F1 Driver of the Year 2014

[LewEngBridewell]

Lewis Hamilton did a great job to land the title this season, although he wasn't the only driver to stand out. Daniel Ricciardo rocked up at Red Bull and threw down the gauntlet in tremendous style, whilst Valtteri Bottas shone for the resurgent Williams team. And don't forget Jules Bianchi, for scoring Marussia's first ever points in Monte Carlo.

Who was your driver of the year? (Yeah, my end of year polls are back again).

[What's Burning?]

I voted Ricciardo simply because I expected the performance we got out of Lewis. Ricciardo blew my expectations away and I was pleasantly surprised by that.

[sagi58]

Decided to go with Alonso because no matter how much the F14T didn't perform, he just never gave up.
He was in there every practice, every qualifying, every race doing his level best!

Honourable mention to Ricciardo!! What a great way to show your new boss just how hard you work!!

[CookinFlat6]

Thing about Ricc is that we dont know how much was the car. And by that I dont mean the usual 'you need a good car', I mean he looked very very good relative to Seb and relative to other drivers in other cars. Say his car was illegal for more races than the 2 he got caught for how would that change his performance? It wouldnt change his race craft and racing tactical ability, or his car control, but it could change greatly his tyre management, fuel management, downforce so cornering speeds.
Lets face it the stuff not dependent so much on the areas his car has been sanctioned for cheating at - qualy - not particularly good, Starts - not good,
But the areas affected by his sanctions for cheating a re where he does really well - overtaking - it would add to his undoubted racecraft if he had TC, if they cheated with flexy wings then they could have been cheating with TC again, and getting close behind another driver and passing is also a function of airflow and the front wing helps there if its rake is much much steeper than the others

Nah I am gonna wait till next year to pass judgement on Ricc despite him being very impressive in all the races he didnt get caught attempting to cheat or blatantly cheating in. Lets say RBR did to Seb what they did to Webber would Ricc still look as good?

Lets see what happens with Kvyat next year in the same car, so although I didnt really want to have to do it, I will have to vote for the champion who caught up 3 times

[What's Burning?]

Decided to go with Alonso because no matter how much the F14T didn't perform, he just never gave up.
He was in there every practice, every qualifying, every race doing his level best!

Honourable mention to Ricciardo!! What a great way to show your new boss just how hard you work!!

I can't believe I'm agreeing with you Sagi, but that duel for 9th place in Abu Dhabi between Alonso and Kimi was epic.

[sagi58]

Decided to go with Alonso because no matter how much the F14T didn't perform, he just never gave up.
He was in there every practice, every qualifying, every race doing his level best!

Honourable mention to Ricciardo!! What a great way to show your new boss just how hard you work!!

I can't believe I'm agreeing with you Sagi, but that duel for 9th place in Abu Dhabi between Alonso and Kimi was epic.

WoW!! And, guess what? Hell didn't freeze over!!

[myownalias]

Daniel Ricciardo without a shadow of a doubt, he came into Vettel's yard and blew the German away on the track, the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race, three in fact. I have loved his never say die attitude, dicing wheel to wheel nearly every race, making some truly spectacular overtakes and that infectious smile!

[Jabberwocky]

Danny Ric for me.

[Nin-Chin]

Ricciardo. Lewis was always fast so I didn't expect anything different from him.

[CookinFlat6]

The thing about Lewis' 2014 was that although sensible people expected him to be good and fast and he duly delivered - and Ricc is the one who surprised and punched way above expectations - we need to cast an eye back to the start of the season

Lewis was expected to fail miserably at the 2014 regs, he was meant to run out of fuel at least once during the year - not joking this was said seriously by at least one pundit. Lewis was supposed to be trashed by his cerebral and cleverer teammate, Lewis awas supposed to be dumb and fast over 1 lap with his teammate negating this speed by strategy, tactical superioirty, problem solving, fuel conservation, tyre management

Even on this forum there were those that said he would be able to resist going top speed all the time

In light of the amount of reversal of opinions that was earned by his complete mastery of anything the regs threw at him, and for coming back 3 times from a deficit that even many of his fans thought was a deficit too far (not me). And then considering Ricc was caught cheating 2 times only at the start and end of 18 races -

Therefore I seriously urge you all to reconsider your poll choices lest you commit a grave miscarriage of justice, yes I know Lewis has already won the WDC and so its ok to let Ricc have this one, but seriously - a guy that quick, with that racecraft, and who smiles all the time? he should have his own h8rz - He must be cheating!!!!!

[What's Burning?]

The thing about Lewis' 2014 was that although sensible people expected him to be good and fast and he duly delivered - and Ricc is the one who surprised and punched way above expectations - we need to cast an eye back to the start of the season

Lewis was expected to fail miserably at the 2014 regs, he was meant to run out of fuel at least once during the year - not joking this was said seriously by at least one pundit. Lewis was supposed to be trashed by his cerebral and cleverer teammate, Lewis awas supposed to be dumb and fast over 1 lap with his teammate negating this speed by strategy, tactical superioirty, problem solving, fuel conservation, tyre management

Even on this forum there were those that said he would be able to resist going top speed all the time

In light of the amount of reversal of opinions that was earned by his complete mastery of anything the regs threw at him, and for coming back 3 times from a deficit that even many of his fans thought was a deficit too far (not me). And then considering Ricc was caught cheating 2 times only at the start and end of 18 races -

Therefore I seriously urge you all to reconsider your poll choices lest you commit a grave miscarriage of justice, yes I know Lewis has already won the WDC and so its ok to let Ricc have this one, but seriously - a guy that quick, with that racecraft, and who smiles all the time? he should have his own h8rz - He must be cheating!!!!!

Maybe it's because he's not black? Like Ali G. who knows, anyway I voted for Ricciardo, because he sou handily defeated the best driver of our generation and he outqualified the best qualifier the sport has ever seen, or so we'd been told.

[CookinFlat6]

Yes I guess Ricc has single handedly debunked acres of pages of mnm and co statistics, and caused the largest amount of eggs on the faces of the Seb supporters who ALL ran for the hills - he deserves the award just for that

Its trully amazing how only 1 Seb supporter has turned up all year, albeit after the last race to tell us he hates the forum, but what happened to the rest,

Maybe the Driver of the year 2011-2013 threads could be interesting for working out who the biggest Seb fans were
2013 http://www.forumula1.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=13095
2012 http://www.forumula1.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=12284
2011 http://www.forumula1.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=11081

[Jabberwocky]

To be fair to Massa who would of thought he would of been so strong at the end of the season.

[myownalias]

Cookin, why should we reconsider our votes for Ricciardo in favor of Hamilton? Daniel has been brilliant this season and the two times he "cheated" was Red Bull's issues, not the driver's issues, it's not like he spun his car to gain an advantage or took someone else out of the race deliberately. Ricciardo has been a revelation this year, proving he can dice with the best out there and win the battle in a car that is the third fastest in 2014, not to take anything away from Lewis, but he had better opportunities driving by far the best car on the grid in 2014, that's why I gave the nod to Ricciardo.

[What's Burning?]

Yes I guess Ricc has single handedly debunked acres of pages of mnm and co statistics, and caused the largest amount of eggs on the faces of the Seb supporters who ALL ran for the hills - he deserves the award just for that

Its trully amazing how only 1 Seb supporter has turned up all year, albeit after the last race to tell us he hates the forum, but what happened to the rest,

Maybe the Driver of the year 2011-2013 threads could be interesting for working out who the biggest Seb fans were
2013 http://www.forumula1.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=13095
2012 http://www.forumula1.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=12284
2011 http://www.forumula1.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=11081

Actually cookie, reading the responses in those thread made me laugh. There's a little bit of Sagi in most everyone I guess.