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[racechick]

What I said was it would skew the results if they werent allowed to vote for there own. Im still saying the same thing.

I didnt actually make a comment as to whether I thought they should

[scotty]

Team owners are going to be biased to their guys though, so it makes total sense to omit that aspect. That would skew the results.

[bud]

And if they were allowed, MW would have no other choice than to select JB over LH

[LewEngBridewell]

Team owners are going to be biased to their guys though, so it makes total sense to omit that aspect. That would skew the results.

Once the ability to vote for one's own drivers is removed, then we move closer into the realms of getting a more neutral and realistic picture. Only the drivers who've stood out and DESERVE to get the votes will score highly. I think this can clearly be seen in the results of the poll, which is pretty much spot on.

[zurich_allan]

Di Resta ahead of Sutil?

I disagree with this. Whilst it's true that Sutil scored circa 15 points more than Di Resta, I think this is a case of not recalling the earlier stages of the season. I'm not saying this because I am Scottish and have some connections with members of Paul's family, I'm saying it looking back over the course of the season as a whole. There was a horrendous patch for Di Resta in the middle third of the season where he was driving superbly but couldn't buy a point - being involved in incidents, poor reliability and a botched pit stop or two by the team that seriously hamered him - comparable situations did not happen to Sutil at any point. During that horrendously unlucky period, Sutil managed to score about 15 points (which accounts for the difference between them at the end of the season), and importantly it was this stage of the season that the Force India looked at its most competitive making those points slightly less impressive than those later in the season when the car was likely always only going to finish 8th - 14th depending on the race.

They were tit for tat in qualifying with Sutil taking the edge in that regard, but that's likely due to the fact that Sutil has been racing open wheel cars (of course in F1 for the past several consecutive years whereas Di Resta has had a few years away from them.

Force India were one of the main teams that consistently tried different strategies for each driver - hedging their bets that no matter the conditions, one would likely score points even if at the expense of the other. The majority of the time, the riskier of the strategies was with Paul's team / car. As such, he was often scoring points against the odds.

Overall, points do not tell the whole story here, and I think that all things considered, Di Resta's season wasn't just more impressive than Sutil's, but far more impressive than Sutil's if everything is looked at in the correct and full context.

It seems that the team bosses see things the same way...

[racechick]

And if they were allowed, MW would have no other choice than to select JB over LH

Absolutely, ive no arguement with that. But if he put him first over Vettel, well id have an arguement with that.

[racechick]

Di Resta ahead of Sutil?

I disagree with this. Whilst it's true that Sutil scored circa 15 points more than Di Resta, I think this is a case of not recalling the earlier stages of the season. I'm not saying this because I am Scottish and have some connections with members of Paul's family, I'm saying it looking back over the course of the season as a whole. There was a horrendous patch for Di Resta in the middle third of the season where he was driving superbly but couldn't buy a point - being involved in incidents, poor reliability and a botched pit stop or two by the team that seriously hamered him - comparable situations did not happen to Sutil at any point. During that horrendously unlucky period, Sutil managed to score about 15 points (which accounts for the difference between them at the end of the season), and importantly it was this stage of the season that the Force India looked at its most competitive making those points slightly less impressive than those later in the season when the car was likely always only going to finish 8th - 14th depending on the race.

They were tit for tat in qualifying with Sutil taking the edge in that regard, but that's likely due to the fact that Sutil has been racing open wheel cars (of course in F1 for the past several consecutive years whereas Di Resta has had a few years away from them.

Force India were one of the main teams that consistently tried different strategies for each driver - hedging their bets that no matter the conditions, one would likely score points even if at the expense of the other. The majority of the time, the riskier of the strategies was with Paul's team / car. As such, he was often scoring points against the odds.

Overall, points do not tell the whole story here, and I think that all things considered, Di Resta's season wasn't just more impressive than Sutil's, but far more impressive than Sutil's if everything is looked at in the correct and full context.

It seems that the team bosses see things the same way...

Mark Hughes is with James on this one. Here is his top 10

1.Vettel
2. Button
3. Alonso
4. Hamilton
5.Rosberg
6.Webber
7.Schumacher
8.Sutil
9.DiResta
10.Perez

he justifies his choices with a paragraph about each driver

[What's Burning?]

^^ Post a link for the above, I'd like to read it.

What I don't understand about these "polls" is the fact that Alonso is so highly ranked. He's without question in the top three for me, but given the driver only counts for so much. If you take into consideration results, then by any measure, Alonso didn't have such a great year.

The fact that Hamilton won 3 races, versus Alonso's 1 is in my opinion (and I'm sure Ferrari would agree) that's a bigger accomplishment. The 30 point lead he enjoyed over Lewis can pretty much be attributed to the Massa terrier the Scuderia assigned to ruin Hamilton's races throughout the season. Mission accomplished.

We all got to see the value Button brings to McLaren, his success this year shows that he's a talented, consistent albeit a bit uninspiring driver. I for one welcome the competition, I'd take McLaren's driver pairing over any other driver pair on the grid. No coincidence they each won three, but it's pretty clear one had a great year and the other didn't.

Ultimately the "value" of a driver is directly reflected in their paycheck, don't kid yourselves with these polls, so Alonso can take solace in that.

[acosmichippo]

I'd vote Alonso's year way above Hamilton's. That Ferrari didn't deserve to be on any podiums, but Alonso got it there pretty regularly.

[racechick]

^^ Post a link for the above, I'd like to read it.

What I don't understand about these "polls" is the fact that Alonso is so highly ranked. He's without question in the top three for me, but given the driver only counts for so much. If you take into consideration results, then by any measure, Alonso didn't have such a great year.

The fact that Hamilton won 3 races, versus Alonso's 1 is in my opinion (and I'm sure Ferrari would agree) that's a bigger accomplishment. The 30 point lead he enjoyed over Lewis can pretty much be attributed to the Massa terrier the Scuderia assigned to ruin Hamilton's races throughout the season. Mission accomplished.

We all got to see the value Button brings to McLaren, his success this year shows that he's a talented, consistent albeit a bit uninspiring driver. I for one welcome the competition, I'd take McLaren's driver pairing over any other driver pair on the grid. No coincidence they each won three, but it's pretty clear one had a great year and the other didn't.

Ultimately the "value" of a driver is directly reflected in their paycheck, don't kid yourselves with these polls, so Alonso can take solace in that.

Dont think I can post the link, it wont work unless you subsribe to autosport. Its the online version of the magazine.

http://digitalmagazine.autosport.com/

You could try.

Further to what you said about the McLaren pairing. I agree, it's the strongest on the grid. And yes its clear lewis had a bad year and Jenson a very good year. But that said, to put things in perspective. Lewis scored 46% of McLaren's points, he got three wins and he had the only pole that didnt go to Red Bull. There are plenty of drivers out there that can only dream of having a year as bad as that.

[f1ea]

I think it should have been: 1. Vettel 2. Alonso 3. Button

The Mclaren was actually a pretty good car. And between JB and Hamilton they got a good number of wins. Massa could not even get a podium, Alonso could have well been leading on the first 10 laps only to get murdered later on due to no fault of his own.

Button was definitely the most improved.

Anyways... its good the teams can't vote for thei rown driver. The voting would be a "bussiness" decision. Luca keeps saying Fernando is the best, etc... who do think he would (make his subs) vote for??

[scotty]

What I don't understand about these "polls" is the fact that Alonso is so highly ranked. He's without question in the top three for me, but given the driver only counts for so much. If you take into consideration results, then by any measure, Alonso didn't have such a great year.

The fact that Hamilton won 3 races, versus Alonso's 1 is in my opinion (and I'm sure Ferrari would agree) that's a bigger accomplishment.

In literal terms you are correct, but in context, that Ferrari was never even really in the same league as the Macca and Red Bull except for Silverstone...

[racechick]

What I don't understand about these "polls" is the fact that Alonso is so highly ranked. He's without question in the top three for me, but given the driver only counts for so much. If you take into consideration results, then by any measure, Alonso didn't have such a great year.

The fact that Hamilton won 3 races, versus Alonso's 1 is in my opinion (and I'm sure Ferrari would agree) that's a bigger accomplishment.

In literal terms you are correct, but in context, that Ferrari was never even really in the same league as the Macca and Red Bull except for Silverstone...

......when it was advantaged. Macca was never really in Red Bull league either.

[scotty]

What I don't understand about these "polls" is the fact that Alonso is so highly ranked. He's without question in the top three for me, but given the driver only counts for so much. If you take into consideration results, then by any measure, Alonso didn't have such a great year.

The fact that Hamilton won 3 races, versus Alonso's 1 is in my opinion (and I'm sure Ferrari would agree) that's a bigger accomplishment.

In literal terms you are correct, but in context, that Ferrari was never even really in the same league as the Macca and Red Bull except for Silverstone...

......when it was advantaged. Macca was never really in Red Bull league either.

That isn't my point at all though!

[racechick]

No, I know. I think Alonso did well with that Ferrari this year but Silverstone was a gift.