2017 Season - Rate the Drivers

[Chrill]

Yup. We've had our first race. Time to provide an opinion on the drivers!

Copy the below to fill in your own digits if you're too lazy to make a template.

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Mercedes:
Lewis Hamilton - /10
Valtteri Bottas - /10

Red Bull:
Daniel Ricciardo - /10
Max Verstappen - /10

Ferrari:
Sebastian Vettel - /10
Kimi R?ikk?nen - /10

Force India:
Sergio Perez - /10
Esteban Ocon - /10

Williams:
Felipe Massa - /10
Lance Stroll - /10

McLaren:
Fernando Alonso - /10
Stoffel Vandoorne - /10

Toro Rosso:
Pierre Gasly - /10
Brendon Hartley - /10

Haas:
Romain Grosjean - /10
Kevin Magnussen - /10

Renault:
Nico H?lkenberg - /10
Carlos Sainz Jr - /10

Sauber:
Marcus Ericsson - /10
Pascal Wehrlein - /10

Chrill - Australia:


Mercedes:
Lewis Hamilton – 6/10
Valtteri Bottas – 7/10

Red Bull:
Daniel Ricciardo – 5/10
Max Verstappen – 8/10

Ferrari:
Sebastian Vettel – 10/10
Kimi Räikkönen – 7/10

Force India:
Sergio Perez – 8/10
Esteban Ocon – 8/10

Williams:
Felipe Massa – 8/10
Lance Stroll – 5/10

McLaren:
Fernando Alonso – 8/10
Stoffel Vandoorne – 5/10

Toro Rosso:
Carlos Sainz Jr – 8/10
Daniil Kvyat – 7/10

Haas:
Romain Grosjean – 8/10
Kevin Magnussen – 3/10

Renault:
Nico Hülkenberg – 7/10
Jolyon Palmer – 4/10

Sauber:
Marcus Ericsson – 5/10
Antonio Giovinazzi – 8/10

[Penfold]

I'm still deep in contemplation... you know I don't like to rush these things.

[Penfold]

Teams ordered in expected (guessed at) 2017 WCC positions.

Australia:

Merc:
Hammy - 7 - Uninspiring in race but good pole lap bumps him up by one.
Val - 7 - Solid pace for first race with team.

Ferrari:
Seb - 10 - Perfection.
Kimi - 6 - Not even close.

Red Bull:
Dan - 4 - Thou shalt not crash in qualifying....
Max - 8 - Fifth in quali, fifth in race... that's all the car had in it.

Williams:
Baby - 8 - Didn't put a foot wrong.
Stroll - 6 - Did put a foot wrong, but not a terrible first race so I'll be slightly generous with scoring.

Force India:
Perez - 9 - I'm not writing an explanatory note for all of these....
Ocon - 8 - Or am I?

Toro Rosso:
Sainz - 8 - No, I'm not.
Kvyat - 8 - I'd say he matched Carlos' performance.

McLaren:
Alonso - 9 - Everything from the car, and a little bit more.
Van Door - 7 - Technical issues in quali & race make it tough to judge.

Haas:
Big Jean - 9 - Let down by car.
Son of Magnus - 3 - Let down by lack of talent.

Renault:
Hulk - 7 - It was okay.
Palmer - 4 - Not so much; though hindered (then stopped) by brake issues in race.

Sauber:
Chrill's mate Marcus - 6 - Not exactly helped by KMag's first corner heroics.  Still, shock of the weekend is that I've awarded him a higher score than his mate has.
Gio - 9 - Such a good debut, too bad he doesn't get the rest of the season.

[Chrill]

My only objection is that Massa doesn't have a nickname in your list. How about Old Man, or Pensioner?

Other than that, do please maintain the same order of drivers as I have. It helps when I fill in the pretty pretty Excel document that I use to collect data

[Chrill]

Seeing how the highest average of anyone in 2016 was 7.5, I think it's fair to say Giovinazzi will come out the best driver of the season. He's 8 for me, 9 for you, so that'll put him on 8.5 average. Decent enough.

[Penfold]

My only objection is that Massa doesn't have a nickname in your list. How about Old Man, or Pensioner?

Other than that, do please maintain the same order of drivers as I have. It helps when I fill in the pretty pretty Excel document that I use to collect data

Okay, from next race teams will be placed in your (incorrect) order....

Took your point on Massa and adjusted his name accordingly.

[Chrill]

My incorrect order is also the order the teams finished in 2016 

[Penfold]

Wow.  So you're suggesting that using the actual ranking order of teams in the previous season is a more logical approach than relying on my guesses of where they'll finish in 2017?  Sometimes you can be so cruel....

[Chrill]

Let's go to China.

Mercedes:
Lewis Hamilton – 10/10
Valtteri Bottas – 5/10

Red Bull:
Daniel Ricciardo – 7/10
Max Verstappen – 9/10

Ferrari:
Sebastian Vettel – 9/10
Kimi Räikkönen – 5/10

Force India:
Sergio Perez – 8/10
Esteban Ocon – 7/10

Williams:
Felipe Massa – 5/10
Lance Stroll – 4/10

McLaren:
Fernando Alonso – 10/10
Stoffel Vandoorne – 7/10

Toro Rosso:
Carlos Sainz Jr – 9/10
Daniil Kvyat – 6/10

Haas:
Romain Grosjean – 6/10
Kevin Magnussen – 8/10

Renault:
Nico Hülkenberg – 6/10
Jolyon Palmer – 4/10

Sauber:
Marcus Ericsson – 5/10
Antonio Giovinazzi – 3/10

A lot of high scores today. I usually don't award 10 points, now I've given out 3 of them in 2 races!!

Abysmal performances from Stroll and Giovinazzi, the two rookies. Apparently unable to handle the tricky conditions and the new cars. Giovinazzi made the very same error twice and it penalised him hard both times.

Alonso keeps doing what he should not be able to in the McLaren, and totally destroys Vandoorne whom I rate highly.

All in all some good drives all around. Bottas and Raikkonen disappointed me today.

[Penfold]

Tomorrow, and with drivers in 'correct' order....

[Chrill]

with drivers in 'correct' order....

Oh you know how to turn me on, Mister...

[Penfold]

I should do after all these years.

[Penfold]

We made it to tomorrow.

China:

Merc:
Hammy - 10 - Both feet in exactly the right place at all times.
Val - 5 - I'm tempted to say rookie errors....

Red Bull:
Dan - 7 - Caught, passed, and ultimately beaten by team-mate who started eleven spots further back.
Max - 10 - Caught, passed, and ultimately beat team-mate who started eleven spots further ahead.

Ferrari:
Seb - 9 - Would've been a ten if not for his shabby start.
Kimi - 5 - What can I say about Kimi... umm, well he normally goes well in Bahrain which is up next.

Force India:
Perez - 7 - Strong performance in quali; team-mate ran him close in race.
Ocon - 7 - Stacking up well to Sergio.

Williams:
Baby - 5 - Car is plainly weak in these conditions but didn't exactly cover himself in glory.
Stroll - 3 - Not sure why he was so surprised to have another car going up the inside on lap one.

McHonda - Good job we're not doing team scores as I'd hate to have to put a big, fat zero next to their name:
Alonso - 10 - Drove the doors off it... and then it died.
Van Door - 5 - Seven tenths behind in qualifying... seven bloody tenths for Christ's sake.

Toro Rosso:
Sainz - 9 - A ten if not for his spin.
Kvyat - 7 - Bettered Sainz in quali, not so much in the race.

Haas:
Big Jean - 5 - Weak race.
Son of Magnus - 8 - Surprisingly strong one.

Renault:
Hulk - 6 - Points off for speeding, and speeding again.
Palmer - 5 - Blah.

Sauber:
Chrill's mate Marcus - 6 - Yeah, it was okay given car's obvious limitations.
Gio - 2 - F1 is an unforgiving business, and the same can be true of my scoring.


Edit: I've bumped Bottas up a point to a now magnificent five.

[Chrill]

Bahrain.

Mercedes:
Lewis Hamilton – 5/10 (One point deducted for the pit lane incident with Ricciardo)
Valtteri Bottas – 6/10 (Great quali, great first lap, poor rest of race)

Red Bull:
Daniel Ricciardo – 7/10 (It's difficult to be more anonymous, yet still involved in incidents and finishing in the top 5)
Max Verstappen – 5/10 (Brake failure. Meh)

Ferrari:
Sebastian Vettel – 9/10 (Tempted to go for another 10, but choosing not to because he should have qualified on the front row for that)
Kimi Räikkönen – 5/10 (Still very pale in comparison to his mate. P4 is better than his performance deserved)

Force India:
Sergio Perez – 9/10 (What's that, 13 races in a row in the points? And from P18? Nice)
Esteban Ocon – 8/10 (Solid 10th finish, again. Does a decent enough job)

Williams:
Felipe Massa – 9/10 (Can't do much better. Would have been a 10 had he kept Kimi behind him for longer)
Lance Stroll – 6/10 (Hard to rate, because he just can't finish a race. Not his fault this time)

McLaren:
Fernando Alonso – 7/10 (I'm deducting 1 point because he is very unsportsmanlike towards McLaren. "We are thinking plan B, how does the tyres feel?" "Do what you want". Not very helpful)
Stoffel Vandoorne – X/10 (Well. Yeah)

Toro Rosso:
Carlos Sainz Jr – 3/10 (Abysmal performance, crashing both his team mate and the young Canadian boy)
Daniil Kvyat – 5/10 (Pretty invisible throughout the race. Not very exciting)

Haas:
Romain Grosjean – 8/10 (Keeps getting the max out of his car. Not bad)
Kevin Magnussen – 5/10 (Once again a not-so-memorable performance. I can't even recall why he retired. Did it break down? Did he crash?)

Renault:
Nico Hülkenberg – 9/10 (Well, that wasn't bad. Q3 followed up by his first points of the year. Solid driving in a car not as solid)
Jolyon Palmer – 4/10 (Once again thoroughly destroyed by the Hulk, even running behind the very slow Ericsson)

Sauber:
Marcus Ericsson – 6/10 (Tried to 1-stop and the safety car messed it all up. Decent driving, just nowhere near anybody else)
Pascal Wehrlein – 8/10 (Very impressive return to the grid. Tempted to 9/10, but he should've scored a point then!)

[Penfold]

Bahrain:

Merc:
Hammy - 7 - And that's with one point off for pit-lane shenanigans.
Val - 5 - Just so slow.

Red Bull - Car can't yet fight with Ferrari/Merc but is comfortably ahead of the rest, leaving drivers stranded in no man's land.
Dan - 7 - Best of 'the rest'.
Max - 6 - Not even Max can drive without rear brakes....

Ferrari:
Seb - 9 - Almost perfect.
Kimi - 4 - No idea what's going on.

Force India:
Perez - 9 - Out of place after quali so places gained is exaggerated, but still a cracking drive.
Ocon - 7 - A step behind Sergio but v. good given his experience.

Williams - A dry race, hurrah!
Baby - 9 - Seems more energised than last year, perhaps relishing role as undisputed team leader.
Stroll - 6 - Stilll too far off Massa but was running okay after first stop and making up places, then came Sainz.

McHonda - Another big, fat zero for the team:
Alonso - 8 - Still driving the doors off it for no reward....
Van Door - X - No comment needed.

Toro Rosso:
Sainz - 2 - For the crash and his subsequent delusional comments about it.
Kvyat - 5 - For not doing anything particularly wrong... or right.

Haas:
Big Jean - 8 - Agree with your score & reasoning.
Son of Magnus - 5 - And here as well.  Car ground to a halt, don't know why... probably because it's a Haas.

Renault:
Hulk - 10 - You might shy away from the big ten but I'm handing it to Hulk for this one.  Perfect on both days.
Palmer - 3 - Massive points deduction for being so far behind team-mate - and one more for clipping Kvyat.

Sauber:
Chrill's mate Marcus - 5 - Outclassed by Pascal on both days.
Blaise - 9 - What a way to return.  I think his best performance in F1.