2018 Season - Rate the Drivers

[Penfold]

I see you were feeling generous towards Perez!

[Chrill]

Like I said, he made it interesting

[Chrill]

Nippon.

Mercedes:
Lewis Hamilton - 8/10 (This is getting boring. He's too good)
Valtteri Bottas - 7/10 (Clean, slightly behind Lewis but not too far. Decent. Mercedes could easily have raced way harder than they did)

Ferrari:
Sebastian Vettel - 6/10 (Overly eager, but then again he had to be. Starting P9, he was P4 within a lap. Mighty. Then a desperate move on Verstappen failed, fair enough, and he fought back to P6)
Kimi Raikkonen - 5/10 (Quite poor, wasn't it? Lost out to both Red Bull cars somehow)

Red Bull:
Daniel Ricciardo - 9/10 (That's what we in Sweden call "oj vilket race". That means "Wow what a race". Start at P15? No problem)
Max Verstappen - 7/10 (Was pushing Bottas hard at the end but realistically didn't have a chance to overtake. Messy with Raikkonen gives -1, messy with Vettel gives no score change because I can't blame either driver there)

Force India:
Sergio Perez - 8/10 (Best of the rest. That's good, no?)
Esteban Ocon - 6/10 (Third best of the rest. Was pushing Grosjean hard but could not squeeze past. Decent race, but should have salvaged more)

Williams:
Lance Stroll - 5/10 (Decent qualifying, but yeah no he doesn't have it over an entire race. Dead last from P14 on grid. Not good enough)
Sergey Sirotkin - 6/10 (Beat his Stroller. That's all we can say about him)

Renault:
Carlos Sainz Jr - 7/10 (We saw that the Renault was too slow here, so scoring even one point is strong of Carlos)
Nico Hulkenberg - 6/10 (Wasn't matching Sainz. Then retired)

Toro Rosso:
Pierre Gasly - 6/10 (A poor strategy moved him from P7 on the grid down behind a lot of cars. Managed, after a long time, to overtake Ericsson. By then, points were not on the table)
Brendon Hartley - 5/10 (Like Gasly, but failed to overtake Ericsson)

Haas:
Romain Grosjean - 7/10 (Exited the pits just ahead of Perez-Leclerc, lucky boy, but in the end Perez finished ahead of him. Since Perez got 8, well that's a 7 for RoGro then)
Kevin Magnussen - 2/10 (Absurd driving when Leclerc was passing. Left his defensive move so late that the stewards deemed it "not a reaction", which means he basically turned into Leclerc. Bollocks move, should be a heavy penalty because he was driving dangerously)

McLaren:
Fernando Alonso - 6/10 (I feel like his heart wasn't in it here. Beaten by the Toro Rossos at a track where he shouted "GP2 engine!" is no fun)
Stoffel Vandoorne - 6/10 (Actually hounded his own team mate for a bit. Fair enough)

Sauber:
Marcus Ericsson - 7/10 (Great recovery from P20, my driver of the day except for.. yeah... the uh... touching his team mate on the restart. Deducting 2 points for that, but he held on to those mediums the entire race and kept Hartley and Alonso behind him to the flag)
Charles Leclerc - 6/10 (A messy race sent him to the back of the grid where he ended up crashing out, possibly due to a mechanical issue)


Driver of the day? I mean, I'd be tempted to give it to Hamilton because he was the best. Still, it might just be Ricciardo.

[Chrill]

Clearly we forgot Russia. Oh well. It wasn't spectacular.

[Penfold]

I have already forgotten the race.

Japan scores soon....

[Penfold]

Japan scores right now:

Merc:
Hammy - 8 - The Merc's pace moved a chunk ahead of Ferrari's at Singapore and this remains the case, all a bit too easy for Lewis.
Val - 6 - An expert at playing second fiddle.

Ferrari:
Seb - 5 - Fluffed qualifying (not helped by Ferrari tyre strategy); great job on lap one but should've waited for DRS activation rather than lunging at Max - especially with Red Bulls always being so late on their brakes.
Kimi - 6 - Fluffed qualifying (though not quite so badly as Seb); car damaged when hit by Max at the chicane.

Red Bull
The Pie Man - 9 - Superb recovery drive.
Max - 6 - Great drive but money (points) off for hitting Kimi and then blaming it on Kimi; clearly Max doesn't believe it's his responsibility to rejoin the track in a safe manner.

Force India/Stroll:
Perez - 7 - Nifty drive and helpful points for whatever this team is currently called.
Ocon - 6 - Silly mistake meant a three-place grid drop, not surprisingly finished behind Sergio.

Williams
Stroller - 4 - Point off for failing to notice Alonso and then forcing him off the track.  Frankly, he's lucky to score any points after barging my man Fernando.
Sirotkin - 6 - Beat Stroll and didn't hit Alonso.

Renault:
Rally Guy's Son - 7 - Slow car (clearly they gave up on 2018 some time back) but a good effort from Carlos.
Hulk - 5 - Poor.  Was way behind Carlos and then they retired him, which must've been a blessed relief.

Toro Rosso:
Greasy Peril - 6 - Plain terrible at strategy some of these teams.  Like Haas with Grosjean, Toro Rosso left its drivers out far too long for the first stint.
J.R. -  5 - Ditto for this guy.

Haas:
Big Jean - 7 - Should've been pitted a lap or two after Perez but instead circulated for five more laps during which he lost a huge chunk of time to the Mexican.
Son of Magnus - 2 - Good grief.  Could he have left his defensive move any later?

McLaren:
Aslan - 7 - Plus one for keeping going after getting a penalty for 'gaining an advantage' after Stroll forced him off track and across the chicane.
Van Door - 5 - Okay.

Sauber:
Chrill's mate Marcus - 6 - Fine apart from one little mistake....
'It is I' - 5 - Okay.

[Chrill]

McLaren:
Aslan - 7 - Plus one for keeping going after getting a penalty for 'gaining an advantage' after Stroll forced him off track and across the chicane.

I mean, the drivers were instructed to return via the escape road after the chicane, but Alonso floored it across the gravel like a lunatic. It was a fair penalty in my book.

[Penfold]

According to Charlie Whiting, Alonso would've needed to give the place back to Stroll to avoid a penalty.  That doesn't seem right to me.

[Chrill]

According to Charlie Whiting, Alonso would've needed to give the place back to Stroll to avoid a penalty.  That doesn't seem right to me.

I can't seem to find that quote. What I understood is that Alonso had to use the escape road, that is turn right instead of flooring it across the gravel.

Not to mention Alonso did it twice, I think it was with Gasly later on. He just doesn't care anymore. Still beat his teammate though.

EDIT: I did find this statement. I'll highlight the part you are probably referring to and the one I find is the most important part of this statement.



Whiting, though, has explained that while the stewards were aware that Stroll had pushed Alonso off the track, that didn't give him the right to cut the chicane and take a position off the Williams driver.

"The stewards felt that it was perfectly clear what Fernando did," he said.

"He cut the chicane, drove quickly across the gravel and came back on way in front. It was pretty clear that he had gained an advantage by leaving the track."

"The stewards felt that Stroll had actually forced Fernando off, so you could not say that because Fernando was forced off he was entitled to cut the chicane. He wasn't."

"He should not have taken a place by doing it but equally Stroll should not have pushed him off the track. So they felt each driver should get a five-second penalty for two separate offences."

Stroll was also penalised for his part in Alonso's off.

[Penfold]

Whiting, though, has explained that while the stewards were aware that Stroll had pushed Alonso off the track, that didn't give him the right to cut the chicane and take a position off the Williams driver.

See, I simply disagree with Whiting on this one, if someone forces another driver off track in an illegal manner then they should lose that position.  I'd also love to be able to ask Whiting what Alonso should've done if the contact between the two had caused Stroll to spin, should Fernando have still waited and let him back past?

On the other occasion, Alonso did slow and let Gasly (or was it Hartley?) regain his place.


Edit: What I should've said is that I don't agree with the rules on which the stewards based their decision; I don't doubt the penalty was correctly awarded under the current FIA strictures.

[Chrill]

Document here

I've added some scores from Japan. No big movers anymore, because the standings are starting to take solid form.

1. Alonso, 7.889
2. Vettel, 7.625
3. Leclerc, 7.361
4. Ricciardo, 7.303
5. Hamilton, 7.225
6. Raikkonen, 7.000
7. Bottas, 6.975
8. Sainz, 6.800 (up 1 place)
9. Perez, 6.775 (up 1 place)
10. Ocon, 6.765 (down 2 places)

Stroll is our worst ranked driver now, 5.256. Used to be Sirotkin, who is now just ahead with 5.273. Grosjean also stays ahead with 5.368.

Verstappen sits in 15th with 5.921.

[Penfold]

A few recent low scores have pushed my Hulk rating a full point below yours, but him aside we're within 0.5 of each other and mostly closer than that - even-stevens for It is I!

Chance for Grosjean to overhaul Van Door and perhaps even Hartley by season end.

[Chrill]

Indeed.

I'm surprised our Ericsson scores aren't more varied. I rate him .6 above you, natural considering my nationality, but it's not as significant as I'd anticipate. We rate Leclerc exactly the same, 7.286.

[Penfold]

Re: Ericsson's score... I think you were about half a point more generous than me last year, so at least we're consistent.  I did spot that despite the .6 difference we both have Marcus as 12th best of the year (so far).  Not surprisingly, The Hulk enjoys the largest gap in our individual rankings: 7th place for you but a lowly joint 13th for me; also, I place Alonso in top spot but you have the cheek to stick him in equal third with Dan The Pie Man - Fernando left languishing below the two Championship contenders (well, Vettel isn't really in with a chance now, but it's just a concise way of saying which drivers you score higher than Alonso - or at least it is if you ignore this explanatory note).

[Chrill]

Clearly forgot USA also, might return to rate Mexico. To be fair, this season bored me once Vettel messed up his chances of fighting for the championship coupled with losing our mediocre Swedish friend in Sauber. On to 2019, I guess.