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- 7th December 2018, 13:13 at 1:13 pm #382997TodfodParticipant
It’s crazy to see such varied opinions on the best drivers of the season. I expected the mid field to be tight, but was convinced that Hamilton right in front and Stroll right behind was a given… But apparently not!
1st December 2018, 6:10 at 6:10 am #382731TodfodParticipant1. Hamilton – Other than slightly mediocre performances in Bahrain, China and Canada, Hamilton had a flawless season. His performance in Germany was outstanding and that just put him on another level for the rest of the season. He capitalised on every opportunity consistently and put in superstar performances on nearly every race weekend.
2. Verstappen – The only driver that was in the same league as Hamilton post Canada. Near flawless in every qualifying session and absolutely mega on racedays. If there was the slightest of chances of Red Bull taking a win, you know Max would most probably get the job done. His raw pace in 2018 was outstanding, and made a driver of Ricciardo’s ability seem mediocre on many a occasion.
3. Alonso – Crazy to think that a driver with the 8th or 9th quickest car on the grid even had a shot at taking the best of the rest title. It was absolutely incredible that every race weekend Alonso was outperforming the car in qualifying and fighting tooth and nail with cars over half a second a lap quicker than them for points. It’s a shame we didn’t see him in a better car this season. His 21-0 record in qualifying over Vandoorne is a testament to just how consistently fast Alonso is on every race weekend.
4. Leclerc – He made the Sauber look blindingly fast on occasion. The car was never best of the rest, but Leclerc managed to finish best of the rest on multiple occasions. A really strong qualifier and mature racer for his rookie season. Arguably the most impressive rookie season since Hamilton’s in 2007.
5. Vettel – Had a strong start to the season but lost his footing midway through the season. Unfortunately, too many blunders and missed opportunities for him and the team. Overall, a season to forget for Vettel.
6. Ricciardo – If the season had ended in Monaco, Ricciardo would probably have been the driver of the season. His drives in China and Monaco were supreme. He was really unlucky with his reliability this year, which probably disrupted his momentum and made him fall way back on Max in performance
7. Ocon – Had a really strong year and showed some incredible pace in qualifying. He was consistently quicker than a highly rated Perez, and could have even taken a podium if it wasn’t for his silly error in Baku. Ocon still needs improvement of his race craft, but overall he was one of the most impressive midfield drivers the season,
8. Raikonnen – Kimi was generally outpaced by Vettel in qualifying and he wasn’t particularly great on lap 1 of a race either, but he was consistent and fast on most racedays, and there were occasions where we really did shine as compared to his teammate. His performances in Monza and US were top notch.
9. Bottas – Started the season really well and was battling Ferrari for the few races that Hamilton didn’t show up. His strong of bad luck probably affected his performances for the rest of the season, and when he was asked to play a supporting role, he wasn’t as impressive as early on in the season. His performance in Russia was great though… and his ability to play wingman is quite phenomenal.
10. Hulkenberg – Best of the rest through sheer consistency. He really upped his game in qualifying this year and had a near perfect season if we take out his error in Baku and roll in Abu Dhabi. He made Sainz look ordinary this season, which we need to give him credit for.
11. Perez – Outqualified by his teammate way too often this season. Although.. Perez’s race craft still looked very strong in 2018.
12. Gasly – Gasly had some major highlights in the year.. especially in Bahrain and Hungary, where he finished best of the rest. He did have a lot of inconsistent performances though in the 2nd half of the season and was getting out qualified and sometimes outraced by Hartley, who many consider to be the poorest driver on the grid.
13. Magnussen – Was pretty consistent in the first half of the season and looked better than his teammate who was struggling massively, however, once Grosjean got to grips with his season, he started to make Kevin look mediocre again.
14. Sainz – I think everyone expected more of Sainz this year. I had tipped him and Hulk to have the closest teammate battle. I think he just wasn’t on it often enough… in qualifying and in the race. I’m sure he would look back and say that he could have done better as well.
15. Grosjean – After his disastrous first half of the season, he bounced back rather well. Was probably the strongest midfield driver in the second half of the season when he was putting in performances of the 2012 and 2013 Grosjean.
16. Ericsson – Probably Ericcson’s best season so far. Qualifying was never his strength, but he put in some gutsy drives for points finishes during the year. Unfortunately, he just didn’t have the pace to match his illustrious teammate way too often.
17. Vandoorne – It’s almost like he didn’t show up this season. There were a few occasions where we saw him perform well and race his heart out, but he just didn’t show up in qualifying and couldn’t get to grips with a struggling McLaren for the entire season.
18. Sirotkin – Wasn’t that bad a rookie season for Sirtkin. He was consistently quicker than his more experienced teammate in qualifying although he does need to work on his race starts and craft. He actually put in strong performances that were sometimes masked by pure bad luck. I though his qualifying performance in Monaco was outstanding.
19. Hartley – Was a tough switch from LMP1 to F1. He looked out of his depth on many an occasion and overall just didn’t show the pace and race prowess that his teammate showed.
20. Stroll – While Lance was satisfied with his progress and said it’s made him a better driver, I would thoroughly disagree. He was slow enough to get out qualified by a rookie pay driver, and he really didn’t improve on his racing flaws from last season either. He still took a while to get used to F1’s tyres and made several race craft blunders at the back of the grid. He did have some decent Sundays though and managed to get a couple of points finishes. But overall, still the slowest and most unimpressive performer on the grid.6th March 2017, 5:49 at 5:49 am #336554TodfodParticipantThat was quite a synopsis of the last 9 seasons for Mclaren!
The way I look at it os a little bit different. The era between 2007 to 2013 was dominated by aero and chassis configuration. The difference between engines was negligible and it was the primary focus of teams to just make a car that was aero efficient, had great mechanical grip and was reliable. Mclaren, Red Bull and Ferrari were the three top teams because they were all has full support from the 3 best engine suppliers for them, while they focused on making great chassis.
In 2014 that all changed because with the new regulations. Now, engine performance had become a major differentiator as the typically small gaps from aero differences, were replaced with the larger gaps found from maximised engine performance. Since Mercedes was now going to give 1st preference to it’s works team in keeping that advantage, Mclaren would never really get that edge that Ferrari and Red Bull were going to have by being the 1st preference of the engine supplier. Hence, the justifiable decision to find a new engine supplier that would give Mclaren 1st preference.
Now, this is where things start going wrong for Mclaren –
Why choose Honda? Honda was nothing short of a massive failure when they were in F1 the last time around. Under the lexx complex V8 era, they built the worst engine on the grid along with the worst chassis and pretty much failed on every front of racing before they decided to bow out in 2008. Why would you want to partner up with a engine manufacturer that had a poor track record in F1 over the past decade? More importantly, why would you only approach Honda in 2012, and start work in 2013? Mercedes, Ferrari and REbault had all started their work on the new PU as early as 2011.
Another case of lack of foresight was choosing the approach of size zero packaging. When the 2014 rules were formed, it should have been analysed that packaging wasn’t going to be as big a differentiator as power output. Especially, when Ferrari dropped the ball in 2014, it was obvious that no compromise for power output for packaging purposes should be the norm. Yet, Mclaren didn’t rework on their stance, and they ended up with a disastrous 2015 because of it. Not only did they not realise their mistake for 2015, they ended up wasting an entire year in 2016 by sticking to the same engine philosophy and ruining any fundamental corrections that should have been made at the end of 2015.
In 2017, they decided the last 2 years were a waste of time, effort and resources, and went back to the drawing board. The most optimal route was to copy Mercedes’ layout and hence they should have started what was a foolproof plan. This is when the decision of partnering up with Honda comes back to bite Mclaren. Not only are Honda unable to work on a layout that has been understood by the entire paddock, but they have been unable to identify problems early on to correct them in time. Thus, making 2017 another ‘testing’ season.
If Honda started work on their PU design 2 years late, and then scrapped an entire design after 2 years. They are already 4 years behind the competition. Even with the token system being scrapped, this could take ages to make up. At least another 2 to 3 seasons. But the worst part of the entire situation is that Honda are not really capable of catching up either. Their level of talent inspite of financial resources being poured in are not up to the mark, and additionally, they refuse to count on outside help or consultants to make their job easier.
I hate to say it, but Honda are no longer worthy of being in F1 just due to the lack of good engineering talent and skill set, and in this era of Formula 1, that is the biggest reason for you to bow out of the sport. They realised that in 2008, and they have realised it again in 2017.
It’s impossible to put a 100% of the blame on Honda though. Mclaren had their own mishaps in approaching Honda a year or two later than they should have, and also not having the foresight to abandon the size zero approach. The combination of a couple of bad decisions from Mclaren and the disaster that is Honda have now put Mclaren in a position of being unable to fight for WDCs.
Mclaren now find themselves in a position where they can never taste any success with Honda. Their only approach is to cut their losses of the last 4 seasons, and either find a new engine partner and prepare for a few more seasons of torture until they finally come good OR take a long term punt and start manufacturing their own engines. Either ways, they will have a painful journey for the next 3 to 4 seasons, but at the end, there is a chance of success, which is something they will never get with Honda.
One thing is for sure, that Zak Brown must make a decision regarding Mclaren’s future this season.. and no matter what the approach, Mclaren are in for another 3 to 4 seasons of excruciating pain. But the difference between Mclaren going through a long slump or Mclaren becoming an eternal back marker lies with the direction and decisions taken during this year.
5th March 2017, 9:19 at 9:19 am #335856TodfodParticipantHi Keith,
I think if we got access to all the lap times from the stints… similar to how you provide information for FP sessions. So, if we got tyres compound and lap times within stint, it would be great to analyse and make assumptions about the pecking order.
Also, would be great to know who was quickest in which sector at the end of the day.
I feel a lot of journalists get interviews of team owners, drivers, etc. but none of them can give the analysis that you give on lap times etc.
3rd February 2016, 11:55 at 11:55 am #312084TodfodParticipantWhat kind of breakthrough were we expecting from him? Even if he was to clean up his act and make less mistakes, he still lacks a lot of pace compared to a driver like Grosjean. Pastor’s breakthrough would result in him moving up from #20 in the driver’s rankings to around #15 at best. He’s be a forgettable competitor even at his peak
9th February 2015, 7:59 at 7:59 am #291919TodfodParticipantI would be shocked if they can turn around their 2014 form. I expect Nasr to impress in his rookie season though.. a few points finishes should be in reach for him. Doubt Ericcson will score a point all season long
28th September 2014, 22:36 at 10:36 pm #276119TodfodParticipantI think people are critical of him as he has been the least exciting or talented driver to win a WDC in a really really long time. He had a strong start to a season in a dominant car, and then was outscored by his teammate in the 2nd half of the season.
In my books, he has good race craft, consistency (if the car suits him), and a good head on his shoulders. However, he lacks outright pace.. lacks the versatility that Hamilton and Alonso possess.
Overall, I think he’s lucky to have one WDC and I guess no one can take that away from him. He can get criticised though for not being as good as other WDCs… which I think is entirely fair.
11th May 2014, 15:33 at 3:33 pm #259821TodfodParticipantFernando on Kimi was pretty good.. brilliantly set up from T1 and T2
15th April 2014, 9:03 at 9:03 am #256971TodfodParticipantI wrote Ferrari off in 2014 even before pre season testing began. I predicted them to make the 3rd or 4th fastest car… but I think they can do considerably worse this year.
What a waste of Kimi’s and Nando’s years
30th March 2014, 20:10 at 8:10 pm #254815TodfodParticipantAlonso on the Hulk
22nd February 2014, 17:27 at 5:27 pm #249550TodfodParticipantVettel – 2nd
Ricciardo – 3rdLewis – 1st
Rosberg – 1stAlonso – 1st
Raikkonnen – 1stButton – 2nd
Magnussen – 1stGrosjean – 3rd
Maldonado – 4thBottas – 2nd
Massa – 4thHulkenberg – 3rd
Perez – 6thVergne – 8th
Kyvat – 9thSutil – 9th
Guttierez – 9thBianchi – 13th
Chilton – 17thKobayashi – 16th
Ericcson – 19th9th February 2014, 6:12 at 6:12 am #248597TodfodParticipantI hope for Fernando to take it… but I’m guessing Ferrari will maintain their consistent form and make the 3rd fastest car of the season again. I’m predicting a Merc vs Mclaren battle at the front, with Merc benefiting the most from the double points race
1) Hamilton – 243
2) Rosberg – 211
3) Magnussen – 184
4) Alonso – 177
5) Button – 165
6) Vettel – 146
7) Raikkonen – 145
8) Grosjean – 101
9) Ricciardo – 96
10) Bottas – 77
11) Hulkenberg – 76
12) Maldonado – 59
13) Perez – 45
14) Massa – 42
15) Kyvat – 16
16) Vergne – 10
17) Sutil – 10
18) Guttierez – 8
19) Kobayashi – 2
20) Bianchi – 1
21) Chilton – 0
22) Ericcson – 0Points are a shot in the dark, obviously :)
7th February 2014, 8:09 at 8:09 am #248578TodfodParticipantWell… so it is true.
Mercedes engines produce a 690bhp + an additional 150 bhp from ERS
Renault (according to the Taffin interview) produce 600bhp + 160bhp from ERSFerrari are the big question mark. But if I had to guess, they would be marginally better than Renault in terms of performance. The only positive of the Ferrari engine is their cooling I guess.. which could lead to smaller sidepods and less aero drag.
I have a bad feeling that this season is going to be a Mclaren vs Mercedes battle. Let’s hope I’m wrong
6th February 2014, 18:22 at 6:22 pm #248572TodfodParticipantI dont remember Mercedes claiming their engine generated 700bhp… at least I hope not. A 100 bhp is a massive difference in performance. Big enough for the Mercedes powered cars to be at the front followed by either the Renault or Ferrari engined cars
3rd February 2014, 8:53 at 8:53 am #248468TodfodParticipant1. Hamilton
2. Rosberg
3. Button
4. Alonso
5. Magnussen
6. Vettel
7. Bottas
8. Massa
9. Raikkonnen
10. Hulkenberg - AuthorPosts