He has shown so far this season that he definitely has the raw speed to drive for a top team. Some of his one lap performances have been mighty. He qualified in seventh in China, sixth at Silverstone (which became fifth after Paul Di Resta’s exclusion), sixth in Germany, and eighth in Hungary.
You can’t ignore the quality of those laps. To achieve those grid slots he has had to beat cars that are quicker than his Toro Rosso. That is the sign of a top driver.
Ricciardo’s problem is that his race results aren’t consistent enough. So far in 2013 he has only had one race where he has finished higher than he qualified. In Hungary he fell from eighth to 13th and sixth to 12th in Germany. He still has three points finishes to his name which is satisfactory in a midfield team but not especially brilliant. Even more so when you consider his one lap record, and Toro Rosso’s better position in the midfield this season.
When it has rained this year his team mate Jean-Eric Vergne has also had the upper hand, so that is maybe another area Daniel needs to work on. There is no doubt that out of the pair the likeable Aussie is the more polished driver, even if the current points situation may say otherwise. Points never tell the whole story in a battle between two midfield team mates.
If he can find more race pace this is a guy who has the potential to give Vettel a few headaches next year, (providing he gets the drive).
Whilst his raw pace is enough to get him into this top 10 list, his race performances prevent him from raising any higher. That could change in the future though.
Sutil has had a pretty strong return to F1 so far, and without a few doses of bad luck could have been right there with Di Resta or possibly even ahead on points. Certainly in qualifying it has been quite close between the pair. The head to head quali record currently stands at 5-5.
In Australia it was like he had never left the sport finishing in seventh place and running for a good period of the race in the top three keeping Vettel at bay. In Monaco he had a sensational race finished fifth which included a couple of sensational overtake moves on Button and Alonso.
He could have been up there with Di Resta in Bahrain after qualifying sixth but contact with Massa ruined that. His pace during the race as he tried to fight back suggested huge points were possible. He also got struck by Gutierrez in China. Then he had hydraulic issues in Hungary. He has had more of the bad luck than Di Resta.
Overall considering he has been away from F1 for a year he has done well so far. Things haven’t always gone smoothly but his peak performances have been noteworthy. Like Raikkonen last year, now he has readapted to F1 he should be stronger in the second half of the season. He deserves his place in F1. He is easily one of the best 22 drivers in the world.
Button went into this season with extremely high hopes. Despite the disappointment that he has a car that can’t win, he has still kept his chin up and taken the challenge on. He has still had a smile on his face at times. He hasn’t done what other drivers may have done and consistently blasted the team in the media. He is trying to keep the morale of the troops high. How would it have been had Lewis stayed and had to drive this car?
Button has also driven some very good races. In Sepang he was on course for a very likely podium which would have been an exceptional performance but a gremlin prevented him from doing so. In China he did very well to finish in fifth place.
The last couple of races in Germany and Hungary have both been strong. In Hungary he played a pretty huge part in deciding the outcome of the race. He kept Vettel at bay for a long time. Without contact with Grosjean he may have finished higher than seventh in that race.
Sergio Perez has had decent moments but so far Jenson has managed to keep him at bay. It’s 6-4 Button’s favour in qualifying at the moment and has more than double the points of his younger team mate.
Considering how much trouble Button has had adapting to difficult cars in the past he is doing a very reasonable job at the moment.
On paper it may not look like Nico is having a good season but considering how uncompetitive Sauber are this season he is actually doing a great job. The top five teams are a long way ahead plus McLaren, Force India and Toro Rosso are quicker than them too. The team are around Williams’ level at the moment so they are about 8th or 9th fastest. In other words there are six to eight cars between him and points finishes.
Despite that he has still managed to reach Q3 three times. Furthermore he has scored points at four races. Malaysia has been his best race of the season so far where he finished in eighth.
He has also dominated his younger team mate beating him in every qualifying session so far this season. On average he has been 0.889 seconds quicker on Saturdays.
It’s hard to think of many drivers who could have done much better in the Sauber than Hulkenberg so far this season. Results might not show it but he isn’t leaving much time on the table, and you can’t ask for much more. To still be able to occasionally shine in a very difficult situation is very admirable.
He deserves to have his chance in a top seat very soon.
After a difficult end to last season Paul has had a very strong first half of 2013. Out of all the midfield team drivers he has been the star performer. He has scored points in seven races out of ten which is a great return for a midfield driver If It wasn’t for Force India’s pit stop problems it would surely have been eight.. He has also had two or three moments which have really stood out.
He drove a brilliant race weekend in Bahrain where he qualified in fifth and finished in fourth to match the best result of his career to date. In Canada he started down in 17th and finished seventh after making a one stop strategy work brilliantly. He had managed to qualify fifth on the grid in Silverstone but a fuel infringement put him to the back of the grid. He still fought back to finish ninth.
In Monaco he managed to overtake a few cars to again take points home after a difficult qualifying session.
There are some who criticise the way he speaks to the team. Pushing your team even if it sometimes means thumping the table from time to time is all part of leading the team. It’s no different to the way that Vettel sometimes speaks to his team when things are going wrong. Kimi has given his team some nasty messages but because it’s Kimi people laugh rather than criticise, and print what he says on novelty T-shirts.
Di Resta is the real deal. There is no doubt about that. He has all the credentials to be driving a top car.
He has certainly proved that he is a lot more than just solid driver in the first ten races of 2013. He drove brilliantly in Monaco all weekend beating Lewis to pole and controlling the race beautifully. You have to be a great driver to win in Monaco, so by achieving that he proved that he is amongst the best five or six drivers in F1 at the moment.
At times so far he has matched or even out-paced Hamilton which nobody expected. However in the early races of the season it can’t be said that Lewis was running at 100% of his ability for various reasons including: team adaption, brakes and not enjoying the way the tyres behaved in the early races.
All the articles saying that Nico is the second coming and that Schumacher was almost God like (slight exaggeration perhaps but you get my drift) for being able to match him at times are all premature. The last few races are a more accurate reflection of how they stack up against each other, now that Lewis is settled and the tyre situation isn’t as severe. Before Silverstone, Rosberg would have made the top three of this list easily. Since then the shift of balance has changed completely.
Now Lewis is settled and happy he has moved up a gear and pulled clear of Rosberg. On days where Hamilton’s head isn’t in the right place or is struggling with tyres Nico will get more chances to beat him, just as Jenson Button did during his term alongside Lewis at McLaren.
Rosberg has shown that he is a brilliant driver and that he is more than quick enough to drive a top car. His problem is that Hamilton is simply a mega driver, amongst the fastest F1 has ever seen. It’s going to be interesting see if Nico has another one or two gears that he could find now that Lewis is operating back at his best.
It’s very often underestimated how hard it is to adapt to a new team. For Lewis it’s a new team after spending his whole life at McLaren. After 10 races to still be in sight of Vettel in the championship is a very decent job after the first half of the year with his new team. Now he seems happy and settled with the team. Things are now only going to get better and that’s dangerous for his rivals.
It’s his recent performances which have elevated him to fourth on this list. He would have been lower had this been done before the British GP. His Hungarian GP performance was exceptional. He beat Vettel to pole on a strong Red Bull track, and controlled the race including important overtakes on Button and Webber. In Silverstone he produced a stunning pole lap to beat Rosberg by nearly half a second. He was also controlling the race until his tyre failure.
His low point so far was finishing 12th in Spain after starting second, where he really struggled with the tyres. Apart from that he has been scoring big points consistently; even on weekends where he hasn’t quite had the feeling he wants with the car, in particularly the brakes.
It has been a very tight battle with Nico so far and perhaps tougher than he would have expected. However over the last few races with the real Lewis emerging he has started to put his team mate in the shade. He now hasn’t been beaten by him in qualifying since the Monaco GP. He wouldn’t have been beaten in a race since then either if it wasn’t for the tyre failure at Silverstone.
If Mercedes can keep up their good form then Hamilton has a genuine chance of winning the title in the first year with his new team. Furthermore with tyre wear being less severe than it was earlier in the season he is now going to be able to unleash his pace more.
It hasn’t quite been the season that Alonso has wanted so far. On average over the first ten races of 2013 his car has been stronger than in 2012 you would have to say. However he finds himself comfortably behind Seb in the title race rather than comfortably ahead like at this point last year.
However he has still delivered some brilliant performances which still warrant third on this list. Although unlike last season he hasn’t been flawless.
His victories in China and Spain were exceptional. In Barcelona it’s almost unheard of to win from fifth on the grid but he managed to do it. After passing Hamilton in the early stages in China he was in a class of his own for the rest of the afternoon.
He has produced a number of tenacious drives. Even from a poor grid slot he has a habit of getting himself into the mix. In Montreal he started sixth and finished second. In Silverstone he started in ninth and again got himself onto the podium in third place.
However in Sepang we saw a very uncharacteristic error. He should have pitted for a new front wing rather than risk continuing, and hoping it wouldn’t come off. Had he come in for a front wing change big points were still possible rather than an early exit.
In Bahrain he took the risk that his DRS wing was fixed after the first time his mechanics rammed it shut. Unfortunately for Fernando it jammed open again. However his fight back to the points paying positions without the aid of DRS was impressive.
Those two races were at the stage of the season where Ferrari was very strong. A good haul of points were lost which form a large part of the gap he has to Seb in the championship.
Again like with Kimi you do wonder whether Fernando gets every millisecond out of the car in qualifying. Like Raikkonen he has had to fight back from average grid positions to get good results. You sense his team have also been asking the questions too. He has also been out qualified by Felipe Massa three times so far this year
Those couple of mistakes and slightly below par quali performances are why it’s unjustifiable to put Alonso above Kimi and Seb.
With Ferrari now off the pace and struggling in the development race it’s hard to see where a title challenge is going to come from now. That third title doesn’t appear to be any nearer. Tough times for Fernando. It will be interesting to see how he deals with it. It could be one of the stories of the second half of 2013.
He is having another very strong season and has impressed even more than he did in his comeback year. He has finished in the top two six times out of ten races so far which is remarkably good consistency. His race pace is incredibly strong and he has generally been a factor in races regardless of where he has qualified.
Whilst so many have moaned about the tyres Kimi has just got on with the job in hand. One of the key features of his comeback has been the ability he has to get the best out of these tyres in races.
He has mastered the art of driving a race making one pit stop less. He did it brilliantly to win in Australia and to finish ahead of Sebastian in Hungary. Plus he did it to finish second in Bahrain.
He has raced very well and has made a number of important moves. The only thing you could maybe regard as a mistake so far was the contact with Sergio Perez in Monaco. Although arguably Sergio was a bit optimistic in making that move.
All the boxes on his checklist are ticked except for one thing, and that’s pure raw pace. That’s partly down to Lotus’ strategy of focussing more on the race as that’s where the points are dished out.
Like last year there have been too many times when Raikkonen has had to drive from a long way back on the grid. If only he could qualify closer to the front then he could win more races.
The problem at the moment is on the days where Lotus could get a good grid slot you sense Romain Grosjean is more likely to get it than Kimi is. Hungary demonstrated that when the iceman qualified sixth and the Frenchman in third.
To have a shot at the title Raikkonen has to improve his grid slots. So far he has started races in 7th, 10th, 8th, 4th, 5th, 10th, 8th, 4th and 6th compared to Vettel’s 1st, 1st, 9th, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 1st, 3rd, 2nd and 3rd. Whilst strong race pace is very important it’s much easier to win a championship from the positions the three times champion has been starting races in.
Strong race pace is wasted if you end up spending too much fighting to get past other cars. In all honesty Kimi has done sensationally well to put himself in championship contention with that set of starting positions. Just shows how great a racer he is.
That lack of raw pace was really the only thing that stopped him from taking the number one spot from Vettel on this list. It was a close run thing.
When you a compile a top ten list you look for reasons why a driver shouldn’t make the number one slot. Quite frankly when looking at Vettel’s season so far he hasn’t done much wrong. He has been consistently strong at every event so far. His only bad weekend was at Silverstone, but he would have won the race there without a mechanical failure.
He hasn’t had a dominant car like he has had in the past. The RB9 is a very good all round car but Mercedes is the strongest car over a single lap. Then there have been weekends where either Ferrari or Lotus (or both) have been quicker on race days.
Vettel’s win at the Nurburgring was very impressive under immense pressure from both Lotus drivers for a large chunk of the race. In Canada he dominated on a track where Red Bull has struggled in the past. In Bahrain he pulled off two great overtaking moves on Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg to then go on and dominate proceedings.
On weekends where Red Bull has struggled with the tyres Seb has still scored big points. He has been on the podium in seven out of the ten races. In those other three races he was fourth twice and then there was the Silverstone retirement.
The thing he has learnt over the last few years is that every point counts towards the championship, including those on weekends where victory isn’t possible. Hungary is maybe the only race where he may look and feel a better result was possible. He has been consistent in both qualifying and races.
Last year it was a close contest between him and Mark Webber in qualifying, but so far in 2013 he has destroyed Mark 10-0. As Christian Horner said recently beating Webber is a better achievement than most give Seb credit for.
Of course Malaysia has made him more unpopular than he was before. However if Red Bull didn’t want their drivers to race each other they did a bad job. Firstly they gave Vettel the advantage by pitting him first and then also putting him on the faster tyre. It’s almost as if secretly Red Bull wanted Seb to overtake Mark. At the end of the day you can’t blame the German for ignoring team orders. It goes back to the point earlier about how important every point is.
