F1 Fanatic readers have voted Lewis Hamilton the best driver of 2010.
Hamilton, who finished fourth in this year’s world championship, finished ahead of Fernando Alonso, with Robert Kubica a close third.
World champion Sebastian Vettel was voted the fourth best driver of the year.
Here are the “Driver of the Year” poll results in full:
Read the comments on the poll here.
Pass of the year: Kubica on Button
Robert Kubica’s pass on Jenson Button in the European Grand Prix was voted the best pass of the year. Watch the pass here.
It was picked as the best pass from a short-list of ten. The runner-up was Rubens Barrichello’s on Michael Schumacher at the Hungaroring.
Here are the ‘Pass of the Year” poll results in full:
Read the comments on the poll here.
Best overtaker of the year: Kamui Kobayashi
F1 Fanatic fans voted for Kamui Kobayashi as the driver who did the best overtaking moves in 2010.
Hamilton was runner-up with Kubica in third.
Here are the ‘Overtaker of the Year’ polls results in full:
2010 F1 season review
- The complete F1 Fanatic 2010 season review
- Lewis Hamilton voted best driver of 2010
- The best guest contributions of 2010
- F1 Fanatic?s 50 best articles of 2010
- The 2010 F1 season in 100 pictures
- 2010 F1 driver rankings part four: the top three
- Vote for the best F1 driver of 2010
- 2010 F1 driver rankings part three: 8-4
- 2010 F1 driver rankings part two: 17-9
- 2010 F1 driver rankings part one: 27-18
Image ?? www.mclaren.com
Jay Menon
29th December 2010, 1:17
Wow..first comment for me?…
Its hard to tell who is the best driver of the year, all the top 5 have ups and downs, there wasnt one person to single out.
As you’d expect, I voted for Alonso. This is very much a transitional year for Alonso, the first half of the season showed how obvious it was. Barring the last race, he was the best driver for the second half of the season. Ferari was a dog of car for the most part, just look at Massa.
Anyways, I Lewis didnt impress me too much compared with Vettel and Kubica. Vettel is really quick…but he will need to shake his tag of not being able to overtake off.
mouser
30th December 2010, 20:11
I dont understand the results of these types of polls. the best driver of 2010 was Vettel. He consistently finsihed ahead of all other drivers and thats the whole point of an F1 race, finishing ahead of your opponents. Vettel won the Title, he’s best driver.
Same thing with those “Who’s the best driver of all time ??” polls and the answer usually ends up being Senna. Senna ?, Huh ? You have to give that title to Schumi, he holds all of the records, most points, podiums, wins, 7 championships, etc..etc.
Paul McCaffrey
31st December 2010, 0:14
Pffff. Whatever.
Alonso was the best. He came from behind and put himself into position to win the title. The team let him down in the end with a tactical error.
matt90 (@matt90)
31st December 2010, 0:24
No because the question in that case is who’s the best driver, not who’s the most successful. And most people would agree that Senna was the better driver if not the most successful. The same can be applied to a single championship.
PJA
31st December 2010, 9:58
In any sport the most successful sportsperson is not the necessarily the best sportsperson, especially in a sport like F1 where the car makes such a difference.
Also when comparing greatest driver of all time you have to include other factors such as a driver being killed and not achieving all he might have achieved and that earlier seasons did not include so many races as modern F1 so it is more likely current F1 drivers will be higher up in the rankings for statistics such as most wins.
In any sport the competition around obviously plays a massive role in determining who wins the trophies.
For example say the best two sportsmen ever in a particular sport were competed at the same time and so they ended up sharing the big titles between them three each. Then after they retire there is a sportsman who is no way as good as the first two but is the best at that time, because of the lack of competition he ends up dominating the sport and wins six titles before he retires.
The statistics may say the third man was the best but aficionados of the sport would know it was the other two.
Daniel
29th December 2010, 1:31
I didn’t realise Sakon Yamamoto subscribed to this site.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
29th December 2010, 1:45
Hamilwon? Sorry, being a grammar nazi :)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th December 2010, 13:13
Ha – corrected it, thanks.
helloooo
30th December 2010, 0:12
craig-o.
I can guarantee you wasn’t a lapsus from Keith. he is so obsessed with hamilton to win so he put hamilwon. w from t in keyboard are not even close.
isn’t that true Keith?
Hallard
30th December 2010, 17:13
wow…troll much?
dyslexicbunny
31st December 2010, 14:36
Technically, that’s being a spelling nazi.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
29th December 2010, 1:50
Agree on all three of them. So have the new rule (you have to log in to vote) helped us to get a better result?
David-A (@david-a)
29th December 2010, 16:23
Yes, since Kubica didn’t undeservedly get 90% of each category.
sato113 (@sato113)
29th December 2010, 1:56
how can kubica’s pass on button be voted the best when the video barely shows what he did! i’d be more obliged to vote for him if i saw his onboard.
Maciek
29th December 2010, 8:30
I agree – has anyone come across any other footage of it? It’s a real shame that the only takes available are from Button’s car.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
29th December 2010, 9:05
Agree. There were better passes by Kubica this year that deserved to be number one; on Sutil in Singapore and on PDLR in Barhain to name two.
sato113 (@sato113)
29th December 2010, 12:43
and as i’ve said before, it was just first lap mayhem and the usual shuffling around. it was opportunistic but not an amazing ‘overtake’.
Anthony
29th December 2010, 13:17
Yeah people only voted for it because of how close button was from the wall… not because the overtake was great, you can barely see kubica!
Rubens overtake on schumacher was dangerous, but was on a straight line… so for me the best one was Hamilton on Rosberg (australia)
Zahir
29th December 2010, 13:23
If anything I was more impressed by Button somehow managing not to hit his car into the barrier than Kubicas move.
Still believe Hamilton on Rosberg at Australia was the best one
Pedal to the Vettel (@pedal-to-the-vettel)
29th December 2010, 17:09
Yer Lewis overtook Rosberg, but he had it under control to take it back from Hamilton before the next corner.
Lewis was just lucky a yellow flag was up to stop Nico before he could make his move on him.
TomD11 (@tomd11)
29th December 2010, 22:36
Not that I think he did, but how do you know Hamilton wasn’t aware of the yellow flags and used them to his advantage?
zawisza
30th December 2010, 8:05
Not to mention there was huge space left for Kubica on the inside, right?
Sammy
29th December 2010, 2:49
Im really surprised Lewis didnt take the overtaker of the year vote, given that he did overtook every one of his championship challengers throughout the season.
In any case, interesting voting…
Polishboy808 (@polishboy808)
29th December 2010, 3:26
Wow, shocking results….
SoerenKaae (@soerenkaae)
29th December 2010, 10:49
Exactly my words, I was kind of expecting LH to be voted driver of the year. Also maybe it would be an idea to have this vote before Keith does his driver rankings…
Nixon (@nixon)
29th December 2010, 11:18
Actually it was before Kieth did his ranking, but only by 2 articles. So i quess his rankings might have had some effect.
Fixy (@)
29th December 2010, 11:26
That was my opinion.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th December 2010, 13:15
The vote and the final part of the driver rankings went up together, as they always have done.
SoerenKaae (@soerenkaae)
29th December 2010, 17:57
Well I retract that statement. But still I expected LH to be voted best driver with/without your article. Lewis had a good season, but still to say that he was so much better than Vettel at overtaking is just not true. Look at his mistakes at Monza and Singapore. Actually I think it is impossible to decide between the top three, so I voted for Kubica, who was mingling with the top in a seemingly inferior car.
tharris19
30th December 2010, 14:20
Monza was a mistake, Singapore was a racing accident caused by Webber.
Regis
29th December 2010, 21:52
Its called to “Push a vote”. You put your opinion in peoples faces and straigth away ask them to vote, every voter who hasn’t made their mind up will be affected by it.
Most of the time they will follow your opinion. Politicians do it all the time.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th December 2010, 23:03
That’s precisely the reason why the poll is on a separate page and the position I’ve put the drivers in the rankings is not referred to in it.
See: Vote for the best F1 driver of 2010
Ajax
29th December 2010, 3:27
Well, I was not a LH fan up till now. Thought he had an easy ride into a top car and was very arrogant (monkeys at back of the pack, etc). But, I think he is turning into a very mature driver. Now he knows what failure is, and he is able to deal with the engineering side of F1 (car that sucks), he is a venerable opponent. For me, Lewis has earned some respect; he has earned my respect, and I look forward to seeing him kicking some ass in future WDC.
Stephen Jones (@aus_steve)
29th December 2010, 8:45
agree 100%
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
29th December 2010, 13:01
I have to disagree there.
He was fantastic in the first half of the year, but proved in the second half that he is by no means fully matured as a F1 driver, even compared to Button. Just look at the silly practice crashes in Hockenheim and Suzuka, over-driving and damaging the tyres a couple of times, no f-duct in Monza, not to mention Monza and Singapore.
Also, he was hardly brilliant in 2009 with a poor car. He spent a lot of time complaining (Turkey), and often when the car was alright, he made mistakes (Monaco qualifying, Shanghai). Let’s not pretend the car was poor in the second half of the season.
Scribe
29th December 2010, 22:27
pretty biased comment there man, he won twice in 09 in a car that still wasn’t anywhere near the pace setter. He complained in Turkey… WHAT A FRUSTRATED MESS HE WAS. Er wouldn’t you have complained?
He made a mistake in Monaco, in a rubbish car, because he had to go over the limit, to get anywhere near the front. Can’t quite remember Shanghai but still he got some points that weekend in a car that had to be backed of down straights in the wet. Yes he spun alot, no downforce might have had something to do with that.
What silly hockenheim crash? The car had undergone a major rebuild, the rear was unstable, whatver happened wasn’t that significant or i’d remember it.
Never really overdrove either, thats just your bias showing through, if your going to pass judgement don’t let your opinions twist a picture. Anyone with an ounce of objectivity will see through it.
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
30th December 2010, 9:13
From Nurburgring onwards, the car was definitely amongst the best – you don’t go from qualifying 19th to 5th in one race when its just down to the driver. Also, we saw that Kovalainen made a very similar improvement.
Even at Monaco, the car wasn’t that bad at all, as the track hides some of a poor car’s flaws. People were tipping him for pole, and even Kovalainen was in 7th in qualifying. Also, it was Q1, there was no need to go over the limit at that stage.
An example of over-driving in 2010 was Brazil, there was no need to destroy the tyres twice.
Scribe (@scribe)
30th December 2010, 14:36
5th, 5th. Redbull was still miles in front, Brawn probably had the edge over them till Singapore. An was still keeping pace with them at most tracks. McLaren where kept in it by oppourtunistic use of KERS, the device being the only thing that kept them in it. Basically with more power an less downforce it was the drivers that made the differance, a la Gilles Villeneuve. (Obvs not trying to draw to strong a comparison)
At Monaco 09 make no mistake, the McLaren was dreadfull, spectators in the know remarked out how both McLarens where jerking all over the place, the drivers had to fight just to restrain their cars. The fact that Lewis was tipped for pole had more to do with Lewis prowess and the Mp4-23 mechanical grip providing the oppurtunity. But while mech grip makes more of a differance at Monaco, never forget that it’s still aero efficiency that makes the differance in the end.
AND another thing!
Yes he did have to over drive in Brazil, if he didn’t jump Alonso or either of the two Redbulls he’d go into the final race hanging on by 1 point, basically dead in the water. What was he supposed to do?
Shane
29th December 2010, 3:44
Are you kidding? Hamilton had too many DNFs to be considered driver of the year. I imagine most of your voters were British because there is definately a bias there.
The Ram (@the-ram)
29th December 2010, 3:56
Hamilton should have won all three categories. Did you see his highlight reel?! No other driver has such awesome highlight reels!
Harv's
29th December 2010, 4:07
post a link!
Kodongo (@kodongo)
29th December 2010, 7:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vcGYuGNPS0
zecks
29th December 2010, 16:55
ruddy i had forgotten half of those moves! however he still doesn’t get my vote for his blatant weaving
BasCB (@bascb)
30th December 2010, 21:44
And just to think we were afraid of seeing no passing at all this year after Bahrain!
Mike
29th December 2010, 4:16
I agree, There was a clear bias. 31% of people thought Hamilton was the best driver of the year with 41% thinking Kamui was the best passer of the year. This poll was clearly rigged to show the general opinion of the majority of voters…
I think the fact that 67% of people voted against the British drivers indicates that there isn’t an overly large British fan base on the site, skewing the results.
If you wanted to talk about Bias, your better off arguing there isn’t much German support on the site. They only got 16% of the vote. And even then it’s more likely a reflection of German drivers not really impressing a lot of people, despite Vettel’s championship Victory.
DavidS
29th December 2010, 5:52
Wouldn’t the lack of German support indicate an inherent British bias? Despite a German winning the championship.
Don’t mention the war!
If you guys are so sure that Keith has a heavy Hamilton bias, then take that into account when reading his articles. No source is unbiased. Australian papers were in a frenzy when Mark Webber was doing well (despite ignoring the sport before). Spanish papers hate Hamilton and love Alonso.
Personally, I’d rather Keith just write what he feels, and not attempt to placate the mob of anti-Hamilton people who cry bias every time someone makes mention of him being a good driver.
Mike
29th December 2010, 13:02
Pedantics I say! But you make a good point.
GeeMac (@geemac)
29th December 2010, 13:19
Quite right…every time a good word is said about Hamilton people cry British Bias, bgut the fact that only around 30% of the readers of this blog are British disporoves that theory.
tharris19
30th December 2010, 14:30
Bias would imply that fans of a particular driver was some how not allowed to vote or praise their favorite drivers. I don’t think that is the case at this site.
rahzamkhan
31st December 2010, 7:07
Hamilton good driver? definitely. Best driver of the year. I doubt it.
BasCB (@bascb)
30th December 2010, 21:45
I would think Glock, Sutil and Hülkenberg as well as Rosberg might have deserved more votes than they got. Still, Hamilton was a good choice for best driver this year.
IceMan
29th December 2010, 4:36
Exactly. I wonder why JB is not up there in second spot. :(
Formula None
29th December 2010, 8:12
A whole nine posts before the site was accused of bias. What took you so long?
breza
29th December 2010, 8:26
Yeah Shane,
considering that this was the worst season Lewis had in F1 the results are pretty hard to swallow…
slr
29th December 2010, 8:39
This “British bias” is getting old. Being British doesn’t automatically make you a Hamilton fan. If you go to the British GP, there is support for virtually all of the teams. I’m British and I’m an Alonso fan. You need to respect other people’s opinions.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
29th December 2010, 17:58
Not to mention that there are likely many non-British fans of Lewis Hamilton as well. Though on average I would guess that Hamilton is more popular with F1 fans in Britain than elsewhere.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
29th December 2010, 10:13
Keith, I think it’s about time you looked into a word filter that weeds out comments whining about bias. They really add nothing to the discussion, if someone thinks you are biased they can send you an e-mail complaining, the rest of us clearly don’t have a problem with it since we use your site on a regular basis.
ruffmeup
30th December 2010, 19:44
well said dat man….keath u shuld start a vote for biggest winger for 2011…and the top 3 get baned from the site…….
Patrickl
29th December 2010, 12:35
Are you kidding? Hamilton had only one DNF that was his own fault.
PJA
29th December 2010, 13:08
If there was bias towards any one driver from the readers of this site then surely the same driver would have won all three polls.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th December 2010, 13:22
So why did Hamilton win only one of the three polls here?
As usual I’m not convinced by the knee-jerk ‘bias’ claim which inevitably follows articles like this. Do you really think every single other person is so simple-minded and myopic that they only ever vote for someone the same nationality as them?
Let’s clear up the usual misunderstanding: the site’s domain suffix does not mean it has a 100% British readership. It is actually around 32% – you can find a recent breakdown of which countries send the most readers to the site here: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/forum/topic.php?id=437
William Wilgus
29th December 2010, 14:40
Thanks for making the nationality break-down of your site’s visitors available. I think it’s obvious, though, that the majority of you visitors are British and does not refute the claims of bias. Regardless, the results are what they are, and certainly Hamilton IS a very good driver worthy of consideration AS the best.
Maciek
29th December 2010, 16:54
Perhaps you’re not clear on the meaning of the word “majority”?
This is a great demonstration of what I was saying a while ago: all you have to do is shout ‘bias’ no matter how divorced from reality that may be and immediately you get people talking about bias instead of having to actually support anything you say.
I would like to make the suggestion that posters accusing the site of bias be from now and forevermore ignored like the trolls they are.
Pedal to the Vettel (@pedal-to-the-vettel)
29th December 2010, 17:29
lol “british bias” no such thing in F1 only football and the Olympics. Yes Lewis and Jenson are born in the same country as me, but it doesn’t mean I will follow them to the end of time as a sheep…
Berger,Schumacher,Kimi,Massa, Rosberg,vettel (since 08)
These are all the drivers I’ve “backed” while watching F1 as a kid to an adult, and strange? not one of them is British… and weired enough Mercedes is my favorite team because of the Fangio era and the one team to grind Ferrari into the dirt.
My old man loves Rubens, my younger brother worships Alonso and me “MA”<- (Nick Cotton voice) backs Webber so to "stab" me in the back ha ha…
But I will admit I'll be "backing" Paul Di Resta and Josh hill in the future since both are good drivers not just because they are British…
Jameson
29th December 2010, 20:32
Based on the figures from the link you provided, 33% of the recent vistors to your site call the UK their home. Interestingly, the total votes for Hamilton (31%) and Button (2%) come out to be exactly 33%. Clearly this means that every visitor to the site from the UK voted for either Hamilton or Button. It’s also quite clear that the readership from The States (12%) voted for either Webber, Rosberg, or Kobayashi as all of their votes total to 12%. Furthermore, the Japanese at 1% of your readership must hate their countryman as they all voted for Schumacher who had 1% of the total vote.
Now that I’m done illustrating the absurd by being absurd, I must say that I’m quite surprized at the readership from The States. I’m one of those 12%, and it really makes me happy to see that there is so much support for F1 from over here. I don’t know a single person here that hasn’t asked me if Formula 1 is the same as NASCAR.
Scribe
29th December 2010, 23:07
You know what, the thing that I find most annoying about people screaming British Bias on this site, is a large proportion of the actual brits i’ve identified on this site, don’t support the british drivers or british teams.
LordHesketh
29th December 2010, 21:16
I have to say, F1 fans all over the world visit as many sites as they can to get information as quickly as possible (myself being one). I do enjoy this site for some of its breaking news and analysis. However, from a Canadian point of view, there can be no disputing that there is a clear community of biased and sycophantic British readers that do the majority of posting and voting here. Please enjoy your circle of discussion amongst yourselves, but claiming that there is no bias here is slightly ridiculous. I think the people complaining should be able to laugh it off though. Since you seem very quick to exclusively defend these sort of comments Keith, please don’t take it personally. You do a great job.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th December 2010, 22:00
What is “ridiculous” is this implication that all people think a certain way and only ever vote based on nationality.
I think what you see in the result of the three polls above – only one which was won by a Briton, by the way – is that most of the regular users of this site make up their own mind about decisions like this.
Yes Hamilton won the vote but by how much? 31% over 21% and 20%? It’s not very much, is it? I think that’s pretty reasonable in a year when the top drivers were very closely matched.
I think you should take a moment to actually look at the results and consider them at face value before trotting out these tired, poorly-justified criticisms about those whose opinions you disagree with.
Carl27
31st December 2010, 11:03
whats all the fuss about, Keith is right. It’s only an opinion, I am an Alonso fan, and I think he was better than Hamilton, but most people voted for LH and that’s what the poll reflects… opinions!
Will
29th December 2010, 17:19
Everyone who says Hamilton wasn’t the best because of the mistakes he made always ignores the fact that the others were just as bad.
For the record, I think Alonso has done the best job considering the cars available to the drivers, but Hamilton is right there as well. If a couple of mistakes exclude him from the running, then Alonso is out. And Webber. And Vettel. Has anyone added up the race changing mistakes that each driver has made this year?
US_Peter (@us_peter)
29th December 2010, 18:05
I think it could be argued that both Rosberg and Kubica made far fewer mistakes than the top 5 drivers did. Of course it’s also possible that that was because neither was at the front fighting for the championship, and if they had been they’d have been forced into more mistakes.
Scribe
29th December 2010, 22:49
@Shane
Hamilton had, what, 1 DNF that was his fault and another that was unlucky, the rest where mechanical.
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th December 2010, 10:24
Ehm, wait, how do the Spain and Hungary DNF count against Hamilton as a driver? Do we blame Alonso for not making the finish after nearly driving an entire race with a malfunctioning gearbox, or Vettel for not finishing in Korea, for example? I hope not.
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th December 2010, 10:27
Oh, I’m Dutch btw – do watch BBC for the good coverage, but also the Dutch F1 coverage, with a commenter who seems to dislike Hamilton over Vettel/Alonso a bit, different to BBC, but has his own bits of F1 racing insight.
Ajax
29th December 2010, 4:26
… “This poll was clearly rigged to show the general opinion of the majority of voters…”
You may not like it, but come on. Rigged? Hahaha. Conspiracy theory?
As for Hamilton having too many DNFs. Seriously? That tells me more that he is *fighting* (despite poor aero rules). What more do you want?
David-A (@david-a)
29th December 2010, 4:45
You’ve missed the point completely:
This poll was clearly rigged to show the general opinion of the majority of voters
David-A (@david-a)
29th December 2010, 4:46
formatting fail lol
Steve
29th December 2010, 5:20
Personally I think Hamilton and Alonso were the best drivers in 2010. With Alonso in front. And I think th following link has more cred than this poll…
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/12/03/alonso-named-best-driver-of-2010-by-team-bosses/
As for Hamilton creating more overtaking moves than other drivers. Sure, his very aggressive, which of course also contributed to DNF’s. But the Mclaren was almost always the quickest car down the straight, thanks to mercedes power and the F duct. So in many ways, thats no surprise.
Todfod (@todfod)
29th December 2010, 5:28
I think Alonso pulled off more overtaking moves than Hamilton during the year. I do not know if Keith has recorded the stats on overtaking moves throughout the year. I do remember seeing some of those stats for the 1st 4 to 5 races.
Hamilton’s overtakes were a little more spectacular and so were Kobayashi’s, and that reflects in the stats.
Sammy
29th December 2010, 5:44
Hamilton’s overtakes were also almost always against championship contenders and midfield cars and up.
To my knowledge, Alonso mostly overtook backfield, back-marker cars either when he made horrible starts, or had a bad qualifying position.
zawisza
29th December 2010, 8:29
Does your knowledge go on strike everytime Alonso is mentioned? Just a question…:)
David-A (@david-a)
29th December 2010, 16:25
I remember phenomenal passes by Alonso on drivers in good cars. Like that one over Petrov in Turkey, or Massa in Germany.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
29th December 2010, 9:09
.
I always find it interesting that someone should be prepared to find a poll of a tiny sample size (13) of people who have various self-interests in voting certain ways than a poll of hundreds of mixed groups of fans. It would be like having a General Election based on only civil servants being able to vote.
Steve
29th December 2010, 9:44
Actually I think its based on individuals who see what goes on from all angles, have a far better understanding of F1 and are far more qualified to make a judgement in comparison to the couch potatoe critics in this thread.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
29th December 2010, 10:10
You do realise that Felipe Massa got more than half of his votes simply from Ferrari, right? If that isn’t an indication of a flawed system, I don’t know what.
I’m not doubting their knowledge of F1. But they’re certainly not unbiased and 13 is far too small a number to dilute them.
Nixon (@nixon)
29th December 2010, 11:23
“You do realise that Felipe Massa got more than half of his votes simply from Ferrari, right?” Prove it.
Patrickl
29th December 2010, 12:37
These team bosses vote are pathetic. They basically vote according to the results in the last few races.
They voted Button second best driver of 2009. Just as they vote Vettel second best this year. Both were simply drivers who were in the fastest car.
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th December 2010, 10:32
I agree – they might have better knowledge, but I am not so sure it shows in selecting drivers to test, nor does it seem to feature very high in this ‘election’ where we also don’t know how many microseconds of thought went into deciding their vote.
Also, a team boss knows the drivers he worked with, but he also has is only human, and has likes and dislikes (think of how honest Briatore would value Button …). Always easy to go with the guy that is 2 times WDC as long as the 7 times WDC guy isn’t clearly proven after his return.
Racehound
31st December 2010, 22:03
Best post Steve….and all the managers of the teams voting Alonso best driver of 2010 says it all really. As for this British bias argument, I believe there is an element of truth in that. I know many people who will back other football teams in European competition just because they are British. Same in most other sports. Britain and the USA are sick nations when it comes to flag waving nowadays. They love getting their Union Jack/St Georges Cross or Stars and Stripes out and then littering the whole country with them. They decorate their houses and cars with them like their lives depended on it! How many drivers helmets are based on their national flags colours or design? So whatever the results of any “readers polls” are, the only real objective opinions with all the knowledge included as far as F1 goes comes from the teams. You could have 100 per cent here voting Ramilton as best driver of 2010, but compared to the team managers opinions, it is a pi55 in the ocean. #:)
Ajax
29th December 2010, 6:23
“Your comment is awaiting moderation”. Yeah, bravo. Let’s try again…
Not sure whether you agree or not! “to show the general majority [opinion]…”. Surely that is the point of having a poll, right!? Hahaha. Rigged my x.
matt90
29th December 2010, 14:21
He was making a joke
Maciek
29th December 2010, 17:03
And an old joke to boot. Ajax – snap out of it. It’s an ironic way of saying that since the poll shows how people voted it’s not ‘biased’ – get it?
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
29th December 2010, 7:36
I disagree with the choice of Kobayashi as the best overtaker. He might have done the most overtaking, but I found the vast majority of it was just mugging the car in front and seeing what stuck.
Puffy
29th December 2010, 7:52
Fair enough. But his overtaking moves were gutsy in a car that quite frankly had no right to be overtaking some of those that it did. Much easier to streak past another car in a nice elegant manner when you’re in a McLaren or Ferrari. He’s definitely rough around the edges but man is he entertaining; and a driver that I expect great things from some day.
Patrickl
29th December 2010, 12:40
He hasn’t even done most overtaking. Not even close. Kobayashi had only 20 overtakes. Just about the least of all “old team” drivers.
He might have made the most overtaking attempts though. As you said, mostly he was just diving past without actually making it stick.
I agree that not braking early enough and flying off the road on the other side doesn’t make you a “best overtaker”
slr
29th December 2010, 19:37
I think Kobayashi’s overtakes has gotten the most fans of their seats. Fans generally enjoy it when someone in a slower car passes World Champions. Anyway most of the overtakes from the top teams were just faster cars breezing past inferior cars.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
29th December 2010, 19:52
You mean a “slower” car with fresh tyres overtaking cars that he was ahead of a few laps earlier?
slr
29th December 2010, 20:53
Some of Kobayashi’s overtakes may not be so great from a technical point of view, but fans enjoy watching a rookie performing overtakes. I’m sure many know about the technical sides of some of Kobayashi’s passes, but the excitement they felt watching Kobayashi’s overtakes clearly means more to them than the technical side of these passes.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
29th December 2010, 23:11
Well, indeed there must be some explanation for it, when in fact just about the poorest overtaker gets called the best overtaker.
Though I’ll agree that he made the most entertaining pass of the year. The one on Alonso in Valencia. Alonso really needed that spanking after his embarassing mental breakdown.
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th December 2010, 10:35
I think his moves also got pretty good coverage. If a moved is entirely or almost missed by the on screen coverage, it is rather hard to be enthusiastic about it, unless you were at the track to see it.
Beninlux
29th December 2010, 7:47
I am a massive Hamilton fan, but do think that Kubica was the better driver this year. Totally agree with Kobayashi being best overtaker. However, the best overtake of the year, without doubt, was Schumi on Alonso at Monaco.
verstappen
29th December 2010, 10:17
Agreed!
Unfortunately there weren’t enough of us, to get that one nominated.
JaegerGolf (@jaegergolf)
29th December 2010, 8:10
Hamilton wins always and that’s really ridicolous. Look at Monza, look at Singapore, free practice in Hockenheim and in Japan.
How can you vote Hamilton as the best driver in 2010 when he smashed the title because of own driving mistakes?
He did not drove like an F1 champion.
Vettel just did 2 complete mistakes. The crash in Spa with Button, 1/2 mistake in Instanbul and 1/2 mistake in Hungary.
Remember how many points Vettel lost due to mechanical failure.
Vettel was the best driver in 2010, there is no doubt about it.
I’m really looking forward to 2011 and the poll at the end of the season, probably Hamilton will win? :P
Icthyes (@icthyes)
29th December 2010, 9:22
Yeh, no bias here. “Only two complete mistakes” come off it mate, Turkey was 97% his fault, Spa was more like 70-30, Hungary was his own silly fault (a total “noob” moment if I ever saw one from Vettel). In contrast Hamilton only made one error that cost him anything that was totally his fault.
If Red Bull hadn’t kept up the pace of development Vettel wouldn’t have been champion because of those mistakes; in fact, it all came down to Alonso being stuck behind Petrov for the second time this year. Yet you see fit to say Hamilton lost because of his. I would at least respect the “made the best out of the best car” argument for Vettel being #1 driver.
judo chop
29th December 2010, 11:03
What about Vettel’s horrible starts this season? Red Bull’s crap starts cost them dozens of points.
Patrickl
29th December 2010, 13:48
Fanboys are just so depressing.
Amazing how fanboys like that can claim that Singapore was Hamilton’s mistake and then happily claim that Singapore was Hamilton’s fault and then pretend that Turkey and Hungary weren’t Vettel’s faults.
How about Silverstone? Vettel messed up his start and was driving so violently that he ended up with a flat tyre. That’s much more Vettel’s fault than Webber not braking in Singapore was Hamilton’s fault.
BTW how many points has Hamilton lost due to car failures or people ramming into him? Not a whole lot less than Vettel.
Pedal to the Vettel (@pedal-to-the-vettel)
29th December 2010, 17:44
Hamilton punctured vettel’s tyre at silverstone mate. It confirms it on the the official F1 2010 DVD that he slashed his tyre. Not Lewis’ fault just a first corner incident.
Or are you trying to give an example of what it looks like with other “fanboys”?
No insult intended btw.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
29th December 2010, 19:54
Indeed. If Singapore was supposedly Hamilton’s fault then Silverstone was even more so Vettel’s fault.
K (@k)
29th December 2010, 22:16
Fanboy – A pathetic insult often used by fanboys themselves to try and put down people who don’t like whatever it is they like.