The F1 Fanatic verdict on the best driver of 2017 is in – now it’s time to have your say.
Who do you think was the best driver of the past season? There’s loads of data below for you to consult and when you’re ready hit the voting form at the bottom to select your top driver of the past season.
2017 team mate battles
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Hamilton vs Bottas at Mercedes
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Vettel vs Raikkonen at Ferrari
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Verstappen vs Ricciardo at Red Bull
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Perez vs Ocon at Force India
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Massa vs Stroll at Williams
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Hulkenberg vs Palmer at Renault
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Sainz vs Kvyat at Toro Rosso
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Alonso vs Vandoorne at McLaren
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Grosjean vs Magnussen at Haas
- 2017 F1 team mate battles: Ericsson vs Wehrlein at Sauber
Vote for your driver of the year
Which driver do you think did the best job throughout 2017? Cast your vote below and explain why you chose the driver you picked in the comments.
Who was the best Formula One driver of 2017?
- No opinion (1%)
- Daniil Kvyat (0%)
- Jolyon Palmer (0%)
- Paul di Resta (0%)
- Jenson Button (1%)
- Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
- Pascal Wehrlein (0%)
- Marcus Ericsson (0%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (1%)
- Nico Hulkenberg (1%)
- Kevin Magnussen (1%)
- Romain Grosjean (0%)
- Pierre Gasly (0%)
- Brendon Hartley (0%)
- Stoffel Vandoorne (0%)
- Fernando Alonso (10%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Felipe Massa (0%)
- Esteban Ocon (4%)
- Sergio Perez (1%)
- Kimi Raikkonen (1%)
- Sebastian Vettel (13%)
- Max Verstappen (21%)
- Daniel Ricciardo (3%)
- Valtteri Bottas (0%)
- Lewis Hamilton (39%)
Total Voters: 415
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2017 F1 season review
- The complete F1 Fanatic 2017 Formula One season review
- 2017 F1 season in stats: The 68th season in context
- Essential reads 2017: The best articles and your favourite features
- Take the F1 Fanatic 2017 end-of-season quiz
- F1 Fanatic’s top Tweets of 2017
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
19th December 2017, 12:15
For me, it’s still Vettel. This was a season of brilliant performances from many drivers though, F1 has reached a very high level.
liongalahad (@liongalahad)
19th December 2017, 12:20
Yet lost a WDC mainly for his own mistakes and lack of focus. Hamilton showed him the way this year, with close to no mistakes when it counted.
glynh (@glynh)
19th December 2017, 13:00
I couldn’t choose this year between the top 5 but in the end I went with vettel who I felt got the most from the car despite some mistakes.
Hamilton is a close second because although he made less errors he also had less car issues which flatters him in the points. Also I felt that he wasn’t pushing as hard in races, admittedly because he didn’t have to.
Bebilou (@bebilou)
19th December 2017, 13:28
Sorry, but for me Vettel proved another time that he doesn’t deserve to be 4 times world champion.
Too many mistakes, too much moaning.
Todfod (@todfod)
20th December 2017, 7:03
I honestly think that after Vettel’s performance in 2016, he bounced back much better this season. Despite his strong form in the 1st half of the season, he just couldn’t get the job done.
If I was Ferrari, I would definitely be keeping my eye on Verstappen and Ricciardo if Red Bull aren’t fighting for the championship. It’s a shame that Ferrari burnt their bridges with Fernando, because he could have given them the title in 2017 if he was in that car.
McLaren
19th December 2017, 13:54
On what basis does Vettel have ANY claim to best driver? He cost himself, THROUGH HIS DRIVING ALONE, massive points in Baku, Singapore and Mexico. He was involved in crashes that were HIS fault and yet those races are glossed over. Time to remove the red tinted glasses.
Blackmamba (@blackmamba)
19th December 2017, 22:20
Vettel has a car capable of winning the championship but he fluffed his lines. One suspects Alonso, Verstappen or Ricciardo would at least have taken the fight to the last race.
caljub (@caljub)
20th December 2017, 8:54
Yes, let’s all forget his 10 or so brilliant performances this season, and put into focus 2 mistakes (one pure driving mistake – mexico, and one hot headed mistake – baku). Singapore was not a mistake in any sense, there is no driver on the current grid who would not have done the same, as a matter of fact Lewis did the same thing in Austin, and Alonso in Singapore 2012. No one could have seen that third car is gonna be there as well, so let’s just drop it.
I will just count some of his great performances this year, just to keep you guys aware – Australia, China, Bahrain, Monaco, Canada, Hungary, Malaysia, Brazil. He had 14 front row starts in a car that was clearly slower than Merc in qualifying. His only mediocre race and where he could have done better is British GP, as he was slower than Kimi. Throughout the season, he lost a lot of points due to team mistakes, which people seem to forget (Canada not pitting for new wing, tyre explosion in Britain, decent chance to win in Malaysia, Japan).
IMO Vettel drove one of his best season so far, it’s just down to a combination of several things that we wasn’t in contention till the last race.
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 11:16
+1
The Hamilton bias is very clear when Vettel is being blamed for Ferrari being a second-rate team.
Yet the same people blamed Mercedes at every possible chance when Lewis wasn’t performing against Nico.
Also Lewis got away with ‘Schumacher chops’, but when Vettel gambled on this and lost it’s because he ‘can’t handle the pressure’
neither a mercedes nor a ferrari fan
21st December 2017, 15:26
I agree with BigJoe’s comments. Hamilton had the best car and didn’t have to ring it’s neck. For years he chopped other drivers and got away without sanction, but not others. Just as the Schue did in the red cars.
Hamilton certainly deserves the “Biggest Winger” award, although Alonso would challenge him at times. If Alonso was in the Merc, or if Hamilton was in the McLaren, they’d both have an opportunity to out race, as well as out winge, each other.
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 11:20
“Vettel has a car capable of winning the championship but he fluffed his lines. One suspects Alonso, Verstappen or Ricciardo would at least have taken the fight to the last race.”
Ferrari only looked capable because Vettel was flatetring it. People are so blind and bias.
If you’re going to be like that then Vettel would have never let Lewis lead him in the championship if they were in *opposite cars*
That has got to be the bigger question. Why in the best car was Lewis not leading the championship the whole season? I wouldn’t be happy with that if I was a fan betting my own ego on him.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
20th December 2017, 11:49
Because Lewis didn’t have the best car? Most certainly not for the first half of the season. After Baku when Ferrari’s oil burning system got banned it got closer, but still Ferrari had the best all round car.
If anything, it was Hamilton who flattered that Mercedes. Vettel showed over and over that the car had the pace, but he was just not getting the results due being involved in way to many incidents
caljub (@caljub)
20th December 2017, 12:24
Mercedes indeed in most of the races was not better race car (at least comparing Vettel and Hamilton race pace, under assumption that their abilities are equal). However, Mercedes was better qualifying car. And given that the advantage of Ferrari in race pace was marginal, it was never enough to make a clean pass during the race. I think everybody can agree that you need 1s or even more stronger pace to overtake with these cars, given the aerodynamic penalties once you follow closely. Hence, there were a lot of races where Vettel did have the pace to win, but just could not overtake (Russia, Austria, Belgium come to mind). On the other hand, in some races Merc was pretty much dominant car (Britain, Abu Dhabi, Italy), something Ferrari did not have in any race this season (perhaps Malaysia would have been dominant for Vettel, but we’ll never know).
Ju88sy (@)
20th December 2017, 19:01
“People are so blind and bias.” speak for yourself! A quick look at your post history reveals consistent and constant Anti-Hamilton diatribes.
Throwing around your opinion as fact and belittling the consensus view won’t win over non-believers. Take a look at how some of the other commenters articulate a more contrarian view!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
20th December 2017, 2:31
@hahostolze Completely agree. Vettel last ditch efforts to put the car on the front row, and sometimes on pole, his drives from behind, generally he’s driving under pressure. Vettel with his back on the wall, starting from behind drove like it was his last lap. Vettel lost his cool and made a risky start in Singapore, but he had to, if he wasn’t first in turn 1 any fleeting, chance to win the title would’ve evaporated. I think Ferrari’s bad strategic calls in Shanghai, Ferrari’s unreliability and Mercedes coming up very strong in Barcelona made Vettel’s work pretty much impossible, yes the Baku incident could’ve mattered but we look at the points table and it doesn’t.
Max was blistering fast but he made mistakes, his over eager starts led to 2 victories but also some dnf’s, high risk high reward strategy, all the time.
Hamilton when he clicked with the car he was untouchable, and Bottas couldn’t answer. However Bottas beat Hamilton on pace far too many times, particularly early on, not to mention Ham’s off weekends. This is not a season for Hamilton to rave about, I’d say his weakest championship winning season. Bottas out drove him early on and eventually after a strong mid season Ferrari shot themselves to pieces. Had Hamilton been on form early on, had Hamilton annihilated Bottas, I would’ve had no doubts about who was top driver. If you want to look at the season from the summer break, no debate.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
20th December 2017, 5:36
What mistakes did Max make? I can recall only one.. it was crashing into his teammate in Hungary. But maybe I’ve forgotten something.
MacLeod (@macleod)
20th December 2017, 8:06
That was indeed his mistake for the year but didn’t see other mistakes. Being on the easy safe outside seems an mistake for others which i don’t support. But It was hard to pick 1 driver who was the best I have 3 which are the same level this year. Lewis, Max and Palmer .. kidding ofcourse Fernando.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
20th December 2017, 11:54
@peartree The biggest reason why Vettel was driving under pressure was because he kept messing up. Too often he didn’t extract the maximum in Q3 or he messed up the start. Or both. Then he would get into clashes with other drivers further increasing his problems. Following that he would have a “brilliant drive from behind” instead of what should have been an easy cruise to P2 or perhaps even a fight for P1.
Vettel seems to think that overdriving the car is the best way to go. Like running the tyre to shreds in Silverstone when he was supposed to make them last a much longer distance. Or when he got ahead of Hamilon in Austin and Hamilton could see how Vettel was ruining his tyres needlessly so he could just wait for Vettel’s tyres to go off.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
20th December 2017, 14:07
@hahostolze Well, Vettel is the best and one could claim in a category of his own when it comes to driving under safety cars.
DonSmee (@david-beau)
21st December 2017, 21:40
We know, we know. If the shambles of a championship he did this year didn’t sway your convictions i am sure you will think so too in 2018 and every year after that, even when ferrari turns him into a number 2.
Roddy J Murray (@roddy1968)
19th December 2017, 12:19
It might have been good to be able to pick a top three, but thats me just being greedy ! Have a good Christmas when it comes all!
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
19th December 2017, 12:24
I’m no fan of Max, but I had to go for him.
Rightly or wrongly so, I still feel Ferrari and Vettel threw the title away, or perhaps made it easier, for Merc and Hamilton to win.
Taking nothing away from Hamilton though, he drove a great season, didn’t make too many mistakes, he made the most of every opportunity in the second half of the season. But he had a sub par team mate that didn’t push him hard over the course of the season. Couple that with Ferrari’s implosion, in the end, it was a relatively easy run to the title for Lewis.
Max on the other hand quite comprehensibly outshone his highly rate stable mate. Sure they both endured a pretty horrific season with respect to reliability, but as a Danny Ric fan, I begrudgingly accept that Max was on another level this year. He was much better at driving around the car’s handling issues which appears to have stifled Ric , and his qualifying performances were nothing short of top drawer. That in itself is a massive effort considering Danny Ric is no slouch over a single lap.
It would been easy to vote Hamilton, but I think Max is the driver of the year based on pure performance.
Drg
19th December 2017, 14:28
Not a chance – he had nothing to lose. Ever all year.
As I said in another thread MAL would have been a different story if he was in championship mode and a threat to HAM so would Mexico – just look at BAH 2014 again and imagine how those races would have worked out of the margins were minor points losing a championship.
It’s a simple fact. I won more championship races in every year I was out of the title run. Every time actually and it affects people’s perceptions.
No – while Vet lost it under pressure – he at least had pressure – VER had none and for that fact VET should be above VES like it or not.
To suggest he was best is nuts. The Hungary incident puts paid to that.
Robbie (@robbie)
19th December 2017, 16:22
@Drg I do take your point and today on another thread I responded to you similarly. I agree that we don’t know how good a driver is necessarily until they are seen to be winning races and Championships while the pressure is at it’s greatest. Realistically though that may only be a few drivers a year, so we do have to find other criteria to rate other drivers that simply don’t have the car with which to be under that biggest pressure.
That said, I voted for Max simply because I find him the most exciting to watch, and I’m not an LH fan.
While I do take your point and obviously Max wasn’t under any Championship pressure, I don’t think we should assume he was under no pressure, whether to outperform his teammate, raise his stock in F1, or apply pressure to himself to always do his best. I don’t think you can fairly say Max had ‘nothing to lose.’ That implies a carefree attitude to me, and I don’t see Max as that. I think he as much as any driver out there is going for the win at all times, doesn’t matter that he only has the third best car. And I think he has already learned some things from last year too. Massive potential from him and aside from his on-track action that is one of the things that is so exciting about him, for me anyway.
I’ve used the ‘nothing to lose’ concept when I defend SV for being bested by DR in 2014. SV went from having 4 years of a car that fit him like a glove, to suddenly having a Lada, whereas DR moved into the best team and car he’d ever had, with truly nothing to lose…beaten by SV and it’s no surprise…best SV and it’s gravy. I don’t see Max’s 2017 season the same way, nor DR’s of course. Talk about pressure and likely of the non-Championship type…how about the pressure DR will be feeling to not be outperformed in so many categories by Max again, in 2018. Or Bottas’ pressure to show this year was just growing pains on the team, and next year he must show more in that car. Take the gloves off and get down to it vs LH.
Robbie (@robbie)
19th December 2017, 16:36
Just wanted to add, I don’t consider Hungary as anything that should take away from Max’s season any more than poll winner here LH made mistakes too and still won the poll. LH under more pressure? Sure, but it also helps when you have the car with which to respond next weekend. And if there is still a ton of races to go in the season, the pressure is less because you have time to answer to mistakes or unreliability. SV had little time to respond when his car failed him a couple of times with only a third of the season to go.
Hungary was just Max going for it like we want our racers to do. Sore loser? Yeah for sure I bet Max is sore when he loses. But he didn’t do anything intentional to take DR out other than to intentionally not want anyone to get by him if he can at all help it. Just racing. I think DR said at the time something to the effect that he (Max) just couldn’t stand the thought of him (DR) passing him, and I chuckled to myself Ya…sounds like a WDC level driver to me.
Drg
22nd December 2017, 10:47
Of course that’s your absolute right Robbie although I just don’t like someone seems an odd reason to negate their achievements this year?
In terms of Hungary – I do see it as a factor because at the end of the day he took out his team mate in a highly rash move. Racing or otherwise. We can hardly say Hamilton did that this year. Seb certainly did similar.
Further, Max was not under pressure towards the end of the year, he had beaten his team mate in qualifying, had a nice set of reasons for the points gap and was free to race without concern for anything other than a best result. Neither Lewis nor Seb were in this position until after Mexico.
That completely shapes the risks you take and what for example you fight for. The classic example being MAL. At that point Lewis could not yet afford to undertake a BAH 2014 race simply because Max was not a factor in the end game. Yet by Mexico (where you suggest he should not have got involved in the first corner stuff) his point total at that point was enough to allow a bit of racing and that is what he is at heart. He could hardly expect Seb to run up his backside twice in a year but he did.
I agree with your comments regarding 2014 concerning Dan and SEb.
No one is suggesting Max is not a WDC in the future but not right now and not if he keeps taking that level of unnecessary risk when the chips are down and the racing is as tight as this year regardless of his car performance.
Have a good Christmas.
Robert
19th December 2017, 12:30
Alonso was probably the best F1 driver in 2017, at times he put his McLaren into places it should never have been near, and unlike Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen I cannot remember him making any driving errors at all.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
20th December 2017, 6:29
That’s reasonable, I voted for verstappen cause he only made hungary mistake, but alonso had a race off in malaysia, apart from that they were both exceptional and I’d have voted for both if possible.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
20th December 2017, 11:55
That’s because Alonso never had the camera on him.
You just didn’t see his poor performances because no body cared where he ended up or could have ended up if he had performed better.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
19th December 2017, 12:33
Hamilton by a long way.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
20th December 2017, 2:36
@fer-no65 From the summer break, no doubt about it.
@chrischrill I agree, though one has to put the stakes in perspective, what stakes? what pressured Alonso? Indycar.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
20th December 2017, 14:15
@peartree what was wrong with Lewis’ performance before the summer break? He had 6 poles and 4 victories. He lost a victory to Vettel on the pit stop and one at the issue at Baku.
If anything, he was as good in the 1st half.
McLaren
19th December 2017, 12:52
Hamilton is the only logical choice. Not that everyone is logical. Lol
Blazzz
19th December 2017, 16:21
+1
petebaldwin (@)
19th December 2017, 18:03
Two people can apply perfectly good logic to the same problem and come to different conclusions. I don’t think anyone stood out miles above anyone else this year. Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen were right up there this year in terms of performance. Vettel made more mistakes but he was potentially having to push his car a bit harder…
Without knowing the ultimate time each car could do in each session, it’s really hard to tell how close the drivers for each team were getting to it so you have to use information we do know to split them – like who made the fewest mistakes. On that count, I’d say Keith has the order right with Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel.
McLaren
19th December 2017, 19:13
I think Hamilton stood out miles above the rest. 9 wins (should have been 10) and the all-time pole record. Legendary numbers and overcoming a 25 point deficit. Both Vettel and Max were involved in multiple collisions that were their fault. Hamilton not so much. Under every metric, Hamilton was supreme this year.
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 10:53
That deficit simply showed how good Vettel was. Lewis stood out no more than the reliability, drivability of the Merc engine once again.
bonbonjai
20th December 2017, 21:11
Bigjoe
Just come out and say it, it’s the car, and only the car, not the driver.
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
19th December 2017, 20:57
Well @petebaldwin, here is some logic for you –
Star Performer Points:
Ham: 10
Vet: 9
Ver: 5
Ricc: 3
Alo: 3
Driver of the Weekend points:
Ham: 6
Ver: 4
Bot:3
Vet: 2
How much “logical” does it have to be when choosing best F1 driver of 2017? Especially when the vote is on the SAME site as these other two votes listed here?
It simply proves most people are either not logical, or their “logic” is so fluid, it ebbs and flows with the river Severn tide.
Strontium (@strontium)
20th December 2017, 21:55
@kbdavies that doesn’t take into account that a driver might perform incredibly well one weekend, then not so well on other weekends.
Furthermore, people may have disagreed with those results. Your statistics there rely on assuming most people agreed with most / all of the results. On a number of occasions the driver I voted for did not win DOTW, but despite what other people voted for it’s still perfectly reasonable to stick with my original opinion.
I’m not taking any sides on the debate of who was the best driver, nor am I saying the scenarios above are necessarily the case, but I do want to point out that people have their own way of making decisions, not just looking at a few stats of what other people previously thought. That sort of defeats the whole point in this poll
(@petebaldwin )
Jon (@johns23)
20th December 2017, 0:40
lol
Strontium (@strontium)
19th December 2017, 12:57
Palmer of course
Baron (@baron)
19th December 2017, 14:58
Yes! He has 1% of the vote already! Go Jolyon!
Egonovi
19th December 2017, 16:04
Daddy can do more than just pay the bills ;)
Jere (@jerejj)
19th December 2017, 16:58
@strontium +1.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
19th December 2017, 13:01
If the definition is extracting as much potential as possible out of your car? Alonso
If the definition is beating your team mate by a large margin? Vettel
If the definition is being world champion? Hamilton
All in all, Hamilton had a pretty mediocre year. He is world champion in the best car, because his team mate could not rival him. Disregarding Baku and Singapore, Vettel is the best driver this season. Alonso kept bringing that McLaren to positions it had no right holding, so overall my vote would go to the Spaniard.
Backmarker
20th December 2017, 0:27
(@chrischrill)
Agreed on Alonso. The one thing I would regarding measuring against teammates is the context – Bottas had a relatively equal footing in the team, and is coming up for his strongest years. In comparison, Kimi is a driver long past his prime, and given a clear and blatant number 2 status. I reckon Hamilton has had both better (2007) and worse (2011) years.
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 10:59
+1
I’ve always been way more impressed with Lewis’ 9 race run consistancy and qualifying in 2007 than anything he has done since.
He even mentioned 2007 himself this year. He hasn’t pulled a gap over Vettel or Alonso. Max and Dan know they can beat him. Mercedes having engine dominance locked in all this time until 2012 is a travisty.
Lewis gets overrated because he is man of the moment. Like Vettel used to at Red Bull.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th December 2017, 13:11
Hamilton.
Philip (@philipgb)
19th December 2017, 13:13
Hamilton got my vote. Vettel gave some great drives, while he stole some victories from Mercedes like Bahrain and Brazil, he threw results away as well.
Hamilton got outdrove at a few races for sure, but other than Brazil when he’d already locked the championship down, didn’t throw any critical races away.
And we just didn’t get to see enough of Verstappen to make a clear judgement. He was exceptional for sure, but we have patchy data to try to compare him with the other two.
RP (@slotopen)
20th December 2017, 2:12
@philipgb
+1
Hamilton had a strong season. Even his worse races, like Brazil or Monaco, the damage wasn’t that bad.
Vettel was amazing except for several glaring failures.
Versappen was very good when he got to drive. But unlike Vettel and Hamilton he never had anything to lose. Hopefully the Red Bull will be reliable next year and he’ll be in the championship fight.
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 11:02
Interesting that Vettel ‘threw races away’ and *not* Ferrari, yet when Lewis struggled against Nico it was all Mercedes fault, not his
Philip (@philipgb)
21st December 2017, 1:31
Can you show me what post of mine you’re quoting where I’ve said it was all Mercedes fault?
Baron
23rd December 2017, 13:33
@philipgb
I think it’s just his response to the general consensus on this site.
If Hamilton wins it’s because he’s just pulled an extra 10% out of the car that no other driver can do. If he gets beaten, well then surely there must have been a problem with his car.
If Vettel wins it’s because Ferrari gave him the best car since 2008 and Raikkonen is 4 places further down because, obviously, Ferrari don’t want Raikkonen to score points. If Vettel gets beaten, well, that’s more proof that he shouldn’t have been in f1 in the first place.
Neil (@neilosjames)
19th December 2017, 13:42
Overall I think we’ve had a really high quality season in terms of driver performance.
I think Hamilton was close to his best this year, aside from the couple of occasions where he couldn’t get to grips with the car. I believe the Ferrari was at the very least equal to the Mercedes, on balance – slower over one lap, but definitely better on longer runs. So he’d definitely be worthy of my vote.
But then, so would Verstappen, who put in some exceptional drives… and Alonso, who repeatedly dragged that heap of orange dung to places it had no business being. Vettel drove beautifully too, but I think he lost a title that was his to win, so I probably couldn’t vote for him as ‘the best’.
Voted for Alonso because I assumed (correctly, it seems) that Hamilton and Verstappen would run away with the vote anyway.
McLaren
19th December 2017, 13:53
On what basis does Vettel have ANY claim to best driver? He cost himself, THROUGH HIS DRIVING ALONE, massive points in Baku, Singapore and Mexico. He was involved in crashes that were HIS fault and yet those races are glossed over. Time to remove the red tinted glasses.
Drg
19th December 2017, 14:36
And the orange ones. Oh and the Spanish ones.
For goodness sake people. They were under no championship pressure at any time. Yet VER still clattered into his team mate and ALO still let the end of the year go his team mates way. Nothing wrong with any of that but in 2016 any of those moments would have killed the year – yet Ricciardo was the best of the year on here? After Brazil?
No other than Vet and VER – this is a pretty accurate year and HAM wins hands down.
For those keep suggesting the Bottas applied no pressure – perhaps note Kimis performance. Bottas did much more than that.
Robert
19th December 2017, 17:49
Which races were you watching? Alonso drove his heart out at seasons end, he scored points in each of the last 3 races and probably would have scored in the last four races had his car held together in Austin, Vandoorne couldn’t touch him after the far eastern races were done.
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 11:06
“For those keep suggesting the Bottas applied no pressure – perhaps note Kimis performance. Bottas did much more than that.”
The Gap between two good if not top tier team mates shows how much better the Merc was than ferrari. Vettel was carrying the ferrari, that’s why he is the driver of the season. If Ferrari dont deliver next year he will be looking for a way out like Alonso did.
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 11:10
“On what basis does Vettel have ANY claim to best driver?”
The basis that he pulled out a champioship lead in an inferior car and poorly managed team and put a bigger gap between his team mate proving he was carrying the Ferrari
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
20th December 2017, 14:23
Well, the fact that Vettel thrives when he has no competition within his team hurts him. I’d love to see him paired with Alonso who has a 30 point lead for mechanical reasons or sheer bad luck in a couple of seasons. They’d have 50 lawyers each on their side of the garage – there’d be no room for the mechanics or the team principal:-)
Can anyone imagine Sebastian being on the same team with Nico? Mercedes would have lost the WCC all 4 times as they’d take each other out at the start of the race in every race. I can only imagine the accidental accidents during the safety cars:-)
Baron
23rd December 2017, 13:36
@freelittlebirds
Well, the fact that Hamilton thrives when he has no competition within his team hurts him. I’d love to see him paired with Verstappen who has a 30 point lead for mechanical reasons or sheer bad luck in a couple of seasons. They’d have 50 lawyers each on their side of the garage – there’d be no room for the mechanics or the team principal:-)
Joao (@johnmilk)
19th December 2017, 14:46
Ericsson and Button with 1% of the votes at the moment, there is still hope for Kvyat and Palmer to turn this thing around
Baron (@baron)
19th December 2017, 15:21
Palmer now at 1% @johnmilk. Things are getting exciting at the rear of the field…😉
Joao (@johnmilk)
19th December 2017, 15:29
JB is taking the lead, but no opinion is right behind him
Jere (@jerejj)
19th December 2017, 16:59
@johnmilk +1.
Baron (@baron)
19th December 2017, 22:19
That’s interesting. Palmer had gone from 1% to 0%. Hmmm, is someone tweaking the results? At this rate No Opinion could be an outsider to keep an eye on. Is he signed for next year?..😜
RP (@slotopen)
20th December 2017, 2:37
@baron
If 1% includes greater than 0.5% it would only be two votes.
So that means drivers with 0% could not even find a parent, sibling, or partner willing to cast a vote in their favor.
KnGS (@)
20th December 2017, 10:24
@slotopen Or they don’t know F1Fanatic.
RP (@slotopen)
20th December 2017, 11:14
@godoff1
Drivers who don’t follow follow F1 Fanantic? Gasp. They deserve 0%!
Baron (@baron)
19th December 2017, 15:13
It’s interesting comparing Hamilton & Alonso. On the one hand, Hamilton fails to win plaudits because “he has the best car” and Alonso wins too many plaudits for “having the worst car”.
It’s also quite telling how people bring the car into the driver situation because here they have a fluid yet plausible reference to back up claims of good/bad driving, and yet in these cases we really only have team mates as a final bench mark. But we are also judging the “lead” driver by the performance of the de facto “no.2” AND the performance of the car. So, I propose that one of you bright young people out there, design an algorithm based on the categories listed here and design an “Infinite Improbability Drive” button to be placed in a prominent location on the hardware (I think it should be a hybrid solution) so that we may be able to make our choices with some degree of “real-world” accuracy.
bosyber (@bosyber)
19th December 2017, 22:06
Something like f1metrics did @baron? It ends with putting Sainz on top, in front of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Riccardo and Verstappen, though really the top 4 could be said to be too close to call. I think it isn’t quite perfect.
Personally, I think it tends to overestimate drivers with weak teammates, which then percolate into the other years, when they then pair with other drivers.
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 10:50
All we need to observe is how when Lewis wins it’s due to his talent, but when Vettel won or produced a sublime qualifying, all people talked about was ‘ferrari must be the best car now’. Vettel clearly carried ferrari like Alonso did.
Alonso’s plaudits are often his own team or teammates (even Hamilton himself) at the times the viewer didn’t know what he was up against.
KimiRaikkonen1207 (@kimiraikkonen1207)
19th December 2017, 15:31
A close call – we saw many spectacular drivers this year. For me, it’s a tie between Hulkenberg, Verstappen, and Alonso, as they all made relatively few mistakes. Hamilton gets 4th because while he was poor on a few weeks, he made up for it by being blisteringly fast on almost all other circuits.
Robbie (@robbie)
19th December 2017, 15:53
I voted for Max simply because I find him the most exciting to watch. LH is really the no-brainer as the WDC this year, but I am not a fan of his, mostly due to his personality not his on-track performance. I like Vettel too, but boy I really like watching what Max is going to do next, race by race, and season by season.
F1 Alleycat (@f1alleycat)
21st December 2017, 2:37
@robbie +1
jpvalverde85 (@jpvalverde85)
19th December 2017, 15:53
Sainz, because of his mega oportunistic move from dog to become worst to works team on uplift :D
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
20th December 2017, 14:29
@jpvalverde85 I’m a Hulk and Sainz fan – I’m really looking forward to the match-up next year but I fear that this pairing will cost both of them the opportunity to move to a top team. When you pair 2 excellent drivers together, the usual outcome is for both to fall victim to the other driver’s skills.
My hope is that Renault turn out to be as quick as Red Bull and they can fight for podiums and wins. If that happens, it might destroy Ricciardo’s and Verstappen’s chances of landing at a top team although Verstappen has a long horizon ahead of him.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
20th December 2017, 19:16
Sainz as driver of the year is extremely generous. Although there are obviously options to vote for any driver so the choice is yours. But in one area, Sainz has been worse than every other driver on the grid. He has caused the most drivers to retire. That included himself 3 times as well as the 2 Williams drivers. Even Eircsson who is known for crashing has caused 3 retirements and Kvyat has caused 4. Although I can’t deny he has had plenty or great performances, the amount of damage he’s caused to his own and others results is too much for me to even consider putting him close to the top of the grid yet. I think the 10th best driver of the year rating on this site was very accurate.
Sorry if you were just being sarcastic and you didn’t really vote Sainz! :D
F1 frog (@f1frog)
19th December 2017, 16:16
My rankings:
1st Fernando Alonso
2nd Max Verstappen
3rd Lewis Hamilton
4th Sebastian Vettel
5th Esteban Ocon
6th Nico Hulkenberg
7th Sergio Perez
8th Daniel Ricciardo
9th Carlos Sainz
10th Valterri Bottas
11th Felipe Massa
12th Stoffel Vandoorne
13th Romain Grosjean
14th Pascal Wehrlein
15th Brendon Hartley
16th Kevin Magnussen
17th Pierre Gasly
18th Marcus Ericsson
19th Kimi Raikkonen
20th Antonio Giovinazzi
21st Lance Stroll
22nd Jenson Button
23rd Daniil Kvyat
24th Jolyon Palmer
Esploratore (@esploratore)
20th December 2017, 6:41
Seems good overall, I would have raikkonen a few places better, and I think ricciardo, despite having a better car than the midfielders you put in front of him, had a better season; alonso and verstappen better than hamilton better than vettel makes sense to me, even if you invert the first 2.
Redi (@redi)
19th December 2017, 17:22
Star Performer Points:
Ham: 10
Vet: 9
Ver: 5
Ricc: 3
Alo: 3
Driver of the weekend points:
Ham: 6
Ver: 4
Bot:3
Vet: 2
Ricc, Alo, Sainz Wehrlein and Stroll have 1 each
Godwin Joseph (@godwin)
19th December 2017, 17:44
Kvyat? Seriously?
George (@george)
19th December 2017, 21:06
I ended up agreeing with Keith’s top 5 (I would have moved Bottas down), so fairly easy decision for me. Vettel was clearly the best driver for the first half of the season, but it seems the pressure got to him mid-season causing him to make some foolish moves.
Pace-wise I think Hamilton was the least consistent of the top three, but his racecraft was the best. Even when he was having a bad weekend he kept his head and maximised his potential result.
Verstappen I think has the potential to dominate the sport, everything seems natural to him. All Ricciardo can do is hang on to his coattails and hope he gets this lucky next season…
Kevin Wong (@fongu)
19th December 2017, 22:26
For me the top four are Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso and Vettel and they are all close. They elevated themselves to a higher level, be it qually runs, overtakes, race strategy and consistency, making their team mates invisible at times. Yes all made mistakes and have character blemishes, but Hamilton, with the pressure on, produced a string of championship worthy performances that seal it for me as best driver of 2017.
Hulkenberg, Ocon and Ricciardo (and to a lesser degree Sainz and Perez) also had good seasons with some highlights but not of the same calibre to my top four. Bottas would round out my top 10.
Alex Bkk (@alex-bkk)
20th December 2017, 9:35
Lewis had arguably the best car on the grid, and is simply faster than his team mate, so no. Vettel had a WDC in his grasp but blew it, so again no. So it’s between Verstappen or Alonso… as to who was the best. I went with Max. Hey, I a Ferrari fan, but that kid can deliver in spades. I’d love to see him partner Lewis… There is no emoticon that could express that feeling!
Alex Bkk (@alex-bkk)
20th December 2017, 9:37
Will this site ever have an edit feature?
BigJoe
20th December 2017, 10:41
Vettel was the best driver, he carried Ferrari. Ferrari are poorly managed and they havn’t produced a car capable of dominating since 2008. Alonso showed what a nightmare they are when he had to carry them too. Lewis did nothing that that top 3 or 4 drivers wouldn’t have done in the Merc, except perhaps one or 2 of his qualifying performances. Then again Vettel put in a couple of sublime ones too, yet all people talked about was the car being better for him
Martijn (@)
21st December 2017, 10:11
To some extent I see hour point. But in the end Vettel got infected by the team and single handed threw it all away in Baku and Singapore. Ferrari needs Icemen to compensate for their behaviour. Bottas is their man since Kimi just suffers from old age
Martijn (@)
20th December 2017, 11:21
I feel Fernando and Max are more skilled than Lewis. Lewis really didn’t have such a good year, it’s flattered because of underperformance by Bottas
pSynrg (@psynrg)
20th December 2017, 13:08
@mayrton Better go and tell all the team principals and don’t forget Adrian Newey on your way.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
21st December 2017, 0:41
I don’t buy that the team principals are always right, in fact, the fact they voted more for raikkonen than bottas makes them lose all their credibility to me. In what universe did raikkonen have a better season than bottas?
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
21st December 2017, 1:50
@mayrton – you mean combined or individually? I think the car would be too heavy with both Fernando and Max in it. Of course, there’s the other logistical issue of who sits on the bottom and who sits on top.
Martijn (@)
21st December 2017, 9:43
@freelittlebirds LOL, combined they will win all despite the increased weight
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
20th December 2017, 11:42
Had to choose between Hamilton, Alonso, Verstappen, Sainz and Ocon.
Depending on what means ‘top F1 driver of the year’ for everyone I ultimately based it on the exciting factor.
And on that matter I really enjoyed Ocon’s style and voted for him!
Go Esteban :)
Richard (@rick1984)
20th December 2017, 12:51
Went for Button. Peeing in ‘Nandos car and then punting Wherlein. Kept me amused Monaco Sunday anyway!!!
Hakk the rack
20th December 2017, 13:57
Jenson Button – 2%!!!
That’s the whole truth about this pool!
Hats off to Jenson Button AD2017 Ladies and Gents, he was really supreme!
Hyoko
20th December 2017, 19:00
1. Max Verstappen
2. Fernando Alonso
3. Carlos Sainz
4. Daniel Ricciardo
5. Sebastian Vettel
6. Esteban Ocon
7. Nico Hulkenberg
8. Stoffel Vandoorne
9. Pascal Wehrlein
10. Felipe Massa
11. Romain Grosjean
12. Marcus Ericson
13. Lewis Hamilton
14. Kimi Raikkonnen
15. Kevin Magnussen
16. Valteri Bottas
17. Lance Stroll
18. Jolyon Palmer
Too few races for the rest to give a rank, but underwhelmed by Jenson Button’s return
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
20th December 2017, 23:23
This looks like it has been done purely to wind people up! :D Several drivers are way out of place. Especially the Mercedes pair.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
21st December 2017, 0:45
Weird ranking, guess you hate mercedes?
I think sainz is too far up, he made several mistakes, raikkonen is probably slightly underrated in your ranking and rest seems reasonable, again except mercedes which have been heavily underrated imo.
hyoko
23rd December 2017, 21:13
Hate Merc? not at all!! On the contrary, I believe Merc did a terrific job delivering a overwhelmingly dominant car, 4th time around.
I don’t buy for a moment that Ferrari was close to Merc this year. What happened in the first half of the year is that the #1 pilot at Merc wasn’t up to the job. But then he delivered in the second half (only until the title was his, though).
It is of course not easy to really shine when you have a very dominant car. Just by being average (but slightly better than your teammate) you get effortlessly all the poles and wins, so there’s very little difference between an average and a godlike performer in that circumstance. Most people tend to overrate the drivers who ride the best cars, as they get the big results so easily, but for me it’s just the opposite. I used to consider Seb Vettel just about average when he got his 4 WDC in those uncatchable RBRs, now I have him in the top five (could have been the best if he had maintained his first-half season momentum to the end).
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
21st December 2017, 1:46
I agree with Nick Sainz’s ranking but I’m not sure about Carlos Hulkenberg in #7.
I think Kimi Hamilton is too low for 13. Felipe Vandoorne definitely was better than Esteban Ericson!
Martijn (@)
21st December 2017, 10:22
1. Fernando Alonso
2. Max Verstappen
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Daniel Ricciardo
5. Esteban Ocon
6. Sebastian Vettel
7. Nico Hulkenberg
8. Carlos Sainz
9. Kimi Raikkonnen
10. Valteri Bottas
11. Stoffel Vandoorne
12. Romain Grosjean
13. Pascal Wehrlein
14. Marcus Ericsson
15. Felipe Massa
16. Kevin Magnussen
17. Lance Stroll
18. Jolyon Palmer
zimkazimka (@zimkazimka)
21st December 2017, 2:50
Man, look at that picture. Ricciardo, Stroll, and Hartley sure do have a lot of bodyguards!
Aaditya (@neutronstar)
22nd December 2017, 6:25
@zimkazimka To think an 19-year old derpy kid would be one of the leaders of the world’s fastest mafia group…This story is straight out of an anime.
Martijn (@)
21st December 2017, 10:04
Hahaha, somehow Button and Magnussen got 1%. Button aside since he’s such an amicable lad, what did I miss about Kevin this season? Probably his off track behaviour? If thats the norm, I would like to change my vote to Vettel – I mean seriously denying in front of milllions of viewers the whole Baku thing.. Hilareous… Does he know there are cameras around the track?
dbt
22nd December 2017, 19:10
Not a good thing when Giovinazzi, Button and di Resta have more votes than Kvyat and Palmer.