F1 Fanatic

For some reason I do not believe #1 will go to anyone other than one driver – and IMO deservedly so.

1. Fernando Alonso – other than an ill-fated attempt on overtaking on the marbles in China, has been flawless and demonicly opportunistic the whole year. Started to wane a little towards the end of the year, but can’t say I blame him. It must be mentally taxing to be on the ball the entire way.

2. Sebastian Vettel – His consistency, in my view, has been underrated. Other than P6 in Spain and Brazil, as well as two P5s in Germany and Shanghai, one of which was due to a post-race penalty, he has always finished in the Top 4. His only non-scores have been due to a collision with Karthikeyan, and 2 alternator failures. Significantly, before each incident causing non-scores, he has also been in the running for the top 5. Mark was only ever more competitive in China, Monaco and Silverstone. Impressive, to make someone as quick as Mark Webber look so slow at times.

3. Lewis Hamilton – His year is an extremely unfortunate one – in a way that reminds me of Raikkonen’s 2005, and Vettel’s 2010. Always out in front, but always breaking down. Was always there and drove beautifully, on par with Vettel, generally getting the maximum from the car except for a few situations.

4. Kimi Raikkonen – A stunning comeback, and arguably one of the best the sport has ever seen, especially considering he had to contend with new tyres. Hasn’t quite been his old self in qualifying, but has been absolutely on it in the races. To finish all bar one of the racing laps all year – truly stunning. The reason I still put him down here, is that he has, in my view, had some near misses which I think would have been won if it was the old Kimi driving.

5. Jenson Button – Has had a typical Jenson Button year. On fire when the car’s right, and lacklustre when the car hasn’t been there. A mid-season patch that is, frankly speaking, quite embarrassing for a world champion.

6. Nico Hulkenberg – Has shown real class and talent in a car that is arguably bottom of the midfield but one (Toro Rosso). Stunning in the wet. Showed a real explosion in form after he got used to the Pirelli tyres, including a fantastic almost-victory in Brazil, as well as a run of points from Suzuka to the US. His drive in Korea, fending off Grosjean for 40 odd laps and pouncing on Grosjean and Hamilton slowing each other down, was worthy of Fernando Alonso.

7. Mark Webber – In somewhat typical fashion, has shone at tracks he likes, and been lacklustre at tracks he doesn’t like. Outperformed by his teammate by a total of 102 points, and only really convincingly put one over on Sebastian in Silverstone, Monaco and China.

8. Michael Schumacher – a stunning pole in Monaco showed that the old man still has what it takes, and to be frank, had it not been for terrible reliability, would have had the beating of Nico Rosberg. Has made his highly-rated teammate look like a rookie whenever the heavens opened.

9. Romain Grosjean – Supremely quick, supremely talented. But he has to work on his spatial awareness when there are more than one car around.

10. Pastor Maldonado – His speed was put beyond doubt throughout the whole year, but has to work on lifting that red mist that is stopping him from reaching his true potential. Contact with Perez in Monaco smacked desperately of Spa 2011 with Hamilton, and were it not for on track recklessness would have had several more podiums. To his credit, cleaned up his act towards the end of the year, with highlights in Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

11. Felipe Massa – an extremely good run of form at the end of the season might prove to tell that the 2008 Felipe Massa is back. But lacklustre results before that which were really not fitting of a Ferrari driver.

12. Kamui Kobayashi – Has outdone highly rated teammate Sergio Perez in qualifying all season, and has been the only Sauber driver to achieve a podium on pace and not by a good strategy gamble. Undoubtedly would have been in the fight for another podium had he not been taken out at the start at Spa.

13. Nico Rosberg – Except for his maiden victory in Shanghai – really an anonymous season of being outperformed by the old master. Has looked mighty ordinary whenever the rain has come down.

14. Jean-Eric Vergne – Sadly couldn’t capitalise on a good Monaco showing. Has been lacklustre in qualifying all year, but has shown good race craft and pace.

15. Paul Di Resta – duly outdone by his teammate, except for two good showings in Bahrain and Singapore. I still find him to be a bit of a “Jenson Button” or “Sergio Perez” – his best showings have not come about through pace and race craft, but have come about through clever race management. Only in Singapore was that mould shattered. Looked ordinary otherwise.

16. Bruno Senna – really disappointing. Even with Pastor spending half of the races walking in the pit garage, has only two-thirds of his teammate’s points haul. Low point of the season undoubtedly is a Q1 exit when his teammate qualified P2 and was promoted to pole.

17. Sergio Perez – for someone so highly rated, I’m quite disappointed. Except for Malaysia, his podiums have all come from lucky strategy gambles. Generally outpaced by Kobayashi, who is not known for raw pace.

18. Daniel Ricciardo – has shown better qualifying pace than his teammate, but really hasn’t stood out either. His defence of Michael Schumacher perhaps is a possible highlight, and his good qualifying of P6 in Bahrain. Really is so low not due to his own doing – but because the field is so strong nowadays.

19. Glock – a fantastic performance which, in normal conditions and a non-attrition race, nabbed hi P12. Underrated little driver, this.

20. Kovalainen – Great drives again all year, though somewhat waned towards the end of the season.

21. Pic – best rookie Marussia has hired so far.

22. Petrov – towards the end of the year has had a better showing than Heikki, and considering the way Heikki has been performing these last two years, that’s saying something.

23. de la Rosa

24. Karthikeyan

1. Alonso – Has been strong all year and was very unfortunate to not win the title
2. Hamilton – Similar to Alonso, generally strong all year
3. Vettel – A great year again, although slightly underwhelming in the first half of the year
4. Raikkonen – A great comeback year
5. Hulkenberg – Slow start, but was fantastic from Valencia onwards
6. Webber – Solid in the first half, but went back to 2011 form in the second half
7. Schumacher – Was great up to Monza, he was disappointing in the Asian rounds, but had a solid final race
8. Button – Disappointing considering how well he did in 2011. Some great performance, but also had some absolute stinkers
9. Grosjean – A season of two halves – Great in the first half, very disappointing in the second half
10. Perez – Some very strong drives, some very poor drives and disappointing after Singapore
11. Kobayashi – Similar to Perez, although Perez seemed to get more out of the car a few times
12. Rosberg – Disappointing season, some strong performances, but didn’t live up to expectations
13. Massa – Back on form in the second half, but was nowhere compared to Alonso in the first half
14. Maldonado – Threw away too many points from needless incidents, but was strong in the final races
15. Di Resta – Decent season up until Japan where he dropped of the radar afterwards
16. Glock – Hard to rate, but he did the job he was expected to do once again
17. Ricciardo – Not bad, but I didn’t really see what was so good about him
18. Pic – Performed admirably compared to Glock
19. Kovalainen – Good once again, but Petrov got the better of him during the final races
20. Petrov – Looked decent in the final rounds, nothing spectacular before then though
21. de la Rosa – Generally solid all season
22. Senna – Got many points finishes, but had a few silly incidents and didn’t get much out of the car
23. Vergne – Not a great season, I don’t how he’s any better than Buemi and Alguersuari
24. Karthikeyan – Slowest all year
25. D’Ambrosio – Not great at Monza

24 – Narain Karthikeyan
Generally unremarkable, Karthikeyan was consistently beaten by de la Rosa in races where both of them finished.

23 – Pedro de la Rosa
Although de la Rosa has been generally solid, and has generally outpaced Karthikeyan, he’s been nearly invisible as well.

22 – Vitaly Petrov
Petrov has been very anonymous in the Caterham, and has been roughly equal to Kovalainen in terms of results – behind in qualifying, ahead in races.

21 – Jean Eric Vergne
Vergne’s qualifying form is rather poor. Although the car isn’t anything to shout about, that he’s frequently dropped in Q1 says about as much regarding one-lap speed. At least he’s partly made up for it with some good race pace.

20 – Heikki Kovalainen
Drawing generally even with his teammate in terms of combined qualifying and race pace, Kovalainen has the edge for some gritty drives, like in Monaco.

19 – Charles Pic
Rookie Pic has been quite the match for his vastly more experienced teammate, suitably impressive for a first season.

18 – Timo Glock
Experienced and dependable Glock has gotten the most out of the Marussia car, and from his duel with Pic at Spa, he still has that racing spirit.

17 – Daniel Ricciardo
Both Toro Rosso drivers have been generally unimpressive all year, but Ricciardo has been the better of the two, consistently ahead in qualifying and races.

16 – Bruno Senna
Senna made a number of errors, like his spin in qualifying for Spain, and was generally outpaced and mediocre for the greater part of the season.

15 – Pastor Maldonado
Maldonado earned his all-important breakthrough win, but failed to capitalize on the car’s potential with a string of controversial incidents and endless penalties.

14 – Kamui Kobayashi
Aside from his podium in Japan, and a general uptick in form to the end of the season, Kobayashi has been relatively average all year.

13 – Paul di Resta
There were some flashes of brilliance from di Resta this season, including his career best 4th place in Singapore, but he’s been generally overshadowed by his teammate.

12 – Sergio Perez
While his performances have been decidedly lackluster since the announcement of his McLaren contract, Perez’s podiums still stand as showcases of his potential, more so given how he was able to chase down Alonso in Malaysia.

11 – Nico Rosberg
Rosberg’s maiden win was definitely a demonstration of his outright ability, which has unfortunately gone unfulfilled due to the late-season lack of pace and competitiveness of the Mercedes W03.

10 – Felipe Massa
While Massa may have been woefully off the pace at the beginning of the year, he’s made good since, finding some semblance of his former self toward the season’s end. Through races like Brazil, he’s cemented his role as a solid number two driver.

9 – Romain Grosjean
Grosjean has done well, showing impressive speed and race pace, especially in Bahrain and Britain, but he could have attained better results had he not been so over-eager and incident-prone.

8 – Michael Schumacher
He’s been hampered by reliability problems, disappointed by a dog of a car, and on occasion made the avoidable mistake, but Schumacher has shown some return to his previous self with his “pole” in Monaco, and other sound performances.

7 – Nico Hulkenberg
Hulkenberg has done very well, outperforming the relatively capable di Resta, and scoring some solid points finishes throughout the year. His race in Korea, and his brief stint leading the Brazilian GP, show that he does have front-running potential.

6 – Jenson Button
Contrary to his reputation, Button has been anything but consistent, especially with his mysterious mid-season slump. Still, his quality drives to the podium, like Belgium and Brazil, show that he retains some good form.

5 – Mark Webber
Webber was the faster Red Bull driver in the early stages of the season, at times looking in championship contention, but this drive seemed to evaporate in the second half of the year with some poor showings, especially in Abu Dhabi.

4 – Kimi Raikkonen
Raikkonen’s comeback has been a modest success. Even after his sabbatical, he’s managed to acclimatize to F1 in 2012, pull off an outstanding performance in Bahrain, earn the pivotal comeback win in Abu Dhabi, and secure 3rd in the championship standings.

3 – Sebastian Vettel
Far from the dominance of last year, Vettel’s championship campaign has been gritty, or at times ragged, but his imperious performances (such as over the four race stretch from Singapore to India), and his recoveries in Abu Dhabi and Brazil, prove that he is indeed a deserving triple world champion.

2 – Lewis Hamilton
Let down by mechanical and operational errors more often than not, Hamilton has moved past his error-prone 2011 form, and produced no shortage of consistent, mature and measured performances. That he has the most pole positions of any driver this year is a testament to his sheer pace.

1 – Fernando Alonso
Alonso was able to extract the most out of the equipment he was given, and turned his unfavoured Ferrari into a viable vehicle for his world championship campaign, losing only by the slimmest of margins. His storming performances in Malaysia, Valencia and Germany, as well as his frequent charges to the podium, leave little doubt in my mind that he is the driver of the year.

1. Alonso – his best year ever, considering the limitations of the car
2. Vettel – another very strong year, the end result speaks for itself
3. Raikkonen – drove as well as he used to, very strong, great personality for F1
4. Hamilton – reliability problems held him back
5. Button – Mr consistency
etc…

1)Alonso-Been amazing all year just a pity his car wasn’t.
2)Hamilton-He’s had the pace most of the year but the car has just been unreliable.
3)Vettel-He’s been his 2011 self when he dominated Japan, Korea and India. I wouldn’t say he’s the best though because his car has been the best out of all of them.
4)Raikkonen-It’s great to see him in F1 again. I expected a bit more and a lot of people overrate his win Abu Dhabi. He inherited the win from Hamilton but he did keep the pace throughout and he is the only driver to not retire from a race.
5)Button-I’m not sure what to say about Button. He’s been good, I mean if he wasn’t he wouldn’t have won three races. But he had a lot of problems early on whether it was him or the car I don’t know.
6)Massa-Part of me feels he shouldn’t be this high up because of his early season performance but the last few races showed what he can really do. I hope the old Massa returns.
7)Grosjean-Granted he did cause the pile up in Spa and he’s been in quite a few collisions but he’s qualified better than Raikkonen and he’s challenged the big boys on more than one occasion.
8)Hulkenburg-His performance in Brazil prior to colliding with Hamilton is enough to put him here and his performance has been good all round. I can a new Vettel forming in him.
9)Kobayashi-He’s scored on more occasions than Perez did which I think is more important than the number of podiums. I hope he gets a race seat next year. He deserves it more than Perez.
10)Perez-Perez did score more points than Kobayashi but that was from three podiums. He only scored on four other occasions that were 6th or below. Kobayashi on the other hand got one podium but he scored on 8 other occasions that were 4th or below.
11)Rosberg-For a driver that has won a GP he is rather far down on this list but the Mercedes hasn’t helped. He probably could have been better but with a car that worked so well and then did so poorly it’s hard to tell whether he would have won another race. I like to think he could have done.
12)Webber-I have nothing to say with him. He hasn’t dazzled me nor has he made me think he shouldn’t be on the grid even if he has won two races that was the car not him.
13)Di Resta-Compared to Hulkenburg he hasn’t done very well and you would think after two years with the team he would be better than the new kid. Saying that I can see the next Hamilton in there it’s just going to take longer to come out than Hulkenburg.
14)Senna-His qualifying has been poor but I think that is down to losing out on practice sessions to Bottas. His driving has been better and I haven’t seen any bad blood from other drivers about him. Compared to Maldonado I think he deserved a race seat more.
15)Schumacher-A disappointing end to his career. The Mercedes didn’t help matters but his driving hasn’t been what we all loved years ago.
16)Maldonado-Maniac, well in the first half anyway. Second half, better but not enough to win me over.
17)Vergne-For a first season in a car that hasn’t been very good he’s done well. Could do better but that is the car more than anything I think.
18)Ricciardo-I expected more from a driver that has already done half a season. It doesn’t matter if the car was terrible he still had the experience.
19)Kovalainen-Solid drives from him all year and at one point I thought he could grab a point for the team. I can see him not being on the grid next year though but he has the experience that Petrov or Senna don’t have.
20)Glock-Being able to make a car get into 12 place without the use of Kers deserves some merit. He needs a better car.
21)Petrov-Even though he did get 11th in Brazil for Caterham his performance has been poor compared to Kovalainen.
22)Pic-He has certainly surprised me this year but he isn’t ready for F1.
23)De la Rosa-I wish I could say more about him but the car prevents me from doing so.
24)Karthikeyan-Do I really need to say it?

1. Alonso – Maximised car that wasn’t regularly as quick as the Red Bulls and the McLaren. Arguably only made two mistakes all season long, consistently finishing on the podium even when it looked like he wouldn’t be able to.

2. Hamilton – Perhaps tied with Alonso for first and was greatly let down by poor reliability and pit stops despite driving impressively all season long, making few errors. Massive improvement over 2011 horrorshow.

3. Vettel – Did the maximum with the car he was given and was let down by poor reliability on numerous occasions. A few scrappy moments but dispelled the rumours of his lack of overtaking ability with some great comeback drives.

4. Raikkonen – An excellent comeback to the sport and pretty much picked up where left off. Consistent all year long though perhaps could’ve won another race considering the car certainly had the potential to.

5. Hulkenberg – Did extremely well considering he’d had a season out. Showed good potential all season long and extracted the maximum out of the car given to him.

6. Button – Bar the win in Australia, he never really looked like a title contender due to struggles with the car. Did regain his form after the summer break and produced some very strong drives.

7. Kobayashi – Highly intelligent overtaker and showed he could deal with high pressure situations and mix it up with the big boys. Was only just beaten by Perez and deserves to still be in the sport.

8. Schumacher – Definably the best season of his comeback. Was regularly fighting for poles and podiums in the first few races but was let down by major reliability problems. Unfairly forced out of the team considering he showed everyone that despite his age, he had more left in him

9. Webber – Looked decent in qualifying against his younger team-mate. Certainly had the edge over Vettel in a few races but spent most of them behind other front runners.

10. Perez – Had a few strong races but only really got podiums due to having a poor qualifying and therefore taking risky strategies. Had an extremely poor end to the season after being signed by McLaren.

11. Rosberg – Showed good speed at the start of the season when the car was on the pace but regular mistakes during hot laps arguably cost him poles. Only really beat Schumacher due to better reliability.

12. Maldonado – Had a number of incidents and looked erratic at the start of the season. Matured a lot towards the end of the season and showed his great one lap pace and ability to deal with pressure from front runners.

13. Massa – Had a shocking start and failed to get into Q3 on numerous occasions. Regained his mojo back towards the end of the season but only ever look faster than Alonso 3 times all season.

14. Petrov – Matched his highly rated team-mate during qualifying and the races. Did well to keep it on track at Brazil to show the team why he should be retained for next season.

15. Glock – Had his strongest season driving for Marussia but was kept honest by Pic at times. Showed his experience by delivering a great result at Singapore with a damaged car.

16. di Resta – A good opening race and 4th at Singapore were his only real highlights. Was beaten by Hulkenberg more often than not considering the German had been out for one season.

17. Kovalainen – Was matched by his less experienced team-mate and looked error prone at times. Main highlight was holding off Button at Monaco.

18. Grosjean – Had fantastic one lap pace but his lack of spacial awareness caused him to be involved in multiple incidents. Received a ban for Monza but showed he hadn’t really learned from it two races later at Japan.

19 . Ricciardo – Was regularly faster than Vergne in qualifying and the race but had fair share of bad luck. 6th on the grid in Bahrain was his main highlight.

20. Pic – Kept his much experienced team-mate honest a few times and made few mistakes considering he was a young rookie in a bad car.

21. Vergne – Had poor qualifying sessions multiple times but showed some decent race pace. He only really out-scored Ricciardo due to him usually being the main beneficiary of the Aussies poor luck.

22. Senna – Was often out qualified and out raced by his team-mate at almost every Grand Prix. Had consistency but lacked speed and often looked quiet error prone.

23. de la Rosa – Could do little more with what he was given to drive but did well to out qualify a Marussia on several occasions.

24. Karthikeyan – Was light years behind de la Rosa, never mind the rest of the field.

Top 5 from second half of season:
1: Vettel
2: Hamilton
3: Massa
4: Alonso
5: Kimi

Top 10 from the overall season:
1: Alonso
2: Vettel
3: hamilton
4: Kimi Raikkonen
5: Charles Pic

(Number 5 is questionable, but no-one has really stood out in the season, with the exception of the 5 mentioned drivers over the course of the season.)