The true Autosport Top 10 should be the average of their race-by-race ratings, as this takes into account every weekend.

So here is the full list below: (to qualify, drivers had to race in 9 or more GPs, i.e. over 50% of the season).

1. Jenson Button (8)
2= Lewis Hamilton (7.76)
2= Mark Webber (7.76)
4. Fernando Alonso (7.59)
5. Felipe Massa (7.56)
6. Sebastian Vettel (7.53)
7. Nico Rosberg (7.29)
8. Rubens Barrichello (7.18)
9. Timo Glock (7.07)
10. Kimi Raikkonen (6.82)

11. Nick Heidfeld (6.24)
12. Robert Kubica (6.06)
13. Jarno Trulli (5.94)
14= Sebastien Buemi (5.88)
14= Adrian Sutil (5.88)
15. Heikki Kovaleinen (5.59)
16. Giancarlo Fisichella (5.47)
17. Sebastian Bourdais (5.33)
18. Nelson Piquet Jr (4.8)
19. Kazuki Nakajima (4.76)

THE SUBS LEAGUE:
1. Kamui Kobayashi (8.5)
2. Jaime Alguesuari (6.13)
3. Vitantonio Liuzzi (5.8)
4. Romain Grosjean (4.71)
5. Luca Badoer (0.75)

Face it guys, no driver this season was entirely fast or competitive. Same goes for the cars. And that basically throws out of the window any attempt at reaching a consensus. And then the guy who was probably really getting the most out of his car and again dominating his much hyped teammate got injured and didn't turn a wheel after he estabilished himself as best of the rest behind the Brawns and Red Bulls.

Kimi was leading the qualifying and race pace statistics at the moment when Massa got injured. And Kimi only got better after that. Massa just had a lucky run of good finishes before his injurement, but Kimi did make it better after that. Let's not forget that Kimi scored all the top-2 qualifying and top-2 race finishes for the team.

Of course we can speculate what Massa could have done, but we saw what Kimi actually did, so that puts Kimi in front of Massa.

In the second half of last year Massa performed better, but apart from that it has been pretty much equal or Kimi slightly in front. People just have blinded their eyses and start to believe the negative hype. Just like they believed in the positive hype earlier on. Around 2003 or so I, as a Kimi fan, needed to belittle Kimi's performance because people were getting carried away from the truth.

The season Top Ten was chosen by Mark Hughes, and the individual race ratings were given by Edd Straw, showing once again how subjective this whole issue is.

...actually I can and I did, the question was asked over the latter half of the season and Jenson was found wanting - he was unable to drive round the issues that crept up a lot of the time qualifying behind his not-so-highly-rated teamate which gave him a tougher job in the races which granted he more often than not overcame.

Similar to the statement I made re this years Williams, if it were a Kimi or Lewis driving Jenson's car I would confidently bet 1 months salary that they would have done a better job in the latter half because performance drop-off or not, that Brawn car all year was no slouch.





...and then go on to win a couple more which I believe a Tier-1 driver would have done in that car - how often have we seen one of those guys drive around a problem and on to a win?





No I would be celebrating a dominant win as would every other person on here after witnessing their driver putting in a faultless performance in a dominant car - what I wouldn't hesitate to do though would be to criticise Lewis if I saw him being outperformed by a weaker teamate in the same car but seeing as a 2 x WDC couldn't then it sure looks like we're going to be waiting a long time before we get to witness something like that and when it does I sure can't wait to see his reaction!

The thing that everyone has overlooked with the entire incident is that Trulli got away without punishment for driving in such an unsafe manner behind the safety car that he went off.

That is a bit harsh, considering the tyres were not working at all well.

If you're going to troll, try and do it properly. The argument, and subsequent lie, was about how Trulli passed Hamilton, not visa versa.

He did take the lead - and also the stick. Regardless, by Malaysia, Lewis had had time to rethink his position and do the right thing... Shall we blame Lewis' failure to do so on Dave?

But Trulli also BSed, complaining that Hamilton had passed him. Who's to say that that might not have influenced what happened later?

Point about Liegate is that it was used to get rid of Ron. Then Singaporegate was used to get rid of Flav. Waiting for whatever gate it is to get rid of Luca. Think that's the hat-trick.

1) I'd not classify my post as "trolling" and if it is, I would hope that it would already have been removed by the mods.

2) Ultimately the problem for LH emerged from his having passed JT (quite legally) when JT fell off the track. The untruth had to do with the manner in which Trulli was allowed (or not) to repass) Regardless, your post neatly misses the point, and fails to address whether his actions at Melbourne and shortly thereafter should bear upon his rating as a driver that year....

...and I'd take up that bet. Senna was supposed to step into the 94 Williams and wipe the floor with the world - and I would've bet a year's salary on that - glad I didn't though. I'm not quite sure why RB isn't "so-highly-rated" - he gave MS a run for the money many times did he not? If MS sometimes needed Ferrari to tell RB to slow down so he (MS) could go by, then Jenson is supposed to beat him 100% of the time without similar help? Wow. With expectations like that for Button, no wonder you're disappointed.

Of course, it's easy to SAY that if Lewis had been in the Brawn he'd have won every race (or whatever) of the season and battered RB into retirement - but it didn't happen, so your speculation is just that. Heck - I've never seen Lewis win 4 races in succession.... Button has though. I wonder if Lewis could have? You seem quite concerned about Jenson's inabilty to keep winning in the second half of the season - funny though - I'll bet that LH's failure to win a single race (or even score decent points) at the end of 2007 is not viewed with the same jaundiced eye....





It'll be interesting to see JB at McLaren next year - though I'd rather have seen Kimi there - I think Kimi would have given Lew a better run for his money. And I have a pretty shrewd idea of what Lew's reaction will be when he's beaten fair and square - we saw it at Monaco in 2007... we'll see it again.

That's an interesting list - Alonso 4th? I'm a fan of the guy - but.... Anyway - good idea to compile that.

I thought the problem with Monaco 2007 was that Lewis didn't think he was beaten fair and square. He had qualified with a few more laps of fuel in his car than Nando but was brought in early and wasn't allowed to make use of the longer first stint strategy. Ron said afterwards they were worried about a safety car since his 2 cars were way ahead in 1 and 2. Lewis was also told to hold station very early as well, so in his mind he wasn't allowed to race Nando, hence his frustration that weekend.

Lewis may not have thought that he was beaten fair and square but a look at the lap charts will show you that Fernando had the measure of him all race, and that (as is often the case at Monaco) the race was essentially won in qualifying. I know about the fuel, the weights, but Fernando beat him handily on the day, and a look at the extra laps that LH wanted, the ones he'd done previously and the laps that FA was doing will show that it's extremely unlikely that LH would be close. In fact, iirc, FA's fastest lap was on nearly full tanks after the first stop - think he was trying to make a point? . It is a measure of McLaren's preoccupation with Hamilton that they changed their policy vis qualifying based upon LH's complaint.

But - again, we digress. Should Lewis be on top in this list? Button second?

I must admit that I don't subscribe to the view that Nando had him well and truly beaten as I watched all the lap times they were both putting in, before and after Nando's stop. Nando's fastest lap was lap 44, 6 laps before his 2nd stop (just checked the F1 site) and I recall Lewis had just started to close the gap before Nando pitted (Lewis's fastest lap was lap 28, 1 lap before his 1st stop).

I am not saying that Lewis would definitely have overtaken Nando but (and this is my opinion) I think he had a chance. Anyway he wasn't allowed to run those extra laps for us to to know for certain, but hey at least it gives us stuff to talk about in the off season.

Anyway you are we right, we digress.

To answer your question, no I think who ever won the WDC should be first in the list i.e Button. He held firm under all the pressure and won the title so he should be top. I do think Lewis had a good year and in my list he would be in the top 3, but Button is the 2009 WDC and so my driver of the year. Others may not agree but we are entitled to our own opinions and I know that mine is an informed one (well it's either or ).

Did you manage to check the gap between them by the time Alonso pitted for his second stop? It was 11 seconds. If thats not an example of well and truly beaten and outpaced then I dont know what is.
He was only pitted 2 laps early in the first stop, and made a mountain out of a molehill about it.

Maybe you need to check how Lewis' teammate fared!

Lewis drove beautifully most of the season, but he also made some mistakes, and had little pressure to deal with so for those reasons, I give the number one spot to Button. 2nd goes to Vettel, who drove better as the season wore on and pressure increased, his speed and composure usurping Webber's strengths. Lewis is 3rd, Barrichello 4th, Webber 5th, Kimi a fighting 6th (though his first half was lackluster and he was again being shaded by Massa), Rosberg a valiant 7th (consistency was there as was good pace, if not always in 3rd qualifying). After that it gets tough. Alonso was easily the best at Renault although his performances are hard to gauge due to not having a known and reliable metric to compare him to, so he gets 8th. Massa is out all together, he missed too many races, Kubica was a disappointment so I don't want to put him in my top 10, he just did not show enough of a margin over Heidfeld, and he underperformed several times. Trulli had some decent races and qualifyings so he gets 9th, and Buemi a solid 10th as he showed suprising pace and composure in his first year. I also think that Sutil had a chance to crack the top 10, he had some great races, but they were few and far between. Had Fisi stayed at Force India, he may have been top 10 material, as it is he is lucky to scrape into the top 18.


Cooper

It's outrageous that they've put Kubica 5th when he had a below par season. Personally I thought Heidfeld was much more consistent than Kubica this year and he's missing from the top 10.

Metz, please don't generalize. I'm still waiting for you to back up the statement that Heidfeld had more bad luck than Kubica.
Cheers.

It is certainly funny how even reputable mags and F1 bosses disagree. Vettel was the best driver for the team managers, Hamilton for the British Autosport, Barichello for the German AMuS, Button had the highest combined weekend ratings at Autosport. Personally I think that things like AMuS rating of Barichello as Nr.1 and of Hamilton as Nr.8 and Autosport's weekend rating of Vettel as Nr.6 are way off.

H2H

The best chance would have been after the 1st stop. I can't remember all the details (my memory was the first to go), but watching the tv with my laptop next to me I do recall the following.

FA had burst into a 6 or 7 second gap and then LH brought it down to about 4 or 5 when FA stopped. LH continued to put in fast laps whilst FA was running about 1 second slower due to fuel just loaded, but then LH was brought in 3 laps after FA, when he could have gone on for a few more laps. Come the 2nd stops, it was all over bar the shouting but I think he had a chance with the first round of stops.

I may have got it all wrong, but that is how I remember the race. If someone could point me to a site that holds all the individual lap times for old races, then I would love to see if I have really gone senile. LH may have got it all wrong and indeed made a mountain out of a molehill, but he was brought in early and at some point told told to hold station behind his teammate. I don't know of any driver whose been told to hold station and then been 100% happy with it, and we know that LH rightly or wrongly doesn't give up until the final lap.

Thanks - it's always a little dicey for em to rely on my memory... is the site you're referring to formula1.com? I was looking all over for a version of the driver by driver lap by lap timing chart and couldn't find one.... (and a quick look at Formula1.com reveals I still can't find it....)



I'll give you an

I absolutely agree. I think the circumstances have to be pretty extraordinary before you start awarding top spot to someone who finished second, never mind 5th. If we start using who "got the most out of their cars" as a metric by which to judge than there's far too many things to consider to make a valid decision; how good, or bad was your car at each track and who is capable of really SAYING how good or bad it was? What is the culture of the team? Does any driver have preference over another in a team, and how does that effect both driver's chances? How was the car's reliability? Was the car's reliability effected by the way the driver drove it? How well (or poorly) was the team funded? etc etc etc...

When I see Button down in second or worse in someone's standings, I can't help but suspect that they're engaged in asking the above sorts of questions and answering them rather selectively.

Thanks for the .

Plus there is more pressure when you are fighting for the WDC. Yes LH had a great 2009, but he wasn't fighting for the WDC in the last half just race wins.

I was just looking at the formula1.com site which shows results (fastest laps and pit stop info), but not all the lap times from each race. I am sure there is a site where you can go and check out lap times for any driver from past races, but I don't know it myself.

Race statistics? What spin lead you to you to that?
Massa had more points finishes, more points and was again generally percieved as the leading pilot. Only this time the car was a dog. He had all this despite worse qualifying, which blows out of the window the theories that Massa can only race from the very front, and also makes us wonder what happened to Raikkonen's "superior race pace".
Up until Hungaroring, Ferrari's best of the season were two third places, one for each. After that they had two 4th places, both for Massa. And then 3 6th places, two for Massa and one from Kimi.

Kimi's the fastest and most talented guy out there, IMO. But it did not work for him at Ferrari after 2007 and I have no doubt Massa has done better ever since.

JamesAllenonf1 top 5:


As a result, here is my Top Five, together with my reasons.

1. Jenson Button – It was between him Hamilton and Vettel as to who would be one, two and three. I remember telling a 19 year old Button in Macau that F1 is all about “consistency at a high level’ and I had to give Button P1 because he showed it this year (mostly!), scoring points in all but one of the races. His peaks were very high; he won six races out of seven at the start of the year, pressing home his car advantage with the double diffuser early on and leaving nothing to chance. He also had to make some bold passes along the way. Unlike Vettel he did not make costly mistakes in races and unlike Hamilton he had to deal with the constant pressure of a championship fight. Most of his problems in the second half of the season were in his head and affected him in qualifying mainly, but he still dug in on race day and scored points. Many of his problems however were also to do with the way the car developed (or didn’t!).

2. Lewis Hamilton – Hamilton performed miracles in a car which was 2.5 seconds off the pace at the start of the year and even after a major update kit transformed it from Germany onwards, it was still some way off the pace of the Red Bull and the Brawn and yet he wrung two wins and four pole positions out of it. Even at the start of the season he was fourth in Australia and Bahrain in a car, which looked horrendous when watched from trackside. He damaged his image over the lying scandal in Melbourne, but I think he has emerged from a tough year as a far better, more humble and more mature driver than he was in 2008

3. Sebastian Vettel – I can assure you that there is not a shred of national bias in my choice of the top two. They just did a more complete job and that was the difference. Vettel was outstanding this year, the good things he did were every bit as good as anything Button or Hamilton did and I’m sure that the team principals put him top in their Top 5 because he is so exciting for F1. His four wins were superb, especially the drives in China and Silverstone. He is still a bit raw, still hasn’t got on top of tyre management and he made a number of expensive mistakes which cost him the championship. But he’s a really exciting talent and a fantastic person to deal with. If he continues to mature as he has these last two seasons, he will claim a place in the sport’s premier league.

4. Mark Webber – the Aussie had by far his best season in F1, getting the pole that mysteriously had escaped him, but also two long overdue wins. He was unbeatable in Germany and controlled Brazil. The reason he makes my top five is because for the most part he did the car justice. Fuel corrected Vettel was faster 10-7 in qualifying, which isn’t as dominant as people make out. There were also quite a few races where he started behind Vettel, but beat his exciting team mate to the finish. People also forget also that he wasn’t fit for the first couple of months of the season after his broken shoulder. He reminded me of Nigel Mansell at times this year. On the downside, he went awol a couple of times in the closing stages of the season, but all the contenders for P4 and P5 in my list did that and the others were more inconsistent.

5. Kimi Raikkonen – This was an incredibly hard choice. There were many contenders; Massa was doing better than Kimi before his accident, but didn’t complete the season; Alonso did well with a poor car, but nothing miraculous and his team mates are no kind of benchmark; Barrichello had some great days, but was easily beaten by Button when the car was the class of the field; Rosberg was fantastic through the middle of the season; Kubica had some miraculous days, but others when he was outperformed by Heidfeld. So Raikkonen gets the nod. People say he had a quiet start to the season, but he was impressive in Bahrain and Monaco. But his performances from July onwards in a car which Ferrari had stopped developing, were astonishing. Even the Ferrari engineers don’t fully understand how he managed to get some of the podiums he did based on the performance of his car, compared to the opposition. He had a sniff of a win at Spa and he took it, holding off a clearly faster Force India car. Loses out on consistency, but gains on miracle achievement.


The five winners, who picked the same top five as me are:

Matt B
Richard Thurbin
Nathan Smith
Joe Sumegi
Gareth

Nice listing.
I'd drop Raikkonen down a little as he only seemed to turn-up once he realised that his seat at Ferrari for 2010 wasn't so comfortable after-all, post Hungary though, he did drive the wheels off the Ferrari.
Although I don't quite agree with your points about Webber I do see exactly what you mean. I was a little dismayed at his insistence that he wouldn't help Vettel to win the championship, I just hope that doesn't come to bite him one day. His driving has been on the edge between hard and harsh, with his position in the GPDA though I think he'd soon be shot down if he crossed that line.

No, not our Gareth.

In the end Lewis finished 1 point ahead of Kimi, while in the 2nd half his car was more capable then Kimi's, like said earlier in the first half he had some terrible races, same goes for Kimi, although abit less terrible, where as in the 2nd half they both drove well, but Lewis did throw it away a few times. So there for neither of them can be at the top, and neither of them can be so far apart from each other, as I see from autosports list... Pretty equal they where I would say, Button on 1 I could cope with, same with Vettel, both strong in the whole season (although Button went abit worse in the end, but not that bad).