Driver Reviews

[Lee]

I was just thinking how many of the F1 drivers have changed since the beginning of the year and so i was wondering how the GTP F1 Community see how each driver has performed throughout the year.

(Marks out of 10)

Ferrari:

MS ~ 8 (He has a cr*p car but has maniged to still be in 3rd at this point of the season)
Rubens ~ 7 (has been consistant but consistantly quiet..)

BAR:

JB ~ 7.5 (He underperformed i felt at the first couple of races but latley he has shown 2004 pace... well in quali anyways.)
Sato ~ 6 (Very very quiet season, almost certainly his worst.)

Renault:

Alonso ~ 9.5 (He has come of age this season and almost certainly has one the championship now, but he has made a few vital errors on the way, I.E. Montreal)
Fisi ~ 7 (What happened to him!? Ok maybe he was gifted the Melborne race thanks to quali but the rest of the season has completely been a nightmare, it is mostley due to the reliability hes had but when his car has been running fine he has underperformed i feel.. especially with all his experience.)

Williams:

Webber ~ 7.5 (He sure does like collecting some bits of other cars but in some races he has shown some pace (I.E. Nurburgring))
Hiedfeld ~ 8.5 (He has impressed me this year, like Alonso he has matured into a good racer, unlike Alonso now he just needs the car.)

McMerc:

Kimi ~ 10 (He is ultimatley the fastest driver in this years field and its been a shame that the McMerc can't cope, im sure he will get it next season.)
JPM ~ 9 (Hes calmed down... alot since joining McMerc and has proved to be a real smart driver, yes he does let his concentration slip a little (Istanbul) but he is ultimatly fast.)

Sauber:

Massa ~ 6 (How did he get the Ferrari drive for next year!? This season he has underperformed as badly as BAR and needs to start showing why somehow Ferrari think he is somin special..)
JV ~ 7 (He's done better than Massa i think but otherwise again a quiet season, no big events and has just kept getting there or there about the 10th place (thats when he finishes of course).)

Red Bull:

DC ~ 9.5 (He has done fantastic this year after all the critisism he recieved at the beginning of the year with people telling him hes career is dead, think he has shut them up..)
Klien ~ 8 (He has done a solid job being consistantly on the edge of the points, is subject to the odd mistake but he has many more years in F1 i feel..)
Liuzzi ~ 7 (Its his first year in F1 so you'd expect the odd mistake, needs a couple of more races to really show his true potenial.)

Toyota:

Trulli ~ 8 (he has been one of the stars of quali once again btu has not managed to following the quali pace into the race, which is a shame because we could have seen possibly higher than MS in the standings.)
RS ~ 7 (Hungary was his highlight, by far, if he had a couple more laps it could even had been 2nd, otherwise a fairly quiet season by his standards.)

Jordan:

Karthekayan ~ 6 (Beginning of the season him seemed liek a future star of F1, now he looks like he is the future CART or IRL star, its a shame because he does have raw pace, but he just throws it away to easially.)
Montairo ~ 8 (He has been Mr.Consistant i think he has still finished every race in his rookie season, creating a new record on the way, his race pace might not be best but atleast he stays on the track.)

Minardi:

Dornboss ~ 7 (He has kept up with his teammate fairly well but is just starting to fall back a bit.)
Albers ~ 7.5 (Considering he came from DTM iv'e been considerably impressed by the way he can control a Minardi of all cars, it would be a shame nto to see him in an F1 car next year.)

Wow that was one uber-post right there...

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Good post, although I think that a few of your ratings are too high.

Michael Schumacher is a clear 9. He's lost none of his motivation despite driving off-the-pace machinery.
Rubens is a 7 for me. Unobtrusively getting the job done.

Jenson can only just about justify a 7. I don't feel that he was strong enough in leading the team through their difficult start to the season, and his contract negotiations make him look like an idiot.
Takuma Sato is a waste of an F1 seat. 4. Oh, and a point of order: nothing could be worse than his debut season, where he found lots of new and interesting places to crash.

Fernando Alonso gets 9.5. Montreal the only blemish on a stellar season. Has reacted perfectly to the McLaren surge.
Giancarlo Fisichella gets only 6. This is likely the World Champion car, yet he's off the pace most weekends. Developing a case of the Johhny Herberts in attracting unreliability.

Mark Webber gets 4. Some reasonable qualifying performances, but has never let his disappointment in not getting a race-winner be hidden. Has made some terrible pressure-mistakes, notably at Malaysia and Turkey. Often outclassed by the man who had to fight for his seat...
... Nick Heidfeld, who gets a 9. Another driver doing a fantastic job with poor kit, has blown away his much-fancied team-mate in an excellent display of pressure resistance.

Kimi too gets a 9.5. His Nurburgring flat-spot was nothing more or less than the result of him pushing too hard unnecessarily. He paid a heavy price for trying to pass a backmarker from a long way back with a 35 second lead.
Montoya gets an 8. Has been very good, and much better than his results show, but still lacks mental toughness. Supreme drive at Monza, but what was going on in Montreal?

The Sauber pair both get 6's. Jacques is a rising-six, as he's really raised his game since the start of the year, but he's still underperforming for his pay. Felipe's is a falling-six, as he impressed at the start but has sunk to obscurity. Feeling Villeneuve's mind-games, or not caring with his red-car-contract in-pocket?

DC has been a revelation. Another 9.5. Has galvanised the team and shown the way to both of his team-mates. Politically impregnable, is rising to the Father-of-the-Sport role with grace and no loss of pace or control.
Klien/Liuzzi both get 7. Must be hard to share a drive, but even so they're failing to show their trumpeted pace.

Trulli gets a 7 (9 for quali, 5 for race).
Ralf gets 4. $15m?? Toyota, you bid on the wrong one!

Karthikeyan, Montiero, Albers and Doornbos all get around 7. Doing well in difficult circumstances, but they're all suffering from trying to make more than the car can do. Montiero probably the rising star of the bunch.

 

[pSI civic]

i pretty much agree with that. i want to see monteiro in an f1 car next year.