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20) Stoffel Vandoorne (3,81/10): that 0-21 figure says it all. In 2017 there were clear differences between both MCL32 in terms of upgrades and Stoff had the excuse of being in his rookie year. But 2018 was a horrific one. It’s hardly justifiable to not beat your teammate during a single qualifying session. Not even in Russia, with Fernando just doing a lap and enduring a “I’ll-give-you-whatever-tows-you-need” Q1. The chassis change affected little and he stood way behind Fernando. There were no signs of premium quality, and it’s sad from a driver who smashed everybody in lower formulae. Maybe Alonso is still damn too good?
19) Brendon Hartley (4,00/10): having the same F1 experience than his teammate and much more knowledge about hybrid systems and competition through the years, we thought Brendon could conceal his alleged deficit in pure talent and raw speed. Ultimately, he couldn’t do it not only because of bad luck (British FP3 et al), but also stupid mistakes (Baku Q1, Spain FP3 and some other crashes). He might have helped both RB and Honda from the technical side, but this is not enough in Formula 1. As Stoffel, just too slow in the crucial moments.
=16) Romain Grosjean (4,40/10): with a car capable of finishing P7 at the drivers’ standings, Romain just managed a P14. That sums up a painful year, full of stupid crashes (Azerbaijan, Spain start, French Q3…) and general slowliness until summer break. From Spa onwards, nevertheless, he recovered some speed but still wasn’t capable of translate it into real good points. He saved his job because of sentimental reasons well rated by Gene Haas (he joined the project from the beginning), but he needs much more stability in 2019. Being 32, it’s maybe too late for expecting improvements.
=16) Valtteri Bottas (4,40/10): oh dear, what a year! During the first half of the season, Valtteri was slower than Hamilton but within a reasonable gap. But from Britain onwards, it was just too much. People overestimate the “bad luck share” at the beginning: he’d have been given the win in Baku by means of a well-timed Safety Car, and his DNF in Austria came after losing P1 at the start, so you can only claim Shanghai as his only deserved-but-stolen win… apart from, obviously, Russia. Those 7 points would help him for leapfrogging Kimi and Max for P3 at the standings, and 2018 wouldn’t seem so bad… but overall his driving was slow, erratic (clumsy moves in Hungary and Q3 in Austalia) and had meaningful problems with tyres and blistering, much better managed by his teammate. His contract was renewed too soon and he overrelaxed; Ocon will be a harder threat.
=16) Marcus Ericsson (4,40/10): at his 5th F1 season, being beaten by a rookie could only mean that he is much more talented than you. And Ericsson was, from China onwards, completely destroyed by Leclerc. It was usual to watch the screen and find a half-a-second gap between both Saubers: Marcus just hasn’t got the special touch, and never had. With his Swedish backing being less important thanks to the Alfa Romeo-Ferrari connection, his future was sealed.
=13) Sergio Pérez (4,64/10): strange year for Checo. That 5-16 qualifying record speaks for itself, but Pérez has always been a Sunday driver, and in race pace there were no differences between he and Ocon. Moreover, he took adavntage of the Q2 tyre rule and some team orders to gain track position and, ultimately, score more points. The 13-point gap between both FI drivers is mainly explained by his outlier in Baku; the rest of the year, it was much more close, and Checo may nonetheless have been the worst of the pair (5-10 in Sundays where both saw the checkered flag).
=13) Kevin Magnussen (4,64/10): Haas had on average the 4th fastest car of the grid during 2018, but they managed only to finish P5 thanks to the Force India withdrawal. Seems clear that a lot of things failed, and two of them were their drivers. Grosjean did during the first half of the season and Kevin’s turn came from Spa. He was outqualified 1-8 and was unbelievably slow on Saturdays, his main strength since his debut. Combining this with his usual roughness in the wheel-to-wheel racing, it’s impossible to consider him as a future Grand Prix winner.
=13) Carlos Sainz (4,64/10): I used to say about the Verstappen-Sainz couple that Max will be the Hamilton and Carlos the Rosberg: the former, multiple times World Champion; the latter, only one if lucky. And following that prediction, I thought that if Carlos is like Rosberg he should beat Hülkenberg. But he didn’t. He was close, but Nico solidly had it cover. His progress in 2015-2017 was quite obvious, but there was some stagnation this year, specially in that basic Q3 lap (he usually is slower than in Q2) and tyre degradation with the quali tyre.
=10) Kimi Räikkönen (4,76/10): thousands of people love Kimi, but that must be because of his behaviour, his “I-don’t-care” approach and the nonpolitical intra-team attitude… not because of his driving talent. He is clearly over the hill, since circa 2013, and Vettel easily destroyed him. Age has made him lose that special touch in qualifying, he made some great mistakes in the ultimate Q3 lap and since then he had to stick to the sub-optimal strategy, being a hindrance for Lewis/any Seb rival. Leclerc will put lots of spice into Ferrari next year.
=10) Lance Stroll (4,76/10): very highly rated? Well, my system is very kindly with drivers at the back of the grid (de la Rosa was 3rd best driver of 2012 using my marks…), and apart from two very good performances in his favourite tracks (Baku and Monza), the rest of the time he was even beaten by a rookie as Sirotkin is. Stroll’s quali pace is utterly disappointing, and he tries to fix it by taking massive risks in lap 1, and when he doesn’t gain 3-4 places he finishes someone’s race. Undeserved seat in Racing Point and unlimited financial backing make 2019 quite a relaxing year for Lance; his seat seems safe for him.
=10) Nico Hülkenberg (4,76/10): another rock-solid year for Nico… and again a lost opportunity for showing us if he deserves a top seat. He seems to be unstoppable in qualifying during a whole year, but still he makes some strange mistakes when that elusive rostrum is close. His crashes in Baku in both 2017 and 2018 are big blots in his resumé, he doesn’t seem to be able to make a steady season, without ups and downs, and a top seat needs regularity. His beautiful peak from 2012-2014 seems slightly far away, but he’s still a great driver for the midfield level he is on. Interesting battle with Ricciardo: possible ahead on Saturdays, but will he beat him on Sundays?
=8) Esteban Ocon (4,88/10): Ocon again raised his game during 2018, utterly dominating Pérez in qualifying, but having a big share of bad luck. His mistake at the Baku’s start shouldn’t have been as costly as it was (a podium!), and reliability (Spain, Abu Dhabi) and other drivers’ errors (France, Singapore), besides the DSQ in Austin, made him look worse in the charts. He seemed to lose his temper once he found himself out of the grid for 2019 and lowered his standard, with Brazil being a very strange mistake from the man with the longest streak of checkered flag from the debut. But overall he is quite good and deserves a wheel; 2020 should be his year.
=8) Sebastian Vettel (4,88/10): what to say about Seb? He was as quick as ever thanks to his magical ability to drive around a lap, but when things get out of his control, he suddenly loses the temper and makes stupid mistakes. As Schumi, he cracks under pressure; Michael opted for trying to have everything under control and destroy all opposition, raising the levels in every single aspect. Can Seb, without the best team, emulate that? Seems unlikely. By any unknown reason, he can’t drive through the field as in 2012. Was he a star that shone too much, too early? Maybe, maybe not. From a technical point of view, he’s still a top driver, but his pairing with Leclerc will be unbelievably exciting.
7) Sergey Sirotkin (5,00/10): Again, a bit overrated because of my system, but we have to analyze it carefully. He made little mistakes during the season, wasn’t slow not even in his debut, beated Stroll 13-8 on Saturdays… what more do we have to ask for a rookie driver? He had a nice first year at Grove, similar to Bottas in 2013 or Rosberg in 2006, so he may deserve another chance he won’t have.
6) Pierre Gasly (5,12/10): Gasly showed he’s a great prospect by putting some astonishing performances in the Toro Rosso when the car seemed good enough for fighting for points. He utterly beated Hartley and fought until the end with Leclerc and Grosjean in the drivers’ championship. He’s been quick, very quick, but compare him with Verstappen seems too optimistic; Gasly may reach the Ricciardo’s tier in terms of pure talent, but it’ll be interesting to see him fighting with Max in 2019, specially after having shown some guts in several radio rants with Toro Rosso re Hartley.
5) Daniel Ricciardo (5,24/10): until Montecarlo, Ricciardo was the sensible guy in the Red Bull pairing. His mature driving in Monaco (with a 160 HP loss!)and his maximum attack mode in China were fantastic highlights. His overtakings were top tier and he’s still a very good driver for Sundays. But not only the awful rliability hinders his performance; that woeful qualifying shows are the limiting factor for being a WC contender. As Räikkönen, he had to stick to suboptimal strategies and appear to be even worse than he really is. A great racer, but he needs to find some one lap speed.
4) Fernando Alonso (5,48/10): Alonso is going to retire from Formula 1 still being at the top. His consistency is surreal (which other driver could be better than his teammate 21 out of 21 times?) and he’s still one of the best at the wheel. Nobody can extract more from his woeful cars, and finishing the year with 50 points (more thna Ocon or Grosjean!) seems unbelievable. A master in starts, first laps, confusing situations and dry-but-damp tracks, 2018 will be rememebered as another year of great driving by Fernando… but again in an undeserved awful car.
3) Max Verstappen (5,83/10): undoubtedly a year with an inflection point: Monaco FP3. In that crash, Max’s life changed for ever. He was irresistibly quick but he made so many mistakes; after that, he stayed as quick as ever but rarely put a wheel off track, making him one of the best drivers in the grid. He destroyed Ricciardo in qualifying and race (obviously affected by reliability) and put some magical performances (P2 in Singapore, spectacular comebacks from the back of the gridin Russia and USA, incredible and hard-fought overtakes in Brazil prior to “that” crash, a spectacular streak of 5 podiums in a row…). With this new approach, he only needs a good car for fighting for the championship.
=1) Charles Leclerc (5,95/10): one of the stars of the season. Maybe the “hypest” one, because os his youth. He’s been one of the best rookies of the history by means of pure speed in qualifying and impressive lap-by-lap race pace. When Sauber was a Q1/Q2 car, he achieved some impressive Q3/points finishes, and when it turned to be a Q2/Q3, he strated to outqualify Renaults, Haas and Force Indias in a scintillating way. He is very quick, very humble and seems to be one of the next big stars. Vettel should be worried.
1) Lewis Hamilton (5,95/10): Lewis set, one more year, another level. After a not-bad beginning, he started to put great performances, specially with the comeback in his home turf. But obviously Germany was the first key. His pace with new tyres under the slight rain was legendary, and winning from P14 is historic. Great poles in Hungary and Belgium led to another epic win in Italy without the fastest car and desperating Vettel, and THAT lap in Singapore sealed the championship. Still he rises, still the best.Last year I was marking every driver’s performance after every race: 0 for “disastrous”, 1 for “bad”, 2 for “OK”, 3 for “nice” and 4 for “excellent” (“5” for “legendary”, but no single performance deserved that mark in 2017). Let’s do the same this year:
PART 1
(Pierre Gasly, Paul di Resta, Brendon Hartley and Antonio Giovinazzi are all excluded because of their few appearances)
#20 Jolyon Palmer (1.56/4): what an awful season, Jo! Palmer’s performances teaches us that winning GP2 is meaningless if you do it in your 4th season, as Davide Valsecchi or Fabio Leimer. His second half of 2016 barely justified the new contract, and being beated by Hülkenberg was anything but unexpected. Even so, the way Nico destroyed him was disappointing. His overaggressive and erratic driving style caused a lot of accidents (Russia Q1 was embarrasing) and ultimately he was slow. Jo was the worst driver of the season.
#18= Stoffel Vandoorne (1.60/4): his first full season in F1 should have been competitive because of his massive experience in lower categories. But 2017 cars were definitely tough for rookies, and Stoffel struggled. We all expected that in last races he should be near Fernando Alonso (never ahead; Alonso is still too good), and we saw it in Malaysia. But ultimately Sepang was the outlier: it was the only time Vandoorne was close to Fernando. And even for a rookie, it was disappointing. Still a lot to improve in 2018.
#18= Kimi Räikkönen (1.60/4): he has a lot of fans, but Kimi Räikkönen’s 2017 season has been very poor. 5-15 in qualy, 2-13 in races where both Seb and him finished, 1-4 in poles, 0-5 in wins, 7-13 in podiums… Kimi scored at a similar rate than in 2016, and it’s obvious that SF70H was way better than his predecessor. In other words, Räikkönen canceled the work made by Maranello during a whole year. You can see that his driving is suboptimal: carrying a lot of steering at the apex penalizes his traction. He can’t live on the edge as the top tier. His time passed.
#17 Daniil Kvyat (1.67/4): in the first races, Kvyat was performing close to Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard was the one causing accidents and Daniil was close in qualifying. But from Austria onwards, 2016 Kvyat’s poor version was back. Stupid incidents, specially at the start of the races, lack of pace and that absurd crash with the wall in Singapore when the team needed the points. As aggressive as Palmer, the Russian spent 4 years in F1 without shading even a bit his approach. No one was surprised when he was ultimately sacked.
#16 Valtteri Bottas (1,70/4): OK, he is a victim of my points system, but this is the same for everybody. After initial struggles, he was a real title contender from Russia to Hungary, scoring good wins and a nice strike of podiums. But after the summer, he suddenly disappeared. Even worse, Hamilton shone at his best level of the year and that made the difference between Lewis an Valtteri inadmissibly big. 5 races in a row with binary marks (1/0/1/0/1) threw him down the order. Good news? He discovered the places when he can beat Lewis: flat tracks, 90-degree corners, smooth surfaces. Bad news?he needs to improve in the rest of fields.
#15 Kevin Magnussen (1,75/4): his non-so-positive 2014 with McLaren maybe wasn’t enough to sentence him. His second year in Renault, and rumours about his poor teamwork, started to make it clear. And third time lucky: indeed, Kevin Magnussen won’t be a Grand Prix winner. His strength was qualifying, and he seems to have lost his mojo in Saturday (3 years without being in Q3). He has improved a bit in bringing points home, but overall he performed worse than Grosjean, and the French isn’t the next big thing either. Add some bits of dirty wheel-to-wheel racing, and the cocktail is clearly demotivational.
#14 Lance Stroll (1,80/4): if he was as consolidated as Kevin or Kimi, his qualifying pace would be considered disastrous. But hell, he is only 19yo and he’s in his first season: you shouldn’t bury a driver’s reputation in his rookie year. And after a particularly disastrous beginning, he started to be in the right places for scoring points on Sundays. Baku was not only fortunate, but also great, but for 2018 we expect more consistency and much more raw speed.
#12= Marcus Ericsson (1,85/4): we all thought that Ericsson would be destroyed by Pascal Wehrlein, but the Swedish driver managed to stay close to his pace. And in the last races, when Sauber eventually understood the car and the tyres, he was quick, close to Q2 in USA and Mexico. But the main problem with Marcus is that he’s totally the opposite to spectacular. Nobody can remember a good race performed by him. Ultimately, it was Nasr and Wehrlein who scored the points, and he remained in the shadows. When his time arrives, nobody will remember him because he’s not even as bad as Winkelhock or Ide.
#12= Romain Grosjean (1,85/4): step by step, as Sergio Pérez, Grosjean is getting away from that drive at Ferrari. Moving into Haas wasn’t as a good step as he expected, and now Romain is very far from the podium places he used to visit in 2012/2013. And, what is worse, he’s starting to fade. His driving style, very brake-dependant, is causing him a lot of troubles, and his label of “whining driver” is sadly attached to him. He’s 31yo, and now it’s just too late for him. Anyway, he’s good enough for beating Magnussen.
#11 Pascal Wehrlein (1,94/4): after his absurd crash in RoC, we feared that Giovinazzi could make an impression and make Wehrlein’s career even shorter than it now appears. But Pascal came back with an extraordinary race in Bahrain and a superb show in Barcelona, and we were confident. In 2016, we saw that the #94 had a good talent. But this is not enough in F1: his devotion seems very weak. He doesn’t seem to give everything for being in the sport. Allegedly a bad team player, Pascal only shone when the car was decent; the rest of the time, an average driver like Ericsson was too close. And it’s not enough.
PART 2:
#10 Felipe Massa (2,00/4): in the last races of 2016, Felipe acted as a retired driver: his performances were so low that we were afraid about his level in 2017. But Massa came back strong, performed as a team leader and ultimately helped Williams finish P5. In mid-year Stroll started to catch him in race pace, but his announcement of “actual” retirement gave him the boost to perform his last great race in Brazil. Good luck wherever you go, Felipe.
#7= Daniel Ricciardo (2,05/4): we have to speak frankly: Daniel Ricciardo was utterly beaten by Max Verstappen in terms of raw talent and pure speed. But you look at the final standings and you see Daniel ahead of Max. Why? It’s true: Ricciardo had very good luck during two thirds of the championship. Max retired a lot of races being ahead of Dan, and then the Australian got a podium or even a win, as in Baku. But it wasn’t only luck: Ricciardo is one of the best overtakers. His comebacks in Monza and Interlagos were beautiful, and his late braking manouevre is almost indefensible. “A man of Sundays”.
#7= Esteban Ocon (2,05/4): the man who beated Max Verstappen in F3, Esteban Ocon has shown his very special ability through the corners: his steering input is the lowest of the whole grid, but he’s still able to carry a lot of speed at the apex without any cost in degradation. In the future we’ll see if he develops as Max (perfect inputs in every phase of the corner) or Lewis (unbelievable control and sync between brake and wheel), but he’s very promising. And his mental approach keeps mistakes away: only the crash in Baku was entirely his fault. We’ll keep an eye on the #31.
#7= Carlos Sainz (2,05/4): Carlos Sainz jumped into a new level in Spain 2016, when Verstappen moved up. The Spaniard then discovered his race pace and combined it with the usual pure speed in qualifying. But at the beginning of 2017, he came back to 2015: stupid mistakes (those crashes with Stroll in Bahrain and Grosjean in Canada…). Anyway, that accidente with Kvyat in Britain woke him up: he was the leader of Toro Rosso and needed to improve his game in order to leave the team and progress through his career. And from Hungary onwards, he drove at top-5 level. The STR12 was an average chassis with a bad engine, and P4 in Singapore was stellar. His debut in Austin with Renault just was the beginning of an interesting duel with Hülkenberg.
#6 Sergio Pérez (2,10/4): the way Sergio Pérez scored that immense haul of points in the first part of the season, when the VJM10 wasn’t a Q3 car, was simply perfect: Pérez was “the best of the rest” and deserved a top seat. But Räikkönen was secured one more year, Ocon started to qualify within a tenth… and Checo’s star slightly faded. September and October seemed to be the beginning of a new status in Force India, but the Mexican recovered well in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. His intra-team battle will be one of the best in 2018, but sadly for him that top seat is farther than ever before.
#5 Nico Hülkenberg (2,15/4): rock-solid during almost all the year, Nico Hülkenberg finished P10 in the standings despite the horrific reliability and a Q2 car during the first half of the season. That’s a very good performance. Destroying Palmer helped him in my points system, and some superb qualifyings ruined by the engine also were considered. But that crash in Azerbaijan, when that infamous maiden podium was possible, unveiled his weakness: he will hardly be as consistent as a fight for the title requires.
#4 Fernando Alonso (2,16/4): if he’s driving like this in a demotivating car, what can he achieve if the fire comes back? Even without the gleam in his eye, Alonso is doing an unbelievable job. Allegedly weak in qualifying, Fernando performed excellent Saturdays (Spain!), beating Vandoorne 15-3. His raceraft is still superb and there are no signs of decline. It will be fascinating to see him fighting for podiums in 2018.
#2= Sebastian Vettel (2,35/4): rear grip increase in 2017 would suit his driving style. We knew that, and track confirmed it: Sebastian Vettel was again an elite driver after an average 2016. He destroyed Kimi as in 2015, and as Alonso did in 2014. But winning in 2017 required to be in an extraordinary level with Lewis Hamilton, and the pressure caused some mistakes. Singapore was mainly bad luck, but in Mexico he was outclassed at the start, his main weak point. Michael Schumacher also was imperfect under pressure: he preferred to master every other aspect for preventing the pressure from appearing. A tactic Seb could use in the future (and is currently using, with a #2 driver in the other car) if he wanna beat Lewis.
#2= Max Verstappen (2,35/4): Max is the man. What a talent he is. His driving technique is perfect: every input seems nice, the apex speed is awesome, the traction is good… he seems to find the edge and live in it easier than the rest of the grid. This is real quality. But not only he is an ace in technical terms: his passion and racecraft engage the fans and starts to influence the stewards. Max is starting to be very big. But he’s not perfect: when Ricciardo makes an stunning overtake (Räikkönen, Monza), Max struggles to make it stick (Massa, same place) and collides. Nevertheless, 2017 puts him into the top level, ahead of Ricciardo. Being only 20, how much can he improve?
#1 Lewis Hamilton (2,5/4): for the fourth time in a row, Hamilton was the best driver on the grid. His pure speed in qualifying is yet to be improved by anyone: Canada, Britain and that awesome pole in Italy were some of the best laps of the decade. He can drive on the edge with an outstanding perfection, using the decreasing brake and the increasing steering for making the rear into the corners without losing any time and generating enough heat for using a hard compound (last stint in Spa). There were more low races than expected (Russia, Monaco, Austria), but the rest of the time he was miles ahead of Valtteri and beated Vettel fair and square. After clinching the title, he slowed a bit, but that won’t be a worry in Australia 2018. He’ll be the man to beat.
Half season I published my ranking (you can take a look). I’ve been marking each driver’s race:
– 0: disastrous
– 1: weak
– 2: passable
– 3: nice
– 4: brillant
– 5: legendaryWell, it’s time to show the final results…
From #23 to #1 (Vandoorne’s Bahrain race was nice, but it’s not representative enough):
#23 Daniil Kvyat: 1.71/5. Awful qualifying performance at the start of the season in Red Bull, Kvyat’s driving style is always on the edge, with the highs (China) and the lows (Russia). That deplorable start in Sochi was the perfect excuse for RB for switching seats with Verstappen… and Daniil got massively depressed. I rated him “weak” 8 out of the first 14 races, it says it all, but in the last third of the season he matched Sainz.
#22 Rio Haryanto: 1.75/5. He didn’t impressed in any race, but he did it in some qualifying sessions, surprisingly beating Pascal Wehrlein in 5 Saturdays. But his race pace was horrific: he saw the chequered flag in 9 occasions, being the last driver in every race bar China. As expected, he hasn’t shown enough level to be in F1.
#21 Esteban Gutiérrez: 1.81/5. In 2011, it was said that Sergio Pérez wouldn’t be the best Mexican driver during the next years: we should have to wait until the arrival of Esteban Gutiérrez. Well… Esteban was disastrous in 2013 and very poor in 2014 (not able to beat a downcast Sutil). 2016 was an undeserved third opportunity, and he failed again. Esteban lost 0-5 in qualifying at the beginning, but he improved during the year and matched Grosjean. But, as Haryanto, he couldn’t do it also on races. His erratic driving (that ugly spasms at the steering wheel at the apex of the corners…) should be clear enough to discard him.
#20 Felipe Massa: 1.81/5. We’re not sure when did Felipe decide to retire at the end of the year, but Monaco or Canada could be the place: before the American race, he was leading his teammate 37-29 in points and in general they were quite close in terms of performance. But in the Gilles Villeneuve, Felipe was slow. He suddenly lost the speed in quali and with the drop of performance in the FW38 he struggled to just score points. That record of 4-17 in Saturdays is horrible: Felipe, you were a great driver but you did the right, your time in F1 has finally gone.
#19 Marcus Ericsson: 1.86/5. His 2014 performance was so poor that necessarily it would improve during the next season. In fact, 2015 shown a rock-solid driver and 2016 kept the trend, but it’s quite hard to put an eye on him: he’s the opposite to “spectacular”. Yeah, he outqualified his teammate 13-8 and finished ahead 9-5 in races where neither him nor Felipe retired, but this regularity clashes with his low-profile behaviour (only Bahrain and Mexico performances to highlight).
#18 Felipe Nasr: 1.86/5. In 2015 Felipe shone in several days, but his manipulative driving style seemed to be much dependant of the brakes material. It was his Achilles’ heel last year but we expected him to improve in a second season. Well, it hasn’t happen. Felipe was ultimately beaten by not-the-future-star Ericsson, but no one can be 100% sure if they both have the same car, because of the financial struggles of the team and the economical backing of Marcus. His drives in Europe, Austria and Brazil were good enough to beat Ericsson in my ranking.
#17 Esteban Ocon: 1.89/5. Incredibly promising driver before his debut in Spa (F3 and GP3 titles were amazing), Esteban experienced the difficulty of Formula One in his first three races. But he steadily improved, beating Wehrlein in quali at the Sepang and Suzuka venues and, even more important, finishing ahead of him in Japan, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. His race in Interlagos was quite impressive: while Pascal drowned, Esteban raced with Nasr for the final points paying positions. But after only 9 races, he doesn’t seem to be fully prepared for the Force India challenge.
#16 Jenson Button: 1.90/5. Beaten by his teammate only by 0.01 in my mid-season ranking, Jenson “made a Massa” and suddenly lost performance. His German race was awesome, but after that he was miles away behind the pace of Fernando. In the last 9 Grand Prix, Jenson only qualified ahead of Alonso in Belgium and Malaysia, with the Spaniard not competing because of engine penalties. Did he decided his retirement in summer break? Maybe.
#15 Kevin Magnussen: 1.95/5. Yes, he outqualified Palmer 12-9, but who couldn’t expect that? Qualifying was his strong point in 2014, so beating a rookie in pure speed was expectable. But his racecraft was so weak: apart from being in the right place in Sochi, he didn’t outstand in any other race. Canada, Hungary or Italy were truly bad weekends, and in Spa, when the top-10 was feasible, he made a big mistake. We expect much more from the 2013 FR3.5 champion.
#14 Jolyon Palmer: 1.95/5. In a similar way to Sauber, the Renault boys finished tied in my ranking. But in this case they were levelled in legendary (zero), brillant (zero) and nice (four) performances; the tiebreaker was “passable” (13 to 12). It means that Jolyon, in his first year, had less “disastrous” and “weak” weekends; in fact, only China, Monaco and Singapore were pretty bad. He steadily improved and matched KMag’s pace, with interesting performances in Hungary (that spin…), Malaysia and Japan. Unlike Kevin, we expected nothing from Jo, and he did enough to deserve a second F1 season.
#13 Valtteri Bottas: 2/5. After his awesome 2014 season we thought Valtteri was ready for a big challenge. But 2015 was like a bucket full of ice over his reputation, because he didn’t raised his level. And 2016 was the same: Bottas is falling into the mediocrity. Obviously he defeated Massa easily, but there were few signs of splendor. His comeback onto the podium in Canada was superb… sadly it was his only highlight. Beating Stroll in 2017 (if, as expected, he stays in Williams) is just compulsory for him.
#12 Pascal Wehrlein: 2/5. Again a draw, but he beats Bottas 2-1 in brilliant races: Bahrain and Austria were two superb performances by the rookie. Pascal shone in every place the MRT05 was not too weak (i.e. tracks full of straights) and had a very promising first year in F1. He deserved more in Italy and Mexico, but the promotion of Ocon to Force India hurted him, and the Frenchman started to match him. Nevertheless I think Pascal is talented enough and should be a right choice for Mercedes if they put him in Rosberg’s seat.
#11 Romain Grosjean: 2.05/5. His P6 in Australia was purely luck and strategy, but his P5 in Bahrain was superb. The Romain that beated Räikkönen in the second half of 2013 is still here, and he showed excactly what Gene Haas expected: ability to score points. And he scored 29, while Gutiérrez took none. The Frenchman was brilliant in some qualis (Japan, Brazil) but we expected him to beat Esteban more consistently, and that mistake in Interlagos was quite unnecessary.
#10 Nico Hülkenberg: 2.14/5. His talent seemed to be quite high after that awesome 2012-2013-2014 seasons, but after the introduction of the VJM08B in mid 2015, Nico has struggled to match the performance of Pérez. That elusive podium is starting to undermine him. Yes, he outqualified Checo 12-9, but Pérez finished P7 with 101 points, for Hulkenberg’s P9 and 72. He’s incredibly solid and Renault will grow thanks to him, but he desperately needs outstanding performances.
#9 Carlos Sainz: 2.14/5. What a year, Carlos! It was unfair for him to be partnered with Verstappen, because Max seems to be something special, but Sainz was relatively close to him, suggesting he has a bright future. Incredibly quick in qualifying (what a Q1 lap with Supersofts in Singapore!), he used to struggle in race conditions. But in Spain he shown he could drive and manage tyres like the top drivers. He found the regularity and he managed to score two impressive P6 in USA and Brazil with that year-old engine. Very well done.
#8 Sergio Pérez: 2.19/5. Consistency is the name of the game in a 21-race championship, and Sergio Pérez ultimately showed it in 2016. He finished every single race bar Austria (he retired in the penultimate lap because of a braking failure) and hasn’t failed to score points since July. Of course, the highlights were that two podiums, but the visit to the Baku rostrum was much more brilliant because of his P2 in qualifying and his comeback from the P7 on the grid caused by a penalty. Maybe he wasn’t prepared for a top team in 2013, but now he is.
#7 Kimi Räikkönen: 2,24/5. His pace at the end of 2015 was awful. We couldn’t understand why Ferrari retained him for another year. But the SF16-H was much better for his driving style than the previous Ferrari and Kimi was competitive again. Not brilliant, because he’s 37 years old and he has already contested his career top-20 races, but solid enough. His race pace in Bahrain, his comeback in Hungary and that 11-10 in qualifying against Vettel shows Kimi still deserves a seat in F1.
#6 Sebastian Vettel: 2,29/5. Until Austria, his season was as brilliant as 2015. In fact the gap with the leader after the first 9 races (57 points) was smaller than 12 months before (59), even with the strategical mistakes in Australia, Spain and Canada, the blowup in Bahrain, the accident in Russia and the tyre explosion in Austria. But in Silverstone Sebastian had an awful Sunday, and after that he started to struggle to find the pace in qualy (7-2 to Kimi in the first 9 races, 3-9 in the last 12). Nevertheless, his speed in races remains intact, his tyre management looks as great as always and with a better car he will shine again.
#5 Fernando Alonso: 2.3/5. In 2015, he wasn’t as quick as we expected. Jenson was quite close and even outscored Fernando. It wasn’t so real, but we wanted to see more from Fernando. And 2016 has been a great year for him. His only blot was Germany, but apart from that he was as consistent as always, and in the last races he completely beated Button. His comeback in Sepang, his fights and overtakes in Austin and his speed in qualifying in last races were all fantastic. Not his best year, but brilliant aswell.
#4 Nico Rosberg: 2.33/5. Oh my, this is a controversial one. I think that Nico hasn’t been the best driver of the year. He was consistent as rock, but I strongly believe that without the reliability woes in the other car he wouldn’t be champion. Of course, his season has been great and several drivers in the past has been crowned doing less merits than Nico. He was particularly quick in China and Europe, and Singapore was simply legendary, but that slowness in wet conditions (Monaco, Silverstone) and that poor traffic management in Canada and Germany weren’t too impressive, and it’s hard to disociate his wins from Lewis’ troubles.
#3 Daniel Ricciardo: 2.57/5. He was #1 in the mid 2016 ranking, but when the high speed corners arrived (Spa, Sepang, Suzuka), he struggled a bit. He’s been a late-braker with some troubles to maximise the superb traction of the RB12, and in that tracks with few long braking zones he couldn’t match the special ability of his teammate. Nevertheless, Daniel’s year has been brilliant because of his pure speed (he beated Max 11-6 in qualy and Kvyat 4-0) and his relentless wheel-to-wheel racing (Valtteri knows that!).
#2 Max Verstappen: 2.67/5. 2015 was promising, but in 2016 Verstappen has started to write his own pages in the F1 history. After 4 impressive races at the wheel of the STR11, Max was just legendary in Spain… but heavily fell in Monaco. He has steadily found pace in qualifying and has shown special skills in tyre management. Although he lost the win in Sepang, he was much quicker than Daniel this weekend and also in Suzuka, but Max’s year will be remembered for his move on Rosberg in Silverstone and, of course, his magical race in the wet in Interlagos.
#1 Lewis Hamilton: 2.86/5. In the first part of the year, Lewis seemed quick but erratic (that awful start in Sakhir apart from the crash with Bottas, that stupid move onto the grass in Barcelona, that childish crash with the wall in Baku…). But in Austria he showed the world that he had improved his driving style, admitting his troubles on fast, long corners, and of course defeating Nico in that crucial move. He was outstanding in home soil, in Hockenheim and he deserved to win in Italy (what a Q3!) and Sepang. And if this wasn’t enough, he was literally untouchable in the last 4 races. His management in Abu Dhabi (too slow in Sector 3 for packing the cars, too fast in Sector 1 for denying Rosberg to use DRS) will be remembered. In 2016, Lewis set a new level.
