Top 10 Drivers So Far This Year?

[BootsOntheSide]

Who do people think have been the most impressive drivers so far? My list would be:

1 Michael - Imperilous throughout, never looked like losing a race or being ut under pressure, not even by Rubens

2 Raikkonen - What more can he have done this year? Richly deserves a change of luck

3 Montoya - Has demolished Ralf, and unlucky not to have 2 more podium finishes

4 Button - Better than ever before, really seems to be leading the team forward, and a first win may not be far off

5 Trulli - Better than ALonso so far, and starting to show more consistancy and raciness

6 Alonso - The potential is still there, but a few ragged moments so far.

7 Rubens - Outdone by Michael, but there's no shame in that. Generally making good use of the car

8 Sato - Has really got his act together this year, providing an ideal foil for Jenson

9 Coulthard - Still erratic in qualifying, but putting a few good races together

10 Webber - Has disappointed slightly in the last few races, but only because expectations are so high

[jj2728]

my list:
1 thru 10: Michael Schumacher.....

[Mattracer]

MS
Button
JPM
Webber
Sato
Alonso
Trulli
Barrichello
Kimi
DC

[BertMk2]

MS - even though I hate to say it, he's walking it
Button - Matured as a driver and is taking the fight to Ferrari (well - more than anyone else).
Sato - Lost most of the rough edges and is showing some genuine speed.
JPM - Comprehensively blown Ralf away.
Trulli - Smooth and quick as always but has also added race consistency in there this year.
Alonso - Plenty of aggression behind the wheel, steady points scoring.
Webber - Same old story, dragging the Jag further up the field than it has a right to be.
Heidfeld - Good performances in a dog of a car.

Struggling to think of another 2 that are having a good year.
I couldn't bring myself to put Barrichello in the list - he's second in the points but is being destroyed by his team mate and in his hands the Ferrari looks beatable.

The McLarens haven't really done anything, the cars are dismal and the drivers can't do a lot about it. Same applies to the Toyotas.

[minirda]

My top 5 (10 is 50% of all competitors, way too much IMO)
1 M. Schumacher (1+1=2)
2 J. Button (WDC for the future)
3 J. Trulli (i was wrong about Trulli)
4 T. Sato (better as expected)
5 G. Bruni (give the guy a good car and see what happens)

others not have improved neither as driver nor as personality. F1 desperately needs real men behind the wheel: For example Jean Alesi, both JV's and Eddie Irvine. Drivers who will choose to "kiss" the Ferraris in stead of the "grass", crying as a little bird during the pressconference.

[BertMk2]

Originally posted by minirda
F1 desperately needs real men behind the wheel: For example Jean Alesi, both JV's and Eddie Irvine. Drivers who will choose to "kiss" the Ferraris in stead of the "grass", crying as a little bird during the pressconference.

Spot on!

[BootsOntheSide]

Bert, how can you include Heidfeld, who has been outpaced at times by an under-performing rookie, above Kimi, who is consistantly outpacing a guy who's won 13 races and been at his team for 8 years?

Min, Are you joking about Jos? He didn't kiss the Ferraris because he was never anywhere enar them. The only cars he drove into were ones trying to lap him. And he didn't have an interesting personality, unlike the other 3 guys you name.

[Jordi]

I don't count M. Schumacher.

2. Button. He is having a nice season, with a better car.
3. Montoya. Still a reason to watch F1.
4. Alonso. Has made the most of his races.
5. Trulli. Ever improving, first win not far.
6. Barrichello. Underperforming a bit.
7. Sato. Doing better than I thought he would, but he ain't no JV, mind you
8. Heidfeld. Consistently extracting more of the Jordan.
9. Fisichella. Starting to do like he should in a 2003 Ferrari.
10. Räikkönen. Driven well when the car's allowed him.

Special mentions for:

-Ralf. Never his demands had been so opposed to his driving.
-Baumgartner. Please give him an easier car to drive, he's always about to go off.

[BertMk2]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
Bert, how can you include Heidfeld, who has been outpaced at times by an under-performing rookie, above Kimi, who is consistantly outpacing a guy who's won 13 races and been at his team for 8 years?

I wouldn't have said Pantano was underperforming - given the amount of time he's had in the car he's not done too badly. Nick has put in some good performances during the races (whilst the car has lasted) so I'd say he's done the best he can with the equipment available to him.

Kimi is also driving a dog of a car but I didn't think he had that much of an advantage over DC? Anyway Kimi hasn't really looked like dragging that car up the grid - Webber has done a much better job of looking far better than the cars he's in. I'll admit that Kimi doesn't really stand much of a chance if his car only last 9 laps or whatever but he hasn't done anything to impress me so far this year.

[climb]

MS: nothing to add
Button: the real new comer on the podium and top standing
Trulli: at last some consistency, still waiting for a freak exploit
JPM: constantly better than his teammate
Alonso: Just OK, but I expected more
Fisichella: some race to get in touch with the new car, and then really good
Barrichello: after excellent 2003, that's not what we expected, none the less, others' (ralf, macs) crisis keeps him in the top 10
Sato: not alwys lucky, but confirming the good signs of Japan 2003
Webber: with the car he has, he's doing fine.

[Bleu]

1. no need to say
2. Button
3. Montoya
4. Trulli
5. Alonso
6. Räikkönen
7. Barrichello
8. Sato
9. Fisichella
10. Webber

[Gt_R]

i'd just go for top 5 (the top 25%) from what we saw so far this season.

1)MS - simply show total domination and proves all critics wrong...retire? Nah..he's better than ever, better than any wannabes. No doubt, in a class of his own.

2)Button - with a good car, Button did a great job in leading the team's improvement in form....shutting up quite a few people along the way. Fast and pretty consistent.

3)Trulli - last season outshone by Alonso, qualified well but face criticism for his race ability...upped his game well and matching Alonso for the goods..

4)Alonso - natural flair and speed...look at the way he fought with the Renault all the way in Spain, and in Imola showed a fire to race.

5)Rubens - strange...he can do well, as we saw in Spain and Australia where he drove around a good strategy in the former while pushing MS in Australia, yet go surprisingly off as in Imola. Bar his consistency, he's good.

Almost squeezing into the top 5 but just missed by a hair - Montoya (was tight between RB and Montoya, but made a couple of errors + some bad luck cost some important points),Webber(can be blindingly quick..2nd in Q at Sepang/race pace decently fast..but not ALWAYS good ie Sepang race),Fisi(took some time to deliver)

Notable absentees - Raikkonen. Mclaren is such **** that we can't see anything..and DC wasn't blown away.

[krt917]

1. Michael Schumacher
2. Button
3. Montoya
4. Trulli
5. Alonso
6. Barrichello
7. Webber
=8. DC, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Sato

[x_dt]

1) M.Schumacher - no contest this year.
2) Button
3) Alonso - great racer though he's usually left himself with too much to do after qualifying.
4) Montoya
5) Trulli - candidate for Most Improved Driver
6) Barrichello
7) Sato - looks good to be the first ever Japanese F1 race winner (sooner or later)
8) Webber
9) Raikkonen
10) Toss-up between Fisichella and Massa

[Knowlesy]

1) M Schumacher - trying his best to make the championship race as dull as possible.

2. Button - Awesome. No other word for him.

3. Trulli - has come on in leaps and bounds this year. He seems more able to 'race'.

4. Montoya - seems to be making the most of things. His day will come.

5. Heidfeld - a revelation this year, and could yet lose his seat soon!

6. Webber - showing his credentials.

7. Alonso - a little dissapointing, but still up there.

8. Sato - a lot more solid and dependable than 2002.

9. Barrichello - frustrating at times.

10. Coulthard - getting on with it solidly.

[GP Racer]

Tough to pick ten, but...

1-Michael, by a whisker
2-Button, made us all forget about JV, except TeddyG
3-Rubens, still a solid #2 man to Michael
4-Montoya, always has a chance to win a race
5-Trulli, big improvement from last year
6-Sato, is really proving he belongs in F1
7-Alonso, nothing great, but he's in the top 10
8-Webber, same as above
9-Coulthard, doing all that can be expected
10-Massa, a solid first year gets him in the top 10

Hmmmm, notice that Ralf has failed to make the cut on these lists... Hope Toyota, Jaguar and anyone else looking at him notices.

[Led ZeppF1]

1. M. Schumacher
2. Button
3. Montoya
4. Trulli
5. Alonso
6. Sato
7. Barrichello
8. Webber
9. Fisichella
10.Klien

Note: Its hard to exclude Kimi from this list. But, its also hard to look Kimi performance because his car is so unreliable. He just finish two time until now.

[pirenzo]

M Schumacher
J Trulli
J Button
J Montoya
N Heidfeld - (making the best of a bad job IMO)
T Sato
R Barrichello
D Coulthard
K Raikkonen
G Bruni - (making his team mate look even worse...)

[Redblurr]

M.S
Schumi
Shuey
Schuminator
Michael
M. Schumacher
TGF
Rainmaster
Dustmaster

cna't think of anymore there's 9

[Led ZeppF1]

Dustmaster or dustman?

[Don K]

1. M. Schumacher - 1,65
2. Alonso - 0,90
3. Montoya - 0,78
4. Button - 0,73
5. Coulthard - 0,67
6. R. Schumacher - 0,66
7. Trulli - 0,55
8. Raikkonen - 0,53
9. Barrichello - 0,43
10. Sato - 0,36

[Dutton]

1) Baumgartner

Let's face it, his genius makes the rest irrelevant.

[Ej10]

MS - 5 outa 5 wins!
JB - showing up better than ever
JPM - doing a good job in a car that is not up to the task.
NH- Has been developing the jordan well and got 12th fastest lap in spain which proves he is good.
FA - Great driving in races
KR - Making the best out of an awful car
MW - great qualifying performances, pity about the races.
DC - Doing well in a car and closer to KR
OP - Outperforming Damatta by far this year.

[Snrub]

The title was impressive drivers, so I'll comment regarding that, not how well they're doing because of their car. Driver's that I'm most impressed with so far:
1. MS - Sure he's got the best car, but he's still had to earn the wins and made it look easy when he had to beat people. Granted the "smoke 'em while they're pitting" stratagy is far less interesting to watch then passing on the track.
2. JPM - Fast with a slow car.
3. Alonso - While he hasn't had the success this year, poor qualifying, etc. he's been very impressive by moving through the field.
4. Truli - He's a weird guy from a performance standpoint, but he's done very well this year.
5. Button - He's done well, while much of his performance can be attributed to the car, there's no doubt that he's making it happen.
6. Heidfeld - Again this guy drives well and no one notices.

IMO the rest have either performed acceptably, not disappointed, or performed poorly. Worth mention is DC who is certainly been more competitive with Kimi that means DNFs left out of the equation.

[chunterer]

Based on what they've done with what they've got (which is how i always rate peoples performances (bit like a certain veteran Autosport F1 hack)then i'll go for the following.

1/ TGF - as much as i hate to say (and see it!)he's doing cracking job of driving a great car to the limit sometimes.

2/ Alonso - i like chargers and that's what he's done every race for one reason or another. However, you could say that apart from OZ, Trulli has shaded him? i'll come back to that.

3/ Button - at last proving what he can do and the promise he originally showed wasn't just youthful fearlessness. Spain aside, is only driver consistently on the limit of his car and matching it with results.

4/ Montoya - hasn't given up doing what he loves, racing other people. Has driven wheels off the recalcitrant Williams and i suspect is getting mighty fed up with events and lack of progress. I thought he'd clean up this year like many others probably did!

5/ Trulli - i suspected he'd be on it this year and is beginning to show that he can hold it together over race distance rather than just being a superb qualifier. I really think that if Renault can get a little bit more pace out of R24 he's on for a win some place or other. Hope he keeps his saet for 05. If not he's doing enough to get the attention of other leading teams wouldn't you say?

6/ Sato - is like a less polished Montoya ( i know what i mean!) but he's staarting to show he isn't just a crazee man and can match Button on pace. Dare i say it but might be a better 'racer' than his English teammate too.

7/ Webber - felt like putting him higher but can't because of BAR drivers! Wasted in the Jag and he MUST be in either a Williams or Renault next year!

8/ DC - why? cos he keeps his car going inspite of hassles and finishes. while Kimi )i suspect) has thrashed his Mac through frustration. Quietly but surely getting on with the job and ensuring he'll get half decent drive next year.

9/ Rubens - hasn't done anything and if Schu goes i really do hope we'll see Silverstone like performances from him all the time, otherwise get someone else in! However he hasn't been any more poor than anyone else so he's in top 10 for that.

10/ Massa/Fizzi - Italian has come back at his upstart teammate quite well and if that continues he may well be in frame for good drive next year. However i think Massa could be really ace if he channels that enthusiasm bit more!

Kimi hasn't had car or reliability and that's tough on him but there you go. Everyone else has been rubbish, constrained by equipment and all that etc... etc...