I see that the annual end-of-season rating of the drivers has begun - The Times newspaper has conducted a poll of its readers and the winner is Alonso. That should show that British fans are not nearly as chauvinist as they are accused of being at times, Hamilton only making it into second place in spite of becoming champion.
Timo Glock at Interlagos
Most of these annual assessments, whether by poll or personal opinion, are based on the year's performance and so they reflect mainly on each driver's fortunes without considering previous form. It is rare for a driver to be so outstanding as to overcome a year in a poor car or unusually bad luck; Alonso has obviously achieved this in The Times survey, with readers taking into account his machinery when considering him. Few others are granted such allowances and this is illustrated by Nakajima's being placed at the tail end of the field, clearly an unfair judgement when the field contains such as Piquet Jr.
I find such season-based ratings to be a bit pointless since they are really guides to the known fortunes of the drivers - and the points system gives a pretty good measure of that already. It would be more interesting to attempt to assess drivers for their performance throughout their F1 careers, taking into account such things as machinery, previous results, length of service and reaction to adversity. In this system, the wild fluctuations we see so often should even out as the years continue, so that we have a more realistic idea of each driver. Hopefully, drivers who have never been given a decent car but have obvious talent (Webber, for instance) would fare better under such a rating.
With this in mind, I set out to establish my own list of the best and the worst. It is not easy, apart from the first two places; so many conflicting claims and circumstances crowd in on one that it becomes necessary to separate the closest contenders by personal preference in the end. For what it is worth, however, the deed is done and some very strange results appear. You can argue with me over the most unpopular choices but I give a brief explanation for each rating. Naturally, we can agree to disagree on any of these.
Last year, I rated the teams from top to bottom and posted the list in that order. That was, perhaps, a mistake in that it gives away my choices for the best straight away. This time I will list the drivers in reverse order and give you only the lower ten today. Tomorrow we can look at the happy winners in my personal rating.
Here we go then, starting with the least impressive:
20 Nelson Piquet Jr. Nelson may be a far better driver than he showed us this year, but we have to look at results in the end. Yes, he is a rookie and so we should not expect miracles, yes, he did not have the best car on the grid, yes, he improved as the year unfolded, but is that enough to excuse him for some pretty awful performances? I think Nelson should be relieved and grateful that he has been given another chance by Renault - plenty of drivers find themselves out in the cold after such a poor debut.
19 David Coulthard. A case of a season too far, I think. David has been a stalwart of previous years, providing honest although not spectacular drives for his teams, but this year he has made far too many mistakes for a driver of his experience without much to show as regards results. This was the year in which David's value as a competent development driver was finally outweighed by his mediocre race results.
18 Adrian Sutil. It is hard to shine in a car that is the weakest on the grid and Adrian did little for his cause this year. Being behind the old man, Fisichella, for most of the year in both qualifying and the race demonstrates a worrying lack of pace and racecraft. Until it rains, that is. On a wet track, Adrian is transformed, apparently one of that forgotten breed of rain specialists like Hans-Joachim Stuck. It is this that lifts him off the bottom of the list.
17 Giancarlo Fisichella. And so to the old man himself. Initially, it looked as though Fisi was going to give us one of his outstanding years in an uncompetitive car but he began to tail off towards the end of the season as though tired. Like Coulthard, he has had his chances and his best years are behind him. I suspect that 2009 will prove Fisi's season too far and we might see Liuzzi driving for Force India in the latter part of the year.
16 Kazuki Nakajima. I really wanted Kazuki to be higher on my list but from here onwards competition becomes very stiff. These midfield drivers are so evenly matched that it is extremely hard to separate them - Nakajima loses out mainly because he is so new to the game and has no track record to refer to. He made his rookie mistakes but generally was much quicker and consistent than expected, sometimes outperforming his highly-rated team mate. Next year I hope he will surprise us all again and start climbing up this list.
15 Sebastien Bourdais. Be kind to Sebastien - he is in the unhappy position of being the unwanted driver at Toro Rosso, a team that handicaps itself by playing favorites. Once Vettel had established himself as quicker to get the best from the STR3, Bourdais found himself striving to make his mark. Late season performances improved enormously, however, and the team would be insane to drop him for 2009; he has done his apprenticeship and should be a much better driver from now on.
14 Jenson Button. Jenson makes it this high only through his performances in previous years; 2008 was a season to forget for him, too often over-shadowed by his team mate and compounding the error by comparing himself with Hamilton. The talent is there but where is the grit and determination so evident in Alonso, for instance? Both had bad cars with which to start the year but one got stuck in and made his better - what was Jenson doing meanwhile?
13 Rubens Barrichello. Well, he says the fire is still alight and, judging by some very determined performances this year, one would have to agree with him. There were times when he dragged that Honda into positions where it really should not have been and he proved that he is at least on a par with Jenson when it comes to wet weather ability. If this should prove to be his last season, he can leave with head unbowed.
12 Jarno Trulli. I seem to have hit a rich vein of old men around here - Jarno is another who keeps providing the goods year after year, retaining his reputation as a qualifying specialist but beginning to put behind him the worries about race performance. He was not outclassed by his increasingly-rated young team mate and thoroughly deserves another season with Toyota. Expect retirement at the end of 2009, however.
11 Timo Glock. One of the coming men, Timo had an awful first half and a brilliant second half of the season. We judge him against Trulli and he has not been found wanting in the end, often faster than a team mate known to be one of the quickest over a single lap. As his racecraft improves with experience, I expect him to move up this list to become a solid all rounder, a valuable asset to any team.
So there we have my lower ten of the twenty drivers. Nothing too controversial, I think, although some would put Glock, Trulli or Button higher, perhaps. It is in the top ten that things can get heated, however, and for that we must await tomorrow...