Who Was Your F1 Driver of the Year?

Hamilton. When you look at his on track performance this year, especially this year, and get past any hangups over his attitude and off track dealings, it's hard to pick anyone else. Hardly any errors and drove like a man possessed for the majority of the season. How do you tie Fangio in WDC's (Who by the way also drove the best cars of his era when he won; same with Senna, Clark, Stewart, Lauda, Schumacher...the list goes on and on, but their brillance is rarely ever doubted), during a season where not just 1 but 2 previous WDC's are driving a Ferrari that was on par, if not slightly stronger than the Mercedes, and not be considered the best this year? Plus he continued to cement his all time record for pole positions with 11 Poles and also 11 Wins this year (that's half the season, guys). At this rate of wins and poles he will most likely be crowned the new "G.O.A.T." by the end of 2020. 83 Poles, 73 Wins and 5 WDC's aren't the results of just blind luck and an OP car. The car helps, but it's not the whole story...if that were the case, Bottas wouldn't be 5th, Max wouldn't be 4th and their points difference (2 points) wouldn't be so close, Bottas being #2 driver or not.

Leclerc definitely seems on the fast track to greatness; he did some amazing things with a Sauber, but it's hard to tell if he's on Lewis' level given the only teammate he's had thus far is Ericsson, but I'm certainly rooting for him to do amazing things. Other than Seb, Max was the closest to challenge Lewis for this distinction this year, but a few too many errors by both held them back.
 
Pfft. Michael Schumacher? A young Kimi Räikkönen? Montoya on his top form? Rubens Barrichello still young and doing a great job? McLaren still strong? Villeneuve still around? Far more interesting cars and much less leftism going around? It wasn't my favorite year, but it's a far cry from the snooze fest that F1 is today.

Schumacher having the championship won by the French Grand Prix in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen? Schumacher winning 11 races in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen? Schumacher finishing on the podium in every single race in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen?

You may have enjoyed Montoya on top form, a young Kimi Raikkonen, Villeneuve still around but none of them had a cat in hell's chance of winning a race.

2002 was, for me, F1's nadir. Anything that came after that would never plunge the depths of that season.

And we haven't even got on to Austria yet...
 
Schumacher having the championship won by the French Grand Prix in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen? Schumacher winning 11 races in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen? Schumacher finishing on the podium in every single race in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen?

You may have enjoyed Montoya on top form, a young Kimi Raikkonen, Villeneuve still around but none of them had a cat in hell's chance of winning a race.

2002 was, for me, F1's nadir. Anything that came after that would never plunge the depths of that season.

And we haven't even got on to Austria yet...

Whomever win these days, or how many have chances to win the championship, I really don't care at all anymore. The drivers are all NPCs. And the teams are pretty much the same thing. F1 was quite the show back in the day, even if only one or two pilots had the chance to win. And it wasn't very much different from mid 1980's through 1990's, but still, it was great. Granted 2002 wasn't a remarkable year (last remarkable year might have been 1997, at least for me), but nowadays F1 is a soulless affair. I don't have the will to watch it anymore.

And, yeah, Austria race sucked more than anything ever in 2002. I agree with you on that.
 
Hamilton has never done well on Racedepartment polls, sim racers loved Red cars as little boys.
Lewis Max Seb and Leclerc were the best of 2018.. But still people try to devalue a driver

Lewis will never be rated or accepted by alot but who cares.... Global stats show the reality..
He has a life after F1, parties, travels, has fun and still wins races.....How many other drivers can have the same hetic life style and do well?

Hope Lewis wears a bigger Gold chain,wear brighter diamond earrings brings 4 dogs to the track,
So more can hate him, it makes winning so much sweeter
 
Whomever win these days, or how many have chances to win the championship, I really don't care at all anymore. The drivers are all NPCs. And the teams are pretty much the same thing. F1 was quite the show back in the day, even if only one or two pilots had the chance to win. And it wasn't very much different from mid 1980's through 1990's, but still, it was great. Granted 2002 wasn't a remarkable year (last remarkable year might have been 1997, at least for me), but nowadays F1 is a soulless affair. I don't have the will to watch it anymore.

And, yeah, Austria race sucked more than anything ever in 2002. I agree with you on that.

I think he was referring to Austria of 2002, where Barrichello handed the win to Schumacher on the final lap.

Regarding NPCs, I found the drivers were more boring and corporate a couple of years ago than now. Back in the 90's and early 20's it was just Schumacher and the rest were meh, both talent and character wise. In current time there are many unique characters in F1. Alonso is a massive character, sadly gone next year. Verstappen with his fight with Ocon etc., things which you may not like, but at least you can't call him a boring character. Raikkonen, probably the most unique and different character F1 has ever seen. Hamilton, for sure not an NPC by any stretch of imagination.
 
2002 was, for me, F1's nadir. Anything that came after that would never plunge the depths of that season.

2002 was a really lousy year indeed. And the Austrian GP was almost the worst GP I've ever seen... I say almost, because the 2005 Indianapolis GP was, by far, the worst ever in my 40 years as a F1 fan.
 
Hamilton has never done well on Racedepartment polls, sim racers loved Red cars as little boys.
Lewis Max Seb and Leclerc were the best of 2018.. But still people try to devalue a driver

Lewis will never be rated or accepted by alot but who cares.... Global stats show the reality..
He has a life after F1, parties, travels, has fun and still wins races.....How many other drivers can have the same hetic life style and do well?

Hope Lewis wears a bigger Gold chain,wear brighter diamond earrings brings 4 dogs to the track,
So more can hate him, it makes winning so much sweeter
I agree. This is a poll for best driver of the year and not a fan poll. That’s why my vote went to Lewis. I do not really like him, but.. man..he can drive a F1 car!:D Previous years his performance decreased after winning the WC, but this year he showed he also is the best after winning the title. Hopefully Max, Sebastian and maybe even Charles or Pierre can challenge him more next year, since he does not seem to get any competition from his teammate Valtteri.:(
 
I agree. This is a poll for best driver of the year and not a fan poll.

Agreed.... If there's a fan poll here Kimi would definitely win. Its pretty hard for people to seperate their personal feelings so most vote with their hearts and not facts.
Loads of people complain about F1 being boring... But some of the new driver pairing is really exciting,going to be some real battles, definitely looking forward to F1 next year Happy New year guys.
 
2018: It was obviously the most competitive inter-team championship since 2012.
After Spa, Ferrari looked like they would be unbeatable in the DC; then towards the end of the year Red Bull were the best.
Once again, 2018 was not worse for racing than a number of championships between the decade 2002-2010.

However, race engine sounds are currently lacking. Couldn't care less about the 'halo'.
 
Schumacher having the championship won by the French Grand Prix in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen? Schumacher winning 11 races in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen? Schumacher finishing on the podium in every single race in the most dominant car F1 has ever seen?

You may have enjoyed Montoya on top form, a young Kimi Raikkonen, Villeneuve still around but none of them had a cat in hell's chance of winning a race.

2002 was, for me, F1's nadir. Anything that came after that would never plunge the depths of that season.

And we haven't even got on to Austria yet...

Maybe true, but Schumacher build that car from scratch... when he joined Ferrari, that car was no were near, to be top class. He build it, and could've won another WC in 1999 bevor his crash in Silverstone. When Schumacher came back to F1 he build up that Mercedes Car we got today, but unlike Ferrari they kept up with their performance and stayed dominant. I'd rather see another 1998 - 2000 Season-- those were quite interessting, with Mika and a couple of years later with Fernando.

But you can't compare, Michael Schumacher's 2002 Ferrari with the 2018 Mercedes. Its like you want to compare Ants with Birds. Both cars are in F1, but are totally different from each other. Back in the day, driver actually drove their car around the track. When i watch F1 now, i see under the cars railtracks... no real skill needed to keep the car on track. Well unless Verstappen, Perez or Stroll are involved... -.-''
then someone is gonna crash for sure.
 
Maybe true, but Schumacher build that car from scratch... when he joined Ferrari, that car was no were near, to be top class. He build it, and could've won another WC in 1999 bevor his crash in Silverstone. When Schumacher came back to F1 he build up that Mercedes Car we got today, but unlike Ferrari they kept up with their performance and stayed dominant. I'd rather see another 1998 - 2000 Season-- those were quite interessting, with Mika and a couple of years later with Fernando.

But you can't compare, Michael Schumacher's 2002 Ferrari with the 2018 Mercedes. Its like you want to compare Ants with Birds. Both cars are in F1, but are totally different from each other. Back in the day, driver actually drove their car around the track. When i watch F1 now, i see under the cars railtracks... no real skill needed to keep the car on track. Well unless Verstappen, Perez or Stroll are involved... -.-''
then someone is gonna crash for sure.

When Hamilton joined Mercedes they were no better than Ferrari were when Schumacher joined them - in fact they'd gone downhill while he was there.

So if you claim Schumacher built that car from scratch, which I think is a bit ridiculous and not giving credit to Ross Brawn and other Ferrari staff, then an equally valid claim would be that it was Hamilton that built the Mercedes from scratch, not Schumacher.

You post seems a little Schumacher biased to me.
 

What are you planning to upgrade this Black friday?

  • PC

  • PC Hardware (ram, gpu etc)

  • More games (sims)

  • Wheel

  • Shifter

  • Brake pedals

  • Wheel, shifter and brake in bundle

  • Rig

  • Something else?


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