Best of the rest: driver countdown 28 to 11

So the season has ended, the dust is settling over in Brazil and Sebastian Vettel has come out on top for the second consecutive year. But who were the best drivers over the course of the year?

Twenty-eight drivers took part during the season, so here is a quick run down from 28 to 11, judging on how I think they performed given their cars.

28. Karun Chandok (Lotus) 0pts; Best Result (BR): 20^th – One race wasn’t enough time, had problems and was four laps down at the end in his only appearance.

27. Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber) 0pts; BR: 14^th – Fourteenth wasn’t a bad result in Canada as he replaced the injured Perez.

26. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT) 0pts; BR: 17^th x 3 – Often behind his team mate, although in Indian race was impressive.

25. Jarno Trulli (Lotus) 0pts; BR: 13^th x2 – Couldn’t have had a worse year, absolutely dominated by Kovalainen, looked demotivated and I’m surprised he’s even got a drive next year, although it’s looking debatable whether that’s a race drive or not.

24. Jerome d’Ambrosio (Virgin) 0pts; BR: 14^th – On occasion looked good, but hasn’t done enough to retain his seat.

23. Tonio Liuzzi (HRT) 0pts; BR: 13^th – Was once a bright talent, now I’m doubting he’ll be around next year.

22. Daniel Ricciardo (HRT) 0pts; BR: 18^th x2 – Showed a great deal of promise but was he spectacular enough to deserve a potential seat at Toro Rosso as part of Red Bull’s young driver program?

21. Timo Glock (Virgin) 0pts; BR: 15^th x2 – Generally quicker than d’Ambrosio, but another to look slightly ticked off with the struggle at the back.

20. Bruno Senna (Renault) 2pts; BR: 9^th – Car was lacking development by the time he got in but still showed good speed in qualifying on occasion.

19. Nick Heidfeld (Renault) 34pts; BR: 3^rd – It was wrong to get rid of him, replaced eight races from the end, Petrov still only outscored him by three points. Didn’t make enough use of the car he had at the start of the year though.

18. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1pt; BR: 10^th – Drove brilliantly in Monaco before Lewis Hamilton used him as a brake losing sixth place. Often on the pace of his more experienced team mate.

17. Rubens Barrichello (Williams) 4pts; BR: 9^th x2 – Still has the passion and the speed to be in Formula 1, dragged the Williams to more points than it probably deserved.

16. Vitaly Petrov (Renault) 37pts; BR: 3^rd – He may have been in the top 10 in qualifying and he achieved a podium in Australia, but results haven’t been as forthcoming later in the year. By default after Robert Kubica’s rally crash he was team leader but I think there are better drivers than him to be filling that seat for next year.

15. Sergio Perez (Sauber) 14pts; BR: 7^th – Looked quick all year and an impressive talent for the future, although more often than not results didn’t go his way. Dealt well with the bang to the head he received in Monaco to come back even stronger.

14. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) 30pts; BR: 5^th – Scored more points than his team mate, but was often out qualified. Still made some daring moves in the races and had a number of back of the grid charges. However, it all went a bit quiet towards the end of the season.

13. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 118pts; BR: 5^th x6 – What has happened to Massa? Probably the big bang on the head he received in Hungary 2009. There’s no way he should be so far behind Alonso, he’s a better driver than that. While his team mate grabbed podium after podium, Massa had to settle for several fifths as his best result of the year. Although mostly not his fault, his targeting of Lewis Hamilton after their many incidents looked more like he was trying to deflect attention away from how bad his own year was. Really needs to get back to the level he demonstrated in 08/09.

12. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus) 0pts; BR: 13^th – Here is a team player. He knew they were going to struggle and were still building up the team and dealt with it accordingly. Never less than enthusiastic about the future and where the team was heading, something other drivers at the back should take notice of and get a little perspective despite the frustrations. He trounced Trulli in qualifying and was even better in the races, often in the latter half of the year mixing it with the tail end of the mid-field. Great stuff, an integral part of this teams bright future.

11. Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) 15pts; BR: 8^th x2 – I’ve got to say I’ve become a big fan of the Toro Rosso pair. Mostly they’ve been fighting for their seats the entire year, so the pressure was intense. Buemi had a number of great drives, the particular highlight in Hungary, finishing eighth from twenty-third on the grid. He lost a few other great results through no fault of his own and should get another year at the team, but I’m doubting whether that’ll be the case.

Top ten driver's can be found here.

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.