2019 driver and team reviews

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UncreativeUsername37
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2019 driver and team reviews

Post by UncreativeUsername37 »

By "reviews", I mean ranked lists, scores, and/or single paragraphs explaining things everyone already knows. But I guess you can do actual reviews too if you want.

1. Lewis Hamilton
It certainly wasn't the near-comprehensive crushing of last year, but he still deserves the top spot. I feel like he transcended his car at times, but I can't come up with any specific race where this happened (Canada?) so maybe I'm just talking crap. Anyway, he beat Bottas a good amount of the time – 70%, I'd say – and even though Bottas isn't really a top driver that's still good work. The guy at the top remains at the top, much to the irritation of the hardcore fanbase.

2. Max Verstappen
If he didn't spend a few races doing dumb stuff, he'd be #1. Just when you think he's finally matured into a consistent champion-type driver, he'll remind you who he is. It'd help if I thought more of his teammates too; I feel like if Hamilton's teammates were Gasly and Albon, he'd be the one with the amazing head-to-head record. But looking beyond teammates, he did beat the Ferraris. Yes, one incident or mistake going another way could have put Leclerc ahead, but that's how it goes.

3. Charles Leclerc
He outscored Vettel despite having luck that was a bit worse. In terms of head-to-head it was very close, but it was the second-year driver and Ferrari rookie Leclerc who made fewer big mistakes. Not that much more to say. Inexperience won't be an excuse for anything next year, so the 2020 Ferrari battle will be an interesting one... but you knew that already.

4. Daniel Ricciardo
It doesn't feel right to say Ricciardo was the fourth best this year, but when I look at his results against Hülkenberg, that's what I come to. I don't think he was quite as good as the five-position gap in the table would have you believe, but still, the statistics say he did better. 2018 made me doubt he really deserved a top three car, but he's back in there. If only there was a team that made sense for him....

5. Sergio Pérez
He didn't do everything he could've done, he did lose to Stroll a few times, but generally he did an excellent job. He brought the car to a couple class wins it probably didn't deserve, or maybe it seems that way because they tended to be in the latter half of the year, I don't know. But whatever the case, you can never fault a best of the rest performance. And getting 10th in the championship with Stroll 15th is... er, decent, when you put it like that. But I don't think you could have asked for much more.

6. Sebastian Vettel
Considering what Leclerc did in his rookie year, to come as close to him as Vettel did is an accomplishment. Yes, he had a couple too many errors for the 2010s, but he still has pace. He was definitely better against Leclerc pre-summer break, though. His year somehow seems solid, erratic, and worrying all at the same time....

7. Carlos Sainz
This is what I have to assume in the absence of a teammate we actually know anything about. Though even considering the circumstances, 6th overall for McLaren has to be described as a great year.

8. Valtteri Bottas
After his horrible 2018, Bottas returned to being almost as good as Rosberg and therefore making a great number two to Hamilton. Let's be real, he was never meant to be in a top team and it once again showed. After Melbourne it looked like he might have finally cracked it... then the next seven races happened... so disappointing. But two out of three times, he either beat Hamilton or finished in the next position, and that's enough for Mercedes.

9. Lando Norris
He outpaced Sainz in several races, good for him. You can tell he has the ability and just isn't consistent with it. But he wasn't crazy inconsistent. He was in the points most of the time, just. Had a few embarrassing results, but not a lot. He did all right.

10. George Russell
His performance reminds me of Ericsson against Nasr, doing a great job against his teammate except in the kind of race that actually matters for a small team. Did we really learn anything about Russell with a guy with no relevant F1 experience and almost two arms as an opponent? No. But he did what was available to do, except score a point.

11. Kimi Räikkönen
Did we really learn anything about Räikkönen with a guy with two races of revelant F1 experience and almost a GP2 title as an opponent? No. But he did what was available to do; it was an incredibly one-sided fight, beaten only by Verstappen-Gasly and Kubica-Russell, and that's all you can ask for.

12. Nico Hülkenberg
It was supposed to be an incredibly fun teammate battle to watch, but somehow it didn't turn out that way, despite him being quite evenly matched with Ricciardo... right? It felt that way at the time, but looking back, it wasn't really 50:50. The last few races were the longest consecutive period of one drive beating the other, but even just counting before the summer break, Ricciardo had a slight edge. Still, across the season he was far from demolished. One out of three ain't bad. That's how it goes, right? And when he did beat Ricciardo, he tended to do it by more positions.

13. Lance Stroll
Stroll's head-to-head record is similarly impressive to Hülkenberg's, but when he did get beaten, it was usually by a lot, if you define "a lot" as at least four positions. On average he finished two positions behind Pérez, as in counting when Stroll won as negative. I think 52 to 21 is a fair assessment, and you might be even harsher if you don't think that much of Hockenheim; if you take out their best result each, it's 44–9. So what is he doing ahead of a third of the field? Well, he did beat Pérez, who maybe deserves to be in F1.0, a few times, and the secondary Red Bull people didn't represent themselves well against Verstappen. Who is certainly tougher, but they could've at least got close sometimes.

14. Alexander Albon
All right, you all know the problem: Albon and Gasly had two mutual teammates this season and they both did better than the other against one of them. I've decided that performance at a top team is more important and so Albon gets the better ranking. He did... okay against Kvyat, I'd say not *quite* as good as him, but considering his rookie status it was a decent job. So recognising his potential, he gets the Red Bull drive ahead of Kvyat, does the minimum you could possibly consider acceptable, and everyone is impressed because hey, Gasly couldn't do it and he had a year of experience plus an off-season to get into the team. This was an okay year, I guess. Losing to Kvyat then finishing bottom of your class all the time doesn't sound okay, but trust me, if you watch it it makes sense.

15. Pierre Gasly
At Red Bull he was really bad. No one needs the details. At Toro Rosso he was okay. Kvyat did better at first, then he turned it around. Overall he was slightly better than Kvyat. Which isn't really that much of an accomplishment, but Gasly deserves his place in F1, especially with how the final few races went. I'd say Toro Rosso is where he belongs if that wouldn't be depressing.

16. Kevin Magnussen
He didn't beat Grosjean the way he did last year, but he was still slightly better. It's hard to tell how much better because they didn't both finish that many races. In fact, if you just count races where they both finished, Grosjean prevails, but Magnussen got unlucky with mechanical failures. Plus some of those retirements Grosjean, let's say, deserved. I don't know if Magnussen's actually changed much, but with all the good rookies this year and Grosjean not having one of his periods where he just goes forever without doing anything and forces you to assume his teammate is doing great, he's slipped down the list.

17. Romain Grosjean
He did almost as good as Magnussen, so his ranking is almost as good. With his relative performance, it isn't an injustice that Haas have kept him, especially since he helped them with the car I guess like I don't know, but why can't they take a chance? I wish there was somewhere Hülkenberg fit. Too many Toro Rossos, man. But I'm sure there's enough about that on the Internet, so seriously, how did Grosjean do? Well, like I said, he outperformed Magnussen pretty often but not quite as often as he didn't. I don't have the memories of how the whole grid's races were going on lap 41 of a race seven months ago when someone had an engine problem, or even the details of a lower midfield collision from three months ago. You know, the kind of thing that would allow me to actually make intelligent driver rankings instead of looking at lap charts and lying about how it jogs my memory. But I think what I'm saying is right.

18. Daniil Kvjat
Why does Kvjat deserve to be this low? Well, he probably doesn't, it's just that everyone from Stroll down to him, the lower midfield who are forced to double as backmarkers because there are only twenty cars, is incredibly close. Or maybe it's less about it being really close and more about it being really confusing. How is Kvjat in 18th when he directly outraced the guy in 14th? Because Albon was better in a Red Bull than Gasly who beat Kvjat, who didn't even get the chance to embarrass himself against Verstappen because Helmut Marko is smarter than you think. Who needs Hill, Villeneuve, and Frentzen? That took three bloody years. Um, performance, right. He beat Albon just about most of the time and then Gasly beat him just about most of the time. It was a year of mediocrity. He wasn't decent enough for most people to talk about him or bad enough for us to. He'll get another chance in 2020 even though he's slightly older than Nyck de Vries. There is a real Formula 1.5, and its name is Formula E.

19. Robert Kubica
This isn't the same Kubica we saw last time he was here. It's quite something that career-ending injury ultimately wasn't, but reality hit hard. He was nowhere the entire season, and though you have to blame the team, he never really looked like he deserved anything else. I'll tell you what he did do, though: he scored a point. In a Williams. Did the reigning rookie F2 champion do that? No. Was it because he had a mechanical problem in the same race? No. It's because he made a mistake, and Kubica didn't. Was he useless for anything other than Orlen's money for the vast majority of the season? Yes. But when being useful was, well, useful, he was the one who delivered. Robert Kubica: the guy who scored a point in the 2019 Williams.

20. Antonio Giovinazzi
Kubica finished ahead of Russell twice, the same number of times Giovinazzi finished ahead of Räikkönen. He got 14 points and 10 of those were from Brazil. I want to say something about his season, end the list with something good, but all he did was run outside the points and not really do anything. Canada was good. Monza was great, which is appropriate. But really, he got four points finishes and Räikkönen got nine for just over three times the points. What do I do with that? Williams stood out. Haas got themselves coverage as everyone passed them. Giovinazzi was always just... there, somewhere, presumably. But he isn't ranked last for being boring, he's ranked last because he had the best benchmark you could ask for – very experienced, midfield-quality – and he did a terrible job.


1. Mercedes
They brought Hamilton to a not very dramatic first and Bottas to a not very dramatic second. They did it again. Yaaay.

2. McLaren
They were easily best of the rest, and they even had a couple races, just a couple, where they were more like last of the frontrunners. Living Renault's dream, you might say. With their engine, too. Ouch.

3. Toro Rosso
They came awfully close to beating Renault with a worse budget and worse drivers. You couldn't ask for more.

4. Ferrari
They lost a lot of points in flashy ways. If they aren't ROTY, Williams will be, but that win for McLaren showed what the judges like to see. But even with all they did wrong, they were a solid second in the championship, and so I have a hard time believing that that 400+ million dollars was that poorly spent.

5. Red Bull
When will you guys, like, actually challenge for second place? Lately you always look like you're about to catch Ferrari.... And yes, their second seat failed them, but let's remember two things: first, the other seat is brilliant, and second, it's all their fault anyway.

6. Alfa Romeo
They were doing fantastic until Europe. Then they were nowhere near points for a few races, but then they were back for a few races. Then Giovinazzi got a few points. Then they were irrelevant for good. Except Brazil, but that doesn't count. It's all a little sad, you know?

7. Racing Point
Cue some dance song about not having money. I'm sure there are enough good ones out there. Except now they do with Stroll? It doesn't really look like it with Pérez in 10th place. But still, I doubt the Stroll money is enough to change that they're second in the poor team championship.

8. Renault
Fifth place is a disappointment, but it could've been worse. Just ask Toyota how spending enough money means you automatically win. And they aren't anywhere near the top three in budget anyway. But still. How do you have manufacturer backing and bring Ricciardo and Hülkenberg to 9th and 14th? That is not right. With their budget and drivers, they should not have been within 20 points of Racing Point.

9. Haas
Qualifying was great for a while, they picked up where they left off. But the races were never great. Renault and Alfa let you get used to it, but Haas delivered disappointment for much longer by being great in qualifying and not races, then when that got old, they started to decline there too. Throughout most of the season, everyone was asking what happened, but eventually they just accepted it. It just seems weird to everyone because Haas have never declined from their previous season before. It was going to happen sometime, although no one expected it to be this steep. But what they did before doesn't matter. In 2019, it felt like the Haas was never giving its drivers a chance, and that's why they're ranked here.

10. Williams
lol
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rachel1990
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Re: 2019 driver and team reviews

Post by rachel1990 »

My driver and team reviews

teams

1. Mercedes- There wasn't really any doubt left after China was there. Hamilton walked away with his 6th driver's championship and Mercedes with their 6th constructor's championship in a row. Bottas came second in the championship and the team won 16 races this season. Just don't mention the german gp though.

2. Mclaren- Finally some progress from the Woking team. A good driver pairing and a better than expected car led to some strong results, a podium in Brazil, 6th in the championship for Sainz and 4th overall in the standings. Very good job.

3. Toro Rosso- The final year for the team with this name and they had their most successful season since 2008. Even with a much smaller budget than Renault and with three drivers all season who were cast-offs of the Red Bull group. A good car, drivers who took the opportunities that were presented to them and ran Renault close for 5th.

4. Ferrari- when they were good they were amazing (Canada (well almost), Belgium, Italy, Singapore even Bahrain to a certain extent). However, when they weren't great they were nowhere. The team started the season favouring Vettel which didn't please Leclerc and when they made them equals in the team at the midpoint, that really annoyed Vettel. Vettel had arguably his worst season ever in F1 (He was okay in 2014) and the drivers coming together in Brazil was slightly inevitable. 2020 could make or break the team.

5- Red Bull. When you run out of drivers from your talent pool, this will be the consequence. Verstappen had an excellent season but was probably better than the car itself if truth be told. But he was the only Red Bull driver on the podium (which was the actual red bull car) this season. Gasly was given the drive at the start of the season but his confidence was destroyed in pre-season and it showed. Fighting the Mclarens and being lapped by your teammate is not expected at the main red bull team. Demoting him to Toro Rosso was the correct call. However, was promoting Albon the right call? It's had to tell because after he was promoted Red Bull went through a tough second half to the season (barring Brazil) and he do the bare minimum that the team expected (getting those 6th places), Red Bull wanted second in the constructors and in the end they didn't manage it. 2020 could be interesting for them, especially if Verstappen is challenging for the title.

6- Racing Point- I expected little and in the end, I wasn't surprised. Perez totally dominated Stroll both in qualifying and in the race (barring Germany). Perez came alive towards the end of the season with some good points but it wasn't enough to beat Toro Rosso. Stoll had his great race in Germany but apart from Italy, I didn't really notice him, but I suspect he will be in f1 for a long time so I had better get used to him.

7- Alfa Romeo- With Kimi leading the team, they had a great first half of the season with Kimi reaching the lower end of the points on a consistent basis. However, they struggled after the summer break only picking up points in Brazil (still it was 4th and 5th). Kimi thrashed Giovinazzi who was a little fortunate to keep his seat but Giovinazzi needs to improve next season if he wants Ferrari to even look in his direction for 2021. If he doesn't Alfa will probably put Mick Schumacher in the car instead.

8- Renault- This was meant to be. This was the year that they broke into the top 3. With an exciting line-up, Renault were ready. Except they weren't. On all counts. Italy was the team's best result with 4th and 5th but neither driver really stood out all year. The engine was once again unreliable (and prompted Mclaren to go back to Mercedes for 2021) and the chassis was nothing to write home about either. Knowing how much money Renault had pumped into the car means that 2019 was a total write-off for the team. Will Ocon make any difference in 2020. Who knows...

9-Haas. Oh and Dear. From 5th to 9th. A shambles of a title sponsor (who then dumps you for being too slow) Drivers colliding on the track, and the team getting into Q3 consistently, then on race day dropping like a stone and racing the Williams. A year to forget for the American outfit. Well it could be worse

10- Williams- Well I thought it was bad in 2018. It could always be worse. And it was. So many people to blame but the drivers should be excluded. Mostly. Russell Did what he could with that Rust-bucket and totally thrashed Kubica (barring Germany which turned out to be the race that mattered). Kubica's return was seen as the fairytale return but it was clear that he was badly struggling and that maybe that for f1 driving for him. They did score a point in Germany but that was after total carnage from everyone else. The only way is up (or it could be even worse next year)


Drivers

1- Lewis Hamilton- He was probably better last season but still... Barring Germany and Brazil where he messed up big time (or his team did) he was always in contention for the win no matter what. Scary really. But you can't deny the facts that he won 11 races and scored points in all of them.

2- Max Verstappen- Easily his best season ever in F1. Barring his silly comments about pole in Mexico he really has put in the performances this year which has most f1 fans begging for Red Bull to give him a title-winning car in 2020. Hard to believe he has been in f1 since 2015 and is only 22.

3- Carlos Sainz- Getting out of Renault and going to Mclaren seemed like the daft choice in 2018. A driver who had massive question marks over his head in 2018 about him deserving a drive. Well didn't Carlos shut everyone up in 2019. He and Mclaren fit together like a glove. When the second Red Bull was floundering (Well in the first half of the season) Carlos was there to capitalize. The smooth operator won back many fans this year and his 6th place in the championship plus a podium as well was richly deserved.

4- Charles Leclerc. he was supposed to be the number two driver at Ferrari. Vettel would win the championship and Leclerc would pick up the pieces, maybe a win or two but hold off the Mercedes so the lord himself could romp off to world title number 5. Well that would have been the case but for two minor factors. 1- The Ferrari was not a title contender. 2- Leclerc had no intention of doing that. He should have won probably 5 instead of the two he did win plus he had the honour of winning at Monza. Yes he made mistakes (Baku, Monaco) but it is his second full season of f1 and by the end of the season he was fighting his teammate for number one position in the team (and winning). Not half bad.

5- Sergio Pérez. Okay here me out. This was a tough one to pick out for 5th because there were at least 4 drivers in my mind for this position. In the end, I went for Perez for his consistency in picking up the points even though his car would give up the ghost in qualifying especially in the second half of the season. and yet he seemed to be there getting the team the bulk of the points. They would be 9th in the championship without him. Racing Point needs Perez as much as Perez needs them.

6- Alexander Albon- Well you don't get put into the second red bull seat for no reason do you. Albon had been quietly impressing in his rookie season of F1 especially after getting the Toro Rosso drive because Red Bull ran out of options. He was pretty much equal to Kyvat in the races and if Gasly hadn't messed up at Germany Albon could have got the podium instead. He now seems like a good call of Red Bull to put Albon in the car as by this point they knew they had no chance of catching Ferrari for second in the championship and Gasly was falling apart. Albon did his job and did get the best out of the car (Max was better than the car) and should have got a podium in brazil if it wasn't for that damm six time world champion. Richly deserves his 2020 drive at Red Bull. If he performs.

7- Lando Norris- I feel slightly bad for putting Lando here because he had the lion share of bad luck at Mclaren this year and would have got 9th instead of 11th if he had finished in Belgium. Still, he didn't and made a few mistakes but he beat his teammate in quali and impressed quite a few people in f1. so much so that he and Sainz became very popular within the f1 community with their friendship and humour. a good rookie season from Lando

8- Valtteri Bottas- 'to whom it may concern' Perfect way to start the season and Shut everyone up who said he should lose his seat to Ocon. Including me. However, I wish he could have followed it through throughout the season. After that (barring Baku where he won again) Bottas was never really a contender for race wins through the first half of the season and only won 4 times all year (What Williams would give these days to win four races in one season) and the other two victories came after the horse had bolted (basically Hamilton was either about to win or had won the championship). Still growing the beard has been a turning point for him but he finished the season on a down point with news of his divorce. Still much better than last year.

9- George Russell- Now I feel really bad for rating Russell 9th because in that Crapbox that was the FW42 ( I presume that WON'T be on the Williams hall of fame) he did really well. The first rule in f1 is to beat your teammate. Which he did. By a mile. If Russell was 1 lap down Kubica would be two. Rusell would be closer to the Haas's and Giovanzzi than Kubica quite a lot of the time. Not anywhere near the points but its a start. In fact, the only time Kubica beat him was the race that Mattered. Germany. Where Kubica got 1 point (and the only point for Williams it turned out all year). But Russell did enough to impress and may have an eye on a Mercedes drive for 2021.

10- Daniel Riccardo- Maybe he did the right thing in leaving Red Bull. If the team were revolving around Verstappen then taking a plunge to a team that had done well in 2018 and was a FACTORY outfit to boot seemed a no-brainer. However, he must have seen the warning signs with reliability. And Maybe others badly underperformed in 2018. Because 2019 was a year Riccardo will want to forget quickly. It wasn't the fact that HE did anything truly wrong to speak. It's just because that Renault was to be kind, A little bit rubbish. But Riccardo did do his best and got the teams beast result with 4th at Italy and cemented his place as de facto team leader at Renault. Maybe Ocon will push him in 2020 more that Hulkenburg did. Or not. who knows with Renault.

11- Kimi Raikkonen- I was impressed with Kimi especially in the first half of the season. He would pick up the points for the team and generally be impressive. Sadly the car faded after Belgium and he only picked up one more points finish (Brazil). Still, he keeps going for one more year but I highly suspect it will end in 2020 and I think Mick Schumacher will replace him. Which is quite funny considering Kimi moving to Ferrari was one of the major reasons why Michael retired (the first time around)

12- Sebastian Vettel- Now I come to another group of Drivers who I am finding hard to Place. I have decided to go with his highness King Sebastian of the Vettels (I Yes I know I am being very sarcastic but if he reacts this way every time a teammate is faster than him..) Sometimes it felt mistake after mistake was happening for Vettel. He started the season as the undisputed number one (finger in the air). By the end of the season, huge question marks about when he would retire were circling him. Harsh but the numbers don't lie. 2 Poles 1 win (Okay he accidentally got the win in Singapore and probably deserved the win in Canada). Only other race where I thought he would win was Russia. okay, he had some bad luck but Leclerc had more bad luck than him and still finished 24 points ahead with 7 poles and 2 wins including winning in Italy (something Vettel has done in an Italian car once. In 2008. In a Toro Rosso) Plus Vettel's mistakes were pretty memorable. Bahrain (spinning by himself), Britain (Hitting Verstappen) Italy of course (Spinning off and then hitting Lance Stroll coming back onto the track. That could have been a black flag) and hitting his teammate in brazil. Needless to say 2019 has not been a vintage year for him and unlike 2014 when he could just walk out of his team and go elsewhere, this time he has to fight to get his position back.

13- Nico Hulkenburg- It's not a good sign for your season when I can barely recall much of what you did all year. Nico saw his bubble burst this year. Not Helped by a not great Renault and some awful reliability with the car. But the fact remains that is teammate beat him this year by a country mile. Nico is now 32. he is no longer an up and coming driver in f1 anymore. He needed to perform this year and the hard fact remains that he didn't get the basic job done by beating his teammate. With younger drivers such as Ocon waiting in the wings he knew the pressure was on and he just didn't do it. However its a bit harsh that he is out of f1 completely though. There is at least one driver (Grosjean for example) who didn't deserve to keep his seat at all and Nico should have had at least one more year in f1.

14- Pierre Gasly- If he was given the whole year at Red Bull and he continued his form throughout the season he would be 20th. No doubt about it. However, being sent back to Toro Rosso was a good thing for him as it gave him the chance to regroup and get his head together Because at Red Bull he was all over the place. Being Lapped by your teammate is a total humiliation. twice in a season is even worse. Said teammate winning races while you can't even beat the midfield cars is even worse. Red Bull did the right thing sending him back to Toro Rosso. From there on Gasly started to improve and got the Toro Rosso working the way he wanted from last season. Points were more often than not and to top it all off he got 2nd place in Brazil. Sometimes demotion is the right decision overall

15- Daniil Kvyat- It seems harsh that while I rated the Toro Rosso car so highly I have put the drivers so low. It was tough to put Daniil so low down but barring his very impressive podium in Germany (that was bested by Gasly in Brazil) he faded after being overlooked for the Red Bull drive and became the Torpedo again. (Thankfully this time there are less severe consequences ). Will probably have one more year at Toro Rosso (sorry Alpha Tauri) but will probably be dropped in 2021 by the Red Bull group. For good this time.

16- Kevin Magnussen. Got the teams best Result of the season in Australia with 6th place. That was the highlight of the season for him. Plenty of lows including being told by his team boss to stop whinging after he kept complaining about the car (after HE wrecked it and the team worked around the clock with no sleep etc to fix it). Still, he was considered better than Grosjean.

17- Lance Stroll- Its amazing. I have nothing to say about him. He will be at Racing Point until he or his dad has had enough. Got 21 points and was thrashed by his teammate. the end.

18- Antonio Giovinazzi- At the start of the season when the car was at its best he was nowhere. He didn't score a point until France. 10th place. Yes he led in Belgium and should have got some decent points in Germany but the team wrecked it for him. Improved in the second half of the year but by this point, the car was fading away. Still got 5th in Brazil. But if wanted to put himself in the shop window for Ferrari in 2021, 2019 was not the way to do it.

19- Romain Grosjean- Just copy and paste what I put about him in 2018 on here. But leave out the bits about improving as the season went on. Did nothing but Whinge on the team radio (though that seemed to be a common occurrence in f1 in 2019). Only Finished in the points 3 times with 2 10ths and 1 7th and scored nothing after Germany. Very Lucky to keep his seat.

20- Robert Kubica- Again I look to 2011 and what could have been. It was a fairytale (God I hate that word) to see him back in a F1 car. Unfortunately, it was the crapbox of FW42. And even in that thing, it was clear that Kubica couldn't compete at the top level anymore with f1. he did have his moment by getting Willams only point of the year in Germany. But he would be better in a reserve role now than trying to compete at the top. But still great to see him back even if it didn't work out the way we all wanted.

ROTY

BRONZE- HAAS- Oh where to Begin. Rich Energy deciding that they were dumping you for being slow, drivers wrecking their cars and then whinging about it on the radio, drivers whinging about a car coming a metre towards them, drivers colliding with each other and dropping from 5th to 9th in the constructors. Drive to Survive should be amazing with Haas.

SILVER- F1 Stewarding. The loss of Charlie Whiting was devastating to the whole of F1 in March. unfortunately, his passing has had much bigger consequences for F1 as well. Plenty of the decisions on and off the track this season have been pathetic and could have put more drivers at risk (How long did it take to make a decision to get at least a virtual safety car after Grosjean put Russell in the wall, we could have has a collision aka brazil 2003) The only race I personally saw where they got it right was Italy this year. Why not the rest of the season?

GOLD- Paddy Lowe's Designed FW42 (Okay Willams as a whole)
Well, he designed it. It was late and totally hopeless and was almost always lapped at least twice. Only socred 1 point all year (and that was a lucky point in Germany). Totally off the pace and retiring the car to save parts really was the cherry on the cake for me. Well, it could be worse. Next year they might get nothing...
Last edited by rachel1990 on 02 Jan 2020, 23:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Pacific Edge
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Re: 2019 driver and team reviews

Post by Pacific Edge »

Very interesting and informative analyses. Here's how I saw the teams.

1 Mercedes: Mercedes were smart in that they had the overwhelming majority of their mistakes in a single race. Germany aside, they did what they have been doing the past few seasons, winning. A lot.

2 Red Bull RBR and Honda seem to have clicked fairly well. They made the tough decision to drop Gasly mid season, but it worked, and Albon was able to make a much better contribution to the constructor's points tally, and Verstappen was the best non Merc driver in the driver's cup.

3 McLaren One needs to keep in mind not just this year's performance, but also where they came from from last year, which is quite the turnaround. Seeing the Macs in the top 10 was quite common through the season, in the top 6-8 was a lot more than I think they might even have expected.

4 Ferrari Ended testing with the pundits claiming all sorts of good things for the Scuderia, but when the boys came out to play, Ferrari got (to a large degree) shown up. Ended a distant 2nd in the constructors, and 4th and 5th in the drivers. At the start of the season, I said that they would need to eliminate silly mistakes if they wanted to take the fight to Merc, and they failed to do this, both in strategy and drivers. Were fast in a lot of free practices, and that pretty much sums up their season, they were fast, except when it actually mattered.

5 Torro Rosso A couple of surprise podiums really boosted their season, had to contend with bit of a disruption when Albon left and Gasly came in, but all things considered, they did pretty well. Gave the MUCH better backed Renault a run for their money.

6 Renault As UncreativeUsername correctly and well pointed out, a team of their backing and budget should NOT be scrapping and scraping their way to 5th in the constructors, had the odd good performance here and there, but lacked any real consistency.

7 Racing Point They are rapidly replacing Sauber as "the little team that can". Perez had a good season all things considered, and Stroll chipped in here and there.

8 Alfa Romeo Maybe should have done a LITTLE better given their strong technical partnership with Ferrari, but still managed some strong finishes. But very inconsistent losses and gains in pace made it difficult to get an accurate idea of where they truly are.

9 HaasThe actions (more like antics) of their drivers had Gunther Steiner fuming more than once. As for the car, it was bad enough that the pace was off, but was compounded by the fact that it was eating their tires far too quickly, frustratingly the team could not figure out why, much less actually solve the problem, as the season (and many cars that qualified behind them) went by.

10 Williams Had an absolute SHOCKER. They said that they knew what the problem was and "it would take a few months to sort out", but a few months came and went with no real change, Russell on occasion wrestled the car into the mid-lower teens, but the only time they got a point, they were gifted it by another team trying to get too cute with the rules. The end log won't say that though, and maybe for the better.
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girry
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Joined: 31 May 2012, 19:43

Re: 2019 driver and team reviews

Post by girry »

Now I must begin by admitting that due to reasons related to work obstructing a lot of F1 from me, I only saw maybe 40% of the races and barely any qualifying sessions at all. So take my rankings with a pinch of salt.

Drivers
1 Lewis Hamilton - not as commanding as in 2017-18, with a few mistakes dotting his season here and there, but then again it's only to his own credit he did not even have to be on top of his game
2 Max Verstappen - faultless early in the season but the clumsy streak he had around the break puts him behind the first place
3 Carlos Sainz - I think it was more the car being the best in F1.5 than Sainz being an absolute top drawer driver, but fair play to the error free Spaniard for using his chance to dominate the category in a pretty commanding fashion
4 Valtteri Bottas - deep down we all knew he doesn't have it to beat Lewis; hence it was a positive surprise he ran him even as close as he did
5 Charles Leclerc - we all knew he was rapid, even more so than Vettel - but not that he would become such a dirty driver; had a few shockers as well
6 George Russell - what more can you ask? Alonso-esque
7 Sergio Perez - another season quietly but consistently slicibg through midfields, racking up the points in the pink car - the only reason he's not higher is uncharacteristically binning his best chance at very high points in Germany
8 Daniel Ricciardo - after a brief period of having to adjust to his new team, showed that the pace was still there; however, we also saw that in the hazards of the midfield the Aussie would turn out to be way sloppier than in the Red Bulls
9 Lando Norris - good season enough for a rookie, but needs to step up next year and start beating Sainz if he still wants to live up to the title prospect hype
10 Alexander Albon - yeah it's not easy getting the non-Max seat at RB mid season and handled the pressure fairly well, but Albon is yet to really show signs of having the ultimate consistend speed to quite deserve the seat
11 Daniil Kvyat - nobody expected anything but DK turned out to be a reliable yardstick, with the emphatic podium in Germany as a highlight
12 Sebastian Vettel - in the races was still quicker than Leclerc but seemingly unable to overcome his mental demons anymore even when not involved in a title fight, producing yet another season of tragicomedy with his spins, errors and other brain farts
13 Kimi Raikkonen - the old fox was handling the midfield melees almost Perez-esquely until the season break, then went almost completely AWOL
14 Kevin Magnussen - perhaps harsh as he's established his intra team dominance, but unlike I was expecting didn't really produce any "Wow" moments after Australia
15 Nico Hulkenberg - still a seriously-good-if-not-quite-Hamilton-esque driver when on form, but low rating for he wasted his last chance to be taken seriously by top teams with the characteristic Germany error followed by yet another half-season slump
16 Lance Stroll - doesn't really have the speed for F1 but intriguingly has the flair to produce the odd surprise result once or twice in the wet - which I think is absolutely great, easpecially given that his dad's funding essentially keeps alive the team with the best privateer spirit on the grid
17 Antonio Giovinazzi - a terrible first half of season redeemed by something better later on, so guess he is deserving of a second chance but for a third shot he really needs to start to outrace an ancient Kimi for a third shot
18 Romain Grosjean - not quite as bad a season as 2018 but seriously stagnating anyhow - I don't see him getting back to his pre-Steiner-treatment levels of performance anymore
19 Pierre Gasly / ROTY #3 - the worst single season top team performance since Mansell in McLaren followed by pretty much the best feelgood moment ever in Interlagos - however as nice as his resurgence at STR was, overall it was a season that I think destroyed Pierre's long term F1 career
20 Robert Kubica / ROTY #2 - a signing that initially delighted me would turn into the most weary driver of the grid with the endless whining and blaming the team - a brutal shame. If not for keeping it on track at Hockenheim for the point the Pole would unfortunately have pipped his team for my award for ROTY.

Teams
1 Mercedes
2 McLaren
3 Red Bull
4 Toro Rosso
5 Ferrari
6 Alfa Romeo
7 Racing Point
8 Haas
9 Renault
10 Williams / ROTY #1
when you're dead people start listening
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