I think Alonso has been riding along on his previous and now distant success for too long. It's been along time since I saw him do anything 'special'. No. 1 driver? no way, not for me, more mid table this year.
2016 Mid-season Driver Ratings
- Thread starter Spinodontosaurus
- Start date
Wouldn't it be nice if there was an FIA-owned F1 car, managed by an independent crew, that was used solely to gauge drivers' speed? They could take it to say, five of the tracks across a season, and each driver would have to do a maximum of 10 laps in it to see where they rank against each other.
It would put a lot of speculation to bed, which may or may not be a Good Thing.
It would put a lot of speculation to bed, which may or may not be a Good Thing.
Spinodontosaurus
Points Scorer
Putting Alonso mid-table means you would have to rank him around or perhaps behind some of the mid-fielders, and likely have Button behind all of them. That doesn't seem reasonable even allowing for the possibility that Alonso and Button have declined slightly in recent years. Considering how good Alonso was in 2014 you would have to assume a massive decline in his abilities in the space of essentially just 1 season, and while I agree these last two seasons have not been his best I haven't seen anything to suggest he has plummeted into the midfield.
Surely in a none even playing field such as this a drivers rating on his season/half season should be gaged on his relevant performance towards his team mate and compared with his previous seasons?
racecub
Champion Elect
I saw that Hughes article, I think it's a pretty good article. He doesn't rank the drivers per se, but he does say that for him Ricciardo would be his number one.
It's difficult to compare drivers in different cars other than performance against team mates. However, the best drivers do tend to end up in the best cars. Max's swift ascendency is testimony to this.
I think you have to look at performance this year alone. If you start bringing in who beat who in past seasons, well, Hamilton beat Alonso when Alonso was a two time champion and Hamilton a rookie. One has to assume that since then Hamilton's learning curve will have been the steepest.
After much thought here's my top nine ( struggling after that) . I've grouped them, and within the group Ive put them in the order I think, but it's very close and could change by the race.
1ST GROUP
1. HAMILTON ( quali speed, coming back from the mechanicals, v.good race craft, controlling races with regard to preserving tyres and engine)
2. RICCIARDO (Would have two wins but for RED BULL mess ups, other than a couple of races he's been the one challenging the Bulls. V.good race craft.
3. VERSTAPPEN ( sensational. V good race craft and speed, future champion, amazing confidence. Inexperience shows sometimes)
2nd GROUP
4. VETTEL ( I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt at the moment. I think he's been scrappy this year but maybe it's the Ferrari)
5. PEREZ ( always rated this guy. Superb with the tyres and in tricky/ unusual situations. Not sure how he'll be with the 2017 regs)
6. SAINZ. ( Stood up well against Max. Didn't let Max's promotion get to him. Good qualifier and racer. I think Ive underestimated him previously )
3rd Group
7. ALONSO ( hasn't stood out against Button this season and like the opening poster I don't rate Button- sorry Button fans. Difficult to place him, not sure how he'd go in a really competitive car, can't help feeling he'd be better than Rosberg against Hamilton. Isnt always a grt qualifier and thats important this season)
8. ROSBERG (v. good qualifier and good when leading or Hamilton has issues. Not good with race craft, clumsy or desperate at times. I don't accept the 'cerebral ' driver, I think he panics. Cerebral before the race perhaps but not in it. Not psychologically strong.)
9. BOTTAS ( never been a favourite of mine but think he's deserved this place by his dominance over Massa this season)
That's it.
Others I think good but really hard to place until we've seen more of them and maybe seen them in better cars Palmer, Magnussen and Wherlein.
Grosjean I'm a bit disappointed with this year.
Kimi is Kimi.
It's difficult to compare drivers in different cars other than performance against team mates. However, the best drivers do tend to end up in the best cars. Max's swift ascendency is testimony to this.
I think you have to look at performance this year alone. If you start bringing in who beat who in past seasons, well, Hamilton beat Alonso when Alonso was a two time champion and Hamilton a rookie. One has to assume that since then Hamilton's learning curve will have been the steepest.
After much thought here's my top nine ( struggling after that) . I've grouped them, and within the group Ive put them in the order I think, but it's very close and could change by the race.
1ST GROUP
1. HAMILTON ( quali speed, coming back from the mechanicals, v.good race craft, controlling races with regard to preserving tyres and engine)
2. RICCIARDO (Would have two wins but for RED BULL mess ups, other than a couple of races he's been the one challenging the Bulls. V.good race craft.
3. VERSTAPPEN ( sensational. V good race craft and speed, future champion, amazing confidence. Inexperience shows sometimes)
2nd GROUP
4. VETTEL ( I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt at the moment. I think he's been scrappy this year but maybe it's the Ferrari)
5. PEREZ ( always rated this guy. Superb with the tyres and in tricky/ unusual situations. Not sure how he'll be with the 2017 regs)
6. SAINZ. ( Stood up well against Max. Didn't let Max's promotion get to him. Good qualifier and racer. I think Ive underestimated him previously )
3rd Group
7. ALONSO ( hasn't stood out against Button this season and like the opening poster I don't rate Button- sorry Button fans. Difficult to place him, not sure how he'd go in a really competitive car, can't help feeling he'd be better than Rosberg against Hamilton. Isnt always a grt qualifier and thats important this season)
8. ROSBERG (v. good qualifier and good when leading or Hamilton has issues. Not good with race craft, clumsy or desperate at times. I don't accept the 'cerebral ' driver, I think he panics. Cerebral before the race perhaps but not in it. Not psychologically strong.)
9. BOTTAS ( never been a favourite of mine but think he's deserved this place by his dominance over Massa this season)
That's it.
Others I think good but really hard to place until we've seen more of them and maybe seen them in better cars Palmer, Magnussen and Wherlein.
Grosjean I'm a bit disappointed with this year.
Kimi is Kimi.
Kewee
Race Winner
I don't think his boredom has anything to do with motivation, for the most part he's got no one to race with. occasionally he gets near the tail of the lead group but he's still not got a car under him that allows him to engage in a battle.
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