F1 Fanatic

I’ll be doing the drivers’ half-term rankings after the European Grand Prix, which is round nine of 19.

How do you rate the performance of the drivers so far? Have your say below and I’ll use some of your quotes in the finished article.

In the links below you can compare all the drivers with their team mates so far this year:

Jenson Button form guide
Lewis Hamilton form guide
Michael Schumacher form guide
Nico Rosberg form guide
Sebastian Vettel form guide
Mark Webber form guide
Felipe Massa form guide
Fernando Alonso form guide
Rubens Barrichello form guide
Nico Hülkenberg form guide
Robert Kubica form guide
Vitaly Petrov forum guide
Adrian Sutil form guide
Vitantonio Liuzzi form guide
Sebastien Buemi form guide
Jaime Alguersuari form guide
Jarno Trulli form guide
Heikki Kovalainen form guide
Karun Chandhok form guide
Bruno Senna form guide
Pedro de la Rosa form guide
Kamui Kobayashi form guide
Timo Glock form guide
Lucas di Grassi form guide

@Ned

Awwww don’t blame poor Buemi for his poor season! He’s been taken out most times by someone else when it’s not been his fault at all :( such a shame.

Also, why hasn’t Jaime gone up in your estimations? :-P

I agree with you about the Hulk, I expected a lot from him, probably too much really considering he’s a rookie. Hopefully once he gets used to the car and being in F1 he might improve :)

Kubica would be my driver of the year so far too.

The obvious ones first

+ Kubica: agree with Ned mostly, massivley impressive, though the cars a definate contender, by which I mean, when it’s not in Q3, someones doing it wrong. Still he is driving out of his skin, an outperforming the car. Would certainly put him in F1 top 3 drivers.

+ Hamilton: Now it’s know I’m a fan, but the reason I’ve put him here is the consitency has come back in my opinion. In his rookie season what was most impressive to me was the 9 consecutive podiums. By the time he was winning he was already championship leader, an if you award him podiums lost by his team (at least third in Aus and second in Spain) you can see he is consitently the best championship contender, in what was often the third fastest car.

+ Button: Again in my supported team but, he’s single handedly proving the worth of the refueling ban, the thinking driver is finally back. With a mind like Buttons championships can again be won through tactics. The best cerebral driver on track is finally back in an era that suits his style. An it’s working out rather well, more than that he’s getting faster an faster in the McLaren.

+ Kamui Kobayashi. WAIT here me out. Two Q3′s some awful luck, an matching his way more experianced teamate. Kamui seems to be every bit the driver he was last year, an I hope he can remain in the sport. The critiscm he gets is deeply unfair, an dismissivley ignorant. Outperforming car and teamate if you ask me.

-/+ Vitaly Petrov: not sold. I realise there’s no testing, I realise he’s a rookie. But he has not get anywhere near enough points finishes for the car he’s driving. It’s a regular visiter to Q3 he should be scoring more points. Too much of a prang magnet to be driving that car.

- Luizzi, again agree, time he went really, especially as they’ve got Di Resta in the wings. He’s distressingly slower than his teamate, in modern F1 1 second is too much of a gap, especially with tech on his car not on his teamate.

- Massa: I feel that once a tyre problem has been spoted, a driver of his calibure should be able to get round it, especially as it’s not apparent in his teamates car. Negatived because he’s clearly way off the standard he was at after his title charge in 2008 and at the begining of 09.

- Truli: His hearts clearly not in it. He vears from giving disconsolate interveiws to making ridiculous racing mooves. Monaco the clear nadir, it wasn’t Rasscasse that got me it was the rolling over for Alonso that irritaited me the most. Best qualifier on the grid is being outqualified, panic.

I think there is quite a consensus between most of us for a lot of drivers.

I will start with the negatives, for a change:

- Hülkenberg: up to now he has not shown great qualifying, no excellent rain skills nor amazing passes. Instead mediocre qualifying and racing as well as a lot of damage. The car does not give much opportunities, but he is clearly on the backfoot next to Baricello.

- Buemi: OK mostly it was not his mistake that took him out, but as with Sutil in the past, he was there and was not able to avoid them.

- Baricello: Nobody expected him to win, nor be a regular points scorer with the car he has. But he did not show a very cool head in Monaco with the steering wheel and these clutch problems always kick in when he is feeling on the wrong foot. He is a great developer and his setup should be good, but we haven’t seen much of that.

- Liuzzi: I did not expect him to be a revalation, maybe his best time has passed already unused! He is way to far behind Sutil for a pretty experienced driver. The team will give him another few races, but only him picking up some points in the first races gives him some credit.

- Pedro de la Rosa: Hard to tell, maybe the Sauber is really a badly handling car, but Pedro has proven that he is not the best of racers with crashes when the car was not falling apart.

- Trulli: Regularly outqualified by his team mate and making stupid moves on track (had me change view of the Sutil crash last year). He had a lot of technical gremlins, but from his behaviour he looks like he lost hope of improving the package.

+/- Petrov: I did not expect much from him, but so far he is managing better than expected. His racing craft is pretty nice, as shown several times on track and he is not miles away from Kubica. On the other hand he is the rookie with the best car to drive and does make mistakes.

+/- Kobayashi: he is quick and a good racer, but does make rookie mistakes sometimes. Still i tend to go to a more positive here as he is showing promise and developing.

+/- Schumacher: Sure, he was 3 years away from competative driving and the Mercedes was not much suited to his driving style. But for a 3 times champ coming back to the titel winning outfit that can hardly be enough. Clearly Schumi took a long time to get back into it and only picking up now. His improvement over the last 2 races and his cheeky move in Monaco show there is still a lot in his driving, so all hope is not lost

+/- Massa: He is showing that he did not lose it after his crash last year, and he is pretty close to Alonso at times, although his reliably picking up points is good for Ferrari at this point, it can hardly be what he expected of it.

+/- Alonso: A lot of respect for him admitting to going on to learn from 2007 as well as some brilliant driving and solid team effort, blocking for Massa in Australia. But he is making a lot of mistakes from being under pressure to make it WDC in the first year with a not up to spec car. I do like his driving, but he needs some good results and weekend without mistakes.

+/- Rosberg: he looks like making it into a race winner. His driving has often been very impressive this year without the mistakes often made at Williams. But he is losing momentum after Schumacher got the new chassis and the car was updated and has to get it back quickly

+/- Vettel: He has been amazingly quick in qualifying and still has the gift to get a lap out of nowhere. But those mechanical defects and driver errors show his weaknesses and Mark being a real competitor is getting at him. Boo for his behaviour after Turkey.

+/- Glock: at times he was quick this year, but not impressive. The car was part of that, so i will give him a chance to show something. His move on Schumacher in Australia shows there is a racer in there.

+/- Lucas Di Grassi: a nice guy, but his car has not really enabled him to show anything so far.

+/- Bruno Senna: the name brings huge expectation with it. So far he has not made any rookie mistakes, but that is about all to be said as driving the HRT car around out there is at least as hard as it was at Minardy before they had power sterring and a quick shift gearbox.

+/- Chandhok: So far he is doing pretty good, when taking in account he got into an F1 car first time in qualifying at Bahrain. When the car does not break or hit by a flying Trulli, he has a knack for getting the car pretty far in the races, so he might be the first of the new team guys getting a (very) lucky point, and he seems a really nice guy. But nothing special so far.

+ Hamilton: he is relying on the team too much for now and seems a little bit taken aback by not clearly beating Button. But he is getting into it the last 3 races and his move to take back position in Turkey was very nice. So thumbs up for him so far and let’s hope he goes on overtaking like in Melbourne or China.

+ Alguersuari: this guy actually looks like he might get close to Vettel in the future. He probably does not have the outright pace, but seems to have good race craft to compensate and makes an exiting driver to follow. Only mistakes were in Spain where he should not have cut into Chandhok.

+ Heikki Kovalainen: he is making up for the disapointments at McLaren now. If any of the new teams can battle for Q2 or points on track without an enormous dose of attrition and luck i expect it to be him. Great fighting spirit and clearly enjoying the ride!

+ Button: Yes, i also expected Lewis to beat him, at least in the first races. He has shown that being Champ has given him the self confidence to grow as a driver and good calls at the right time have brought him the rewards. This guy is really among the greats and has a fair shot at making it back to back titles.

+ Kubica: He has shown what he can do with a reasonable car and the team behind it to improve the car. If he goes on like this a race win might be in it this year, and a championship challenge maybe next year.

+ Webber: what would he have done last year, without the accident in the winter? He might have been championship leader a year ago. Now keep up the momentum, show that Dr. Marko to keep his mouth shut and Seb to learn overtaking before having a try at you.

I should point out with my comment that the drivers I mentioned aren’t necessarily the best/ worst of the season so far, they’re just drivers I chose to mention

My top 3 (not enough time to do them all :P)

1.- Mark Webber: like it or not, he has raised his game more than anyone else on the grid. His back to back wins were utterly dominant and he has scored 4 poles, 1 more than his highly-rated team mate. The Istambul problem happened for a reason. Had Webber not improved his pace, Vettel (and Webber) would’ve completed the move without much carbon fiber wasted. But because Mark was dominating his team mate for the 3rd race in a row despite what we all thought (Mark playing 2nd driver), the Seb felt the pressure on him and went for it. And remember it’s just a year and a half since he suffered that horrible accident. He’s very strong. And he’s proving to be a great contender.

2.- Jenson Button: another driver the majority of us got wrong last year. “Hamilton will kill him completely”. Not a chance! Not only he won 2 races already (showing great skills strategy-wise), he has matched Lewis speed at qualy more often than we initially thought. Remember he’s still proving himself because of the amount of people saying his title was just a matter of luck, being in the right place at the right time. A strong championship so far for him.

3.- Robert Kubica: surprisingly quickly with an underrated Renault. Quickly giving the original main contenders something to worry about. His performance at Monaco could’ve been a lot more impressive, but the Red Bulls got in the way. He needed a good year after the BMW F1.09 debacle. And he’s doing brilliantly.

And some more.

+ Heikki Kovalainen I’ll join the love in on Heikki. Best new team driver by far, as well as matching the undisputed quali specialist on pace’ he’s also managing to do what he never could in Mclaren during races. Hold position, an moove forward.

+ Timo Glock The only other impressive new team driver is takling the fight to the now quicker Lotuses in fighting fashion. Can’t help but think either Renault or Lotus will want his services next year.

+ Mark Webber: Fantastic resurgence since Spain has made a title contender out of that special brand of championship car also ran. In Turkey Vettle seemed to reassert himself in qualifying but Webbers driving has forced us all to take him very seriously this season.

+ Rubens Barrichello seems to be in good form, dragging that car up further than it should be. Has bonded incredbily well with his team. His rookie teamate has failed to impress but he’s giving him the wash down neccassary to hold reputation.

+ Adrian Sutil after question marks over his future in F1 Sutil has thouroughly silenced all doubters by his efficient crushing of Liuzzi. The speeds still there, possibly greater than before, buthe’s finally brought the consistancy. Along with the nouse and the luck to stay out of trouble.

+/-Michael Schumacher: He’s been getting better every race, an I never thought China was anything more than a blip. It just seems like he doesn’t have the hunger, he’s one of the greatest ever but he hasn’t outperformed his car. Schumacher should be capable of outdriving his machinery an he’s only been more and more competant this season. A highly polished driver but he’s probably not driving on instinct any longer.

+/-Nico Rosberg Good start to the season and he’s had some bad luck since Spain, buthe does seem to have petered out a little bit. Possibly the new car really is built for Schumacher but he’s now started to loose the most important battle, an Schueys becoming the lead driver at the team

-/+Sebastian Vettel Now obviously he’s looked fantastically dominant in the fly aways, loosing a huge number of points to bad luck. But it’s never been there since Spain. More bad luck stripped him of pole in Turkey, but I’d say it was right that he cracked under preassure making a needlesly agressive moove on Webber. His star has only sank since Spain.

-/+ Fernando Alonso The drive in Malaysia was very special, an there have been flashed of brilliance. But Alonso is a double world champion at what should be the very height of his powers. The age is at is often when a driver is at their very fastest they’ll ever be, he should not be making so many mistakes. His comeback drives are special, but he shouldn’t be making them so often.

+/- Sebastien Buemi. Fairly invisible this season. Last years rookie of the year is being out driven by his team mate during races, he’s had some absolutley rotten luck as well though, on the other hand, he has been out qualified once.

+/- Jaime Alguersuari. Went from invisible, to impressive, to overagressive in record quick time. I’m still not convinced he’s actually got the speed to be a true contender, his rce pace is better but the form guide shows you quite how big a deficit he’s got to his teamate in qualifiying. It is comming down though.

- Nico Hülkenberg I don’t know if it’s the car or the change. But the man he beat in GP2 isn’t looking half as messy. He’ll stay in F1 for a while and he’s clearly a hugley exciting prospect but this is not a good debut. If he drives like this next year, in the Williams drive his probably sure to get, the bubble will be burst and he’ll be out.

Mark Webber: Has looked strong throughout the first 7 races, with few errors in the beginning. Surely one of the strongest in the title race.

Jenson Button: I hadn’t thought of him as one of the top drivers even after he had won two races this year, but in Turkey he showed he was on Lewis’ pace and if he can keep racing like this he’ll convince me he’s a top driver.

Jaime Alguersuari: Still looks a bit slower than Buemi, but he is very consistent and keeps improving.

Nico Hülkenberg: Everyone expected too much from him, despite the GP2 title he is still a rookie and Barrichello isn’t an easy teammate. He’s getting experience and that’s very important.

Robert Kubica: Flawless the whole season, the only mistake was the spin after contact with Sutil in Bahrain, which cost him 9th place. It seems like he’ll stay at Renault and will be fighting for the championship next year.

Vitaly Petrov: Hasn’t shown anything special, but he keeps improving and learning and he’s getting experienced – just like Sebastien Buemi last year.