Poll 2019 CTA driver of the season

[F1Brits_90]

Thought now the season is over i thought i post the annual CTA driver of the year that we done for many yrs under numerous people i think this is my 4th yr & find out who will join Daniel Riccardio 2016 winner & Lewis Hamilton 2017 & 2018 winner, as 2019 winner & our forums driver of the year.

last yrs if you have any confusion. should answer any questions

https://cliptheapex.com/threads/2018-CTA-driver-of-the-year.8322/

preferably a top 10 but you can do a top 5 if you dont have the time for 10. Or if you thought we had 14 useless drivers . As i always say i dont mind how you get your top 10 as there are no wrong opinions. it can be top 10 in championship or the top 10 pound for pound as in 2018 leclerc came 4th in sauber alonso came 6th in terrible McLaren & bottas came 11th in title winning mercedes. However I just feel its a great way to get everyone's opinion on how the 2018 grid fared this season & who you thought had a great season or who had a bad season

like F1 the top driver gets 25pts, 10th gets 1pt &, ill keep the vote open for 6 weeks & driver with most points. Will be 2019 CTA Driver of the year

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Here is my top 10.

1.Hamilton,
2.Verstappen,
3.Leclerc,
4.Sainz,
5.Albon,
6.Ricciardo,
7.Bottas,
8.Norris,
9.Russell,
10.Vettel.

 

[FB]

The driver of the season was Lewis Hamilton, everyone else was an also ran. The Ferrari, on occasions, was the faster car but Lewis simply destroyed them and, especially, his team mate. Verstappen was a very distant second but does appears to be maturing as a driver.

 

[Angel]

I guess you can't argue against Hamilton given he won the championship again so easily. So here are mine.

Hamilton,
Verstappen,
Leclerc,
Bottas,
Norris
Albon,
Sainz,
Vettel,
Kvyat,
Ricciardo.

 

[F1Brits_90]

ah Angel are you softening to lewis Hamilton , its tradition that you leave him out

 

[Angel]

ah Angel are you softening to lewis Hamilton , its tradition that you leave him out

Maybe I have softened to him some, you lot and especially Ruslan (who has been trying for years) have clearly worn me down

 

[Ruslan]

1. Hamilton (hard to argue) - 5 poles, 6 FL, 11 wins
2. Verstappen - 2 poles, 3 FL, 3 wins
3. Leclerc (he outperformed a 4-time world champ) - 7 poles, 4 FL, 2 wins.
4. Perez - 10th in championship with a car that was clearly worse than everyone who finished ahead of him and at least 3 people who finished behind him (Norris, Kvyat, Hulkenberg)
5. Sainz - this may be overrating him - with the 4th best team on the grid, only beating out the team switching Gasly and Albon and was out-qualified by his teammate.
6. Norris - outqualified his more established teammate
7. Ricciardo - competent if mediocre season - Finished 9th with the 5th best team, which is exactly what you should do.
8. Bottas - not quite there a lot - 5 poles, 3 FL, 4 wins
9. Vettel - inconsistent underperformer - 2 poles, 2 FL, 1 win
10. Russell - could not have done more in that car
11. Raikkonen - looked really good first half of the season, tailed off as he got bored.

The rest:
Gasly - 2nd place finish, 2 FLs
Kvyat - 3rd place finish
Albon - 4th place finish
Stroll - 4th place finish
Hulkenberg - 5th place finish
Giovinazzi - 5th place finish
Magnussen - 6th place finish, 1 FL
Grosjean - 7th place finish
Kubica - 10th place finish

 

[Speshal]

Can't do a top 10.

Can do a top 5 though.

1. That chap who won the WDC, Lewis something?
2. Charles Clarke, one doesn't simply walk into Mordor Maranello and beat a 4 times WDC in the same car.
3. Max Verstappen, refined his crashiness and reminds me of some 70's elbows out crash or win racing.
4. Valtteri Bottas, boring and Finnish a deceptively fast on a good day.
5. Alex Albon, promoted to the premier league mid season, dun good

 

[Ruslan]

2. Charles Clarke, one doesn't simply walk into Mordor Maranello and beat a 4 times WDC in the same car.

I think his name is Chuck the Clerk.

 

[Bill Boddy]

I hadn't realised that Leclerc had 2 wins to his name.

 

[F1Brits_90]

yay, I can finally crack on with this.

I actually found it quite easy to have a top 10 because looking at the 20 drivers, I could easily discount 9 of them that I thought had a poor year or didn't deserve to be in a top 10. so for me it picked itself & was just about rearranging the order

1) Hamilton - until I looked at the stats, I was thinking Hamilton wasn't at his best this season then you see won 11 races 5 poles comprehensively beaten his teammate & had the title sown up by june. he also won races that Mercedes had no right too. it was a no brainer he had to be number 1 again. if that's him not at his best wouldn't bet against him making it 7 in 2020 he is 8/13 fav

2) Verstappen - again very impressive managed to drag every bit of performance out of that car & his performance are turning to a career enders for teammates, he already got rid of 3. 3 wins the same as Ferrari despite a much worse car. 2 poles. Honda looking finally great & I would love to see how he copes in the pressure of title battle, the only question mark on him

3) Leclerc - I knew he was could back in march I predicted he would beat vettel & win races. but even then he still shocked me. for a rookie to he was so good by Singapore media are talking about vettel leaving or retiring, going up against a 4x world champion shouldn't be that good just look at stick mercedes & red bull no2's have taken the last few years. but 7 poles 2 wins but it could've been 8-10 but for bad luck & Ferrari cock ups. lets not forget he won at monza on his Ferrari debut will go down in history

4) Sainz - to say this was last chance saloon after dumped by Renault after 10 races, he has been fantastic 6th in championship, some fantastic drives highlight obviously brazil pitlane to 3rd, but he gone from precarious in F1 to the next big thing

5) Bottas - this seems harsh because I think he has been quite good this year but performances of others mean he's here. his best year v Hamilton many impressive wins Austraila USA & Japan, took 2nd but the issue is he is can beat Hamilton over weekend but I just cant see him ever putting a season together (cue nov 2020 I get reminded of this )

6) Vettel - an erratic year from vettel sometimes fantastic, but it didn't seem like he is was focused on his driving this season he was more interested in politics of getting the better of his rookie teammate by any means necessary. & had a incident filled season team orders in Russia, handed the race in Singapore, crash in brazil, Britain, stupid mistake in monza,

7) Russell - what a year for Russell pre season me & many media had him close battle with Kubica. but he destroyed him 21-0 in qualifying with average gap of 0.57. & 17-3 in the race only 1 of them was on pure pace & like Verstappen above it was career ender for Kubica as it was horrible to watch towards the end. serious contender for Mercedes seat if bottas leaves

8) Norris - a rookie do did very well, beat his well regarded teammate in qualifying. had a lot of bad luck retiring out of big points scoring positions could've been close to that 3 way battle with teammate & 2 drivers that share the red bull this season

9) Albon - cant forget that this is rookie year this year, did very well at toro rosso got moved to red bull too soon in my opionon but for the incident in brazil he would finished in top 6 in every race which is bare minimum that red bull ask & something gasly struggled with. he will have to have year like bottas had beat him in qualifying & races next year otherwise he could be in danger

10) Perez - it was between Perez & riccardio for the last spot. I thought the perez was brilliant if it wasnt for the DNF in Singapore wouldve scored points in every race in the 2nd half & to get within 2pts of riccardio considering the big differences in funding between the 2 teams. very impressive & easily beat his teammate

 

[Il_leone]

I think I'll do something different and go for the bottom lot

1) Kubica - a shadow of the driver 10 years ago - it is sad his comeback has shown the years away from the track has impacted his ability
2) Stroll - while his teammate punched above his weight in the Racing Point. Stroll invariably was always getting eliminated in Q1 apart from Monza where he is an expert from his junior days

3) Giovinazzi - supposedly highly rated by Ferrari but struggled to get the better of Raikkonen who should have been sent to retirement

4) Grosjean - I just don't know where his career can go after another season of whining and some comical accidents again . Lucky to keep his set

5) Magnussen - started the season with a bang 6th place but no nearer to be able to reviving his career and getting to the front

6) Gasly - strange season of 2 halves given he could not shine when at Red Bull and then when at Toro Rosso he excelled after being demoted

7) Vettel - given the equipment he had , he should have got more out of it and was troubled by his rapid teammate and rather indecisiveness on the pit wall add to his own mistakes

 

[olegg]

FIA F1 drivers rankings

 

[cider_and_toast]

Hard to argue with that list but without a doubt it doesn't look good for Vettel.

Who would have predicted at the start of the year that he wouldn't appear in the top 10 rankings.

 

[F1Brits_90]

well we knew he had questions upon him the way he crumbled in 2017 & 2018. then even kimi beat him towards last season. but it is a massive season for vettel next season which bodes badly because vettel isn't great under pressure & acts erratically

 

[Bill Boddy]

Vettel looked less and less interested as the season went on. He then got a win which, for a short time, made him look like he was going to try again. At least Kubika tried his best.

 

[Il_leone]

The thing Vettel did this season was make sure he removed the remote possibility he would have to back Leclerc for the title when it looked Ferrari were building momentum after the summer break.

Just look at the noises about Hamilton joining Ferrari for 2021... Vettel was the one dodging the question. He is out of Ferrari end of next season it just matter how it ends up. I am not surprised he is not in the top 10 because there have been too many incidents where he has had a meltdown.


I can't disagree with the top 10 on the list although Norris was much higher than I thought

 

[F1Brits_90]

I can't disagree with the top 10 on the list although Norris was much higher than I thought

well this is the perfect place to rank your drivers how you like

 

[Il_leone]

F1Brits_90 Not saying he does not deserve to be top 10 but I had LeClerc higher

I've ranked the worst drivers this season so clearly Skysports seem to share the same opinion

 

[F1Brits_90]

with hectic festive period i completely forgot about this & would anyone else like to post a top 10 or 5