Drivers: Best Driver: It has to be Alonso. Stayed out of trouble, scored at a consistently high level. Last year he was ranked 3rd behind Vettel and Button but this year it was an easy one. Incredible year from the Spaniard and his best in his 12 year f1 career. Worst Driver: Romain Grosjean - as everyone said he had the speed but the incidents he caused particularly at the start was a complete joke and Spa was a joke too far. Most Improved: Who else but Felipe Massa. It was absolutely grim earlier on for him but since the end of the summer he has been the Massa we all knew and loved. Well done Felipe. Surprise Package: Biggest Disappointment: Nico Rosberg. Even though he won in China I thought he had a disappointing season. Had it not been for Schumacher's retirement the table would have much fairly reflected this. I'm confident he will really pick it up with Lewis as his team mate next season though. Best Rookie: Charles Pic. Decent little driver for a decent year for Marussia despite their shortcomings that have hindered them. Teams: Best Car: I believe the McLaren was conceptually the best car. Which makes it all the more disappointing why neither of their drivers challenged for the title. No excuses. Worst Car: Mercedes - not at the start of the season but what happened thereafter was a rapid rapid decline. Best Team: Red Bull Worst Team: HRT Surprise Package: Williams - a very good car once again culminating in a truly memorable victory in Barcelona Under-performers: McLaren The Season: Season Rating 80/100: A fantastic year, slightly let down by a string of disappointing races up until Abu Dhabi. South Korea was perhaps one of the worst GP's I have ever witnessed and India was not much better. Terrible, terrible race tracks. Best Race: Brazil - an incredible finale Worst Race: South Korea. Best Overtake: Massa in Singapore Funniest Moment: Raikonnen having everything under control Defining Moment: Schumacher handing the baton to Vettel at the end of the Brazilian GP Most Dramatic Moment: The start from yesterday's race! Biggest Surprise: Maldonado winning in Spain Best Crash: Grosjean's appalling race wrecker at Spa. Drive of the Season: Jenson Button at Spa. A cut above everyone else that weekend. Found the sweet spot. Best Pole Lap: Has to Schumacher's in Monaco. Best start: Alonso in Austin Coverage: BBC Best Broadcaster: Jake Humphrey Best Commentator: Ben Edwards - fantastic Best Journalist/Reporter: James Allen
I can't understand how anyone rates the mercedes car as worse than the HRT, Caterham, Marussia or the STR, the worst team, when you consider their funding, yes, but the worst car? not even close.
Drivers: Best Driver: Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton deserve mentions though Worst Driver: Karthikayen - just stop racing please Most Improved: Hulk - really shone in the latter stages of the season, gone up in my book for sure Surprise Package: Maldonado - has been consistently improved and quick this year, looks to be on the up as well Biggest Disappointment: Button - had a bad part of the year where it was all excuses like always, should've done better given the car he had Best Rookie: Ricciardo - looks the most promising of the rookies IMO, although I'd say all 4 of them have potential and were all quick at different points of the season. Teams: Best Car: MP4-27 - overall the fastest car, shame McLaren couldn't make use of the machinery they had Worst Car: HRT - just bad, hopefully they aren't on the grid next year Best Team: Scuderia Ferrari - extremely consistent all year, did all they could bar a better car to help Alonso Worst Team: McLaren - really should've capitalized on the quick car they had and pretty much failed Surprise Package: Sauber - their performance for most of the season was a surprise, I certainly didn't expect Kamui or Perez to be on the podium on a couple occasions Under-performers: Mercedes - outside of China and Monaco they really haven't lived up to expectations The Season: Season Rating 90/100 Best Race: Brazil - what a great way to end the season, although mentions go out to Austin and Malaysia Worst Race: Korea - what a snoozefest Best Overtake: Kimi on Schumi into Eau Rouge, although there were several other great overtakes, Hulk's overtake on the outside of the turns 3,4,5 complex in Korea, Alonso on the outside of Massa and Webber and Brazil to name another couple off the top of my head Funniest Moment: Kimi's radio messages at Abu Dhabi Defining Moment: Alonso going out at the beginning of the Japan GP Most Dramatic Moment: Seeing Vettel make contact and spin at the beginning of the Brazil GP, thought Alonso had it in the bag from then on, though I was proven wrong Biggest Surprise: 7 different winners in the first 7 races Best Crash: Probably the wreck at the beginning of Spa Drive of the Season: Tons of great drives so its hard to pick one, but probably Vettel from the back to 3rd in Abu Dhabi, even if circumstances helped him sometimes Best Pole Lap: Alonso, Germany, Vettel in Canada is another good one though Best start: Alonso had amazing starts all season, but Austin is one that sticks out for me Coverage: Best Broadcaster: Speed - only option for me, but thanks for 17 years of fantastic broadcasting, of which I got to experience 7 years Best Commentator: Matchett - glad he is going to NBC with Hobbs, his technical insight is really helpful Best Journalist/Reporter: Buxton - young and enthusiastic, really hope he ends up at NBC as well, always enjoyed his pit lane experiences
Best Driver: Lewis Hamilton. Had his best season in F1, but had a car that broke down if you even looked at it funny. Should have been in the title fight. Worst Driver: Bruno Senna. Narain is awful, but we expected that. Senna has been nowhere near Maldo's speed all season. Most Improved: Pastor Maldonado. Still some erratic moments, but showed he deserves a place on the grid Surprise Package: Sergio Perez. 3 podiums this season, don't think many people expected that Biggest Disappointment: Nico rosberg. What happened? Maybe the win got to his head Best Rookie: As Grosjean and Ricciardo aren't rookies, it has to go (by default) to Charles Pic Best Car: McLaren. Aside from one race, it was strong at every circuit. Worst Car: McLaren. No point having a fast car if it's going to break down. Best Team: Red Bull. Won the constructors title for the 3rd consecutive time. Worst Team: Caterham. Made no progress whatsoever, even with better parts at their disposal now. Surprise Package: Sauber. 4 podiums. Under-performers: Mercedes. More money than a small country, less results than a small team. Season Rating /100: 80/100. Good races etc. but the coverage was annoying, having sky one race, BBC next. Best Race: Brasil. The 2012 season in a nutshell. We had rain, we had overtaking, we had an excellent recovery drive, and barring one massive error, we would have had a weird winner too. Worst Race: Korea, though not sure it counts as a race. procession sounds more fitting Best Overtake: Either Hulkenberg on the lotus and McLaren in Korea, or Massa on Senna in Singapore. Both were gutsy. Funniest Moment: Kimi Raikkonen's entire 2012 season. He knows what he's doing. Defining Moment: Ka-mu-i. Ka-mu-i Most Dramatic Moment: Senna spinning Vettel in Brasil. Genuinely thought Alonso was going to win the title. Biggest Surprise: Maldonado winning in Spain Best Crash: Grosjean at Spa. Drive of the Season: Sebastian Vettel in Abu Dhabi or Belgium. A real pair of champions drives. Best Pole Lap: Schumacher in Monaco Best start: Too many to name Best Broadcaster: BBC. Best Commentator: David Coulthard by default. Ben Edwards started to get on my nerves towards seasons end, and there's no way Croft is winning, and Brundle was ruined by Croft Best Journalist/Reporter: Anyone who doesn't work for Autosport
I put both. HRT is the worst car, of course, but it's understandable because they are so poorly-funded. Mercedes, on the other hand, what's their excuse? Edit: Kyle says Lewis was the best driver! You could knock me down with a feather. Cheers!
Max has got a good point there, maybe HRT could build a better car than Mercedes if they had 200 million to burn.
Yeah but they didn't. Their budget is a valid excuse for them building the worst car, but there can be no doubt that the HRT was the worst car. Like Miggins, I think the respective budgets of the teams should be considered for the worst team or under performers awards, but worst car should be judged on outright performance of their car in my opinion.
They were getting ahead of both Caterhams and Marussias in some races you know. I had live timing up and De La Rosa was right up near the points after incidents took place.
Drivers: Best Driver: Lewis Hamilton - His best season to date and he really matured this season. Probably would have been WDC if he had a reliable car. Worst Driver: Romain Grosjean - He's a quick driver but has put others at risk more times than anyone this season. Should be higher up the points tally. Most Improved: Pastor Maldonado - Has got better and better, still makes some questionable manoeuvres but he has shown he belongs on the grid, and perhaps with a better team. Surprise Package: Kimi Raikkonen - Didn't think he'd be anywhere near this challenging on his first season back. Glad he proved me wrong. Biggest Disappointment: Jenson Button - He won at Aus. Then I have no idea what happened. He really has something to prove next season. Best Rookie: Charles Pic - Relative to the rest I think he has done an amazing job considering the team he is with. Teams: Best Car: McLaren - The best car for the majority of the season. Baffles me that their drivers or the team themselves walked away with nothing. Reliability attributes to that, however. Worst Car: HRT - Why bother? Best Team: Red Bull - They always work hard and 3 constructor titles in a row is well deserved. Worst Team: Mercedes - Can they not develop a car or what? Seemed to get stuck in the mud after a promising start to the season. Surprise Package: Sauber - Thought they'd do well but they had a great season. Under-performers: McLaren - Reliability and failing to capitalize on their advantage. The Season: Season Rating: 91/100 Best Race: Brazil Worst Race: South Korea Best Overtake: Kimi on Schumacher Eau Rouge Funniest Moment: Kimi's radio messages Defining Moment: Vettel's drive at Abu Dhabi Most Dramatic Moment: Vettel spinning on the first lap at Brazil Biggest Surprise: Maldonado winning Best Crash: Carnage at La Source Drive of the Season: Button at Brazil - Again he shows he's possibly the best on the grid at dealing with changeable weather conditions. Every call he made was right. Best Pole Lap: Vettel in Canada Best start: Alonso at numerous GP this season Coverage: Best Broadcaster: BBC Best Commentator: Martin Brundle Best Journalist/Reporter: Eddie "The Scoop" Jordan
No point it writing it myself when I think Zero has nailed it for me Must highlight McLaren, they had the best car overall this season, yet they finished 3rd in the WCC. That's not good enough, in fact I really hope they are doing a review as I think it cost us a 3 way title battle.
totally agree, it's why I put them as worst team over Mercedes, mercedes had a poor car with poor drivers which they didn't develop at all, but McLaren had the car and the drivers that should've walked the title IMO and came nowhere.
Drivers: Best Driver: Lewis Hamilton - this was difficult to decide between him, Kimi and Alonso, but I think Lewis deserves it cause of the way he turned round his mentality, consistency, and reputation from 2011. We've seen the best drives of his career in this season Worst Driver:Romain Grosjean - He started off pretty well, but that can't make up for all the accidents and bad judgement his had. A shame it came to it Most Improved: Felipe Massa - don't know what he and Ferrari did but its helped. The improvement probably came too late to help Alonso, but it was still phenomenal how he improved. Surprise Package: Nico Hulkenberg - been better than Perez this season in my opinion. He didnt have a great car, but he delivered when the car was performing well. Little bit more experience at the front, and he'll be a great driver. Biggest Disappointment: Michael Schumacher - showed some of his former brilliance this season, but the silly crashes into Senna and Vergne, and the start line thing at Hungary shows he's far past his best Best Rookie: Charles Pic - Beat his team mate a few times in quali and the race, needs more experience to even out rough edges, and he's the first 'new' team rookie to stay in F1. Teams: Best Car: MP4-27 - extremely fast car, the development work to this car was leagues above the others, and shut doubters up when it proved a non-step nose cone was the way to go. Reliability started to drop, but it was still ahead of the Red Bull Worst Car:HRT's F112 - severe lack of pace, constant brake problems, and caused the Rosberg-Karthikeyan crash at Abu Dhabi. An awful car, only thing going for it is it's livery Best Team: Red Bull - Strategies were brilliant all season, ability to work around a problem was better than any others, pit stops were consistently clean, and seems more professional than the other teams Worst Team: Mclaren - Despite having the best car, they've let Jenson and Lewis down badly this year with reliability issues, poor pitstops and dodgy strategies. They should have won both championships Surprise Package: Sauber - one of the best midfield cars, big improvement from the previous 2 seasons, great work on getting a number of podiums with great strategic calls Under-performers:Mercedes - after 2 strong seasons they shouldnt have been going backwards. Their DDRS was their downfall, and with all that money, thy should have been challenging Lotus and Ferrari The Season: Season Rating /100: 87 out of 100 Best Race: Brazil - It had everything than a title decider should have, and ended the season nicely. Shoutouts to Hungary, China and Austin as well Worst Race: Korea - just has to be, boring track, no love for motorsport out there let alone F1, topped of with a procession of a race Best Overtake: Kimi Raikonen on Nico Hulkenberg at Austin - round the outside at the 'S' bends Funniest Moment: Kimi's team radio messages across the season Defining Moment: 7 race winners in 7 races Most Dramatic Moment: Raikkonen's loss of grip towards the end of the Chinese GP cause a frantic and chaotic battle for the remaining podium places Biggest Surprise: Kimi's comeback season - a fantastic year for him, finishing every lap of the season. His consistency paid off, it's a shame he left for rallying Best Crash: Belgium's fist corner crash - despite it being pretty horrific Drive of the Season: Lewis Hamilton at Hungary Best Pole Lap: Lewis Hamilton at Spain - being nearly 0.7 seconds in front of every one else was pretty special, shame Mclaren's mistake had it taken from him. Button's in Australia was pretty good as well Best start: Alonso at Austin - from 9th (?) to 4th before turn 2. That start kept his chances alive. Was a good, maybe unethical, by Ferrari Coverage: Best Broadcaster: BBC - always will be. Its a shame its run by idiots. The BBC were very lucky to have JH, EJ, DC and BE to keep it not only entertaining, but a pleasure to watch. Sky were awful. Over Americanised, starting rumours and non stories, and hired one of the most annoying people in motorsport commentary...... David Croft Best Commentator: David Coulthard - He's become really good at this, throwing in insight that's necessary for all types of F1 fans, without it becoming too much. He's had some funny moments and mistakes over the course of the year, but Murray Walker made mistakes and it made him a legend. Best Journalist/Reporter: Anyone apart from Andrew Benson - none of the Sky lot deserve this either, apart from Ted Kravitz
I dont remember much of Ted this year...... only that time he thought he could be related to Lenny Kravitz .
