Rank the current field

1. Kimi - League of his own.
2. Alonso - Raw talent, second to only Kimi. He can be like cancer to the atmosphere of a team. I respect him as a driver, but not as a man.
3. Kubica - Future WDC. Look out for him when Kimi retires from F1 early so he can drink all the time.
 
In pre-season Nakajima was putting in some very good times, however in the races he has fallen to piece's, could be that he is struggling with the pressure's of a race weekend in which case unless he learns to cope with them sooner then he isn't going to last in Formula One very long, especially with the next crop of GP2 lads coming through next season.

Anyways a bit late but my list:

1. Alonso - Great intelligent driver, can be very tempremental thou
2. Raikkonen - Fantasic driver who keeps improving
3. Kubica - Fantastic pace, a future champion
4. Webber - Has been hampered by poor equipment since day one, has always beaten his teammate however and deserves a top drive
5. Hamilton - talented but over hyped
6. Kovaleinen - improving all the time after a shakey first season
7. Massa - great pace on his day, still very prone to mistakes
8. Rosberg - Has the talent, needs a better car to see if he can step up to the next level
9. Button - Has blown his chance of winning a WDC by staying with Honda, unlikely to get a top drive and unlikely that Honda will catch up
10. Vettel - has the talent but needs to mature as a driver
11. Heidfeld - doesn't seem to have the pace to cut it with the best, seems to have lost motivation by Kubica's emergence
12. Barichello - An old hand who is still consistant but his speed is fading
13. Trulli - having a much better year but has missed his chance to be a top driver
14. Glock - has the pace but is still young and learning
15. Coulthard - becoming alot more mistake prone, seems to be struggling to keep up with Webber
16. Bourdais - 4 time ChampCar winner, only time will tell if he can transfer over to F1
17. Sutil - has got promise, needs to be in a better car before he can be judged
18. Piquet - Poor start to his F1 career, needs to improve
19. Sato - fast but too much of a loose cannon
20. Fisichella - finally got his chance and blew it, had the potential but didn't show it when it mattered
21. Nakajima - struggling and may be out of his depth, needs to start showing some consistancy
22. Davidson - Has never looked good enough, will always be a test driver at best
 
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^The first person to vote Nakajima off the rails! I agree that Davidson was crap, but worse than Nakajima? Bold claim my friend ;)
 
Piquet jr. should be fired, along with Glock. Let's get in some more deserving drivers, with more talent. The funny thing is, these two drivers aren't pay drivers at all, yet they still suck...
 
Well Piquet had to have a drive this year, it was in his contract...
 
^The first person to vote Nakajima off the rails! I agree that Davidson was crap, but worse than Nakajima? Bold claim my friend ;)
Nakajima is no where near as bad as you all make out, for one he is scoring points regulary which is more than can be said for Glock and Pique!

Davidson was a truely awful driver, he had been testing for Honda for years and still looked crap when he got his chance, Nakajima is only in his first full season and doesn't look completely useless.
 
Nakajima is no where near as bad as you all make out, for one he is scoring points regulary which is more than can be said for Glock and Pique!

Davidson was a truely awful driver, he had been testing for Honda for years and still looked crap when he got his chance, Nakajima is only in his first full season and doesn't look completely useless.

Yeah people are just used to seeing totally useless Japanese drivers. Nakajima is actually doing fairly well, considering he's a rookie. Not everyone can come out swinging at a two times world champion like Hamilton did.
 
Nakajima is no where near as bad as you all make out, for one he is scoring points regulary which is more than can be said for Glock and Pique!

Davidson was a truely awful driver, he had been testing for Honda for years and still looked crap when he got his chance, Nakajima is only in his first full season and doesn't look completely useless.

Yep, its a fair argument. I agree with you about Davidson, and Nakajima is putting in a few under the radar performances and stealing the odd point here and there. Needs to improve his qualifying pace though, but he's nowhere near as useless as we perhaps might've first thought.
 
Davidson was a truely awful driver, he had been testing for Honda for years and still looked crap when he got his chance, Nakajima is only in his first full season and doesn't look completely useless.

Sadly, I have to agree with this. I've always liked Davidson and hoped he would get a chance but he hasn't really proven anything since he finally got a drive at Super Aguri.
There are drivers who are excellent at testing but average at racing - I think Davidson fits into this group.

I'm surprised they're talking about him as a canditate to replace Piquet - I'm not sure he would do better than the Brazilian...
 
BUMP

I think we have to do this again, now the season is over...I'm sure Massa will move up some places :)...

I'll put my new ranking up this afternoon, quite a lot has changed tbh...
 
1. Fernando Alonso
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Felipe Massa
4. Robert Kubica
5. Kimi Raikkonen
6. Sebastian Vettel
7. Mark Webber
8. Nico Rosberg
9. Heikki Kovalainen
10. Jarno Trulli
11. Timo Glock
12. Nick Heidfeld
13. Sebastien Bourdais
14. Rubens Barrichello
15. Jenson Button
16. Takuma Sato
17. David Coulthard
18. Giancarlo Fisichella
19. Adrian Sutil
20. Kazuki Nakajima
21. Anthony Davidson
22. Nelson Piquet Jr
 
OK, here was my old list:

1. Hamilton...simply the best, much more to come
2. Raikkonen...the guy is special and has talent
3. Alonso...Great driver, but too much temper, needs to be no 1
4. Button...deserves a great car
5. Kubica...amazing pace, will win championship if he ever gets a great car
6. Kovaleinen...not as fast as Hamilton, but there is more to come
7. Webber...also deseves a better car
8. Massa...Can be great, can be crap
9. Heidfeld...a lot like Kovi, very consistent, not a WDC winner, clever racer
10. Vettel...much, much more to come from him
11. Trulli...great pace, deseves better car
12.Rosberg...has to grow in his role as team leader, but very quick guy
13.Barichello...great second driver, not a WDC winner
14. Sato...a bit aggressive but good to watch
15. Coulthard...great second driver, not a WDC winner
16. Fisichella...consistent, not so great
17. Sutil...deserves a much better car
18. Bourdais...clever racer, will get his chance to shine
19. Piquet...interesting driving style, stil has to get used to F1
20. Davidson...deserves a good car, but haven't seen genius from him like Sato
21.Timo Glock...OK, but really doesn't deserve a Toyota
22. Nakajima...utter crap...

This is the new one:

1. Hamilton...simply the best, much more to come
2. Alonso...Great driver, but too much temper, needs to be no1
3. Raikkonen...the guy is special and has talent
4. Massa...Can be great, proved himself this year
5. Vettel...much, much more to come from him
6. Kubica...amazing pace, will win championship if he ever gets a great car
7. Webber...also deseves a better car
8. Button...deserves a great car
9. Kovaleinen...not as fast as Hamilton, but there is more to come
10. Trulli...great pace, deseves better car, but causes the Trulli train
11.Barrichello...great second driver, not a WDC winner
12.Rosberg...has to grow in his role as team leader, but very quick guy
13.Timo Glock...He came alive this year, hope to see more of him
14. Heidfeld...a lot like Kovi, very consistent, not a WDC winner, clever racer
15. Sato...a bit aggressive but good to watch
16. Sutil...deserves a much better car
17. Coulthard...great second driver, not a WDC winner
18. Fisichella...consistent, not so great
19. Bourdais...clever racer, will get his chance to shine
20. Davidson...deserves a good car, but haven't seen genius from him like Sato
21. Nakajima...OK, but not F1 calibre
22. Piquet...Just not good enough
 
I'm going to add my new thoughts in red.

Jesus, some people really let their bias's get in the way.
Anyway here is mine:

1. Alonso (Originally: 3)

Whiny bastard but still one of the fastest. Pressure seemed to get to him a few times last year so knocks him down.
The epic driving from Spa onwards shows that the whiny bastard is probably the fastest in the field

2. Kubica (Originally: 4)

Fast and consistent. Could go all the way to the top with time.
No new comments

3. Hamilton (Originally: 5)

Pushed below Kubica due to a few daft mistakes but not as low as some people put him due to me not being blinded by hatred. People seem to remember the mistakes Hamilton makes but forget about the various mistakes made last year by Kimi, Massa and Alonso.
Winning the championship shows he has what it takes but still makes stupid mistakes which limit his position.

4. Kimi (Originally: 1)

The "Iceman" may be beaten by one or two for absolute outright pace but he can drive so close to the limit for so long without making a mistake. No one really comes close for me.
Bad season for Kimi and I can't see it getting better unless he changes team

5. Massa (Originally: 8)

Blistering fast on his day, but the day doesn't come often enough.
Seems to be more consistent now, but still has off days.

6. Vettel (Originally: 20)
Massively impressed once Torro Rosso had sorted the car out. Future World Champion

7. Barrichello (Originally: 7)

Getting a bit long in the tooth but still a good solid performer.

8. Kovi (Originally: 6)

Seems to lack the raw pace of Hamilton but not far off.
May not even be fast enough to be a good 2nd driver in a big team like McMerc.

9. Webber (Originally: 9)

Unlucky but the one lap master.

10. Sutil (Originally: 10)

Immense talent hidden by crap car.

11. Button (Originally: 2)

This might seem to be British bias but I believe he is the smoothest driver in the field, and like Raikkonen, can put in consistent laps at 98%. Unwise choices off track have probably stopped his chances of winning a WDC but this doesn't matter on this list.
Dismal season from Button, looks a bit past it.

12. Heidfeld

May seem too low but he just seems completely unspectacular to me.

13. Rosberg

Needs to prove himself a few more times.

14. Trulli

15. Fisi

16. DC

17. Glock

18. Bourdais

19. Pique Jr.

20. Naka...
 
My ranking now has a very very major tie at this moment. I'll post only the top 10, I'm too lazy now to do all 20 drivers.

1. Fernando Alonso
In my eyes, and in many other people's eyes, he is still, all things considered, the best driver in the field. Late in this season, he literally performed a set of miracles with the R28, the wins in Japan and Singapore being results of driving the wheels off the car consistently, at a terrifying pace, and totally under control. His middle stints in both these races were awe-inspiring and fearsomely consistent drives. Frustration can get to him, but he has regained all respect from most people. He actually went to congratulate Hamilton after the end of the race in Brazil, which shows that his problem was, indeed, never with Lewis himself, but with the team.

2=. Lewis Hamilton
Well... what can I say? World Champion. Kinda sums it all up. He had his fair share of mistakes, he got screwed by the Stewards a few times, sometimes debatably, sometimes rightfully (e.g. Canada), but some of his drives were very mature, very consistent, devastating for the rest of the field, like his emphatic win at Silverstone, over a minute clear of the rest of the field. Now that's domination. He's far from the finished article, and he's fooling himself a bit by thinking that he will remain at McLaren for the rest of his career, but he's been mostly consistent through the season, and his eventual Championship victory was deserved.

2=. Felipe Massa
Quite similar story to Hamilton, but besides his mistakes, the "help" he got from the Stewards was nullified completely by his own team's f**k-ups: the fuel hose in Singapore, the very late engine failure in Hungary, niggly little stuff like brake trouble in Germany. He did stuff it up monumentally in Malaysia and in Silverstone, of his own accord, but in the end, his drives in Bahrain, in Turkey, in Brazil, they were all devastatingly fast and consistent. In the end, even though he lost the Championship by one point, I feel that he would have deserved it as much as Lewis. Plus he took his loss like a true champion.

2=. Robert Kubica

Robert has really come of age this year, with his first win and a surprising Championship challenge which was very nearly carried out, had BMW kept up their development pace throughout the season. His drive in Brazil was the statement of a frustrated man, in contrast with some of the very mature drives that he put up throughout the season. He looks like a man who is ready to become World Champion very soon.

5. Kimi Raikkonen
Quite disappointing season from the Kimster, but he has kept his cool throughout and he is ready for a resurgence. His season was blighted by inconsistency, but his raw speed is still there. He just needs to tap back into it and to harness it, a thing which he seemed to be able to do only late in races this year. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, and looking forward to him regaining his good form in '09. (P.S. Looks like even years have been jinxes for Kimi.)

6. Sebastian Vettel
Superstar of the year, no doubt about that. Still not the best driver, pound-for-pound, in the field, being still very young and sometimes showing flashes of inexperience, but his gritty drive in Brazil, staying with the leaders pretty much throughout the race, and his brilliant stroll to the win in Monza was justified reward for himself and for his team, which used to be the Minardi team. Those guys have gone through F1 hell and always looking at the bright side of things, and finally they got to feel the winning ways of F1, all because of this brilliant young man.

7. Timo Glock
Now, this might come as a bit of a surprise, but there's reason for this. Timo has had quite a bit of a slow re-start to his F1 career, but once he got the hang of his Toyota (and once he crashed at Hockenheim), the results started feeding in. It's odd how sometimes a crash can transform a driver. I'm not talking about the gamble that Toyota took at the end of the Brazilian GP, but my view about Glock is that he, eventually, hit the ground running and is helping Toyota to recover superbly from the Ralf Slowmacher days.

8. Nico Rosberg
Singapore and Australia push Nico this far up the board. He needs, however, a better car to show his worth, or he might end up like good ol' Derek Warwick, who always drove hard to make up for his cars' shortfalls, but rarely with successes. He should have, maybe, got that McLaren drive for this year, and maybe, just maybe, McLaren might have taken the double.

9. Mark Webber
Oh man... he still shows good speed, particularly judging by the front-row start at Silverstone, but he's getting increasingly bitter and frustrated. He's still good, but trundling around in the midfield hasn't done him much good. I see him going on a gradual downwards slope from now on, unless he can match Vettel drive for drive next year. I do certainly hope that he does. And I do certainly hope that he eventually does what his compatriot Alan Jones did in 1980, but it's a bit of a longshot.

10. Heikki Kovalainen
Failed to live up to early season expectations. Lucky win in Hungary (although it doesn't take anything away from it), but he really needs to pick up his pace and get moving, unless Hamilton destroys his career by outpacing him constantly in the future. Fingers crossed that he does better next year.
 
my ranks - few comments

my ranks - few comments

1. Fernando Alonso - man.. he is impressive.
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Kimi Raikkonen - it's going to be interesting seeing where everyone ranks Kimi - All the prior lists had him in the top 2-3.
4. Robert Kubica
5. Sebastian Vettel
6. Felipe Massa - I still think this is a bit high. He's a great guys it seems, but he breaks under pressure, he can battle it out, but if its not going his way its won't.
7. Nico Rosberg
8. Timo Glock
9. Heikki Kovaleinen
10. Mark Webber
11. Nick Heidfeld
12. Rubens Barrichello
13. Jenson Button
... The 9-13 pack I feel are pretty much together, great in their respective rights, but I can't really tell with the cars they are driving.
Coulthard hopes he can strick out this season from his record..

The rest I don't really see enough about.
 
1. Alonso
2. Hamilton
3. Kimi, Massa, Kubica
 
Well considering I started the bloody thread I better put my thoughts down!!

1. Fernando Alonso
What a driver this man is. Yes we can debate until we all turn blue about his emotional insecurities and his whinging and his personal vendettas but plain and simple, he is simply astonishing behind the wheel. Great over one lap, good at car set up, brilliantly consistent, doesn't seem to burn out tyres like he used to and apparently immune to pressure. The benchmark.

2. Kimi Raikonnen
Has had a poor season and considered dropping him down to 4th but a lot of his problems this year have been out of his control. Has shown clearly this year that he has lost none of his speed and is therefore very close to being the fastest driver in F1. However his inability to put heat in his tyres which served him so well in Malaysia and Catalunya means that when we moved to the cooler European climate his qualifying pace deserted him. Hopefully we see a resurgent Kimi in '09

3. Lewis Hamilton
Drove both better and worse than in '07. The downs were no doubt as a result of adapting to the pressures of being team leader. His ups showed him to be a simply incredible talent, his ability over one lap is unbelievable. His drive at Silverstone deserves to go down as one of the best ever. Still so many questions need answering before he can even being to lay claim to being the best of his generation, let alone one of the best ever. How will he react if McLaren's current legendary reliability deserts them a la 2005??

4. Robert Kubica
Blotted his copybook with some decidedly average performances in the last two races of the year, particularly in Interlagos, but for the majority of the year was the driver that made the most of the machinery at his disposable. Very demanding of the team so wants to make sure that he remains at the top of his game.

5. Sebastien Vettel
World Champion material. Had a horrific start to the season unable to complete the first lap. Since then has gone from strength to strength and his performance at Monza was just dominant. Very very talented, hopefully remains grounded and Red Bull give him a decent car!

6. Felipe Massa
6th place seems perhaps a little harsh for the man that was World Champion for about 30 seconds. 6th place is a lot closer at the beginning of the year than it was at the start though. Has made huge strides this year, another year of improvement next year and he could be one of the best. Has a strange inability to accept wrongdoing (eg. Japan) but his grace at Interlagos was the mark of a true champion.

7. Mark Webber
Stock has slipped somewhat in an uncompetitive Red Bull. Still managed to perform one lap wonders on a regular basis but after a solid start to the year no points to be found. The Renault engine surely didn't help, they better make sure next year they secure the proper engine as when Renault found more pace, Red Bull didn't.

8. Jarno Truilli
Placed ahead of Glock due to his strong start to the year. Good to see him get some results after a few very lean years. Hopefully with his guidance Toyota will find some more pace next year.

9. Timo Glock
Took half the season to settle in and find what he liked in a car set up but was impressive in the last half. Certainly deserves his place on the grid.

10. Heikki Kovalainen
Hasn't performed at the level required of a McLaren driver. Has shown he has the speed, pole sitting speed and race winning speed but shows it far too infrequently. If he can find that he will be competitive, but he has had a full season already.

11. Nick Heidfeld
Much like Kovalainen, has shown he has the speed but can't produce it often enough. Had similar trouble to Raikonnen in getting the tyres to work properly. Despite what Red_Bull says :)P) he is a quality driver but I don't expect him to trouble Kubica too much next year.

12. Ruebens Barrichello
Now that I think about it Ruebens could probably be placed in the top 10 above Truilli. I feel that given the Toyota he would have done at least as good a job this year. However given that the Honda has been so woeful it is hard to know how much pace he still really has. Was brilliant at Silverstone.

13. Nico Rosberg
Yet another driver who has flashes of pace yet is mostly nowhere. Needs a competitive car to show his true worth....can Williams deliver it? I doubt it.

14. Sebastien Bourdais
Got to grips with F1 better than some. A quality driver but has left his move too late to make a real impact. If he is on the grid next year I have no problem with that, but if he isn't....it isn't a great shame either.

15. Jenson Button
Jenson finally cracked. The pain of driving an appalling car finally got to him and he gave up somewhat. Has been over shadowed by Ruebens, perhaps he is saving up his energy for a massive assault on '09. Needs a good car to save his career.

16. Giancarlo Fisichella
Has been the more impressive of the two Force India drivers (apart from Singapore) and Interlagos showed there is life in the old dog yet.

17. Adrian Sutil
Hard to gauge how good someone is when they are trundling around at the back and retire 11 times during the season. Seems to like Monaco, although it may also give him some nightmares now too.

18. David Coulthard
Bowed out at the right time.

19. Kazuki Nakajima
Has been ok but there are a lot of better drivers around.

20. Nelson Piquet
In one way I am glad Nelson and Kazuki get second seasons as too often young drivers get thrown away. While these guys aren't particularly great at least they have a chance to develop somewhat.
 
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Alonso:
apparently immune to pressure.

though I put Alonso on the top, I dono if I agree with this, as the 2007 season, he got flustered quite a bit under pressure from his teammate - and all the unequal stuff -. I mean going into the first corner of the much of the midseason he made mistakes, not all his fault, but still.
 
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