Top drivers of 2012: 25 - 11

This season has been incredible and almost everyone on the grid has had their chance to shine. It's always a matter of opinion about how to judge which drivers have done best over the course of the year. But if you go with the theory that the best drivers end up being in the best cars, then that's one way to start. 

However it is of course possible to see drivers who have had an exceptional year, for instance last season Heikki Kovalainen was brilliant, this year not so much. You're always going to be limited by the strengths of your car, but sometimes some drivers do that little bit more. Here are my top drivers of 2012.

25. Jerome d’Ambrosio (Lotus)

Drove for one race replacing the banned Romain Grosjean at the Italian Grand Prix; didn’t disgrace himself but a KERs failure put paid to any decent result.

24. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT)

Angering Vettel was his main claim to fame, and perhaps blocked a few too many people, but certainly give him credit for occasionally beating de la Rosa.

23. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)

What was he going to do in this car? Exactly, he’s a decent driver but beating his team mate was about as good as it was going to get, but there were days when he did more, his qualifying in Japan was exceptional.

22. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)

I thought he’d be a bit closer to Kovalainen, but as the season wore on he began to put pressure on his team mate and was the team’s saviour in Brazil securing them 10^th place in the constructors.

21. Charles Pic (Marussia)

Pic should rejoice for being the first number 2 driver from this team to secure a second season in Formula 1. He should rejoice still further that it’s with the slightly better Caterham team. Challenged Glock enough through the year.

20. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)

Started off well enough but as the season progressed Petrov gave him more of a run for his money and he seemed to buckle a bit; not on the form of last year. Sadly he might not be in Formula 1 next year, but that’s more because he lacks money!

19. Timo Glock (Marussia)

Was the best driver in the new teams this year, his performance in Brazil looked amazing, such a shame he was hit to prevent what could have secured 10^th place for Marussia.

18. Bruno Senna (Williams)

This position for Senna is more a reflection on how Williams handled him than how he drove. He missed vital set up time as they gave the car to 3^rd driver Valtteri Bottas in first practice at most races. Still he picked up points in half the races, but they were never the big ones.

17. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)

Was often the driver who fell in Q1, but to be fair to him he raced very well 

and was taken out of a few good points paying positions but needs more speed from qualifying.

16. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)

Qualified better than his team mate but he was a victim of circumstance on a few occasions that robbed him of some better results. Still, he had a certain spark and he seemed to be consistently improving as the season went on; his Korean result was particularly impressive.

15. Paul di Resta (Force India)

He started off brightly against his team mate Nico Hulkenberg, but as the season wore on it started becoming increasingly noticeable that he was being out performed, and the rumours of him becoming the next Mercedes driver started becoming quieter. Needs a more consistently sparkling season in 2013, like his result in Singapore.

14. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)

He may have won an impressive race in Spain, but the Williams was probably at least the 6^th best car on the grid, sometimes better. That they finished 8^th in the constructors championship was down to the large contribution of incidents from Maldonado. Many times he threw away a decent result, scoring just 5 times during the season. That he still beat his team mate is testament to the fact he’s actually bloody quick, next year he must harness his speed because Pastor could be very good indeed.

13. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)

Yes, ok he crashed a lot. And that’s the only reason he’s down here. The ban because of the start line crash in Belgium knocked his confidence, but a lot of the other incidents weren’t his fault, wrong place, wrong time. He had the measure of Kimi in qualifying a lot of the time and for a fair amount of the season looked the most likely to take Lotus’ first win. I think he’ll be very good next year providing Lotus keep him. And they should.

12. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

Rosberg is a good driver, he really is. But that’s all he is, I just don’t see him becoming a world champion. His first year with Schumacher, he thrashed the 7 time champion. He again out-scored Schuey this year and took his first win, but to me he wasn’t the quicker driver in the team. Lewis Hamilton should be comfortably the faster driver next year at Mercedes.

11. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)

He often out qualified and out raced his McLaren bound team mate Sergio Perez this year and took a great result in Japan with 3^rd place. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves; he’s one of the great over takers but having said that he still gets involved in a few incidents and didn’t come close to winning a race, something his team mate showed the Sauber could do.

For the the top 10 drivers, click here

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Mid-season review part one: The backmarkers that couldn't deliver

We’re two weeks into the mid-season break, and there’s less than two weeks to go until the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium opens its gates to commence the second half. Well the last eight races, as we passed the halfway point in Germany.

Formula 1 is a sport that is constantly progressing, but during this gap the teams have been on an enforced lock down, or holiday meaning there hasn’t really been much in the way of news. We’ve had a few sound bites from the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso saying they’ll never give up and Red Bull saying that of course Sebastian Vettel can handle any pressure that comes his way.

Silverstone have submitted an application for planning permission to turn the circuit into a leisure park, full of hotels, fairgrounds and Kart tracks. As well a business and technology centre, retail facilities there’ll be a museum of motorsport which all sounds very exciting and will keep the circuit moving forward and hopefully make it profitable.

Other than that there hasn’t been a lot to shout about, so I think it’s about time to do a not quite mid-season, mid-season report and see how everyone is getting on. Let’s start with the bottom four teams so far, one of which is a tragic disappointment.

Virgin Racing (0): Timo Glock (0) and Jerome d’Ambrosio (0)

It’s been a disappointment, they’ve fallen further behind fellow newcomers Team Lotus, and are struggling to maintain their pace against HRT, and are even behind them in the constructor’s. A recent decision to part with Nick Wirth and his all computer design philosophy should help them next year, as will a new technical partnership with McLaren, but as for this term, it would be wise not to expect much more.

Timo Glock has not looked a happy bunny this year. He was expecting more in the team’s second year and seemed decidedly unmotivated in early races. He’s turned that around recently, mixing it with the Lotus’ and keeping well ahead of the HRT drivers. I think the McLaren deal has also added an extra spring in his step. d’Ambrosio started off well, but has fallen further behind in recent races, he’ll need to start challenging Glock again if he wants to retain a seat for next year.

HRT: Vitantonio Liuzzi (0), Narain Karthikeyan (0) and Daniel Ricciardo (0)

There hasn’t been a lot of progression from them since last season. If anything they’re even further off the pace. However, Geoff Willis formerly of Red Bull and Honda joined them as Technical Director, although too late to influence the overall design of this year’s car. Despite all this, due to attrition in Canada the team sit just behind Lotus in the constructor’s championship having scored one 13^th place to Lotus’ two 13^th places.

Liuzzi has been strong and outpaced Karthikeyan all season. He’s also out qualified Ricciardo, Red Bull’s bright new hope, when he took over Karthikeyan’s seat at Silverstone. Ricciardo is looking for a Toro Rosso seat next year and looks to be building up gradually with an impressive drive last time out in Hungary, beating his team mate by two places in 18^th.

Team Lotus: Heikki Kovalainen(0), Jarno Trulli (0)and Karun Chandhok (0)

Another team not to make the expect progress this year. It looked exciting early on, they had installed the championship winning Renault engines in the back of the car, they’d had a year to build and learn, they looked the most likely of the three newest teams to break into the midfield and maybe steal a point. Well apart from a few lucky breaks to get them into Q2, they’ve achieved none of those things and don’t look likely too this season but they’re still well ahead of Virgin and HRT though.

Heikki has driven brilliantly this year. He’s outqualifed and outraced Trulli all year, and has even somehow managed to mix it in the midfield on a couple of occasions early in the season. Has driven out of his skin and deserves a step up with the car next year. For a lot of the season Trulli has looked lost at sea, blaming it on dodgy power steering that wasn’t giving him any feel for the car, he has lack paced. Was even replaced by Chandhok in Germany, but a new power steering system in Hungary at least made him a bit more perky.

Williams (4pts): Rubens Barrichello (4) and Pastor Maldonado (0)

What have Williams become? This once great team aren’t even a shadow of their former selves, they’re a dusty smeared reflection on a cracked windscreen. They’ve at least agreed at the end of the season to part with their technical director Sam Michael who is still throwing new parts at the car in the hope it’ll create some sort of pace, although as Barrichello has pointed out, it would be worth understanding the car first before constantly adding things as whatever they do, it still eats its tyres during the race.0

Next year looks more promising, they signed former McLaren man Mike Coughlan, who is available after being banned from the sport following the spy saga with Ferrari in 2008. They’ve also acquired Renault engines for 2012, now they just need to build a decent car.

Barrichello has at times been overtly critical of the team, but has still produced some decent performances, although he would have expected better than just two 9^th places. Maldonado came with the reputation of a pay driver despite being 2010 GP2 champion. He has firmly quashed that description, qualifying in the top 10 three times and should have scored a top 6 finish at Monaco if it wasn’t for Lewis Hamilton’s intervention, He’s been more than a match for Barrichello.

That’s it for this segment, part 2 will be up soon where we’ll be taking a look at the core of the midfield in the fight to be best of the rest.