So I did this a few years ago and Since there wasn't one last year I would do it this year and see how it goes. Will do my Reject driver Podium and Team podium before doing an overall ROTY!
Driver Reviews.
1- Sebastian Vettel- When Seb won his four titles in a row there were huge question marks about his ability. Many like myself said he needed to leave Red Bull to prove himself. so he left for Ferrari. And by god he prove himself!!!. ! We no longer question his ability to overtake, drive that car or beat his teammate fairly (he did). Seb finally won over a lot of people this year and if Ferrari can give him the car next year it will be a epic duel between Hamilton and Vettel.
2- Lewis Hamilton Well you don't win 10 races without doing something right do you. Lewis was epic at times but was blessed with the best car and a teammate who never really challenged him. Next year will be the acid test.
3- Max Verstappen So who would have thought! The 17 year old is epic in the car. Max was one of the bright spots of a dull season and while he made mistakes his do or die driving won him many fans and for a while may had been a carrot that Red Bull could dangle for a engine! Pity about the final race but one to watch for next year.
4- Nico Rosberg he might be the reason that 2015 went down the drain as a walkover. yes he won 6 races but three of those came AFTER Hamilton had won the title. He didn't win between June and November (Aka Austria and Mexico). Strangely when hamilton was thrashing him Nico didn't get the sympathy vote like Webber did and I do feel now his time has passed to win the title.
5- Fernando Alonso I'm Putting Alonso higher than Button just for Hungary. Senna and Prost could have driven that car and there would be no difference. You could see that Fernando gave his all but I wouldn't be surprised if he told Honda to stuff it.
6 - Jenson Button- So all that drama about who was getting the seat for 2015. What was the point?
7- Felipe Nasr One of the two Felipes on the grid had an impressive year in the Sauber. 6 point fishes including 5th in australia proved he is decent and should be around for a while yet.
8 Valtteri Bottas Valtteri did okay again this year. let's be fair the Williams was stuck in the middle ground (then again look back to 2013) this year. Valtteri got a couple of podiums this year but didn't shine as bright as last year.
9 Felipe Massa Felipe got much closer in pace to Bottas this year and they were pretty much equal for the year. Apart from Brazil.
10 Daniel Ricciardo Dan was smiling still this year but god knows why. The car was poor (I'm not convinced it was just the engine.) and While he got on the podium twice he was beaten by his teamate. Might be time to do a Vettel in 2017.
11- Daniil Kvyat The cool russian was thrown straight into the Fiery mess that was Red Bull. Yes he made mistakes but could had won the Hungarian GP! People have to remember it is only his second season of f1. But the Talk of Verstappen replacing him was unfair (and why would he want to go anyway at the moment) and Daniil did the best he could.
12- Sergio Pérez Sergio once again outperformed his teammate and got that podium in Russia. Here is another one that got out (or Pushed) of Mclaren at the right time.
13 Romain Grosjean That glorious day in Belgium when Romain got his podium. It was my highlight of the year. Romain thrashed his teammate but Haas called and he is off there next year. I hope he does well there. Could still be a Ferrari driver of the future.
14 Nico Hülkenberg However with Nico one feels that his time has passed for a top drive. No-one is talking about him anymore and he may had peaked too soon. Its a pity but that's life. The first test is to beat your teammate and he hasn't done that this year.
15 Carlos Sainz, Jr. maybe slightly unfortunate to be the in the same team as Max but was thoroughly beaten by him this year. In my humble opnion was very fortunate to keep his seat and will have to do much better next year.
16-Roberto Merhi Expected to be thrashed by Stevens he did quite well and got the teams joint best result (12th) Deserves a second chance.
17 Alexander Rossi Like Merhi did okay in the car and beat Stevens as well which with the Marussia we can only judge them on that.
18 Will Stevens My dad compared him to Chilton which i thought was unfair. Chilton was hilarious for being so slow and coming last all the time. I don't think Stevens was at Chiltons level of bad but had a a few good days but was often beaten by whoever was in the car.
19- Marcus Ericsson However Ericsson may be a fairer comparison to Max. Both Mclarens (when they were working) beat him and he was usually in the dead zone of being too slow for the rest of the grid but too fast for Marussia. Now that was Chiltons territory.
20- Kimi Räikkönen So why is the Iceman this low when he came 4th in the championship only one place behind his teammate. Might have something to do with the 128 POINT Difference between them. Or the clashes with Bottas. Or the 3 podiums all year when his teammate WON 3 races. The only reason Kimi is on the grid next year is the fact that all the viable replacements were too expensive to get.
21 Pastor Maldonado. No matter where he goes no matter how bad the car is or if it's his fault. Pastor is always in trouble. I dread to think how many points he has or how much he costs Lotus in repair bills. Must be more than how much he brings in terms of sponsorship. When you have a website named after you about how many times you crash and bringing more destruction to f1 this year pastor is the ROTY driver!!
22- NA Kevin Magnussen. Did not start his only race of the year. Well he was in a mclaren Honda after all.
Teams
1- Mercedes- 16 wins 12 one twos and only one race they didn't feature on the podium. Well you can't say much more than that.
2- Ferrari A good recovery from the prancing horse. Vettel has given the team a new lease of life and 3 wins was beyond what they thought they could achieve. Raikkonen let them down again though. Next year they have to give Vettel the car that he deserves.
3- Williams beat the second season syndrome but again were stuck in dead man's land. Couldn't beat Ferrari and Mercedes and were too fast for everyone else.
4- Toro Rosso I have not heard a word of complaint from them about the engines. Tost is being very quiet. They seemed to work on those cars and they have a gem in Verstappen.
5 Force India they FINALLY beat Mclaren. By default to be fair and another podium and some good effort from them again.
6- Lotus - Money troubles and a driver who crashes the car all the time. they did there best but the engine was wasted.
7- Sauber- Good News- POINTS and Felipe Nasr who may be a little gem in the car. Bad news- Still having the very slow Marcus Ericsson in the car. could be worse though. Could have had the colourless pairing of last year.
8 Marussia - an achievement to be on the grid for this year anyway but were very slow. Not HRT slow but obviously backwards from last year.
9 Mclaren HONDA Well the Honda is the prominent bit here. 100 place grid penalties the car not lasting 5 laps Alonso shouting at it and Honda not answering any questions. Because we all know the answers.
10Red Bull I was tied between them and mclaren but deciding to hold back who their engine partner was tipped the favour for me. No wins. 3 podiums. I think the issue is beyond the engine (Toro Rosso didn't seem to have the widespread issues that Red Bull were whinging about and I would had taken a Renault to a Honda). If I was in charge of renault I would charge them double for the engine now.
So the final podium-
3rd Pastor Maldonado
2nd (Just) Mclaren HONDA- more the Honda than Mclaren.
1st Red Bull
Driver and Team reviews
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rachel1990
- Posts: 962
- Joined: 29 Oct 2012, 20:21
Driver and Team reviews
Benetton of 1992. Never a reject
Re: Driver and Team reviews
rachel1990 wrote:21 Pastor Maldonado. No matter where he goes no matter how bad the car is or if it's his fault. Pastor is always in trouble. I dread to think how many points he has or how much he costs Lotus in repair bills. Must be more than how much he brings in terms of sponsorship. When you have a website named after you about how many times you crash and bringing more destruction to f1 this year pastor is the ROTY driver!!
This is unfair. Sure, Maldonado has had his share of incidents this year, but hardly any of them, including today's, were his fault. And while he lost a lot of points, most of which were down to things out of his control, such as pit delays, mechanical failures and collisions from other drivers. I'd say Lotus were more to blame for losing points than Pastor was.
Of all his incidents, only China (at the pit entry), Hungary, Belgium (in practice) and Brazil were completely his fault, and in turn only the latter compromised another driver's race. It makes the crash website feel ignorant and almost exploitative. If you're ranking him this low simply because of how many incidents he was involved in, regardless of who was to blame, you should reconsider.
So what I'm saying is that while Pastor has been in a lot of trouble again, unlike in previous seasons you can't just point a finger at him for it all, you have to look past the results table and re-watch the races to understand that he has improved as a driver this year.
Moving on from that, I'll post my constructors rankings now.
1) Mercedes – 9.0/10
2) Ferrari – 8.5/10
3) Force India – 7.5/10
4) Toro Rosso – 7/10
5) Williams – 6.5/10
6) Sauber – 6.5/10
7) Lotus – 6/10
8) Marussia – 5/10
9) Red Bull – 5/10
10) McLaren – 4/10
Since it's late, I'll post my reviews and driver rankings later. Top 3 would be Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen.
Check out the position of the sun on 2 August at 20:08 in my garden
Allard Kalff in 1994 wrote:OH!! Schumacher in the wall! Right in front of us, Michael Schumacher is in the wall! He's hit the pitwall, he c... Ah, it's Jos Verstappen.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
drivers
1. Lewis Hamilton
Granted, had some off races - but had Rosberg, and thus the title, firmly in his hands since race 1. That makes him the DOTY for me.
2. Sebastian Vettel
This was...everything Ferrari could have expected of Vettel, had the pace in what seemed like every race. Not perfect, there were couple of silly blunders here and there - but Vettel has to be satisfied with his effort, wiping the mediocre 2014 off everybody's memory.
3. Sergio Pérez
Talk about a surprise. Checo already was doing well until the season break, but it was after that when he really was consistently brilliant: having Nico Hülkenberg under your thumb is a serious achievement.
4. Max Verstappen
We all knew he was talented and we all knew he came in with way too much hype, to seriously annoying degrees. What we didn't know was how convincingly assertively he would drive since day 1. Just the right amount of balls, just the right amount of nous for wheel to wheel, just the right amount of strategical smarts. A few off races and total rookie errors - but hey, he's 18, what did you expect?
5. Daniil Kvyat
Granted, may have been a bit luckier than his team-mate - but also often actually seemed faster. Was cool about it. I really like Daniil's style.
6. Daniel Ricciardo
Ricciardo's driving this year was good but lacked that bit of greatness. Combine that with how hit-and-miss the Red Bulls were and you get Danny's 2015.
7. Valtteri Bottas
Not much wrongdoing of his own, always seemed to be the receiving end of some misfortune, and still cleanly beat Massa - but you can't help but to think that the difference between him and Massa seems to occur due to Massa's lacklustre performances than Bottas actually being faster than Felipe in his prime...
8. Nico Rosberg
Was faster than Lewis at the end of the season. When it didn't count. When it counted Nico had a poor, poor title campaign, way worse than 2014: Lewis seemed to play with him for fun.
9. Romain Grosjean
It's difficult to judge Romain's season properly for how Lotus wasn't even nearly always able to extract the potential of their car for financial reasons. But Romain stayed out of trouble and scored good points. Saved his own career, for a moment at least.
10. Jenson Button
Button may not have been faultless, and was slower than Alonso - but he swallowed it and took his chances where he could. Completely fair he beat Fernando on the standings.
11. Fernando Alonso
Whilst he demonstrated why he is Fernando Alonso in more than a few occasions by dragging a shitbox to front, the way he visibly lost motivation and seemed to become weight for the team towards the end of the season is also very much Fernando Alonso.
12. Nico Hülkenberg
Had the Le Mans win, making everybody rave about him deserving a chance once again. Then went into the "a bit anonymous, never really deliver a great result" mode for half a season again, reminding everybody why he's had so many near misses for rides.
13. Carlos Sainz jr
Wasn't that much off Max, especially in quali trim, but was never that impressive in race trim. Solid but nothing more.
14. Alex Rossi
The way he jumped into the Manor and started beating Stevens was respectable. Hope he gets another chance next year for his efforts.
15. Felipe Massa
Massa just cannot put a complete season together, can he? Did quite well until mid-season, then reverted to his Ferrari spec instantly after the fine Monza podium. Maybe a bit harsh on Felipe, it wasn't that bad a bad season.
16. Will Stevens
Did what he could.
17. Felipe Nasr
Fine Australian Grand Prix won't carry you through an entire season. Started getting beaten by Ericsson, which I fear was more representative of Nasr's true ability to perform than Marcus'.
18. Kimi Räikkönen
With this year's Ferrari Kimi could demonstrate that he still can drive fast, something he couldn't show with the 2014 model. What he also didn't show in 2014 was the error-prone Kimi who blew his chances again and again, and again.
19. Marcus Ericsson
Showed....um, nothing. Wasn't even particularly rejectful like a year before, just entirely forgettable.
20. Pastor Maldonado
Doesn't deserve the amount of stick he gets, but also does. The thing this year is though, whilst the amount of, um, maldonado in his driving stays put, he really didn't seem to extract anything out of his car to add to the positive side, something he could do in previous seasons.
21. Roberto Merhi
Merhi was usually just slow and usually got beaten by his team-mate by a considerable margin. Glad he could have a go, seems like a feet-to-the-ground type, but doesn't need any more chances in F1.
1. Lewis Hamilton
Granted, had some off races - but had Rosberg, and thus the title, firmly in his hands since race 1. That makes him the DOTY for me.
2. Sebastian Vettel
This was...everything Ferrari could have expected of Vettel, had the pace in what seemed like every race. Not perfect, there were couple of silly blunders here and there - but Vettel has to be satisfied with his effort, wiping the mediocre 2014 off everybody's memory.
3. Sergio Pérez
Talk about a surprise. Checo already was doing well until the season break, but it was after that when he really was consistently brilliant: having Nico Hülkenberg under your thumb is a serious achievement.
4. Max Verstappen
We all knew he was talented and we all knew he came in with way too much hype, to seriously annoying degrees. What we didn't know was how convincingly assertively he would drive since day 1. Just the right amount of balls, just the right amount of nous for wheel to wheel, just the right amount of strategical smarts. A few off races and total rookie errors - but hey, he's 18, what did you expect?
5. Daniil Kvyat
Granted, may have been a bit luckier than his team-mate - but also often actually seemed faster. Was cool about it. I really like Daniil's style.
6. Daniel Ricciardo
Ricciardo's driving this year was good but lacked that bit of greatness. Combine that with how hit-and-miss the Red Bulls were and you get Danny's 2015.
7. Valtteri Bottas
Not much wrongdoing of his own, always seemed to be the receiving end of some misfortune, and still cleanly beat Massa - but you can't help but to think that the difference between him and Massa seems to occur due to Massa's lacklustre performances than Bottas actually being faster than Felipe in his prime...
8. Nico Rosberg
Was faster than Lewis at the end of the season. When it didn't count. When it counted Nico had a poor, poor title campaign, way worse than 2014: Lewis seemed to play with him for fun.
9. Romain Grosjean
It's difficult to judge Romain's season properly for how Lotus wasn't even nearly always able to extract the potential of their car for financial reasons. But Romain stayed out of trouble and scored good points. Saved his own career, for a moment at least.
10. Jenson Button
Button may not have been faultless, and was slower than Alonso - but he swallowed it and took his chances where he could. Completely fair he beat Fernando on the standings.
11. Fernando Alonso
Whilst he demonstrated why he is Fernando Alonso in more than a few occasions by dragging a shitbox to front, the way he visibly lost motivation and seemed to become weight for the team towards the end of the season is also very much Fernando Alonso.
12. Nico Hülkenberg
Had the Le Mans win, making everybody rave about him deserving a chance once again. Then went into the "a bit anonymous, never really deliver a great result" mode for half a season again, reminding everybody why he's had so many near misses for rides.
13. Carlos Sainz jr
Wasn't that much off Max, especially in quali trim, but was never that impressive in race trim. Solid but nothing more.
14. Alex Rossi
The way he jumped into the Manor and started beating Stevens was respectable. Hope he gets another chance next year for his efforts.
15. Felipe Massa
Massa just cannot put a complete season together, can he? Did quite well until mid-season, then reverted to his Ferrari spec instantly after the fine Monza podium. Maybe a bit harsh on Felipe, it wasn't that bad a bad season.
16. Will Stevens
Did what he could.
17. Felipe Nasr
Fine Australian Grand Prix won't carry you through an entire season. Started getting beaten by Ericsson, which I fear was more representative of Nasr's true ability to perform than Marcus'.
18. Kimi Räikkönen
With this year's Ferrari Kimi could demonstrate that he still can drive fast, something he couldn't show with the 2014 model. What he also didn't show in 2014 was the error-prone Kimi who blew his chances again and again, and again.
19. Marcus Ericsson
Showed....um, nothing. Wasn't even particularly rejectful like a year before, just entirely forgettable.
20. Pastor Maldonado
Doesn't deserve the amount of stick he gets, but also does. The thing this year is though, whilst the amount of, um, maldonado in his driving stays put, he really didn't seem to extract anything out of his car to add to the positive side, something he could do in previous seasons.
21. Roberto Merhi
Merhi was usually just slow and usually got beaten by his team-mate by a considerable margin. Glad he could have a go, seems like a feet-to-the-ground type, but doesn't need any more chances in F1.
when you're dead people start listening
Re: Driver and Team reviews
good_Ralf wrote:rachel1990 wrote:21 Pastor Maldonado. No matter where he goes no matter how bad the car is or if it's his fault. Pastor is always in trouble. I dread to think how many points he has or how much he costs Lotus in repair bills. Must be more than how much he brings in terms of sponsorship. When you have a website named after you about how many times you crash and bringing more destruction to f1 this year pastor is the ROTY driver!!
This is unfair. Sure, Maldonado has had his share of incidents this year, but hardly any of them, including today's, were his fault. And while he lost a lot of points, most of which were down to things out of his control, such as pit delays, mechanical failures and collisions from other drivers. I'd say Lotus were more to blame for losing points than Pastor was.
Of all his incidents, only China (at the pit entry), Hungary, Belgium (in practice) and Brazil were completely his fault, and in turn only the latter compromised another driver's race. It makes the crash website feel ignorant and almost exploitative. If you're ranking him this low simply because of how many incidents he was involved in, regardless of who was to blame, you should reconsider.
So what I'm saying is that while Pastor has been in a lot of trouble again, unlike in previous seasons you can't just point a finger at him for it all, you have to look past the results table and re-watch the races to understand that he has improved as a driver this year.
I have to agree about it's harsh to say Maldonado is the worst driver of this season. He had a lot of misfortunes in this season and almost all of them wasn't his fault. He lost at least 20 points or more.
Despite he being completely dominated by Grosjean in qualify, in the race was 50/50 taking in count the misfortune from both drivers.
Waiting for Lotus hiring Johnny Cecotto jr.
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Salamander
- Posts: 9570
- Joined: 29 Mar 2009, 20:59
- Location: trapped on some prison island
Re: Driver and Team reviews
As the resident Daniel Ricciardo fanboy, please keep in mind the only reason Kvyat beat him in points is because Ricciardo had 2 car failures while running very strongly in Belgium and Russia.
Everything's great.Sebastian Vettel wrote:If I was good at losing I wouldn't be in Formula 1.
I'm not surprised about anything.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
1. S Vettel - Was consistently great
2. L Hamilton - Won the Championship but went off the boil afterwards. Also was a bit erratic
3. N Rosberg - Ended well
4. S Perez - MIght not show in the scoreboard but destroyed Hulkenberg
5. R Grosjean - Pushed the car where it really was kind of crap
6. D Ricciardo - Solid
7. D Kvyat - Shaky start but was solid afterwards
8. V Bottas - Did what he was supposed to but felt that he wasn't putting his teammate away, really.
9. F Massa - Bear with me but I feel he just was as good as Bottas with less expectations but Bottas had better results
10. C Sainz - Felt he was just really unlucky most of the season. Did well behind the shadow of his teammate.
11. M Verstappen - Brundle really gets off on him but he's a solid driver. Just a bit OOT at the moment but age and experience will tone it down
12. J Button - Drove some good races in the Macca
13. F Nasr - He was alright
14. F Alonso - That 6th in Hungary. Oh man that was awesome
15. A Rossi - Solid, very solid
16. P Maldonado - Did well when the car was working. Unlucky a few times but didn't have the pace compared to his teammate
17. R Mehri - Solid and was close to the points.
18. K Raikkonen - Your teammate wins 3 races and has 13 podiums. You have 3 podiums in all.
19. N Hulkenberg - All hype, little reward in my opinion. Massive expectations but not much to show for it. Best result was 6th. Teammate had a podium + 3 5th places.
20. M Ericsson - Ehhhhhhhhhh
21. W Stevens - ???
Teams
1. Mercedes - Won by a cakewalk
2. Ferrari - Yep
3. Force India - Solid performances to get 5th in the championship
4. Williams - Solid
5. Toro Rosso - No drama, two rookies and still beat a few teams
6. Marussia - Close the points but weren't horrible
7. Red Bull - Step backwards and off-field drama didn't help
8. Sauber - Just there
9. Lotus - So many mechanical issues and dramas
10. McLaren - lol
2. L Hamilton - Won the Championship but went off the boil afterwards. Also was a bit erratic
3. N Rosberg - Ended well
4. S Perez - MIght not show in the scoreboard but destroyed Hulkenberg
5. R Grosjean - Pushed the car where it really was kind of crap
6. D Ricciardo - Solid
7. D Kvyat - Shaky start but was solid afterwards
8. V Bottas - Did what he was supposed to but felt that he wasn't putting his teammate away, really.
9. F Massa - Bear with me but I feel he just was as good as Bottas with less expectations but Bottas had better results
10. C Sainz - Felt he was just really unlucky most of the season. Did well behind the shadow of his teammate.
11. M Verstappen - Brundle really gets off on him but he's a solid driver. Just a bit OOT at the moment but age and experience will tone it down
12. J Button - Drove some good races in the Macca
13. F Nasr - He was alright
14. F Alonso - That 6th in Hungary. Oh man that was awesome
15. A Rossi - Solid, very solid
16. P Maldonado - Did well when the car was working. Unlucky a few times but didn't have the pace compared to his teammate
17. R Mehri - Solid and was close to the points.
18. K Raikkonen - Your teammate wins 3 races and has 13 podiums. You have 3 podiums in all.
19. N Hulkenberg - All hype, little reward in my opinion. Massive expectations but not much to show for it. Best result was 6th. Teammate had a podium + 3 5th places.
20. M Ericsson - Ehhhhhhhhhh
21. W Stevens - ???
Teams
1. Mercedes - Won by a cakewalk
2. Ferrari - Yep
3. Force India - Solid performances to get 5th in the championship
4. Williams - Solid
5. Toro Rosso - No drama, two rookies and still beat a few teams
6. Marussia - Close the points but weren't horrible
7. Red Bull - Step backwards and off-field drama didn't help
8. Sauber - Just there
9. Lotus - So many mechanical issues and dramas
10. McLaren - lol
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Drivers:
1st - Sebastian Vettel (9.5/10)
What Vettel did this year we didn't expect to be fair. After a very rough 2014, where he didn't adapt to the new turbo rules (even though towards the end of the year he seemed much more adapt), Vettel was the driver of the year. The only non-Mercedes driver to take a pole position, and to win a race, well, three races. All of them on full merit. If the 2016 Ferrari is a rocketship, Vettel might score his 5th world title.
2nd - Lewis Hamilton (9.0/10)
The world champion not beeing first on our rankings usually happens. Hamilton drove quite well throughout the year (better compared to 2014), but he still made a few mistake throughout the year. There was the strategical blunder in Monaco, in Abu Dhabi, and the "I can't race in a pack" in Hungary moment, where he almost killed both his race, and Rosberg's. What we should expect from 2016 is the 4th world title for Lewis, unless Vettel or Rosberg can stop him.
3rd - Jenson Button (8.5/10)
This might seem unpopular... But Button, this season, drove as good, or better than Fernando. Both drivers pulled the crap out of the car, but somehow, it seemed JB somehow kept himself away from incidents compared to 'Nando, and despite having been Nando who grabbed the best result of the season, I can't help but feel that JB was the best driver overall this season for McLelren.
4th - Fernando Alonso (8.5/10)
But, obviously, that is implying Fernando drove bad. He didn't. Both drivers drove the best they could, and pulled that "thing" into places it didn't deserve to be sometimes. We'll we see Nando in F1 in 2016? Well, hopefully yes, if the car is more competitive. Cause if it isn't, we'll see him retire with just two titles, despite beeing the best driver F1 has seen since Schumacher.
5th - Nico Rosberg (8.0/10)
Nico pulled a Webber, except contrary to Webber, he seemed to lift again as the pressure disappeared after a "gust of wind" appeared in Austin. Nico had moments where he dominated Lewis (Austria, and the final three races of the year, plus Austin minus the choke), and had other ones where he got completelly dominated. Had Nico not had that weekend in Hungary where the Pirelli tyres screwed him over (that was minimal contact ffs), and the weekend in Italy where his car died, he might have been motivated more to fight for the title. We can only expect Nico can bounce back stronger than ever in 2016.
6th - Sergio Pérez (8.0/10)
Bar the McLaren drivers, I consider Pérez season to be the best from outsides the top 3 teams. Despite a very crap start to the season (that drive in Australia lel), when the car improved, after the British GP, a new Checo was born. In the first half of the season, he drove one of the best races of the year, by finishing 7th in Monaco, and after Britain, scored a 5th at Belgium, 6th at Italy, 7th at Singapore (he ran as high as 2nd in Belgium, remember), 3rd at Russia (2nd podium in two years at FI), 5th at Austin, 8th at Mexico (where he made a fantastic management of his tyres) and 5th at Abu Dhabi after qualifying 4th, and beeing best of the rest in race. Pérez proved his a top driver this year, in my opinion, and 2016, if FI keep the momentum, and find the money, he should get another podium.
7th - Daniel Ricciardo (8.0/10)
Daniel pulled the drive of the season. At Singapore, if it wasn't for Vettel, he would have won. And if it wasn't for the shenanigans at Hungary, he would've won that one as well. Obviously, he didn't get wins this year, but he drove the heart out of that Red Bull, and in the three high aero tracks of the year, he set fastest laps in all of them. He finished behind Kvyat in the championship, but he drove better all year long. Period.
8th - Max Verstappen (7.5/10)
A lot of people are going to get butthurt Max isn't higher, but despite beeing the most impressive of the rookies, with great spatial awareness, making some fantastic moves, and great racecraft at time. Hadn't it been beeing 20 seconds down in Hungary because of the SC, he probably could've finished in the podium, given the shenanigans going on ahead of him. There we're times where the rookie mistakes appeared. Monaco, where he crashed into Grosjean, and Abu Dhabi where he ignored blue flags and got penalty points on his license because of that, and somehow, is only 4 points away from getting a race ban. Ah, there was also that lazy spin in Britain.
9th - Felipe Massa (7.0/10)
Massa, this year, was driving probably the best since 2009. He finished only 15 points away from Bottas, and was fairly on pace with the finnish driver throughout the year. There was some performances where Massa did what Massa does, like Hungary, where he (and Williams) where nowhere, or Russia, where he just.. drove. Nothing else, and finished in the most undeserving 4th place of the season. Japan was also idiotioc, for obvious reasons into turn 1, which ruined both his and Ricky's race. There was good moments though: his pace in Britain was good until the rain, and both his podiums came at Williams strongest tracks. 2016 is his last year in F1, but if he can keep up the pace he's having, will it hurt how Bottas is looked upon by the other teams?
10th - Felipe Nasr (7.0/10)
When we saw how Nasr drove in Australia, we thought that, compared to his performances in GP2, he took a massive leap of performance. The car was a bullet, and Nasr and him became one in that weekend. We soon realised the car was going to be undeveloped, and Nasr performances worsened a bit. But still, he was the strongest of the Sauber drivers, and sometimes pulled the car into places it didn't deserve to be in the second part of the season.
11th - Romain Grosjean (7.0/10)
Romain scored his first podium since 2013, and took the uper hand once again against good old Pastor. Romain drove the heart out of that car, and to be fair, he couldn't have done nothing more than what he did. Signing with Haas for 2016 is sure a challenge, but that Ferrari drive for 2017 is open for him.
12th - Carlos Sainz Jr (7.0/10)
Sainz wasn't as impressive as Max, but he drove quite well. His bad luck was beyond ridiculous (Manfred, y u always hate Sainz), but he still drove some excellent performances. He only scored 18 points, but could've scored easilly over 30 points if it wasn't for all the reliability problems, or pitstops issues across the year. Hopefully STR stay for next season, and hopefully, his bad luck goes away.
13th - Valtteri Bottas (6.5/10)
Now, Bottas so low? I'll be criticised for this, but Valtteri didn't drive as good as last year. Massa was on his pace (which I really hope is because Valtteri didn't drove fully this year), because if it wasn't for that, Bottas isn't as good as we thought. The Williams wasn't that good, but even when it was Massa outpaced him both times. His podiums came in Canada, which was a good drive, and Mexico, where the straightline speed of the Williams definetelly helped. We better hope Williams build a better car next year to trully assess Bottas qualities.
14th - Daniil Kvyat (6.0/10)
Kvyat is only sitting so low because in the first part of the season we used three words to describe: KVYATSUCKSLOL. Because he did. He drove awfully, until Monaco. Then his performances improved, and grabbed his first podium in Hungary, but still made lots of rookie mistakes: his overconfident move in Austin against Lewis, and then planting the car in a nearby wall with a silly mistake. Kvyat is a good driver, and we better hope he matures more in 2016.
15th - Nico Hulkenberg (6.0/10)
Our Le Mans winner didn't really stand out this year, to be fair. Drove some good races, but once again, it was Perez who stole the spot light. In Austin, Hulkenberg seemed like the fastest driver in the rain out there, but then in the race, made a silly mistake and crashed into Ricciardo. Hulkenberg is back to doing F1 full time in 2016, so he better focus, because the chance of a top drive is disappearing once again.
16th - Pastor Maldonado (5.5/10)
Pastor always get the stick. Every. Single. God damn. Time. Commentators, fans. It's always his fault. And to make sure we get how better Pastor drove this year: if you discount Grosjean podium in Belgium (which, hadn't Pastor car died on him, he could've finished 3rd or 4th), Romain would've beated him only by 7 points. Pastor had races where lots of bad luck happen, like the mentioned Belgium, Australia, Abu Dhabi.. Yes, he got destroyed in qualifying, but come race day, he was usually on pace with Grosjean. For 2016, he should destroy all the opinions that Palmer is actually a good driver.
17th - Kimi Raikkonen (5.5/10)
I know some people will place KImi quite low in the standings, but I didn't rate his season that lowly. Yes, he had the biggest gap between team-mates, and he got beaten quite a bit by Vettel. But he drove better than last year, in my opinion. In Bahrain he definetelly had the pace to win after making the alternate strategy work, and bad luck hit him quite a bit: slow pitstops, pitstop mistakes (Australia...), qualifying mistakes by the team (Austria), random moments the car's engine just trolled him (Canada and somewhere else I can't remember), Hungary, where his car died on him while running 2nd. There we're silly accidents though: Austria, Russia and the shenanigans with the Rolex sign at Austin. Most of us think Kimi's time in F1 is over, and it sure seems that way. We wait for how 2016 plays out.
18th - Alexander Rossi (5.5/10)
I'm really sorry to the Manor drivers, because all of them helped the team stay afloat. Rossi, in his 5 races, impressed me the most from the three: a 12th place in Austin, and generally beeing faster than Stevens. A good debut, and if he stays with Manor, we might see him score a point or two.
19th - Will Stevens (5.0/10)
Stevens had a good season. He definetelly impressed me (seeing he wasn't that great in 3.5 last season), and showed he could drive an F1 car quite well. There we're some really ridicolous moments though: the spin in Great Britain is the one that I remind the most. Stevens should stay with the team, and we see Stevens/Rossi at Manor next season.
20th - Marcus Ericsson (5.0/10)
I honestly didn't know where to rank Ericsson. I ranked him 20th, because well, he shouldn't be above the ones above. When Marcus finished 8th in Australia, we thought he had improved his driving. Then in Malaysia, he qualified 10th, and a good start made him run as high as 6th. But then, he spinned and while it gave us an exciting race, what should've been a highlight for him, turned into a very lazy mistake into turn 1. Still made good drives throughout the year, and scored a couple more points, and generally was as fast as Nasr, which came as a surprise to most of us. Should stay with Sauber, and if Sauber can keep competitive throughouot the year, we'll see how Marcus does.
21th - Roberto Mehri (5.0/10)
Mehri didnt't drive bad, but he generally outpaced by Stevens. A bit of a surprise considering how both drivers did in 3.5 last year, and in their respective junior careers. Well, Mehri won't be back for 2016 it seems like. Probably WEC is the destination for Roberto on the cards.
22th - Kevin Magnussen (N/A)
Can't rate Kevin, since he didn't even start the race at Australia. We can only assume it was right of him to jump shite of McLaren.
Teams:
1st - Ferrari (9.5/10)
Made a brilliant car compared to last season, improved the engine by a lot too. Arrivabene is the right man to be at the wheel of this train, and the team is in the right direction. They have a driver who, if the car is on pair with Mercedes next year, can win the championship, and one who... well, keeping him might be the only mistake Ferrari have made.
2nd - Mercedes (9.5/10)
Best car once again, and did with they needed to. Even though sometimes, once again, their driver management was a bit mischieveous, it wasn't nearly as bad as 2014. 2016 should be more MERCEDESWINSLOL if everything is right in the world.
3rd - Force India (9.0/10)
Force India started with a one year old car, but when they introduced the "B-Spec" car in Britain, they had built a brilliant little car. If it wasn't for how little they scored at the start of the season, they could've stealed 4th from Red Bull in the WCC. They have two drivers, and if they keep the momentum from 2015 going into 2016 with a good car, more podiums should be expected, and 4th in the WCC might be there for the taking.
4th - Toro Rosso (8.5/10)
Toro Rosso made a very good season. In the first races of 2015, we actually tought they could beat Red Bull.. until we realise they couldn't do race strategies. They hampered themselves so much with stupid decisions (running high aero at Catalunya for example), and stupid botched pitstops. Could've finished 6th at least in the WCC if it wasn't for that.
5th - Lotus (8.0/10)
Definetelly a much better car compared to the 2014 car which activelly tried to kill its drivers, Lotus had a productive season with the Mercedes engine. But for 2016, they'll become most likelly Renault, and we might see them drop a bit again. A podium this year, some encouraging performances. Although signing Palmer might not the the way to go for Lotus/Renault/what ever they become.
6th - Sauber (7.0/10)
When they showed up in Australia, the car was a bullet. It was slick, and it ran so fast. In Malaysia it was quick as Ericsson proved. After that, bar Nasr 6th in Russia, their points came from minor points positions. An improvement regarding 2014 though. A massive one.
7th - Williams (6.5/10)
Why is Williams so low? Well, for one, they definetelly got worse compared to 2014. And secondly, and most important: the ammount of stupid stuff they did this year. The ammount of strategical mistakes, pistops blunders we're ridicolous. The only race where they seemed like winning (Britain), they didn't make a good choice, and lost out. Their car couldn't run in the rain, and it lost out to Vettel. They had the shenanigans at Belgium (are u colour blind), and at Abu Dhabi. We'll see how they do in 2016, and for the sake of them, they better be back for 2014 form, or at least, close enough.
8th - Manor (6.0/10)
Collecting the money to prepare an assault for 2016. Mission acomplished. Mercedes engine confirmed, and 2016 should see Manor score a point hopefully.
9th - Red Bull (4.5/10)
Obviously, the Red Bull rating is simply because of it's shenanigans off-track. Couldn't get Ferrari, Honda (why would you even want them...), Mercedes, and most likelly will end up with Renault engines again. So many shenanigans. The car wasn't that good, and with Newey going away from next year, it might the end of the road for Red Bull in Formula One. Just let Toro Rosso stay okay?
10th - McLaren (3.0/10)
McLaren putted themselves into this situation. They broke with Mercedes a year earlier than expected, and let Honda do a "Lola 1997", and the result is a stupid slow engine, two drivers who are probably getting annoyed out of all situation (although both must laugh at the Honda engine), one junior drivers beeing told to bathplug out of there because he realises the sinking ship, and the best junior driver in the world beeing sent to Super Formula for god knows why. 2016 is there, and they don't even know if Fernando will be there. It's a bunch of shenanigans. Great job Ron Dennis, great job. *slow claps*
1st - Sebastian Vettel (9.5/10)
What Vettel did this year we didn't expect to be fair. After a very rough 2014, where he didn't adapt to the new turbo rules (even though towards the end of the year he seemed much more adapt), Vettel was the driver of the year. The only non-Mercedes driver to take a pole position, and to win a race, well, three races. All of them on full merit. If the 2016 Ferrari is a rocketship, Vettel might score his 5th world title.
2nd - Lewis Hamilton (9.0/10)
The world champion not beeing first on our rankings usually happens. Hamilton drove quite well throughout the year (better compared to 2014), but he still made a few mistake throughout the year. There was the strategical blunder in Monaco, in Abu Dhabi, and the "I can't race in a pack" in Hungary moment, where he almost killed both his race, and Rosberg's. What we should expect from 2016 is the 4th world title for Lewis, unless Vettel or Rosberg can stop him.
3rd - Jenson Button (8.5/10)
This might seem unpopular... But Button, this season, drove as good, or better than Fernando. Both drivers pulled the crap out of the car, but somehow, it seemed JB somehow kept himself away from incidents compared to 'Nando, and despite having been Nando who grabbed the best result of the season, I can't help but feel that JB was the best driver overall this season for McLelren.
4th - Fernando Alonso (8.5/10)
But, obviously, that is implying Fernando drove bad. He didn't. Both drivers drove the best they could, and pulled that "thing" into places it didn't deserve to be sometimes. We'll we see Nando in F1 in 2016? Well, hopefully yes, if the car is more competitive. Cause if it isn't, we'll see him retire with just two titles, despite beeing the best driver F1 has seen since Schumacher.
5th - Nico Rosberg (8.0/10)
Nico pulled a Webber, except contrary to Webber, he seemed to lift again as the pressure disappeared after a "gust of wind" appeared in Austin. Nico had moments where he dominated Lewis (Austria, and the final three races of the year, plus Austin minus the choke), and had other ones where he got completelly dominated. Had Nico not had that weekend in Hungary where the Pirelli tyres screwed him over (that was minimal contact ffs), and the weekend in Italy where his car died, he might have been motivated more to fight for the title. We can only expect Nico can bounce back stronger than ever in 2016.
6th - Sergio Pérez (8.0/10)
Bar the McLaren drivers, I consider Pérez season to be the best from outsides the top 3 teams. Despite a very crap start to the season (that drive in Australia lel), when the car improved, after the British GP, a new Checo was born. In the first half of the season, he drove one of the best races of the year, by finishing 7th in Monaco, and after Britain, scored a 5th at Belgium, 6th at Italy, 7th at Singapore (he ran as high as 2nd in Belgium, remember), 3rd at Russia (2nd podium in two years at FI), 5th at Austin, 8th at Mexico (where he made a fantastic management of his tyres) and 5th at Abu Dhabi after qualifying 4th, and beeing best of the rest in race. Pérez proved his a top driver this year, in my opinion, and 2016, if FI keep the momentum, and find the money, he should get another podium.
7th - Daniel Ricciardo (8.0/10)
Daniel pulled the drive of the season. At Singapore, if it wasn't for Vettel, he would have won. And if it wasn't for the shenanigans at Hungary, he would've won that one as well. Obviously, he didn't get wins this year, but he drove the heart out of that Red Bull, and in the three high aero tracks of the year, he set fastest laps in all of them. He finished behind Kvyat in the championship, but he drove better all year long. Period.
8th - Max Verstappen (7.5/10)
A lot of people are going to get butthurt Max isn't higher, but despite beeing the most impressive of the rookies, with great spatial awareness, making some fantastic moves, and great racecraft at time. Hadn't it been beeing 20 seconds down in Hungary because of the SC, he probably could've finished in the podium, given the shenanigans going on ahead of him. There we're times where the rookie mistakes appeared. Monaco, where he crashed into Grosjean, and Abu Dhabi where he ignored blue flags and got penalty points on his license because of that, and somehow, is only 4 points away from getting a race ban. Ah, there was also that lazy spin in Britain.
9th - Felipe Massa (7.0/10)
Massa, this year, was driving probably the best since 2009. He finished only 15 points away from Bottas, and was fairly on pace with the finnish driver throughout the year. There was some performances where Massa did what Massa does, like Hungary, where he (and Williams) where nowhere, or Russia, where he just.. drove. Nothing else, and finished in the most undeserving 4th place of the season. Japan was also idiotioc, for obvious reasons into turn 1, which ruined both his and Ricky's race. There was good moments though: his pace in Britain was good until the rain, and both his podiums came at Williams strongest tracks. 2016 is his last year in F1, but if he can keep up the pace he's having, will it hurt how Bottas is looked upon by the other teams?
10th - Felipe Nasr (7.0/10)
When we saw how Nasr drove in Australia, we thought that, compared to his performances in GP2, he took a massive leap of performance. The car was a bullet, and Nasr and him became one in that weekend. We soon realised the car was going to be undeveloped, and Nasr performances worsened a bit. But still, he was the strongest of the Sauber drivers, and sometimes pulled the car into places it didn't deserve to be in the second part of the season.
11th - Romain Grosjean (7.0/10)
Romain scored his first podium since 2013, and took the uper hand once again against good old Pastor. Romain drove the heart out of that car, and to be fair, he couldn't have done nothing more than what he did. Signing with Haas for 2016 is sure a challenge, but that Ferrari drive for 2017 is open for him.
12th - Carlos Sainz Jr (7.0/10)
Sainz wasn't as impressive as Max, but he drove quite well. His bad luck was beyond ridiculous (Manfred, y u always hate Sainz), but he still drove some excellent performances. He only scored 18 points, but could've scored easilly over 30 points if it wasn't for all the reliability problems, or pitstops issues across the year. Hopefully STR stay for next season, and hopefully, his bad luck goes away.
13th - Valtteri Bottas (6.5/10)
Now, Bottas so low? I'll be criticised for this, but Valtteri didn't drive as good as last year. Massa was on his pace (which I really hope is because Valtteri didn't drove fully this year), because if it wasn't for that, Bottas isn't as good as we thought. The Williams wasn't that good, but even when it was Massa outpaced him both times. His podiums came in Canada, which was a good drive, and Mexico, where the straightline speed of the Williams definetelly helped. We better hope Williams build a better car next year to trully assess Bottas qualities.
14th - Daniil Kvyat (6.0/10)
Kvyat is only sitting so low because in the first part of the season we used three words to describe: KVYATSUCKSLOL. Because he did. He drove awfully, until Monaco. Then his performances improved, and grabbed his first podium in Hungary, but still made lots of rookie mistakes: his overconfident move in Austin against Lewis, and then planting the car in a nearby wall with a silly mistake. Kvyat is a good driver, and we better hope he matures more in 2016.
15th - Nico Hulkenberg (6.0/10)
Our Le Mans winner didn't really stand out this year, to be fair. Drove some good races, but once again, it was Perez who stole the spot light. In Austin, Hulkenberg seemed like the fastest driver in the rain out there, but then in the race, made a silly mistake and crashed into Ricciardo. Hulkenberg is back to doing F1 full time in 2016, so he better focus, because the chance of a top drive is disappearing once again.
16th - Pastor Maldonado (5.5/10)
Pastor always get the stick. Every. Single. God damn. Time. Commentators, fans. It's always his fault. And to make sure we get how better Pastor drove this year: if you discount Grosjean podium in Belgium (which, hadn't Pastor car died on him, he could've finished 3rd or 4th), Romain would've beated him only by 7 points. Pastor had races where lots of bad luck happen, like the mentioned Belgium, Australia, Abu Dhabi.. Yes, he got destroyed in qualifying, but come race day, he was usually on pace with Grosjean. For 2016, he should destroy all the opinions that Palmer is actually a good driver.
17th - Kimi Raikkonen (5.5/10)
I know some people will place KImi quite low in the standings, but I didn't rate his season that lowly. Yes, he had the biggest gap between team-mates, and he got beaten quite a bit by Vettel. But he drove better than last year, in my opinion. In Bahrain he definetelly had the pace to win after making the alternate strategy work, and bad luck hit him quite a bit: slow pitstops, pitstop mistakes (Australia...), qualifying mistakes by the team (Austria), random moments the car's engine just trolled him (Canada and somewhere else I can't remember), Hungary, where his car died on him while running 2nd. There we're silly accidents though: Austria, Russia and the shenanigans with the Rolex sign at Austin. Most of us think Kimi's time in F1 is over, and it sure seems that way. We wait for how 2016 plays out.
18th - Alexander Rossi (5.5/10)
I'm really sorry to the Manor drivers, because all of them helped the team stay afloat. Rossi, in his 5 races, impressed me the most from the three: a 12th place in Austin, and generally beeing faster than Stevens. A good debut, and if he stays with Manor, we might see him score a point or two.
19th - Will Stevens (5.0/10)
Stevens had a good season. He definetelly impressed me (seeing he wasn't that great in 3.5 last season), and showed he could drive an F1 car quite well. There we're some really ridicolous moments though: the spin in Great Britain is the one that I remind the most. Stevens should stay with the team, and we see Stevens/Rossi at Manor next season.
20th - Marcus Ericsson (5.0/10)
I honestly didn't know where to rank Ericsson. I ranked him 20th, because well, he shouldn't be above the ones above. When Marcus finished 8th in Australia, we thought he had improved his driving. Then in Malaysia, he qualified 10th, and a good start made him run as high as 6th. But then, he spinned and while it gave us an exciting race, what should've been a highlight for him, turned into a very lazy mistake into turn 1. Still made good drives throughout the year, and scored a couple more points, and generally was as fast as Nasr, which came as a surprise to most of us. Should stay with Sauber, and if Sauber can keep competitive throughouot the year, we'll see how Marcus does.
21th - Roberto Mehri (5.0/10)
Mehri didnt't drive bad, but he generally outpaced by Stevens. A bit of a surprise considering how both drivers did in 3.5 last year, and in their respective junior careers. Well, Mehri won't be back for 2016 it seems like. Probably WEC is the destination for Roberto on the cards.
22th - Kevin Magnussen (N/A)
Can't rate Kevin, since he didn't even start the race at Australia. We can only assume it was right of him to jump shite of McLaren.
Teams:
1st - Ferrari (9.5/10)
Made a brilliant car compared to last season, improved the engine by a lot too. Arrivabene is the right man to be at the wheel of this train, and the team is in the right direction. They have a driver who, if the car is on pair with Mercedes next year, can win the championship, and one who... well, keeping him might be the only mistake Ferrari have made.
2nd - Mercedes (9.5/10)
Best car once again, and did with they needed to. Even though sometimes, once again, their driver management was a bit mischieveous, it wasn't nearly as bad as 2014. 2016 should be more MERCEDESWINSLOL if everything is right in the world.
3rd - Force India (9.0/10)
Force India started with a one year old car, but when they introduced the "B-Spec" car in Britain, they had built a brilliant little car. If it wasn't for how little they scored at the start of the season, they could've stealed 4th from Red Bull in the WCC. They have two drivers, and if they keep the momentum from 2015 going into 2016 with a good car, more podiums should be expected, and 4th in the WCC might be there for the taking.
4th - Toro Rosso (8.5/10)
Toro Rosso made a very good season. In the first races of 2015, we actually tought they could beat Red Bull.. until we realise they couldn't do race strategies. They hampered themselves so much with stupid decisions (running high aero at Catalunya for example), and stupid botched pitstops. Could've finished 6th at least in the WCC if it wasn't for that.
5th - Lotus (8.0/10)
Definetelly a much better car compared to the 2014 car which activelly tried to kill its drivers, Lotus had a productive season with the Mercedes engine. But for 2016, they'll become most likelly Renault, and we might see them drop a bit again. A podium this year, some encouraging performances. Although signing Palmer might not the the way to go for Lotus/Renault/what ever they become.
6th - Sauber (7.0/10)
When they showed up in Australia, the car was a bullet. It was slick, and it ran so fast. In Malaysia it was quick as Ericsson proved. After that, bar Nasr 6th in Russia, their points came from minor points positions. An improvement regarding 2014 though. A massive one.
7th - Williams (6.5/10)
Why is Williams so low? Well, for one, they definetelly got worse compared to 2014. And secondly, and most important: the ammount of stupid stuff they did this year. The ammount of strategical mistakes, pistops blunders we're ridicolous. The only race where they seemed like winning (Britain), they didn't make a good choice, and lost out. Their car couldn't run in the rain, and it lost out to Vettel. They had the shenanigans at Belgium (are u colour blind), and at Abu Dhabi. We'll see how they do in 2016, and for the sake of them, they better be back for 2014 form, or at least, close enough.
8th - Manor (6.0/10)
Collecting the money to prepare an assault for 2016. Mission acomplished. Mercedes engine confirmed, and 2016 should see Manor score a point hopefully.
9th - Red Bull (4.5/10)
Obviously, the Red Bull rating is simply because of it's shenanigans off-track. Couldn't get Ferrari, Honda (why would you even want them...), Mercedes, and most likelly will end up with Renault engines again. So many shenanigans. The car wasn't that good, and with Newey going away from next year, it might the end of the road for Red Bull in Formula One. Just let Toro Rosso stay okay?
10th - McLaren (3.0/10)
McLaren putted themselves into this situation. They broke with Mercedes a year earlier than expected, and let Honda do a "Lola 1997", and the result is a stupid slow engine, two drivers who are probably getting annoyed out of all situation (although both must laugh at the Honda engine), one junior drivers beeing told to bathplug out of there because he realises the sinking ship, and the best junior driver in the world beeing sent to Super Formula for god knows why. 2016 is there, and they don't even know if Fernando will be there. It's a bunch of shenanigans. Great job Ron Dennis, great job. *slow claps*
Mario on Gutierrez after the Italian Grand Prix wrote:He's no longer just a bit of a tool, he's the entire tool set.
18-07-2015: Forever in our hearts Jules.
25-08-2015: Forever in our hearts Justin.
-
UncreativeUsername37
- Posts: 3420
- Joined: 25 May 2012, 14:36
- Location: Earth
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Lots of teammates next to each other... just how this year was. Racing was good, doesn't bother me.
1. Sebastian Vettel - Couldn't have done any more with the car. Smashed his teammate. He was an outside shot for the title mid-season when no one knew how fast Ferrari could catch up, which says everything.
2. Fernando Alonso - Pretty much just assuming this one, but two comments from Martin Brundle by the side of the road suggested that he was still Alonso. Like I said in the awards thread, he'd probably be in Vettel's place if he stayed at Ferrari.
3. Lewis Hamilton - Outperformed Rosberg 12-7. Again, hard to tell, but you have to assume he's driving well. Not much to say, really, just blandly won.
4. Nico Rosberg - Think of it this way, is there someone below him here you could've put in the Mercedes and they would've done better? He had a decent season, I think. It's possible Hamilton just mentally let off after he won the championship, of course, but I don't want to make rankings based on guesses of people's motivation levels.
5. Jenson Button - Alonso wasn't untouchable to him, so that's quite the achievement. I expected Button to firmly be the second car, but he was right there.
6. Daniel Ricciardo - I think he had slightly worse luck than Kvyat, so to be 3 points behind is good. Not much to say beyond that, really.
7. Daniil Kvyat - Pretty much equal with Ricciardo, probably just slightly better if you factor in experience. But I'm not doing that here.
8. Valtteri Bottas - Did slightly better than his teammate in slightly more races. Again.
9. Felipe Massa - Did slightly worse than his teammate in slightly more races. Again.
10. Romain Grosjean - I'd like to put him higher, but with the Williams and Red Bull teammates both so close to each other, I can't justify it. He stood out from the rest of the 9th-and-down drivers, although his teammate probably wasn't always the toughest.
11. Sergio Pérez - Not only did he get the flashy results, he beat Hülkenberg a decent number of times. He deserves his spot exactly one place ahead of him.
12. Nico Hülkenberg - Decent match for Pérez, but was supposed to beat him. I vaguely remember Hülkenberg having a bit worse mechanical luck, but for sure it wouldn't be enough to beat him in the points. The top drive slips ever further away....
13. Max Verstappen - Pretty good speed, pretty attractive style, pretty smart overtaker, all at 17 and 18. He will probably become amazing.
14. Carlos Sainz - With equal luck, he would be a place behind Verstappen in the table. So he goes here. He did a decent job in a way that makes him clearly deserve an F1 seat but wouldn't make me miss him if he went, which is like most Toro Rosso drivers.
15. Alexander Rossi - Not completely thrown into the car, but he certainly had a lot less time than Stevens, and still he managed to beat him. I hope he stays.
16. Felipe Nasr - If he had kept up the Ericsson-beating through the entire season, he would be a lot higher, but he just kind of faded away as the season wore on. Still better than never being opaque at all like Ericsson, though.
17. Kimi Räikkönen - He couldn't even get 4th every race, he had to keep doing stupid shite. Yes, he had the bad side of the mechanical problems, but he deserved to nearly lose fourth overall. In the same way Vettel had no opportunity to do better, he had no opportunity to do worse.
18. Kevin Magnussen - Beaten by his teammate in qualifying and promptly sacked for Fernando Alonso. Still, he had less time in the car, and only got zero races to prove himself. Could've jumped a few spaces up in this ranking with a full year, but it's his fault he doesn't have the seat. i just wanted to include him lol
18. Pastor Maldonado - Wasn't all crashy or offensively slow, but didn't beat Grosjean often at all. Without his antics, he was really forgettable.
19. Will Stevens - Did what he could, I guess. Rossi showed he wasn't worth getting worked up about.
20. Roberto Merhi - Actually only lost 5-4 to Stevens in races without mechanical issues, and had to skip some before his last two. Still, when he got sacked, not even we cared that much.
21. Marcus Ericsson - Sometimes he beat Nasr, but he was mostly on the screen for getting lapped. But if you feel he did nothing at all of note this year, just check the results table and see that you were right.
1. Mercedes - Did an even better points job than last year. They weren't perfect, but they were as close as mortals get.
2. Ferrari - Actually made Mercedes remember there were other people on the track. Even when they didn't, it was an impressive leap to second in the standings.
3. Williams - Came 5th and 6th unless things went bad or good, just like last year. Best of the non-works teams and beat a couple, got the job done.
4. Force India - Force India in fifth! It's here, everyone. Convincingly fifth on their Force India budget. Innovated something that wasn't invisible. Nice work.
5. Lotus - Built a decent car. Their survival was in question sometimes, but they managed to push all those problems to next season's ranking.
6. Toro Rosso - They did very slightly better than where you expect a Toro Rosso to be. Decent for them.
7. Manor - Trundled around and hoped for chaos, as their budget dictated. If you're below here, you did something very wrong.
8. Sauber - Didn't die, didn't fall behind McLaren. Can't tell yet, but they may well be caught in the ol' pay driver spiral. Ultimately they couldn't really have done much worse.
9. Red Bull - Swapped places with Ferrari. Only real losers compared to their previous year besides McLaren. Yes, the Renault is crap, but their handling of it lost them any sympathy over it.
10. McLaren - RotY, you can read all about it over there.
1. Sebastian Vettel - Couldn't have done any more with the car. Smashed his teammate. He was an outside shot for the title mid-season when no one knew how fast Ferrari could catch up, which says everything.
2. Fernando Alonso - Pretty much just assuming this one, but two comments from Martin Brundle by the side of the road suggested that he was still Alonso. Like I said in the awards thread, he'd probably be in Vettel's place if he stayed at Ferrari.
3. Lewis Hamilton - Outperformed Rosberg 12-7. Again, hard to tell, but you have to assume he's driving well. Not much to say, really, just blandly won.
4. Nico Rosberg - Think of it this way, is there someone below him here you could've put in the Mercedes and they would've done better? He had a decent season, I think. It's possible Hamilton just mentally let off after he won the championship, of course, but I don't want to make rankings based on guesses of people's motivation levels.
5. Jenson Button - Alonso wasn't untouchable to him, so that's quite the achievement. I expected Button to firmly be the second car, but he was right there.
6. Daniel Ricciardo - I think he had slightly worse luck than Kvyat, so to be 3 points behind is good. Not much to say beyond that, really.
7. Daniil Kvyat - Pretty much equal with Ricciardo, probably just slightly better if you factor in experience. But I'm not doing that here.
8. Valtteri Bottas - Did slightly better than his teammate in slightly more races. Again.
9. Felipe Massa - Did slightly worse than his teammate in slightly more races. Again.
10. Romain Grosjean - I'd like to put him higher, but with the Williams and Red Bull teammates both so close to each other, I can't justify it. He stood out from the rest of the 9th-and-down drivers, although his teammate probably wasn't always the toughest.
11. Sergio Pérez - Not only did he get the flashy results, he beat Hülkenberg a decent number of times. He deserves his spot exactly one place ahead of him.
12. Nico Hülkenberg - Decent match for Pérez, but was supposed to beat him. I vaguely remember Hülkenberg having a bit worse mechanical luck, but for sure it wouldn't be enough to beat him in the points. The top drive slips ever further away....
13. Max Verstappen - Pretty good speed, pretty attractive style, pretty smart overtaker, all at 17 and 18. He will probably become amazing.
14. Carlos Sainz - With equal luck, he would be a place behind Verstappen in the table. So he goes here. He did a decent job in a way that makes him clearly deserve an F1 seat but wouldn't make me miss him if he went, which is like most Toro Rosso drivers.
15. Alexander Rossi - Not completely thrown into the car, but he certainly had a lot less time than Stevens, and still he managed to beat him. I hope he stays.
16. Felipe Nasr - If he had kept up the Ericsson-beating through the entire season, he would be a lot higher, but he just kind of faded away as the season wore on. Still better than never being opaque at all like Ericsson, though.
17. Kimi Räikkönen - He couldn't even get 4th every race, he had to keep doing stupid shite. Yes, he had the bad side of the mechanical problems, but he deserved to nearly lose fourth overall. In the same way Vettel had no opportunity to do better, he had no opportunity to do worse.
18. Kevin Magnussen - Beaten by his teammate in qualifying and promptly sacked for Fernando Alonso. Still, he had less time in the car, and only got zero races to prove himself. Could've jumped a few spaces up in this ranking with a full year, but it's his fault he doesn't have the seat. i just wanted to include him lol
18. Pastor Maldonado - Wasn't all crashy or offensively slow, but didn't beat Grosjean often at all. Without his antics, he was really forgettable.
19. Will Stevens - Did what he could, I guess. Rossi showed he wasn't worth getting worked up about.
20. Roberto Merhi - Actually only lost 5-4 to Stevens in races without mechanical issues, and had to skip some before his last two. Still, when he got sacked, not even we cared that much.
21. Marcus Ericsson - Sometimes he beat Nasr, but he was mostly on the screen for getting lapped. But if you feel he did nothing at all of note this year, just check the results table and see that you were right.
1. Mercedes - Did an even better points job than last year. They weren't perfect, but they were as close as mortals get.
2. Ferrari - Actually made Mercedes remember there were other people on the track. Even when they didn't, it was an impressive leap to second in the standings.
3. Williams - Came 5th and 6th unless things went bad or good, just like last year. Best of the non-works teams and beat a couple, got the job done.
4. Force India - Force India in fifth! It's here, everyone. Convincingly fifth on their Force India budget. Innovated something that wasn't invisible. Nice work.
5. Lotus - Built a decent car. Their survival was in question sometimes, but they managed to push all those problems to next season's ranking.
6. Toro Rosso - They did very slightly better than where you expect a Toro Rosso to be. Decent for them.
7. Manor - Trundled around and hoped for chaos, as their budget dictated. If you're below here, you did something very wrong.
8. Sauber - Didn't die, didn't fall behind McLaren. Can't tell yet, but they may well be caught in the ol' pay driver spiral. Ultimately they couldn't really have done much worse.
9. Red Bull - Swapped places with Ferrari. Only real losers compared to their previous year besides McLaren. Yes, the Renault is crap, but their handling of it lost them any sympathy over it.
10. McLaren - RotY, you can read all about it over there.
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DemocalypseNow
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
Teams Ranking
1. Mercedes (9.5/10)
Built a dominant car and maximised its potential. Very few mistakes, despite what mainstream media and keyboard warriors might have you believe. Half a point knocked off for some odd PR decisions, and not being able to keep a handle on Hamilton at times. The late season slump could have been mitigated with some better management.
2. Ferrari (7.5/10)
The only thing close to a Mercedes challenger. Vettel back on form, the only driver who seemed capable of running with the dominant Mercedes and of ruffling their feathers. Renewing Kimi was mostly out of convenience, one would imagine, with viable replacements locked into contracts with other teams at this particular point in the driver market cycle. Regardless, docked a point for ineffective second driver.
3. Force India (7/10)
Let's not forget the dire straits this team was in at the start of the year. Barely able to scrape money together to make payments, stuck firmly at the back along with the McLarens, they looked set for a tough slog. 9 months later, and suddenly they are fighting for third best along with the likes of Red Bull and Williams. They made the biggest recovery of anyone this season, despite their modest budget and resources.
The Mercedes engine surely helped, but comparing where they ended the season to where they started, it was an amazing transformation from the Silverstone-based squad. Renewing their line-up for next season brings some much needed long-term stability.
4. Williams (6.5/10)
The second fastest car in the field under certain conditions, there were occasions they didn't quite maximise their potential, others they made pretty basic mistakes, and weekends they were all at sea. The good news is they seem to be edging further up the field and staying there at last, but where might they have been without that Mercedes powerplant? Still, for occasionally being Mercedes' main antagonist, and being third in the championship, they deserve to be high in the ranking.
5. Scuderia Toro Rosso (6/10)
The B-Team churned out an excellent car, given their Faenza facilities and staff numbers are lower than that of bigger brother at Milton Keynes. They may have scored a little less than half of the A-Team's points total, but there were moments where the RBRs and STRs were inseparable this season, racing wheel to wheel and the junior cars wedging themselves in-between the senior team cars.
Given they had two rookies, one of them a 17 year old (!!!), and a crooked engine, they did very well to come so close to overhauling the Mercedes powered Lotus team in the standings.
6. Red Bull Racing (5.5/10)
Despite all of the dramas and disasters, they still claimed 4th in the WCC by a healthy margin, an acceptable result for a big team having an off-year. The main area causing them to be docked points off their score is conduct. The idea that publicly bullying their engine supplier would somehow help them was bizarre and uncalled for.
Despite finishing ahead in the drivers' championship, Kvyat had a shaky second season, and will need to improve certain aspects of his driving to repeat his triumph over Ricciardo in future.
7. Manor Marussia (4.5/10)
It's hard to lambaste a team that is so chronically short on funds, and recovering from a traumatic administration process. Most of those 4.5 points come from simply making it to the end of the year in one piece, and signing Mercedes & Williams as their powertrain partners for next season.
The oft-mentioned 2015 spec car from the start of the year never materialised, which was somewhat disappointing, and while their driving line-up left something to be desired, it was an understandable choice given the circumstances.
Forcing Booth and Lowdon into resignations was a massive curveball and a risky decision, but at least there appears potential for them to move forward a little next season, rather than simply continuing on life support.
8. Sauber (4/10)
Another team which is doing little more than scraping by on a meagre budget, partially funded by their drivers, it's hard to see where the team can go from here. While in Felipe Nasr they attempted to hire a driver who potentially had both a sizeable wallet but also some talent, he failed to impose himself on the far less rated Marcus Ericsson.
The Swede also threw away his best shot of a great result at Malaysia, and the early season form which brought Sauber 19 of its 36 points in the opening three races vanished, leaving no chance of redemption for Ericsson.
Australia aside, they did little more than make up the numbers, and with the same line-up and technical package for season, there doesn't seem much opportunity for growth in 2016.
9. Lotus (3/10)
Imagine where they may have ended up without that crucial supply of Mercedes engines. A team that has been run on little more than a line of credit since the buyout from Renault in 2011, the closures of HRT and Caterham, along with Manor's near-death experience, has seen their approach to financing their exploits completely derailed.
If the Renault takeover fails to materialise, Bernie is likely correct in his assessment the team will fail to survive. Genii have put all their chips in the takeover option, running the team on life support for the interim, and the team's form suffered for it. Unreliability saw lots of potentially good results fly out the window, and instead of beating Force India as they should have, they barely scraped in ahead of Toro Rosso.
Losing Grosjean to Haas and going for a line-up of Maldonado/Palmer for next season when the likes of Magnussen and Vergne were available shows where the team currently stand. They are on the verge of sinking into the abyss completely, and they will struggle to stay off the foot of the grid in 2016 if Manor improve.
10. McLaren (1/10)
The sole point is for their chassis, which given their speed at certain tracks was at least halfway decent, probably enough to have them fighting Red Bull for 4th in the WCC had they kept their Mercedes engine for one last season.
McLaren, for all their resources and years of success, have emphatically imploded. The management is in complete disarray, the relationship with Honda has been strained to breaking point by unrealistic expectations and rushed timeframes, the junior programme has become completely meaningless. Not a single thing has gone to plan this year, their drivers are starting to become alienated, and no-one appears to be on the same page.
The embarrassing performance deficit is of course mostly down to the woeful Honda engine, but the entire lead-up and approach to the project is questionable, and the exact reasons for failure not entirely clear. Who pushed the engine to debut so early? Why did Honda opt to join the engine formula out of cycle with the rest of the field? Why have all the attempts to mend the powertrain gone so horribly wrong? It's hard to know looking from the outside, but from what we can see peering in, it appears to be a team at war with itself, with no clear answers to the apocalyptic situation it has entered into.
There is no saving grace. No bright spark in the chamber of darkness. This is lower than anyone could have possibly imagined McLaren could fall. The fact the expected recovery never materialised is a huge shock. What can you say? There have been few emphatic downfalls in Formula 1 history more dramatic than this. I am still in complete disbelief.
1. Mercedes (9.5/10)
Built a dominant car and maximised its potential. Very few mistakes, despite what mainstream media and keyboard warriors might have you believe. Half a point knocked off for some odd PR decisions, and not being able to keep a handle on Hamilton at times. The late season slump could have been mitigated with some better management.
2. Ferrari (7.5/10)
The only thing close to a Mercedes challenger. Vettel back on form, the only driver who seemed capable of running with the dominant Mercedes and of ruffling their feathers. Renewing Kimi was mostly out of convenience, one would imagine, with viable replacements locked into contracts with other teams at this particular point in the driver market cycle. Regardless, docked a point for ineffective second driver.
3. Force India (7/10)
Let's not forget the dire straits this team was in at the start of the year. Barely able to scrape money together to make payments, stuck firmly at the back along with the McLarens, they looked set for a tough slog. 9 months later, and suddenly they are fighting for third best along with the likes of Red Bull and Williams. They made the biggest recovery of anyone this season, despite their modest budget and resources.
The Mercedes engine surely helped, but comparing where they ended the season to where they started, it was an amazing transformation from the Silverstone-based squad. Renewing their line-up for next season brings some much needed long-term stability.
4. Williams (6.5/10)
The second fastest car in the field under certain conditions, there were occasions they didn't quite maximise their potential, others they made pretty basic mistakes, and weekends they were all at sea. The good news is they seem to be edging further up the field and staying there at last, but where might they have been without that Mercedes powerplant? Still, for occasionally being Mercedes' main antagonist, and being third in the championship, they deserve to be high in the ranking.
5. Scuderia Toro Rosso (6/10)
The B-Team churned out an excellent car, given their Faenza facilities and staff numbers are lower than that of bigger brother at Milton Keynes. They may have scored a little less than half of the A-Team's points total, but there were moments where the RBRs and STRs were inseparable this season, racing wheel to wheel and the junior cars wedging themselves in-between the senior team cars.
Given they had two rookies, one of them a 17 year old (!!!), and a crooked engine, they did very well to come so close to overhauling the Mercedes powered Lotus team in the standings.
6. Red Bull Racing (5.5/10)
Despite all of the dramas and disasters, they still claimed 4th in the WCC by a healthy margin, an acceptable result for a big team having an off-year. The main area causing them to be docked points off their score is conduct. The idea that publicly bullying their engine supplier would somehow help them was bizarre and uncalled for.
Despite finishing ahead in the drivers' championship, Kvyat had a shaky second season, and will need to improve certain aspects of his driving to repeat his triumph over Ricciardo in future.
7. Manor Marussia (4.5/10)
It's hard to lambaste a team that is so chronically short on funds, and recovering from a traumatic administration process. Most of those 4.5 points come from simply making it to the end of the year in one piece, and signing Mercedes & Williams as their powertrain partners for next season.
The oft-mentioned 2015 spec car from the start of the year never materialised, which was somewhat disappointing, and while their driving line-up left something to be desired, it was an understandable choice given the circumstances.
Forcing Booth and Lowdon into resignations was a massive curveball and a risky decision, but at least there appears potential for them to move forward a little next season, rather than simply continuing on life support.
8. Sauber (4/10)
Another team which is doing little more than scraping by on a meagre budget, partially funded by their drivers, it's hard to see where the team can go from here. While in Felipe Nasr they attempted to hire a driver who potentially had both a sizeable wallet but also some talent, he failed to impose himself on the far less rated Marcus Ericsson.
The Swede also threw away his best shot of a great result at Malaysia, and the early season form which brought Sauber 19 of its 36 points in the opening three races vanished, leaving no chance of redemption for Ericsson.
Australia aside, they did little more than make up the numbers, and with the same line-up and technical package for season, there doesn't seem much opportunity for growth in 2016.
9. Lotus (3/10)
Imagine where they may have ended up without that crucial supply of Mercedes engines. A team that has been run on little more than a line of credit since the buyout from Renault in 2011, the closures of HRT and Caterham, along with Manor's near-death experience, has seen their approach to financing their exploits completely derailed.
If the Renault takeover fails to materialise, Bernie is likely correct in his assessment the team will fail to survive. Genii have put all their chips in the takeover option, running the team on life support for the interim, and the team's form suffered for it. Unreliability saw lots of potentially good results fly out the window, and instead of beating Force India as they should have, they barely scraped in ahead of Toro Rosso.
Losing Grosjean to Haas and going for a line-up of Maldonado/Palmer for next season when the likes of Magnussen and Vergne were available shows where the team currently stand. They are on the verge of sinking into the abyss completely, and they will struggle to stay off the foot of the grid in 2016 if Manor improve.
10. McLaren (1/10)
The sole point is for their chassis, which given their speed at certain tracks was at least halfway decent, probably enough to have them fighting Red Bull for 4th in the WCC had they kept their Mercedes engine for one last season.
McLaren, for all their resources and years of success, have emphatically imploded. The management is in complete disarray, the relationship with Honda has been strained to breaking point by unrealistic expectations and rushed timeframes, the junior programme has become completely meaningless. Not a single thing has gone to plan this year, their drivers are starting to become alienated, and no-one appears to be on the same page.
The embarrassing performance deficit is of course mostly down to the woeful Honda engine, but the entire lead-up and approach to the project is questionable, and the exact reasons for failure not entirely clear. Who pushed the engine to debut so early? Why did Honda opt to join the engine formula out of cycle with the rest of the field? Why have all the attempts to mend the powertrain gone so horribly wrong? It's hard to know looking from the outside, but from what we can see peering in, it appears to be a team at war with itself, with no clear answers to the apocalyptic situation it has entered into.
There is no saving grace. No bright spark in the chamber of darkness. This is lower than anyone could have possibly imagined McLaren could fall. The fact the expected recovery never materialised is a huge shock. What can you say? There have been few emphatic downfalls in Formula 1 history more dramatic than this. I am still in complete disbelief.
Novitopoli wrote:Everytime someone orders at Pizza Hut, an Italian dies.
Novitopoli wrote:Juve's Triplete: Calciopoli, doping & Mafia connections.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Imo, Massa just didn't have a full season comparable to Bottas - matched Valtteri until midpoint of the season, but was absolutely nowhere in the final third of the year. Also lost qualifying head to head.
Sure, the eventual points gap was only 15 points...but Bottas also had the bigger share of misfortune: the injury at Melbourne, Spa and the tires Williams style, Hungary and Verstappen, Sochi and Kimi, and then the unsafe release at Abu Dhabi - he lost at least 30 points due to those. Whereas Massa can only really claim to have lost points due to unluck in Singapore and maybe Suzuka.
Sure, the eventual points gap was only 15 points...but Bottas also had the bigger share of misfortune: the injury at Melbourne, Spa and the tires Williams style, Hungary and Verstappen, Sochi and Kimi, and then the unsafe release at Abu Dhabi - he lost at least 30 points due to those. Whereas Massa can only really claim to have lost points due to unluck in Singapore and maybe Suzuka.
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Salamander
- Posts: 9570
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
Drivers
1. Sebastian Vettel - 9.5
The only major bright spot this year, Vettel took full advantage of any opportunity to show up Mercedes and their drivers, crushing anyone who thought he had lost it after 2014.
2. Lewis Hamilton - 8.75
Made the most of what he had and was good enough to shade Rosberg for most of the year. But not really ever having a fight on track until the title was settled does cast a little into doubt how he would've held up against some real pressure.
3. Daniel Ricciardo - 8.5
Given a car significantly worse than last years, Ricciardo continued to show that consistent brilliance we saw last year. While he was sometimes matched and occasionally beaten by Kvyat, and had 2 of his best races ruined by reliability, Ricciardo was always able to put the car more or less where it should be. He gave Vettel a real run for his money in Singapore, and could've in Hungary if Rosberg hadn't gone full retard.
4. Nico Rosberg - 7.75
Generally a poor season for Rosberg after 2014, but he did of course pick it up at the end of the season.
5. Sergio Perez - 7.75
Perez's best season to date marked him out as really the best driver in the midfield this year, making good on the promise he showed at times last year.
6. Romain Grosjean - 7.75
Another consistent, solid year from the Frenchman.
7. Jenson Button - 7.5
I'm gonna be honest, the McLaren was so bad this year I really had to guess where to put Button and Alonso. They seemed to do well to get any points out of it.
8. Fernando Alonso - 7.5
See above.
9. Max Verstappen - 7.25
A very good debut season for Verstappen, who has his rough edges but is already showing he can easily become one of the defining drivers of the next couple decades.
10. Daniil Kvyat - 7
Showed some great speed, but had a very shaky start, and the way he slid down the field at Austin entirely by his own hand was very concerning.
11. Carlos Sainz Jr - 7
The unluckiest driver in terms of unreliability, it seemed every time that he had a good run going, it was scuppered by a failure of some sort. Still, showed good speed against Verstappen.
12. Felipe Nasr - 6.5
Solid, but did not beat Ericsson by as much as I would've expected.
13. Marcus Ericsson - 6.5
A massive improvement over where he was in 2014 - still got a ways to go before he can be considered a good driver in F1, but I still have high hopes for the Ericsson Era.
14. Pastor Maldonado - 6.5
Without doubt his best season in F1, not that anyone in the paddock seemed to notice. Finally seems to be getting the hang of that consistency thing.
15. Nico Hulkenberg - 6
Was not bad, by any means, just a bit disappointing after last year. Had a surprising amount of accidents.
16. Valtteri Bottas - 5.5
Like Hulkenberg, not bad, just disappointing.
17. Felipe Massa - 5.5
Same story here.
18. Roberto Merhi - 5
Alright I guess?
19. Will Stevens - 4
Ehhhhh....
20. Kimi Raikkonen - 1
Without doubt the least impressive driver this year, especially given his car.
Teams
1. Force India - 10
Considering that their car for the first 8 races was pretty mediocre, and that they had severe financial woes in pre-season, that they finished 19 points short of last year and recorded their best WCC ranking is simply unbelievable. The rate at which they scored points with the B-spec car would've left them only 6 shy of Red Bull's tally.
2. Mercedes - 9.5
Well, duh. Only lose half a point for choking away Hungary horribly and the mysterious lack of pace in Singapore.
3. Ferrari - 9
Put together the only challenge Mercedes ever had, and a nice turnaround after last year.
4. Toro Rosso - 7.5
The best we've seen from Toro Rosso since 2008, with a surprisingly effective chassis.
5. Williams - 6.5
Eh, alright, I suppose. Took 3rd pretty much by default, but had a few too many gaffes.
6. Lotus - 6
Better than 2014, but that's not saying much.
7. Sauber - 5.5
Same as Lotus.
8. Marussia - 5
They're surviving, that's something.
9. Red Bull - 4
That whole engine drama was probably the stupidest thing a team not named Andrea Moda has done.
10. McLaren - 1
What Biscione said.
1. Sebastian Vettel - 9.5
The only major bright spot this year, Vettel took full advantage of any opportunity to show up Mercedes and their drivers, crushing anyone who thought he had lost it after 2014.
2. Lewis Hamilton - 8.75
Made the most of what he had and was good enough to shade Rosberg for most of the year. But not really ever having a fight on track until the title was settled does cast a little into doubt how he would've held up against some real pressure.
3. Daniel Ricciardo - 8.5
Given a car significantly worse than last years, Ricciardo continued to show that consistent brilliance we saw last year. While he was sometimes matched and occasionally beaten by Kvyat, and had 2 of his best races ruined by reliability, Ricciardo was always able to put the car more or less where it should be. He gave Vettel a real run for his money in Singapore, and could've in Hungary if Rosberg hadn't gone full retard.
4. Nico Rosberg - 7.75
Generally a poor season for Rosberg after 2014, but he did of course pick it up at the end of the season.
5. Sergio Perez - 7.75
Perez's best season to date marked him out as really the best driver in the midfield this year, making good on the promise he showed at times last year.
6. Romain Grosjean - 7.75
Another consistent, solid year from the Frenchman.
7. Jenson Button - 7.5
I'm gonna be honest, the McLaren was so bad this year I really had to guess where to put Button and Alonso. They seemed to do well to get any points out of it.
8. Fernando Alonso - 7.5
See above.
9. Max Verstappen - 7.25
A very good debut season for Verstappen, who has his rough edges but is already showing he can easily become one of the defining drivers of the next couple decades.
10. Daniil Kvyat - 7
Showed some great speed, but had a very shaky start, and the way he slid down the field at Austin entirely by his own hand was very concerning.
11. Carlos Sainz Jr - 7
The unluckiest driver in terms of unreliability, it seemed every time that he had a good run going, it was scuppered by a failure of some sort. Still, showed good speed against Verstappen.
12. Felipe Nasr - 6.5
Solid, but did not beat Ericsson by as much as I would've expected.
13. Marcus Ericsson - 6.5
A massive improvement over where he was in 2014 - still got a ways to go before he can be considered a good driver in F1, but I still have high hopes for the Ericsson Era.
14. Pastor Maldonado - 6.5
Without doubt his best season in F1, not that anyone in the paddock seemed to notice. Finally seems to be getting the hang of that consistency thing.
15. Nico Hulkenberg - 6
Was not bad, by any means, just a bit disappointing after last year. Had a surprising amount of accidents.
16. Valtteri Bottas - 5.5
Like Hulkenberg, not bad, just disappointing.
17. Felipe Massa - 5.5
Same story here.
18. Roberto Merhi - 5
Alright I guess?
19. Will Stevens - 4
Ehhhhh....
20. Kimi Raikkonen - 1
Without doubt the least impressive driver this year, especially given his car.
Teams
1. Force India - 10
Considering that their car for the first 8 races was pretty mediocre, and that they had severe financial woes in pre-season, that they finished 19 points short of last year and recorded their best WCC ranking is simply unbelievable. The rate at which they scored points with the B-spec car would've left them only 6 shy of Red Bull's tally.
2. Mercedes - 9.5
Well, duh. Only lose half a point for choking away Hungary horribly and the mysterious lack of pace in Singapore.
3. Ferrari - 9
Put together the only challenge Mercedes ever had, and a nice turnaround after last year.
4. Toro Rosso - 7.5
The best we've seen from Toro Rosso since 2008, with a surprisingly effective chassis.
5. Williams - 6.5
Eh, alright, I suppose. Took 3rd pretty much by default, but had a few too many gaffes.
6. Lotus - 6
Better than 2014, but that's not saying much.
7. Sauber - 5.5
Same as Lotus.
8. Marussia - 5
They're surviving, that's something.
9. Red Bull - 4
That whole engine drama was probably the stupidest thing a team not named Andrea Moda has done.
10. McLaren - 1
What Biscione said.
Everything's great.Sebastian Vettel wrote:If I was good at losing I wouldn't be in Formula 1.
I'm not surprised about anything.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
I like Hulkenberg, but I have to say, he should be contender for the Driver Reject of the year.
He's meant to be be quicker and faster than Perez but he's often trailing in his wake.
Pastor has been a victim too often, he hasn't been crap. The Manor and Sauber boys have done as expected, Mclaren has been useless and easily wins the Team reject of the year award.
Too be honest, most people have done ok and done a decent job. Kimi still finished 4th, and Bottas was best of the rest - although you could argue he could be ROTY as he's regressed and being beaten by Massa which shouldn't be happening.
Driver rejects:
1st Hulk
2nd Bottas
3rd Stevens
Team Rejects -
1st Mclaren
2nd Honda
3rd Ron Dennis
He's meant to be be quicker and faster than Perez but he's often trailing in his wake.
Pastor has been a victim too often, he hasn't been crap. The Manor and Sauber boys have done as expected, Mclaren has been useless and easily wins the Team reject of the year award.
Too be honest, most people have done ok and done a decent job. Kimi still finished 4th, and Bottas was best of the rest - although you could argue he could be ROTY as he's regressed and being beaten by Massa which shouldn't be happening.
Driver rejects:
1st Hulk
2nd Bottas
3rd Stevens
Team Rejects -
1st Mclaren
2nd Honda
3rd Ron Dennis
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
Izzyeviel wrote:I like Hulkenberg, but I have to say, he should be contender for the Driver Reject of the year.
He's meant to be be quicker and faster than Perez but he's often trailing in his wake.
Nope. I think you're looking at the end results rather than, you know, what happened. Hulkenberg had more mechanical issues (two front wing issues at Austin and Hungary, gearbox in China and an electrical failure at Spa causing him to DNS) than Perez (one brake failure in Hungary); although there were a couple of wild moments (Singapore was his fault, not sure about Sochi), to suggest he's "often trailing in his wake" is so wide of the mark that I'm wondering if you actually watched F1 this year.
Also, I'm quite perplexed that you're nominating Bottas. By your account, the guy should ALWAYS, 100% be beating Massa. Whether or not you think Massa's still like he was in 2010-13, or whether he's been rejuvenated at Williams, he's still a fantastic driver. Bottas has still had the measure of Massa, but I think Felipe's performances relative to Bottas are actually more to do with him digging deep and finding an environment less political than Ferrari. He's driving with a smile on his face and he's found something I've not seen in him since the first half of 2009.
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
The problem with Hulkenberg is so much hype but little rewards while his teammate gets no buzz or kudos, really. Brundle has really talked up Nico and we hear him more than anyone else and that trickles down to the fans and the media.
This season really showed that Perez deserves another go at a top seat than Hulkenberg getting a go at one.
This season really showed that Perez deserves another go at a top seat than Hulkenberg getting a go at one.
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AdrianSutil
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
1. Sebastian Vettel - Drove a pretty brilliant season and took the fight directly to Mercedes on several occasions. Won 3 races and THAT LAP in Singapore Quali is a standout performance. Good job Seb.
2. Lewis Hamilton - We can forget the final three races because he was either hungover or not bothered after securing the title. But before then, he was virtually unstoppable. Made Rosberg look a bit average on many occasions.
3. Max Verstappen - Young Max takes the bronze quite easily. A brilliant season for a 17 year old. Yes, he made a few mistakes (read: Grosjean at Monaco) but lets remember he's 17!! Future WDC? It's possible given a decent car.
4. Sergio Perez – Possibly one of the best 2nd half performances from a midfield team since Hulkenberg a few years back. I’m not his biggest fan, but even I smiled when he got that well deserved Russian podium.
5. Fernando Alonso – Finishes above Button purely because he scored more points. Didn’t deserve that dog of a McLaren Honda. Still a very good driver, even if he’s lost a few tenths in the last couple of years.
6. Jenson Button – Behind Alonso due to less points. But same applies to him from what I’ve written about Alonso.
7. Felipe Nasr – Some people may question his high placement, but I remember watching him in British F3 and thinking he’s a potential F1 star of the future. Some very good drives throughout the year, deserves to remain in the sport for several years.
8. Romain Grosjean – Again, a slightly higher placement than others, but nobody could deny him a podium at Spa. A very good, fast driver who deserved so much more this year. Good luck at Haas!
9. Carlos Sainz Jr – Ahh, such a shame his car failed on many point-scoring occasions. Huge crash in Russia did nothing to dent his talent. A quick driver who will get quicker with another season. Very impressed.
10. Alexander Rossi – A Manor driver in the top 10?! What is this sorcery!! But you have to admit, he came into the team with minimal, if any, testing and immediately set about beating Stevens. Came oh so close to a magical point at Austin and looked very much an F1 driver (which Mehri did not). F1 next year with Manor? He deserves it!
11. Daniel Ricciardo – Not his fault he got lumbered with a dodgy Renault engine, but still put in some impressive drives when the speed allowed. A better, quicker, more technical driver than his compatriot Webber, a certainty for the WDC in the future.
12. Daniil Kvyat – First season at top team RedBull shows us what we all knew, a quick driver, yet inexperienced. A few mistakes here, a handful of points there. A good learning year with RedBull, expect a stronger showing in 2016.
13. Valtteri Bottas – The Williams car was pretty much on a par with their 2014 challenger, but fell behind Ferrari purely because Ferrari got better. A solid if unspectacular driver, he gets out the car whatever he can. Good drives sometimes spoilt by Raikkonen.
14. Felipe Massa – The sister Williams car finds itself one place below due to finishing behind in the standings. Still has the speed that’s for sure, but you have to think his star is starting to fade.
15. Nico Rosberg – Let the flaming begin. Why is he so low? Even behind a Manor driver? Simple, he bottled it on too many occasions. Austin was a total joke. That race was his for the taking, yet he choked. And not for the first time. I’ve no doubt he can win a WDC, but he needs to get out the blocks much quicker.
16. Marcus Ericsson – A little higher than others, mainly because he did what I expected of him: Nothing amazing, just got the job done. Overshadowed by his rookie teammate yes, but still scored points. A few silly mistakes here and there, Malaysia being a stand-out, but still showed that he can actually drive a midfield car. Deserves a seat for next yeah though? No.
17. Nico Hulkenberg – The second Nico is very low down purely because we expect so much more from him. I have to say I expect podiums and win challenges from him. Potential WDC? Not on this form…
18. Kimi Raikkonen – lol wat? How many points behind your teammate? How many podiums compared to your teammate? Wins? Poles? Fastest Laps? No, no no. Fail, fail, fail. And stop crashing into your countryman please, it’s bad form… Kimi pls care.
19. Will Stevens – Sorry mate, I did expect something a little more form you. Not asking for top 10 lap times, but try and beat your teammate by a bigger margin. And then came Rossi who showed what you could do in a Manor.
20. Pastor Maldonado – I’m sorry, but he doesn’t deserve a seat on talent alone. That win in 2012 seems so, so long ago now. A brilliantly quick driver on his day, but so quickly able to ruin it with petty squabbles and spins. Also, seems to be the type of driver that struggles to find a good set-up from track to track.
21. Roberto Mehri – Pretty much outpaced by Stevens in all weekends. Showed a little turn of speed here and there, but overall, out of all the drivers to race for the ‘2010 teams’, only Di Grassi and Karthikeyen performed worse. And that’s not a good thing to say.
1. Mercedes – Yeah, of course they were going to win. Not much to say about a team that near-dominates a season again. Good luck everyone else.
2. Ferrari – Vettel drove brilliant all year. The less said about Kimi the better. But the three wins for ‘ze German’ stood out.
3. Force India – British GP onwards, looked like genuine podium chasers at almost every race. Coupled with Perez’s solid form later in the year, saw them crack the top 5. Interesting fact: It took the former, former, FORMER team Jordan 8 seasons to hit top 4, Force India took 8 to hit top 5. And we can all agree it’s much harder these days.
4. Toro Rosso – For the first few races of the year, actually looked like beating RedBull, but then they fell back with development and seem to be unable to give their drivers realistic strategies. Still, their best season pace-wise since 2008.
5. Sauber – Quite high up mainly due to how many points they actually scored. Back to being a genuine Midfield team, which everyone is happy to see.
6. Williams – Much the same as last year, just waiting for that final little push to hit their race wins. It’s coming I tell you!
7. Manor Marussia – For a team that was effectively out of business only a couple of months before the season. It was pleasing to see them race, if by race you mean trundle around at the back, a full two seconds behind even the McLaren. But they’re still there. Good job lads. Can’t wait for Merc engines next year!
8. RedBull – Oops. Not the season they wanted. Petty squabbles with Renault took away their focus of actually trying to make things better. Must do much, much better next time around.
9. Lotus – Two quick drivers hampered by awful reliability and even worse financial situations. You just cannot compete with that hanging over your head. Should’ve been a much better year.
10. McLaren Hondahahaha – What is this? I don’t even… Why? For a team like McLaren to finish where they have is inexcusable. Just how do you build a car and an engine that badly?? How Alonso or Button didn’t try and literally burn their car on the side of the road after yet another engine failure remains a mystery to me. 100 place penalties in qualifying, Alonso literally start-and-parking his car at Mexico. Bad, bad, bad. One positive though, they can’t be worse in 2016 can they? Can they?!
2. Lewis Hamilton - We can forget the final three races because he was either hungover or not bothered after securing the title. But before then, he was virtually unstoppable. Made Rosberg look a bit average on many occasions.
3. Max Verstappen - Young Max takes the bronze quite easily. A brilliant season for a 17 year old. Yes, he made a few mistakes (read: Grosjean at Monaco) but lets remember he's 17!! Future WDC? It's possible given a decent car.
4. Sergio Perez – Possibly one of the best 2nd half performances from a midfield team since Hulkenberg a few years back. I’m not his biggest fan, but even I smiled when he got that well deserved Russian podium.
5. Fernando Alonso – Finishes above Button purely because he scored more points. Didn’t deserve that dog of a McLaren Honda. Still a very good driver, even if he’s lost a few tenths in the last couple of years.
6. Jenson Button – Behind Alonso due to less points. But same applies to him from what I’ve written about Alonso.
7. Felipe Nasr – Some people may question his high placement, but I remember watching him in British F3 and thinking he’s a potential F1 star of the future. Some very good drives throughout the year, deserves to remain in the sport for several years.
8. Romain Grosjean – Again, a slightly higher placement than others, but nobody could deny him a podium at Spa. A very good, fast driver who deserved so much more this year. Good luck at Haas!
9. Carlos Sainz Jr – Ahh, such a shame his car failed on many point-scoring occasions. Huge crash in Russia did nothing to dent his talent. A quick driver who will get quicker with another season. Very impressed.
10. Alexander Rossi – A Manor driver in the top 10?! What is this sorcery!! But you have to admit, he came into the team with minimal, if any, testing and immediately set about beating Stevens. Came oh so close to a magical point at Austin and looked very much an F1 driver (which Mehri did not). F1 next year with Manor? He deserves it!
11. Daniel Ricciardo – Not his fault he got lumbered with a dodgy Renault engine, but still put in some impressive drives when the speed allowed. A better, quicker, more technical driver than his compatriot Webber, a certainty for the WDC in the future.
12. Daniil Kvyat – First season at top team RedBull shows us what we all knew, a quick driver, yet inexperienced. A few mistakes here, a handful of points there. A good learning year with RedBull, expect a stronger showing in 2016.
13. Valtteri Bottas – The Williams car was pretty much on a par with their 2014 challenger, but fell behind Ferrari purely because Ferrari got better. A solid if unspectacular driver, he gets out the car whatever he can. Good drives sometimes spoilt by Raikkonen.
14. Felipe Massa – The sister Williams car finds itself one place below due to finishing behind in the standings. Still has the speed that’s for sure, but you have to think his star is starting to fade.
15. Nico Rosberg – Let the flaming begin. Why is he so low? Even behind a Manor driver? Simple, he bottled it on too many occasions. Austin was a total joke. That race was his for the taking, yet he choked. And not for the first time. I’ve no doubt he can win a WDC, but he needs to get out the blocks much quicker.
16. Marcus Ericsson – A little higher than others, mainly because he did what I expected of him: Nothing amazing, just got the job done. Overshadowed by his rookie teammate yes, but still scored points. A few silly mistakes here and there, Malaysia being a stand-out, but still showed that he can actually drive a midfield car. Deserves a seat for next yeah though? No.
17. Nico Hulkenberg – The second Nico is very low down purely because we expect so much more from him. I have to say I expect podiums and win challenges from him. Potential WDC? Not on this form…
18. Kimi Raikkonen – lol wat? How many points behind your teammate? How many podiums compared to your teammate? Wins? Poles? Fastest Laps? No, no no. Fail, fail, fail. And stop crashing into your countryman please, it’s bad form… Kimi pls care.
19. Will Stevens – Sorry mate, I did expect something a little more form you. Not asking for top 10 lap times, but try and beat your teammate by a bigger margin. And then came Rossi who showed what you could do in a Manor.
20. Pastor Maldonado – I’m sorry, but he doesn’t deserve a seat on talent alone. That win in 2012 seems so, so long ago now. A brilliantly quick driver on his day, but so quickly able to ruin it with petty squabbles and spins. Also, seems to be the type of driver that struggles to find a good set-up from track to track.
21. Roberto Mehri – Pretty much outpaced by Stevens in all weekends. Showed a little turn of speed here and there, but overall, out of all the drivers to race for the ‘2010 teams’, only Di Grassi and Karthikeyen performed worse. And that’s not a good thing to say.
1. Mercedes – Yeah, of course they were going to win. Not much to say about a team that near-dominates a season again. Good luck everyone else.
2. Ferrari – Vettel drove brilliant all year. The less said about Kimi the better. But the three wins for ‘ze German’ stood out.
3. Force India – British GP onwards, looked like genuine podium chasers at almost every race. Coupled with Perez’s solid form later in the year, saw them crack the top 5. Interesting fact: It took the former, former, FORMER team Jordan 8 seasons to hit top 4, Force India took 8 to hit top 5. And we can all agree it’s much harder these days.
4. Toro Rosso – For the first few races of the year, actually looked like beating RedBull, but then they fell back with development and seem to be unable to give their drivers realistic strategies. Still, their best season pace-wise since 2008.
5. Sauber – Quite high up mainly due to how many points they actually scored. Back to being a genuine Midfield team, which everyone is happy to see.
6. Williams – Much the same as last year, just waiting for that final little push to hit their race wins. It’s coming I tell you!
7. Manor Marussia – For a team that was effectively out of business only a couple of months before the season. It was pleasing to see them race, if by race you mean trundle around at the back, a full two seconds behind even the McLaren. But they’re still there. Good job lads. Can’t wait for Merc engines next year!
8. RedBull – Oops. Not the season they wanted. Petty squabbles with Renault took away their focus of actually trying to make things better. Must do much, much better next time around.
9. Lotus – Two quick drivers hampered by awful reliability and even worse financial situations. You just cannot compete with that hanging over your head. Should’ve been a much better year.
10. McLaren Hondahahaha – What is this? I don’t even… Why? For a team like McLaren to finish where they have is inexcusable. Just how do you build a car and an engine that badly?? How Alonso or Button didn’t try and literally burn their car on the side of the road after yet another engine failure remains a mystery to me. 100 place penalties in qualifying, Alonso literally start-and-parking his car at Mexico. Bad, bad, bad. One positive though, they can’t be worse in 2016 can they? Can they?!
RIP NAN - 26/12/2014
RIP DAD - 9/2/2015
Currently building a Subaru Impreza to compete in the 2016 MSV Trophy.
PremierInn spokesperson for Great Ormond Street Hospital
RIP DAD - 9/2/2015
Currently building a Subaru Impreza to compete in the 2016 MSV Trophy.
PremierInn spokesperson for Great Ormond Street Hospital
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Button actually scored more points than Alonso. 
"Poor old Warwick takes it from behind all throughout this season". (Tony Jardine, 1988)
(Tony Jardine, 1988)-
Bobby Doorknobs
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
Simtek wrote:Go home, Keith Collantine
You know what's worse?
I posted a comment defending Pastor Maldonado, using arguments. 10 minutes later? That commentary is gone. Deleted.
Mario on Gutierrez after the Italian Grand Prix wrote:He's no longer just a bit of a tool, he's the entire tool set.
18-07-2015: Forever in our hearts Jules.
25-08-2015: Forever in our hearts Justin.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
And if Raikkonen isn't around #20 on the list...
Is Collantine so predictable that I'm already expecting inevitable double standards?
Is Collantine so predictable that I'm already expecting inevitable double standards?
Felipe Nasr - the least forgettable F1 driver!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.
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dinizintheoven
- Posts: 3997
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
Well, he's got as far as #19 and no Kimi yet...
James Allen, on his favourite F1 engine of all time:
"...the Life W12, I can't describe the noise to you, but imagine filling your dustbin with nuts and bolts, and then throwing it down the stairs, it was something akin to that!"
"...the Life W12, I can't describe the noise to you, but imagine filling your dustbin with nuts and bolts, and then throwing it down the stairs, it was something akin to that!"
Re: Driver and Team reviews
who's there so far?Felipe Nasr - the least forgettable F1 driver!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.
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Bobby Doorknobs
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
Rob Dylan wrote::chilton: who's there so far?
So far it's:
19. Marcus Ericsson (about correct, in my opinion)
20. Roberto Merhi (expectations weren't too high, certainly in the lower half of the rankings, but I wouldn't put him second last)
21. Pastor Maldonado (similar to Merhi, not in the top half of the field, but seriously, bathplug off)
#FreeGonzo
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DemocalypseNow
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
Simtek wrote:Go home, Keith Collantine
THE REAR WING FAILURE WAS STRUCTURAL UNDER HIGH LOAD OF THE DRS FLAP SLAMMING SHUT SEVERAL LAPS PRIOR TO THE INCIDENT! HOW MANY TIMES DOES THIS NEED TO BE SAID?!
Collatine, just give it up. If you're going to push an agenda, at least do it with a true story, rather than making things up to suit your point of view.
Novitopoli wrote:Everytime someone orders at Pizza Hut, an Italian dies.
Novitopoli wrote:Juve's Triplete: Calciopoli, doping & Mafia connections.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Can we just ban all reference of Keith Collantine and F1 Fanatic from these forums? I mean, I unfollowed him and his website a month ago, and my life is immeasurably better as a result. 
Fetzie on Ferrari wrote:How does a driver hurtling around a race track while they're sous-viding in their overalls have a better understanding of the race than a team of strategy engineers in an air-conditioned room?l
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Biscione wrote:Simtek wrote:Go home, Keith Collantine
THE REAR WING FAILURE WAS STRUCTURAL UNDER HIGH LOAD OF THE DRS FLAP SLAMMING SHUT SEVERAL LAPS PRIOR TO THE INCIDENT! HOW MANY TIMES DOES THIS NEED TO BE SAID?!
Collatine, just give it up. If you're going to push an agenda, at least do it with a true story, rather than making things up to suit your point of view.
Since I want to befome an IT, sometimes I thinj in the future I will hack F1Fanatic and delete the entire data. unfortunately, law will on his side.
East Londoner wrote:Can we just ban all reference of Keith Collantine and F1 Fanatic from these forums? I mean, I unfollowed him and his website a month ago, and my life is immeasurably better as a result.
Absolutely agree.
Rio Haryanto for the win!
He upon seeing me accidentaly paint Belgian flag rotated 90 deg to right
tommykl returns from the bathroom
tommykl reads the chat logs
tommykl has a stroke
He upon seeing me accidentaly paint Belgian flag rotated 90 deg to right
tommykl returns from the bathroom
tommykl reads the chat logs
tommykl has a stroke
Re: Driver and Team reviews
I think the old media adage goes along the lines of "don't let the truth get in the way of a good story".
Felipe Nasr - the least forgettable F1 driver!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.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Miguel98 wrote:Simtek wrote:Go home, Keith Collantine
You know what's worse?
I posted a comment defending Pastor Maldonado, using arguments. 10 minutes later? That commentary is gone. Deleted.
Your comment is still there. Though a typically clueless F1 Fanatic fan replied to your comment.
Colin Kolles on F111, 2011 HRT challenger: The car doesn't look too bad; it looks like a modern F1 car.
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FullMetalJack
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
East Londoner wrote:Can we just ban all reference of Keith Collantine and F1 Fanatic from these forums? I mean, I unfollowed him and his website a month ago, and my life is immeasurably better as a result.
What amuses me is that the negative references keep cropping up......and yet some forumites clearly keep re-visiting the site anyway.
Just For One Day...
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Bobby Doorknobs
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
CoopsII wrote:East Londoner wrote:Can we just ban all reference of Keith Collantine and F1 Fanatic from these forums? I mean, I unfollowed him and his website a month ago, and my life is immeasurably better as a result.
What amuses me is that the negative references keep cropping up......and yet some forumites clearly keep re-visiting the site anyway.
It's a habit I haven't been able to get out of for the past five years, sadly. That said, F1 Fanatic is actually a good source for news, it's opinion pieces where it really falls apart.
#FreeGonzo
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Salamander
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Re: Driver and Team reviews
East Londoner wrote:Can we just ban all reference of Keith Collantine and F1 Fanatic from these forums? I mean, I unfollowed him and his website a month ago, and my life is immeasurably better as a result.
To be fair, you have a point. It's the same for me, and I'm sure everyone here would appreciate it if we all stopped moaning about Collantine every time he said something dumb. I think we all get the point by now.
Everything's great.Sebastian Vettel wrote:If I was good at losing I wouldn't be in Formula 1.
I'm not surprised about anything.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Miguel98 wrote:Simtek wrote:Go home, Keith Collantine
You know what's worse?
I posted a comment defending Pastor Maldonado, using arguments. 10 minutes later? That commentary is gone. Deleted.
I agree with the Keith thing. I'm guilty of it a lot but heck I've moved on from that site. It's worse than First Take on ESPN.
Your comment shows though and a lot of people support your argument. Keith has his own agenda that he wants F1 his way otherwise it's not F1, so let him be that little kid.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
I've kind of gone polar opposite to what I was like 2/3 years ago. I used be a member on F1Fanatic for a couple of years, but there really isn't room for those of differing thought from "Vettel / Hamilton / Raikkonen are the only drivers that are worth anything on the grid" mentality. I'd perused through this site every now and then for years, but never actually joined the group. I don't know if it was just me but Keith just seemed to get worse over time, so I made an account on this forum and after two weeks or so had deleted my account on F1Fanatic. Once every few months I'll have a look to see what's Collantine's up to when I'm bored, but nah I don't go there much anymore at all.
Felipe Nasr - the least forgettable F1 driver!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.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Aguaman wrote:I agree with the Keith thing. I'm guilty of it a lot but heck I've moved on from that site. It's worse than First Take on ESPN.
Your comment shows though and a lot of people support your argument. Keith has his own agenda that he wants F1 his way otherwise it's not F1, so let him be that little kid.
Keith Collantine is a dick. His site is either reprints of press releases and stories from other sites or his own content, which more often than not is ill-informed or just bad reporting. His reputation is so tarnished that I never bother reading his site or believing anything that is posted there.
Following Formula 1 since 1984.
Avid collector of Formula 1 season guides and reviews.
Collector of reject merchandise and 1/43rd scale reject model cars.
Avid collector of Formula 1 season guides and reviews.
Collector of reject merchandise and 1/43rd scale reject model cars.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Simtek wrote:CoopsII wrote:East Londoner wrote:Can we just ban all reference of Keith Collantine and F1 Fanatic from these forums? I mean, I unfollowed him and his website a month ago, and my life is immeasurably better as a result.
What amuses me is that the negative references keep cropping up......and yet some forumites clearly keep re-visiting the site anyway.
It's a habit I haven't been able to get out of for the past five years, sadly. That said, F1 Fanatic is actually a good source for news, it's opinion pieces where it really falls apart.
I prefer to read the Motorsport.com. I was a reader from F1 Fanatic but his articles are bad (remember when Keith insinuate all racing series bar F1 are gimmick?). I quit autosport too since they started to charge for read more than 20 articles.
Fun fact: Keith was banned from F1 subrredit and f1fanatic domain put in the blacklist of reddit because he created multiple accounts for post links from his website.
Waiting for Lotus hiring Johnny Cecotto jr.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
My Constructor Rankings
10) McLaren Honda - Statistically, their worst season to date. I know they scored less points in other seasons, but that was under a less generous system. In just about every way, they have made a horlicks of this year. They really are going down the same route Williams did not so long ago.
9) Red Bull Renault - Complained endlessly about Renault building them underpowered motors, it's just desserts that they stuck with Renault for 2016 (badged as TAG-Heuer though)! Still secured 4th overall, so there's some positives in that area, I suppose.
8) Marussia Ferrari - So Marussia missed testing, couldn't get onto the track on Melbourne, were basically saddled with last year's car and engine such that in the flyaway races they were near the 107% margin in Q1, but they survived and also picked up a pair of 12th place finishes. Not bad. Here's hoping things will get better with Mercedes engines next year.
7) Lotus Mercedes - They needed to improve on last year, and they did, kind of. There was that podium in Belgium, and Maldonado improved his consistency to a good level, but overall they kept stuffing up, so in every race bar Japan, they couldn't both cars into the points without issue. That wasn't good enough, they should have been battling Force India for 5th, instead they were holding off Toro Rosso for 6th!
6) Sauber Ferrari - A major improvement over last year, I secretly love how they scored points in the last race of '13 and the first of '15 alone but not the whole frigging season in-between! As for this season, they started well but scored less and less points, less and less often, then they upped their game with an upgraded Ferrari engine, then disappeared completely again. Hopefully they can move up the field again for 2016.
5) Williams Mercedes - This ranking is by default, they may have secured 3rd in the championship again, but their results and overall form and consistency was much weaker than in 2014. Still making endless mistakes too, from poor strategy and pit blunders, their drivers had unspectacular seasons. Are showing no signs of moving forward or winning a race anytime soon.
4) Toro Rosso - Despite poor reliabilty, which cost them their target of 5th (which seemed possible early on), at least they didn't attack Renault all the time. They got great form out of their all-rookie line-up as well, who gave STR their best results since the closing of 2008 so credit should go there.
3) Force India - Considering that there were doubts that they would even make it to the grid in Melbourne, and were mired way back on the grid in the first quarter, to ultimately secure a best ever 5th in the WCC and secure another podium in Russia, is an astounding achievement.
2) Ferrari - After a miserable '14 campaign, they really rebounded to leapfrog Red Bull and Williams pace-wise, and become Mercedes only real contenders for race wins. They did struggle on cooler tracks though, and couldn't revitalize Raikkonen, although the latter could be out of their control. Will need to ensure this form does continue into '16 so we can witness a better championship fight than this season.
1) Mercedes - No contest here. They did miss podiums in two races, compared to none at all last year, but they continued their dominant form and arguably increased their margin over the rest of the field. Will be hard to beat in '16. Nuff said. Drivers rankings will be a bit later, now I'm off to watch The 'Burbs or something...
10) McLaren Honda - Statistically, their worst season to date. I know they scored less points in other seasons, but that was under a less generous system. In just about every way, they have made a horlicks of this year. They really are going down the same route Williams did not so long ago.
9) Red Bull Renault - Complained endlessly about Renault building them underpowered motors, it's just desserts that they stuck with Renault for 2016 (badged as TAG-Heuer though)! Still secured 4th overall, so there's some positives in that area, I suppose.
8) Marussia Ferrari - So Marussia missed testing, couldn't get onto the track on Melbourne, were basically saddled with last year's car and engine such that in the flyaway races they were near the 107% margin in Q1, but they survived and also picked up a pair of 12th place finishes. Not bad. Here's hoping things will get better with Mercedes engines next year.
7) Lotus Mercedes - They needed to improve on last year, and they did, kind of. There was that podium in Belgium, and Maldonado improved his consistency to a good level, but overall they kept stuffing up, so in every race bar Japan, they couldn't both cars into the points without issue. That wasn't good enough, they should have been battling Force India for 5th, instead they were holding off Toro Rosso for 6th!
6) Sauber Ferrari - A major improvement over last year, I secretly love how they scored points in the last race of '13 and the first of '15 alone but not the whole frigging season in-between! As for this season, they started well but scored less and less points, less and less often, then they upped their game with an upgraded Ferrari engine, then disappeared completely again. Hopefully they can move up the field again for 2016.
5) Williams Mercedes - This ranking is by default, they may have secured 3rd in the championship again, but their results and overall form and consistency was much weaker than in 2014. Still making endless mistakes too, from poor strategy and pit blunders, their drivers had unspectacular seasons. Are showing no signs of moving forward or winning a race anytime soon.
4) Toro Rosso - Despite poor reliabilty, which cost them their target of 5th (which seemed possible early on), at least they didn't attack Renault all the time. They got great form out of their all-rookie line-up as well, who gave STR their best results since the closing of 2008 so credit should go there.
3) Force India - Considering that there were doubts that they would even make it to the grid in Melbourne, and were mired way back on the grid in the first quarter, to ultimately secure a best ever 5th in the WCC and secure another podium in Russia, is an astounding achievement.
2) Ferrari - After a miserable '14 campaign, they really rebounded to leapfrog Red Bull and Williams pace-wise, and become Mercedes only real contenders for race wins. They did struggle on cooler tracks though, and couldn't revitalize Raikkonen, although the latter could be out of their control. Will need to ensure this form does continue into '16 so we can witness a better championship fight than this season.
1) Mercedes - No contest here. They did miss podiums in two races, compared to none at all last year, but they continued their dominant form and arguably increased their margin over the rest of the field. Will be hard to beat in '16. Nuff said. Drivers rankings will be a bit later, now I'm off to watch The 'Burbs or something...
Check out the position of the sun on 2 August at 20:08 in my garden
Allard Kalff in 1994 wrote:OH!! Schumacher in the wall! Right in front of us, Michael Schumacher is in the wall! He's hit the pitwall, he c... Ah, it's Jos Verstappen.
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Drivers:
1) Vettel
2) Hamilton
3) Perez
4) Verstappen jr
5) Ricciardo
6) Kvyat
7) Bottas
8) Hulkenberg
9) Rosberg
10) Button
11) Massa
12) Grosjean
13) Maldonado
14) Nasr
15) Sainz jr
16) Alonso
17) Rossi
18) Stevens
19) Raikkonen
20) Mehri
21) Ericsson
Teams:
10) Mclaren: Worst season ever for the working team. Most of their points are scored by luck (most notable in Hungary and COTA). They had luck again in Manor failing to start the Australian Grand Prix, because I think they probably had put some pressure in Mclaren at some point. Well deserved ROTY and a stronger contender for ROTD (Reject of the Decade).
9) Lotus: The car was a lot better than 2014, but the reliability issues hit the team pretty hard. Both Grosjean and Maldonado (especially the latter) lose a lot of points. No way in thinking Lotus had some chances against Force India after the B-Spec car, but almost losing to the unreliable Toro Rosso was a bit shaming.
8) Williams: Learned nothing from 2014 mistakes and did worse in this year. Bad strategy calls, slow pit stops. Yeah, the team stopped the car development in Singapore, but ended the year behind Force India and Red Bull. 2016 will be a tough year.
7) Sauber: Great start of the season but the team quickly returned to 2014 form. The Giedo van der Garde-gate was laughable and put Monisha's name in the lame.
6) Red Bull: They can't blame Renault at all, because they made an average car and only recovered at the end of the year. The threats of leaving F1 because they hadn't a good engine was silly and childish.
5) Toro Rosso: A great car with two pretty good rookies (especially Verstappen jr) but with a bad engine. There is potential to return to 2008 form soon.
4) Manor: The entire team are warriors. A 2014 updated car with almost no data from the previous year and a 2014 Ferrari engine and the team managed to stay away from 107% margin with some comfort. With Mercedes engines, the team could reduce the gap to the middle field or even catch Mclaren if the working team fails again.
3) Force India: Zero to Hero in a space of one season. Catch Williams and Red Bull and outscored both with the B-Spec car. 2016 looks promising for the team, even without Aston Martin deal.
2) Ferrari: Improved in every area in this year. They can catch Mercedes with hard work.
1) Mercedes: Dominated again. Nuff said.
1) Vettel
2) Hamilton
3) Perez
4) Verstappen jr
5) Ricciardo
6) Kvyat
7) Bottas
8) Hulkenberg
9) Rosberg
10) Button
11) Massa
12) Grosjean
13) Maldonado
14) Nasr
15) Sainz jr
16) Alonso
17) Rossi
18) Stevens
19) Raikkonen
20) Mehri
21) Ericsson
Teams:
10) Mclaren: Worst season ever for the working team. Most of their points are scored by luck (most notable in Hungary and COTA). They had luck again in Manor failing to start the Australian Grand Prix, because I think they probably had put some pressure in Mclaren at some point. Well deserved ROTY and a stronger contender for ROTD (Reject of the Decade).
9) Lotus: The car was a lot better than 2014, but the reliability issues hit the team pretty hard. Both Grosjean and Maldonado (especially the latter) lose a lot of points. No way in thinking Lotus had some chances against Force India after the B-Spec car, but almost losing to the unreliable Toro Rosso was a bit shaming.
8) Williams: Learned nothing from 2014 mistakes and did worse in this year. Bad strategy calls, slow pit stops. Yeah, the team stopped the car development in Singapore, but ended the year behind Force India and Red Bull. 2016 will be a tough year.
7) Sauber: Great start of the season but the team quickly returned to 2014 form. The Giedo van der Garde-gate was laughable and put Monisha's name in the lame.
6) Red Bull: They can't blame Renault at all, because they made an average car and only recovered at the end of the year. The threats of leaving F1 because they hadn't a good engine was silly and childish.
5) Toro Rosso: A great car with two pretty good rookies (especially Verstappen jr) but with a bad engine. There is potential to return to 2008 form soon.
4) Manor: The entire team are warriors. A 2014 updated car with almost no data from the previous year and a 2014 Ferrari engine and the team managed to stay away from 107% margin with some comfort. With Mercedes engines, the team could reduce the gap to the middle field or even catch Mclaren if the working team fails again.
3) Force India: Zero to Hero in a space of one season. Catch Williams and Red Bull and outscored both with the B-Spec car. 2016 looks promising for the team, even without Aston Martin deal.
2) Ferrari: Improved in every area in this year. They can catch Mercedes with hard work.
1) Mercedes: Dominated again. Nuff said.
Waiting for Lotus hiring Johnny Cecotto jr.
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SuzukiSwift
- Posts: 123
- Joined: 29 Aug 2014, 18:42
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Dj_bereta wrote:good_Ralf wrote:rachel1990 wrote:21 Pastor Maldonado. No matter where he goes no matter how bad the car is or if it's his fault. Pastor is always in trouble. I dread to think how many points he has or how much he costs Lotus in repair bills. Must be more than how much he brings in terms of sponsorship. When you have a website named after you about how many times you crash and bringing more destruction to f1 this year pastor is the ROTY driver!!
This is unfair. Sure, Maldonado has had his share of incidents this year, but hardly any of them, including today's, were his fault. And while he lost a lot of points, most of which were down to things out of his control, such as pit delays, mechanical failures and collisions from other drivers. I'd say Lotus were more to blame for losing points than Pastor was.
Of all his incidents, only China (at the pit entry), Hungary, Belgium (in practice) and Brazil were completely his fault, and in turn only the latter compromised another driver's race. It makes the crash website feel ignorant and almost exploitative. If you're ranking him this low simply because of how many incidents he was involved in, regardless of who was to blame, you should reconsider.
So what I'm saying is that while Pastor has been in a lot of trouble again, unlike in previous seasons you can't just point a finger at him for it all, you have to look past the results table and re-watch the races to understand that he has improved as a driver this year.
I have to agree about it's harsh to say Maldonado is the worst driver of this season. He had a lot of misfortunes in this season and almost all of them wasn't his fault. He lost at least 20 points or more.
Despite he being completely dominated by Grosjean in qualify, in the race was 50/50 taking in count the misfortune from both drivers.
I grow tired of Pastor Bashing. He was far from the worst driver this year, and kept it relatively clean.
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SuzukiSwift
- Posts: 123
- Joined: 29 Aug 2014, 18:42
Re: Driver and Team reviews
Button was extremely impressive this year, too bad he has nothing to show for it...
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Salamander
- Posts: 9570
- Joined: 29 Mar 2009, 20:59
- Location: trapped on some prison island
Re: Driver and Team reviews
SuzukiSwift wrote:Button was extremely impressive this year, too bad he has nothing to show for it...
Well, he beat Alonso in the points. That's more than Hamilton managed...
Everything's great.Sebastian Vettel wrote:If I was good at losing I wouldn't be in Formula 1.
I'm not surprised about anything.