Driver of the year?

The only difference between Lewis and Fernando this year was the latter's hype. If Lewis had been in the narrative more towards the end of the season (and he wasn't through no fault of his own) then more people would be rating him highly/highest.

I'm sick and tired of reading this "best car" crap. The Red Bull lacked top speed on long straights and McLaren was miles ahead.

Choosing Alonso now looks a bit like compensation, to be honest. However for all I care any of the three (Seb, Kimi, Fernando) would have deserved for various reasons.

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REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS

As much as I'd love to say Alonso, the feeling of him out performing the car faded in the last third of the season. The only other true benchmark of your performance as usual is your team mate, and in the last third of the season I felt that Massa out paced Alonso alarmingly consistently. I can't remember the all the races off hand but from what I remember Massa would have finished higher than Alonso in Korea, USA and Brazil (i think there were others), if it wasn't for being put on a compromised strategy because of Alonso's championship standings.

Of course Ferrari could have been giving Massa more experimental parts and strategies while keeping Alonso's conservative to keep securing crucial points.

Alonso's wet weather driving was on a different level to everyone else this year though.

Once Hamilton got his down and came out with the Mercedes contract his pace was on another level to everyone else. The only one to really take the fight to Vettel, shame he was already out of contention due to Mclaren continual mistakes.

_______________________________________________________________________

And despite that, Alonso still out-scored his team-mate by more than double.

The only other driver who so comprehensively out-scored his team-mate was Raikkonen. Stating the obvious, Grosjean would have been much closer had he not crashed into anything that moved. Whether that reflects well on Kimi or negatively on Romain depends on the point you're trying to make.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2012 10:40PM by gav.

Not sure if any of you read Autosport magazine but I was having a flick through the latest issue today in Smiths and saw that on Gary Anderson's performance analysis of the year, which works out a drivers raw pace by taking each drivers fastest single laptime of a weekend and expressing it as a percentage of the outright best lap,that Grosjean actually slipped in just ahead of Raikkonen as the 6th fastest driver on average.

Just thought it was interesting after seeing Gav's comment.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Yes, but fastest laps don't earn points. Grosjean was more often that fastest at the end of a days testing, he was quick in practice, he was quick when he was driving into things during the races... And yet he didn't bring it home consistently.

Kimi may have on balance been a smidgen slower on average and didn't always nail qualifying but he brought the car home in the points in the races except China. I think he only had one (at a pinch two) bit of contact with another car all year and he still scored good points.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And despite that, Alonso still out-scored his
> team-mate by more than double.
>
> The only other driver who so comprehensively
> out-scored his team-mate was Raikkonen. Stating
> the obvious, Grosjean would have been much closer
> had he not crashed into anything that moved.
> Whether that reflects well on Kimi or negatively
> on Romain depends on the point you're trying to
> make.

I think I said it earlier in the season, I genuinely think Romain is Lewis quick... If he (ever?) calms down I can see him being a very, very, very strong competitor.

But as you say, he needs to stop crashing.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

chet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> gav Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > And despite that, Alonso still out-scored his
> > team-mate by more than double.
> >
> > The only other driver who so comprehensively
> > out-scored his team-mate was Raikkonen.
> Stating
> > the obvious, Grosjean would have been much
> closer
> > had he not crashed into anything that moved.
> > Whether that reflects well on Kimi or
> negatively
> > on Romain depends on the point you're trying to
> > make.
>
> I think I said it earlier in the season, I
> genuinely think Romain is Lewis quick... If he
> (ever?) calms down I can see him being a very,
> very, very strong competitor.
>
> But as you say, he needs to stop crashing.


I can see him being confirmed by Lotus again soon...and he's just won the individual event of the ROC as well.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

Possibly less competitors to crash into in that though