For the 2018 Formula One Driver Ratings (just like the 2017 ratings, which you can see here), drivers were given one of three rankings:
POSITIVE - the driver performed better than one would expect or hope from that driver, given the circumstances of his season.
NEUTRAL - the driver did not perform any better or any worse than one would expect.
NEGATIVE - the driver performed worse than one would expect from the driver, given the circumstances of his season.
NOTE that a positive rating does not necessarily mean a driver drove better than another driver with a neutral rating, for example, but that the driver had a positive season relative to what we could normally expect from him.
NOTE too that qualifying sessions where a driver had some sort of issue and did not compete in that session are often ignored in the stats comparing team-mate's qualifying performances.
Drivers are listed in reverse team standings grouped by team, as general comments about the team usually apply to both drivers. Drivers that did not compete for most of the season are not ranked.
So Many Neutrals
Williams
Sergey Sirotkin - NEGATIVE
Lance Stroll - NEUTRAL
Like 2017, the Williams made it hard to get a handle on exactly how its drivers were performing. In fact the 2018 car took a step back from 2017 and made it even more difficult. Given that, Stroll's rating is neutral. He didn't have the couple of shining performances he did in 2017 (Baku, Monza) but wasn't anything more or less than we would expect. While Sirotkin out-qualified Stroll thirteen to seven, he only finished ahead of Stroll, in races they both finished, five times and one of those was due to Stroll being penalized ten seconds for a blue flag infringement. His race pace wasn't that of Stroll's and he finished dead last in the championship, scoring one point to Stroll's four. Sirotkin spent more laps running at the back of the field than any other driver. There are still question marks about Stroll, and one would have expected Sirotkin to have been closer to him in the races. It is not a surprise we are likely not going to see Sirotkin in F1 in 2019. Stroll, if he does move to Racing Point, will be teamed against (or with) Sergio Perez and will have to be be Perez's equal (a la Ocon) to retain any respect.
Toro Rosso
Brendon Hartley - NEGATIVE
Pierre Gasly - POSTIVE
Gasly escaped the first qualifying session fifteen times, while Hartley did so only eight times. Gasly scored twenty-nine points, and Hartley only four. Gasly is going to race for Red Bull in 2019, Hartley won't race for anyone in F1 in 2019. That sums up the season of each driver. Gasly is moving to a proven, race-wining, pole-grabbing seat, and will have to perform to those standards.
Sauber
Marcus Ericsson - NEGATIVE
Charles Leclerc - POSITIVE
Marcus Ericsson has been beaten by every team-mate he has ever had (not including fill-ins) and the trend continued in 2018. Leclerc's qualifying dominance was one of the more lop-sided results, with Leclerc, a rookie, out-qualifying Ericsson seventeen to four, and outscoring him thirty-nine to nine. So Ericsson gets a borderline negative. Leclerc gets a borderline positive -- all we have to compare him to is Ericsson, whom everyone beats -- so it is difficult to know exactly how he performed. At times he looked quite good, but the Sauber was a handy little car at times. Next year, when Leclerc drives a Ferrari, will give us the true indicator of his talent. Like Gasly, he is stepping into a race-winning, pole-sitting seat, so he will have to do the same. Anything less will be disappointing, and a blow to Ferrari's championship hopes.
Force India/Racing Point
Esteban Ocon - NEGATIVE
Sergio Perez - NEUTRAL
Ocon and Perez generally had the Force India where it should have been. Ocon outqualified Perez more often than not (fifteen to six), but Perez scored more points and Ocon's final championship position, behind his team-mate, both Renaults, a Haas, and, GASP, a McLaren, is disappointing. It is unclear how the team's financial troubles hurt each driver's results, but Perez was second 'best-of-the-rest' (behind Nico Hulkenberg), and scored the only podium outside the top three teams. Importantly, this year, the two drivers didn't have as many altercations with each other as they did in the past. Battling Max Verstappen a bit too aggressively in Brazil was a touch silly by Ocon, (though not quite as silly as it was by Verstappen). Ocon is out for 2019 (it would seem) but he will be back. Perez will likely be paired with Lance Stroll, and will need to 'wipe the floor' with him to progress his career.
McLaren
Stoffel Vandoorne - NEUTRAL
Fernando Alonso - NEUTRAL
Have McLaren stopped blaming Honda for all their troubles? They jumped from ninth in the constructors' championship in 2017 to sixth in 2018 (sort of -- the split Force India/Racing Point entry scored more points combined), but the McLaren, at times, still was woefully slow. Another team (Red Bull) won races with the same Renault engine, and the Renault works team finished well ahead of them in the constructor's championship. I was leaning to give both drivers a negative rating, but eventually settled on neutral. Yes, both. Alonso too. While he dominated Vandoorne in qualifying, out-qualifying him every single race, at times Alonso seemed disinterested, bordering on grumpy. It is hard to know how he and Vandoorne really rate against the rest of the field, but I don't think either driver gave us more or less than we expect. Both drivers are out of F1 for 2019 and it will be interesting to see how new drivers do in the McLaren in 2019.
Haas
Kevin Magnussen - NEUTRAL
Romain Grosjean - NEUTRAL
Haas had their best season yet, and this was with their top driver, Romain Grosjean, taking almost half a season to get going. Even with that he out-qualified Magnussen eleven times to ten, and outscored him thirty-seven points to thirty from the Austrian Grand Prix onward. Looking at that half, both drivers were generally where we expect them. Grosjean still gets into trouble a little too often, (even though I think he gets blamed more than he should). If Haas continues its improvement, both drivers are going to need to deliver more in 2019.
Renault
Carlos Sainz - NEUTRAL
Nico Hulkenberg - NEUTRAL
Yes, more neutrals. Sainz seemed to be Verstappen's equal when they were team-mates at Toro Rosso, so it is perhaps a touch disappointing that he is behind Hulkenberg, who was 'best-of-the-rest'. The Hulk out-qualified Sainz fourteen to seven, and outscored him in the championship sixty-nine to fifty-three, so maybe Sainz deserves a negative. Conversely, we think Hulkenberg is a top driver, who just never has had the machinery, and he was the best, most consistent driver outside the top six (though his first half was better than his second) so maybe he deserves a more positive rating. Or maybe they both deserve these neutrals. 2019 will be extremely telling and important for both drivers. Hulkenberg will be teamed against a proven race winner, Daniel Ricciardo, and will finally be directly compared to a top driver. Sainz is moving into completely unknown territory at McLaren, with a rookie teammate, and will be compared against fellow countryman Alonso's legacy there .
Red Bull
Max Verstappen - NEUTRAL
Daniel Ricciardo - NEUTRAL
On initial thought I wanted to give both Red Bull drivers a positive rating. They both won races and looked very good at times in what was usually only the third best car. But, with more thought I decided they didn't deserve that and so they get a neutral rating. Daniel was unbeatable at Monaco but as the season wore on he struggled to get to the podium, and indeed, Monaco was his last. Max clearly was the quicker driver towards the end of the season and Daniel seemed relieved for it all to be over. Max was perhaps, behind Lewis Hamilton, the second best driver in the second half of the season. His future looks absolutely bright BUT he doesn't get a positive rating because he seems incapable of learning one important lesson. He must learn to understand the times he should fight hard, and the times he needs to not fight. He must learn he can't weave around or block, and other cars can't magically get out of his way. There was no need for him to fight a faster Ricciardo and move in the braking zone at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a move that took both Red Bulls out of the race. He didn't need to fight Ocon at the Brazilian Grand Prix, a move that cost him a win there. He didn't need to try to block Kimi Raikkonen at the Japanese Grand Prix after he had made a mistake in his efforts to keep Raikkonen behind him. Had he been patient, and not made those moves in either Baku or Brazil, he would have finished third, not fourth in the championship. That's a lesson champions like Hamilton, Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso already have learned.
Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen - NEUTRAL
Sebastian Vettel - NEUTRAL
I debated giving both drivers a negative rating. Kimi finally won a race in his second stint with Ferrari, but he was clearly well behind Sebastian (again) and it is not a surprise that Ferrari have chosen to replace him. (One win in five seasons). Kimi gave us though, in 2018, what we have seen from him every year since he rejoined Ferrari, so he gets the neutral rating. As for Vettel, a mistake (and accident) in Germany is one example of the trouble he sometimes found himself in, and he seemed to take a step backwards compared to Lewis Hamilton in 2018. Balanced with that, though, were some great performances, that, at times, made you believe he is Lewis's equal. Sebastian will have to take a step forward in 2019 if he wants to continue to challenge Hamilton.
Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas - NEGATIVE
Lewis Hamilton - POSITIVE
Bottas didn't win a race in what was likely the best car in the field in 2018. OK, so he likely would have won the Russian Grand Prix if not for team orders, but that's it. I fully expected Hamilton to return the favour to Bottas at some point, but Bottas never had his Mercedes in a position where Lewis was able to do that. Bottas finished only fifth in the championship. A string of fifth place finishes at the end of the year showed about where he was able to perform with the car. Bottas will need to achieve much better results in 2019 if he wishes to retain his seat after that. Hamilton, on the other hand, showed why he is the champion: He is dominant when he is supposed to be; He doesn't make mistakes; When his car is not the best he gets the most out of it, rather than get into trouble fighting fights he can't win. It was a flawless season. It is really hard to imagine how anyone can compete with him and knock him off the throne in 2019.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
2017 Driver Rankings
For the 2017 Formula One Driver Ratings, drivers were given one of three rankings:
POSITIVE - the driver performed as well or better than one would expect or hope from that driver, given the circumstances of his season.
NEUTRAL - the driver did not perform any better or any worse than one would expect.
NEGATIVE - the driver performed worse than one would expect from the driver, given the circumstances of his season.
NOTE that a positive rating does not necessarily mean a driver drove better than another driver with a neutral rating, for example, but that the driver had a positive season relative to what we could normally expect from him.
Drivers are listed in reverse team standings grouped by team, as general comments about the team usually apply to both drivers. Drivers that did not compete for most of the season are not ranked.
NOTE too that qualifying sessions where a driver had some sort of issue and did not compete in that session are often ignored in the stats comparing team-mate's qualifying performances.
Sauber
Marcus Ericsson - NEGATIVE
Pascal Wehrlein - NEUTRAL
The Saubers were bad enough that it was generally hard to get a feel for how their drivers performed, other than to compare them to each other.
Ericsson had the most difficult time of any driver getting out of the first qualifying (Q1) segment, failing to get into Q2 eighteen times. The two times he did get through were the first two races of the season, and regular team-mate Wehrlein was not racing. When they did race together, Wehrlein escaped into Q2 three times, while Ericsson did not. Ericsson was out-qualified by Wehrlein eleven to seven and this number flatters Ericsson a bit as a sudden burst at the end of the season brought the number closer. More importantly, Ericsson was the only full-time driver in Formula One to not score any points, with Wehrlein contributing all of Sauber's five points. Beyond that though, there wasn't much spark from Wehrlein's performances--the type of occasional dazzle we have seen from him in the past. It's a shame we won't see Wehrlein in 2018.
McLaren
Stoffel Vandoorne - NEUTRAL
Fernando Alonso - NEUTRAL
It was hard to know exactly where the McLaren should be given its issues, but without question there were times the Honda engine was outrageously slow. It was almost like they lived Enzo Ferrari's famous quote but in the wrong way. Enzo said, "Aerodynamics are for those who cannot build engines." Like other drivers in the slower teams, Van Doorne's and Alonso's seasons were hard to get a read on. The cars of 2017 were generally said to be harder to drive than other years, and especially so for rookies. So given this, Vandoorne's season was OK, but not brilliant. He was generally slower than Alonso, and was thumped in qualifying 15-4 by him. We don't know if Alonso's still in his prime, or somewhere past it. If we think Alonso's still brilliant, then Van Doorne's season looks better, but we don't know. Vandoorne had more top seven finishes (2) than Alonso (1), and only one less top ten. Alonso, very occasionally showed some speed, but one wonders (well, at least I do) what someone like, say a Ricciardo or a Verstappen would have done with the McLaren.
Haas
Kevin Magnussen - NEGATIVE
Romain Grosjean - NEUTRAL
Haas had a bit of a sophomore slump and they never really showed any consistent quickness. Grosjean out-qualified Magnussen twelve to eight and out-scored him 28 to 19. Using the old top-6 points system, Magnussen would have scored no points, and Grosjean only one. Magnussen never put the Haas into a higher position than you felt it could be and Grosjean never seemed to get past the brake issues he struggled with. Only the Saubers and Lance Stroll failed to get out of Q2 more than Magnussen.
Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat - NEGATIVE
Carlos Sainz - POSITIVE
It was hard to get feel for Sainz's season, as the Toro Rosso is a car that is just always there, but never *that* quick. However, Sainz scored a lot more points than his more experienced team-mate and when he moved to Renault was right there with Hulkenberg. You always got the feeling that in a better car Sainz would shine even more, and Renault might give him that chance. As for Kvyat, he eventually drove himself out of a drive, scoring points only three times (to Sainz's ten). All three times he did score points, Sainz finished ahead of him.
Renault
Jolyon Palmer - NEGATIVE
Nico Hulkenberg - NEUTRAL
Speaking of driving yourself out of Formula One, that is exactly what Jolyon Palmer did. Palmer never, ever showed any kind of consistent, impressive speed and was eliminated eight times in first qualifying--only Magnussen, the Saubers and Stroll had more--and was out-qualified by Hulkenberg fourteen to one. The Hulk is always a divisive driver. Some people, like me, think he is quite good, but has never had the machinery or luck to consistently show it. He broke the record this year for the most races in a career without a podium, so many others ask when he will have one of *those* races. This year's Renault was never going to let him do it, but he consistently thumped his young team-mate.
Williams
Lance Stroll - NEUTRAL
Felipe Massa - NEUTRAL
Williams were in a position where one of their drivers was a fresh-faced rookie, and the other was an old guy who had already retired. We have to think that Massa had mentally checked out at some point either before or after retiring, so who knows exactly how determined he was all year. He hasn't been the same driver since his horrific accident in 2009--he never won a race again (Alonso had 11 wins for Ferrari in the same span), and he was outscored by his team-mate in every single season, until this one in 2017. He was often quicker than his team-mate this year, and only failed to escape Q1 three times, while Stroll struggled, failing to do it twelve times. Massa out-qualified Stroll a massive seventeen times to two. Many people said it was a hard year for rookies to get up to speed--the cars are hard to understand and the tires work on a very thin temperature range. With little off-season testing in current cars, F1 is really throwing the rookies into the deep end. Given that, at the beginning of the season Stroll was painfully slower than Massa and some early shunts even spawned a website with a name something like 'hasstrollcrashedtoday.com'. How much quicker would Bottas or Alonso, who were both faster than Massa, have been than Stroll? Given all that though, there were times when Stroll looked extremely quick and talented. In Baku, he was one of the few not to make a mistake and finished third (and it would have been second if not for the ridiculous let-the-lapped-guys-unlap during safety cars). His speed in the rain was impressive, especially at Monza, showing that in times when the car and tires were less important, and driver skill was more emphasized, he looked quick. Notably, Stroll was the only non-Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull to score a podium.
Force India
Esteban Ocon - POSITIVE
Sergio Perez - NEUTRAL
Force India solidified themselves as the fourth best car and Perez and Ocon generally had it in those positions. They often qualified, raced and finished together--nine times they finished races one ahead of the other. It is difficult to pick between the two drivers--they were equally matched. Their only issues all year were altercations they had with each other. Perez gets a neutral for not using his experience to avoid these situations, and by not more thoroughly beating a rookie team-mate who had not seen many of the circuits before. For a rookie, Ocon did a great job, being generally as quick as his experienced, respected team-mate, and this coming in an era where people agree it is hard for rookies to learn how to get the tires working and the cars up to speed.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen - POSITIVE
Daniel Ricciardo - POSITIVE
Occasionally the Red Bull was a quick as the Ferraris or Mercedes, but it was generally the third best car. Both Ricciardo and Verstappen won races, had strings of podiums, and put the Red Bull occasionally into spots it shouldn't have been. Both drivers suffered from reliability issues that hampered their performances. Both drivers were consistent and made very few mistakes--perhaps less than the top four drivers. Ricciardo was unlucky to lose fourth in the championship in the last race of the year.
Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen - NEGATIVE
Sebastian Vettel - NEUTRAL
Raikkonen has not won a race since his 2014 return to Ferrari. That's four seasons and counting. (Team-mate Vettel has eight wins in that time.) He was fortunate to scrape into fourth in the championship in the last race of the season. (And in fact had a 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th in the last four races to jump Ricciardo, who had three retirements and a sixth.) Kimi only looked fast once or twice, and when he was quick he made a mistake to negate it. (He looked great in qualifying in Malaysia until he threw it away with a mistake in the last corner.) Vettel drove quick, at times, was unlucky when he didn't need it but also made some mistakes--squeezing Verstappen in Singapore was completely unnecessary and running into Lewis in Baku was downright dirty.
Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas - NEUTRAL
Lewis Hamilton - POSITIVE
Bottas did an OK job after being thrown into a team where winning is expected. He won two races but, unlike Hamilton, he did not have great races when Ferrari and Red Bull had the advantage. Given that, Lewis knows the car, the team better and is more experienced with the pressure at the front of the field. Lewis did everything expected of him. He won the championship, had solid races when he had to--when Ferrari or Red Bull were quicker--and he kept cool under pressure at the front. Perhaps one of his best, most mature moments was when Verstappen was faster in Malaysia. Hamilton didn't panic, didn't fight Verstappen, but calmly gave way, realizing that Verstappen was not the guy he was really fighting. Lewis looked a lot more focused and determined than he did in 2016.
POSITIVE - the driver performed as well or better than one would expect or hope from that driver, given the circumstances of his season.
NEUTRAL - the driver did not perform any better or any worse than one would expect.
NEGATIVE - the driver performed worse than one would expect from the driver, given the circumstances of his season.
NOTE that a positive rating does not necessarily mean a driver drove better than another driver with a neutral rating, for example, but that the driver had a positive season relative to what we could normally expect from him.
Drivers are listed in reverse team standings grouped by team, as general comments about the team usually apply to both drivers. Drivers that did not compete for most of the season are not ranked.
NOTE too that qualifying sessions where a driver had some sort of issue and did not compete in that session are often ignored in the stats comparing team-mate's qualifying performances.
Sauber
Marcus Ericsson - NEGATIVE
Pascal Wehrlein - NEUTRAL
The Saubers were bad enough that it was generally hard to get a feel for how their drivers performed, other than to compare them to each other.
Ericsson had the most difficult time of any driver getting out of the first qualifying (Q1) segment, failing to get into Q2 eighteen times. The two times he did get through were the first two races of the season, and regular team-mate Wehrlein was not racing. When they did race together, Wehrlein escaped into Q2 three times, while Ericsson did not. Ericsson was out-qualified by Wehrlein eleven to seven and this number flatters Ericsson a bit as a sudden burst at the end of the season brought the number closer. More importantly, Ericsson was the only full-time driver in Formula One to not score any points, with Wehrlein contributing all of Sauber's five points. Beyond that though, there wasn't much spark from Wehrlein's performances--the type of occasional dazzle we have seen from him in the past. It's a shame we won't see Wehrlein in 2018.
McLaren
Stoffel Vandoorne - NEUTRAL
Fernando Alonso - NEUTRAL
It was hard to know exactly where the McLaren should be given its issues, but without question there were times the Honda engine was outrageously slow. It was almost like they lived Enzo Ferrari's famous quote but in the wrong way. Enzo said, "Aerodynamics are for those who cannot build engines." Like other drivers in the slower teams, Van Doorne's and Alonso's seasons were hard to get a read on. The cars of 2017 were generally said to be harder to drive than other years, and especially so for rookies. So given this, Vandoorne's season was OK, but not brilliant. He was generally slower than Alonso, and was thumped in qualifying 15-4 by him. We don't know if Alonso's still in his prime, or somewhere past it. If we think Alonso's still brilliant, then Van Doorne's season looks better, but we don't know. Vandoorne had more top seven finishes (2) than Alonso (1), and only one less top ten. Alonso, very occasionally showed some speed, but one wonders (well, at least I do) what someone like, say a Ricciardo or a Verstappen would have done with the McLaren.
Haas
Kevin Magnussen - NEGATIVE
Romain Grosjean - NEUTRAL
Haas had a bit of a sophomore slump and they never really showed any consistent quickness. Grosjean out-qualified Magnussen twelve to eight and out-scored him 28 to 19. Using the old top-6 points system, Magnussen would have scored no points, and Grosjean only one. Magnussen never put the Haas into a higher position than you felt it could be and Grosjean never seemed to get past the brake issues he struggled with. Only the Saubers and Lance Stroll failed to get out of Q2 more than Magnussen.
Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat - NEGATIVE
Carlos Sainz - POSITIVE
It was hard to get feel for Sainz's season, as the Toro Rosso is a car that is just always there, but never *that* quick. However, Sainz scored a lot more points than his more experienced team-mate and when he moved to Renault was right there with Hulkenberg. You always got the feeling that in a better car Sainz would shine even more, and Renault might give him that chance. As for Kvyat, he eventually drove himself out of a drive, scoring points only three times (to Sainz's ten). All three times he did score points, Sainz finished ahead of him.
Renault
Jolyon Palmer - NEGATIVE
Nico Hulkenberg - NEUTRAL
Speaking of driving yourself out of Formula One, that is exactly what Jolyon Palmer did. Palmer never, ever showed any kind of consistent, impressive speed and was eliminated eight times in first qualifying--only Magnussen, the Saubers and Stroll had more--and was out-qualified by Hulkenberg fourteen to one. The Hulk is always a divisive driver. Some people, like me, think he is quite good, but has never had the machinery or luck to consistently show it. He broke the record this year for the most races in a career without a podium, so many others ask when he will have one of *those* races. This year's Renault was never going to let him do it, but he consistently thumped his young team-mate.
Williams
Lance Stroll - NEUTRAL
Felipe Massa - NEUTRAL
Williams were in a position where one of their drivers was a fresh-faced rookie, and the other was an old guy who had already retired. We have to think that Massa had mentally checked out at some point either before or after retiring, so who knows exactly how determined he was all year. He hasn't been the same driver since his horrific accident in 2009--he never won a race again (Alonso had 11 wins for Ferrari in the same span), and he was outscored by his team-mate in every single season, until this one in 2017. He was often quicker than his team-mate this year, and only failed to escape Q1 three times, while Stroll struggled, failing to do it twelve times. Massa out-qualified Stroll a massive seventeen times to two. Many people said it was a hard year for rookies to get up to speed--the cars are hard to understand and the tires work on a very thin temperature range. With little off-season testing in current cars, F1 is really throwing the rookies into the deep end. Given that, at the beginning of the season Stroll was painfully slower than Massa and some early shunts even spawned a website with a name something like 'hasstrollcrashedtoday.com'. How much quicker would Bottas or Alonso, who were both faster than Massa, have been than Stroll? Given all that though, there were times when Stroll looked extremely quick and talented. In Baku, he was one of the few not to make a mistake and finished third (and it would have been second if not for the ridiculous let-the-lapped-guys-unlap during safety cars). His speed in the rain was impressive, especially at Monza, showing that in times when the car and tires were less important, and driver skill was more emphasized, he looked quick. Notably, Stroll was the only non-Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull to score a podium.
Force India
Esteban Ocon - POSITIVE
Sergio Perez - NEUTRAL
Force India solidified themselves as the fourth best car and Perez and Ocon generally had it in those positions. They often qualified, raced and finished together--nine times they finished races one ahead of the other. It is difficult to pick between the two drivers--they were equally matched. Their only issues all year were altercations they had with each other. Perez gets a neutral for not using his experience to avoid these situations, and by not more thoroughly beating a rookie team-mate who had not seen many of the circuits before. For a rookie, Ocon did a great job, being generally as quick as his experienced, respected team-mate, and this coming in an era where people agree it is hard for rookies to learn how to get the tires working and the cars up to speed.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen - POSITIVE
Daniel Ricciardo - POSITIVE
Occasionally the Red Bull was a quick as the Ferraris or Mercedes, but it was generally the third best car. Both Ricciardo and Verstappen won races, had strings of podiums, and put the Red Bull occasionally into spots it shouldn't have been. Both drivers suffered from reliability issues that hampered their performances. Both drivers were consistent and made very few mistakes--perhaps less than the top four drivers. Ricciardo was unlucky to lose fourth in the championship in the last race of the year.
Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen - NEGATIVE
Sebastian Vettel - NEUTRAL
Raikkonen has not won a race since his 2014 return to Ferrari. That's four seasons and counting. (Team-mate Vettel has eight wins in that time.) He was fortunate to scrape into fourth in the championship in the last race of the season. (And in fact had a 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th in the last four races to jump Ricciardo, who had three retirements and a sixth.) Kimi only looked fast once or twice, and when he was quick he made a mistake to negate it. (He looked great in qualifying in Malaysia until he threw it away with a mistake in the last corner.) Vettel drove quick, at times, was unlucky when he didn't need it but also made some mistakes--squeezing Verstappen in Singapore was completely unnecessary and running into Lewis in Baku was downright dirty.
Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas - NEUTRAL
Lewis Hamilton - POSITIVE
Bottas did an OK job after being thrown into a team where winning is expected. He won two races but, unlike Hamilton, he did not have great races when Ferrari and Red Bull had the advantage. Given that, Lewis knows the car, the team better and is more experienced with the pressure at the front of the field. Lewis did everything expected of him. He won the championship, had solid races when he had to--when Ferrari or Red Bull were quicker--and he kept cool under pressure at the front. Perhaps one of his best, most mature moments was when Verstappen was faster in Malaysia. Hamilton didn't panic, didn't fight Verstappen, but calmly gave way, realizing that Verstappen was not the guy he was really fighting. Lewis looked a lot more focused and determined than he did in 2016.
Friday, August 3, 2018
Ferrari's Loss
On August 3rd, 2018, Renault announced Daniel Ricciardo would be leaving Red Bull and joining their team for 2019 on a two-year contract. Ricciardo spent five years with the Red Bull team, winning seven races, and a total of eight years under the Red Bull program, spending a couple of years full time with Toro Rosso, and another year part time with them as a third driver and racing for the long-gone HRT team.
When asked about my feelings on this move, my response was that of disappointment. While Renault has shown some promise and some improvement over the last couple of seasons, essentially we have a driver (Ricciardo) who is able to compete for championships moving to a team that cannot compete for championships, and perhaps cannot win a race. To illustrate this, let's look at some of the statistical facts on Renault's recent seasons:
Renault's last win (as a constructor) was 2008.
Their last podium was 2011.
Their last fastest lap was 2010.
Their last pole position was 2009.
Now, yeah, the current version of Renault is the team that raced as Lotus from 2012 to 2015, and while that team had wins in 2012 and 2013 with Kimi Raikkonen, and fastest laps and podiums with both Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, it is notable that since Renault took over that team, they have none.
This isn’t to say I expect Ricciardo and Renault to be a failure. In fact, when a great driver goes to a new team he often drags that team to new heights and better results. (Examples: It is not a coincidence that Toro Rosso's only win came when Sebastian Vettel drove for them, and similarly Ferrari suddenly challenged for the championship when Prost arrived there in 1990.) I hope Ricciardo has this effect at Renault and gives us a fourth team beyond the top three fighting for podiums, if not wins.
If I had had my way, however, I would have placed Daniel at Ferrari. Yes, we all love Kimi, and I love watching him drive, but here are few things to consider there:
Ferrari have not had both its drivers win races in the same season since 2008.
Ferrari have not had its drivers finish one-behind-the-other in the championship since 2008.
Ferrari have not won the constructors' championship since 2008.
Ferrari have not won a drivers' championship since 2007.
Ferrari have not finished 1-2 in the driver's championship since 2004.
Since his return to Ferrari in 2014, Raikkonen has zero wins and one pole position. His teammates in that time have twelve wins and ten pole positions.
Ferrari need another top driver (sorry Kimi) to push Vettel and to take more points away from Mercedes. Daniel could have been that guy. Here's another way to look at it: Since 1964 Ferrari have only had two drivers not named Lauda or Schumacher win the championship. Only two! They need a driver like Daniel to help push them forward.
One can assume they will put some young gun, like Charles Leclerc or Antonio Giovinazzi in the second seat. Both might be quick drivers, both might be able to win races, both might be future world champions. Might, might, might. Ferrari don't need to be a team of 'Mights', a place where drivers prove they can win or not, they can be, and should be, a team of 'Definites', where they definitely know their drivers are capable of winning, and Daniel has proven that.
One can also speculate that Sebastian Vettel may have had an influence on Ferrari. He wouldn't want a guy who can beat him in the team. But why would Ferrari listen to him? What would Vettel do? Leave the team? Where would he go? Mercedes? Then he'd have to fight Lewis Hamilton, in a car Lewis knows better. Ferrari are in the better position in any of these debates with Vettel.
There is also danger now that Ricciardo in a Renault will take away positions and points from whomever Ferrari selects as its second driver.
There is no doubt Daniel would have been the best choice for Ferrari, but that's not happening. The dominoes begin to fall.
When asked about my feelings on this move, my response was that of disappointment. While Renault has shown some promise and some improvement over the last couple of seasons, essentially we have a driver (Ricciardo) who is able to compete for championships moving to a team that cannot compete for championships, and perhaps cannot win a race. To illustrate this, let's look at some of the statistical facts on Renault's recent seasons:
Renault's last win (as a constructor) was 2008.
Their last podium was 2011.
Their last fastest lap was 2010.
Their last pole position was 2009.
Now, yeah, the current version of Renault is the team that raced as Lotus from 2012 to 2015, and while that team had wins in 2012 and 2013 with Kimi Raikkonen, and fastest laps and podiums with both Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, it is notable that since Renault took over that team, they have none.
This isn’t to say I expect Ricciardo and Renault to be a failure. In fact, when a great driver goes to a new team he often drags that team to new heights and better results. (Examples: It is not a coincidence that Toro Rosso's only win came when Sebastian Vettel drove for them, and similarly Ferrari suddenly challenged for the championship when Prost arrived there in 1990.) I hope Ricciardo has this effect at Renault and gives us a fourth team beyond the top three fighting for podiums, if not wins.
If I had had my way, however, I would have placed Daniel at Ferrari. Yes, we all love Kimi, and I love watching him drive, but here are few things to consider there:
Ferrari have not had both its drivers win races in the same season since 2008.
Ferrari have not had its drivers finish one-behind-the-other in the championship since 2008.
Ferrari have not won the constructors' championship since 2008.
Ferrari have not won a drivers' championship since 2007.
Ferrari have not finished 1-2 in the driver's championship since 2004.
Since his return to Ferrari in 2014, Raikkonen has zero wins and one pole position. His teammates in that time have twelve wins and ten pole positions.
Ferrari need another top driver (sorry Kimi) to push Vettel and to take more points away from Mercedes. Daniel could have been that guy. Here's another way to look at it: Since 1964 Ferrari have only had two drivers not named Lauda or Schumacher win the championship. Only two! They need a driver like Daniel to help push them forward.
One can assume they will put some young gun, like Charles Leclerc or Antonio Giovinazzi in the second seat. Both might be quick drivers, both might be able to win races, both might be future world champions. Might, might, might. Ferrari don't need to be a team of 'Mights', a place where drivers prove they can win or not, they can be, and should be, a team of 'Definites', where they definitely know their drivers are capable of winning, and Daniel has proven that.
One can also speculate that Sebastian Vettel may have had an influence on Ferrari. He wouldn't want a guy who can beat him in the team. But why would Ferrari listen to him? What would Vettel do? Leave the team? Where would he go? Mercedes? Then he'd have to fight Lewis Hamilton, in a car Lewis knows better. Ferrari are in the better position in any of these debates with Vettel.
There is also danger now that Ricciardo in a Renault will take away positions and points from whomever Ferrari selects as its second driver.
There is no doubt Daniel would have been the best choice for Ferrari, but that's not happening. The dominoes begin to fall.
Friday, March 16, 2018
Robert Wickens - Canada's Now-Known Athlete
For almost a decade, Guelph's Robert Wickens has been one of Canada's best athletes generally unknown in Canada. The racing driver's career mainly involved competing in Europe, and with the Canadian media's atrocious coverage1 of world motorsports, he was known only to the most die-hard of Canadian motorsport fans. That changed this past Sunday, March 11th, as Wickens, now in the North American Indycar series (with actual television coverage in Canada), dominated the season-opening race in St. Petersburg Florida, grabbing pole-position and leading most of the race, only to have victory snatched from him with two laps remaining when he was punted into the wall.
Hello Canada.
Hello Robert!
Wickens' wonderful performance was not a surprise to those fans who followed his European career—he's had success and won races in all the various levels he has competed. Success that, when looked at closely, shows he's not only deserved more recognition in his home country but that he has also deserved a spot in, dare I say, Formula One?
Like most racing drivers Wickens' career started in karting, and he first moved to the Formula BMW USA series, which he won in 2006, becoming the first North American to win one of the world-wide Formula BMW series. Other Formula BMW series winners? They include current or ex-Formula One drivers Timo Glock, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Gutiérrez, Alexander Rossi, Rio Haryanto, Felipe Nasr, and Marcus Ericsson. Not good enough company? Then how about Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel, both Formula One world champions?
In 2007 Wickens finished third in the North American-based Formula Atlantic championship, as a rookie, winning once, with two fastest laps and a pole.
He then made what would be his decade-long move to racing in Europe. There, he competed in a number of the top-level feeder series, (or single-seater series just below Formula One) and had success in all of them.
He won races in all the series he competed in full-time, and won, scored podiums, or finished higher than the full-time drivers in some of the series he did only part-time.
Race wins came in the A1 Grand Prix series, Formula Renault 3.5, Formula 3 Euro series, the FIA Formula Two series and the GP3 series. He finished second in the championship in both Formula Two and GP3—two of the most important series for feeding drivers into Formula One. This success came competing against, and beating, many ex- and current Formula One drivers: Hulkenberg, Jules Bianchi, Brendon Hartley, Jolyon Palmer, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Chilton, Rossi, Haryanto along with many other great drivers, including, for example, current Indycar champion Josef Newgarden.
His best season in Europe single-seaters was in 2011 when he won the Formula Renault 3.5 championship ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne (2nd), Rossi (3rd), Ricciardo (5th) and Hartley (7th), all men who have competed in Formula One.
That year he also got a taste of Formula One serving as the third driver for the horrible Marussia Virgin Formula One team, getting some track time in practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
With this success in open-wheel racing, before the age of 22, Mercedes hired Wickens for its Mercedes-Benz Junior Team, placing him in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) series, (or, the German Touring Car series), a closed-cockpit, closed wheel 'regular car' style series. The DTM is one of the highest caliber series in the world though, and many future, current and ex-Formula One drivers have driven in it (and still do). These include David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Pascal Wehrlein, Paul di Resta and Timo Glock, to name a few.
Wickens, after winning the DTM race at the Nurburgring in 2017. Photo from Facebook
Wickens would compete in the DTM for six seasons, leaving after the 2017 season when Mercedes announced it would withdraw after the 2018 season. Over those six seasons the Mercedes car was the worst-performing, finishing 3rd (and last) in all but one of Wickens' seasons behind Audi and BMW. In the other season (this latest season, 2017) it finished 2nd. Despite this, Wickens though, was the best and most consistent Mercedes driver over that time with the most wins for Mercedes, 6, and the second most-points at 429, behind Gary Paffett's 483. (That entire gap though can be accredited to Wickens' rookie season2, where he scored 10 points to Paffett's 145.) That season, 2012, was the sole season he did not win a race in DTM. Wickens' record of wins and points would be even more impressive if not for some strange disqualifications and circumstances that prevented him from winning potentially another three races.3
It seems only natural then, having won in every series he has competed in full-time, that an Indycar win would not be unexpected this season. The fact the win almost came so quickly, in his first ever Indycar race, would perhaps be a bit surprising, but not to those who have seen his past success and the drivers he has competed against, and beaten.
1: For example, two of the world's biggest and most popular motorsports series, Formula E, and the World Rally Championship, have no English-language television coverage in Canada. Nor do the FIA's other 'world championship' series, the World Endurance, World Touring, or World Rallycross championships.
2: Interestingly Canada's 'other' unknown motorsports hero, Bruno Spengler, won the DTM championship for BMW in 2012, Wickens' rookie season.
3: In 2013 Wickens finished 2nd at the Norisring behind first-placed finisher Mattias Ekstrom, who was subsequently disqualified. Strangely they did not award the win to Wickens, but declared the race as having no winner. I have never seen this before or since. In 2014, Wickens was dominating the race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria when he was harshly disqualified. Replays clearly showed he did not do the infraction he was accused of. And lastly, in 2015, while he was much quicker at the Norisring than team-mate Pascal Wehrlein, and could have passed him at any time for the win, Mercedes issued team orders not allowing Wickens to pass Wehrlein, and he had to settle for 2nd place.
2: Interestingly Canada's 'other' unknown motorsports hero, Bruno Spengler, won the DTM championship for BMW in 2012, Wickens' rookie season.
3: In 2013 Wickens finished 2nd at the Norisring behind first-placed finisher Mattias Ekstrom, who was subsequently disqualified. Strangely they did not award the win to Wickens, but declared the race as having no winner. I have never seen this before or since. In 2014, Wickens was dominating the race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria when he was harshly disqualified. Replays clearly showed he did not do the infraction he was accused of. And lastly, in 2015, while he was much quicker at the Norisring than team-mate Pascal Wehrlein, and could have passed him at any time for the win, Mercedes issued team orders not allowing Wickens to pass Wehrlein, and he had to settle for 2nd place.
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