[Iestyn Davies]

1. Vettel – ultra consistent and fast, the only mistakes being losing some Grand Chelems and the odd bad strategy call (China, Spain, Hungary). Unbeatable on the revised tyres with a car 0.75-1s a lap faster than others.
2. Alonso – ultimate consistency, with only a few costly errors at season beginning (podium lost in Bahrain DRS issue, win attempt lost in the wet at Malaysia).
3. Raikkonen – bastion of consistency, winner of the first race, usually let down by bad team mistakes or strategy errors (and the odd slip up in qualifying). Tyre change didn’t help him, but we didn’t see how well he would run with the short wheelbase car from Abu Dhabi onwards.
4. Hulkenberg – managed to take the fight to the front runners on occasions where his car was underneath him. Greatly aided by an upgrade package mid-season, and revised tyres, making his car come alive.
5. Hamilton – a yo-yo season for a yo-yo Hamilton. But unlucky not to have 2 wins amongst many poles in the Q-car Mercedes.
6. Rosberg – similarly came on and off pace as the season unfolded at Mercedes. Winner of Monaco GP amongst some pole positions. Perhaps surprisingly had the upper hand on Hamilton at times – this may change in 2014. But very good in changeable conditions, many times faster than Hamilton in the wet.
7. Button – best of the midfield in the slow 2013 McLaren, by virtue of his consistency in delivering race performances. Occasionally qualifying could be better.
8. Grosjean – came on strong as the change of tyres played in his favour. Unlucky not to have a win this year or good chance to take it to Vettel on pure race pace. Fatherhood and good psychology did the biz.
9. Ricciardo – stirling qualifying performances helped him secure the seat at Red Bull, and this plays perfectly to their usual strengths. Qualify well, and then hang on to the outright lead on OK race pace, describes RB and Ricciardo’s points attempts well.
10. Bianchi – best rookie by gist of being up to speed so quickly in the first half of the season. Probably the best prepared rookie with help from old Ferrari running (FDA surely). Secured 10th for Marussia in the WCC, and the $4m bonus probably paid his salary and most of the 2014 Ferrari engines.
11. Di Resta – a little unlucky to lose a huge points score at Malaysia, from a team pit stop snafu, but Di Resta looked good on the 2013 tyres. Switch to 2012 hampered him, with 3x spin offs, including from strong points in Singapore, but an ‘almost pole’ in changing conditions at Spa sums up Di Resta’s F1 career sadly pretty well.
12. Bottas – once up to speed in the second half, beat Maldonado convincingly. Canada very impressive, his Q in general was slightly inconsistent, but he is fast when the car is balanced. Outqualifying Maldonado is a good achievement.
13. Webber – fell away from Vettel on the 2013 tyres, came back a bit at season end on the 2012 revision spec. Grabbed a lucky pole and then missed out on one on merit at the last sector – kinda sums up Webber’s career. Good time to call it quits. Memorable overtakes as usual! Always recovering positions after bad starts (worst on the grid).
14. Massa – Gradually lost performance since 2010, perhaps signs of aging or lingering after-effects from the 2009 crash in Hungary. Occasional strong qualifying and race drives, but Bottas must feel he is beatable overall in the races.
15. Perez – Not that far behind Button overall but beaten in general and with only occasional results or speed. Got into a good position at Monaco but didn’t know when to give up attacking and settle for a good points haul.
16. Vergne – A lot of problems for Vergne this season, but he’s still behind in Q, and good race pace can’t make up for this and being behind from the get go. High point 6th in Canada.
17. Sutil – Unlucky in the start of the season, where he was up to speed very quickly, like he hadn’t been away. Lost a lot of points but come the revision in tyres was nowhere and beaten by Di Resta. Looks to outcash PDR to retain a seat in the midfield sadly.
18. Maldonado – Got Williams’ first point of the season, generally stronger than Bottas until late in the season in the race. But totally went off the rails in the last part of the season and was also beaten on pace.
19. Gutierrez – Didn’t have the car in the first half, but was routinely far off Hulkenberg. A tough measure for anybody, but his pace improved as the season wore on, and now only penalties and lack of racecraft are holding Gutierrez back from some good low points scoring results regularly. A second season would define him as an F1 driver, as it has done for Pic or Vergne, Perez or Ricciardo.
20. Van der Garde – After getting up to speed, beating experienced F1 team-mate Pic into submission, taking the fight to Bianchi. Deserves a second season alongside a new team-mate. Strong in making calls to move to dry tyres in changing conditions.
21. Pic – Came into this season strong, having ushered Glock out of the sport, but his pace disappeared on the revised 2012 tyre combination as Van der Garde got the upper hand.
22. Kovalainen – Impressive in how up to speed he was for one lap given time away, but disappointing on the longer stints and start procedures. Inevitable really given how hard it is to stay in top shape without driving. Perhaps the first signs of age as well coming back to haunt him (he said himself he didn’t live up to his own expectations)
23. Chilton – last place, something Chilton must be used to after this season. Best retort to his finishing record being “He doesn’t go fast enough to crash it”, although ‘getting in the way quite often’ can be attested from P. Maldonado in Monaco or G. Van der Garde at multiple (and consecutive) events.

Looking at my list, the top half could all have a reasonable chance at being WDC (as the requirement for WDC is firstly to beat your team-mate!). Notably, I think many would not discredit the top 5 from winning the WDC at least once, while the top 10 are likely to have at least a shot at it at some point in their career, but may not win it for want of beating their team-mate who is in the top 5.

[Chris]

1) Sebastian Vettel – When you compare Vettel’s first half of the season to the second half, it looks awful, by his standards. However, when you look at those results, they’re not bad at all. In fact, they’re very very good. He won 4 races, and aside from his DNF in Silverstone, he finished no lower than 4th. Then after the summer break, things really got going. Showing complete and utter dominance winning every single race from then on until the end of the season. Oh yeah, and he won his 4th consecutive WDC, and contributed handsomely to the teams 4th consecutive WCC. However, I did find myself wondering on many occasions, just how much of his dominance was down to the car, and how much was him. But, full credit to him, he made very few mistakes, and got the absolute maximum from his beast of a car. Congrats Seb!

2) Lewis Hamilton – He may have finished fourth in the WDC, and been inconsistent at times, however, Lewis showed how supremely talented he was by coming to a brand new team, and beating Nico Rosberg, who is no slouch. Hamilton took 4 consecutive pole positions between the British and Belgian Grands Prix. Claiming 5 poles for the season, and a grand prix victory at his Hungarian stomping ground, all the while struggling with personal issues and getting accustomed to new brakes.

3) Fernando Alonso – When you consider the fight he put up in last years championship, you could look at this year’s one and think “Hmmm… what happened there”. Sebastian Vettel happened. Despite the F138 looking promising early in the season, the pace of the car was quickly overtaken by the other top teams, often leaving Fernando to scrap for lower placings. However, he still finished 2nd in the championship, and proved to be Vettel’s biggest (distant) rival, in vastly inferior machinery.

4) Nico Rosberg – Nico came into the season with something to prove, and that was to prove doubters wrong that he was indeed a top driver in this sport. He’d beaten the old maestro, and was now facing a bigger challenge: Mr. Hamilton. Whilst Lewis had the legs on Rosberg for the most part of the season, Nico did win two races to Lewis’s one. However, many believe he essentially lucked into his Silverstone win, due to blowing up tyres, and Vettel’s gearbox giving up. His Monaco win however, was supreme. He showed complete control and class in a car that was known for a strong appetite of rear wheel Pirelli’s.

5) Kimi Raikkonen – Kimi’s season started as well as it possibly could have, with a win in at the first GP. However, he wasn’t able to replicate this performance for the next 17 races. His smooth driving style combined with the lenience the Lotus treated it’s tyres with, Kimi was often able to get himself into a position that he had no business being in because he was able to make one less stop than everyone else (I.e. Australia, Spain, Hungary and Singapore, just to name a few). He was on track to put up a robust fight to Sebastian and Fernando, however, a DNF in Spa, and a non-scoring race in Italy, effectively washed away any hope of a title fight.

6) Nico Hulkenberg – Nico started 2013 in a Sauber that was, let’s be honest, utterly rubbish, and thus was not able to show his full potential. However in China he briefly led the race as opposing strategies played out, whilst his team mate was incredibly unimpressive. The first half of the season was nothing to shout about; his C32 just simply wasn’t good enough. Come the second half of the season, and a new upgrade, the Sauber was much more to his liking, and Hulkenberg displayed a racing ability far beyond his years. Finishing regularly in the points, and amazingly qualifying 3rd at the Italian GP, his reputation sky rocketed.

7) Mark Webber – Mark is a top class Formula One driver. Make no mistake about that. However, the man he was up against was steadily rapidly blooming into a Formula One legend. Thus, 2013 was a season to forget for Webber. Tyres that rapidly degraded, and even more so with his driving style, he was unable to lean on them. Combine that with the beat down of a life time against his team mate, in both qualifying and the races, things didn’t look good. However, in Malaysia, he was driving very well, and leading the race thanks to good strategy, when all of a sudden ‘Multi-21’ happened. And I’ll leave that at that. I wish you the best of luck in the WEC, which will much more suit your style. Fair well mate!

8) Romain Grosjean – The quick but erratic Frenchman had a pretty typical first half of the season to be frank; Crashing himself and others out of races, and then there was Monaco. I think the less said about that, the better. As the summer break finished and we arrived at Spa, Romain Grosjean 2.0 was born. The second half proved to be his best time in Formula One, with almost regular podium finishes, and a more controlled driving style, Romain became, for at least a few races, Sebastian’s closest rival on track.

9) Daniel Ricciardo (‘Rick-ardo’!, not ‘Richy-ardo’) – In 2012 Ricciardo earned a reputation for being blisteringly quick over one lap, but not much to shout about during a race. That changed somewhat in 2013 with his qualifying pace still being present, but his race-craft was vastly improved, beating his more race-savvy team mate more often than not. I really hope Dan goes really well at Red Bull, and gives ‘ze Cherman’, a run for his money, at least in qualifying. And, seeing as we grew up in the same suburb (Duncraig), I have a bit of bias for him. :)

10) Jenson Button – The McLaren MP4-28 was a scrub, and anyone who says otherwise should get a mental health check. JB showed his usual smooth as butter style, which helped him the races with these 2013 spec tyres that lasted about 30 seconds before you needed a new set. However, his smooth driving could only get him so far, before the constraints of the machine he was in weighed him down. But compared to his team mate, he out performed him for the most part.

11) Felipe Massa – As clear a number 2 driver as there ever has been. His final year at Ferrari proved to be slightly more successful than the previous few years, as he got on the podium a couple of times, and out qualified his team mate several times to boot. But now it’s on to greener pastures, in the hope that he can rediscover his true self. Arguably the nicest man in Formula One will be joining the team that every has a soft spot for: Williams.

12) Valtteri Bottas – Big things were expected from Valtteri this year. The much hyped Finnish rookie looked promising, but the Williams car was, like McLaren, a bonefide scrub. With Williams on track to have their worst year in their team’s history. Valtteri stepped up at the pennultimate hour and scored his first points of the year, and more than doubled the teams constuctors points in 1 race (From 1pt, to 5pts). Not to mention his stellar job in Canada, even though he was on a wetter setup than the rest, he paid for it in the race.

13) Sergio Perez – After a terrific year with Sauber, Perez was hired by McLaren. What could go wrong? He was quicker than his team mate in qualifying, but didn’t have the same level of mental strength in the race, combined with some exciting, yet reckless driving Perez became a marked man. I actually feel that Perez deserved another year with the Woking team. But these things happen in the vicious world of F1.

14) Jules Bianchi – Jules has been the first rookie to really catch my eye. Proving to be the only bright spot among the back markers. The guy has undeniable talent, and a Ferrari engine in his pocket. However, I found myself wondering if his dominance over young Max was as a result of his talent, or whether Max was just incredibly out of his depth in Formula 1.

15) Paul Di Resta – Paul had some good drives this year, namely his performance in Bahrain, where he was on course for 3rd, but had it taken from him by Romain Grosjean, as Di Resta’s tyres fell off the cliff. After that, Di Resta was largely unimpressive. His (almost pole) 5th place qualifying in Belgium was another highlight. However, Paul on several occasions played the blame game, and not very transparently either. Claiming all the glory for good performances, and putting all the blame on the team for bad performances. Rumours are that he’s lost his drive at Force India, and if he’s to stay in Formula One: buyer beware of this blaming.

16) Adrian Sutil – Making an impressive start to the season, Adrian looked like he had the legs on his team mate, however, the change in tyres mid season seemed to hurt him quite badly. He was faster over one lap than Di Resta, but was often beaten in the races.

17) Jean-Eric Vergne – About as close to invisible as it gets. Scored some points, but that’s about it.

18) Esteban Gutierrez – A dreadful start to the year had me wondering why this guy was even in Formula One, aside from his thick wallet. However, as with Hulkenberg, the change in tyres, and the upgraded C32, Esteban became a better driver, and developed quite quickly during the season. Finally scoring points in Japan, and deservedly so. But he was beaten into submission about as thoroughly as you can get.

19) Pastor Maldonado – The crazy Venezuelan has his moments of brilliance, but they’re few and far between. Sure, the Williams wasn’t good this year (understatement much?), but he didn’t exactly maximise the performance of the car in qualifying, which is something he’s known for. OH yeah, and he didn’t help himself with the deterioration of his relationship with Williams.

20) Giedo van der Garde – A relatively unheard of chap, I quite liked him. He got the CT03 into Q2 on two occasions and seemed to have the advantage over his more experienced team mate when the conditions were changeable.

21) Charles Pic – Another JEV. Pretty much never saw anything of him. He’s quite talented, but nothing to get too excited about.

22) Max Chilton – And finally, last, and in this case: least. Chilton proved the least impressive of the field. Essentially only driving because he sold himself as an investment to Marussia, he’d better hope it works out. Credit to him though for being consistent and finishing every GP this year, a feat no rookie has achieved. However, while he was consistent, he was consistently slow. Often being out qualified by his team mate by around 0.3 to 0.8 seconds, and much more during the race, Chilton was as slow as they come. If he get’s another year, I hope he can get on terms more easily.

[V. Chris]

1) Vettel – Flawless season. For sure the most perfect season i have ever seen. Did Vettel actually had any mistakes?

2) Hulkenberg – he was good entire season, though the bad car masked his good performance in the first half. As soon as the Sauber became more competitive, he did some fantastic races.

3) Raikonen – Good start, solid performances. He could have achieved at least one more victory i think. The second half of the season was very bad for Kimi, but his overall season was very good.

4) Hamilton – He underperformed in my eyes and he couldn’t bring the spark his team expected. He managed to beat Nico, but somehow i don’t see Lewis as the leader of the team yet. I think that Nico is gaining even more confidence and their battle next season will be very interesting.

5) Rosberg – he was the best “number 2” driver and actually showed he is not number 2 at all (except that moment in Malaysia)

6) Grosjean – excellent 2nd half, but mediocre 1st. If he was better in the first half, the 3rd place would have been for Lotus.

7) Alonso – the worst season for ALO so far. When his car was competitive he couldn’t capitalize at all. The first half of the season should have been better for him and Ferrari and the second i think he just gave up.

8) Button – he outscored Sergio by far and his car wasn’t competitive. But overall he did good.

9) Webber – some bad luck involved here but also not so great races. Mark should have put his car in better position overall, especially when his team mate won 13 races with it.

10) Bianchi – really big question here, he demonstrated clearly that he is above the rest in the bottom but it is hard to judge in this machinery.

I don’t have the time to write my full list so i’ll stop with top 10. Also it is getting harder with every place.

[melkurion]

My 2 cents:

1) Sebastian Vettel, no doubts about that, made teh best of the car when it struggled a bit on the tires. When teh car camegood he crushed the whole field.

2) fernando alonso, don’t like him, but scored every possible point he could. even though his interest seemed to wain a bit when vettel seemed unbeatable. I’ll still give him second, but not by a big margin

3) Kimi raikonnen, a bit unlucky not to win a few more. but for him too goes: seemed to wain a bit in the second half of the season, if for different reasons.

4) Nico Rosberg, I know he ended up behind lewis in the points but i feel this ws more through basd luck. Wasn’t always on the ball, but more often then not he did better then his teammate imo. Even though he was under tremendous pressure bcs everybody thought he’d be lewis’whipping boy.

5) Romain Grosjean, struggled with bad luck and the car early on, then blew everybodie mind

6) Nico Hulkenberg, did amaizng things in that sauber, how he is not at lotus/mclaren/ferrari I will never get.

7) Marc Webber A worthy send off campaign, but a bit obvious he was fading already

8) lewis hamilton, never got a good handle on the car. had a few highlights like his win, but neevr looked comfy all season.

9) Bottas, For a rookie he kept early pace with maldonado, who is a douche, but quick. When Williams ditched the coanda he showed what could have been.

10) Ricciardo, impressed me especially in qualifing

11) Button, the car was very abd, but as newly appointed teamleader i would have liked to see a few stand out preformances from him

12) Sergio Perez , got a tough deal for his fiorst year at Mclaren. i still think he is capable of more….hope he cans how it next year and not be crushed ad force india by the hulk

13) massa, i hope he is reborn at williams, but never looked less likely to chalange alonso then this year, although he picked up his qualifing

14) Jules Bianchi, the marussia soon fell behind the caterhams, but he was still ahead more often then not

15) paul di resta….go to indycar pleaseee….. He shows flashes of speed, but really underwhelmed me

16) Sutil got outscored heftily by and underwhelminfg teammate, only monaco really stands out as a great drive

17) maldonado, still afan of this guy, but this year….. he was not as crashprone, but with a bad car his drives seem to get worse

18) Guido van de Garde, started the year on the back foot, but has surprised me, like outqualifing the other backmarkers at the USGP after missing friday

19) Vergne, really dissapointed em this year, was nowhere near ricciardo on pace

20) Charles Pic, second year in, but got beaten by vand e garde more often than not.

21) Chilton, finished 19 out of 19….bcs he’s to slow to stress the car into breaking

22) Gutierrez…..enough said

Left Heikki out, can’t judge a man after 2 races in an unfamilliar car (even though look-how-bad-you-are memmories resurfaced)

[Anonymous]

1) Vettel
2) Raikkonen
3) Hamilton
4) Grosjean
5) Hulkenberg
6) Alonso
7) Rosberg
8) Webber
9) Bottas
10) Button
11) Perez
12) Ricciardo
13) Sutil
14) Di Resta
15) Massa
16) Vergne
17) Bianchi
18) Van Der Garde
19) Gutierrez
20) Pic
21) Chilton
22) Maldonado

[Deej92]

1. Vettel: He has been absolutely flawless. His lowest finish being 4th (twice) is just remarkable. He also wiped the floor with his team-mate.
2. Alonso: His qualifying pace is still not the strongest, and he was a bit clumsy early in the season, but he extracted 100% out of the car in most races and has been really consistent.
3. Hulkenberg: He beat his rookie team-mate easily, and had some stand-out races, including, for me, drive of the year in Korea.
4. Hamilton: He’s beaten his very strong team-mate in his first season with the team, and had some really impressive poles. His 2nd half of the season form wasn’t the best, however.
5. Raikkonen: Another consistent podium visitor, and he beat his ever-improving team-mate. He would’ve hoped for more though, after winning in Australia.
6. Rosberg: He showed up really well against Hamilton, and people now realize how strong he is. It was an impressive Monaco win, but he went missing in some races.
7. Grosjean: He is definitely the most improved driver of the year, and but for some clumsy moments earlier on, he’d be higher on the list.
8. Button: He’s been a very consistent points-scorer, and saved his best ’til last. Qualifying has been his Achilles’ heel once again though.
9. Webber: He got Red Bull some handy podiums and points, but didn’t show many flashes of brilliance, and he was comprehensively beaten by the mighty Vettel.
10. Perez: He gave a good account of himself with his consistent points-scoring. He beat Button overall in qualifying, and his end-of-season form was promising.
11. Ricciardo: He’s been a very good qualifier, and has even showed up better in races vs Vergne. There were some stand-out performances as well (e.g. China).
12. Bianchi: He got Marussia that illusive 10th in the Constructors’, and another to thrash his team-mate. He’s my rookie of the year.
13. Massa: He’s shown good qualifying speed and consistency. He had a difficult spell of crashes at one point, but got Ferrari many crucial points.
14. Bottas: He’s outclassed Maldonado in qualifying, but his race pace is still lacking a bit. He looks a little weak when battling with others in the races. He had an impressive race in the USA, however.
15. di Resta: He’s been up and down in qualifying terms, but he’s soundly beaten Sutil and had some strong races. A string of DNFs really let the team down though.
16. Sutil: Had a strong first race back, and had one of the overtakes of the season on Alonso in Monaco. He’s just been very average – almost non-existent in races sometimes.
17. van der Garde: Getting into Q2 twice is impressive, and the 2nd half of the season has been really strong for him. He’s given Pic a harder time than many thought.
18. Gutierrez: He’s improved, but only has one points-finish. Even with more pace, he still looks a bit ragged.
19. Maldonado: He still hasn’t sorted out his clumsiness. His race pace has been stronger than Bottas’, but has overall been out-scored and out-qualified by him.
20. Vergne: He’s the most non-existent driver not at Caterham or Marussia. His Canada performance was a long time ago, and hasn’t looked good since. He won’t be in F1 for much longer.
21. Pic: He was expected to do better against van der Garde. He has had decent qualifying pace mind.
22. Chilton: 19 finishes out of 19 is nice, but he’s usually seen last out of the runners. He just isn’t good enough.

[Nixon]

1. vettel: this season he was just so consistent, thats his best asset. no other driver was close to his consistency.
2 Alonso: Best racer and overtaker of the year, but not as consistent as vetted. also the fact the he finished ahead of webber and hamilton in the driver championship is brilliant..
3. Hulkenberg: just awesome
4 hamilton
5. Rosberg
6. =Grosjean brilliant second half of the season
6 =raikonnen consistent but did not show many flashes of greatness.
And for the rest i wasn’t really impressed by any of them that much throughout the season, but Bianchi definitely is the rookie of the year.

[Craig Woollard]

For those who follow my motorsport account on Twitter you may have already seen this, but here are the in-depth ratings:

23: Heikki Kovalainen
Didn’t really get much chance to show what he can do, but put in a good effort nonetheless. Showed good pace for Caterham on Fridays.

22: Max Chilton
Chilton was not as bad as some people make out he was, yet not as good as the Guardian made out he was. Brought the car home wherever possible, and was not far off Bianchi towards the end of the season in terms of pace. I feel he deserves another season.

21: Giedo Van Der Garde
Van Der Garde had flashes of brilliance, notably at Spa. He was a bit slow off the mark though and was consistently behind Pic and Bianchi in a lot of races, strong 2nd half though. I feel he should be retained for 2014.

20: Charles Pic
Relatively solid 2nd season from Pic, though wasn’t exceptional, often caused headaches for Marussia, but not often enough, and looks likely to get sacked.

19: Pastor Maldonado
Maldonado was deemed a great qualifier after last season but erratic in the races. From this season we’ve seen he can be out-qualified by a rookie and then be erratic in races, and blamed the team, which is not something you should expect from a driver of his experience. Should he go to Lotus, I can’t see him scoring points too frequently.

18: Jules Bianchi
Bianchi had a very, very good start to the season, taking that important 13th place. But his dominance over his teammate seemed to wear off a tad towards the end of the season. Should be retained or promoted to a stronger team, lots of potential.

17: Esteban Gutierrez
One of the most improved drivers in the 2nd half of the season, being on par with Hulk at Suzuka is a good enough reason for him to be kept on for next season. Showed flashes of great driving at Austin but still requires a bit of work.

16: Sergio Perez
Perez was always going to be out of depth at McLaren, a team which he was never good enough to join in the first place. Narrowly out-qualified Button (who is far from a good qualifier these days) and was outscored by Hulkenberg and Di Resta who were in inferior cars. Far too aggressive and rightly sacked.

15: Adrian Sutil
Sutil definitely made an impact in his first race back in Formula 1 by leading for the first time. He was unlucky at times, and at other times he was just off the pace. Looks set to go to Sauber, which might be a good move for him. He quietly just gets on with it bringing points home, which is important to midfield teams.

14: Valtteri Bottas
Bottas out-qualified and outscored somebody who was deemed one of F1’s best qualifiers in his rookie season. That alone is a great achievement! Showed absolutely fantastic skill in Canada too to put the Williams on P3. Massa will be a tough test though.

13: Jean-Eric Vergne
Vergne’s qualifying woes cost him dearly again this season and arguably cost him the second seat at Red Bull. It was often close between him and Ricciardo but JEV wasn’t quite there. Kvyat looks impressive so he should be worried.

12: Paul Di Resta
It’s been an erratic season from Di Resta, which is unusual because he’s usually one of the more solid drivers out there. Lots of unforced retirements cost him lots of points and won’t help his position in the driver market. He looks set to go to Indy though replacing his cousin. Outscored a teammate for the first time though.

11: Jenson Button
In qualifying Jenson seemed nowhere at times, but his race pace was really good, which is an improvement from last year. Spent more time complaining about a lack of grip than scoring points though. I feel any of the drivers in the top 10 of my list would have scored a podium in the McLaren this year, and ‘Kev’ is being dubbed the next Lewis Hamilton. Expecting fireworks (and praying for a decent car) next year at McLaren.

10: Daniel Ricciardo
Ricciardo’s race pace was much improved this year, and was quite frequently towards the front. Got unlucky with a few retirements but landed that second Red Bull drive. I can’t honestly see him troubling Vettel next year, but I have been wrong before.

9: Felipe Massa
It was a much better season from Massa this year, although the points will say otherwise. He often caught Alonso napping and out-qualified him, showing there is still something there, and was denied what would have been a fantastic podium in Brazil. Looking forward to seeing him at Williams, where I expect him to perform much better than the results from the last 3.5 years have shown.

8: Nico Rosberg
I can see a lot of people placing Rosberg higher, but I feel he was off the pace too often this year, and with Hamilton not performing at his best, I can’t see it being as close at Mercedes next season. The win at Monaco was absolutely world class though, can’t question that. Some good pole laps too.

7: Mark Webber
Winless for the first time since 2008, and outscored massively by Vettel. However Mark was often very unlucky, having something go wrong mechanically or being hit by someone in almost every single race. Multi 21 cost him the win at Malaysia but I couldn’t see Webber winning any more races this year. WEC will suit him well, I expect him to be ace there. Looking forward to watching him.

6: Romain Grosjean
I stand corrected. Completely wrote him off after last season and I have been proven so very wrong. I would have placed him higher but his first third of the season was awful. When Grosjean is putting in performances on par or even better than Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen at driver circuits at Suzuka and Austin, Lotus won’t miss Kimi too much. Most improved driver.

5: Lewis Hamilton
In terms of wins, his worst season. Just one win to his name from his first year at Mercedes, where he has been honest and said he hasn’t been good enough. And he hasn’t. His win at Hungary was fantastic, where it seemed Vettel had the faster car, and really should have won at Silverstone also, but in other races Hamilton really has just been poor, and the frustration was often clear over team radio. Expect him to bounce back though, and hopefully no more stupid mistakes like Brazil.

4: Kimi Raikkonen
If you put together Raikkonen’s first half of the season and Romain Grosjean’s 2nd, you probably get a brilliant result. However it seemed as if Kimi just dropped off drastically, and he arguably was giving Lotus ‘what they paid for’. Great win at Melbourne and some more fantastic podiums though. I can only hope he takes it to Alonso next season.

3: Fernando Alonso
There’s a big gap between Alonso and Raikkonen, honest! Fernando was not as good as he was last year, far from it, but he’s still P3 on my list. Qualifying poorly often cost him stronger results and had an uncharacteristic moment of stupidity in Malaysia, a race which Vettel won. I’m really beginning to dislike all these Samurai comments he puts on Twitter and him claiming Vettel has never had a car ‘like everyone else’. Good driver though.

2: Nico Hulkenberg
Hulkenberg has been absolutely brilliant this season in a car which has been quite poor for the majority of it. Having outscored Di Resta, Perez and Sutil in inferior machinery is really good. He’s literally dragged that Sauber into places it really should not have been, like P3 at Monza, and P4 at Korea, producing arguably drive of the season to hold off Hamilton and Alonso. I only have one question though, WHY WON’T SOMEBODY SIGN THIS GUY??????

1: Sebastian Vettel
Can’t question him this season. He won races he shouldn’t have won, and had just one weekend where he wasn’t quite there (Hungary). Records keep coming and coming and there’s nothing anybody could do about it this season. He’s as good as Hamilton over one lap, he’s as fast as Alonso in the race, and has the consistency of Raikkonen. He’s the complete package. He’s not even supposedly at his best yet, which worries me.

[Anonymous]

1. S Vettel – Making history – even if with an amazing car – isn’t simply going fast, it’s having the correct attitude, not crumbling up under pressure and keeping the foot on the throttle consistently not only through some races, but throughout the whole season.
2. N Rosberg – When your car isn’t great but it has one only strength, it takes a very good driver to feel it and use it to your own benefit. While Vettel had a great car he could push with in every situation, Rosberg’s was fluctuatingly further or closer to its rivals through the season. Three consecutive poles, two wins, one of which a double in Monaco, were too often paired with poor results, and while consitency improved in the second half of the season the best results available were lower.
3. F Alonso – Finishing second with the second-best car means beating one of its two drivers. 2 wins and 7 podiums aren’t bad at all, and the competition was very fierce.
4. N Hulkenberg – Overcoming your car’s defects when it’s the second-best is one thing, but doing so in a midfield team is much harder. Because to shine, you have not only to beat your opponents but some of the top tier drivers as well. 3rd in qualifying at Monza, 4th in Korea were the highlights of an incredible season, started with an appalling car but finished with a good one. It should be tougher for drivers not used to battle for those positions to find themselves in the top five, but Nico made it look so easy I could do it, when of course he was just being phenomenal.
5. L Hamilton – Adapting to a new team and team mate isn’t easy, and Lewis’ start to the season showed the opposite. Four straight poles and a win in Hungary were incredibly impressive from him, but the remainder of the season not as much.
6. R Grosjean – Being fast is one thing, becoming fast is another. A mediocre, cautious start of the season helped him gain back the confidence he needed to return to push at his maximum. And when he did, he finished five consecutive times in the top four, scoring more points than anyone bar Vettel from Singapore onwards.
7. K Raikkonen – Being cool and winning – or coming 2nd – when everything goes well determines a good driver, but recovering from difficult situations makes a driver great. Four podiums in the first five races of the season, including a win which proved opportunistic as Lotus never had the same pace as in melbourne, followed by an unbelievable recovery to finish 10th in Monaco, and a well-deserved record for longest consecutive points-finishes. Highs and lows followed, but the highs were as high as possible, and the lows weren’t so bad.
8. M Webber – Mark had a good season with positive results, but when compared to his team mates he fades quickly. His two poles and four podiums in the final five races were nice to see and showed the potential which he failed to liven up to during the rest of the season.
9. F Massa – Positive start, followed by an uninspiring end. Great qualifying run from half-season, and beating Alonso, if by a tiny margin, mustn’t be overlooked, especially if you have a high opinion of the Spaniard. Unlucky and unfavoured by the team in a few races, impressive in India and twice more 4th, the promise showed wasn’t fulfilled this year.
10. J Button – When you are a world champion and pass from a title-worthy car to a midfield one, it mustn’t be easy at all to keep pushing. But Jenson did exactly this, taking valuable points at the beginning which Perez wasn’t quite scoring yet. Only five times outside the top 10, always classified, Jenson’s consistency was the key to avoid McLaren’s total failure this season, but flashes of speed weren’t uncommon, as showed by Brazil.
11. J Bianchi – Coming in as a rookie and thrashing your team mate in such a fashion, lapping on par with the Caterhams and ultimately allowing your team to beat them to 10th place is a fantastic way to start your Formula 1 career and get noticed by the top teams.
12. D Ricciardo – Very often showed a solid race pace, scoring many points for Toro Rosso when the chance was there. That more than his beating of Vergne shows his true potential.
13. V Bottas – Kept his head on his shoulders, retired only twice and through no own fault, kept race-winner Maldonado at bay and even beat him in fashion in the United States and in Brazilian qualifying.
14. S Perez – He came to a top team and found a car not better than his previous one, certanly without the same tyre-managing pros, and his main feature went wasted. He showed he was not rubbish even without that, and improved steadily over the course of the season.
15. P di Resta – Stated off very well, with many points and a fourth place in Bahrain. The car clearly didn’t keep its advantage over its rivals in the second half of the season, but five consecutive retirements aren’t the way to help.
16. J Vergne – Still pretty much inconsistent, had a brilliant sixth place in Canada and was unlucky other times, most notably in Italy, to lose out on points, but showed strong race pace at times, even though he tends to drop back more easily than Ricciardo.
17. A Sutil – Dream return in Australia, feet-to-ground season from the on. 5th at Monaco was very positive, but nothing else stood out. Not far off the pace of di Resta even without experience from 2012.
18. E Gutierrez – Awful qualifying to start with, good recoveries and perhaps too aggressive driving, but he was 11th with the fastest lap in Spain. Consistency then followed, then qualifying improvements and a magic weekend in Japan. He should have one more chance, as it’s not clear whether the Sauber was more mathced to his or Hulkenberg’s performance.
19. H Kovalainen – Positive qualifying on his return, negative race. Nothing in Brazil, showing what a waste it was for Lotus not to hire Valsecchi. He wasn’t slow and neither made mistakes, but was purely mediocre and uninspiring.
20. G van der Garde – So slow to begin with, so fast to finish with. He started beating Pic in qualifying, and in the late races as well.
21. C Pic – Crucially retired in Monaco, losing the chance of a good result to beat Marussia. His experience was in contrast with van der Garde’s lack of at the start of the season but proved useless as far as results are concerned.
22. M Chilton – Going 19 races in a row without retiring, right from your début to the end of your first season is something remarkable. Of course he wasn’t setting new la records around Monaco but his strategy payed off in Monaco where he beat van der Garde.
23. P Maldonado – If Pic’s one-season experience was quickly swiped off by van der Garde, Bottas made Maldonado’s three-year career seem uninfluent. The car was bad, he was four times an unlucky 11th but apart from that there is no striking difference between his and Bottas’ results. The Finn might be a future champion, but Maldonado is a race winner and one point isn’t enough throughout a season.

[Kingshark]

1. Vettel
2. Alonso
3. Raikkonen
4. Hulkenberg
5. Hamilton
6. Rosberg
7. Grosjean
8. Button
9. Perez
10. Webber
11. Di Resta
12. Massa
13. Ricciardo
14. Sutil
15. Bottas
16. Bianchi
17. Vergne
18. Van Der Garde
19. Pic
20. Maldonado
21. Gutierrez
22. Chilton

[Deej92]

Perez out-scored di Resta, craig-o.

[Juan Pablo Heidfeld]

1. Sebastian Vettel: Dominant.
2. Fernando Alonso: Again, he outscored his car, probably should have finished 6th at highest, but beat 3 race winning Mercedes, tyre-friendly Lotus and one ultra-fast Red Bull. Might be looked badly upon simply because he was practically flawless last season.
3. Kimi Raikkonen: Another quality season from the Finn.
4. Lewis Hamilton
5. Nico Hulkenberg
6. Nico Rosberg
7. Romain Grosjean – Outstanding second half, only man to threaten the Red Bulls, made up for slow first half. Now seems to have the hang of opening laps too.
8. Jenson Button
9. Felipe Massa
10. Jules Bianchi – The difference between 10th and 11th.
11. Paul di Resta – good season apart from when he needed to impress other teams, when he crashed 4 times in a row.
12. Sergio Perez
13. Mark Webber
14. Daniel Ricciardo: Qualified well, seems to have graduated from the Mark Webber school of starts.
15. Valtteri Bottas
16. Adrian Sutil
17. Jean-Eric Vergne
18. Pastor Maldonado: Was quicker than Bottas for lots of races, lost his cool dramatically late on.
19. Giedo van der Garde
20. Esteban Gutierrez: Despite recovering from an awful first half of the season, was still massively outscored by Hulkenberg.
21. Charles Pic
22. Max Chilton: Consistenly slow

[magon4]

Here is the continuation of my list:

15. Valtteri Bottas
Bottas is the best rookie of the season. He had no really bad weekends in his first season (although Germany – Hungary – Spa was an unimpressive sequence for him), and showed some great potential in Montreal and Austin. Overall stronger in the last six races and therefore good to see the learning curve making an appearance. He could really impress in 2014. By beating Massa, for example.

14. Felipe Massa
It was an up and down season for the Brazilian. He had two really great weekends (Silverstone and India), and three other very good ones (Melbourne, Barcelona & Abu Dhabi), but Spa and Monaco were disappointing, and there were too many lackluster weekends. I do hope for the best at Williams, but I fear Bottas has a good chance of ending Massa’s career, despite the 3-year contract.

13. Adrian Sutil
Had a strong beginning to the season and was confortably in the Top up to and including Silverstone. Monaco was a demonstration of his skills, and Melbourne was pretty strong, too. But after another impressive performance at Spa, with gutsy racing, he altered relatively good weekends with relatively bad ones. His first negative weekend was at Nurburg, and 4 out of the last 6 races can be described as under-performing. Not a good way to see out the season.

12. Sergio Perez
Miserable at Melbourne and inconsistent throughout the first half of the season (great at Bahrain, weak in China and at Monaco). After the break, there was a bad weekend in Spa – and then his form curve went straight up, with constant performances and some outstanding ones, in India and at Interlagos, where he really stood out for me. He needs a more constant season to prove maturity, since this is the second time he has not been able to maintain the high level we occasionally see from him.

11. Paul di Resta
Up to an including Silverstone, Paul di Resta was doing a great job and was easily in my Top 5 drivers of the season. It seemed he was proving his worth, even then slightly beating a strong Sutil in a strong Force India team. But from Nurburgring to Korea, he did not stand out (besides Spa, maybe) and even had two bad weekends – Monza and mostly Suzuka. He has shown his other side in the last four races, though, and I find it pretty sad that he seems to be on his way out – from a purely driving talent perspective.

Top Ten to come later.

[magon4]

My Top Ten

10. Jenson Button
Strange season for Jenson, better than 2012 for sure. He seemed to have quite some good moments, but too many little mistakes here and there. Interlagos was his best race of the year; this is the first season in a long time where he didn’t outshine everyone else at least once. Five, maybe six very good drives, and only two bad weekends. Good enough for the Top Ten, but no more.

9. Mark Webber
Proved that the car wasn’t as dominant as Vettel made it seem, at times. As usual, had some really gutsy drives, but he simply has had difficulty putting together a weekend were qualifying, start and race consistency came together. Got closest to it at Silverstone, a venue he loves anyway. Webber had a very rough start to the season, having three pretty weak weekends in the first four races, but then had a very very solid season. Maybe surprisingly, but to me this was his best season against Vettel since 2010.

8. Daniel Ricciardo
The man who will replace the man has been consistently strong since Silverstone. His best weekend was before that, in China, but Melbourne and Monaco were pretty poor outings. Besides little dips in Singapore and Austin, he really got the most out of his Toro Rosso in the last 11 races and showed everyone that he deserved to try out that top seat.

7. Lewis Hamilton
To some of you who have seen a great season by Lewis, I personally think this might have been his worst to date. It is true that Lewis was simply brilliant at Silverstone and in Hungary, and was all in all stronger than Nico Rosberg until Monza. But his inability to adapt himself to the tyres and to cope with some problems, mostly after the Italian GP, saw him lose his seemingly guaranteed Top 5 spot; I was very surprised to see him admit as much at the end of the season, and do think he can do better than what we saw in 2013.

6. Nico Rosberg
Overall, on average, Hamilton was slightly better. But the last seven races, Nico was only really inferior to Lewis once. After the summer break, I have him at a 7.7 average against Hamilton’s 7.1, and it is this late tendency that gives Nico the edge on my list, in what has been and will probably continue to be a tight contest. Truth be said, with a little bit less bad luck and some justice in Malaysia, Nico would have beaten Lewis in the points tally, too.

5. Romain Grosjean
Better late than never. Even in Brazil, Grosjean showed flashes of good form. And that was by far his worst weekend out of the last seven races in 2013. Having done well early on in Bahrain, as well as later in Nurburgring and Hungary, Romain has impressed the F1 world as a consistent top driver since Singapore. After the disastrous Monaco and Montreal races, speculation was going around of getting fired, since 2012 seemed to see a repeat. The way he turned that around is worth a lot, in my book.

4. Kimi Raikkonen
Even after losing the edge to Grosjean at the end, he was beating the Swiss Frenchman so consistently early on in the season that in my view Romain was not able to do enough to repass the Iceman. Kimi only had one really bad weekend, in Malaysia, and meh ones, surprisingly at Montreal and Spa, normally two of his strongest tracks. His best race was the first one, although he did shine in China, Bahrain and Singapore as well. All in all a consistent driver at the top level – let’s hope he can find the motivation to make Alonso’s life miserable next season.

3. Fernando Alonso
This guy is simply good. He did make some rare mistakes this year, with Malaysia and even more Monaco being low points, but a drive like Barcelona could only have been delivered by Fernando. He had only four more really outstanding races in the season, which is just not quite enough for a world class driver. At least he didn’t lose performance toward the end of the season, something we saw to varying degrees in the previous three seasons. Only India was a really bad weekend for him, making it three in the year – simply too much for someone who is considered to be the best.

2. Nico Hülkenberg
I’ve read people saying he was dreadful at the beginning of the season, and I ask myself how one can self proclaim to be a F1 Fanatic and find dreadfulness in any of Nico’s performances this season. Besides Vettel, he is the only driver to never get a grade lower than 6 this year in my personal stats, with Monaco and Montreal being the low points. He didn’t excel in those races, but he didn’t fail, either. And what we saw at Monza and at Suzuka was simply fantastic. The rest of the season, he was consistent in being good and sometimes very good. Give him a better car, and we would see him shine more often. But it is not to be… or will Force India surprise us come 2014?

1. Sebastian Vettel
Even his lackluster Hungary GP was more than average – it was just not quite Vettel-level! In 13 out of 19 races, I gave him a grade of 9 or higher, and his final average of 8.84 is more than one full grade higher than the next one. That was Vettel 2013 – no one came close. Maybe not to his car in the second part of the season, but mostly not to the man himself during the whole season. In Barcelona I felt he could have done more, but in basically all the other 17 races, he got pretty much what he could out of the races. Singapore was his best weekend in my view.

[HawkAussie]

1. Vettel – Dominate for 2013 and will be favourite for 2014
2. Alonso – Consisit this year but was the best of the rest
3. Raikkonen – Scoring points all year until Belgium but even with that, he would of came in the top 3 if not the injury.
4. Grosjean – His second half of the year was brilliant but only if made with his first half and would of been higher than 7th.
5. Hulkenberg – Outrace his rookie and showed potential to go into a higher constructor
6. Rosberg – A much better season unlike 2012 and even winning in the toughest race on the calendar (Monaco). But he was lost in Hungary
7. Hamilton – Showed speed by taking pole between Britian and Belgium and taking home another 4 podiums which he’s win
8. Webber – He should of done better in his fast Red Bull car and their was more points there
Rookie. Bianchi – Smashing your teamate in your rookie season and putting Marussia in 10th place is a good start to your career.

[Author]

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