75 replies to this topic

[FTB]

I think these are amongst some of the best WDC campaigns and they all involved battles against multi WDCs in similar cars. ( 2006 vs SCH, 2018 vs VET, 2021 vs HAM ) Which driver had the best season?

[messy]

It would have been Max but for the, erm, 'incidents'. So Alonso. 

 

Edit - misread, thought you said Hamilton 2008. Still Fernando, though, although Lewis was brilliant in 2018 against a very quick Ferrari that Seb really should have taken him to the last round with.

Edited by messy, 11 March 2022 - 13:39.

[Beri]

Verstappen, by far.

- The shift in powers back and forth from team to team over the season

- One driver being the reigning all conquering champion who was at the best of his abilities

- The other driver being the next generation who finally matured in said season

- Controversies

- Memorable drives from both drivers on various occassions rather than one or two occassions

- Lead of the championship went back and forth

 

 

The other seasons simply didnt offer all this. 

2006 was a very good season. But Schumacher never took the lead of the championship. Despite his mid summer form. Alonso was simply much better.

2018 was partly a good season. But after Germany, it all crumbled down and we had a one sided second half of the season.

 

Edit: Never mind

Edited by Beri, 11 March 2022 - 14:03.

[PlayboyRacer]

Hamilton in 2018 wins this easy.

[William Hunt]

The title was stolen from Hamilton in 2021 so this can never be a good season with the way it ended. I don't recognise Max as the title winner.

[SenorSjon]

I think the wound is still too fresh for half the forum to talk about this without counselling. 

[danmills]

Seriously, these debates are STILL going on?

Define best? Assuming it's not a statistical answer of points and wins.

2021 was an incredibly good year of entertainment. Even if you remove every single horrendously controversial moment (Baku, Spa, Monza, Silverstone, Saudi all the rest etc) Verstappen would have still ended up on top. Third place was NOWHERE which shows how good the top two were.

For everyone that thinks the title was stolen from Lewis last year only in the very last race really needs a long hard think through their rose tinted glasses and weigh up equivalent moments over the year where Max lost out far more. Max made so many more silly solo mistakes and still ended ahead.

If you want to nitpick every dual collision incident, they both lost out, but don't overlook the rest as a whole. By that, Lewis wasn't even close. Lewis did not capitalise on the mistake races otherwise he would have scored a surplus against the 0 point race days. 

I don't think we will see another season like it for a very long time.

 

With or without Saudi, that season was MV by a country mile long before December. 

Edited by danmills, 11 March 2022 - 16:00.

[Risil]

I think the OP is right that these are the three standout WDC campaigns of the last 20 years. They're also the three where it's most arguable that the eventual champion had an equipment disadvantage over the year. I voted for Alonso as he was completely faultless that year, miles quicker than every other Michelin runner, and even had to deal with the FIA swooping in and changing his car's design mid-season.

 

Verstappen's 2021 will be partly remembered for the growing sense of farce and collapse of officiating that overtook the championship in the last three rounds, but nonetheless the magnitude of his achievement beating Lewis and Mercedes was colossal. Hamilton's 2018 is probably the least memorable of the three because he had done all the damage by two-thirds distance, resulting in an orderly coronation at the end of the year. But the Ferrari was more than a match for the Mercedes that year, and although it seems obvious in retrospect that Lewis was the better driver, nobody had put Vettel under that amount of pressure before.

[yolo]

I think the OP is right that these are the three standout WDC campaigns of the last 20 years. They're also the three where it's most arguable that the eventual champion had an equipment disadvantage over the year. I voted for Alonso as he was completely faultless that year, miles quicker than every other Michelin runner, and even had to deal with the FIA swooping in and changing his car's design mid-season.

 

Mercedes won the WCC last year, but with a slightly more competent 2nd driver, Red Bull should have won it. Perez played his role to perfection, which was to pester Hamilton and help Max win the title, but he wasn't much of an asset for team Red Bull .

 

Red Bull had the more consistent car across different track layouts/temperature conditions/tyre compounds, but Mercedes made a real push for it at tail end of the season.

 

I'd say at best Red Bull had a marginal advantage (we forget the extent of their advantage over the field in places like Baku, Monaco, Austria, and we will never know how fast they could have gone at Hungary or Silverstone), and at worst both cars were even over the entire season.

 

That's not to say Max didn't do a standout job, because he did. Shame the title fight ended the way it did.

[William Hunt]

I vote for Jim Clark in 1963. Seriously this is a ridiculous topic / thread.

[MLC]

Prost 1986 if we’re allowed a write-in vote.  

[George Costanza]

Michael Schumacher in 2000 IMHO, was Michael's finest season.

But I think for this... Lewis in 2018.

Edited by George Costanza, 11 March 2022 - 23:14.

[PlayboyRacer]

Prost 1986 if we’re allowed a write-in vote.

If we're going down the path of opening it up, none of these are in the same stratosphere as Prost's 1986 season.

You want to see a properly brilliant driver win in a properly inferior car, watch '86 from start to finish. He was superb. It's ridiculous to say about a 4x World Champion but he's underrated and always has been.

[HighwayStar]

I'm torn between Alonso in 2006 and Hamilton in 2018. My chief reservation with Hamilton's 2018 season is that it's difficult to be sure whether the comparative ease with which he eventually won the title was down to Vettel underperforming in the second half of the year, or whether Hamilton was just so brilliant that he made everyone else look bad by comparison. In 2006, Alonso beat the great Michael Schumacher in a very competitive Ferrari which surpassed the Renault as the fastest car from the United States GP onwards, which seems a greater achievement than beating Vettel. However, many of Alonso's standout performances that year seem like fairly routine victories where he wasn't challenged, in comparison to the spectacular highlights of Hamilton's 2018 season - the German GP is an obvious standout due to its significance in the championship battle and I used to consider Singapore 2018 (both qualifying and the race) to be the absolute zenith of Hamilton's F1 career, although I think he surpassed it in Brazil last year. I think Alonso's 2006 season is difficult to beat for consistency, in 18 races he finished first or second in 14 of them, with mechanical DNFs accounting for two other races (including Hungary, one of the finest drives of his entire career). The only substandard race from his entire season was Indianapolis, the only time Fisichella genuinely outraced him all season. By contrast, Hamilton was outpaced by Bottas a few times in the early part of 2018 and lucky to pick up the win from his team mate in Baku, although the Finn hardly saw which way he went after Canada. I think I will go for Hamilton, just, on the grounds that I believe he was unquestionably the best driver in 2018 (a case can be made for Schumacher in 2006) but both campaigns were brilliant overall.

 

Max Verstappen enjoyed a great season last year, although I personally feel his driving in the races as the championship reached its conclusion, particularly in Saudi Arabia, pulls down his championship compared to the other two campaigns. To a lesser extent I have doubts about his start to the season as well, as I think the Red Bull was the superior car in Bahrain and he probably should have won that race, indeed he may have done if he had been slightly less impatient in overtaking Hamilton. I do think he had a slightly better season than Hamilton overall - he was more consistently quick throughout the season and did a better job of getting points from the weekends when his car wasn't the fastest (Hamilton's Monaco GP was in my opinion his worst race for several seasons and worse than any of Verstappen's performances in 2021).

Edited by HighwayStar, 12 March 2022 - 10:24.

[PlayboyRacer]

I'm torn between Alonso in 2006 and Hamilton in 2018. My chief reservation with Hamilton's 2018 season is that it's difficult to be sure whether the comparative ease with which he eventually won the title was down to Vettel underperforming in the second half of the year, or whether Hamilton was just so brilliant that he made everyone else look bad by comparison. In 2006, Alonso beat the great Michael Schumacher in a very competitive Ferrari which surpassed the Renault as the fastest car from the United States GP onwards, which seems a greater achievement than beating Vettel. However, many of Alonso's standout performances that year seem like fairly routine victories where he wasn't challenged,in comparison to the spectacular highlights of Hamilton's 2018 season - the German GP is an obvious standout due to its significance in the championship battle and I used to consider Singapore 2018 (both qualifying and the race) to be the absolute zenith of Hamilton's F1 careeralthough I think he surpassed it in Brazil last year

That was pretty much my reasoning for picking Hamilton's 2018 season too. He had some extraordinary performances that year, perhaps not quite as consistent as Alonso's 2006 throughout but I feel Lewis hit the higher peaks. And the 2018 Ferrari was very, very good. Vettel did mentally collapse and fold like a deck of cards but Hamilton's constant pressure and brilliance at pivotal moments no doubt contributed to that.

[AnR]

A toss between Alonso breaking the Ferrari dominance and Verstappen putting a dent in the Merc dominance, I voted Verstappen as I see the majority here.

 

Hard to judge because Lewis was very error prone in 2021 but to snatch a title from the most dominant era in F1 history took it's toll on mainly the Merc fans and this place nearly broke so that made my choice : )

 

2018 doesn't even come close IMO, in the middle of Merc era.

[PlayboyRacer]

2018 doesn't even come close IMO, in the middle of Merc era.

Lmfao

[flyboym3]

2006 Alonso dethroning Schumacher was special.

2018 was ok but I never rated vettel anyway.

2021 was ruined by an FIA travesty and shouldn't even be an option.

Edited by flyboym3, 12 March 2022 - 13:36.

[AnR]

Hamilton in 2018 wins this easy.

 

that didn't age well : )

[P123]

Montoya, 2003.

 

I think I'd hedge with Alonso 2006.  Maybe some of the similar shine comes off Lewis for 2018 as Vettel wilted.  So not the same storied battle to the end.  Max was superb last season, but maybe Brazil and Jeddah are too fresh in the mind for me to give him the nod.  Nevertheless, three excellent WDC campaigns.

[George Costanza]

Fernando had a wonderful season in 2006. No doubt. But I don't think that was Michael's best season regardless of his career, I wouldn't rank his 06 season top 5. Sure, Michael could have won, and I think he would have, but Fernando was better in 06 in a slower car from summer of 2006 to fall of 2006.

Edited by George Costanza, 12 March 2022 - 15:44.

[George Costanza]

If we're going down the path of opening it up, none of these are in the same stratosphere as Prost's 1986 season.

You want to see a properly brilliant driver win in a properly inferior car, watch '86 from start to finish. He was superb. It's ridiculous to say about a 4x World Champion but he's underrated and always has been.

The only season that would be compared with Prost 1986 would be Alonso 2012 or Schumacher in 1997, but they didn't win the championship.

Alain Prost always been an incredible driver. Always. I think if he stayed at Williams in 1994 or 1995, he would have won another championship.

Edited by George Costanza, 12 March 2022 - 15:45.

[PlatenGlass]

For me it's either Alonso in 2006 or Hamilton in 2018 but I'm not inclined to do a race by race analysis to determine which was better.

All three drivers drove at a very high level and it's difficult to distinguish them in general, but I wouldn't vote for Verstappen because of some of the incidents, particularly at Saudi Arabia.

I also don't think first past the post voting works particularly well for this as I suspect most of the Alonso/Hamilton voters would have the other one as their second choice meaning both drivers suffer from "vote splitting" in this poll.

Edit - Actually going for Hamilton.

Edited by PlatenGlass, 12 March 2022 - 16:42.

[PlayboyRacer]

The only season that would be compared with Prost 1986 would be Alonso 2012 or Schumacher in 1997, but they didn't win the championship.

Alain Prost always been an incredible driver. Always. I think if he stayed at Williams in 1994 or 1995, he would have won another championship.

You're right and I'd also place Schumacher's 1998 season and Senna's 1993 season amongst those you mentioned.

But if I'm being totally honest, I'd still place Prost's 1986 above them all. When he finished a race, he was on the podium. And his MP4/2C certainly didn't always warrant that. The only exception being Belgium where he raced from the back to 6th, in a damaged car. That was quite a brilliant drive.

[mjjTT]

It’s for me it’s either 2006 or 2021. Chose 2021 at the end. Don’t remember the 2006 season being so toxic as the 2021 one.

 

For 2018 I don’t understand why it’s on the list. I remember it because of Ferrari and Vettel bottling it.

[HighwayStar]

The only season that would be compared with Prost 1986 would be Alonso 2012 or Schumacher in 1997, but they didn't win the championship.

Alain Prost always been an incredible driver. Always. I think if he stayed at Williams in 1994 or 1995, he would have won another championship.

 

I consider Prost's 1986 season to be one of the greatest achievements in F1 history and one of the few seasons where the title was won by a driver driving what was clearly not the fastest car (as opposed to one of two or more fairly evenly matched packages). Since I started watching, Alonso in 2012 is the only season I've seen which has come close to Prost's 1986 campaign.

 

Two title winning campaigns that that I think fall somewhere between the two categories are Michael Schumacher's second title in 1995 and Alonso's first title in 2005. In the case of Schumacher's 1995, he performed extremely well to win so comfortably with a record-equalling total of nine race wins against a potentially faster Williams car, but he did so against an off-form Damon Hill (who crumbled in the second half of the year in particular) and David Coulthard, who was never able to consistently get close to Schumacher's level. When you remember that Prost triumphed against Williams-Hondas driven by Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, 1995 falls short in this respect. In 2005, Alonso did very well to win the championship against peak Kimi Raikkonen in a very fast McLaren that was the class of the field for much of the season, but the superior reliability of the Renault compensated somewhat for their deficit in pace.

Edited by HighwayStar, 12 March 2022 - 18:50.

[GunnarN7]

I'd say Max 2021. His last few races were a bit messy but then again 2021 had a few extra rounds so it's not a fair comparison. It's harder to mantain consistency all throughout when there are more rounds, plus he was fighting his title rival neck and neck in every race. Alonso dominated the first part of 06, and struggled in the second part. Similar story in 2018. Verstappen on the other hand, other than both Austrian races and Mexico, had to worry about Hamilton (or Bottas) in every weekend.

 

Also both Alonso and Hamilton had a few of those off races where they were outpaced by their teammates (Germany and Indy 06, and China and Canada 2018) while Max had none of those for more than 18 rounds straight. And even counting those last few races, he made mistakes and was erratic, but he never lacked pace. I'm still not a fan of his antics, but from a pure performance point of view, I think he takes it.

[prty]

Alonso 2006 IIRC is the only closely fought campaign, in which one of the contenders didn't do any driving mistake that costed points. Which is hard to equal.

[PlatenGlass]

I find the addition of Prost's season in 1986 to the discussion interesting. If we were going back that far then it certainly would be worthy of discussion with the others (and maybe some other seasons in between would be too), but I certainly don't see it as a stand-out among those we are discussing.

I often contrast Prost's performance in 1986 with Schumacher in the mid to late 90s against the often superior Newey cars. With Schumacher, you could often tell his car was slower and he'd be behind in qualifying, but he'd put together relentlessly consistent race laps, or short fuel and put in a run of qualifying-style laps, dominate the wet races, and generally harass the Newey car drivers into submission. And you could see this happening in real time as you watched the races. With Prost in 1986, it was very different. You'd watch the races and see the Williams dominating in some of them and think they must be the best car. But then you'd look at the championship table at the end and see Prost's name at the top and then think he must have performed a miracle. It's not to the same extent a case where Prost was beating the Williamses in races where his car was definitely worse. The main race people point to as a great Prost drive is Spa, and given that he only scored 1 point there, it's not where his championship came from.

So how did this happen? Well, first of all, I wouldn't dispute that the Williams was the best car over the season. However, it wasn't completely dominant, and there were races where the McLaren was stronger. I think people remember races like Brands Hatch and Monza where Williams got easy 1-2s and think the whole season must have been like that. But it wasn't. Prost also benefited from his team-mate Rosberg having a difficult time adapting to the car, which made Prost look better. I don't want to downplay Prost's role in this too much and clearly he drove very well and it would be difficult to look good against him anyway. And while I'd obviously rate him ahead of Rosberg, I don't think what happened in 1986 was representative of the difference between them as drivers across their careers. And in the critical final race of the season where Prost had to win against the Williamses to stand a chance, it was actually Rosberg who was the quicker driver having seemingly finally worked out how to drive the car. Without Rosberg suddenly doing that, people would have seen Prost's drive there as one of the greats, beating the obviously superior Williamses to take the title. But with Rosberg's performance, it's quite likely that McLaren actually had the superior car at that track. And because opinions on the superior car at a given track are so fragile in this way, it does make you wonder if there were a couple of other tracks where the McLaren was underrated based on Rosberg's lack of performance.

Also, if Mansell had had reasonable races at Mexico and Australia, he would have won the championship quite comfortably in the end, and even with no change in Prost's own peformance, people wouldn't remember it so much, because he would have lost by an amount that people would have considered more appropriate for the differences between the cars.

Prost is still easily my driver of the season and his championship campaign stands the test of time, but it is one of many great campaigns and I don't think it stands out as much as perhaps others think.

Edited by PlatenGlass, 12 March 2022 - 22:55.

[dissident]

Out of those, Alonso.

 

The only "mistake" I recall him making throughout the whole season was the red flag infringement in Hungary.

 

I was gutted at the time, being a Ferrari & Schumacher fan (who drove brilliantly as well and had higher highs IMO), but in retrospect I have to concede the better driver won.

[rodnet1]

The title was stolen from Hamilton in 2021 so this can never be a good season with the way it ended. I don't recognise Max as the title winner.

Please get a life. Sorry to bring this news to you but despite your strictly personal opinion there is only one world driver champion 2021 and his name Max Verstappen. Get used to it.

[PitViperRacing]

Please get a life. Sorry to bring this news to you but despite your strictly personal opinion there is only one world driver champion 2021 and his name Max Verstappen. Get used to it.

Let's not go down this path again lads <3

[PlayboyRacer]

I often contrast Prost's performance in 1986 with Schumacher in the mid to late 90s against the often superior Newey cars. With Schumacher, you could often tell his car was slower and he'd be behind in qualifying, but he'd put together relentlessly consistent race laps, or short fuel and put in a run of qualifying-style laps, dominate the wet races, and generally harass the Newey car drivers into submission. And you could see this happening in real time as you watched the races. With Prost in 1986, it was very different. You'd watch the races and see the Williams dominating in some of them and think they must be the best car. But then you'd look at the championship table at the end and see Prost's name at the top and then think he must have performed a miracle. It's not to the same extent a case where Prost was beating the Williamses in races where his car was definitely worse. The main race people point to as a great Prost drive is Spa, and given that he only scored 1 point there, it's not where his championship came from.

So how did this happen? Well, first of all, I wouldn't dispute that the Williams was the best car over the season. However, it wasn't completely dominant, and there were races where the McLaren was stronger. I think people remember races like Brands Hatch and Monza where Williams got easy 1-2s and think the whole season must have been like that. But it wasn't. Prost also benefited from his team-mate Rosberg having a difficult time adapting to the car, which made Prost look better. I don't want to downplay Prost's role in this too much and clearly he drove very well and it would be difficult to look good against him anyway. And while I'd obviously rate him ahead of Rosberg, I don't think what happened in 1986 was representative of the difference between them as drivers across their careers. And in the critical final race of the season where Prost had to win against the Williamses to stand a chance, it was actually Rosberg who was the quicker driver having seemingly finally worked out how to drive the car. Without Rosberg suddenly doing that, people would have seen Prost's drive there as one of the greats, beating the obviously superior Williamses to take the title. But with Rosberg's performance, it's quite likely that McLaren actually had the superior car at that track. And because opinions on the superior car at a given track are so fragile in this way, it does make you wonder if there were a couple of other tracks where the McLaren was underrated based on Rosberg's lack of performance.

Also, if Mansell had had reasonable races at Mexico and Australia, he would have won the championship quite comfortably in the end, and even with no change in Prost's own peformance, people wouldn't remember it so much, because he would have lost by an amount that people would have considered more appropriate for the differences between the cars.

Prost is still easily my driver of the season and his championship campaign stands the test of time, but it is one of many great campaigns and I don't think it stands out as much as perhaps others think.

Really odd take. I couldn't disagree more. And Spa in '86 certainly wasn't Prost's only brilliant performance... But given his car was bent like a banana and he was at the back of the field, finishing 6th was a heroic drive. His elite consistency in that season was peerless and it's what won the championship, in a car inferior - all season - to the Williams Honda and occassionally outpaced by a couple of others.

I consider Prost's 1986 season to be one of the greatest achievements in F1 history and one of the few seasons where the title was won by a driver driving what was clearly not the fastest car (as opposed to one of two or more fairly evenly matched packages). Since I started watching, Alonso in 2012 is the only season I've seen which has come close to Prost's 1986 campaign.

Well said. If you look at things with full season context, it probably is Alonso's outstanding 2012 that mirrors Prost's 1986 the most of all.

Edited by PlayboyRacer, 13 March 2022 - 01:41.

[Beamer]

Hamilton 2018 was no heroic fight in any way, 2021 was to controversial and too recent tonreflect, 2006 had me on the edge of my seat with some epic battles. So out of these 3 nondoubt 2006

[timmy bolt]

Please get a life. Sorry to bring this news to you but despite your strictly personal opinion there is only one world driver champion 2021 and his name Max Verstappen. Get used to it.

It's an opinion, he's allowed to have it, you're allowed to have the complete opposite. Everybody needs to accept that without telling people to "get a life".

[timmy bolt]

They were all impressive.
I voted 2006 Alonso.

2018 was a capitulation by Seb and Ferrari despite Hamilton pulling it back and dominating the 2nd half. 2021 the controversy means I can't see it as a straight win.

[Seanspeed]

I rate Lewis' 2008 season above his 2018 season.  The 2008 Ferrari was clearly superior to the Mclaren and Lewis still won.  Took more than a handful of really top tier drives to make it happen. 

[Borko]

Verstappen, by far.
- The shift in powers back and forth from team to team over the season
- One driver being the reigning all conquering champion who was at the best of his abilities
- The other driver being the next generation who finally matured in said season
- Controversies
- Memorable drives from both drivers on various occassions rather than one or two occassions
- Lead of the championship went back and forth
 
 
The other seasons simply didnt offer all this. 
2006 was a very good season. But Schumacher never took the lead of the championship. Despite his mid summer form. Alonso was simply much better.
2018 was partly a good season. But after Germany, it all crumbled down and we had a one sided second half of the season.
 
Edit: Never mind

Schumacher did take the lead after Chinese GP in 2006. Both had 116 points but Schumacher had 7 wins vs Alonso's 6.

2006 for me. Fernando was fantastic. Both Bernie and FIA wanted Schumacher to retire with the 8th WDC, Renault's mass damper was banned in July, also that ridiculous penalty in Monza when they penalised him for "impeding" Massa.
When he had the fastest car, he took 84 points out of 90. Had that astonishingly good race in Hungary, going from 15th to first, that was lost because of the wheelnut failure after the second pitstop.
Also, the legendary battle with MSC in Turkey, when Michael was practically on his for the final 18 laps.

2018 - better driver won. Vettel was horrible from Hockenheim until the end of the season. Lewis sealed the championship in Mexico already, with two races to go, I think you should have put 2008 instead of 2018.

2021 - certainly a jaw dropping season and performances from Lewis and Max, but I don't know, too much "Netflix" for my taste.

[renzmann]

The title was stolen from Hamilton in 2021 so this can never be a good season with the way it ended. I don't recognise Max as the title winner.

"Ignorance is the Root of all Evil" (Socrates)

[AnR]

I rate Lewis' 2008 season above his 2018 season.  The 2008 Ferrari was clearly superior to the Mclaren and Lewis still won.  Took more than a handful of really top tier drives to make it happen. 

 

history rewritten : )

 

McLaren was a full feathered cheat machine, they even had to apologize for it and it was still voted car off the year, nor did Massa and Hamilton had a season to write home about, and it was even sealed by a fixed race....2008 was horrible

[noikeee]

Better car or not Lewis had a ton of mistakes in 2008. No doubt he was much more mature and much more impressive in 2018.

[Szoelloe]

Alonso, by a mile.

[timmy bolt]

Better car or not Lewis had a ton of mistakes in 2008. No doubt he was much more mature and much more impressive in 2018.

It was also his second year. It's hard to quantify but by comparison it was Alonso's 5th, Hamilton 2018's 11th and Max's 7th (I think).

So surely comes down to individual opinions about how much that means.

[PlayboyRacer]

Better car or not Lewis had a ton of mistakes in 2008. No doubt he was much more mature and much more impressive in 2018.

I'd counter that with the context that it was still only his 2nd season in Formula 1. Many forget that (or just perhaps conveniently overlook it...)

Better car at times, worse car at times, sure not perfect at times... but I rate his 2008 season highly. He still had some superb drives and Ferrari were strong, so was Felipe Massa. Lewis didn't have it easy.

[P123]

I'd counter that with the context that it was still only his 2nd season in Formula 1. Many forget that (or just perhaps conveniently overlook it...)

Better car at times, worse car at times, sure not perfect at times... but I rate his 2008 season highly. He still had some superb drives and Ferrari were strong, so was Felipe Massa. Lewis didn't have it easy.

 

Although even with that caveat, probably his worst season next to 2011.  Both of which also contain some of his best victories.

[Burtros]

Verstappen over Alonso simply because Fernando was WDC already.

As for 2018 being even on the list….. lmfao. The second half he had the car advantage back and Lewis used it brilliantly to deprive us of a classic.

History cannot be re-written.

[PlayboyRacer]

Although even with that caveat, probably his worst season next to 2011. Both of which also contain some of his best victories.

You're probably right. But doesn't that just show how brilliant his career has been overall? If those two seasons are your "worst" I'd say you're pretty exceptional for the most part.

[noikeee]

I'd counter that with the context that it was still only his 2nd season in Formula 1. Many forget that (or just perhaps conveniently overlook it...)

Hence why I said he was much more mature 10 years later.

[Seanspeed]

history rewritten : )

 

McLaren was a full feathered cheat machine, they even had to apologize for it and it was still voted car off the year, nor did Massa and Hamilton had a season to write home about, and it was even sealed by a fixed race....2008 was horrible

Cheat machine? Huh? 

 

Voted car of the year, sure.  I always thought that was silly, but surely in hindsight we can see how utterly ridiculous that was, right?  It insinuates that somehow Massa and Hamilton were pretty equivalently competitive drivers.   

 

I stick by what I said.  Even with a few mistakes, Lewis still pulled out incredible drives against superior machinery pretty regularly.  If somebody like Alonso had been in that Ferrari, I dont think anybody would remember the season as anything except a pretty clear walkover.  

[PlayboyRacer]

Hence why I said he was much more mature 10 years later.

That's fine. But why highlight mistakes in 2008? Or do we expect drivers in their 2nd seasons not to make any?

Drivers in midfield cars, with no pressure whatsoever make mistakes as second year F1 drivers. Lewis was in the pressure cooker of a top team, leading McLaren and fighting for the championship. Expecting perfection probably wasn't realistic.