Quote:
Originally Posted by AndreasDavour
I think there have been some excellent suggestions in this thread for why some drivers deserves to be on a list for 2020. I know that I have a hard time ranking some of them, and maybe putting up groups for classification is a more fair way of doing it.
I know that there are some drivers I rank very high because I *like* them, that did not deserve to be on a list 2020 because they did nothing much to bring attention to themselves.
I have come to love Seb Vettel for example, after seeing that clip when the whole team was assembled to celebrate and he suddenly interrupted them and had the guy put Kimis name next to his on the score board. I started crying. He is smart, charming, funny and a very decent human being. But, I have never been a fan of the driver Sebastian Vettel. I'd love to hang out with him and chat, though.
Then we have Kimi, which really is an enigma to many. As we don't have any Swedish talent in F1 these days I'll have to cheer for our Finnish brothers (mene Suomeen!). Kimi is also very funny and charming, but he as all out admitted he is doing this more like a hobby! But, when he had the opportunity, you could see he still had it. Hard not to like that, but most of this year, he drove a fast car for fun, and it showed.
Bottas then. He is a uncharismatic number two. But! Compare him to Albon, who paired with a teammate who is really good looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Same thing with Vandoorne, who was paired with one of the truly great and came out wanting. Not surprisingly. Bottas rarely looses it. He does it sometimes, but then he calms down and gets his act together. Imagine being paired with one of the truly great drivers who beat you like he is not even trying, and it happens over and over again. But, Valtteri gets in the car again and sometimes even beats one of the best. Damn, that is impressive. He has one of the strongest minds on the grid. Do I like him? Well. Do I respect him? Hell yeah! He is not one that's easy to cheer for as he is a bit, number two(?), in all he does.
I'm also going to throw it out there, being a part time Canadian, that I rate Stroll much higher this year than I ever did before. That wet driving of his showed skill, real skill. I'm beginning to like him. He needs some of that Finnish mental endurance.
Latifi? The jury is still out on that one...
|
Some very good analysis there.
Vettel really had a bad season didn’t he? The only races he looked anything like the Seb of old was Turkey, Hungary and possibly Spain. Otherwise he was pretty anonymous and the only time you would notice him would tend to be when he was making one of his now regular mistakes. Not like Leclerc. He always gave it his all, even if he did make some silly mistakes at times. He deserves a better car in the future
Kimi still has life in the old dog yet. His first lap in Portugal showed that. As well as that he still makes relatively few mistakes and his love for the sport is still there, which is why it’s appropriate he is now the most experienced man ever in F1
Yes I agree on the Bottas-Albon comparison. Bottas had some off days and it’s times like that that make us appreciate how good Rosberg was, but by the same token, Albon’s performances make us realise how good Bottas is. Bottas seems to me to float between number 1 and number 2, depending on his mood. But he’s still been there to pick up the pieces on the odd occasion Lewis has an off day. It has be said that his luck wasn’t always great. Him getting the puncture at Silverstone before Lewis and collecting the piece of debris at Imola are two examples. And in a way it was just his luck that Lewis gets ill when the title has already been decided!
As for Albon, it’s a massive shame it didn’t work out, but he needed to be closer to Max a lot more. Easier said than done I know, but while some weekends he looked on it, others he just seemed to cruise around.
I agree Stroll isn’t as bad as some make out and his weekend at Turkey showed the talent is there. But he still blows hot and cold too often. Some weekends he can be up there, others fairly anonymous. He also seems to at times fail to keep pace for a race distance.
Latifi, he didn’t exactly disgrace himself, but neither did he make you sit up and take notice either