here we go
1- Lewis Hamilton Amazing racer. He reminds a bit that Senna/Mansell style, always fighting the car, not being very tactical, just flat out to the win. He made some minor errors though: specialy in quali were he lost to his team mate for the first time. 11 wins. Title deserved.
2- Daniel Ricciardo Tough call. But I put him in front of Alonso co's his mission seemed impossible: Facing the most successfull driver of this era, 4 times champion, in his team. He made it! In all fronts. He was the only non Mercedes winner. His Hungary and Spa performances were legend. Lets see how he will keep up next year as a leader, bur for now he was totaly great.
3- Fernando Alonso. Bad car, but a killer instinct like no other: He has one chance? He will take it. Just look at Hungary. All year he was consistent, fast and racer. One of the big stories of the year was the way he beated the highly rated Raikkonen. It was inevitable: Alonso took always the maximum of the car.
4 - Nico Rosberg. He had the chance to get the title but it all went down in Singapore. It was not Spa as many may say. Singapore was the day he got defeated. Nico has no killer instinct and that is his main weakness. He just stays there going fast but not taking the risks, the tactical brilliance. Nevertheless he took Hamilton to the wire, and was a master on qualifying surprising everyone.
5- Valteri Bottas I'm still not totaly convinced about him. Ok he bested Massa. Ok he was 4th in the championship. But the Williams was to Mercedes the same Lotus was to Red Bull in 2012/13: A very good car that could on a day win the race. Bottas lacked that win to get into the very top. On his favour he had the consistency and the speed to challange the podium and scored a lot of points. He's still very young. He will be even better in the future.
6- Sebastien Vettel Beated soundly by Ricciardo, Vettel lived a new reality: Strugling with a car in the midfield. It must have been very tough for him to realise he is beatable. He didn't lose any of his imense talent but had a more adapted and clever team mate that out raced him no matter the circunstances. Even so he keept going scoring nice points and managed 5th. Maybe Ferrari will give him the car he needs to shine again.
7 - Jenson Button Jenson is still a top driver in my book. Consistent points scorer still fast enough to beat a young wolf in quali. He made more than the double of the points of KMag. It would be a massive shame if Formula 1 would lose him for 2015
8- Felipe Massa. Valteri Bottas got on him with excelent perfomances and the brazilian seemed lost in the midle of the season. But then he found ground and got himself very good performances till the end putting the car where it deserved. His final 2 races were very good. Also managed the only non mercedes pole.
9 - Nico Hulkenberg. Not as good as some of the last seasons but still manged to beat his team mate and score good amout of points. The Force India was a very decent car, though.
10- Jean-Eric Vergne. I'm probabily the only fan in the world he has apart from his family. I think he is a very good driver. The Toro Rosso wasn't a great car but he managed 22 points and beated the new "vettel" easly. But his quali pace needs to be better. Some of his fights were memorable [singapore, USA..].
Honorable Mention: Sergio Perez.
Edited by Taxi, 23 November 2014 - 22:49.