
Clearly the F1Rejects fans have been hijacking the website as well!
I don’t what kinda grudge people have for kimi over here
Why do u keep polls if u don’t want to accept people’s choice or opinion….Poll is a Poll…it doesn’t matter if the voter is from a Kimi community or whatever….there are many other comminities of other driver…..even they could have come to vote but they didnt.
Why do these things come into ur minds when its all about kimi…
Rahim, I think the point is that it’s not a wholly fair representation of a cross-section of viewpoints. It’s been skewed by a huge invasion of fans of one driver and therefore is pretty pointless. It’s not a vendetta against Kimi – that’s just paranoid.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the poll. It was fun. But a waste of time.
I completely disagree with the result too, and couldn’t believe it when I saw it.
Yet I am a Raikkonen (and Webber) fan myself.
I voted for Button, but it was a close call between him and a few others for me.
Just remember that not all Raikkonen fans are the same, and it annoys the hell out of me that a massive group of fans did this to sway the vote.
What did they do precisely? Vote ,, well thats the point ,, no
Dude – I m a KR fan myself and never voted on this poll …
These people who flood polls are stupid.
I think everything is very different if Hamilton or Button got the most number of votes. nuff said!
I’m a huge Kimi fan but certainly don’t think he was the best driver this year. (I voted for Vettel, actually.)
But this is all subjective. Everyone has an opinion that is coloured by their personal feelings, no matter how objective they try (or pretend) to be. I thought number 9 on Keith’s list was way too low for Kimi, but I think number 1 on the poll was too high!
And for those people complaining about an influx of Kimi fans, some of us longtimers here have peaceably coexisted with all the Hamboys for several years now!
Vettel wasn’t the best driver either.
It’s not like Keith is going to give him a trophy for winning.
I know who I voted for and that’s my opinion and seeing Kimi at the top does not change my opinion. It doesn’t matter who else voted.
The only way to prevent this in future is to allow only those who regularly visit the site to vote by having login \ password style of replies.
o my word…..1414 for Kimi vs 540 for Hamilton!!! Brilliant….no wonder the Hamilton fans in here are not happy….and is trying to blame their hero’s unpopularity on fanatic Kimi fans…….GO KIMI
Sure as hell …
Nice to know that people recognise that Kimi is by far rthe bset on the grid…
And i dont see any reason why people wud be crazy for Kimi if not for his driving skills because thats the only thing he has ,,
Kimi dosent have the smooth PR skills of a Schumi nor can play to the gallery like a movie star aka Hamilton…
He is loved because he is just so damn good IN THE CAR and not outside it like so many lesser mortals lining the grid !!
While peoples opinions of who was the best driver in a season are always subjective, I think most would agree the results of this poll has been influenced by fanboys and people making jokey entries.
The fanboy vote obviously affected the result, Raikkonen got almost three times the number of votes as Hamilton, Button and Vettel, while Kubica managed to get 204 votes, more than double that of Alonso, Barrichello and Webber and more than 10 times the votes of his teammate Heidfeld who outscored him in 2009.
Then there were those who chose their votes on the basis of having a laugh, which meant Badoer managed to get in the top half of the rankings.
Good to see the dedication of Kimi fans. I love the talk in their forum to make their hero wins the poll:
This isn’t an anti-Kimi anti-Kimi fan discussion. It’s just to me it seems that a few hard-core fans have basically fixed this poll. It is pointless. If people have a favourite and want to vote for them then fine but don’t do it to fix it a vote do it because they believe they are the best.
This isn’t representitive if just a load of fans from one specific site flood a poll.
Any fan group could have done this the issue isn’t about Kimi. I believe it is just about a poll which is now been influenced to such an extent that it doesn;t reveal much about the 09 season. If there are genuinely that many votes for Kimi for the right reasons then good for him but anything else doesn’t do this site or even Kimi any favours.
There does seem to be a few drivers who have a mass of fans. Alonso’s seem to be quiet at the minute (maybe not in Spain I’m not sure) is it because of Singapore? Or am I just noticing the others more?
That’s the thing – judging by some of the comments posted already on here (many by names unfamiliar to me, and I’ve been around for a few months), many seem to think this blatantly skewed poll actually vindicates their opinion and somehow makes it fact and gives them a whole new excuse to spam with “KIMI IS THE BEST” messages and slate fans of/other drivers.
Had Hamilton come out on top like this, I would have been disgusted with my fellow fans. Thankfully a few sane Kimi fans have repudiated the “legitimacy” (it’s only a poll after all) of the result.
Thanks Becken….some good info there!!! Did you ever think that Kimi fans voted for him because he WAS the best driver in 2009….doing what he did in a crappy car, while other driver’s cars got developed throughout the season and yet Kimi still managed to get some of the most points in the second part of the season…..I am not trying to convince anybody of my opion because I believe everybody has a right to his/her own opinion….but facts are facts!!!
Exactly it is opinion but say we got a load of Massa fans or Alonso there would still be an outcry as it may not be as representitive. You don’t just go to a load of fans and say ‘was your driver the best out of this lot?’ because the answer is pretty predicitible. Kimi may have been the best and great if people think so but now it doesn;t show that. We aren’t discussing whether he was the best just whether the poll was fixed which ruins the entire point.
WTH!!! Just coz KR won the poll such a huge outcry!! Keith is giving out trophies or sumthin??People voted- thats what you do in a poll I believe.
Keith, that is complete bull**** – what you have wrote at the top of the page.
I’m sorry, but even without the forum’s impact, Kimi would’ve won. And he deserves it. Yes, Button and Hamilton drove absoloutly superbly this year, but Kimi made the most of a completely crap car and that is why he deserves it.
Well, isn’t this a very good lesson on the reliability of poll results…
… Kimi fans: yelling louder than people who disagree with you won’t make you more right.
you brits are weird just because things didn’t go your way.i actually voted for button even though i’am a kimi fan.most kimi fans do know who was the best driver in 2009.if your going to coomplain about it shut the website down,acting like sad little kids
This has nothing to do with ‘things going our way’, it’s more about wanting to see the real reaction of a full cross-section on fans, not a vast majority of fans of one driver.
I didn’t vote in the poll but I was interested in the result and genuinely surprised when the headline above popped into my Reader. The fact that a thousand ‘outsiders’ were encouraged to come and vote for their guy renders what could have been an interesting and provocative poll completely pointless, and I think that’s why some people – not just the Brits thankyou very much – are getting irate. As irate, I might add, as some Kimi fans are getting in their defence of their hero.
If 1500 people really think Kimi was the best driver in 2009 then I’ve lost faith in humanity.
I m so sorry to hear that!
To misquote Alain Prost (on Ayrton Senna): “If they want (to win the poll) that badly, they can have it.”
nice one
I am a Kimi fan and I did not vote as I thought all of them were pretty average this year.No major standouts performance wise.Would have voted Lewis though if he had not been involved in the Liegate saga.If it freaks you guys out this much just discard the Kimi results and compare the standings of the runner-ups.
Polls like this and threads on F1 forums across the internet are being spoiled by desperate Raikkonen fans at the moment to the point where it’s hardly worth participating in them. Hopefully the WRC sites can ‘enjoy’ their input from next year onwards.
I’m in thee minds on which way to vote : Hamilton, Vettel, or Button. All have their strengths and weaknesses, but i’ll probably end up voting for Hamilton purely for his performances from Germany onwards.
Raikkonen???? I needed a laugh….
Now we know how many family members Luca Badoer has got……
Are you sure the Nakajima fan club (all five of them) hasn’t done the same thing.
So Lewis won then? Good on him, he did well. I believe he did far more with his bad McLaren than Kimi did with his bad Ferrari.
Divide Kimi’s score by 3, and that places him 4th in this list, which seems about right to me.
Totally agree with your logic. It would be wrong to disregard all of Kimi’s votes, but by dividing it by 3 (as about two thirds were probably fanboy/girl votes) makes sense.
GO KIMI!!!!! even after you left F1, you still winning the pols!!!!!!
@ajokay…divide it by 2 (take half of his votes away)….and he still wins…what a silly argument…we can play with numbers all day and get all sorts of different outcomes (and I am an accountant, so we can go ALL DAY)….
Cheers for clarifying what dividing by 2 means…
Lets divide you by 0, then you might go away.
pleasure mate…let me know if I can clarify anything else for you!
kimi is number 1 ! even if tat prob didnt occur im sure he would be top! lik me and my friends are from Britain and we r all kimi supporters! people need 2 get over themselves and face up to the fact tat kimis fan base world wide is in a different league to every other driver!
It is quite funny that some people seem so bitter about an internet poll.
The fact of matter is most of the championship contenders were quite average during the year with their superior cars. The only drivers who really stood out were Hamilton and Raikkonen.
Raikkonen made much less mistakes then Hamilton, Button, Vettel, and Barrichello. He outscored Button, Vettel, Barrichello and Webber in the second half of the season, all of them had way superior cars then the underdeveloped F60. Hamilton also did well during that time and he scored only two points more then Raikkonen also with a superior car, and many people don’t have any problem to name him as the top driver of the year.
Raikkonen deserves to be the top driver of the year just as much as any of the other ‘top’ drivers mentioned above and in fact more then others in many of the cases.
I’m an Alonso fan, but that doesn’t mean I thought he was the best this year. For me it was between Hamilton and Button, and I voted Button on the basis of Hamilton telling porkies at Melbourne and his somewhat patchy form at the start of the year.
I’m still an Alonso fan and always will be, voting for another driver doesn’t change that at all. I also like Rosberg, Heidfeld, Massa, Trulli and Webber, and I actually dislike Hamilton some what. Does that mean any of the drivers I just mentioned were better this year? No, because Hamilton was mostly brilliant this season. If the Kimi fans think that the massive skew in voting means he is the best driver of the year so be it, but this poll also shows that Luca Badoer drove better this year than Rosberg and Heidfeld…
Keith you might want to look at this. Could be talkng about this site and issue
http://runoffarea.co.uk/2009/12/01/fia-acknowledge-poll-crown-raikkonen/
hahahahahaha, brilliant.
That is brilliant. Very funny indeed.
I really do think it’s a shame that the rest of this thread could not take the same light-hearted approach to the poll.
All of you, whether you be Kimi fans or otherwise, chillax. Really.
Disclosure : I am a rabid Kimi fan, have been motor racing since I was a kid and watching F1 just as long. I still think Kimi was definitely in the top three drivers this year regardless of the result of the Championship, or this poll, but certainly don’t see why so many people are getting so hot under the collar here.
Thanks Steph!
Indeed, I did not have to look too far for inspiration….
It was brilliant Andy. Really made me laugh so thanks!
I am against that idea, its a xenophobic attitude and only creates an “US” and “THEM” attitude within the regulars and outsiders, hostilities ensue. Possible new readers then don’t bother coming back.
Is there anyone else thinking this has gone a bit mad? I don’t know whether I am amused or not. It isn;t about fanbases. Like in 07 I loved Massa but at times he was clueless against Kimi and not on form we see now. Can admit that as it is about who drives the best not who is the coolest
this poll has nothing to do with Kimi himself, it’s just all his fans… Im a fan of him, but don’t blame Kimi…
Imagine we “disqualified” Kimi – the places would be:
1 Lewis Hamilton 540
2 Jenson Button 534
3 Sebastian Vettel 501
4 Robert Kubica 204
5 Fernando Alonso 98
Which, apart from Kubica, seems very reasonable to me, even though it wouldn’t be my choice.
I don’t know what’s funnier – the madness of the poll or the Kimi fans who have come on here actually believing he was the best. I mean, respect opinions and everything, but it’s kinda funny how conveniently selective their reasoning has been. Kudos to Kimi fans who voted for someone else; had Lewis had the season Kimi did, I wouldn’t have voted for him.
But Hamilton only scored 2 points more than Kimi in the last part of the season with a better car….so if you look at it from that angle he had a worse season than Kimi….so sad that you have just proven your own comments wrong….
And in the first half of the season Kimi scored the same as Lewis in a better car while Massa had 22…read what you will.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ve got an idea!
Lets register to all these forums dedicated to one driver each, and when next year comes around create threads on them linking to this site.
Keith gets more traffic that way, and its even because not a single driver has more support that way.
It was a fix-up gov…
Let’s have a poll for the most rigged poll on here lol…
good one
It’s only legitimate if Hamilton or Button wins……..right.
why cause they r british? im british and think the right man won!
What you need is a addon that you ask who is their favorite driver and stop them being able to vote for that driver in polls. Also stop having the voting allowed for non members to stop fanboys voting.
Or you find 100 people on your site that you believe wont be biased and just let them vote. I’m not biased, i might be a vettel fan but i voted for Button in that poll got actual reasons.
Dude, you are SO biased, you just like to talk about those other people, you know THE biased ones. Going by your posts, you think that if someone likes a driver that you don’t (e.g. Hamilton) they must be a fanboy.
No you just don’t like being called a fanboy, if you want to call me a fanboy thats fine by me because im not, it looks to me you have a bigger issue with this then i do since what your typing is if your anybody who doesn’t like Hamilton your biased without a question? I might not like Hamilton compared to other drivers it doesn’t mean 100% i will ignore what he has done over this year, so plz keep your half baked insults to yourself.
So who did you vote for then “Dude”? since your not biased at all………….
You and me wouldn’t be having this conversation if i didnt have a picture of vettel or have this name there are such things as people who like a certain driver but still give a good opinion to these forums and don’t have a ton of arrogance chucking insults at people making judgements.
You have no idea who i am or what i think but your just a person who jumps to judge a person wayyyyyy to early kid.
Well, seems to me that the person who brands a whole swath of people as biased if they hold a certain opinion before even hearing that opinion is rather the one who jumps to judgments…
Last one I swear! For your info: it’s got nothing to do with your nick or picture. And I voted for Button, just so you know.
We’re all a little biased. It is just blown out of proportion when you like the frontrunners. If I voted for Buemi and went on about how he did an excellent job. I’m sure some would find a way to agree. I had a tough time choosing between Hamilton, Vettel, Or barrichello.
Now i see what Prost meant when he said that F1 will miss Kimi coz he has so huge fanbase all over the world.