The 2010 F1 championship: Verdict on the drivers

been having a think what with all the threads up on here about the F1 atm and not wanting to be left out i decided to join in

i was wondering what peoples opinions on the Drivers have been this year?

cause i was thinking

of the three drivers who can realistically be crowned campion this weekend, i don't think any of the deserve it

Webber and Vettle just made too many mistakes and given the RB6's lead they should have had it sorted 5 races ago

Webber has complained and bitched in the press, and acted like a rank amateur

vettle has acted like a rank amateur on the track and never lived up to expectations (all thoes P1s and no race wins to back half of them up!)


Alonso would have had a comeback worthy of lazerous, and should he win next weekend it would likely have been one of the most thrilling ends to one of the most thrilling seasons ever, and being british i would be impressed at how hard he fought from nowhere to win (being that our boys couldn't). He would have went down as one of the greats.... now we will all remember germany

Lewis, well he's really out of the hunt but i think he does deserve it, if his gearbox hadn't lost 3rd a few weeks ago or vettle hadnt took a bite out of his radiator or his wheels didn't keep falling off then maybe... he kept the third fastest car out there this season well up there and can't be blamed for reliability issues... but he threw the car away once or twice as well and hasn't exactly been the most positive of drivers if the team radios are anything to go by

Jenson's heart doesnt seem to have been in it the second half of the season, but for better or worse thats jenson, when things are going well he's unstoppable, when they go badly he seems to loose all faith

your thoughts ladies and gents?





and who are your drivers of the season?

for me its Vitaly Petrov and Nico Rosberg... saying rosberg has nothing to do with his shumyness it's just that both he and petrov really punched above there weights every race of the season


or based on just one races performance: Kobyasi in suzuka - mucho respect for having no fear lol

was it Kobyasi who stayed out nearly the whole race, cant remember who it was exactly but it was one hell of an effort

Let's take them in championship order.

Fernando Alonso - He has worked incredibly hard to drag the Ferrari along until in the second half of the season he has been incredible. Who took him seriously after the British GP when he said he was going to win? So potentially a very worthy champion- except for Hockenheim!

Mark Webber - He and Vettel have had the best car all season, without a doubt. I think a lot of his whining is inter-team psychology. Some of it is because he is not Red bull's preferred winner, despite what they say. So another worthy winner, yes - but he should have already sewn it up, too many mistakes and then again, Vettel has been quicker most of the season.

Sebastian Vettel - The best car, the faster driver of the RB pair and still hes only third in the standings. Yes some bad luck, but way too impetuous Turkey, his fault. Taking out Button, his fault again. A worthy champion,I'm not sure - He should have won it already!

Lewis Hamilton - has dragged the third best car into places it shouldn't have been. He has been outstanding - but also a little too impetuous at times, with a bit of discretion he would be leading the championship. A worthy Champion.

jenson Button - He took on a hell of a challenge, going into a team that Lewis Hamilton had made his own. He's done reasonably well in his first year in a new team, but I think Lewis has blown him away this season.

OK here's my take but by teams as well as drivers:

Red Bull - through a mixture of internal politics and frankly bad driving they have failed to win in a car that's been ahead of the rest for a season and a half. Any one of Alonso, Hamilton or Button would've sealed it by now in the RB6. They really should have had a season like McLaren in, I think 85 or 86, when Prost and Senna won 15 out of 16 races between them.
Vettel should stop listening to his hype and concentrate on becoming the great driver he probably will be one day. He reminds me a lot of Jacques Villeneuve when he joined Williams in terms of thinking he's better than he really is. Jacques turned it around but I wonder if Seb will especially if the other teams, and the regulations, catch up with Adrian Newey.
Webber is a good driver but not a great and knows this is probably his last chance. He's done well not to roll over and hand it on a plate to Vettel.

McLaren - just haven't had the car all season. That they made Red Bull go as far as Brazil to take the constructors championship is a testament to them having probably the strongest driving pairing on the grid and some very good tactical decisions.
JB - Has not been completely blown away by Lewis and I think has shown that he is one of the best drivers. The early successes certainly helped but his Achilles heel is tyres. Last year in the Brawn and again this year he's struggled to get the tyres up to temperature and the extreme resilience of the tyres has meant that his smooth tyre friendly driving style has probably not been as rewarded as he thought and maybe deserves.
Lewis - Yet again he proves that he's probably the best racer out there. There have been moments of brilliance together with more than a couple of school boy errors that I'd hoped he'd got over and done in his rookie season. It's amazing to think he's still in only his fourth season.

Ferrari - The second best car and a team that decided to concentrate on one driver very early on, if not before the season started. It will be interesting to see how they cope when real budget limits begin to come in. There's certainly a degree of fiddling going on already in terms of people being moved between headcount for the racing team and road cars without actually moving roles.
Massa - Felipe has not had a great season, there's been more sign of the man who span five times in the wet at Silverstone than the man who ran Lewis so close in '08. After racing with Schumi, I think maybe he sub-conciously drops into a number two slot his team mate puts him under pressure.
Alonso - If he wins by less than 7 points then in my mind he's not the real champion. Of course the FIA (Ferrari International Assistance) will do nothing further over the team orders but it seems there is still one rule for Ferrari and one for everyone else. It's a shame that they went as far as moving Massa over since I think Alonso might still have been in as strong a position now and with less bad will towards him and Ferrari.

Others:
Mercedes have not moved on from last year. Considering they won the Championship in a car that had 6" chopped out of the chassis to fit the Mercedes lump in place of the Honda, this year's car has been disappointing. Schumi was probably always going to need a year to re-learn the tracks in a car that's so different to the ones he drove before his retirement. Nico has looked good this season but hasn't show the ability to get the best out of a bad car that real greats do.

Renault have had a mixed season, Petrov deserves to stay on but Kubica has not delivered as much as he's promised at times. Will be interesting to see if they turn out to be Lotus Renault next season.

Williams - It's been too long since they've won and I honestly think they could already be looking to 2013 and the return of KERS (their's is now racing in a Porsche GT3) and a change to turbo engines.

Lotus - Just think the soon to be 1Malaysia team have been the outstanding new team, Heikki in particular has shown that he's a far better driver than last season showed him to be.

Anyway that's my rundown, I'm looking forward what should be a great finale and just hope I lives up to the rest of the season.

really interesting guys! it's great having people to talk F1 with properly, my brother is interested but not a true F1 geek lol anyway

yeh i think it was RoughLuck, in canada? if i remember rightly, it's been such a amd season, and he was the one who kept sticking his million pound F1 car into spaces too small and making it stick... he reminded me allot of nariuki haga in world superbikes, back then i was following Carl Forgarty and used to cringe everything haga was close becuase he'd either get past or nock someone (often himself) off trying

really entertianing racer though... will kobiashi ever be a champ in F1? doubtful i think the big teams will see him as too much of a risk... time will tell





andy and david i reckon we all think along the same lines.... alonso has had probably the best season but he's ruined it for himself, and nobody outside of spain and italy want to see him win

vettle will be world champion as long as he stays in a good car i think we can all agree on that

webber... well yeh he hasnt won the campionship in a car he should have... but on saying that apart from korea im not sure thats his fault, i can't think of any other times his mistakes have let anyone else win

lewis... has done his best, can you ask anymore? same for JB really yeh he's 5th but he is a very close 5th and first year in a new team he's done so well and i hope mclaren can provide a car comperable to the RB7 next year for them cause that would be an awsome team and seeing JB and Leriws on form in a british team may make me caugh up the 200 quid and go to silverstone for the first time

as for nico and shumy, well i reckon both mercades GP and shumy have had a raw deal, shumacher needs to re-learn a lost art and that does take time.... he didn't come stright back and win every race so he's been crucified in the press (would they have been happy unless he won every race and the title?)

and both drivers are driveing for a new team... yes it was brawn GP that won both title last year but merc GP are not merc GP they are Brawn GP with a different badge... evan Ross brawn admits that in 2009 they didn't have the funds to develop a 2010 car

and he also admits that the Brawn car of 2009 was a honda through and through... all they did was bodge a new engine into it effectively (how pee'd off do you think honda were last year btw lmao)

last year button was in a team he knew well, this year a new one

this year nico and rossberg are in a team a year behind everyone bar the lotus/HRT guys perhaps more so, yet they managed great results

so all round pretty good bring on 2011!!!

oh and can we take a moment for williams like you said

kers and then turbos? williams have ample experience with both and as last weekend shows they can be brilliant

Yep 2011! bring it on.:woohoo:

david aiketgate wrote: Yep 2011! bring it on.:woohoo:

Absolutely and welcome back Pirelli.

I hope they make tyres that fall apart a bit faster than this season's Bridgstones.

Well done Vittal

shame I missed most of the race

talkingcars wrote: Well done Vittal

shame I missed most of the race

iplayer! it was awsome and a must watch

have to say vettle drove a perfect race and im just glad alonso didn't win it, and after seeing the way alonso was at the end of the race - expecting the renault to get out of his way

all i can say is he was in a better car and supposadly a better driver... he couldn't overtake and nearly crashed trying, the man didn't deserve to be WC!

impressed by vettle but feel a bit sad for webber all round

bring on 2011 and the return of mclaren with any luck!

I thought Alonso was hilarious at the end, gesticulating at Petrov. And you could almost hear Petrov saying 'What...?'
And Mclaren finally got a car that could compete with the Red Bull!

The problem for McLaren is F-ducts are banned next year but they will have the benefit of a decent KERS, Mercedes seemed to have the best sorted one.