245 replies to this topic

[FullThrottleF1]

There has been a lot of talk about F1's worst drivers since the 2017 Silly Season began. Who does the autosport think is collectively the worst driver in F1?

 

For me, it has got to be Palmer. He hasn't impressed me at all in any race.

[Jon83]

I have no idea. The drivers you have listed have rubbish cars most of the time. Put them in something better and they'd probably do a solid job.

 

This is probably just going to turn into a Palmer-bashing thread.

[FullThrottleF1]

I have no idea. The drivers you have listed have rubbish cars most of the time. Put them in something better and they'd probably do a solid job.

 

This is probably just going to turn into a Palmer-bashing thread.

Feel free to nominate someone else if you don't think the selection is appropriate.

[JG]

Nowdays there isn't any really lousy drivers in F1. I mean, not in the Ricardo Rosset class anyway. Even Rio Haryanto seems to keep up with the talented Wehrlein.

[LuckyStrike1]

I think very little differentiates these drivers in terms of pure driving capability. They all have pretty good driving and racing capabilities and on a similar level of each other. I would say though that Pascal might perhaps look like the biggest natural talent out of this although it's a bit of a questions mark for that this year. 

 

For me the difference is how they are currently performing, which is not the same as how good they are as a racing or F1-driver. Although on a similar level to each other in terms of what they can do some of these drivers are doing a better job than the others. 

 

I'd say Joylon Palmer is doing the worse job this year out of these. He's not performing what is realistic to expect from me. He does have a very bad car, and he is a rookie in F1 but he's just not putting it together as it should be expected of him. 

 

Felipe Nasr isnt' performing as well as he should either. He should match Marcus Ericsson but isn't and seems to be very sensitive and let that affects him in a negative way. 

 

Esteban Guiterrez is something of a dissapointment also although he has had some bad luck initially with the car. 

 

Rio Haryanto is probably doing what is expected of him, which to be honest isn't much as he is one of those drivers who comes in under the radar and stays there. 

 

I expected to see a bit more of Pascal Wehrlein than he's shown so far. It started out well but he seems to be a bit inconsistent. He is in a bad car though, and against a team mate no one expects anything of so that's a tough spot to be in. Having said that, I would have expected him to dominate his team mate a bit more. 

 

Marcus Ericsson is performing relatively well (except Monaco) and is doing what can be expected of him. As a driver he is on the same kind of level as the others, especially Palmer and Nasr, but he is doing a better job than they are this year and that makes him look better. But in terms of performing, I think he is doing what is expected of him without standing out in a especially brilliant way. Solid performer, gettting the job done basically. 

So none of them can be called "the worst driver" in my book. But Palmer and Nasr is performing well below what they should be able to and they are the worst performers, not worst drivers. 

[HeidfeldsBeard]

In before the lock.

Haryanto hasn't looked bad against Wehrlein over a single lap, but is a long way behind over a race distance. It's hard to judge how good Wehrlein actually is.

I think given his pre-F1 record he's probably the worst on the grid but we'll never know.

Nasr has been massively disappointing this year and his attitude stinks. He comes across as a bag full of excuses, whether they're legitimate or not.

I never expected much of Palmer in the first place. But even though it took him as long as it did to win GP2, he is a GP2 champion. I don't think he is any worse than the Sauber pairing or Haryanto.

[Jon83]

Feel free to nominate someone else if you don't think the selection is appropriate.

 

I don't have a nomination. As I said if you put them in a decent car they'd do a solid job.

[TomNokoe]

Hamilton obviously

[Sash1]

The ghost of Maldonado.

[1Devil1]

Ricciardo

Alonso

Vettel

Hamilton

Verstappen

 

in that order 

[Ricciardo2014]

Oh dear.....................this won't last long 

[myattitude]

I'm an alien who just landed on Earth last year, That Alonso guy is so rubbish, just complains about the engine and takes time out to sunbathe.

[johnmhinds]

Palmer seems a little nervous (the guys probably got a lot a lot of pressure on him from his dad), but the grid is full of decent drivers at the moment.

 

There isn't a Yudi Ide level driver on the grid right now.

Edited by johnmhinds, 03 June 2016 - 11:30.

[Ricciardo2014]

That Bieber Guy

[cokata]

Nasr. That 5th place he had last year in Australia is carrying him along, but since than he has been very poor IMO.

[LuckyStrike1]

That Bieber Guy

 

He was pretty good with the champagne though. And was tattooed like that Hamilton guy who seems pretty decent behind the wheel. 

[Paul Parker]

I have no idea. The drivers you have listed have rubbish cars most of the time. Put them in something better and they'd probably do a solid job.

 

This is probably just going to turn into a Palmer-bashing thread.

 Agree.

 

A more appropriate thread would be either:

Who has the best car on the grid and/or

Who has the worst car on the grid.

 

In my opinion a least a third of the grid could win or finish on the podium if they had a Mercedes and perhaps now the improving Red Bull too.

[Elcinqo]

I've voted Marcus Ericsson. Pace-wise he surely is not the worst, but i've seen him do things on track were it just looks like he is not all there. This is not something the happens all the time, but sometimes it just looks like he had some sort of blackout. Pace-wise probably Ryo but it is hard to compare drivers from different teams.

[Paul Parker]

I've voted Marcus Ericsson. Pace-wise he surely is not the worst, but i've seen him do things on track were it just looks like he is not all there. This is not something the happens all the time, but sometimes it just looks like he had some sort of blackout. Pace-wise probably Ryo but it is hard to compare drivers from different teams.

 

I think that the Desperate Dan antics are the consequence of having to drive a car that is not competitive enough, the likes of Ericsson have no choice, there are others who can get away with it simply because they have rather more folding stuff/influential backers, given that latter day F1 drivers are, with exception, reasonably well matched, it's all about the money and the team it can finance.  

[Ricciardo2014]

He was pretty good with the champagne though. And was tattooed like that Hamilton guy who seems pretty decent behind the wheel. 

Yeah that Hamilton fella might end up a pretty decent steerer so I can see why you didn't put him on the list 

 

I decided to vote now and for me it's got to be Palmer.

[CountDooku]

Where is the Max Verstappen option?

[Mat13]

Bernie Ecclestone.

[Garndell]

Based on current form Kvyat is the worst driver in F1.

[FullThrottleF1]

Bernie Ecclestone.

Well done sir 

[senna da silva]

Palmer looks out of his depth.

[bub]

Probably Haryanto

[FredrikB]

Voted Nasr of course.

[ensign14]

I sometimes wonder if Massa got Nasr a Formula 1 drive so that when people say they heard "Felipe Massa is driving like a tortoise again" he could suggest they had mis-heard.

[PlatenGlass]

In my opinion a least a third of the grid could win or finish on the podium if they had a Mercedes and perhaps now the improving Red Bull too.

A third?! Basically, you could put any driver pairing in the Mercedes instead of Hamilton/Rosberg and one of them would be leading the championship.

[Archer]

I can't decide between Haryanto, Palmer and Eriksson. We should have a multioption poll.

[Amphicar]

There is plenty wrong with F1 at present but at least the Superlicence system means that drivers competing in races have some level of competence. It wasn't always so. As we're off to Montreal next time, let's raise a glass to the memory of the 1969 Canadian Grand Prix and Al Pease - the only driver in F1 history to be black flagged for driving too slowly.

 

Driving an ancient Eagle-Climax, Canadian driver Pease qualified 11.1 seconds slower than polesitter Jacky Ickx and 5.6 seconds behind Pete Lovely, immediately ahead of him on the grid. Mind you, he wasn't the slowest - Bill Brack, John Cordts and Silvio Moser were all behind him (with Moser a staggering 24 seconds slower than Ickx).

 

In the race though Pease showed his true mettle, knocking Silvio Moser off the track and damaging the suspension of Jean-Pierre Beltoise's Matra in his attempts to avoid being lapped (several times). Only when another lunge nearly took out Jackie Stewart did Ken Tyrrell lodge a protest. The black flag was duly shown on lap 22, thereby cementing Al Pease's place in F1 history. Aah, the good old days eh?

[Kev00]

Haryanto
Palmer
Ericsson
Nasr
Gutierrez

In that order for me

[Izzyeviel]

Why Gutierrez isn't winning this by a country mile is baffling. It's his what 3rd/4th season in F1 and whilst he's a lovely guy, he is utter shite. Not only has he done bugger all, he has never shown signs of improving.

[VIVAFERRARI]

There has been a lot of talk about F1's worst drivers since the 2017 Silly Season began. Who does the autosport think is collectively the worst driver in F1?

 

For me, it has got to be Palmer. He hasn't impressed me at all in any race.

All of them ;)

[RedBaron]

Kimi Raikkonen

[myattitude]

Kimi Raikkonen

Take cover...

[FullThrottleF1]

Kimi Raikkonen

 

Take cover...

[Fatgadget]

I have no idea. The drivers you have listed have rubbish cars most of the time. Put them in something better and they'd probably do a solid job.

This is probably just going to turn into a Palmer-bashing thread.

That argument is shot down if one looks in the direction of young Vesterppen and Kvyat. Should you stay long in rubbish cars you are a rubbish driver and should you be demoted to a rubbish team therefore you are rubbish!

[Currahee]

You're only as good as your last race so on that I'll pick Palmer.

 

He had a poor weekend in Monaco.

 

Ask again after the next race and it'll be someone different.

[MikeV1987]

Palmer, his crashes in monaco and his last place result was just bad.

 

his gp2 stint wasn't very impressive either.

Edited by MikeV1987, 03 June 2016 - 14:16.

[DerekWildstar]

Based on the past few races, Kvyat.

Although was it Guitierrez that Button was behind and JB said,"I know he thinks he's quick, but he's not."

[RedBaron]

Based on the past few races, Kvyat.

Although was it Guitierrez that Button was behind and JB said,"I know he thinks he's quick, but he's not."

 

Haryanto, I think

[alekracing]

Based on the past few races, Kvyat.

Although was it Guitierrez that Button was behind and JB said,"I know he thinks he's quick, but he's not."

 

It was about Haryanto 

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=ybsvJV09gkU

[Dunc]

I don't think you can judge anyone as good or bad until they have done a full season.  Some people have great first seasons but their careers fall apart, some don't really blossom until they have a season under their belt.  With that in mind, I'm going to say Nasr, who really isn't impressing me.

[HeadFirst]

Nasr. That 5th place he had last year in Australia is carrying him along, but since than he has been very poor IMO.

 

I thought it was $$$$$$ that powered him.

[HoldenRT]

As others have said, really hard to judge.  I honestly don't pay much attention.  It's hard enough paying attention to drivers beyond p10.  The strategies become dodgy and everything becomes messed up with traffic etc.

 

Everyone notices the lucky results, like a SC at somewhere like Canada or Melbourne, for example everyone noticed Perez's podium.  But not Perez's performance week in and week out.  A really good example is Takuma Sato vs Alonso in Canada many years ago.

 

In free air with reasonably competitive cars it's much easier to judge.  Otherwise it's the teams that can tell based on the data and knowing all of the circumstances for everything and paying so much attention to it.  It's really hard as an F1 viewer to pay full attention to 20+ cars at once.

 

The easiest ways to judge backmarkers is how often they crash but there is obviously a lot more to it than that.

Edited by HoldenRT, 03 June 2016 - 14:54.

[Dolph]

Nowdays there isn't any really lousy drivers in F1. I mean, not in the Ricardo Rosset class anyway. Even Rio Haryanto seems to keep up with the talented Wehrlein.

 

Rosset was second in F3000 in his first year of racing there

[HeadFirst]

You're only as good as your last race so on that I'll pick Palmer.

 

He had a poor weekend in Monaco.

 

Ask again after the next race and it'll be someone different.

 

Based on that I'd say Verstappen. He scored the almighty triple at Monaco, crashes in practice, qualifying, and the race!

[Jon83]

That argument is shot down if one looks in the direction of young Vesterppen and Kvyat. Should you stay long in rubbish cars you are a rubbish driver and should you be demoted to a rubbish team therefore you are rubbish!

 

The argument isn't shot down at all IMO.

 

Kvyat has proven himself not to be a 'rubbish driver' and wouldn't be in his third year of the Red Bull program in F1 had that been the case. Yes, his recent form has been poor, his confidence has been shot to pieces, but he certainly isn't a 'rubbish driver' by any stretch of the imagination.

 

If the guys at the back had better cars, they'd score better results IMO. I don't see how that can be up for dispute. Many people claimed guys like Jenson Button were bang average before 2009.
 

Edited by Jon83, 03 June 2016 - 15:03.

[Dr. Austin]

Haryanto has actually exceeded my expectations, but Alexander Rossi has proven it's not fair to judge someone based off their performances in a Manor.

 

Of the rest, pretty much all of them have been a bit of a disappointment.