Vote for the best driver of the 2013 F1 season

2013 F1 season review

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The F1 Fanatic Driver Rankings are complete and now it’s time for you to vote for your best driver of 2013.

Cast your vote below for who you thought was the best driver throughout the 2013 season.

Who was the best driver of the 2013 season?

  • Kimi Raikkonen (7%)
  • Max Chilton (0%)
  • Jules Bianchi (1%)
  • Giedo van der Garde (0%)
  • Charles Pic (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Adrian Sutil (0%)
  • Paul di Resta (0%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (9%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (4%)
  • Nico Rosberg (1%)
  • Romain Grosjean (4%)
  • Heikki Kovalainen (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Felipe Massa (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (10%)
  • Mark Webber (0%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (61%)

Total Voters: 656

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2013 Driver of the Weekend results

Ten different drivers were voted Driver of the Weekend during 2013. Sebastian Vettel won it six times, more than any of his rivals. Fernando Alonso took three wins and Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg both won the poll twice.

Six other drivers won the poll once: Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas.

RaceFirstSecondThird
Australian Grand PrixKimi Raikkonen (51.2%)Adrian Sutil (17.9%)Jules Bianchi (13.6%)
Malaysian Grand PrixMark Webber (34.2%)Sebastian Vettel (17.4%)Nico Rosberg (13.6%)
Chinese Grand PrixFernando Alonso (47.0%)Daniel Ricciardo (18.2%)Kimi Raikkonen (15.6%)
Bahrain Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (32.2%)Paul di Resta (17.8%)Fernando Alonso (11.9%)
Spanish Grand PrixFernando Alonso (61.4%)Felipe Massa (10.8%)Kimi Raikkonen (10.5%)
Monaco Grand PrixNico Rosberg (54.3%)Adrian Sutil (22.2%)Kimi Raikkonen (9.6%)
Canadian Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (36.8%)Fernando Alonso (24.6%)Jean-Eric Vergne (14.0%)
British Grand PrixLewis Hamilton (52.5%)Mark Webber (18.4%)Fernando Alonso (10.2%)
German Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (39.2%)Romain Grosjean (27.6%)Kimi Raikkonen (15.9%)
Hungarian Grand PrixLewis Hamilton (63.9%)Kimi Raikkonen (12.4%)Romain Grosjean (12.0%)
Belgian Grand PrixFernando Alonso (39.1%)Sebastian Vettel (38.5%)Jenson Button (6.9%)
Italian Grand PrixNico Hulkenberg (48.4%)Sebastian Vettel (28.6%)Fernando Alonso (9.3%)
Singapore Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (53.9%)Kimi Raikkonen (25.7%)Fernando Alonso (12.3%)
Korean Grand PrixNico Hulkenberg (69.3%)Sebastian Vettel (14.9%)Kimi Raikkonen (7.2%)
Japanese Grand PrixRomain Grosjean (58.0%)Sebastian Vettel (24.5%)Esteban Gutierrez (6.0%)
Indian Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (45.0%)Romain Grosjean (42.4%)Sergio Perez (6.2%)
Abu Dhabi Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (53.0%)Paul di Resta (9.6%)Fernando Alonso (8.4%)
United States Grand PrixValtteri Bottas (41.5%)Romain Grosjean (27.2%)Sebastian Vettel (19.0%)
Brazil Grand PrixJenson Button (32.8%)Sebastian Vettel (26.0%)Mark Webber (14.4%)

Brazilian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend result

Button topped the Driver of the Weekend poll for the first time this season following his rise from 14th to fourth in the Brazilian Grand Prix. This is Button’s second appearance in the top three – the other being third in Belgium.

The two Red Bull drivers also featured among your top three votes. Vettel took his ninth consecutive victory meaning he was voted in the top three 13 times this season – nine of which came in the final nine races of the season.

Webber was voted third in his final F1 race following a strong drive to finish runner-up to Vettel.

1. Jenson Button

Started: 14th
Finished: 4th

Following McLaren’s decision not to do huge amounts of running in practice Button suffered the consequences and qualified a poor 15th – that became 14th on the grid due to Perez’s penalty – having been hoping a top ten.

Button was one of only two drivers to start on the hard tyre but impressively made up five places on the opening two laps before taking more places during the first stint.

Hamilton and Massa’s penalties dully played into his hands but Button kept a cool head and drove a clean race to give McLaren their best finish of the season in fourth.

Strangely, but not many in the press talk about Button’s drive. It was his best race throughout whole year, just storming. Of course, his qualifying performance wasn’t great but he more than made for it in the race. And smaller wing angles helped here too. But those cracking moves were so enjoyable and he looked unstoppable at one moment
@Osvaldas31

Button gets my vote. Sure he messed up his qualifying but to some extent that was down to McLaren not running in practice. His first stint was amazing, slicing through the field on primes and doing some brave moves on others was pretty exciting to watch. Probably the best way to end a very frustrating season.
Robert Tang (@robertthespy)

Button gave us a masterclass of making the most out of what you have so he got my vote
@HoHum

2. Sebastian Vettel

Started: 1st
Finished: 1st

Everyone was praying for a wet race to hopefully end Vettel’s dominance but the differing conditions only seemed to spur him on as no-one could get within half a second of the quadruple world champion in qualifying.

A poor getaway handed Rosberg the lead but Vettel easily slid down the inside at turn one on the second lap to take a lead he would never give away – despite a thirteen second stop as Red Bull mixed up their drivers’ tyres. Vettel maintained the gap back to his team mate and eased to a record ninth consecutive victory.

Sebastian Vettel is my driver of the weekend. He mastered the wet conditions on Saturday by taking pole position by a large margin. And he mastered the (almost) dry conditions on Sunday as he skilfully managed the race from the first lap until the end despite an average start. Another proof that he is a deserving multiple world champion.
@Girts

Sebastian Vettel is not just the driver of the weekend, but also the driver of the year in my opinion: he’s fast, consistent, hardly makes mistakes and has an incredible will to win! Definetly the driver of the weekend.
Barney

3. Mark Webber

Started: 4th
Finished: 2nd

Webber’s race consisted mainly of following and passing Alonso – a feat he accomplished twice – but overtakes on both the Mercedes’ as well rightly earned him a podium in his final race.

Removing his helmet for the slowing down lap was a unique way to end his career and something many fans will remember for a long time.

Webber for the no-helmet ride.
Dmitry (@robo)

Additional writing by @Bradley-Downton.

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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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92 comments on “Vote for the best driver of the 2013 F1 season”

  1. Easiest vote of the season.

    1. Yes, even if you split the season in 2 as you should you should see that Vettel and Red Bull managed well enough their front wear issues and managed to win in the rear limited circuits of Bahrain and Canada and they managed not to lose to many points on the front limited circuits as China or Spain and they got lucky on Malaysia qually and they capitalized on everything just spotless.

  2. Vettel – Best of the rest
    Alonso – Rest of the rest

  3. Tough not to vote for Vettel, and this for every reasons.
    Would it be a top-three vote I’d have picked up Alonso and Hulkenberg on the list, maybe not in that position.

  4. In 2010, I voted for Hamilton because of the incredible effort he made to stay in title hunt until the final race.

    In 2011, I voted for Kovalainen because of his enormous dedication in a car that was uncapable of finishing in points.

    In 2012, I voted for Hamilton as I believed that his many brilliant drives had largely gone unnoticed in the shade of Alonso’s heroics.

    This year I have no more excuses. I’m voting for Vettel.

    1. @girts
      I would agree with your choices for 2010 and 2012, but did you seriously vote for Kovalainen in 2011?

      1. @kingshark Yes, and Kovalainen was one of James Allen’s top 5 drivers of 2011, too.

      2. Best is still subjective.. so I put in a tactical vote for Hulkenberg. To win DOTW twice in a Sauber, and be ‘best of the rest’ in the second half of the season. Bottas won DOTW once as well, so if he gets no votes here that would be interesting – surely some people would vote for him as best rookie. Vettel obviously has this won, perhaps even more so than the 2013 WDC after the tyre change…

        It would be interesting to pit the slow-car on-form Kovalainen against Vettel. Only in the Lotus and Renault did he look like the driver that won ROC over Schumacher. Obviously not the recent Lotus though.. but that was mainly circumstance. Have they raced each other at ROC?

      3. And although my second sentence doesn’t make sense, it does if you add further factors like: is quite an achievement, alongside being the last ‘non-pay driver’ (and perhaps ‘non-paid driver’?), last guy hauling it for a seat on pure merit etc. (Di Resta is now out for a continuing Sutil, who he beat this year.. but it would have been closer without bad luck for both sides).

        You could make a case for some of the rookies like Bottas as well, although they were both Williams test driver, but Hulk got a full pre-season testing schedule I imagine rather than a year of FP1s. Calado still has a chance with Force India FP1s from his RSF backing, but that is now over.. and the rest of the rookies have come in via teams’ YDT programs.

      4. @kingshark indeed, Heikki Kovalainen was pretty good in 2011, not to vote him as best driver of the year but definitely top 10 material, after that it went down the hill a bit with Heikki.

    2. Also, isn’t it interesting that the top 5 at the moment reflects on Keith (and many including myself)’s top 5 for the season? That’s crowd-power for you..

  5. Vettel
    Who else…

  6. Not a Vettel fan, but I voted Vettel.

  7. 2% of people thought that Pastor Maldonado is the best driver of 2013.

    1. Maybe Maldonado reads F1Fanatic!

    2. Pastor has an F1Fanatic profile?

      1. You didn’t know?!

    3. His mom and sister :D

  8. Based on F1Fanatic followers votes if we give 1st driver 25 points 2nd 18 3rd 15
    Vettel : 273 point
    Raikkonrn : 136
    Sutil : 36
    Bianchi : 15
    Webber : 58
    Rosberg : 40
    Alonso : 168
    Ricciardo : 18
    DiResta : 36
    Massa : 15
    JEV : 15
    Hamilton : 50
    Grosjean : 94
    Button : 40
    Hulk : 50
    Gutierrez : 15
    Perez : 15
    Bottas : 25

    1. If I might take you numbers (denotes actual championship position. I ordered it by F1F DotWe score. In case of equality, best score then first to score wins.):
      Based on F1Fanatic followers votes if we give 1st driver 25 points 2nd 18 3rd 15
      1 (1) Vettel : 273 point
      2 (2) Alonso : 168
      3 (5) Raikkonen : 136
      4 (7) Grosjean : 94
      5 (3) Webber : 58
      6 (4) Hamilton : 50
      7 (10) Hulk : 50
      8 (6) Rosberg : 40
      9 (9) Button : 40
      9 (13) Sutil : 36
      10 (12) DiResta : 36
      11 (17) Bottas : 25
      12 (14) Ricciardo : 18
      13 (8) Massa : 18
      14 (19) Bianchi : 15
      15 (15) JEV : 15
      16 (13) Gutierrez : 15
      17 (11) Perez : 15
      18 (18) Maldonado
      20 (20) Pic : 0
      21 (21) Van der Garde : 0
      22 (22) Chilton :
      23 (23) Kovalainen : 0

      You may turn it every way you want, but Maldonado had a dreadful year.

      1. So really you get those who are favorably viewed (or had great week ends) and get a better result than in the championship : Grosjean, Raikkonen, Hulk, Bottas (fan favorites too).

        And those who maybe had less recognition than compared to results : Hamilton (that’s actually quite a surprise), Rosberg, Perez.

        I’ll let Webber slip as anything than a win will not warrant extra points.

      2. Be careful. The FIA may see this and use it as a way to “spice” up the way the champion is determined each year.

        1. You’re right, I didn’t think it through.

          [Meanwhile at the FIA headquarters] “Lets have a championship decided on votes by the public ! That would draw some paying crowd !”

      3. petebaldwin (@)
        17th December 2013, 16:39

        @tango – It also has to take into account what cars they were in as opposed to just popularity. Massa finished 8th in the WDC and got rated the 13th best driver overall by F1F. If he’d come 8th in a Marussia, he’d have finished higher than 13th in the F1F rankings.

  9. Well… don’t want to vote for Seb. But he definitely is.

  10. Seb was flawless, as much as Alonso was last year.

    (I’m a big Seb and Hamilton fan, but I absolutely despise the current rules F1 has fallen under. It’s disrespectful and embarrassing. I’m questioning my interest in the sport.)

    1. If you’re a Vettel fan then why are you loosing interest in F1? DRS, crappy tyres, kers, he still finishes ahead of everyone by a mile and probably next year will happen the same but with Hamilton, if anything you should be more excited about F1 :p

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        17th December 2013, 16:57

        @mantresx – The only person in the world who enjoys complete Vettel domination from FP1 to the chequred flag on Sundays is Sebastian Vettel.

        Even Vettel fans would wish for more excitement, actual racing, decent tyres and the end of stupid rules (ie double points). The only difference is following all of that, they’d still want Vettel to come out on top. :)

        1. @petebaldwin I would be happy with harder tyres and no DRS, as Vettel can still win a world championship in those circumstances – 2010 ;)

          1. How about some equal machinery? I think that would interest a lot of people

          2. petebaldwin (@)
            18th December 2013, 9:52

            @todfod – I agree – I’d love the other teams to get their acts to gether and start designing cars that can compete with Red Bull!

  11. Nico Rosberg summed up some of Vettel’s drives as ‘being on a different planet’, and that’s very accurate: Vettel has had an incredible and flawless season, as close to perfection as it gets. The 28% that at the time of writing decided not to vote for Vettel are quite simply wrong.

    1. @andae23 I think they knew he was the best but decided not to vote for him because they knew everyone else would do it anyway, I know is not the best way to vote but there you go.

    2. Jelle van der Meer
      17th December 2013, 15:27

      +1000!!! You phrased it much better than I did, THANK YOU

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      17th December 2013, 16:45

      @andae23 – It’s all subjective though to be fair. I voted for Vettel but it’s very hard to say that his performance was better than Hulkenberg’s (for example). How can we compare them?

      Vettel was in the fastest car and was able to get it to the first corner in the lead more times than not. Once that happened, he could drive off into the distance and relax. Hulk never had that chance because however fast he was, he would be amongst others in faster cars. When he did qualify well, he simply didn’t have the race pace to pull away from the field. If Vettel was in the Sauber, he wouldn’t have either.

      Same can be said for the cars at the back – how can we really judge any of those 4 against the rest? Would it be fair to judge if Vergne had a better or worse season than Pic?

      1. @petebaldwin Of course everyone has the right to have his/her own opinion, but Vettel was just so unbelievably good this year. I can accept that a few people think someone else did a better job, but.. 32%? I mean, really?

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          17th December 2013, 17:41

          @andae23 – Well yeah fair enough. At least 10% of that can be taken away as votes for their favourites. Votes for Webber and Guiterrez are clearly ridiculous. Hamilton, by his own admission, didn’t have a great season. The car was capable of more than he got out of it as he struggled with the breaks and general setup. There are various drivers who got beaten by their team mates yet got votes…. In the same way, beating your team mate doesn’t mean much because your team mate may have had a 2 out of 10 season and you may have had a 6 out of 10….

          1. Jelle van der Meer
            17th December 2013, 18:36

            @petebaldwin – fair arguments made and there is an element of truth in there.
            I agree that Hulkenberg really surprised me and did things in the Sauber that were not to be expected however he also had weekends he did not perform 100%. I can’t remember a weekend where Vettel really underperformed the car, maybe not every weekend was flawless (most were) but no big mistakes either in qualifying or the race.
            In Japan he was 3rd after first corner and just drove his race, faster than Webber & Grossjean and made the overtake stick when it mattered.
            In India he pitted at lap 2, it took him little time to go through the midfield, not a single overtake he attempted failed.
            Also it was Vettel at age 21 in a Toro Rosso in wet Monza that got pole and won the race.
            Last it is my opinion that truly great drivers can create great cars like great cars can generate great drivers. Being able to lead a team, focus on your own strengths, despite winning reviewing your race in detail for areas of improvements, learn from mistakes as well as the skill to adapt to whatever situation, weather, rule change, etc.
            So far all (except 1) those that have commented indicating their vote, voted Vettel, I guess those that didn’t vote either are not bothered to comment or simply could not justify their vote.

    4. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      17th December 2013, 21:50

      @andae23 that’s why I keep saying Keith should create a 3-2-1 points system to vote for 3 drivers every weekend. It would give a more accurate vote, and it would stop the “sorry vote” when people decide not to vote for the best “because Mr. X was almost as good as him”.

    5. Well, it just seems unfair to vote for anybody else. But you can still vote for nobody.

    6. @andae23

      So shortly after voting started (but already with around 300 votes iIrc) Vettel was at 72%. Now with around 600 votes he is at 63% only. So the first 300 people vote significantly different from the next 300 (no need to run a statistical test, it will probably come out as significant at the 0.01% level).

      Why is that? My take is that more casual visitors to the site are likely to vote later whereas the die-hard fans check F1Fanatic several times a day. And somehow the former don’t appreciate Vettel’s achievements whereas the latter do.

      1. @mike-dee Seems like a reasonable explanation. I guess the ‘casual’ fans don’t appreciate Vettel’s achievements because they haven’t seen him do it with their own eyes. Hulkenberg and Alonso have been more visible because they weren’t 10 seconds ahead of everyone else every race, so I see why you would then be inclined to vote for one of them instead of Vettel.

        But it’s still beyond me that 37% think Vettel could have done a better job.

  12. Vettel’s going to dominate this poll like he dominated this season. Quite rightly too, he’s been incredible.

  13. Ferrari fan here but… this is simple. There is only one answer here and it is Sebastian Vettel !

  14. Heikki Kovalainen (1%)
    Hahaha!

    1. Good to know that my vote counted for something.
      Sorry for the not-serious vote, but I just wanted to vote on the guy less likely to get any :-P

      1. And so Chilton’s family PR work on this site on every DOTW has proven effective :)

  15. Love him, hate him or simply……boo him, he has left no doubt in a sane F1 follower’s mind about his talent and achievement. Some argue that he had the best car but so did Mark. You need a blend of man and machine (and now-a-days TIRES) to succeed in this sport and there is no doubt that Red Bull produced a gem of a machine and Sebastian provided the efficient pair of hands and legs to dance around the circuits while laying less tire marbles.

  16. The best driver of the season was Vettel, by miles. His level of domination post the summer break was truly staggering, in the cold hard light of day the “boo-boys” will have to admit that it was a true privilege to have watched it.

  17. Undoubtedly the best driver of the season was Vettel. The form he showed in the second half of the season following the summer break was superlative and his general consistency throughout the season as a whole was fantastic. In seasons gone by I would have been reluctant to give Vettel the tag of “Best driver of the season”, but he certainly earned, and deserves it in 2013, no question.

  18. Would be a better question to ask who is the second driver of the year, given that Seb is the driver of the year!!!
    If the question was that, i would vote for Kimi Raikkonen! Very interisting moment at Monaco GP when he could still be hunting the Schumacher record of consecutive points, and he always went to the limit of those pirellis and mades mart strategies as well!

    1. *made smarts

  19. Sebastian Vettel, no doubt. But you know something is wrong when Heikki Kovalainen has more votes than Mark Webber!

  20. Vettel, he had the tools and made use of them, end of story

  21. It’s a very easy decision – Vettel of course. I have faith in F1Fanatic members that he’ll dominate this vote, because I’ve seen Raikkonen win a driver of the year poll somewhere else recently – madness!

    I’m surprised Max Chilton is still on 0%, he seems to always get 1% at least in driver of the weekend polls.

    1. Max must not have logged onto F1 fanatic today…

      1. That’s strange, pretty sure I did…

  22. Completely unrelated to this article but considering the driver rankings we saw in F1F, below is what I think who had the consistent driver line up in 2013.

    1 Lotus
    2 Mercedes
    3 Red Bull
    4 Ferrari
    5 McLaren
    6 Force India
    7 Sauber
    8 Torro Rosso
    9 Williams
    10 Marussia
    11 Caterham

    While the last 7 is the same, its seems that the Lotus had better drivers who could get the maximum performance of the car than Red Bull and Ferrari. Not surprising but shows Webber and Massa really underperformed this year.

    1. @1abe
      Lotus had a more consistent drivers’ line-up than Mercedes? Grosjean was poor in the first half of 2013, while Rosberg and Hamilton performed constantly.

      1. @kingshark
        True but if you look at performace of the Mercedes drivers, they neither improved their performance nor did their performance drop. Lotus on the other hand had Kimi over acheiving in the first half and Romain doing the same in the second half. So if you see from the teams point on view, they had atleast 1 car getting its maximum each half of the season.

  23. I found no excuse for not voting for SV, he was just simply sublime. He won almost everything and no one even came close.
    Slightly controversial, but I’m sure if he were in a car next to senna Schumacher or any of the other greats he’d be just as good.

    1. I would agree with that too. People say he needs to race for a different team or a with a better teammate to show how strong he is. However, Schumacher never won a championship with a strong teammate and Senna never won a championship with a different car. Is it a prerequisite that a driver needs to do either one of the above to show how good they are? Cant it be possible that they show that with just what they got? The reason why Fernando is considered the best is because he does his best with what he got. How should Sebastian be different?

  24. Though there are some of the ratings I don’t agree with, it would be awkward not to do so with this one. Vettel was brilliant all year long.

  25. I think except for that Robert Kubica poll in 2010, the results of all polls in F1F have been accurate.

  26. Jelle van der Meer
    17th December 2013, 15:24

    Vettel wins 13 races, 16 podiums, 9 pole positions, 7 fastest laps and completely dominates his teammate.
    Yes he might have the best car but doubt anyone would have gotten better results in that car than Vettel considering he has made the least mistakes of anyone this year.
    Yet 29% of people still feel he doesn’t deserve driver of the year. I see votes for Webber, Massa, Chilton, Bianchi, Gutierrez and Sutil.
    Guess I am still to be shocked he got 71% of the votes considering he only got 6 DotW trophies.

    1. They’re obviously just voting “against” or for their favourite drivers. There’s no question who was the best driver in 2013.

    2. I get that, but no online opinion poll will ever read “100%”. You’ll have some votes for someone else who did well to at least reflect who was 2nd or 3rd best (like Hulkenberg for example). Still a majority voted for Vettel. And if 1 or 2 people, the smallest of minorities vote for someone like Chilton, then they’re clearly not serious, and not really affecting the end result, so who really cares about them?

  27. This is for the driver of the year, so I tried to take cars, teams, mid-season tyre changes and “luck” out of it … the result: Alonso who “got the best out of what was available” more consistently than any other. I couldn’t see any other way of “judging” driver quality. (Not to take away from Vettel who fully deserved his WDC title.)

    1. Alonso didn’t get “the best out of what was available” this year. Vettel did. Alonso made more mistakes than him this year and his qualifying was far from “the best” even compared to Massa.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      17th December 2013, 16:53

      For a period this year, Massa outperformed Alonso. We all know that on his day, Alonso will always best Massa which means that he wasn’t at 100%.

      Webber never had any sustained advantage over Vettel and never looked genuainly faster than him all season.

    3. Jelle van der Meer
      17th December 2013, 18:43

      If you take all the factors out like you said there are 2 key measurement
      1) Team mate battle: Vettel was far more dominant over Webber than Alonso was over Massa.
      2) Driver mistakes: Alonso made more mistakes than Vettel did

  28. Vettel but Kimi is close second. Until the ******** that started happening after Korea he got good stable results and did some cracking drives like Australia, Bahrain, Germany and Singapore. Some fantastic overtakes too.

  29. I support Alonso, but I voted Vettel on this one. He just made no mistake. Impressive.

  30. Vettel wins best driver.

    Hulkenberg wins best effort.

    Grosjean wins most improved.

    1. this basically.

    2. Nicely summed up.

  31. Since I see Vettel winning this pole with ease (fair and square I should add). I’m going to vote for Rosberg since this season proves that he still is probably the most underrated driver in the sport (2 race wins, regular points, almost matched Hamilton in quali (who is seen as the best quali driver), had fair share of bad luck and not fair team “tactics”). And as far as I can see my vote gave him whole 1% of total votes which also confirms how underrated and unseen he is by f1 fans.

  32. Vettel, no doubt.

  33. @hristoitchov

    Where was Vettel in the first half of the season when his car couldn’t manage the tires?

    Apparently he was racing and finishing in the top 4!! I am not sure if you were sarcastic as @david-a mentioned or if you were frustrated with FIA but Vettel was able to manage his tyres better that most in the 1 half of the season as well. He never finished less than 4th, had three wins, 5 podiums, only retired from the lead in the British GP due to mechanical problems before the tyre changes. Compared to others, he already had a dominant car in the begining of the season. Its just that in the later part of the season, that fact became more obvious.

    1. This was reply to a comment by @hristoitchov which is now missing!

  34. I don’t know how anybody could not vote for Vettel. He was incredible this year. My only slight worry is that Red Bull is taking the same pragmatic approach as Ferrari did with Schumacher by not giving Vettel a team mate who can challenge him. It is a shame really.

  35. Vettel.

    Even with a car that wasn’t always the best at the beginning of the season he managed to built a comfortable lead before the summer break by finishing no lower than fourth.

    After the summer break he did what no driver has ever done before, 9 wins in a row.

    Impressive, most impressive.

  36. The Most easiest Choice of the year.
    Its Sebastian Vettel by a far margin the fight is always for Best of the rest and the Poll is nothing different to what happened this year

  37. FERNANDO ALONSO… although many of you don’t agree, I know !

    With that dog car + some luck, of course, he managed to finish 2nd again ! I find it pretty impressive.

    2nd vote, if I’m allowed, goes to Vettel. But no big news here: he was already a proven champ and had the best car on the grid. Enough said. The outcome was pretty obvious.

    1. Jelle van der Meer
      18th December 2013, 10:50

      Alonso had a good car, certainly at start of the year let’s not make it like Alonso finished 2nd in a Sauber or Force India. Needless to point out the multiple driver errors by Alonso in 2013 nor the fact that he often failed to out qualifying Massa.
      Luck is something Alonso never ever has to complaint about, he has been more fortunate in last years when it comes to reliability or misfortune of drivers ahead of him, not to mention a teammate forced to move over, take penalties and likely have inferior equipment.
      Add to that his poor behaviour in the media complaining/whining and not supporting his own team and all I can conclude that certainly compared to 2012 Alonso had a pretty mediocre year and certainly not to be called impressive.

      1. It is the typical ‘Alonso answer’, no? Dog car, please. If Chilton had the same amount of luck as Alonso had over the last three years he would have been on the podium.

  38. Voted for Vettel, but happy to see Alonso 2nd and Kimi/Hulk 3rd

  39. He’ll only get better, he is still very young. His fourth title means he now has earned a title in more than half of the seasons he entered. Equalling Schumachers record of most wins in a season and killing his wins in a row streak only shows what pace Red Bull and Sebastian had this year. I thought 2011 was the best we would ever see from the Austrian squad but was I wrong. It makes me think the best is yet to come.

  40. I vetoed err voted Sebastian Vettel!

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