F1 Fanatic

One thing struck me when looking at the cars numbered 1 to 9 this season:

1. Vettel
2. Webber
3. Button
4. Hamilton
5. Alonso
6. Massa
7. Schumacher
8. Rosberg
9. Raikkonen

I think these nine single-digit cars also the nine best drivers in F1 right now.

What do you think?

In the past, car numbers have only loosely correlated with driver talent. There is no better example of this that Hamilton and Button both winning the championship in car #22.

I know some people would say maybe Kovalainen is better than Massa. Or that perhaps di Resta or Perez should be up there. However, I think the top 9 is pretty much exactly the top 9 in terms of talent (although in no particular order).

I appreciate there are good arguments for changing the numbering system, perhaps to give drivers their own unique number (e.g. Rossi 46) or reserve specific pairs for each team (e.g. Ferrari 27/28).

However, under the present system, I think this is the best outcome we could hope for!

I know some people won’t find this level of detail interesting. But for the perfectionists out there this is a nice outcome.

No I don’t think so. Webber and Massa were really poor last season, guys like Kovalainen, Kobayashi, Perez and Di Resta were better than them last year, and they probably deserve their seats more too.

@Slr; I find it amazing how you say drivers like Kobayashi and Perez are better than Webber. Sure, he did not have a great season last year. Still he did alot of fastest-laps, and also some pole positions. And besides, when driver at the top, you gotta compeet with the top. He was racing Alonso while Perez was racing Senna. I believe Webber is WAY better and more consistant than most people outside the top10.

Schumacher has to have odd number, so if Rosberg was to be chmp and he stuck around, would he demand to be car 0 with Rosberg 1?

I wouldn’t include Massa. And for Schumacher, Webber and Rosberg I don’t know. I know Rosberg hasn’t had much chance so far, but he needs to do something special soon I think. Webber needs to stack up better against Vettel next year otherwise he certainly shouldn’t be included. And I just don’t know about Schumacher. But then I don’t know who would replace any of them at this point.

Career race wins of 1-9 drivers: 186
Career race wins of 10-25 drivers: 2

So theoretically, these drivers are the best in the field. I would agree with it as well, others are unproven at the highest level, or have failed to perform when in a good car such as Kovalainen. I wouldn’t say that anyone in the midfield was better than any of the Top 9 yet, although we’ll get an interesting old/new comparison at Lotus this year.

However, I think the top 9 is pretty much exactly the top 9 in terms of talent

Not really… maybe if Jaime Alguersuari would have taken the #2 and Rubens Barrichello would have gotten in there at the expense of Felipe Massa, then that assesment would probably be right.

I would say that cars 1 through to 8 have the best eight drivers at the moment. It’s impossible to judge whether or not Raikkonen is one of the nine best. He has, after all, spent the past two years rallying.