2016 F1 season driver rankings #23: Haryanto

2016 F1 season review

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The terms ‘pay driver’ conjures up memories of drivers like Giovanni Lavaggi and Jean-Denis Deletraz hopelessly peddling around at the tail of the field. While Rio Haryanto undoubtedly owed his place in F1 to Pertamina, he doesn’t deserve a place in the pantheon of hopeless F1 rent-a-racers.

Rio Haryanto

Beat team mate in qualifying4/11
Beat team mate in race0/8
Races finished9/12
Laps spent ahead of team mate96/583
Points0

In fact he earned credit for out-qualifying Manor team mate Pascal Wehrlein on a few occasions, and not just at tracks where he enjoyed the benefit of experience. He also survived the rigours of a wet race at Monaco – you don’t do that if you’re a complete no-hoper. Of the three times he failed to see the chequered flag only once was he to blame.

However there was nothing about Haryanto’s half-season which gave cause to regret his ejection from the grid after Germany. A pair of qualifying crashes gave Manor repair bills they did not need and on his final weekend in the car he committed the ultimate error of tangling with his own team mate.

He was no friend of the front runners either, earning the wrath off Daniel Ricciardo and Jenson Button in Spain for holding them up. Not being on Wehrlein’s pace in the races meant he saw more of the blue flags which cost him even more time.

By summer his funding had dried up and it wasn’t a difficult decision for Manor to put someone else in the car, particularly when the highly-rated Esteban Ocon was available.

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Over to you

Don’t think he’ll be coming back. Finished behind Wehrlein in every race (except one where Wehrlein didn’t finsh, so that doesn’t count). He had a go but didn’t make it, should find another series that he’s comfortable in.
@Hugh11

What’s your verdict on Rio Haryanto’s 2016 season? Which drivers do you feel he performed better or worse than? Have your say in the comments.

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View race-by-race notes on Rio Haryanto

Australia – Surprised many by pipping Wehrlein in qualifying but a penalty for tangling with Grosjean in the pits during practice meant he started last. He ran in front of the delayed Magnussen and Gutierrez’s struggling Haas to begin with but dropped out with a technical problem during the red flag period.

Bahrain – Disappointed to be the second driver out in Q1 having been satisfied with the MRT05’s handling in final practice. Saw the chequered flag for the first time this year, albeit well behind his team mate.

China – Wasn’t pleased with his qualifying run which was partly compromised by his team mate bringing the red flags out. He held off the struggling Palmer for 21st place after a trouble-free run.

Russia – Also had to play catch-up after losing time with a steering rack change on the first day. At turn one he was hit by Hulkenberg’s out-of-control Force India, forcing him out.

Spain – Disappointed to qualify last despite being content with the progress the team made with their upgrades. Manor are now quick enough that they can delay the leaders and Haryanto gave Ricciardo and Button headaches during the race.

Monaco – Used his Monaco experience to beat Wehrlein in qualifying but after an early switch to intermediates it took him a while to start lapping quicker than his team mate who stayed on wets. Wehrlein generally showed better pace in the race but Haryanto stayed out of trouble.

Canada – Much more ragged than his team mate during qualifying and eventually crashed at turn four. In the race he finished almost three-quarters of a minute behind but a slow pit stop and endless blue flags explained part of the deficit.

Europe – Seemed to click with the circuit quickly and did a solid and clean job in qualifying to line up ahead of Wehrlein. However he hit Gutierrez at the start and had to pit for a new wing. His only chance of a competitive finish was to run to the finish on softs, which he did, though inevitably he struggled for pace.

Austria – Couldn’t hide the fact he’d left quite a bit of performance in the car following his team mate’s Q1 heroics, and to make matters worse he was penalised for speeding through a yellow flag zone. An electrical problem didn’t help matters in the race, but even so the gulf in performance between him and Wehrlein was stark.

Britain – This was a track Manor expected to struggle at and Haryanto was disappointed they only had the Saubers behind them. He made it further into the race than his team mate but spun out after switching to slicks.

Hungary – Crashed in Q1 and toiled fruitlessly on a one-stop strategy in the race.

Germany – On a weekend when Haryanto was fortunate to be in the car given his financial situation, hitting his team mate wasn’t a prudent move, though the damage was slight. It hasn’t been particularly close between Manor and Sauber in qualifying and Haryanto easily beat both of the blue cars. But in the race he slipped behind both and finished almost 50 seconds behind Wehrlein.

The F1 Fanatic Driver Rankings will include all 23 drivers who started at least five races in 2016

2016 F1 season review

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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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32 comments on “2016 F1 season driver rankings #23: Haryanto”

  1. He certainly isn’t the worst driver we have seen in the last few years, but sadly he has arrived at a time when the grid is unusually competitive.
    He brought a lot of interest from Indonesia which may have been good for the sport but without backing, I don’t see him coming back.

    1. Sadly for him that is, right @f120-20? We as fans can be happy with the quality the gird has currently.

      I agree that he might have stayed on longer with a lower quality (or larger) field. But that is not a bad thing for the sport.

      He did do better than I feared he would, but not enough to earn it on merit alone.

  2. I felt he was better than Ocon

    1. That´s funny

    2. That’s a high praised. I’m a Haryanto fans, whist I firmly believe Rio are better than Palmer, I don’t think he was better than Ocon.

  3. petebaldwin (@)
    6th December 2016, 11:19

    I think it’s fair enough to have him 23rd. Generally, I don’t like Manor drivers always being right at the back of the rankings and Mercedes drivers always being right at the front because it paints a false picture – putting in a 10/10 performance in a Manor will still result in you finishing a lap behind a Mercedes drivers putting in a 3/10 performance. Personally I wouldn’t put Rosberg or Hamilton in my top 5 but as they drive the fastest car, I imagine they will both be right up there.

    Haryanto got the job because of where he is from. He’s not the first driver to have benefitted from his nationality and he won’t be the last but sadly, he just isn’t good enough for F1. The same can arguably be said for Manor so I suppose it works for both parties – Haryanto gets to play at being an F1 driver and Manor get more money to try and become competitive with the tail end of the field.

    1. I understand what you’re saying but it is hardly advantageous to be from indonesia to enter F1.

      More interesting for me is that he seemed slow but solid, and every cucumber has been slow but solid since the v10 was ditched… Remember when the paydrivers used to crash all the time…. I think the cars maybe easy to handle within 107% nowadays.

    2. Michael Brown (@)
      6th December 2016, 12:15

      I think it was midway through last year that Rosberg was rated #14, because he was finishing around 30 seconds behind Hamilton in the same car

  4. Hard to disagree with the #23 rank for Rio. He was pretty poor all season. The only highlights were the times he outqualified Pacal. I think he was significantly quicker than Pascal at Monte Carlo quali, which shows that Rio wasn’t all that skill-less as the scorecard made it out to be.

    1. But then he got destroyed by pascal in the race. he had more of a one lap pace than racepace

  5. WheeledWarrior
    6th December 2016, 11:34

    There were 24 drivers who competed this year, weren’t there?

    Or did I just miss #24?

    1. Pretty sure that Vandoorne is omitted from the rankings as he did only one race.

  6. I recall when Haryanto was linked first linked to the Manor seat one of the comments (from an Indonesian F1Fanatic) was that he isn’t the best Indonesian driver but is well connected.
    I’d like to see better progression of good drivers from non-European and non-American countries. F1 may race across the world but it’s still basically a European-dominated sport, which I perceive as a significant weakness. We need a couple of good Chinese drivers, for example. A good Indian driver would help, too. Most of the world’s population has no default “local” driver to support.

    1. Rio still are the best driver from Indonesia. Sean Gelael had nothing but having more tv paid coverage from his father franchise company, KFC.

      1. Philo Paz Armand is alot more worse, last every race and last in champ standings also the only one who hasnt scored points

    2. Good point about the hurdles a non european driver has to overcome to get even close to the grid @tribalwalker.

  7. ColdFly F1 (@)
    6th December 2016, 11:36

    However there was nothing about Haryanto’s half-season which gave cause to regret his ejection from the grid

    I believe he won the first F1 DOTD poll (after which F1 deleted the result)

    1. that was funny

  8. Did the best he could and definitely a step up from Chilton, Stephens etc.

  9. I felt he never should have been in f1 from the start, and haryantos fans was something truly awful.

    When nasr fans complained and shouted sabotage, Rios fans wanted drivers dead and sabotage was something they shouted after the first race.

  10. @keithcollantine Yes! Thanks for that much awaited article series! As always great to read!

  11. Paul Ortenburg
    6th December 2016, 12:39

    I thought he was better than the likes of Palmer, who would be fighting with Kvyat for the No 23 spot.

  12. Very sadness for Rio in everything. He has actually good talent for F1, but the engine of manor didn’t support him, the financial also and the Indonesia government is not serious to support him.
    As I saw the full race in 2016 manor engine was not constantly in speed, after few laps the speed was down aspecially at the curve. I hope Rio still have good opportunity in F1.

    1. Manor got the best engine on the grid so i dont know what world you live in.

  13. The biggest weakness of him is adaptability of circumstances. He was competitive at times, but not really consistent. Best of luck to his career, just glad he had a go and take his chances. Still our best driver in Indonesia – maybe in Asia too.

  14. He just seat in wrong team and worst car.

    1. But Pascal and Ocon did amazing things in the worst car of the grid, pascal scored and Ocon drove Verstappen lines at brazil in a car with much worse downforce. And you can shine in a bad car to, Ricciardo started in a HRT, Alonso in Minardo etc. And his money was not enough for a better seat. Rio was fast over one lap and thats it. Not F1 material at all.

  15. i think Haryanto’s pace against Werlein made Werlein look bad, especially at tracks like Monaco. In a better team Haryanto’s performances would have been similar to the Renault drivers and would be a genuine midfield driver.

    1. But he did not end +4 laps in monaco did he?

      1. He lost a minute while respecting blue flags

  16. Rio struggled in.the races because of the blue flags..

  17. Rio Haryanto wasn’t at all terrible: he stepped up from GP2 where the standard of late has been uniformly high. The question to me is how would he have fared with Rosberg or Hamilton alongside him in the other car? Because Wehrlein didn’t comprehensively paste Haryanto and we’re (or rather Toto & Niki are) faced with the prospect of Wehrlein alongside Hamilton next season. I am not convinced.

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