Your top 10 F1 drivers of the decade: 2000 - 2009

[Boyle]

OK, here's my list:

1. 2004 Michael Schumacher
2. 2002 Michael Schumacher
3. 2006 Michael Schumacher
4. 2001 Michael Schumacher
5. 2000 Michael Schumacher
6. 2003 Michael Schumacher
7. Fernando Alonso
8. Kimi Räikkönen
9. Lewis Hamilton
10. Mika Hakkinen

Ok, Ok enough of this tomfoolery.

1. Michael Schumacher
2. Fernando Alonso
3. Kimi Räikkönen
4. Lewis Hamilton
5. Mika Hakkinen
6. Rubens Barrichello
7. Felipe Massa
8. David Coulthard
9. Juan Pablo Montoya
10. Jenson Button

 

[Galahad]

1. Michael Schumacher
2. Fernando Alonso
3. Kimi Raikkonen
4. Mika Hakkinen
5. Lewis Hamilton
6. Felipe Massa
7. David Coulthard
8. Juan Pablo Montoya
9. Rubens Barrichello
10. Jarno Trulli

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

You all have JPM in your lists - I don't get it! He's a driver who just went completely under my radar for some reason.

It is very tricky - maybe someone should aggregate our lists? I guess I subconciously mixed real results with a certain level of potential - which is missing the point somewhat, but only because I think Mr LH and SV to a lesser degree have a lot of potential... Also my personal bias - e.g Hakkinen who in terms of points possibly wouldn't feature in this decade.

I suppose FB is correct in going by points though ...

 

[Brogan]

maybe someone should aggregate our lists?

I'm going to tally everyone's choices once we have a decent number of votes.

That will then give us the top 10 in order.

P.S. Congrat's on the 10,000th post

 

[Muddytalker]

Ok, here's my entry...

1. Michael Schumacher
2. Mika Hakkinen
3. Fernando Alonso / Lewis Hamilton
5. Kimi Raikkonen
6. Felipe Massa
7. JP Montoya
8. Rubens Barrichello
9. Jenson Button
10. David Coulthard

Tricky really, because you have to decide on whether it's 'what they did between 2000 and 2009', or of those who drove in these years, who was the best?

I've gone for the latter (hence Mika at 2), and was tempted to put Jacques Villeneuve in, but couldn't really justify 2 good years in the late 90's against some dreadful years of this decade.

Also, I've just kept DC in ahead of Vettel, as despite 3 wins, he's not got the consistency yet, I don't think anyway.

 

[Brogan]

I've gone for the latter (hence Mika at 2), and was tempted to put Jacques Villeneuve in, but couldn't really justify 2 good years in the late 90's against some dreadful years of this decade.

It should balance out as when we do the 1990 - 1999 decade then you'll be able to choose JV if you wish.

 

[Brogan]

1) Michael Schumacher
2) Kimi Räikkönen
3) Lewis Hamilton
4) Fernando Alonso
6) Nico Rosberg
7) Sebastian Vettel
8) Robert Kubica
5) Felipe Massa
9) Rubens Barichello
10) Jenson Button

Sakari, can you confirm your choices from 5 to 8?
You have the numbers in a mixed up order so I'm not sure if Felipe is 5 or 8

 

[Brogan]

Here are the current standings.

Pos.	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Highest	Lowest	Average
1	Michael Schumacher	11										11	1	1	1.0
2	Fernando Alonso		7	3	1							11	2	4	2.5
3	Kimi Räikkönen		2	5	2	2						11	2	5	3.4
4	Mika Häkkinen		2		1	1		2			1	7	2	10	5.3
5	Lewis Hamilton			5	4	1				1		11	3	9	4.1
6	Rubens Barrichello				1	1	3	1	3	2		11	4	9	6.9
7	Felipe Massa					4	4	2		1		11	5	9	6.1
8	Juan Pablo Montoya					1	1	3	2	1		8	5	9	7.1
9	Ralf Schumacher					1					1	2	5	10	7.5
10	Jenson Button						2		2	2	3	9	6	10	8.4
11	Nico Rosberg						1					1	6	6	6.0
12	David Coulthard							2	2	1	2	7	7	10	8.4
13	Sebastian Vettel							1		1	1	3	7	10	8.7
14	Nick Heidfeld								1		1	2	8	10	9.0
14	Robert Kubica								1		1	2	8	10	9.0
16	Giancarlo Fisichella									1		1	9	9	9.0
16	Mark Webber									1		1	9	9	9.0
18	Jarno Trulli										1	1	10	10	10.0

If anyone wants to make any changes to their choices, let me know and I'll update the totals.

 

[Brian_W_Lawrence]

I've taken a slightly more pragmatic approach and worked out who scored what points between 2000 and 2009 and have used that to generate my top 10. The points scored are listed alongside:

Michael Schumacher - 691
Fernando Alonso - 577
Kimi Räikkönen - 571
Rubens Barrichello - 346
Ralf Schumacher - 333
Felipe Massa - 320
Juan Pablo Montoya - 307
Jenson Button - 304
Lewis Hamilton - 244
David Coulthard - 241

Not much different to most others. The thing which surprised me most was that Hamilton creeps in at number 9 despite having taken part in less than 3 seasons.

I probably need to check the figures, but I think some of those are incorrect.

I think Schmuacher's total is 799, Barrichello 522, Ralf 267, Button 315, Coulthard
314.

 

[Brogan]

I probably need to check the figures, but I think some of those are incorrect.

I think Schmuacher's total is 799, Barrichello 522, Ralf 267, Button 315, Coulthard
314.

FB did say he forgot to include 2000 Brian, so his total of 691 + 108 for 2000 makes 799 which is the correct figure as you say.

 

[gribbli]

Well i thought long and hard about this one, and finally decided to use my great wealth of F1 knowledge to....er....hack the database

So first up I wrote a script that would give me back results for the last 10 years in total, I limited to only drivers who had won any races, as you can see by the rather pitiful list below, only 17 individuals have won an F1 race in the last 10 years

But anyway, here in no particular order are some funky stats for said 17 drivers:

First Name	Last Name	Avg Qualifying	Pole %	Front Row %	Avg Finish Position	Win %	Podium %	Finish %
Mika	Hakkinen	3.4706	14.7059	32.3529	7.7353	17.6471	41.1765	70.5882
Michael	Schumacher	3.6967	36.8852	55.7377	4.3443	45.9016	68.0328	86.8852
David	Coulthard	9.2994	2.5478	8.9172	9.6624	4.4586	20.3822	73.2484
Rubens	Barrichello	7.386	6.4327	17.5439	8.2281	6.4327	36.2573	81.8713
Giancarlo	Fisichella	11.6725	1.7544	5.2632	11.1404	1.7544	8.1871	71.345
Jarno	Trulli	8	2.3529	8.2353	10.8294	0.5882	5.2941	69.4118
Ralf	Schumacher	7.2045	4.5455	14.3939	9.5303	4.5455	15.9091	71.2121
Juan Pablo	Montoya	5.4842	13.6842	27.3684	8.4737	7.3684	31.5789	65.2632
Mark	Webber	10.4599	0.7299	3.6496	11.8832	0.7299	5.8394	64.2336
Kimi	Raikkonen	6.2727	10.3896	20.7792	8.1753	11.6883	40.2597	72.0779
Jenson	Button	10.2604	4.142	8.8757	10	4.142	13.6095	72.1893
Felipe	Massa	8.3879	12.931	20.6897	8.681	9.4828	24.1379	79.3103
Fernando	Alonso	7.4964	13.1387	21.8978	7.2628	15.3285	38.6861	79.562
Heikki	Kovalainen	8.102	2.0408	10.2041	9.0408	2.0408	8.1633	81.6327
Robert	Kubica	8.0185	1.8519	5.5556	9.0556	1.8519	14.8148	83.3333
Lewis	Hamilton	4.6735	32.6531	48.9796	6.1429	22.449	51.0204	91.8367
Sebastian	Vettel	9.1	10	17.5	11.025	7.5	17.5	70

So what I went ahead and did was order each of the stats individually and gave each a score of 1-17 depending on where they came in the list. Obvoius we can all argue about which stats are important in the first place, either way i think my top 10 makes for some interesting reading.

Driver	Qualifying Score	Pole Score	Front Row Score	Finish Position Score	Wins Score	Podiums Score	Chequered Flag Score	Total
Michael Schumacher	16	17	17	17	17	17	16	117
Lewis Hamilton	15	16	16	16	16	16	17	112
Mika Hakinnen	17	15	15	14	15	15	5	96
Fernando Alonso	10	13	13	15	14	13	12	90
Kimi Raikkonen	13	11	12	13	13	14	8	84
Rubens Barichello	11	9	10	12	9	12	14	77
Juan Pablo Montoya	14	14	14	11	10	11	2	76
Felipe Massa	6	12	11	10	12	10	11	72
Ralf Schumacher	12	8	8	7	8	7	6	56
Sebastian Vettel	5	10	9	3	11	8	4	50

 

[Brogan]

Well what can I say.
Just wow!

Hmmm, that gives me an idea for a stat's thread...

 

[Galahad]

Blimey! Well done gav!

No matter how you organise the maths Michael always comes out on top huh?

 

[Brogan]

I'm still getting over the shock that only 17 different drivers have won a race in the last 10 years

 

[gribbli]

Yeah, some people huff and puff about statistics but over a 10 year period, especially for those drivers who have taken part in all 10 season, im afraid they have nowhere to hide.

I think it might be fair to re-do this at the end of the season and add number of championships to the list possibly, otherwise i might have to entertain some folks ideas about hollow wins given a certain driver is noticably missing from my top 10....

 

[cider_and_toast]

Those stats are fantastic but I'd still argue that they miss the "soul" aspect of the question.

Take the 90's for example. Given that method of calculation, Jean Alesi would be nowhere near the top but how entertaining was he as a driver. You've got to factor more into it than just cold hard stats.

 

[gribbli]

Very true cat, im looking at it in a way of cutting the wheat from the chaff more than anything. I had already collated my top 5 in order based on my gut feeling and it was drivers 6-10 that i started to struggle with. But as a point of interest, after doing the cold calculation method, i found my top 5 to be identical in all but the fact that i had kimi & alonso the other way around, so there is some merit there I reckon.

Mostly im interested in seeing where the gut feelings + widely held beliefs, and the hard data clash, for instance, amongst alot of detractors, Lewis has gained somewhat of a cult status for binning the car, yet his finishing records is 92%.

Another interesting one is, i think it is fair to say, most would look at that list and see Fischella as the weakest link (myself included), yet after totting up the final scores it was Webber who fell woefully short of everyone else, fisi was the nearest with over double the points that Mark achieved.

So it opens up a bit of a fun can of worms, and oh boy wait till you see the 90's version

 

[Brogan]

I'll be totalling this up soon so get your votes in before it's too late.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I've already been working on my lists for the other decades

Advanced warning !! The 90's is awkward because so many drivers span two decades (Senna, Prost, Mansell and Schuey for example) it's going to be tough to sort that one out.