Well folks, it’s November, the testing season has just begun and F1 is finally alive again. It’s also time for the UpdateF1 team to give our opinion on the best drivers of the 2007 season, with reasonable explanation as to why, and how, we made our choices.
Some of the reasons are, of course, far from reasonable (let’s see, Dylan’s assurance that Kimi had ‘twice as many wins as any other driver’, and Braden’s wonderful put down of Hamilton -‘with a bit more bad luck I doubt he would have got near to winning the Championship’ spring to mind) but then this is F1, Updatef1 style, and I expect and encourage a bit of personal bias – life would not be life without it.
So, I asked our contributors – Lita, Dylan, Braden and Paul – to list their five best drivers of the year, and to tell me why, and I have added my own selections for the record. Read away, and remember, the Editor is not bound to agree with the following!
Dylan
No 1: Kimi Raikkonen– Clearly the best driver of the season. Unfortunately the points standings do not give justice to the season he had. Twice the number of wins as any other driver and if not for some mechanical issues early in the season he would have walked away with the title.
No 2: Fernando Alonso – Performed extremely well in the face of adversity. Given that he was in clearly uncomfortable surroundings and not particularly happy about it, for him to continue to come out week after week and continue to perform was outstanding when it could have been easy for him to just walk away mid season, I’m sure.
No 3: Lewis Hamilton – As with Alonso, not the best surroundings for Hamilton either, but he clearly had more support from the key personnel at McLaren over the season to pull him through. However, given it was his rookie year he put in a stellar performance with the exception of the final two races.
No 4: Nico Rosberg – In a car that was a dog for the first half of the season, and still not too flash for the second part, Nico performed brilliantly, ultimately bringing an end to his vastly experienced team-mates racing career with his dominance in the Williams team.
No 5: Nick Heidfeld – Quick Nick lived up to his name this year. He was fast, oh boy was he fast. He was consistently the ‘best of the rest’ driver after the two dominant teams and this year really showed up his young team mate, of whom greater things were expected.
Paul
No1: Lewis Hamilton - This is a list of “best” drivers and in his rookie season nobody even came close to matching Hamilton.
Nine podiums in nine races including two wins is a feat an experienced driver would be proud of, but when those same nine races are the first nine of your career you know that you are special.
Hamilton took four wins this year three of them at tracks he had never seen before, and only twice all season did he finish outside of the points. A record like that deserves a Championship. Unfortunately the dream debut season did not result in the Championship, but at the age of twenty-two if he wins it before 2010 he will beat Alonso’s record and become the youngest World Champion in history.
In 2004 when he was racing in the European Formula Three series, I said this kid will be Britain’s next World Champion and I still believe I am to be correct. In 2004 David Coulthard and Jenson Button were driving for McLaren and BAR-Honda respectively and neither managed to win the big one.
2008 will be Lewis Hamilton’s year, it took him two years to win the Formula Renault Championship, two years to win the Formula Three Euro series Championship and possibly two years to win the Formula One World Championship.
No 2: Kimi Raikkonen - The expression to sum up Kimi Raikkonens season is “Where the hell did that come from?”
A dominant victory on the opening weekend made him look like the man to beat but McLaren soon struck back and dominated until the half way point.
Then came Hungary where McLaren hit the self-destruct button. McLaren were thrown out of the Constructors Championship, guaranteeing him some silverware from his first season with the team.
He was a massive 17 points behind Hamilton with 20 left to play for after the Japanese Grand Prix and some how with the Englishman’s retirement in China and his problems in Brazil he quite unpredictably and quite shockingly pulled back that huge figure and became 2007 FIA Formula One World Champion.
No3: Fernando Alonso - Alonso got a wake up call in 2007 that could destroy his career.
He moved to McLaren, was given a 22-year old rookie as a team-mate, and with the McLaren the class of the field more often that not this year, he should have destroyed the field and won his third World Championship easily.
Because of all the internal politics it all went wrong for him. It all started in Monaco when the clearly faster Lewis Hamilton was told to hold station and let his “Number One” win the race.
Then came the spy-gate saga, but this is not the time or the place to get into that. In Hungary Alonso attempted to blackmail the team into giving him what he wanted by threatening to tell the FIA what he knew regarding spy-gate.
It didn’t work and from that moment on his days at the team were numbered. Alonso’s main problem was that after two years at Renault with Giancarlo Fisichella he could not handle the fact that his team-mate was as good as him and had equal treatment from the team. A war with Hamilton on track ensured that neither of them was going to win the championship.
No 4: Felipe Massa - Massa started the season as one of the title favourites, in his second year at Ferrari. He had spent a season learning from Michael Schumacher and now had a team-mate completely new to the team. He was expected to be a serious contender.
Up and down is a way to describe Felipe’s season. When he is at the front and leading with no problems like in Bahrain or Turkey you would think that they had brought Michael Schumacher back, but when he has pressure or problems like in Hungary you would think that they did not have a driver available so they picked somebody out of the crowd.
As a result of his inconsistency he soon dropped out of the title race, and then did what he does best - play number two to help Kimi Raikkonen take the Championship.
He was all set for victory in Brazil until Hamilton had his problems, meaning that he had to “give” the lead to Raikkonen so he could win the race and the championship.
This season proves once again what I have said many times: Felipe is a number two driver; he is the next Rubens Barrichello and not the next Michael Schumacher.
No 5: Nico Rosberg - When you have four serious contenders for a title it is easy to make a decision on the top four, but number five is always very hard. I considered Nick Heidfeld as he was fifth place in the championship, or one of the three none Ferrari or McLaren drivers on the podium this season - Alex Wurz, Heikki Kovalainen or Nick Heidfeld again.
Instead I have gone for Nico Rosberg; in his rookie season in 2006 he and Mark Webber fought with a terrible Williams car that guided the team to their worst position in the Constructors Championship in (my) living memory, when they could only manage eighth place.
This year, as a second season driver, it was Rosberg’s job to turn that around. And he did. Under that pressure, with all the history of a once great team weighing down on his shoulders, he would have been forgiven for losing his cool.
But he did not. Even during a poor spell of reliability that robbed him of points in Canada and USA during a run of six Grand Prix when he failed to score, he was always there battling with the Red Bull cars.
The ended of the season was great for him, scoring points in five of the last seven races, including a strong fourth place in the season finale at Interlagos.
His commitment to the cause also should be admired. Strongly linked with the vacant seat at McLaren he has said he will stay at Williams and be committed to the contract he signed.
Braden
No 1: Kimi Raikkonen - Even though both Hamilton and Alonso almost grabbed the Championship win from Raikkonen, no one came close to beating him as the best driver. He proved once again how fast and consistent he can be and got his reward for fine form. He took the most race wins and also had terrible luck in qualifying and races as to not get a few more and storm to the Championship win.
No 2: Fernando Alonso - Clearly the second best driver in the field all year, drove under the most enormous pressure due to the circumstances created by Ron Dennis and himself. Had this not happened I think Alonso may have come away with the title, but Ron didn’t make it easy and in the end cost his team a title of some sort. Fernando will be better for the experience and might show a bit more maturity away from the track next year, wherever he ends up.
No 3: Lewis Hamilton - Drove very well as a rookie, but coming into F1 as a rookie isn’t as daunting as it used to be in my opinion. He had the help of one of the top cars in each Grand Prix, as well as a team boss who pretended to be his foster father. Without this he would have done pretty poor and with a bit more bad luck I doubt he would have got near to winning the Championship.
No 4: Nick Heidfeld - Nick is easily the most under rated driver in the Grand Prix field today. On his day, which is most days, he is as quick as the top tier drivers in qualifying and the races. He proved that by consistently beating his younger and supposedly more talented team mate. Given some luck and the best car next year, Nick could take the title, but this year that was never the case. However his drives in clearly the third best car easily put him above Felipe Massa for fourth best.
No 5: Felipe Massa - Felipe did well to finish fourth in the championship but was never in the hunt. Early in the year it looked like we had got the old Felipe again as he continuously managed to make a mistake that ended chances for race wins. This was evident in Melbourne and Sepang quite early on when he made easy mistakes. However in the second half of the year he proved me as a detractor wrong by being a lot cooler under pressure and won some GP’s that it didn’t look like he would win, however I still feel he doesn’t have the talent of the top four.
Lita
No 1: Kimi Raikkonen - He was the outside choice basically, and yet he pulled it off so well. It seemed like he wouldn't even be a contender for the championship based on his performances at the start of the season, but he impressively proved everyone wrong.
No 2: Lewis Hamilton - He performed well, did brilliant for a rookie, but is placed here for throwing it all away in the last two races. Realistically he should have won based on the odds, but I guess we can just put that down to rookie mistakes and team turmoil.
No 3: Fernando Alonso - A strong performer as expected, but he didn't keep his eyes on the ball and instead he let himself be distracted by Hamilton. He went head to head with Michael Schumacher - and won - he should have just went out there and proved he was better.
No 4: Felipe Massa - He did great, but he could have been better. When things are right for him he performs well but if something goes wrong, he just does not have the ability to pull it back and get up to where he needs to be. In the end he played the perfect number two driver.
I might be cheating with this one but I think they both deserve it.
No 5=: Mark Webber - I think he deserves this spot. Countless times he managed to pull the car up into the top ten only to go out of the race from some failure or another. His results don't do him justice, however at least he had one deserving moment this year in Europe.
No 5=: Nico Rosberg - He did a great job with what he had. He just pushed, went for it and really showed his team mate up. There was no excuse for the differences in times and positions between them other than that Nico is simply a better driver.
Steve
No 1: Lewis Hamilton – I tried hard, very hard, to find a reason not to put the newcomer at the top, but couldn’t. Despite his mistakes in the last two races – the China mishap arguably a strategy call, and the start in Brazil simply a poor one – I can not put the man down for doing what I believe a racing driver should do, and that is race. I feel that too many people forget he lost the title not through that start line error in Brazil, but more through the computer glitch a little later, a matter out of his hands, that put paid to his race there and then. His season was simply exemplary, and not just by a rookies standards – by anyone’s standards. His passing of Raikkonen at Monza was a sublime moment, and he fully deserved each of his victories. A superstar, not just for the media, but for F1 fans to relish as a talent of the very highest order.
No 2: Kimi Raikkonen – Something deep inside me desperately wanted to put Raikkonen first, but the very patchy form of the early season – bar the dominance in Australia – meant he slipped to second. And some of those early performances were, let’s face it, a very big let down for fans of this exciting and supremely skilled driver, and his relatively lacklustre performances – compared to team mate Felipe Massa – a cause of concern. There were times, indeed, where he simply did not look interested – Monaco, where he was frankly awful, being a point in question. Once he got his act together, the old Kimi came back, and the fighting spirit resurfaced with a vengeance. Six wins, and a worthy World Title, are just reward, but there still remains the question of his commitment when things are not going quite his way.
No 3: Fernando Alonso – What can I say? A supreme talent, but not a great loser. I still don’t understand why he did not just re-adjust when faced with Hamilton’s astonishing pace, in the manner one would have expected a Schumacher, or a Senna to do so. It made no sense to stir up the hornets nest that is Mclaren politics, and it served no purpose ultimately. There were some truly superb drives – he ruled the weekend in Italy, for instance, and some very questionable moments. The pit lane fiasco in Hungary, for instance, was unforgivable, whether or not Hamilton hand transgressed earlier; this is not a playground, this is Formula One racing – these are grown men, not children. Whatever, Fernando finished the season on equal points with Hamilton, but with a reputation that, although still that of a very, very good racing driver, is rather less attractive off track. I hope, and believe, he will transcend that next year, wherever his fortune takes him.
No 4: Nick Heidfeld – The fourth, fifth and sixth positions were the most difficult of all for me, as I know there will be readers insisting that Massa should be in this spot, having won races. I’m not here to explain why driver are not in this list, but why they are. Heidfeld is in for a very good reason – he drove an exceptional season, was clearly best of the non Mclaren/Ferrari drivers, and against expectations, too. Most expected Robert Kubica to pick up and beat Nick, but it didn’t happen as expected. Heidfeld repeatedly took the BMW to where it should have been, sometimes beyond, and rarely made mistakes of his own doing. I have no doubt that, were he out of contract, this would be the man in the Mclaren seat next season. I have no doubts, too, that BMW will be as competitive as they were this year, although sadly not more so. A no nonsense racing driver, without a hidden agenda, Heidfeld will win races before his career is through. This year reminded me of Patrick Head when he said, on losing the German to BMW: “Nick Heidfeld is a very, very fine racing driver.” Indeed.
No 5: Nico Rosberg – Even more controversial, I guess, but Nico was undoubtedly the ‘most improved’ driver of the year, and is now very hot property indeed. He trounced his team mate like no other, and frequently took the Williams to positions it should not have been in. With aggression still to the fore, he gained a less volatile side thanks to the learning curve of the year before, and it is clear he can race with anyone, and is daunted by no-one. A serious star of the future, no doubt whatsoever.
Side note: Why no Felipe Massa? He would come sixth, thanks to some brilliant drives, and some ridiculous ones.
Written by Dylan;braden;paul;lita;steve on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:04:07
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