The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

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girry
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The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by girry »

Drivers

1. Lewis Hamilton - I'm not his greatest fan by any means, but this was probably the best individual season I've witnessed anyone pull off. The likes of Ricciardo 2014 and Kubica 2010 come close, but the difference to those masterpieces is that 2017 Lewis was operating under an immense title pressure. Not only did he pull off some magical quali/race performances (Silverstone, Monza etc), but even more impressively he came out as a winner each and every time he and his title rival raced wheel to wheel. The only counting mistake he made during his title campaign was the Monaco quali mishap!
2. Max Verstappen - points don't reflect it, but Max was the more impressive of the two strong Red Bull drivers - all the whilst having seemingly matured a bit, not getting caught up in collisions anymore (discounting Hungary). His two wins were excellent, and in contrast to 2016, quali pace impressive overall as well.
3. Esteban Ocon - perhaps slightly further up than he should since Checo outperformed him, especially in qualifying - but only slightly; whilst Ocon was mr consistency all year, never getting caught in needless accidents. I feel the issues with his teammate were primarily caused by the Mexican; Esteban was only guilty of standing up for himself against the senior member of the Force India squad. The IIDOTY for me.
4. Fernando Alonso - Fred went far beyond all basic manners when criticizing his powerplant, which I didn't really like. Yet considering the amount of unluck he had to face this year (especialy when counting the unluck of his indy 500 effort), whilst constantly fighting his turd of an engine way further up than he should have, you kinda feel he had every right to do so. I'm just not sure if it was the right way to handle the situation - anticipating that the Honda guys will finally make the massive leap ahead of Renault in 2018, now that they will be rid of McLaren...
5. Nico Hülkenberg - the Hulk had a quietly good season overall, putting Palmer firmly in his place. Not sure if he could have done any more.
6. Carlos Sainz jr - cleanly out-performed Kvyat - but not without making a couple of silly errors (Bahrain, Montreal). At Renault got slightly over-shadowed by the Hulk as well, albeit with the valid excuse of joining the team late in the season. Carlos' next year will be important for his career trajectory.
7. Daniel Ricciardo - firmly beaten by Verstappen. It was not that heavily, and perhaps it's slightly inconclusive given the persistent issues with the car, and Danny Ric was also able to show some of his impressive racecraft at times (Baku comes to mind) - but he got beaten anyway. Needs to redeem himself in 2018 to retain hope of landing a competitive non-Honda vehicle for 2019, I think.
8. Sebastian Vettel - definitely harsh on Sebastian considering his pace, and some of those champion-like performances early in the season. But he also threw away the shot he had only by himself making several mistakes clumsy or outright dumb - in contrast to the faultless Hamilton. Who knows when he next gets a car like this?
9. Sergio Pérez - okay season overall, and perhaps it is a little harsh to separate the two drivers with such a gulf - but I'm considering expectations here as well: Pérez should have beaten Ocon fair and square, being the senior driver and all. Instead Checo let himself slide into a stupid feud with the Frenchman - simultaneously managing to remind the top teams why despite his evident quickness, the Mexican is unlikely to land another seat with any of them.
10. Valtteri Bottas - pretty solid and consistent as expected, Vale did very well in qualifying until the break - after which let his setupping issues with the difficult Mercedes get into his head. Was never able to shake his race pace issues, what with always struggling with one of the tyre compounds. Needs to be closer to Lewis next season to retain his seat.
11. Pierre Gasly - instantly closer to Sainz than Kvyat was, from the day since entering F1. However, it's difficult to judge as to *how* big a feat it was in 2017.
12. Felipe Massa - did his job, ensured with his experience and consistency that Williams got that 5th in constructers without a problem, and showed his young teammate that even an old Felipe was no push-over; however, especially mid-season, Felipe was found nowhere to be seen way too often. We'll miss you, but good riddance - if you know what I mean.
13. Paul di Resta - considering the very little time to get used to the car, he did a very good job - at least good enough to throw his name into the discussion for the 2018 ride (even if he apparently was not impressive enough then).
14. Brendon Hartley - if one year ago I was asked to name 50 most likely to feature in the F1 grid this year, Brendon would definitely have not been one of them. Yet now, thanks to a few lucky stars and some respectable performances in the Toro Rosso, he will have a fair shot to establish himself as a real Formula One driver.
15. Stoffel Vandoorne - got beaten by Fernando fair and square since the beginning, but got on with his job quietly and crept closer to the Spaniard as the season progressed, culminating in a couple of decent performances after the break. Nothing to be ashamed of for a rookie, but under pressure to reduce the gap to Alonso next year, what with the Honda excuse disappearing soon as well.
16. Kimi Räikkönen - people say he lost his fire after 2007, but it's gradually happened along the way his second Ferrari career progressed. I feel Monaco was the straw that broke the camel's back, that was when dawned on Kimi he wasn't allowed to win even when quicker than Seb, since that he's turned more and more into an old family man, content to circle the track 20 seconds behind his team mate, refering to driving his car as just a "job" now. And the few times it seemed Kimi *might* be on it, he got routinely screwed by either strategy, car or someone else's accident.
17. Romain Grosjean - in 40% the races Romain puts his car to places where it doesn't belong, eventually scoring a respectable amount of points for a Haas driver - but in the remainder of the other races he either drives slowly, puts it in the wall or in another car whilst simultaneously complaining an increasingly annoying tune about everything and everyone.
18. Antonio Giovinazzi - got a harsh reminder of the fickleness of the F1 world: after Australia was the next coming, after Shanghai forgotten about by everyone. Still, probably more impressive than either of his team-mates..
19. Lance Stroll - I think it's fair to say he was put in the car way earlier than he should have, which was awkwardly evident in the first few races - but did respectably well to rise from the bottom and prove his doubters wrong, managing to display a few stellar performances showing that there is a good F1 driver in there somewhere underneath. We'll just have to wait and see whether it can be found.
20. Kevin Magnussen - a slight bit poorer version of his team-mate Romain. Must surely be on his last F1 seat. Although to Kevin's credit, his tirades are slightly more entertaining than Romain's.
21. Marcus Ericsson - a lovely, humble, hard-working bloke, who ever gets slightly better with experience - but I think even Marcus himself realizes he's not amongst the most talented guys in the sport. A modern day Pedro Diniz: merits a place on the grid with the tens of millions he brings every year...but by now you have to ask the question: what's the point of yet another season - for both his backers and Ericsson himself? Especially with an actually talented Swede meanwhile buried in the sidelines, racing everything he can get his hands into...
22. Pascal Wehrlein - out-did Marcus, but did not outdo him *enough*. A good driver, but not a good driver *enough* in the harsh world of Formula One - in other words Pascal suffers from a bit of a pauldirestaitis. You can see why Force India picked Ocon over Wehrlein: it says something that by now, the only person *really* vouching for the German is Toto.
23. Jenson Button - you kinda got the feeling that JB didn't really fancy being there any more, probably regretting doing a Mika instead of a full-on retirement. No surprise he managed to end his career in a dumb collision, a very non-Jenson-esque thing to do.
24. Jolyon Palmer - may have been excused for being off Hülkenberg's pace if it was his debut season, but arriving in Melbourne 2-3 seconds off his team-mate with one season under his belt was inexcusable. Suffered from unluck too, and got on with the job mid-season, but it was still a poor performance in a year littered with errors.
25. Daniil Kvyat - the only real candidate for a ROTR in my opinion. A bad 2016 season turned into a worse one this year, not least thanks to Helmut Marko - but Daniil still has to bear a great portion of the blame for underperforming in such an embarrassing manner. Culmination of the season was the dumb crash with Sainz in Silverstone. What a sad waste of a talent.
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girry
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Re: The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by girry »

Constructors

1. Force India - did a stellar job with a limited budget, deservedly the "best of the rest" again. The departure of Hülkenberg shaked them only little - FI found another good driver in Ocon to replace him. Says something about the outfit when the worst thing that can be said about them all year (discounting the little argy-bargy intra drivers) is that in true post-Jordan tradition, they can't seem to figure out what to call themselves..
2. Mercedes - constructed *only* the joint-fastest car, relegating them behind FI due to the bar they have set upon themselves - but in contrast to 2016, crucially they improved in two areas: this year its driver management was great, and Lewis went all season with only one gearbox change I think.
3. Ferrari - constructed a great car, but a couple of embarrassing technical problems at crucial moments cast a shadow on the team. Not sure if the hasty replacing of Maurizio will turn out the right decision, not sure if retaining Kimi for another year is the right one either.
4. McLaren - clearly they constructed a good car this year, as proved by Alonso seemingly *always* being where that Honda did not belong. But will the decision to replace Honda with Renault just take them out of the frying pan and into the fire?
5. Red Bull - another good car, but issues with the power plant - as well as the car - took their toll way too often. Need to figure out a way to reduce them to stand any chance to fight for the title next year (as well as hoping that Renault jump leaps and bounds).
6. Williams - seemingly slide back every year that comes by, but in the end did a fine job to secure that P5 in the championship.
7. Toro Rosso - another good car in hindsight wasted by driver management. Should have started out with Gasly in the wheel (a decision which I'm sure a 2013 spec Helmut would have made without blinking), instead got caught in the driver replacement shenanigans with Kvyat that deprived the squad of a better position in the standings.
8. Haas - apparently built a bit inconsistent car - perhaps the "hit-and-miss" nature of their driver pairing took them higher up than they should have - although the repair bill was also higher than it should have been. One might wonder how long Gene's patience with the, ahem, capitalistic nature of F1 as a sport, will last.
9. Renault - might have been up there battling with Williams, given how competitive Hulk was all year long. But instead, they hired Joe Palmer for another season. After all, this is the former Enstone outfit with a factory status - should be doing better.
10. Sauber - how many years in a row the worst team of the year? I feel they made a mistake terminating the Honda contract: as sad as it is, at this stage I would have seen even the Japanese engine-makers as the only card that *might* have gotten them back up from the post-2013 slump that has seemed to last absolutely forever...and I don't see the possible "Alfa Romeo" branding doing anything for them, either.

My ROTY Podium:
1) Daniil Kvyat
2) Sauber
3) Jolyon Palmer/Honda (joint)
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Rob Dylan
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Re: The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by Rob Dylan »

You had these prepared, didn't you? ;)

Well, I have written down my nominations for Reject of the Year. I think it would be easier to put them in a different thread to this one, what do people think?
Murray Walker at the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix wrote:The other [Stewart] driver, who nobody's been paying attention to, because he's disappointing, is Jan Magnussen.
Felipe Nasr - the least forgettable F1 driver!
Normal32
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Re: The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by Normal32 »

1. Lewis Hamilton - 8.5
2. Sebastian Vettel - 7.0
3. Valterri Bottas - 6.0
4. Daniel Ricciardo - 7.0
5. Kimi Raikkonen - 6.5
6. Max Verstappen - 7.5
7. Sergio Perez - 7.0
8. Esteban Ocon - 6.5
9. Carlos Sainz Jr. - 6.0
10. Felipe Massa - 4.0
11. Lance Stroll - 7.5
12. Nico Hulkenberg - 5.5
13. Romain Grosjean - 4.0
14. Kevin Magnussen - 4.5
15. Fernando Alonso - 6.0
16. Stoffel Vandoorne - 5.5
17. Jolyon Palmer - 2.5
18. Pascal Wehrlein - 6.5
19. Daniil Kwjat - n/a
20. Marcus Ericsson - 3.5
21. Pierre Gasly - 2.0
22. Antonio Giovinazzi - n/a
23. Brendon Hartley - 4.0

Constructors:

1. Mercedes - 9.0
2. Ferrari - 7.5
3. Red Bull-TAG - 2.5
4. Force India-Mercedes - 6.5
5. Williams-Mercedes - 5.5
6. Toro Rosso - 3.0
7. Renault - 5.0
8. Haas-Ferrari - 4.5
9. McLaren-Honda - 5.5
10. Sauber-Ferrari - 4.0

ROTY:

3. Pierre Gasly
2. McLaren F1 Team
1. Helmut Marko, or Red Bull as a whole
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Aislabie
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Re: The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by Aislabie »

Okay, though I'm not going to include very much in the way of word count.

Drivers
  1. Lewis Hamilton - Drove an annoyingly faultless Championship-winning campaign.
  2. Max Verstappen - Put in some absolutely stellar drive when his car allowed him to make it to the finish line.
  3. Carlos Sainz - Completely overshadowed all other Toro Rosso drivers and their points tallies.
  4. Nico Hulkenberg - There were a couple of occasions he should have had that podium; drove well against Sainz.
  5. Daniel Ricciardo - Put in a particularly good showing at the start of the year, though Max's reliability came for him.
  6. Esteban Ocon - As a sort-of-ookie, you'd have expected some errors or inconsistency from him. Neither occurred.
  7. Sebastian Vettel - Put in a spirited run to second in the Championship, but only has himself to blame for some things.
  8. Valtteri Bottas - The man is the new Barrichello, but it's good to see him pick up some wins too.
  9. Sergio Perez - Although he outperformed Ocon, he was expected to. Also, insubordination isn't a good look.
  10. Fernando Alonso - While everyone in the paddock waxed lyrical about his driving, I kinda wished he'd be quiet.
  11. Stoffel Vandoorne - After the first few races, he looked woeful, but really grew into the season well.
  12. Kimi Raikkonen - He didn't do anything especially wrong, but he didn't drive like he was pushing himself. And that's okay.
  13. Felipe Massa - Came back into Formula One for another year, but didn't really do anything that a younger driver couldn't have.
  14. Antonio Giovinazzi - A very short-notice F1 debut went well for him, though some crash-happy Fridays didn't help him.
  15. Lance Stroll - Stroll did a couple of outstanding things amongst a sea of mediocrity. But there's potential.
  16. Paul di Resta - Rocked up to commentate; ended up driving the race. Not bad.
  17. Pascal Wehrlein - Somehow dragged that Sauber into the points, but left without a 2018 seat or a 2017 reputation.
  18. Pierre Gasly - Honestly, I just thought he was anonymous. Shame about Super Formula though.
  19. Romain Grosjean - Scored more points than KMag, but seemed to spend more time in the wall than not.
  20. Brendon Hartley - It's a great story, but he seemed to spend a long time running in last this season.
  21. Kevin Magnussen - Made few friends, scored few points.
  22. Marcus Ericsson - It's not his fault that he wasn't noticed, but he wasn't noticed.
  23. Jenson Button - He didn't want to be driving in Monaco, but flipping Wehrlein wasn't the way to get out of those duties.
  24. Daniil Kvyat - He scored two more race wins... for Verstappen. Meanwhile, he looked lost; needs a fresh start somewhere. Maybe FE, WEC or Indy?
  25. Jolyon Palmer - Maybe it's true what they say about nice guys

Teams
  1. Mercedes - Pretty faultless really.
  2. Force India - Really trying very hard to become a "big team".
  3. Red Bull - Achieved three wins in spite of a most fragile power unit.
  4. Ferrari - Produced a strong car, but had a remarkable knack for self-sabotage.
  5. Williams - Comfortable in fifth despite a weak driver pairing. Plus they did that Guy Martin thing.
  6. Renault - Just imagine what they would have achieved if they'd signed someone other than Palmer this season.
  7. McLaren - They did what they could.
  8. Sauber - And so did they.
  9. Toro Rosso - Juggled four different race drivers, coaxed the very worst out of the Renault PU and then signed up with Honda next year. Odd.
  10. Haas - I want to like them but they just piss me off with their crap drivers and confused approach to car development. Plus, why would you keep either of KMag or Grosjean when offered Leclerc for next year?

Power Units
  1. Mercedes - Still a god amongst power units. Trying to remember if we ever saw one fail.
  2. Ferrari - The next most powerful, made a big jump up towards Mercedes this year.
  3. 2016 Ferrari - It was slow, but it did at least tend to finish the race.
  4. Renault - The fact that their customer engines don't carry their name perhaps indicates how bad their reliability PR would be.
  5. Honda - The saga continues..
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girry
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Re: The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by girry »

Rob Dylan wrote:You had these prepared, didn't you? ;)

Well, I have written down my nominations for Reject of the Year. I think it would be easier to put them in a different thread to this one, what do people think?


Only had it prepared in my mind. Swear it took me barely an hour to type.. :geek:

And yeah, we tended to have ROTY nominations in a different thread than the review one, so do go ahead..
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mario
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Re: The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by mario »

Well, I guess that I'll go through the drivers in championship finishing order and give a few thoughts on them (I'm missing out those who only did a handful of races).

Hamilton - in some ways, I think that the way in which Hamilton and Vettel dealt with Verstappen in Malaysia and Singapore respectively kind of came to sum up their respective campaigns.

The former, although having a reputation for aggression on track, perhaps learned from his battle with Rosberg in 2016 and took a more calculating approach - realising that, since he couldn't win that race from Verstappen, it was better to bank the points for finishing rather than taking too many risks against a driver who had nothing to lose. He had some poor races, but at the same time some stand-out performances such as his utter dominance in qualifying for the Italian GP or the patient way that he controlled the heavily disrupted Singapore GP. He definitely seemed to lift his performances after the summer break and just kept that scoreboard ticking over - I think that he joins Fangio and Schumacher in being one of only three championship winning drivers to score points in every single race - and, ultimately, it was Ferrari and Vettel who broke first.

Vettel - speaking of which, this season was rather bittersweet for Vettel. For the first time in several years, he had a car at his disposal that was a championship winning car and, at points, looked like it might even have been the fastest car. He capitalised on that at the beginning of the season and drove some strong races, but then it all began to drift away from him as both he and the team just made those few small mistakes that let things get away from him. There was that moment of madness in Baku, and then later on in the season there were those incidents that he got involved in that were avoidable (such as the strange clash with Stroll in Malaysia on the cooldown lap) that seemed to hint at a growing sense of frustration that hurt his judgement.

As some have noted, that move on Verstappen in Singapore arguably did the most damage to his title hopes, and in a way it was a move borne of frustration and a slight bit of desperation - a need to be aggressive at a venue where he needed to inflict as much damage on Hamilton as possible, but ultimately a move that ended up costing him dearly in the title battle.

Bottas - I suppose it was inevitable that he was going to find it a bit of a tough situation to step into Mercedes at such short notice, and at times that did show. That said, he did initially start the season off reasonably strongly and had some races where he withstood fairly heavy pressure from Vettel (in Sochi and Austria) to take victory, and managed to initially keep himself in the title battle until the middle of the season. However, after that things just began to go awry - he went through that period of struggling a bit with the car, and particularly never quite being able to get on with the tyres, and allowed himself to drift out of contention. For a driver of his level of experience, he also had some rather clumsy clashes with other drivers - Raikkonen in particular - where he was a bit too aggressive, whilst in some other cases he seemed a bit too passive, almost as if he was struggling a bit to work out how aggressive to be.

Ricciardo - in the earlier part of the season, he did very well to make the most of the misfortunes of others and pulled off some rather opportunistic passes on track to get some unexpected results. However, Verstappen's performances in some of those races did seem to be the spectre at the feast, with some still wondering what he could have done even as Ricciardo was the one walking away with the prizes.

The way in which Verstappen was able to handily beat him in qualifying might be setting a few alarm bells ringing, though in a season where both drivers were so blighted by reliability issues at various points, it is kind of hard to tell who really would have ended up on top if they'd both had a clear season. It's an odd situation where, despite his success, there is still a sense that perhaps things aren't quite as rosy as they might suggest and he will need to dig deep to counteract Verstappen.

Raikkonen - perhaps it is appropriate that he is the "Ice Man", as the embers of that burning ambition he once had seem to have grown cold long ago. Some have said that Ferrari weren't allowing him to win, but at the same time perhaps it is also the case that he is giving Ferrari the impression that he lacks the determination to win and isn't prepared to challenge the team either, allowing and even accepting the role he is in.

We've seen how Vettel and Hamilton fought each other on track and showed how they wanted to win and beat each other, whilst Bottas had those determined races where he had to withstand pressure - it just feels as if Kimi isn't capable of that sort of performance now, as I can't really remember Kimi pulling off a bold overtake this season or showing that same level of doggedness.

Verstappen - we've had those brief moments where we saw him throwing the car around with abandon and giving it his all where he really impressed, and generally he has looked like the quicker of the two Red Bull drivers. However, to some extent you do wonder if perhaps he can afford to drive like that because, as he himself said, he knew that he had nothing to lose whereas most of those he fought with had much more at stake - he might not be able to be quite so carefree in the future. It's been a little hard to judge quite what he could have done given how disrupted his season was, and he will no doubt be a bit concerned about the further restrictions on power unit use in 2018: it might be that, whilst he is still a thorn in the side of others with his pace, he might face another chastening year.

Perez - another year where he cemented his position as head of the midfield pack, and another year of fairly solid performances from him. However, at times the internal rivalry between himself and Ocon did boil over and resulted in moments of poor judgement from him, suggesting he was feeling some pressure from Ocon and was a little rattled at times. Some of that might also be because he felt a little frustrated that, with all of the major players locked in to the major teams for the foreseeable future, he's kind of hit the limit of how far up the grid he can get - and, at the same time, some of those moments on track might hurt his chances with a larger team.

Ocon - on the other side of Force India's garage, Ocon does seem to have grown in confidence and capability over the course of the season and begun to show that promise he showed in the junior series. As others have said, once he got into his rhythm he showed decent consistency and, if he can continue to improve and mature, is likely to be a promising driver in the future.

Sainz Jr - a slightly inconsistent season, as sometimes he showed brilliant pace and performance, such as in Singapore, but then had some races where he made some really boneheaded moves, such as his wildly overoptimistic attempt to pass Stroll in Bahrain or the accident strewn weekend he had in Japan.

There has also been some talk that, behind the scenes, he has been a rather difficult person to work with, which may stunt his future prospects. Next season will be a test of whether he can handle the pressure of a strong team mate and being in a factory team that is aiming for the sharp end of the grid - he has shown potential, but does need to mature and cut out some of the reckless mistakes he's made in the past.

Hülkenberg - in a few ways, it is a little difficult to tell quite how good his season was because he didn't have a competitive team mate to benchmark his performances against. He seemed to have a solid enough season, though yet again a few podium chances went begging; sometimes through reasons outside of his control, such as in Singapore, but sometimes also due to his own performances, such as his misjudgement in Baku where he hit the wall. In some ways, 2018 might be a sterner test of his capabilities and a measure of whether he really is as good as he has been portrayed: if he doesn't beat Sainz Jr, his reputation will inevitably take a bit of a hit.

Massa - even though it wasn't a vintage year for him, it does at least feel as if Massa is somehow bowing out in a way that is perhaps more befitting than what happened last year, and at least bowing out with a bit more dignity and pride. There were, at least, a few stirrings of the driver of old in that performance in Brazil, where perhaps the emotions of the occasion managed to kindle the passions of the past: as others have said, it's sad to see him go, but at the same time you sense that now is the right time for him to leave.

Stroll - I think that it is fair to say that this season was a rather chastening experience for Stroll, and more than a few times we heard the commentators talking about Stroll locking up in races later this year. It seems that, as many felt, it was a big step up for Stroll to make and one that he struggled with, particularly with a number of observers commenting how he seemed to be trying a bit too hard with the car (though he did seem to calm his steering inputs over the course of the season).

To be fair to him, he did still have a few moments that showed promise, with many impressed by his wet weather performance in qualifying for the Italian GP and in Singapore as well, whilst the Mexican GP did also see him net a solid 6th place. He's still likely to face a steep uphill learning curve for a driver many feel perhaps has stepped into the sport too soon, and Williams would do well to place a veteran driver alongside him to help him develop: for all the mockery and dismissal of him as a mere pay driver, and the deserved flack he got in some races for being so far off the pace, there have been those few flashes of promise that, if well mentored by a veteran driver, he could yet show greater promise in the future.

Grosjean - like some in this list, there were a number of races where he managed to drag some fairly respectable performances out of the car: the 6th place in Austria, which was the highlight of this season, comes to mind. However, he also seemed to struggle at times to adapt to the car, and although his issues with the brakes have still not been fully resolved, you do wonder if perhaps there is also a psychological element at play there. He seems a bit dissatisfied with his lot in life, and that frustration does seem to be reflected in his driving at times with some rather indifferent performances.

Magnussen - in some respects, he is probably the driver who disappointed me the most this season. He's been a real liability on track at times, especially with his tendency to make late lunges and to swerve across the track when defending (I'm really surprised he got away with the way he was swerving across the back straight in Canada), and it says a lot when he's not being remembered for his performances on track (where there were few highlights in a somewhat mediocre season), but the way in which he has behaved off of it. A rather underwhelming driver who does not seem to have shown any progression in his abilities - if some of Ferrari's junior drivers manage to have a strong season at Sauber next year, I wouldn't be surprised if Magnussen gets kicked out of Haas fairly quickly.

Alonso - a year of frustration where he was rarely able to show what he was capable of, but you get the sense that he is perhaps relishing the new cars. In one respect, he is the polar opposite of Raikkonen - Alonso has a car that has been wretched at times, but has shown that he still has as much hunger as ever and really wanted to scrap for every last opportunity on track and literally driven the car into the ground at times. If there is half a sniff of a decent opportunity next year, you sense that Alonso does still have the nous and the hunger to grab it - though you hope that relations are much smoother between himself and Renault than they were with Honda.

Vandoorne - a tough car and a tough time to come into the sport, and you sense that the early problems the team had really knocked his confidence quite badly. He does seem to have grown in confidence over the season, and has had those moments where, when he could get on top of the car, he managed to put in some decent performances (the back to back points finishes in Singapore and Malaysia), though inevitably it will be very hard to match up with Alonso. Still, you hope that 2018 will bring a change in fortunes for the team and for Vandoorne, and he can continue his growth and start showing more of the form that he had in the junior series and that talent he has, even if he's not been able to quite tap into it this year.

Palmer - a rather underwhelming performance this year, though given that he only got the seat by default because Renault couldn't find a replacement, it always felt as if the team were just giving him the bare minimum to get the job done and had no interest in trying to help a driver they were always going to get rid of anyway.

He did have a couple of OK races - the Belgian GP being very much a case of what might have been given how he was much quicker than Hulkenberg, and Singapore was a brief highlight - but the expectations had already been pretty low at the beginning of the season, and yet to many he failed to even live up to that.

Wehrlein - a year where the car rarely gave him an opportunity to do anything of note, with only Spain and Baku giving him brief moments to shine. Managed to at least beat Ericsson, but as others have noted, did not beat him by enough to really burnish his reputation and seems likely to fade out of the sport at the end of this year: he's perhaps a little unlucky to be in that situation, but it's kind of hard to see where else he can go.

Kvyat - a wretched and somewhat tragic season for him, and in some ways a painful one to watch too. The utter dejection in his demeanour spoke of a driver who just had lost all sense of purpose and direction in the sport, and there were several clumsy errors that spoke of somebody almost not caring any more about his performances. It's true that Red Bull can be a rather toxic environment though, and perhaps in some ways it is better that he is no longer there - that said, I wonder if his confidence has been so thoroughly destroyed that he probably has left the sport for good (and perhaps it would be good for him to go elsewhere and to a team that might give him the support he needs).

Ericsson - last of the regulars, and it's really hard to say anything of any real note about him given that he's had such an anonymous season. As giraurd notes, he's at least made minor improvements on his form in previous seasons, but it's clear from the fact that he might lose his place at Sauber that even his backers are kind of wondering what the point is when he's not really going anywhere fast (in all senses of that phrase).
Martin Brundle, on watching a replay of Grosjean spinning:
"The problem with Grosjean is that he want to take a look back at the corner he's just exited"
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UncreativeUsername37
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Re: The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by UncreativeUsername37 »

Just to be clear, I haven't been working on this for a week on end, this is just when I felt like doing it. The stat includes races where neither car had a terminal mechanical failure.

1. Fernando Alonso (beat Vandoorne 7-3)
He had a rookie teammate, but it still feels like he's Alonso. He lost to Vandoorne twice (Singapore goes to Vandoorne in the stat, but we all know the truth), but generally he did what he could. It's kind of like Hülkenberg's situation. Except Hülkenberg doesn't drive like an animal. (You know what would've been great is if he had specified the animal. Anyway, he's still Alonso.)

2. Max Verstappen (beat Ricciardo 6-5)
Having ironed out his crashiness, Verstappen is now Just Plain Better than Ricciardo. Ricciardo got lucky with the stat, the "ratio of outperforming" is more like 2.5 or 3 to 1. If Red Bull make a championship-winning car, Verstappen will win a championship.

3. Lewis Hamilton (beat Bottas 11-8)
He lost to Bottas a few times, even if he wasn't outpaced as often as the raw stat suggests, but he didn't make huge flashy mistakes like Vettel, and he certainly deserves his championship. Bottas' wins, possibly along with Brazil depending on how you want to look at it, were his only truly bad weekends. (And maybe Monaco, I don't remember what happened there.) He had every chance to beat Alonso to the #1 spot, but there were too many cases of losing to a teammate who belongs in the midfield.

4. Sebastian Vettel (beat Räikkönen 13½-2½)
Vettel undeniably beat his teammate more often than his title rival, but that's probably down to the teammate. Baku and Singapore keep getting mentioned as the reasons he deservedly lost, so I won't go on about them, but they keep coming up because they are good reasons. Though if you give him an extra 38 points and take 7 from Hamilton as if he won those races, he still loses by a single point, no Hamilton-favouring orders in Hungary or Abu Dhabi needed.

5. Daniel Ricciardo (lost to Verstappen 5-6)
He doesn't not deserve his drive, but there's not much to say, he was just slower. Aside from Australia qualifying, he didn't make any major mistakes as far as I can remember, so that's something.

6. Sergio Pérez (beat Ocon 12-8)
After the first four races, things were very even the rest of the way through. It'll be great to see them have another year together.

7. Esteban Ocon (lost to Pérez 8-12)
Surprisingly equalled Pérez. My main memory of his year is actually the crash at Baku. It's one thing and it's not representative of him at all, I think more than anything the fact that it's all I can really think of is a testament to the evenness of the matchup.

8. Carlos Sainz Jr. (beat Kvyat 7-3, "lost to" Gasly 0-1, "beat" Hülkenberg 1-0)
Still in an epic battle with Pérez for best of the rest. Smashed Kvyat, whatever that counts for. Sadly couldn't keep up his outperforming of Hülkenberg, but overall the stint was still pretty impressive.

9. Valtteri Bottas (lost to Hamilton 8-11)
Consistently outpaced by Hamilton, beating him on a few tracks where the pointy corners suit him. More or less what we all expected. Has his solidly midfield skill level changed from when he was at Williams? Probably not. This is almost a Hamilton/Massa comparison in a weird way.

10. Felipe Massa (beat Stroll 10-5)
A rookie teammate, so what is there to say. In a year where his teammate had the consistency of water, he was reliably bringing home the points, so that's certainly good. It really is a shame he's retiring, except now he's being pushed out I guess. He's still in the top 20 is my point.

11. Nico Hülkenberg (beat Palmer 6-2, "lost to" Sainz 0-1)
There wasn't a large set of races against a good teammate, so what's him and what's Renault is a complete mystery. All we can do is assume he's still a bit worse than Pérez.

12. Kimi Räikkönen (lost to Vettel 2½-13½)
Vettel's a championship-quality driver and all, but that stat really does represent how Räikkönen did this year, and every year in his current stint at Ferrari. No, not really. It's actually worse: Silverstone aside, he never beat Vettel on pace. He's clearly not top team-quality, but he's exactly what Ferrari want, and I don't know who's fit to replace him anyway....

13. Lance Stroll (lost to Massa 5-10)
High highs, but many more low lows. The pace is in there, and hopefully having a season under his belt will see him unlock it and become an actual good F1 driver. Or maybe he'll continue to tease us. Just look at his last four races compared to Massa's, it really sums things up.
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14. Stoffel Vandoorne (lost to Alonso 3-7, "drew" Button ½-½)
As I said, it should really be 2-8, but for a rookie to beat Alonso ever is still an achievement. (How has Hamilton not become the greatest driver ever? It's a bit weird when you think about it.) That said, he still hasn't earned a place among the Sainzes of the world in agonisingly-almost-top-team-worthy land. He never really made me go "wow, look at what this guy can do with an F1 car" like Stroll did either.

15. Brendon Hartley ("lost to" Kvyat 0-1, "beat" Gasly 1-0)
Gasly is my guy whose driving style makes me think he'll succeed, like a lot of people had with Verstappen, so to outperform him 2-1 after being thrown in from WEC is pretty good.

16. Romain Grosjean (lost to Magnussen 7-8)
Despite the head-to-head, I feel like the points tally of 28-19 summarises things rather better. Or maybe I just refuse to adjust my perception of Magnussen. However you look at it, they're pretty even. The main thing I'll remember about Grosjean's 2017 is his radio whinges getting boring after a while.

17. Pierre Gasly ("beat" Sainz 1-0, "lost to" Hartley 0-1)
Going by the two races we've got, he's just slightly worse than Sainz, but the experience difference is a decent excuse. If it wasn't for the spinning at Yas Marina, I'd be thinking a bit more of him.

18. Kevin Magnussen (beat Grosjean 8-7)
Having lost to Button as a rookie (but wouldn't anyone) and destroyed Palmer at Renault (but wouldn't anyone), it seems Magnussen has finally found his home in a performance sense. It's kind of like Pérez and Ocon, but instead of finishing in adjacent positions they're both crazy inconsistent. His performances at McLaren did scream "yet another lower-midfield driver almost worth missing, but not quite", but it's nice to see more evidence for it.

19. Pascal Wehrlein (beat Ericsson 8½-5½)
The stat says it all: he beat Ericsson, but not by enough for any team to care. Does he deserve a shot at F1 in 2018? Of course he does, but so do most of the FE field. He didn't show he wasn't in the top 20, and didn't show he was.

20. Paul di Resta
Didn't qualify last. He did race last, but it's not like his teammate was anywhere.

21. Daniil Kvyat (lost to Sainz 3-7, "beat" Hartley 1-0)
He performed decently against Ricciardo in his only full year, so "another failed Red Bull driver" seems too harsh a description, but for the purpose of the 2018 silly season, he's another failed Red Bull driver. It's sad that he beat his teammate in his last race in F1, but we've seen that Verstappen and Ricciardo are better, and therefore the Red Bull system is the wrong place for him. For the sake of his mental health, I'm glad he's out of it.

22. Antonio Giovinazzi ("lost to" Ericsson 0-1)
One decent race, one crash. All you had to do was beat Ericsson, man.

23. Marcus Ericsson ("beat" Giovinazzi 1-0, lost to Wehrlein 5½-8½)
To call him some crappy pay-driver would be too harsh, but to call him worthy of F1 would be far too generous. In Singapore and Japan, he failed his duty as a pay-driver to not impose a retirement on himself, but I'm glad he exists. Sauber with Ericsson is better than no Sauber. We all know on skill alone he shouldn't be here, but we all know that's never how it's worked.

24. Jolyon Palmer (lost to Hülkenberg 2-6)
Throughout his 1.8 seasons in F1, Palmer achieved... well, he got a third of the way to unrejectification, because his teammate's car failed. He got 10th at Sepang once. And that's all his points. I don't think I have anything nice to say.

25. Jenson Button ("drew" Vandoorne ½-½)
Caused a collision in 100% of his races. Jean-Louis Schlesser aside, it doesn't get worse than that.
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Re: The 2017 Driver and Team Reviews

Post by Rob Dylan »

Driver rankings

1. Lewis Hamilton: 8.5
I’d argue this was his most solid championship season to date. He didn’t make as many mistakes under pressure, beat his teammate pretty soundly once the season really got going. Certainly didn’t tarnish his season with anything silly.
2. Sebastian Vettel: 8.0
Also a great season, but did tarnish his season a number of times with silly mistakes and the usual ”blue flags!” bad temper. Unlucky in a lot of respects, but in the case of Singapore, it is true that you make your own luck. A respectable season overall, but Sebastian’s really got to be hoping that the 2018 Ferrari is at least as competitive as this year’s.
3. Max Verstappen: 8.0
Didn’t think I’d ever rate this guy above Ricciardo. Though his low points have been lower than Ricciardo’s, his high points have certainly been higher. Like his teammate, he lost a lot of points due to unreliability, but then was at fault for incidents like in Hungary. Overall, a great season, and the first time I’ve genuinely thought ”This guy is going to be world champion one day”.
4. Valtteri Bottas: 7.5
A good season by someone a lot of people weren’t sure how to rate. He came across to me as something of a one-season wonder after 2014, but he was certainly respectable in a Mercedes without the absolute outright dominance of the previous three seasons. A little too off-the-pace in the second half of this year, and he’ll need to iron out that inconsistency next year if he wants to beat Lewis. No Nico Rosberg, but certainly no Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
5. Daniel Ricciardo: 7.5
It felt good to see him win in Baku – I always enjoy seeing this guy win, and I hope he wins a championship as well one day. That was the only real high point that I remember from this guy in 2017. His season was certainly not as eventful as Max’s, but he got the job done when he needed to, and certainly deserved 4th place more than Räikkönen did.
6. Carlos Sainz Jr.: 7.0
Not too much to comment on his season. It was excellent again, though perhaps not as consistent as 2016. He's clearly talented, and I hope for his and Hulkenberg's sake, the Renault is a decent car next year.
7. Sergio Perez: 7.0
A standard Perez season. Consistent, brought home results. Still best of the rest, though his teammate was perhaps a little too close for comfort in terms of results this season.
8. Esteban Ocon: 7.0
A great season from a driver still new to the sport. He was in rock-solid machinery, but he still delivered with a consistency not seen by some of his contemporaries, and shook Sergio a little bit to boot. I can certainly see a bright future ahead for this one, if only he can get out of the Force India bubble and into a really top team.
9. Fernando Alonso: 6.5
Had an absolute rubbish car. But did quite well in it when it started finishing races. Found himself regularly in the top 10 for a car like that, and unlike Kimi, showed that when the car’s not up to scratch, he still does his best.
10. Nico Hulkenberg: 6.0
Like Perez, he seems to have a rhythm of being an ”all right” driver. He’s competent, will bring back good results with consistency. Not much special about this season compared to any of his others.
11. Pascal Wehrlein: 6.0
A season where, in the worst car on the grid, he picked up two good points results, is a good result in itself for the German. He’s clearly got talent and pace, but unfortunately he’s never been given the machinery to prove his worth. I think it would be a tragedy if he didn’t get a seat in 2018 after two strong seasons, but I suppose that’s Formula 1, isn’t it.
12. Stoffel Vandoorne: 5.5
An ok, if unremarkable season for the Belgian. It took a while for the season to get going for the guy, though on occasion he was even ahead of Fernando in the standings. The occasional good result, without any of the bad results of Stroll. All in all, an ok debut season.
13. Felipe Massa: 5.5
Although it felt a bit strange to see Felipe around for another final season, he at least finished this one with his head held higher than in 2016. He was in the running for Reject of the Year this time a year ago, but this season he was much more consistent – as constistent as the latest Williams chassis have allowed him to be. His teammate was all over the place, but he displayed a good amount of maturity when many people thought he was long washed up. I’ll honestly miss having him around on the grid.
14. Kimi Räikkönen: 5.0
Disappointing.
15. Romain Grosjean: 5.0
A pretty typical post-2013 Grosjean season. Complained a lot, brought home a good result every now and then. Didn’t shock the racing world, but wasn’t terrible. Was just all right.
16. Brendon Hartley: 5.0
Seemed to be on the ball from the get-go. His experience put him a step or two ahead of Gasly, and he didn’t embarrass himself at all.
17. Pierre Gasly: 4.5
Only rated lower than Hartley because of a few little mistakes over the few races he was around. Honestly, if he’s operating at a similar level to him already, it means he’s probably better than Brendon in the long run, but needs the experience before he can get the better of the Kiwi.
18. Kevin Magnussen: 4.5
Exactly the same season as Grosjean, but his high points were slightly fewer. At this point, and the general position the Haas cars are stuck in means that the ability to get good points positions out of crazy weekends is an important characteristic in a driver. Magnussen didn’t do that badly, he just didn’t do it as much as Grosjean did.
19. Marcus Ericsson: 4.0
Possibly the only driver other than Jolyon who I think would do a worse job in that second Ferrari than Kimi Räikkönen. He’s bad, and someone needs to throw some money at Sauber so that they stop hiring this guy.
20. Lance Stroll: 3.5
That podium in Baku was amazing, and for much of the rest of the season he was crazy. He really needs to improve, and would have had a total disaster of a season if he hadn’t have got the podium. He’s too young and needs to improve quickly before the next guy comes along. He’s lucky he’s rich, because he runs the risk of becoming the Jos Verstappen of the 2010s.
21. Jolyon Palmer: 3.0
Slow. Reliably slow, I suppose. You at least knew what you were getting with Jolyon. He was always operating on borrowed time, and his distinctly meh performances never really improved. A nice 6th place in Singapore, but that was about the highlight of his F1 career by far. He had his chance and now he should go.
22. Daniil Kvyat: 2.0
Reject of the Year for me. I pity the guy, I really do, but his performances this season were just so poor, that in some ways I wished he’d made that break from Formula 1 the moment they got Max to replace him. With no motivation, he performed terribly, and was massively outshone by Sainz again. His final dismissal almost seemed like a mercy. I just hope he’s ok.
- Antonio Giovinazzi
Another driver I have pity for. Has pace, but crashed into walls at all the worst times. I’m hoping a slot becomes available for him in the near-future, but Charles Leclerc appears to have filled the Sauber seat, and with Wehrlein out of a seat, the German is a much better bet for any team looking for a clean, consistent young driver.
- Jenson Button
Didn’t want to be there, and you could tell. As I said in the Reject of the Year nominations, the best thing about Button’s 2017 was his book.
- Paul di Resta
I missed the one race he was in, but from what I can tell he didn’t embarrass himself. One for the ”anonymous stints” thread. Plus, if Kubica ends up being a disaster next year, he’s still in a position to take over as the third driver if Williams keep him for 2018.
Murray Walker at the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix wrote:The other [Stewart] driver, who nobody's been paying attention to, because he's disappointing, is Jan Magnussen.
Felipe Nasr - the least forgettable F1 driver!
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