These are always fun to read in the press, so I thought we should do our own one? Feel free to explain you answer as much or little as you like.
1. Verstappen. Pretty simple handed best car and delivered. 2. Le clerc. Controversial due to errors made himself but team badly let him down this year. Quite a number of poles and a few wins. 3.russell. debut in new car and team, debut win, out performed Hamilton on Saturdays quite a bit, consistent in races. A few errors though and he is a bit dangerous at times. 4. Norris. Imo he's done well. Absolute **** car but consistently delivering and got a podium 5. Hamilton. Better on race days, suffered through and got some reward at end. Looks to be the guy who's going to realise there's a younger quicker guy in his team next year.l, if he has not already. 6. Sainz. Too many errors in second best car sorry. 7. Perez. No 2 driver, not much else to say tbh. In best car and underdelivered 8. Alonso. A lot of fun racing for me. Has put ocon in his place I think once he decided to tell the team to shove it. 9. Bottas. Early season car was half decent where ferrari were decent and he delivered somewhat. The car has been trounced by others development so he is trundling about now. 10. Magnusson. Half decent showing as above. A lot of good things and a memorable rain quais poll.
1) Verstappen - doesn’t really need any explanation, but I will highlight that Ferrari and RedBull started the year relatively competitive with each other and Ferrari having the slight edge, by the end of the year that had swung round if you only look at Perez’s results. Shortly after the TD Ferrari did lose form and RedBull were truly dominant for a while, but Verstappen was really the difference in a lot of races. It gets trickier now! 2) Norris - this is a pick many will disagree with, but I think of the grid, no-one else got more out of his package and he pretty much single-handedly took the fight to the Alpine team and nearly won. McLaren need to take a step forward, he deserves to be in a race winning car. 3) Leclerc - started the year blindingly fast and got to grips quickly with the new machinery. Made some mistakes but ultimately won the most poles and the second most races which got him just ahead of… 4) Russell - adapted well to life at the front of the grid, and given one shot to win a Grand Prix, achieved that in an assured manner. He seemed to go off the boil in the middle of the year, but he turned things round again in the later stages of the season, which surprised me. 5) Sainz - when he finished he generally performed “to par” and won his first race. Very close with Russell in my mind, but made a few more mistakes when the car was tricky and his greater experience at the sharp end , team familiarity and the gap to his teammate all counted against him. 6) Hamilton his run after the break was perhaps the the second most impressive string of performances on the grid this year and you could therefore make an argument for him to be higher. Understandably, not really on it at the start of the year, when it became apparent that the he wasn’t going to be a contender, but I was also surprised that as the Merc continued to improve, Russell was able to come back at him. 7) Perez - Hard to believe I put him this low, and it does come down to how good the RedBull really was as to whether this is fair or not. Ultimately he put in some stellar drives at the start of the year and then seemed to lose his way. Sunday has always been his strong point and in a car with similar strengths, somehow he didn’t make that work for him. Generally a bit underwhelming in the final analysis. 8) Alonso - actually didn’t really outperform the car as much as I had the the impression he did, but there were some magic performances on occasion. 9) Ocon - another unfashionable choice, but he didn’t get blown away by Alonso, which is rare and generally brought the car home where it should be. Still don’t like him much though and really hope he and Gasly are a source of much “entertainment” next year. 10) Vettel, heart might have ruled head here, and it could easily have been Bottas or Magnusson or maybe even Albon. Like Magnusson had a difficult start to the year ultimately I do think he had a little more consistency and I’ve always liked him. Honourable mention: Guanyu - I expected him to be terrible, he wasn’t and he seems like a funny guy. To my surprise I feel he’s earned another year. Interesting note: what happened to Gasly this year, he was largely anonymous and has earned a seat in what should be the 4th fastest car next year…?!
1) Verstappen - Class of his own 2) Leclerc - started great then it crumbled 3) Russell - Not bad for a first season with the team. more wins, poles, sprint victories and 35 points ahead of a 7 time WDC. 4) Norris - He has pulled that mclaren to great results 5) Alonso - like wise doing his thing. lost 50pts due to reliability and suspect the team favoured Ocon anyway. 6) Perez - Their were flashes of greatness but still not consistent enough to be RB#2 in my opinion and could cost them WCC's against more competitive teams. 7) Hamilton - Very poor in first half of season but then got a good string of podiums. 8) Sainz - Not a good season for Ferrari really. Too many mistakes, maybe pushing too hard to try and not get outshone by his team mate and become a defacto #2 9) Bottas - Seems his high positions have gone under the radar. maybe from the smoke screen caused by his engine catching fire. 10) Vettel - Not great, but not a great car so really his points haul shows he did better than it looked.
in theory.... you could do this as a 10 teams, 2 drivers, driver 1 v driver 2 thing? aka 1. Vertappen - he destroyed perez and had best car 2. Le clerc - sainz made far too many errors chasing him. 3 Russell - finihsed ahead of hamilton and won a race 4. Alonso - just cos he had to put up with ocon and didn't kill the idiot. 5. Norris - carried entire team on own, sorry ricci. 6. Bottas - good start to season, zhou was alight but his 6 points reflects his status 7. Vettel - had to put up with daddy's boy antics all season doubled the brat's points and put him right in his place 8. k-mag. - got on with it professional, doubled Schumacher's points and shows he made a difference 9. Gasly - car is a pig. more consistent that tsunoda and didn't nearly kill anyone 10. albon - did ok, just ok in some brief bright spots ofr Williams. latifi is a joke. Thank god he is gone. Thats the 10 imo that did best in each team, hardly controversial. ocon did get more points than Alonso but Alonso was given poor reliability and had his team mate acting up all season ramming him.
How people have hamilton in there top 10 he was poor, proving without the best car he stuggles, didn't even a race when he's teammate did to.
I know the premise of the thread is relatively complex, so just to clarify: if you could name and justify ten drivers who did better, it would be easier to understand the source of you opinion - thanks!
I find it hard to believe anyone who watched every race this year really thinks Russell was better than Hamilton. Russell got all the luck with safety cars in the early part of the season while Hamilton sacrificed a lot more performance to run experimental set ups. The only race that Merc could have possibly won was taken by GR and only because Crashstappen decided to dive bomb Hamilton to ruin his chance of a win - and admitted as much afterwards to the press. Despite damage Hamilton managed to finish a second behind. George did really well, but there's a bigger story beyond the stats.
I really need to find time to sit back and think about this one. Obviously number one is easy enough to figure, but I feel like everything behind is so difficult to put in order. This season was a weird one other than the front.
