Best of the current era?

[wnut]

Rosberg anyone?

Fast error free and pretty consistent.
Schumacher is on the up too.

Hamilton makes too many errors, and loses too many points in the process for me to rate him as a top driver.
Britain, had at least to forays into the parking lots, and finally collected Massa on the final lap. Monaco ...just horrible.

[chunterer]

Rosberg has never stuck me as a champion in the making. He's deserving of a decent seat like he's currently got but just isn't very consistent or quick enough wnut. He's not top 3, or in the group immediatley below.

Kobayashi gives the impression that he could do some serious work in a top car, but even then i'm still not totally convinced yet, he's got his work cut out as it is with Perez.

[Mr V]

Interestingly, Lewis's best mate in F1, Adrian Sutil, when interviewed by the Formula 1 website, said he's go for Vettel and Alonso if he could pick any 2 current drivers if he was team owner. here

[JeremySmith]

Well Adrian is not a team owner, so does it matter what he thinks? and that is an easy pick to be honest...

[Born Racer]

The thing for me that's a question mark over Alonso as the very best is his season alongside Hamilton. If they were more or less equal in a driver's first season, how could Alonso be better, you might think?

One thing is however that Hamilton does not appear to have improved much from the first half of his first season, as someone else touched on. This demonstrates what a remarkable and astonishing 2007 he had, particularly in that first part. It's almost like he has such a natural feel for a car that he hit his peak from the very beginning, and we've never seen that before or since (yet).

Vettel is a fantastic driver, but I would like to see what he would do now in a recalcitrant car.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Rosberg has never stuck me as a champion in the making. He's deserving of a decent seat like he's currently got but just isn't very consistent or quick enough wnut. He's not top 3, or in the group immediatley below.

Kobayashi gives the impression that he could do some serious work in a top car, but even then i'm still not totally convinced yet, he's got his work cut out as it is with Perez.

I would have agreed absolutely with your assessment of Rosberg until he joined Schumacher at Mercedes. While I accept Schumacher was rusty at the beginning. Rosberg's 2010 campaign was flawless and much better than Schumacher's and it is this I find difficult to reconcile with my perception of Rosberg.

Kobayashi I think is still very much a loose cannon, and I think Perez may prove to be the better.

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by wnut

I would have agreed absolutely with your assessment of Rosberg until he joined Schumacher at Mercedes. While I accept Schumacher was rusty at the beginning. Rosberg's 2010 campaign was flawless and much better than Schumacher's and it is this I find difficult to reconcile with my perception of Rosberg.

Kobayashi I think is still very much a loose cannon, and I think Perez may prove to be the better.

I find it very difficult to compare Rosberg vs Schumacher. Definitely in his prime, Schumacher would beat Rosberg, Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, in my opinion.

But what's difficult to judge now is how far out of his prime is Schumacher? Is Rosberg's advantage down to just being very, very quick, or is it because Michael is nowhere near his pace even of 2005/2006? I don't think we'll really know until either Michael starts consistently beating Rosberg, or Rosberg faces a different teammate. He was too new to properly compare to Webber in 2006 and his only other teammates were Nakajima (who he dominated) and Wurz.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

Well Adrian is not a team owner, so does it matter what he thinks? and that is an easy pick to be honest...

We're not team owners but we still put our opinions forward

[stripedcat]

The things that strikes me most, is that Vettel and Alonso seem to keep improving year on year. For Vettel in particular(yes he has the Red Bull, and that does help), with him being so young. Hamilton by contrast, doesn't seem to be improving. After his amazing year in 2007, he seems to just be at the same level(maybe even getting worse in some cases).

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by stripedcat

The things that strikes me most, is that Vettel and Alonso seem to keep improving year on year. For Vettel in particular(yes he has the Red Bull, and that does help), with him being so young. Hamilton by contrast, doesn't seem to be improving. After his amazing year in 2007, he seems to just be at the same level(maybe even getting worse in some cases).

This is such a difficult assessment to make because the car differences significantly camouflage the driver performances. The only thing we can compare with clarity are the team mates.

o Red Bull.
One would have to say that Vettel is quicker than Webber over a single lap... and probably over a race distance too.

o McLaren.
Hamilton is faster than Button over a single lap, but is much harder on his rear tyres and that compromises his races, particularly in mixed conditions.

o Ferrari.
This year Alonso has been consistently quicker than Massa in qualifying and has outshone him in the races too. It wasn't as clear cut last year though.

o Mercedes.
Rosberg has consistently outgunned Schumacher in qualifying, but more recently, Schumacher is probably on a par with him in race conditions. The problem here, and for the rest of the mid-back pack is that its so easy to get caught up in trouble that its a clear cut assessment of their relative race performances is not as easy as those in the front couple of teams.

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by Mr V

I'm sorry, but Fernando took 7 wins (same as Michael) 7 second places (alot better than Michael) and they both had 2 retirements. Yes, Michael had trouble in the last race, finishing 4th, but that's off set by Alonso only managing 5th at Germany. Plus Fernando did Michael by 13 points. Fernando was by far, the more deserving driver that year.

Not forgetting that Ferrari got the mass-damper banned that season because they couldn't get one to work. A system that Renault had used for 2 years prior and suddenly deemed a moving aero device.
Ferrari done the same thing with Michelin in 2003 when they argued that measurement of the Michelins allowed them to run wider tyres.
Look at that Ferrari getting the regs sorted out for them.
BTW, in case you don't know, I'm an Italian Ferrari fan...

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

The thing for me that's a question mark over Alonso as the very best is his season alongside Hamilton. If they were more or less equal in a driver's first season, how could Alonso be better, you might think?

I don't think Joe Public has ever been told that full story to be honest.
I can't remember if it was Joe Saward, Andrew Benson or some such blog, but the article backed Alonso's difficulties quite considerably, The author spoke of Ron Dennis and essentially the team favouring Hamilton over Alonso from pretty early on.
Mention was made of Dennis having to pacify Alonso at Bahrain, the 3rd GP of the season.
Then critically he asked Alonso after winning the Monaco GP from pole etc to make up some story about the team and Hamilton.
By the time of Hungary where he blocked Hamilton in the pits, after Hamilton had gone against team instruction for qualifying they were at war and Alonso dropped the team in the s**t with the emails and copying Ferrari secrets. Alonso was never going to be a team patsy like Coulthard was during his time there.
I doubt he's particularly proud of his actions, but I think you get those two together, it would be a vastly different Alonso now.

To go back to thread, Alonso, head and shoulders clear. I don't think Vettel would be dominating if Alonso was teamed with him at Red Bull.

What makes me laugh is how for years drivers like Prost, Lauda, Stewart were considered boring because they didn't hustle a car, yet now we're going on about Top Gear and smoothness... If i remember right, wasn't Lewis's lap in the wet round there?

[Hubble]

Originally Posted by herowassenna

If i remember right, wasn't Lewis's lap in the wet round there?

Marked as wet and oily on the power lap board...

[luke g28]

Originally Posted by Hubble

Marked as wet and oily on the power lap board...

Originally Posted by bbc

The 22-year-old's lap was 0.3 seconds behind The Stig's blistering best of one minute 44.4 seconds and also behind former F1 world champion Nigel Mansell.
However, Hamilton's lap came in wet conditions, unlike the other two.

4 seconds quicker on a dry track? Cant remember off the top of my head what Vettels time was but dont think it was 1:40 dead.

IIRC one of the cars topgear was testing had blown left gearbox oil all over the track before hammy went out

[Mr V]

So it's official. Lewis is actually 4 seconds a lap faster than anyone else in the same car

[strider]

Originally Posted by luke g28

4 seconds quicker on a dry track? Cant remember off the top of my head what Vettels time was but dont think it was 1:40 dead.

Rubens' previous best was 1m 44.3s. Vettel did a 1m 44s dead. The present Stig hasn't set a time in that car, but I'm getting the impression he's faster than the old one.

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by strider

Rubens' previous best was 1m 44.3s. Vettel did a 1m 44s dead. The present Stig hasn't set a time in that car, but I'm getting the impression he's faster than the old one.

Hammy done a lap in 1m 44.7, wet and oily track.
Regarding the Stig, I get the impression that he's quicker than the old one. Any rumours on who he is?

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by herowassenna

Hammy done a lap in 1m 44.7, wet and oily track.
Regarding the Stig, I get the impression that he's quicker than the old one. Any rumours on who he is?

In DTM touring car series in the mid-90s, there used to be a driver of year-old cars from Berlin, Germany, by the name of Stig Amthor. If it was him, he probably would not need to disguise himself because of his first name. ;-)

[wnut]

Times guys

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gea...ack#F1_drivers

The new Stig can't be that fast, how many weeks would it take to get him a spare 5 mins to set a time?

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Mr V

So it's official. Lewis is actually 4 seconds a lap faster than anyone else in the same car

There we go! Pat on the head for you!

[Mr V]

So why isn't Lewis 4 seconds a lap faster than Jenson every thime they get in their respective McLarens?

And how come Jenson was only 2 tenths slower between his hot weather lap and the falling snow lap

[mac]

In answer to the thread question... Alonso.

Vettel is a very close second, followed by Hamilton and Kubica (hopefully he returns)...

As far as complete package goes, I personally don't see how there could be an argument against Alonso...

[wnut]

Ask Ron Dennis why Alonso isn't the complete package!

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Mr V

So why isn't Lewis 4 seconds a lap faster than Jenson every thime they get in their respective McLarens?

Maybe Jens hasn't spent as much time as Lewis doing donuts in his road car!

And how come Jenson was only 2 tenths slower between his hot weather lap and the falling snow lap [/QUOTE]

Maybe the engine makes more power with cold air, and the grip is pretty non existant either way.

[mac]

Originally Posted by wnut

Ask Ron Dennis why Alonso isn't the complete package!

Because he had a problem with McLaren playing favourites...? Because instead of getting mad he got even...? Purely as a racing driver, I just don't see any weaknesses with Alonso... he's fast in every situation, he's smart, his racecraft is examplary and he refuses to give in...