And now, ladies and gentlemen, your ratings!

[RE30B#16]

Road & Track magazine used to have year end F1 driver assessments by Murray Walker at season's end. Loved reading his take on the performances and rating the drivers. He may sound like a boob on TV, but the man really knows what he is talking about when asked where these guys rank with respect to one another. He would rate the drivers from 1 to 10 (10 being best). So now here is your chance. Let me know how you stack 'em!!

Here's my take:

Fernando Alonso: [9.25 rating]
Alonso, despite how unraveled the season's drama seemed to get him off track, on track, Alonso is the best driver in Formula 1, period. In Brazil, if you do not have the fast car, you cannot win unless the guy with it makes a mistake. I do not believe he had a lackluster race as some pundits have painted it. I believe he did the best he could against the Ferraris which have been marginally better all season. He 3rd place in Brazil may have been the equivalent of a win. Erase the Ferraris and Alonso is World Champion again. His composure inside the car is unparalleled, and he has proven that his previous Renault WDC titles were all him.

Kimi Raikkonen: [9.125 rating]
Kimi seemed very out of sorts and distracted at the beginning of this season which is why I rate him a whisker behind Alonso. Once he got himself sorted out, however, he wasted no time in dispelling those rumours that Felippe Massa was better than him. In Brazil, Kimi did everything he had to do to give himself a chance to take the title. At that point, he needed the racing luck Gods to smile on him, and they did. I don't believe any other driver is faster in terms of sheer speed. The thing I love the most about Kimi is that he is a true Finn. He is a fierce competitor who doesn't get caught up in the soup opera drama motor racing has become. I will admit, I am not as big a fan of Kimi as I was of Mika and Keke, but he is a worthy champion and I am thrilled for him.

Lewis Hamilton: [9.0 rating]
I believe for the first time on the racetrack all season, we saw that Lewis Hamilton was a rookie at Brazil. I would not call it a meltdown, but his overzealous (and/or desperate) early race reminded me of Michael Schumacher at Australia in 1994 (and again in Europe 1997). Hamilton disappointed me more by getting caught up in the press drama which I believe contributed to his only truly botched race all season. If the McLaren team were reversed in position with Ferrari, would Alonso have been eager to help Hamilton clinch his first title? My guess is yes, but that speaks more to the character of Alonso. Hamilton is indeed great. Time will tell, but already he is on clip to be one of the greatest ever, but he exposed himself as not the greatest teammate to the guy driving the identical car, and for that and the Brazil hiccup, I have to rate him behind Raikkonen and Alonso.

Nick Heidfeld: [8.75 rating]
I am not sure if Nick is on the level of Alonso and Raikkonen anymore, but he is certainly the best of the rest behind the big three (Fernando, Kimi, and Lewis). Nick is an elder statesman in Formula 1 at this point, but he has been a consistent point scorer and has even challenged when he could. I predicted a win for Heidfeld and BMW this season, and early on it was not an unreasonable expectation. Unfortunately, as the season progressed, McLAren and Ferrari pulled away from the pack, but Heidfeld made it know that BMW-Sauber was the third best team in Formula 1 in 2007. He can challenge the best and I rate him higher than Felippe Massa for consistently demonstrating smarts, class, and fighting spirit.

Robert Kubica: [8.5 rating]
I would rank Kubica evenly with Heidfeld except for Heidfeld's greater consistency. These two were the class of the Formula 1 field in 2007, and they consistently made me wonder how this championship would have turned out if the BMW was a little bit faster. Kubica's Canada shunt seemed to make him a bit wiser without ruining his outright speed. This driver is definitely on the rise.

Felippe Massa: [8.25 rating]
Felippe has yet to prove to me he will win a race in a less than ideal car. Comparing Massa to Raikkonen is like comparing Coulthard to Hakkinen: you can't. I believe Felippe took his eyes off the prize and seemed to get all poutty when the early season press attention left him in favor of his teammate very similar to Fisichella with Alonso 2 years ago. Felippe is fast, no doubt, but he still is not as consistently as good as he was in Brazil last year from race to race. Now that Raikkonen has taken this years title, Massa must find another gear we have yet to see if he is to resist fading into the background behind another championship quality driver.

Nico Rosberg: [8.125 rating]
Nico demonstrated to me that he does possess the requisite personality to make a team congial around him. Too bad the Williams is a piece of junk. I cannot wait to see him in a better race car (hopefully a McLaren next year). He will give any teammate fits wherever he goes.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen: [8.0 rating]
I believe Renault suffers from not having a personality like that of a Schumacher or Alonso to drive the team to higher heights. Both Heikki and Giancarlo had solid results if they made it to the end of a race. Their were flashes of brilliance here and there, but neither driver distinguished himself as a team leader the way Alonso did in the previous two seasons. I still believe in a straight fight, Felippe Massa would have his hands full dicing with either one of the Renault drivers (not saying they were all that great, but that Massa should be better).

Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli: [7.75 rating]
These two convinced me that the curtain should not be drawn on them just yet. Both deserve better race cars, and show flashed of veteran savvy in all of their point scoring finishes. Both are a joy to watch drive a race car still, and I would love to see them in a position to challenge Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, or even the BMWs.

Sebastien Vettel and Alex Wurz: [7.5 rating]
Rating Vettel may not be fair since he only did a handfull of races, but the kid is a phenom. Finishing his maiden F1 race at 19 years of age in the points puts Vettel in a class with another rookie who might have won it all. Then he made what most of us had written off as an uncompetitive car look like a possible contender. Too bad Wurz left his best race years in a testing role. He is class personified, a great driver (especially if you've ever seen him drive LeMans car), and an all around cool dude. Gonna miss you, A&W!!

Mark Webber and David Coulthard:
[6.75 rating] My rating of Mark is so low because I have decided he makes lousy decisions. At one point, I reckon him to be the on track equal of Fernando Alonso, but FA makes much better career decisions hands down. For Mark, the meter is running. He needs to show us what he got with a quickness or he will be regulated to cars that are less than. I have never been a big DC fan, but I respect his career. I was hoping his would pull off some old veteran magic, but that was not forthcoming in 2007. With that, I officially join the chorus of those who think DC should hang it up, and start that commentator gig we all know he can't help but land after he finally does retire. Well done, DC. Now go have a beer!

No other driver is worth rating. Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichelo were just this side of embarrassing perhaps because of their respective crappy cars, but Button and Trulli just had to look good on occassion to mess up that argument. He fellas, do your great win-filled careers a solid and join DC at the bar!

Thanks for reading, y'all!!

[mlittle]

If I had to rate the drivers this year, the list would probably go as follows.......

The First Tier
~~Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton.....the class of the field in F1 in 2007; any one of these three could've won the WDC
~~Felipe Massa, Nick Heidfeld.........alternating the "best of the rest" spot during the year
~~Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Nico Rosberg, Sebastien Vettel.........(other than Hamilton)the future stars of Formula 1; all four of them were competitive, especially Kovi, who outclassed his veteran teammate Fisichella and Vettel(seriously, who woulda' thought that a Toro Rosso car would place as high as it did at times this year? )

The Second Tier
~~Rubens Barrichello, Mark Webber, David Coulthard.........veteran pilots who it seems are either in the twilight of their F1 careers or beginning to head that way
~~Jarno Trulli, Jenson Button...........veteran pilots who, based on past performance, shoulda' been running closer to the front than they were(then again, Honda and Toyota's respective performances in 2007 weren't anything to write home about, either.......)
~~Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher......don't expect them to be back in 2008; Fisi was outclassed by Kovalainen at Renault; Ralfie might be Michael's brother, but that's it......Toyota pays him, what, $20 million a year and all he gives them is an occasional sniff at the front

Everyone Else
I'd mention them by name......but why?

As to a numerical rating.....................
(9.25)Raikkonen*
(9)Hamilton, Alonso
(8.5)Heidfeld, Massa
(8.25)Kubica, Kovalainen
(7.5)Vettel, Rosberg
(6.75)Webber, Coulthard, Barrichello
(6.25)Button, Trulli
(6)Fisichella
(5.5)R. Schumacher
(4)everyone else
*--the reason Raikkonen tops the list is the fact that, considering how far back in the points he was going into the last 2 races, the odds had to be against him to win the WDC; put simply, IMO both Alonso and Hamilton shot themselves in the foot in terms of the WDC, especially Hamilton who for all of his brilliance was still a rookie this year and rookies do occasionally make mistakes

[gkaytaz]

Good thread idea...

Here's my top ten drivers:

1. Raikkonen
Quali performance - 8.5 (on a scale from 1 to 10)
Dry weather races - 9.5
Wet weather races - 8
Raw speed - 9.5
Heart/Soul - 7
Luck - 8.5
Consistency - 9
OVERALL (not an average): 9.5

2. Alonso
Quali performance - 8
Dry weather races - 9.5
Wet weather races - 9
Raw speed - 8.5
Heart/Soul - 9
Luck - 8
Consistency - 9
OVERALL (not an average): 9

3. Hamilton
Quali performance - 9.5
Dry weather races - 9
Wet weather races - 7.5
Raw speed - 9
Heart/Soul - 7.5
Luck - 9
Consistency - 8.5
OVERALL (not an average): 9

4. Massa
Quali performance - 9.5
Dry weather races - 8.5
Wet weather races - 8
Raw speed - 9.5
Heart/Soul - 9
Luck - 7
Consistency - 8
OVERALL (not an average): 8.5

5. Heidfeld
Quali performance - 7.5
Dry weather races - 8.5
Wet weather races - 7.5
Raw speed - 8
Heart/Soul - 6.5
Luck - 8
Consistency - 9
OVERALL (not an average): 8

6. Kubica
Quali performance - 7.5
Dry weather races - 8
Wet weather races - 8
Raw speed - 8
Heart/Soul - 7
Luck - 8
Consistency - 8
OVERALL (not an average): 8

7. Kovalainen
Quali performance - 7
Dry weather races - 8
Wet weather races - 7
Raw speed - 7.5
Heart/Soul - 7.5
Luck - 6.5
Consistency - 8.5
OVERALL (not an average): 7.5

8. Rosberg
Quali performance - 7.5
Dry weather races - 8
Wet weather races - 7.5
Raw speed - 9
Heart/Soul - 8
Luck - 6
Consistency - 7.5
OVERALL (not an average): 7.5

9. Webber
Quali performance - 8
Dry weather races - 7.5
Wet weather races - 8.5
Raw speed - 8.5
Heart/Soul - 8.5
Luck - 1
Consistency - 7
OVERALL (not an average): 7

10. Button
Quali performance - 6.5
Dry weather races - 7
Wet weather races - 7.5
Raw speed - 7.5
Heart/Soul - 8
Luck - 6.5
Consistency - 7
OVERALL (not an average): 7

[Ed]

Great Idea RE30B#16

And what we will do is that by the end of next month we will add the top 10 rated drivers and their ratings and provide a summary.

So everyone please list the top 10 drivers and give a rating from 1 to 10 for each

[The Conduit]

For this season only,
Kimi, just kept everything focused......improvement on last season.
Alonso, still has the car control. lost focus too often.
Webber. To outqualify his team-mate so often and so easily, and so far up the grid, displays his quality.
Nick, getting quicker.
Nico. The latent skills are there.
Kubica ties with Nico, for the same reasons.
Vettel ties with these two for the same reason
I simply have not seen enough of the three to begin to seperate them.
Massa. Needs more self belief.
Kovi, a rapid improvement.
Hamilton. Any one of the drivers I have named ahead of him would have done a better job, in the McLaren, an extremely driveable F1 car.
IMVHO, of course.


Button and the rest filled the grid.
Ralf...pfffft.