Rookie Championship 2013

[RasputinLives]

My inbox has literally been flooded with zero messages asking me where oh where the rookie championship has gone. Well I'd sort of been to lazy to do it. However back by unpopular demand here is your latest update and it seems whilst its been away its got quite exciting.

Giedo Van Der Garde has defied the odds and taken a win in both race(Hungary) and quali (Belgium) and has managed to move past both Marussia drivers in the quali and overall championships however despite scoring 4 podiums in a row before Japan he still sits 5th and bottom of the race championship. In the overall championship Van Der Garde leads Bianchi by just 3 points. Maybe that's why they ended up hitting each other off the start in Japan today. Chilton just had a double podium weekend and is clinging on to them as best as he can.

Its the front where it got busy though. Guttierrez has fought back with 5 wins in a row in the race over Bottas but his qualifying has been less consistant and despite now having a far superior car to Bottas still ended up second to him in quali for Japan. Bottas still leads all 3 championships but the race one by just a mere point. Your money would be on Guttierrez shooting past him before the season is out and taking the rookie of the year title but you just never know.

Quali Championship:

Bottas - 119pts
Guttierrez - 108pts
Van Der Garde - 56pts
Bianchi - 47pts
Chilton - 38pts

Race Championship:

Bottas - 108pts
Guttierrez - 107pts
Bianchi - 49pts
Chilton - 46pts
Van Der Garde - 43pts

Overall Championship:

Bottas - 227pts
Guttierrez - 215pts
Van Der Garde - 99pts
Bianchi - 96pts
Chilton - 84pts

Thoughts? Is Bottas your rookie of the year? Surprised that Van Der Garde is lagging so much on race results or that Bianchi actually doesn't measure up too much better than Chilton?

 

[Josh]

Do I have to make a choice? Bianchi was impressive the first half of the season but he's been kind of quiet lately. None of the others have stood out too much. Bottas hasn't lived up to your hype (sorry ), Guti, Chilton and VdG seem to be getting better but I'm not sure if it's enough to stay in F1, and Pic hasn't done anything to show he deserves another year.

 

[teabagyokel]

Josh - Bottas? Hmmm...? That 3rd in wet quali in Canada suggests there's something there, and based on 2012 you would expect Maldonado to have a day where he got it together and really embarass him, and that hasn't happened either.

The Williams just generally bares too much resemblence to a skip tied to a tricycle to really make a judgement.

 

[Josh]

Maybe RasputinLives just overhyped him for me and I was expecting too much

 

[RasputinLives]

I think it impressive that Bottas is still in front of Guttierrez in this despite the fact the Sauber has been the far superior car all season.

 

[Slyboogy]

Josh - Bottas? Hmmm...? That 3rd in wet quali in Canada suggests there's something there, and based on 2012 you would expect Maldonado to have a day where he got it together and really embarass him, and that hasn't happened either.

I wouldn't read too much into that since the rain got heavier as the session went on.

But then he is leading Maldonado in your TMP game

 

[teabagyokel]

Don't make me find that post about Hulkenburg in Brazil in 2010, Slyboogy.

 

[Slyboogy]

Hulkenberg in 2010 was a lot more different, it was a drying track, and the rest of the field were on dry tyres aswell, unlike in Canada where the session was over as the rain got heavier,

I just don't find it that impressive as I feel he would have tumbled down the timing list if it didn't get heavier.

 

[Westy]

Just discovered this thread and I think it is brilliant. It really does show that Bottas is the best of the new class of drivers this year. I was glad to see EG get his first points this past weekend. I think he should have done better in that Sauber, his teammate is showing him up. Hulk is a great talent though.

Keep this thread going RasputinLives, I really want to see the Sophmore Championship next year.

 

[RasputinLives]

Well I was off work sick today and as Westy reminded me of my idea for a Softmore championship I thought I'd have fun with figures. So using the same top 6 points scoring system and awarding points for Quali and Race plus adding them together for total points you get the below results

(QP RP OP)
Grosjean 127pts 98pts 225pts
Ricciardo 94pts 70pts 164pts
Vergne 78pts 62pts 140pts
Pic 46pts 66pts 112pts

Now you would have expected Grosjean to be head and shoulders above the rest due to the car he had and he clearly is. No shockers in any of the order really but if you look closely the fact that Pic has 4 more points in the race championship than Vergne and only 4 less than Ricciardo really highlights the amount of none finishes (no points for not finishing) the Toro Rosso boys have. In fact of the 16 races Pic has only finished 4th and last 5 times. The Toro Rosso Boys have 11 none finishes between them!

Whilst I was at it I thought I'd do the Softmore vs Rookie championship as well as I'll probably be using that one more in 2014 as I'm not sure how many rookies we're actually going to get for that season. I'm using the same top 6 scoring system for both race and quali with a total points. This is how its looking so far - (QW = quali wins and RW = race wins)

(QP QW RP RW OP)
Grosjean 125pts 11 98pts 8 223 pts
Ricciardo 84pts 2 60pts 4 144 pts
Vergne 63pts 1 56pts 2 129pts
Bottas 47pts 1 56pts 0 113pts
Guttierrez 41pts 0 56pts 1 107pts
Pic 9pts 0 22pts 0 31pts
Bianchi 10pts 0 16pts 0 26pts
Van Der Garde 10pts 0 13pts 0 23pts
Chilton 4pts 0 8pts 0 12pts

Once again Grosjean (as expected) is top of the charts only needing one more point to secure the championship and having the lion share of the wins. Their is a bigger gap between himself and Ricciardo on this one though mainly because Ricciardo tends to lose out to those behind him and with the Toro Rosso slump he seems to be being beaten by Guttierrez more regularly. This once again highlights JEV's inability to match Ricciardo in qualifying but it also shows that the rookies are not doing a bad job at all as Bottas, Guttierrez and Vergne all have the same amount of race points and are all only 4 points behind Ricciardo. Whilst the Toro Rosso boys come out better overall it clearly shows that Bottas is punching above his weight in what is a pretty lousy Williams.

Much to his relief Charles Pic leads the back end of the field but shows his race results are far superior to his qualifying. Bianchi showing good form by punching above his weight in the little Marussia, VDG not as bad as we thought and poor old Max Chilton is really put to the sword in this championship although his 4th place in the Rookie/Softmore race at Monaco is higher than anything his team mate has managed.

Any mistakes in the figures can be put down to me being poorly and I know I need to sort out proper graph stuff and will do soon.

Thoughts? Worth me making it the Rookie vs Softmore championship for next year? I know it still lacks a way to counter balance car performance but then that is F1 I guess.

 

[Westy]

It looks great. Well done!

 

[RasputinLives]

and whilst I'd doing some admin I better finish off the stats for the 2013 Rookie Championship - only 18 months late!

Quali Championship:

1 - Bottas - 159pts
2 - Gutteriez - 132pts
3 - Van Der Garde - 73pts
4 - Bianchi - 60pts
5 - Chilton - 46pts

Race Championship:

1 - Gutteriez - 143pts
2 - Bottas - 130pts
3 - Bianchi - 62pts
4 - Van Der Garde - 60pts
5 - Chilton - 54pts

Overall Championship

1 - Bottas - 289pts
2 - Gutteriez - 275pts
3 - Van Der Garde - 133pts
4 - Bianchi - 122pts
5 - Chilton - 84pts

So Gutteriez did get the race championship but it was Bottas that claimed overall rookie of the year. It seems like an obvious one now but actually Bottas's Williams was not as good as the Sauber that year so it was a surprise result.

Sorry it took me 18 months to finalise it! I bet you've all been on the edge of your seats!