F1 Driver of the Year 2014

[CookinFlat6]

And still he rises

[ang4f1]

And still he rises

Certainly on this Sky poll...
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/22058 ... f-the-year

At the moment Lewis has twice as many votes as his nearest rival..DanR

[racechick]

he has one more now Ang. Ive just voted.

[ang4f1]

Hey....we know he's ....WORTH IT

[racechick]

Every penny!
I've just tweeted that link So anyone who hasn't seen it can go vote for him

[CookinFlat6]

The main thing people are starting to realise as we see more and more pols etc swing toward Lewis, is this - how many memorable Ricciardo moves, incidents, triumphs, overtakes etc do you remember and how many of Lewis'?

Ricc was a revelation sure, but apart from Sebs collapse, what did he do that Nico or Bottas couldnt in a car famous for having 'inexplicably more downforce' than the others, a team caught cheating on downforce. Put it this way, if Seb had been as good as 4 WDCS implies and had been beter than Ricc, what would we be saying? - that Ricc is a great driver and deserves the seat. Its Sebs halo slipping that has elevated Ricc. That RBR was miles ahead of the other cars bar Merc on Aero and as we have seen from the past 4 years Newey doesnt care much for horse power and top speed anyway.

So imagine Ricc in the RBR of the previous era and he is a little better than Seb - big deal. We need to see what Kvyiat does next year before we bust our arms clapping Ricc on the back

It could simply be that RBR cheat, and their car has the advantages that make Seb and Ricc look good

So I cannot pick a driver who has cheated twice - he is another Button/Seb/Nico - someone who is not Lewis - for those uncomfortable with backing winners

At present he has the same amount of votes as the rest combined

[Ferrari man 009]

Might be slightly biased but I have gone for Alonso. If you look at the team mates battle Hamilton just about beat his team mate, Ricciardo did very well vs Vettel to beat him by 71 points but Alonso's performance against Raikkonen was exceptional. To score almost THREE TIMES as many points as a world champion team mate is exceptional. Alonso's 2 podiums stopped this season probably being Ferrari's worst ever!

[What's Burning?]

Might be slightly biased but I have gone for Alonso. If you look at the team mates battle Hamilton just about beat his team mate, Ricciardo did very well vs Vettel to beat him by 71 points but Alonso's performance against Raikkonen was exceptional. To score almost THREE TIMES as many points as a world champion team mate is exceptional. Alonso's 2 podiums stopped this season probably being Ferrari's worst ever!

That's not Ricciardo's or Hamilton's problem that Kimi suckedeggs so badly up against Alonso. Which brings up a good question, out of the drivers that obviously need a very specific machine to get themselves up the grid, who'll win out a Ferrari next year, Kimi or Vettel. I'm going to love keeping an eye on that battle.

[Hammer278]

Might be slightly biased but I have gone for Alonso. If you look at the team mates battle Hamilton just about beat his team mate, Ricciardo did very well vs Vettel to beat him by 71 points but Alonso's performance against Raikkonen was exceptional. To score almost THREE TIMES as many points as a world champion team mate is exceptional. Alonso's 2 podiums stopped this season probably being Ferrari's worst ever!

Maybe Hamilton should partner Alex Yoong and score 10 times the amount of points, dos that mean he's driver of the year. Lol

[CookinFlat6]

Might be slightly biased but I have gone for Alonso. If you look at the team mates battle Hamilton just about beat his team mate, Ricciardo did very well vs Vettel to beat him by 71 points but Alonso's performance against Raikkonen was exceptional. To score almost THREE TIMES as many points as a world champion team mate is exceptional. Alonso's 2 podiums stopped this season probably being Ferrari's worst ever!

Interesting view - I have always said the most important thing the sensible boxing promoter ever says to a hot shot boxer is 'dont tell me what you won, tell me who you beat son'

And in F1 the quality of your teammate and hence how hard you are tested is what earns the most respect, just like with boxing. A guy with 30 kos over unknowns will never be respected more than the guy with draws over the best

And in F1 the best indicator that removes the car factor is the teammate battle - therefore Alonso has thrashed a kimi who scored even less than the rookie Mag is not so much alonso doing so well as Kimi doing so poorly - Mags in a McLaren outscored Kimi - that means Kimi was a spectacular failure - so that doesnt really help alonso in my eyes
But we do know what happened the last time he had a driver that was not contractually obliged to not compete with Alonso and 'support' him on track
So the last teammate test Alonso had was the rookie Lewis - in fact it can be argued that it is his only ever challenging teammate and we saw how unprepared he was for battling teammates - right from the start he has had patsy teammates.

So I cannot help but feel that the points difference in this case is irrelevant - he has not been pushed and then triumphed over a teammate like Lewis who overcame Nico who crushed MS. And we already know Lewis beat Alonso

[The Second Coming]

And still he rises

Certainly on this Sky poll...
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/22058 ... f-the-year

At the moment Lewis has twice as many votes as his nearest rival..DanR

It's interesting that Rosberg has the same percentage (2%) as Kimi...a driver who was nowhere this season. Didn't have one...not one good race this season. Nothing memorable...well, outside of battling and being overtaken by Saubers and Lotus. So that's how little people really think of Rosberg. I suspect some of that is a reflection of him as a person and how he conducted himself this season (on and off the track). You get what you get!

Such fun...

[LewEngBridewell]

For me, it's difficult between Hamilton and Ricciardo. Both are first rate.

What amazes me though, is how surprised people were at Ricciardo's strong performance. When he was at the back of the grid, fighting for HRT, he was one of the very few drivers who stood out whilst coping with mediocre machinery. In fact, he was (if anything) less noticeable at Toro Rosso than he was at HRT.

But I expected him to be brilliant at Red Bull, but the extent to which he wiped with floor with Seb certainly opened one's eyes.

[CookinFlat6]

So apart from winning the WDC the team bosses say Lewis is currently the best driver in F1 - and by a large margin unusually, nearly double the points of Alonso - so there was only a max of 3 bosses out of the ten who didnt think he was the best. Alonso scores 155 out of 250 so at least one boss doesnt even think he is in the top 3, Nico scores 115 so most put him 5th

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117125

Interesting how the poll compares to ours, I guess the buck should really stop with those whos careers and money are on the line by knowing who the best is,

With the same top 4 we agreed with the TPs about Bottas and with Lewis being a distance ahead of Alonso, but Ricciardo is picked completely out of line to everything else - maybe pointing to the fact that the 'anyone but Lewis' card carrying members have latched onto Ricc instead of Nico.

Congratulations those that picked Lewis you may make great TPs one day, and those of you who didnt but wanted to, it was the Seb effect creating myth for Ricc

And as far as strong pairings for next year, The bosses think Lewis alone is a match for the McLaren pair, and that Alonso alone is a match for the RBR pair, and that Lewis alone is worth almost as much as all the top ten from 5th down, so it looks as though they wouldnt prefer those drivers if they could afford Lewis. So its not too clever asking why a team picks a Lewis when it could save money with half the top ten. But TPs are bit more clever than random halfwits on forums it appears

[What's Burning?]

These polls have tended to have the same top 4 or 5 for the last handful of years. This is the first shakeup we've seen in a while. I said way back in Australia that it was more driver less car with the 2014 regulations. It played out that way indeed.

[Hammer278]

Bet its skewed already since Toto won't vote for a Merc driver to ensure his 'partiality'. If he was allowed to be honest, Lewis will be even further ahead.