Fernando Alonso voted F1 Fanatic Driver of the Year

2012 F1 season review

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F1 Fanatic readers voted world championship runner-up Fernando Alonso as the best driver of the 2012 season.

Alonso won half of all the votes that were cast. Second place went to Lewis Hamilton followed by world champion Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

This meant the top four drivers reflected the four I chose in my rankings of the drivers.

Recent winners

2012 F1 Fanatic Driver Rankings

Pass of the Year: Kimi Raikkonen on Michael Schumacher

Kimi Raikkonen’s overtaking move on Michael Schumacher during the Brazilian Grand Prix was voted the best pass of 2012.

Another pass involving the same two drivers in the Belgian Grand Prix received the second-largest number of votes. The move was similar to Mark Webber’s pass on Fernando Alonso which won last year’s vote.

The third most popular pass was Felipe Massa’s on Bruno Senna during the Singapore Grand Prix.

Recent winners

Overtaker of the Year: Kimi Raikkonen

Raikkonen was also voted the best overtaker of 2012, with 40% of the votes. He was followed by Alonso (18%) and then Vettel (14%), with Hamilton (14%) close behind.

Recent winners

2012 F1 season review


Browse all 2012 F1 season review articles

Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo

Author information

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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55 comments on “Fernando Alonso voted F1 Fanatic Driver of the Year”

  1. It’s nice to know that the majority of F1Fanatic’s members followed F1 closly this season… :)

    1. They wouldn’t be called Fanatic if so

  2. Now thats a shock, totally out of the blue, who could ever have guessed!

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      25th December 2012, 17:33

      I though Maldonado was about to get DOTYear

      1. I expected him to be a close seconde to Grosjean.

        1. Beshore Blue (@)
          25th December 2012, 18:31

          Really? I thought D’Ambrosio was the favourite.

  3. Hopefully by this time next year, we will be voting for Alonso about something along the same lines, except the title will contain 3 time world champion :D .

    1. I hope so. He’s waited too long.

    2. @ideepak 2015 and probably looking worse than ever :(

  4. Keith, it’s Christmas Day! Stop working and put your feet up! New articles can be posted on Thursday! I command thee to have a break!

    1. Exactly what I was going to post! Take a day off, @keithcollantine!

    2. Hear, hear, you surely deserve some rest, Keith.

    3. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      25th December 2012, 22:46

      Don’t listen to these layabouts @keithcollantine! Rest is for chumps! Real men work their fingers to the bone! Are you a real man Keith? Just down a pint of coffee every hour and get on with it! ;-)

  5. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
    25th December 2012, 18:14

    Alonso is also the SLOTY (Sore Loser of The Year).

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      25th December 2012, 19:19

      While you laugh at him for losing the title, he laughs at your bank account.

    2. Least Alonso didn’t bail from the team after losing ;)

      1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
        25th December 2012, 22:19

        Least Alonso didn’t bail from the team after losing

        He did! A rookie named Lewis Kicked his butt in 2007 and he couldn’t handle it, so he threw his toys out the pram and cried like a baby :P

        1. Tell again what that rookie did since his title and what probably waits in his future! :D

      2. He probably should have considered it.

    3. Agreed. Alonso was no better than Vettel this year. The only difference was that when Vettel had a slower car for half the season, he didn’t see the reason to tell us about it every passing second.

      Oh, and based on my experience as an F1 fan since 1998, Ferrari was not a dog of a car. A dog of a car does not finish on podium every race, even if Senna himself drives it.

      1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
        26th December 2012, 0:41

        +1

      2. In qualifying form it was a horrible car. I do not understand how you cannot call the Ferrari a dog, at least in qualifying.

        If the car was not so great, why isn’t Massa in the same position as Alonso ? Massa should not be behind Alonso by 1/10 of a second or 2/10 if it was as good as you say it is.

        1. @ideepak

          Massa is NOT the benchmark…

          How anyone can see Massa as a benchmark when halfway through the season he had to fear for his seat is beyond me…

          1. davidnotcoulthard
            27th December 2012, 9:22

            Yeah….the only valid argment here is that the F2012 is a bad qualifier – which, in fact, is a pretty good argument – without thinking of Alonso’s motivation/whining (Which, ladies and gentlemen, depends on how you see it).

      3. Oh, and based on my experience as an F1 fan since 1998

        you seem yo remind us every time that you follow f1 since 1998
        So What there’s people on this forum that follow Motorsport before even you were born

        1. I only mentioned it once. And did so to emphasise that I’m basing my opinions on my personal vision of the sport for 15-odd years. If you’ve read any conceit in my comment, or disregard towards others, then I must apologize.

          If I wished to brag about my knowledge of F1, I would’ve said that Fangio was my pal and used to watch from the stands when he raced.

  6. Happy Christmas to all of you… Of course was Alonso the best driver and Kimi on Schumacher at Spa the best overtake ! It’s hard to “take” Au Rouge even if you drive alone (in full speed). Alonso is the champion of our hearts,driving a Flintstone car even if someone else was yelling “yabadabadoo”…! But…the real winner is the sport and all of you. Other times serious,other times really funny,but always pationated about F1. Real F1 Fanatics

    1. davidnotcoulthard
      27th December 2012, 9:25

      A slow qualifier, but not a Flintstone car – Cooper’s first F1 car, or the FW14B, will still bite it’s dust!…probably.

  7. Michael Brown (@)
    25th December 2012, 19:52

    Keith, the pass of the year in 2011 was Webber on Alonso, the article says Webber on Schumacher

  8. When will this constant overrating of Alonso end?

    1. You know, when it’s constant and done by everyone from rival drivers’ fans to expert commentators it could be taken as a sign that it isn’t overrating.

      1. While Alonso is doubtlessly a very good driver, I too believe he is overrated – in any case he is no better then Vettel or Hamilton (or maybe even Button when he doesn’t have one of his off-days). Sure Alonso is terribly consistent and has immense race pace, but who are we pitching his talent against? He says the car is terrible, sure, but maybe it would be useful for him to have a decent team-mate who can demonstrate that his car-bashing is not self-indulgent propaganda?

        Hamilton was the only strong team-mate Alonso ever had (and he was a rookie then!) and Alonso immediately lost his cool. When he is behind his team-mate and the latter does not move aside (Germany 2010) Alonso starts complaining on the radio. When somebody defends too hard, actually races Alonso, and refuses to acknowledge him as some racing deity – you guessed it – Alonso complains.

        And yeah – this is coming from a Ferrari fan since 1998 – who also stopped being a Ferrari fan halfway through 2010. Not that Ferrari ever fussed about making team-orders or contravening rules, but in Schumacher era they did it to win titles. Now it seems they do it to indulge Alonso, who besides all his other faults, does not even behave like a world champion! While Hamilton, Vettel and other top-end drivers generally have likeable, fun personalities all I ever see from Alonso is his sullen expression, his complaints about everything else but himself, self-gratification (which is disgusting even if you are genuinely amazing), and not even a shred of thanks to his team-mate when the latter gifted him results at so many races.

        1. +100000000000000

        2. It’s good to see there are still people with actual common sense.

        3. this is coming from a Ferrari fan since 1998

          there is a big difference between fans and “Tifosi” (& i don’t mean only italians )

          who also stopped being a Ferrari fan halfway through 2010

          great news
          BTW why you didn’t stop being a fan after Austrian gp 2001

          1. Alonso THE Great
            27th December 2012, 7:07

            Excellent post tifoso 1989. You make perfect sense here

            Why a ferrari Fan ok / happy when team orders deployed in 2001 for schumi.

            Now the same fan is unhappy when team orders used in 2010 for alonso.

            May be he is in love with germans.

        4. Where do I sign this?
          +6372837276523

        5. Perfect Analysis !!
          + ∞

        6. @einariliyev This is exactly what I meant. Thank you for writing this. Alonso is a great talent, no doubt, but he is never one of the sport’s all time greats. He have lost to Hamilton, a rookie, he always disappoints under the pressure and he doesn’t get everything out of his car on Saturdays (or at least that’s how I feel). His clear driving mistakes also gets forgotten very often (for example he spun twice at British GP qualifying and by luck avoided damaging his car and nobody remembers that anymore)

          He has 2 world championships, but he got his championship in 2005 purely because Kimi’s McLaren was so unreliable. Kimi was by far the greatest driver that year (and still is, if you ask me)

          @tifoso1989 – you probably mean Austrian GP 2002? And I don’t see anything wrong with changing your favorite team if you don’t feel supporting your original favorite anymore.

    2. @huhhii Never, you’ll just have to live with it.

  9. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
    25th December 2012, 22:39

    Raikkonen voted overtaker of the year?!? The same Raikkonen that choked when he had the opportunity to pass Vettel at Bahrain and chickened out. Come on, surely Vettel is more worthy of this accolade. His performances at Abu Dhabi and Brazil showed his ability to overtake in a clean and concise manner whilst under pressure.

    Raikkonen’s one amazing overtake at Spa this year (not as good as Webber’s at the same corner during Spa GP 2011) is pretty much all he did, and that just isn’t good enough to be crowned “Best”. I think that Kimi is one of these people that can do no wrong. The kind of person that people praise, even when he makes a glaring mistake.

    Take the last race of this season for instance. He almost ran into Vettel on the first lap, he lost control and went off track a couple of times, and even went on a little sight-seeing tour of the reserve pits half way through the race. Was he criticised for these ridiculous mistakes? NO. Was he labelled a moron? No. People just laughed it off and no doubt uttered the words “That’s classic Kimi”. The fact that he has been voted overtaker of the season just proves my point.

    1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
      27th December 2012, 21:55

      His performances at Abu Dhabi and Brazil showed his ability to overtake in a clean and concise manner whilst under pressure

      Vettel BROKE front wing in Abu Dhabi trying to overtake, he pitted for that, and CRASH in Brazil with Senna(the both has the fault there). This were underpresure, PLUS trying to overtake Button in ‘Mutterland’ cost him like 3-4 places because of his penalty. About Raikk-Vettel move, Raikk had ONE chance to attack, he missed it, and you say: ‘Omg, he can’t overtake’, BUT I remeber that Vettel after his 4’th(I counted them) attemp he succesfully overtook Button in Abu Dhabi, with NEW tyres. 4’th!! PLUS Raikkonen did more overtakes without DRS than Vettel. And overall if you want metrics for best overtaker I say: the one who is not loosing places when he tried an overtaker manouver. Vettel lost a lot : penalty, front wing, crash…That’s a lot. Raikkonen: none

      1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
        27th December 2012, 21:55

        @tmcs88

      2. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
        27th December 2012, 23:17

        @sorin
        I amazes me the sheer extent to which people will go to eulogise Mr Monotone (Kimi). When was the last time Kimi had a stormer of a race? When was the last time he wowed the crowd with his superior driving ability? And as for the solitary race win this season (Abu Dhabi), let’s be honest, Monotone won by default due to McLaren’s incompetents and inability (unwillingness) to rectify recurring issues and mistakes.

        It annoys me that people will lay into Hamilton, deriding his successes and calling him a lucky WDC, yet the same applies to Kimi. One could argue that Kimi is only a WDC because Lewis and Alonso were at each others throats, which allowed Monotone to sneak the WDC.

        As for Monotone Vs The Vet. The Bahrain GP speaks volumes and goes some way to revealing the fact that Kimi is no longer an amazing overtaking tactician. And before you mention his manoeuvres on Schumi at Spa and Brazil. I don’t rate the Spa overtake as particularly special as Schumi (a shadow of his former WDC winning self) practically moved over and waved Monotone pass. On the other hand, Webber’s overtake against Alonso at Spa 2011 was amazing. Especially when you consider that Alonso is supposedly the greatest driver since Sliced Bread (Senor Sliced-Bread was an F1 driver in the late 60’s). As for the overtake at Brazil, I guarantee that if Vettel or Grosjean had made that very same move, no-one would’ve voted it overtake of the season, FACT!

        I understand that people like Kimi, but that doesn’t mean that you blindly vote for him to the detriment of other, more deserving drivers.

        1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
          28th December 2012, 0:37

          @tmcs88 I just compared Raikkonen with Vettel at overtaking manouvers. You now say that Raikkonen is not an extraordinary overtaker in compare with who? In compare with others this year, was.
          I just said that Vettel in his attempts to overtake, he lost postions, very badly. Who else? Hamilton in his attemts, crashed a lot (not from his fault, but was putted by himself in that risky positions ). I don’t know what are your metrics, saying that Raikkonen is Mr. Monoton, but I can say that he did the most overtakes without DRS, than others. I didn’t counted, it’s hard, but this is my imppresion.

          I understand that people like Kimi, but that doesn’t mean that you blindly vote for him to the detriment of other, more deserving drivers.

          Do you think 40% of people who is a F1Fanatic is blind. They were IMPRESSED by Raikkonen. There are 24 drivers, why do you think they choose Raikkonen, and not Button? They had a reason you know.

          1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
            28th December 2012, 0:45

            Plus, I see that you are so frusted that Raikkonen won in 2007. Hamilton had it in his hand that title in Brazil(with all his battle with Alonso by then) but he just fail, under presure, he did a mistake, in first lap. Raikkonen didn’t steal that title , he won it. And this year Raikkonen is very popular not only for his overtaking manouver, and phrases, BUT that he is 3’rd in championship, after 2 years of truks and rally, with a 4’th postion championship car.

          2. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
            28th December 2012, 0:51

            When was the last time he wowed the crowd

            At Spa this year when Raikkonen was on podium the crowd wowed more than Button and Vettel. You can see that footage. If you can show me another driver who was wowed by the crowd after Senna.? Please enlight me.

    2. haha, abu dhabi was crazy race. 2 safety car wiped off Kimi ‘s lead……..he kept calm and hold off the faster ferrari behind DRS zone. Thats pretty wow for me =P And in Bahrain, he started 11th to 2nd @@

      In hungary, without kers, his pace was much faster than his teammate =) In Spa, with kers issues and loss of pace, he still comeback 3rd @@

      wow , wow, wow, wow , wow

      Lewis??retired, win, retired win in the best car. Nth impressive tbh

      1. So its Lewis fault the team couldn’t screw the car together correctly? Good to know

  10. Seriously this whole overhyping Alonso has to stop, seriously stop the nonsense. Alonso has done nothing special this year, more than any other racer on the grid he needs his No1 status and in the last six months of the 2012 he was even outclassed by Massa only because Massa did a better job than Alonso. Look how Ferrari needs to handicap Massa so Alonso can look good

    1. @concalvez00
      You mean Massa outclassed Alonso when that won in Valencia, took pole and 2nd place in Silverstone, pole and win in Germany etc. Massa was maybe stronger in 3 races out of 20 and you call that 6 months?
      Please share with us what you’re smoking.

  11. Good result! Pleased Raikkonen got the pass of the year too, I voted for that one.

  12. fernando alonso is a very good driver f1

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