[Angelia]

1. Vettel – He has been very impressive this season, the most of any driver. He hasn’t really made any glaring mistakes and keeps on finishing high, he had two his lowest finish is a 4th place. His worse race was in Hungary were he still scored 3rd place, and he had an anonymous race in China. Vettel also had one retirement from the lead in Silverstone, he could have been leading the WDC much further. He is really driving like a 3x WDC.

2. Raikkonen – Lotus is a bit all over the place they started off good in Australia. Kimi’s worst race of the season was in Malaysia. In Canada Kimi had big brake issues during the race, and a fuel consumption issue and a problem with his pitstop. In Silverstone Lotus could have gotten a good result despite being off the pace, but made a wrong strategic call. This is a recurring issue with Lotus they always seem like they could have done something more if it was not for their strategies. They often have some of the strongest race pace, but at the same time they often dont seems as fast as others, like Ferrari it is difficult when you are not likely to qualify in the front row.
Actually Kimi has been good in qualifying this season, compared to the rest of the top 4 it is only Vettel who has done better, Kimi has only been out qualified by Grosjean twice. Kimi hasn’t done much wrong there is only the incident with Perez which was declared a racing incident, in his worst race he was still 7th place.

3. Hamilton – Since Monaco the only race where Mercedes have struggled with tyres and gone backwards was at Germany. They were not as strong at the start of the season but they have been improving a lot, and they still had good races before Monaco as well at the start of the season, in Malaysia and China. Lewis did look a bit lost at certain races. His worst race was in Spain were he scored no points, and he was also anonymous in Monaco, but still got a decent result. Lewis needed a bit of time to adapt to the team in the first part of the season he wasn’t at his strongest in the first part of the season. But he has been really getting there since Canada. He has done a great job so far. Lewis could be a real challenge for the WDC against Vettel for the rest of the season, especially with Mercedes’s qualifying pace.

4. Alonso – Of course qualifying has been an issue for Ferrari, but often when you look at FP3 times and Ferrari’s times in Q1 and Q2 you expect them to do slightly better. This was especially true in the first part of the season when Ferrari was one of the best packages. But come Q3 Alonso were often outqualified by a Lotus, who also tends to struggle in qualifying. Alonso has been out qualified by Massa a few times.
Thing have gone wrong here and there, in Malaysia Alonso drove directly into Webber and broke his front wing, the team should have pitted him and they didn’t. In Bahrain Alonso had the DRS problem, which is obviously not his fault. In Monaco Alonso was anonymous. In Silverstone Massa was a bit ahead of Alonso and looked a bit stronger until he had the puncture.
Alonso has less points this season, compared to last season were he had a worse car in the beginning of the year. But Alonso had such a great season last year that it would always be impossible to keep up that kind of form. Since Silverstone Ferrari seems to be going backwards, basically the last 3 races. Alonso has done a good job in the last two races.

5. Rosberg – Rosberg has been keeping Lewis honest. Although it seems like Lewis has now found his groove in his new team, and Rosberg is now a bit behind. He has been unlucky at times but he has also had some extreme highs and lows. He did a great in Monaco, and was a bit lucky to win at Silverstone. But he has also had some big lows like in Hungary. The season has gone decently so far for him.

6. Button – Mclaren is 6th in the WDC and Button is in front of Sutil and Di Resta in the WDC. So one could conclude that he is doing a good job of collecting points for the team. But Perez has been much closer to him then what one would expect. Still Button is able to bring home the points and that counts for a lot.

7. Webber – He has been completely out qualified and out raced by Vettel. But he has also had to deal with some type issue every single weekend that was completely out of his control. He is still doing decently and collecting points for Red Bull in his last season.

8. Di Resta – He has done well. I give him the nod before Sutil because he has scored more points. Although he and Sutil are really equal, both have done a great job, not to many mistakes. Both of them could have done better if it weren’t for Force India’s reliability and pitstop mistakes.

9. Sutil – Equal with Di Resta and he had been out of F1 for a year. Both are doing a great job but are let down by the team at times.

10. Hulkenberg – He hasn’t made any really big mistakes, and he done well to collect a few points for Sauber when he had the chance.

11. Perez – Perez has been closer to Button then what you expect. But overall he isn’t really consistent enough. And he seems to be involved in too much incidents. He could be a good driver, he just needs a bit of balance perhaps.

12. Bottas – He is doing a good job for a rookie, he is regularly outqualifying and out racing Maldonado. That is not such an easy thing to do. People had a real chance to notice him in Canada.

13. Bianchi – He has comprehensively outdone his teammate. Out qualifying someone by such huge amounts in your first season is no small feat.

14. Grosjean – He has done really well in the last two races, perhaps he is starting to turn a corner now. But overall out of all of the top teams second drivers he has scored the least.

15. Maldonado – He has just scored Williams first points. It is a bit surprising to see Botas outdoing him right from the start. Not a bad season by any means, but it is difficult when the car just isn’t good enough.

16. Ricciardo – He is really great in qualifying, and he had a few misfortunes. But he still losses a bit too much in the races. It is hard to think that he will be very competitive against Vettel if he gets the Red Bull seat. But he is also still learning.

17. Vergne – He and Ricciardo is practically equal. But Ricciardo shows some promise with his qualifying.

18. Massa – He showed some promise at the start of the season and he has out qualified Alonso a few times. But ultimately crashing out in 4 consecutive races, is just a bit to much.

19. Pic – He has outdone van der Garde and shows a bit of potential at times.

20. Gutierrez – He has done a decent session here and there but ultimately he is invisible.

21. Van Der Garde – He looked like he could have a good race here or there, but he has never gotten it together.

22. Chilton – Well Chilton has at times been utterly and complete outdone, it doesn’t seem like he is quite ready for F1 yet.

[Angelia]

Both are good drivers but they drove in very different times. The grid has been much more competitive then when Mika won his titles. Mika only had Schumacher to compete against, and the car advantages where much bigger in those days. The grid is much closer and more competitive nowadays. Mika was somewhat in an advantageous position 1999.
It is true that Mika didn’t always drive for the best teams. But even though Kimi drove for the best teams he often just didn’t have good cars. Especially in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006 & 2009. Kimi has never had the out and out best car like Mika had, except for 2005 perhaps, but then he had a lot of reliability issues.
In 2003 and 2012 Kimi never had the best car but he did well. The Ferrari was a great car in 2007 but it was pretty equal to Mclaren, and they would have won the WCC. Kimi’s only real WCC winning car was in 2008, when he himself under performed.
People claim Kimi lacked motivation in 2008 & 2009, but the same could be said of Mika in 2000 & 2001.
Mika was better a qualifier there is no doubt about that (although even the qualifying format has changed a lot), but I think Kimi is a better overall package. Through the years Kimi has proven himself of being able to get good results in fast and slow cars. His race craft is what sets him a part. It always seemed like Kimi has a sharper edge to him, more of a killer instinct mentality. But at the same time this also perhaps makes Mika more likable to the general public.

If Kimi didn’t return to F1 then, then I would definitively have said that Mika was better. But the fact that Kimi has return after 2 years to a smaller team, and have done so well have given him the edge. It just shows that Kimi has been able to prove himself in a variety of different situations.

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