My top five for the year

This is the time of year when everyone churns out their seasonal reviews and makes lovely lists and hands out awards. That is all a bit complicated if you ask me and so I am going to cut to the chase and simply tell you who I think were the Top Five drivers of 2010 and try to explain why I rated them thus. This is bound to be controversial because no-one ever agrees on these things and we all have different opinions, so rather than writing in and telling me that I am a fool, I suggest that all those who do not agree start their own blog and publish their own ideas…

Getting the top five drivers of the year is actually not that difficult. The problem comes when one tries to put them in the right order, allowing for the cars that they were using and what they achieved with the machinery, in the circumstances (and so on…).

I have decided to do this like a beauty contest and announce the winners in reverse so that you will all go reading longer, which gains me very little, but makes it more fun. So, for fifth place I would like to nominate Fernando Alonso.

Yes, I know that Spanish readers will splutter their paella all over the table and start accusing the British media of being racist, but although Fernando finished runner-up in the World Championship, it was not as convincing a performance as some of the others. His arrival at Ferrari began brilliantly with victory first time out in Bahrain, but after that Ferrari’s performance dived until he picked up a fortunate second place in Barcelona, after Hamilton and then Vettel ran into unexpected trouble. The team strategy ruined his chances in Montreal, but he made a very costly error when he overtook Robert Kubica illegally at Silverstone and did not give the place back. If he had done it would have been a whole different story. He also had accidents in qualifying at Monaco and later in Belgium, which cost him points. There was, of course, massive controversy in Germany where he was given the victory at the expense of his team-mate, who was ahead. The team was punished for that, although some would say it was not enough of a punishment. Fernando’s attempts to belittle the media after he came under attack after the event was really an attack on the intelligence of the general public. He could have handled that better. Similarly he spoiled things in Abu Dhabi by throwing his toys out of the pram after the event gesticulating rudely at Vitaly Petrov, who had done nothing wrong but drive a great race. It is a shame that Fernando has yet to learn to lose with grace. It also underlines the fact that he can lose his head on occasion, which is something that came to the surface in 2007 when he was battling to be top dog at McLaren against Lewis Hamilton. One had the feeling that it was a little the same in Valencia where he felt hard done by regarding the Safety Car. Yes, he had some misfortune in this respect and, yes, Hamilton’s call was marginal, but if one has Safety Cars one gets these kind of situations and there is no point in getting hot under the collar about it. One time it works out for you; one time it screws you. Towards the end of the year, apart from the blip in Belgium, Fernando drove superbly, scoring a string of results that it was hard to fault. There were terrific victories in Italy and Singapore and his run to victory in Korea was fortunate, but valid nonetheless. So a good year for him.

Fourth for me belongs to Lewis Hamilton not because he was not brilliant, which on many occasions he was, but rather because his brilliance is still peppered with errors that cost him dearly. The new McLaren MP4-25 was a pretty competitive car but there was still something missing in comparison to the Red Bulls and the Ferraris. Button used it well to win in Australia and China, while Hamilton’s reward for some feisty drives was just a few minor placings. He was second to Button on very tired tyres in China, and was then robbed of a terrific second place in Spain when a tyre/wheel failed. It was only in the midseason that things began to look up with victory in Turkey after the Red Bulls collided and then Canada when he was in a class of his own. There were second places in Valencia and Britain followed by a dull day in Hockenheim and a mechanical failure in Hungary. But after that McLaren struggled as Ferrari came on song again. There were two non-finishes in Italy and Singapore, where he had racing incidents with Massa and Webber respectively, which should possibly be chalked up to his impetuous nature (which is not always a bad thing in a racing driver but does not always work out). He is a pure racer, who refuses to quit, overtakes where such things seem impossible and does things with racing cars that others can only dream of doing. Some of his qualifying performances this year were astonishing, as he squeezed time out of a car that did not want to be squeezed. He is regarded as a huge talent by all of his fellow drivers, whether they like him or not. He never makes a fuss and is kept balanced by an innate belief in his own ability, which never runs over into egotism, and strong but understated religious beliefs, which may not be fashionable in F1, but show the steel of the man.

Third place. Hmmm… This goes to Mark Webber for his grit and talent. He was driving the best car in the field and he delivered with it. His 2009 season had been compromised somewhat by the injuries he suffered in a cycling crash in the autumn of 2008, but this year he was free of that burden and super-fit. At 34 he got a very real kick out of beating youngsters like Lewis, Sebastian and Fernando. His head is solidly on his shoulders and he talks common sense, sees a much bigger picture than most of his rivals and lives a very un-Hollywood existence, proving that one can be a star without behaving like one. The season did not begin well with fairly average performances in Bahrain and Australia, but things were better in Kuala Lumpur where he finished second to Vettel and then he really got going when the teams returned to Europe with wins in Spain and Monaco and should have had victory in Turkey as well had he not been assaulted by an over-enthusiastic Vettel. The team’s response to that incident would have crushed many a driver, but Webber simply hunkered down and went on with the job in hand. He had a gearbox change which hurt him in qualifying in Canada and then walked away from a frightening flip in Valencia, which one has to regard as a mistake, when he misjudged the speed (or lack of it) of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus. The team again made life tough for him in Silverstone where Vettel was given Mark’s front wing in qualifying, but again he was tough enough to keep his balance and he won the Silverstone race after Vettel went off trying to stay ahead. Mark added a further victory in Hungary after another Vettel mistake, but after that it seemed that no matter what Mark did in qualifying, Sebastian always had that little bit extra. The big blow came in Korea where he made a hugely costly mistake early in the race and crashed, but he fought back again, even when it was clear that the team was not going to help him against Fernando Alonso. In the end that worked out fortunately, but it could have been a very different story, in which case the team would not have looked good having handed the title to Alonso. Webber has his faults, made his mistakes but he is a great sportsman and has an amazing ability to fight back when the going gets tough. One might think that Webber will be finished now, but watch out, this man is not to be underestimated…

Okay, so we come to the top two and there is bound to be controversy when I say that I think Sebastian Vettel was the runner-up in terms of what he did with the machinery he was given. He ended last year on a high with wins and started well in 2010, but in the first two races he had mechanical troubles that robbed him of victories, but he won convincingly in Malaysia and looked to be on the move, but then Webber’s ascendancy began to dent his confidence, culminating in the desperate move in Turkey which ended up with the two Red Bulls colliding. After that Vettel struggled to get his head in place, even though he knew that the team was clearly with him. His triumph in Valencia helped, but then he threw away a possible win in Silverstone in a brush with Hamilton. Sebastian was then drubbed by Webber in Hungary when he fell asleep behind the Safety Car, which resulted in a penalty for holding up Alonso before the restart. In Belgium he made a mistake and piled into poor Button. Up to that point Vettel was a terrific young talent with a string of pole positions and a hot head. But then, as if by magic, he had a talk to himself about the way his career was going and suddenly we discovered a new Vettel. And this was almost unbeatable. He took victory in Japan and should have won in Korea, but for a car failure, and then he walked it in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. He was helped by poor strategic calling by Ferrari at the final race. Some do not like him because they see the Red Bull management’s love for him to be excessive. It probably is, but the man himself is delightful. He is intelligent in a way that one rarely sees in F1 and able to express himself to a remarkable extent. He keeps his feet firmly on the ground and lives a quiet life in his home town – or at least he has up to now. As a racer, Vettel matured in 2010 and thus thoroughly deserves the World Championship. Perhaps he should have won it more easily, but then again winning it was enough…

And that means that we have a strange number one, because all the obvious candidates have now been used up. To my mind, and I am sure that some will disagree with me, the man who who did the best job in terms of getting the most out of his car was Poland’s Robert Kubica, who raced for Renault. He finished eighth in the World Championship and did not win a single race, but he drove brilliantly, made fewer mistakes than all of his rivals, performed overtaking moves that others could not have achieved and showed that if ever there was a driver waiting for the right car to come along, here he is. He was assaulted rudely in Bahrain by Adrian Sutil, who ran into the back of him and spun him out. That ruined his tyres and forced him to make an early stop and that meant he could achieve little. Then in Australia he was second to Button, having played his cards right in the rain. He was fourth in Malaysia with a car that could do no better than that. In China he was up to third when a Safety Car destroyed the advantage he had built and he was unable to stop faster cars pushing him back two places to fifth. He was hit at the start in Spain by Kamui Kobayashi and that damaged his car, but be battled on to finish eighth. He qualified second in Monaco and finished third behind the two Red Bulls. In Turkey he was stuck behind the Mercedes cars for the whole race and had to make do with sixth. In Canada he set the fastest lap of the race, but finished seventh after Michael Schumacher shoved him off early on, but he kept it together and scored again. He was fifth in Valencia, was running strongly when a driveshaft failed at Silverstone and added seventh in Germany. In Hungary he was taken out when his team released him from the pit stop straight into the path of Sutil, which was not his fault. In the rain at Spa he was mighty and finished on the podium. In Italy a slow pitstop and some traffic cost him a couple of places, but he still finished eighth and then in Singapore an aggressive strategy saw him climbing through the field in extraordinary fashion, even if the end result seemed rather drab. In Japan he was running second when a wheel fell off, but in Korea he drove another super race to finish fifth. Not much, perhaps, but with the car he had it was impressive. Brazil was another sixth place, but he would have achieved more if he had not been stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg. And there was another fifth place in Abu Dhabi.

Robert made no major mistakes and, as far as I am concerned, drive brilliantly on all occasions. Thus he is my number one of the year – and I hope that in the fullness of time he gets into a car that is worth of his extraordinary talent.

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