2018 Season - Rate the Drivers

[Penfold]

Seems not.

Are you enjoying my string of highly original comments for Toffee Van Door?  Some of my best work.

[Chrill]

It's getting a bit stale. Much like his driving.

[Matt]

On the other hand, if you look at the average lap times for Le Mans, Alonso easily beat all of his teammates, who are quite good. So maybe Vandoorne is not doing that badly.

[Penfold]

There is, of course, the greatness of Alonso to consider, but I just get this sense that the gulf between them is wider than last year.

[M4A1Carbine]

Cheers!

No Matt or M4A1?

Sorry for my absence. Got married a few weeks ago and have been away for a few weeks. I?ll revisit the last 2 races and post my ratings.

[Chrill]

Cheers!

No Matt or M4A1?

Sorry for my absence. Got married a few weeks ago and have been away for a few weeks. I?ll revisit the last 2 races and post my ratings.

That is no excuse. I'm getting married 18 August, but that's perfectly slap bang in the middle of the summer break. There's a race the weekend after, am not missing that.

On another note, congratulations for the wedding! Who is the lucky one, you or your partner?

[Chrill]

France was a dizzy track with lots of colours and, apparently, an inability to actually get to and from the track for spectators.

Mercedes:
Lewis Hamilton - 9/10 (Was never in any doubt, had this win secured by the second corner and drove as such)
Valtteri Bottas - 6/10 (Punted off the track by Vettel, but failed to replicate the Ferrari man's return to the front)

Ferrari:
Sebastian Vettel - 7/10 (Driving wise, at least a 9. Let's say 9.5. Removing 2.5 points for that useless first corner)
Kimi Raikkonen - 6/10 (Unimpressive. Only made the podium because of Vettel-Bottas and a Ricciardo engine issue)

Red Bull:
Daniel Ricciardo - 6/10 (Had nothing against Verstappen this weekend)
Max Verstappen - 8/10 (The only one who, at least sometimes during the race, managed to keep up with Hamilton. Strong weekend, strong race)

Force India:
Sergio Perez - 5/10 (Rather unspectacular race and then retired with an engine issue)
Esteban Ocon - X/10 (I haven't decided who to blame, him or Gasly)

Williams:
Lance Stroll - 4/10 (What a rookie error! That tyre was gone and he kept driving. He should have known that there was no way it wouldn't deflate. Silly)
Sergey Sirotkin - 5/10 (As slow as his team mate but made it to the end. That deserves an extra point)

Renault:
Carlos Sainz Jr - 8/10 (Ran as high as third after the start, fell down behind K-Mag in the end. Still, a very strong race. Nice)
Nico Hulkenberg - 7/10 (Not nearly as strong, or so I felt when watching. Still, finished just behind his team mate so maybe he actually was pretty strong?)

Toro Rosso:
Pierre Gasly - X/10 (I haven't decided who to blame, him or Ocon)
Brendon Hartley - 5/10 (Ran a ridiculously long stint on ultras, no doubt hoping for rain to save him a pit stop. Never materialised, and so fell down the order. In the end only Williams finished behind him)

Haas:
Romain Grosjean - 5/10 (Was he in the race? He crashed Ocon at the start and then sort of managed to drop down the order despite starting in the top ten. He just can't score points this year!)
Kevin Magnussen - 9/10 (What a strong race! P6, even kept Bottas behind him at the end there. Nice driving saw him pass Leclerc and Sainz to secure best of the rest)

McLaren:
Fernando Alonso - 5/10 (He was overtaken by Stoffel. That says it all)
Stoffel Vandoorne - 7/10 (Actually had the better race when compared to his world champion Le Mans winning team mate. Poor starting position made P12 the best he could hope for)

Sauber:
Marcus Ericsson - 6/10 (With pretty much zero practice, P15 was a pretty strong qualifying. Clean start saw him P11 but was passed by both Vandoorne and Hartley. After that he had a much better second half of the race but was obviously never in contention for anything other than a non-points finish)
Charles Leclerc - 9/10 (It sucks to be Swedish right now, but Leclerc is perhaps the driver kicking the most team mate butt. Such impressive performances lately, I'm almost certain he is heading for Ferrari in 2019)

[Chrill]

Interesting statistic on Max. For his first 4 races, I rated him 4-3-1-0 which averages out at 2.0 per race. For his last 4 races, he's 7-9-9-8 which averages out at 8.25. Talk about improvement.

[Penfold]

Not crashing makes all the difference.

France - Tedious DRS-fuelled race at a visually hideous circuit.

Merc:
Hammy - 8 - I've been giving nine points for this sort of victory cruise (pole, lead from start, no need to really push), but sod it, they're only getting eight from now on.
Val - 7 - Was a tiny fraction off Hammy in qualifying; taken out of race contention by Seb - considerable damage to rear of car impeded progress.

Ferrari:
Seb - 6 - Screwed his (and Valerie's) race at turn one.  Muppet.
Kimi - 6 - Pretty ordinary but at least he didn't hit anyone.

Red Bull
The Pie Man - 6 - Nothing fancy.
Max - 8 - Just about an eight.  As fast as car would allow.

Force India:
Perez - 5 - Well off Ocon in qualifying, mediocre in race.
Ocon - X - Both he and Gasly at fault for crash.

Williams
Stroller - 3 - Painfully slow, but is it them, the car, or a joint effort?
Sirotkin - 4 - Correct, it's a joint effort.  Didn't drive until his tyre blew - good going!

Renault:
Sainz - 8 - Very good but hindered at end of race by some power issue - bloody Renaults!
Hulk - 5 - A rare off weekend for Nico.

Toro Rosso:
Greasy Peril - X - Sharing blame for crash with Ocon.
J.R. - 4 - Miles behind Gasly in qualifying, rarely spotted in race.

Haas:
Big Jean - 4 - Crashed in quali and went backwards in the race.
Son of Magnus - 8 - Good driving but a weirdly slow lap in Q3.  Should've been starting ahead of 'It is I' and Sainz.

McLaren:
Aslan - 6 - I almost can't believe how bad the car was this race.  Kept out on tyres far too long, presumably in hope of a downpour.
Van Door - 6 - Finished ahead of teamie thanks to better tyre choices, but still losing out in qualifying.

Sauber:
Chrill's mate Marcus - 5 - Okay performance given lack of running, but then perhaps don't stuff it in practice?
'It is I' - 9 - Now this guy deserves a nine.

[Chrill]

Oh boy, someone's a bit grumpy. I'd say some of your ratings are a bit too low. Magnussen had a 9-pointer for sure, and did Hartley really deserve a 4? Oh well, ratings added to my document now!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dnPSeVbYFM6KP0SW2SPGzJch7KAiLuaUvD4hpSWSHek/edit#gid=688805631

[Penfold]

I am a bit grumpy with F1 in general these days (and by these days I mean since the 'temporary' introduction of DRS back in 2011), but as for my scoring, well I'm just giving myself a bit more headroom to reward the truly exceptional efforts.  KMag had a great drive but was docked a point for his lacklustre effort in Q3 - if you don't punish them for such failings how will they ever learn?

[Chrill]

Huh. I posted here yesterday. Ratings and all. Oh well. The ratings are added to the MF1 document.

Driver of the race was Grosjean or Max, I believe. Honorable mentions to either no other, or several others.

[Penfold]

Scores without comments, it's not quite the same.

Max as my driver of the day.  Fifty six consistently fast laps on a compound which his team-mate had shredded after just twenty trips round the circuit - I think he may even earn a perfect ten.

[Chrill]

Well come on then, give us scores too.

Matt and M4A1, y'all need to return to rating as well.

[Penfold]

I'll do them tomorrow morning.