This week's issue of Autosport is an end-of-season special and as such, includes their top 10 drivers for this year.

And the winners?

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Jenson Button
3. Sebastian Vettel
4. Mark Webber
5. Robert Kubica
6. Fernando Alonso
7. Felipe Massa
8. Kimi Raikkonen
9. Rubens Barrichello
10. Nico Rosberg

Do you agree with their rankings? I feel it's probably bang on the money, with Hamilton extracting the most from his machinery all season long.

5. Robert Kubica
? Nick Heidfeld

For the rest, I think Lewis is as good a number 1 as any, but no-one really stood out above the others for me. EDIT: I mean, Lewis drove superbly at times but he had access to a better car than, say, Massa. Sometimes an improvement in the car leads to an improvement in the driving (Jenson Button from last year to this) but more often than not an improvement in the car just means that performances are more noticeable.

9. Rubens Barrichello !??!?!

So Kubica gets beaten by heidfeld yet is ranked 5th because of one good drive at brazil? Rubens should be much higher than 5th, without his badluck he at least matched button.

Heres my top 8, can't decide on a full 10 as I tend not to pay much attention to the mid field.

1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Button
4. Barrichello
5. Raikkonen
6. Webber
7. Alonso
8. Massa

Massa ahead of Kimi? Massa and Kimi was even at the start of the season, maybe Massa was a little stronger, but very even but after Hungary Kimi was massively impressive in a car that lacked the updates of the others.

/Viktor

This is a joke?

Barichello 9th and Kubica 5th and Fairnando 6th??

points before hungary tell a different story though

Kubica this season was mr."bad luck". Without all these problems he would performed quite good (statisticaly). More than half races was filled with some problems or just a bad luck.

Two brits on top, no surprise from a british magazine. Put that on cover and it sells.

Thats an absolute disgrace. Ive lost all respect for the rag now that they've published that. 5th, 6th and 7th are a joke.

People are never going to agree on who's best and who's not anyway.

Who's writing this magazine?

I'm stunned. If there was a magazine that replicated how Autosport used to be, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

So because Massa was injured at Hungary Räikkönen should be judged on his performances up to the point as well?

1. Hamilton
2. Alonso
3. Vettel
4. Webber
5. Button
6. Rosberg
7. Raikkonen
8. Barrichello
9. Glock
10. Kubica

Those below five had very disappointing years...Massa would probably have been above Kimi had he completed the season.

Alonso had an awfull season. I know the guy is the best, but this year he was mediocre. Unbelievable.

And Kubica and Massa above KR is also a joke.

Why?Shocked!

That wasn't his point.

Up to Hungary, Raikonen and Hamilton had less points combined than Massa. Maybe Raikonnen would have outperformed Massa constantly after Hungary. But that's all in the realm of speculation. The most memorable race for Kimi was Spa of course, but personally I thought Fisi was more impressive there.

Anyhow, the list is a joke IMO.

Except for Alonso, I would swap him with Rosberg.

the list is an absolute disgrace to be honest

Why do so many have Hamilton on top? Seems Abu Dhabi heavily influenced the ranking. After Monza, nobody would have ranked him #1. I rather think, that But, Ham, Vet should be equally on top, then Barrichello with Webber close.

The rest were too erratic for me to place them proper. I'm sure however that Buemi would have also found a place somewhere in the list.

I can't even make sense of this list. Wow, Autosport..

1. Lewis Hamilton - Correct
2. Jenson Button - err, maybe.
3. Sebastian Vettel - Correct
4. Mark Webber - Correct
5. Robert Kubica - Is that how you spell rubens these days?
6. Fernando Alonso - What?
7. Felipe Massa - err, maybe.
8. Kimi Raikkonen - Worse than Kubi, really?
9. Rubens Barrichello - Swing and a miss.
10. Nico Rosberg - Nico was awesome all year, probably deserves to be bumped a bit... say by removing Alonso.

Vettel is quite high considering the amount of mistakes he made, and Hamilton shouldn't have number 1 for liegate alone.

As dank's avatar would say "Uhhhh No.".

I got the feeling the Renault was beyond awful. Neither team-mate scored a point. And both were GP2 stars, on a not dissimilar level to, say, Glock, surely?

Have you considered that, maybe, for once, someone is rating drivers based on how they fared in the cars they had at their disposal, and not how the cars themselves fared?

Personally, I think scoring 26 points in that crapwagon was a pretty sterling effort, and Alonso's drive at Singapore was oen of the most underrated of the season.

My 2 cents:

Hamilton (by far)
Vettel (a few raw mistakes, but those can be forgiven this early in his career; his best drives were incredible)
Alonso (unduly overlooked in '09)
Rosberg (consistently excellent)
Button (yes, I know he's WDC, but I can't quite get over that mid-season slump)

Kubica probably next.

And then the rest.

Top drivers don't suddenly become rubbish overnight. Drivers such as Alonso and Kubica have struggled to show much in their respective cars this year, but I'd suggest they were likely performing at a very similar sort of level to when they were competing at the front.

I'm a Brit and it's just been the deciding factor in me cancelling my subscription, who the **** dreamed that list up ?, Have they employed Pete Gill/Andrew Davies ?

My top drivers of 2009

1. J Button
2. N Rosberg
3. F Alonso
4. L Hamilton
5. S Vettel

Rubens certainly got the shaft and Kubica should be a few spots lower. Stunned that Webber made the top 5, the English media usually hates him unless it fits their agenda.

With one of the worst cars on the grid in the first 5 races his results were 3*, 7, 6, 4, 9. Thats not too shabby. Not to mention his performances in the latter half of the year when the car was getting better. He's probably the easiest choice on the list.

*Gave 3rd back to Trulli due to the idiocy of his team and then DSQ due to liegate.

More or less I agree with it. Quite sensible order.

Not a good list. My try would be like this.

1. Button is the champion and the whole season went pretty much as he wanted. After great 1st half he was the prisoner of his own massive lead. He had to win the title, which he duly did.
2.Vettel. He had to drive the championship in mind and I´d say that it was great effort with race wins and all.
3. Hamilton. Great for second half of the season. But he had nothing to lose, so he could really risk everything. First half wasn´t good by any standards.
4. Raikkonen. After Massa´s accident he managed best results for Ferrari and was constant scorer for several races in a car that shouldn´t have been there
5. Barrichello. Really was class of the field in few races and he really was a team player. Didn´t utilise massive car advantage like Button.
6. Webber. Wasn´t as consistant as Vettel. Not a team player, not that he should have been one. Also his driving ethics were on the borderline in Brazil and few other places.
7. Alonso. Tried to make the Renault look like a proper race car, which it never was.
8. Nico Rosberg. Constant team leader, but maybe should have scored one or two spectacular results. Car seemed competetive all through the season.
9. Felippe Massa. Had a bad accident right when the Ferrari was at it´s best. Until that point was better than Kimi, but Kimi gets the better placing for winning the race. No reason to speculate.
10. Nick Heidfeld. I´d give Nick tenth place. He really drove solidly even thought the car was shit in the beginning and then in mid-field. Never gave in. And BMW got ahead of Williams in constructor points which was great for the team.

You are confusing a mediocre car with mediorce driving. Alonso maximised his shitbox and the gap between him and his team mates was the biggest on the grid. No indication at all of Alonso driving mediorce in 2009.

There is no such thing as an easy choice IMO. Taking the easiest choice is often the wrong choice to make, because we humans tend to shortcut thinking processes especially in easy situations.

Anyway, the easiest would be to have Button on top, after all he won most races over the season.

If you judge Massa better than Räikkönen over 2009 on basis of their respective seasons up to Hungary it kind of is the point. Of the points situation before Hungary was really not representative of their seasons thus far.

Did they work this out by averaging the scores they gave each driver for each race? Or was it one journalist's opinion?

I suppose I'll find out tomorrow...

Until half of the season Massa was ahead (he was best of the rest by being 5th in the standings after Germany, which doesn't necessary mean he would be ahead of Kimi at the end of the season, in the standings or the top drivers list).

There is no comparison to make over the entire season, the data is incomplete. Massa simply missed half of the season.

One thing I am certain of, is that Massa would have won the 2 points required to stay ahead of McLaren.

The other thing I am certain of is this. I judge Massa being the better up and including Germany. After Germany it is impossible to say.

Not that it was a great season anyway for the entire Ferrari team.

I think there's a difficulty with lists which have such a definite number system like this. Unless you can reasonably move a driver more than three places in any direction, it's not going to be that far wrong is it? The problem with this list is Rubens down at #9. Sorry, but he was way better than that, even when his results didn't show it. And the super-consistent Rosberg really deserves a higher place.

I'd prefer to see less a list and more a general ranking with, say;

Hamilton/Button/Vettel

Webber/Barrichello/Rosberg/Alonso

Kubica/Heidfeld/Buemi/Kobayashi

etc etc.

Considering the silly errors he made and lack of overtaking, I've surprised myself by putting Vettel in the top 3. Maybe replace him with Alonso?

Funny, yet again in another opinion (like all the polls we've seen) the new WDC isn't rated as the best driver on the grid (of the year even - in the year he won!!), for shame

Next year will be interesting that's for damn sure, Jenson will either prove to us that he's not as good as his title suggests or step-up, man up and beat Lewis proving that he does deserve it.

Kubica is completely wrong in my view. He had some good drives but was beaten by Nick...again! Take him out move evryone up and plonk him tenth.

This is nothing new. In 2005 Kimi won all the plaudits despite Alonso getting the title.

Uhr even the most diehard Fred fan won't put him at 6th this season. To me Rosberg would be one for the top 5 for sure.

Kubica and Alonso shouldn't be in the top-10 based on their 2009 performances. Both of them looked pretty uninspired on the track and looked to be passing time in seats in which they wouldn't be next season. Kubica especially shouldn't be in the top-10 given the fact Heidfeld beat him.

Webber is rated too high. Raikkonen and Barrichello are rated too low.

Glock should be in the top-10 based on his performances on heavy fuel loads and his top race pace. He was beating Trulli before he was knocked out for the season with the wreck at Suzuka.

Button should be #1, if for no other reason than that he was far and away the most consistent driver. Scoring in all but one race (in which he was knocked out on the first lap after making an outstanding start) is just amazing.

On this thread I see that Kub is pretty underrated on this board, its not the first ranking where KUB is much-much higher than on various "whos better" polls on this boards.

And stop the "nick beaten kubica", if you would watch the races, you would see that if kub and nick had that same amount of luck this season, kub would have double so much points compared to Nick.

I mean look at their only podiums, Nick - pure luck due to race interruption, Robert - a bit of luck (trulli crash), but a very very good race too, with a weaker engine!

So, this ranking is for me pretty reliable.

I actually think Alonso drove well. I'm a fan-ish. I like him but not that much now I'm preparing myself for if there is a war with Felipe and I have to back the Brazilian.
I generally think the Renault was a horrendous car and he did very well for a point or two. Well deserved podium. I think he may have only seemed uninspired to some because he didn't get a lot of coverage because he was midfield at best. But I still think that was most the car and not him.

Did Anthony Hamiton promise to not drive the editors car if he promised to publish this biased list

I'd rank em more like that:

1. Jenson Button
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Kimi Raikkonen
4. Sebastian Vettel
5. Mark Webber
6. Nico Rosberg
7. Rubens Barrichello
8. Nick Heidfeld
9. Fernando Alonso
10. Felipe Massa

Massa shouldn't be on any list. BTW I'm having a hard time understanding the criteria for the AS list.

Why? He was beating Rai before the crash. He was scoring points solidly and did a brilliant drive from 13th to 3rd in China (shame he had to retire with car issues)
Kimi deserves to be in the top 10 but the fact is he couldn't perform until after the accident despite the brilliant job he done.