THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY 2007

After 17 rounds great battles, bad tempers, great moves and stupid risks it time for me to rate all the drivers from this years championship. From First to last who has impressed me and who should just give up and go home?


THE TOP 10:
To start with lets have the best of the field, In qualifying knock out style based on talent and how they have performed who put the best effort in even if the results didn’t show. In simple syle we have.



1st Kimi Raikkonen
Championship Position 1st 110 pts
Best Finish 1st Melbourne, France, Britain, Belgium, China, Brazil.
Best Qualifying 1st Australia, Europe, Belgium.

Why so high? Over come many obstacles and doubters to win the title also kept to himself and stayed out of the politics.

Hero Moment: His pass on Coulthard in the wet at Fuji was brilliant and Brave.
Zero moment: Monaco qualifying one barrier whack equalling p16 on the grid.



2nd Lewis Hamilton
Championship Position 2nd 109 pts
Best Finish 1st, Canada, USA, Hungary, Japan.
Best Qualifying 1st Canada, USA, Britain, Hungary, Japan, China.

Why so high? Easily because of his results in his first season, only missed out on being No,1 because of last 2 races.

Hero Moment: His pole lap at Silverstone was brilliant.
Zero moment: Losing a 17 point lead in 2 races.



3rd Nick Heidfeld
Championship Position 5th 61 pts
Best Finish 2nd Canada
Best Qualifying 2nd Hungary

Why so high? Beat his team mate when no one expected him too, most consistent outside of top 4.

Hero Moment: His 2nd Place in Canada
Zero moment: Having a nightmare of a race in Japan with no radio in dire conditions before his car spluttered to a halt a few laps from the end.



4th Nico Rosberg
Championship Position 9th 20pts
Best Finish 4th Brazil
Best Qualifying 4th Hungary

Easily the most improved driver of 2007. Finished in the points 7 times and rounding off the season with a career best 4th.

Hero Moment: Winning the wheel to wheel battle with the BMW’s to finish 4th at Brazil
Zero moment: Spinning off at Nurburgring whilst his team mate finished 4th.



5th Felipe Massa
Championship Position 4th 94pts
Best Finish 1st Bahrain, Spain, Turkey
Best Qualifying 1st Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain, France, Turkey, Brazil.

Why so high? Probably the most under rated driver on the grid, Has proved he can win races and set 6 poles the most equal with Hamilton. He managed to defy a lot of his critics by keeping up with Raikkonen rather than be blow in to the dust.

Hero Moment: His pole at Brazil was stunning with a good amount of fuel onboard.
Zero moment: His performance at the Malaysian GP passed at the start by Hamilton then a botched pass attempt a few laps later.



6th Fernando Alonso
Championship Position 3rd 109 pts
Best Finish 1st Malaysia, Monaco Europe Italy
Best Qualifying 1st Monaco, Italy

Why so High? Maybe low for a double world champ but off track behaviour and on track mistakes really damaged his reputation this year. Still extremely fast though.

Hero Moment: His pass on Heidfeld at France was amazing no fear driving.
Zero moment: His behaviour in the Hungary pit lane.



7th Heikki Kovalainen
Championship Position 7th 30pts
Best Finish 2nd Japan
Best Qualifying 6th USA France

Why so high? Managed to score points 7 races in a row which included his podium at Japan and Renaults best finish of the year. After such a disastrous start showed he is a real star for the future.

Hero Moment: 2nd place at Fuji
Zero moment: Australia, just ask Flavio why.



8th Robert Kubica
Championship Position 6th
Best Finish 4th Spain, France, Britain
Best Qualifying 4th France

The fact that Robert Kubica is still here at all is a miracle in itself, but showed good pace once he got used to the new bridgestones.

Hero Moment: Strong come back drive in France after that crash.
Zero moment: That crash…



9th Jenson Button
Championship Position 15th 6pts
Best Finish 5th China
Best Qualifying 6th Japan, China.

Jenson Buttons season couldn’t of been more of a nightmare, Not only was he no longer the top Brit in F1, at the same time Honda produced probably the worst F1 car of the 21st century Button is so far up in this list mainly because he was able to keep his cool and just get on with the job in hand, Always looked like the one who would score points at Honda.

Hero Moment: Brilliant drive in china to score enough points to lift them clear of Super Aguri.
Zero moment: going off at Nurburgring, turn one whilst in 4th



10th Mark Webber
Championship Position 12th 10pts
Best Finish 3rd Nurburgring
Best Qualifying 5th Brazil

Mark Webber has been a good example of how much bad luck can happen to a single person in F1. Whenever a result seemed on the cards the car would seemingly self destruct, Put in strong performance when car would allow.

Hero Moment: His Podium at the Nurburgring after a fight against Wurz in the latter stages.
Zero moment: Spinning as coming into the pit lane at Melbourne.


11th TO 16th
Just Missing the cut for Q3. Now from 11th to 16th we have the guys who did well and had the odd shining race or did enough to impress.



11th Sebastian Vettel
Championship Position 14th 6 pts
Best Finish 4th China ( with Toro Rosso) 8th USA (with BMW)
Best Qualifying 7th USA (with BMW) 8th Japan and China (with Toro Rosso)

With 8 start this season Sebastian Vettel probably had one of the most up and down seasons of any driver this season. Scoring a point in his first race with BMW at Indy whilst covering a concussed Kubica that made him the youngest point scorer in F1 only to be put back into testing duties in the next race, then getting another race seat for the season replacing the departed Scott Speed at Toro Rosso. His first race for the team was nowhere near as successful at the Hungary being nowhere all weekend (in his defence he had only sat in the car for the first time that weekend) After a few quiet races he shone brilliantly at Fuji mastering the wet conditions until he ran into Mark Webber under the safety car taking both drivers out hitting a season low only to bounce back brilliantly at China beating his team mate and finishing 4th. A turbulent start to what could be a promising career.

Hero Moment: Easily his 4th place finish to make up for his…
Zero moment: Crashing into Webber whilst in a podium place.



12th Takuma Sato
Championship Position 17th 4pts
Best Finish 6th, Canada
Best Qualifying 10th Australia

If Sato had hoped for a few giant killing moments this season he certainty got them. He managed to make the top ten shoot out, the first time for Super Aguri and score the teams first point in spain. His best moment undoubtedly was passing Alonso for 6th place in Canada sending his team into 7th heaven. Sato fell back and was outpaced by his team mate as the season went on how ever but even if the car wasn’t the most developed of the field he failed to capitalise on the wet races as Button and Toro Rosso drivers did. One wonders how long Sato’s career has if Super Aguri were to ever pull the plug.

Hero Moment: His Canadian race, giant killing moment.
Zero moment: Spinning out at Indy after pushing too hard.



13th Adrian Sutil
Championship Position 19th 1pt
Best Finish 8th Japan
Best Qualifying 19th Monaco

Sutil’s rookie season was one that offered as many questions as it did answers. His speed was there but so were the mistakes, 4 crashes in the first 4 races on the first lap is something only Sato or Yuji Ide would be proud of. He scored Spykers first and only point at Fuji and drove very aggressively at Spa, but had crashes at China, Monaco, Canada and Malaysia also made it look like he was very error prone. It could be a case of the car being driven beyond its limits in order for him to actually get anywhere in what is a back of the field team, his 3 team mates never got close to him throughout the season but then they weren’t exactly the hardest competitors in the field ether. He will be with Force India for 2008 it will be interesting to see if he can put in good enough performances to attract the bigger teams.

Hero Moment: P1 in the wet practice for the Monaco G.P.
Zero moment: His numerous crashes.



14th David Coulthard
Championship Position 10th 14pts
Best Finish 4th Japan
Best Qualifying 9th Europe, Brazil

A wasted year for Coulthard on the face of things. A lot was expected from the RB3 chassis and when the car held together it showed some pace, trouble is it the car suffered several mechanical failures when ever Coulthard seemed to be in for a good result. Good results themselves were made a little harder by his qualifying positions, he was out qualified 15-2 by Webber but managed to score more points. Will need a large upturn in form if he is to still be in F1 after 08.

Hero Moment: Managing to finish 5th in Spain adapting his driving style in the last few laps to combat losing fifth gear in the last part of the race.
Zero moment: Big crash at Monza after damaging his car on the kerbs



15th Anthony Davidson
Championship Position 23rd 0 pts
Best Finish 11th Spain, Canada, USA.
Best Qualifying 11th Australia, Turkey.

Another driver to get a race seat after spending the past few years testing, there is no doubt he has determination, racing at Australia with a bad back after a turn 1 clash that sent him bouncing up in the air and some how didn’t damage the car so he could continue. He did had to go hospital after though due to being in so much pain. He also showed good pace, his qualifying lap in Turkey was brilliant maximising the most of a car that was a lot slower than some of the cars he qualified ahead of. He also showed he has bad luck too. A beaver running out in front of his car as he was about to score points and wrecking the front wing sending him into an unprepared pit crew and finishing 11th. Did enough to deserve a 2nd year however.

Hero Moment: That lap in turkey.
Zero moment: Spinning of at Silverstone in Q3 straight into a gravel trap causing himself some embarrassment.



16th Alex Wurz
Championship Position 11th 13pts
Best Finish 3rd Canada
Best Qualifying 11th Bahrain, Monaco

After many years of testing Wurz finally managed to get a full time race drive, sadly it seems he was left too race rusty, his 3rd place finish a good experienced drive but he never got through into Q3 whilst his team mate managed to 10 times. His poor qualifying left him with too much work to do in the race and couldn’t keep pace with his team mate. Realised it was better to retire on his own choice than pointlessly staying going round with no hope of winning a race and getting booted out. Which is more than some drivers already mentioned have done.

Hero Moment: 3rd in Canada despite spending most the race missing a big chunk of his rear wing.
Zero moment: His disaster of a race at damper.


17th TO 22nd
Knocked out in the first session we have 17-22, here we have the guys who have failed to impress and may be out of work or already are for 08.



17th Vitantonio Liuzzi
Championship Position 18th 3pts
Best Finish 6th China
Best Qualifying 12th Monaco, Canada.


Liuzzi’s season started off slowly but gained momentum, wasn’t really pushed until Vettel joined the team where he then looked a lot better but it was too little too late for his chances to stay at Toro Rosso. Liuzzi was another driver that never really stood out during the season, often it was his team mate Scott Speed who did the talking to the media once he was gone Liuzzi was on his own and stayed quiet. His chances on continuing in F1 rest on Force India.

Hero Moment: 6th in China after strong drive.
Zero moment: Losing his first point of the season at Fuji after passing under yellow flags



18th Jarno Trulli
Championship Position 13th 8pts
Best Finish 6th USA
Best Qualifying 6th Spain

Yet another season of top qualifying laps that saw him get into Q3 whilst his team mate couldn’t get past Q1, but he would often fall back, at Nurburgring was a classic example, qualified 8th then finished a distant 13th, Trulli must know that his days in F1 are numbered unless he and Toyota step up but then at the same time you don’t get the feeling the energy is there in ether driver or team to move up.

Hero Moment: Strong drive at Indy finish season high of 6th.
Zero moment: Bizarrely coming out of the pits in Canada then going straight into the wall at the exit.



19th Scott Speed
Championship Position 21st 0 pts
Best Finish 9th Monaco
Best Qualifying 15th France, Britain.

The driver with the perfect racers name only lasted 10 races at STR and headed back to the USA and NASCAR. Speed never managed to score a point but was on the pace of his team mate Liuzzi though was never the definitive faster driver, sadly he was not on good terms with his boss Franz Tost. After crashing out at turn 1 in the downpour at Nurburgring (as did Hamilton, Button, Davidson and his team mate) he had a physical confrontation with an angry Tost that ended his career.

Hero Moment: Monaco where he just missed out on the points.
Zero moment: He only finished three times in 10 attempts due to a variety of failures.



20th Giancarlo Fisichella
Championship Position 8th
Best Finish 4th Monaco
Best Qualifying 4th Monaco

This was Fisichella’s big year a chance for him to emerge from Alonso’s shadow and show he could cut it at the front. A poor car didn’t help but he was talking up his chances pre season saying he could go for the title. By the 2nd race he was already writing off his and the teams hopes. No podiums and was beaten by his younger team mate for the last two thirds of the season. He rarely figured in races and looks like his Renault and possibly F1 career is over.

Hero Moment: Monaco strongest weekend of the season.
Zero moment: the 2nd half of the season.



21st Markus Winkelhock
Championship Position. not classified 0 pts
Best Finish no. finishes
Best Qualifying 22nd Europe.

So you may be wondering how on earth I can put someone above Schumacher and Barrichello who didn’t even finish. Well because he did something they didn’t lead a race! Not only that he went from last to first in 1 lap and lead by some 30 seconds! In a Spyker! Of course it was the mad start that was the European G.P. and he started on wets whilst all the others were on slicks, a canny bit of thinking from his team gave him a moment of glory he wont forget, and it was his first race and also was his home Grand Prix! Does it get any better? Well no. The race was red flagged and he was soon passed by everyone at the restart then his engine went bang. But he lead those few laps which actually gives him a higher percent of laps lead in a drivers career than Michael Schumacher!

Hero Moment: Read above.
Zero moment: Not getting another drive for the rest of the season.



22rd Kazuki Nakajima
Championship Position 22nd
Best Finish 10th Brazil
Best Qualifying 19th Brazil

Maybe a bit harsh to judge after doing just 1 race this season and that means its hard to judge his performance. But in this single race alone he showed aggressive driving and a hunger to do well, which is unlike some other people in this list. He drove well enough to guarantee a drive for 08 with Williams which means the team has faith in him. Drove a strong race after a disappointing qualifying and knocking down two of his mechanics in the pits.

Hero Moment: Earning a 2008 drive.
Zero moment: Taking out his mechanics on his pit stop.


FAILED TO QUALIFY.
Ok so there have been no DNQ’s since 2002 but the remaing drivers shouldn’t be in F1. Or retire.



23nd Rubens Barrichello
Championship Position 20th 0 pts.
Best Finish 9th Britain
Best Qualifying 9th Monaco

For the first time since his debut in 1993 Rubens Barrichello scored no points in a season. This was down to mainly to the car, but if any driver in the team looked like taking a point that was Button not Barrichello. Rubens left Ferrari so he could establish himself as top dog at Honda and it hasn’t happened. The rumour mil persists that despite his contract for 08 Rubens may end up be replaced by Alonso and that Honda itself feel Rubens may be past his best which I think he is, if not he will go on to break Ricardo Patrese’s record of 256 starts.

Hero Moment: Telling his pit crew BULLS**T when told Button was 2 seconds a lap faster than him.
Zero moment: Dead last at Hungary.



24th Ralf Schumacher
Championship Position 16th 5 pts.
Best Finish 6th Hungary
Best Qualifying 5th Hungary

Maybe some of you are surprised I put him this low down. But take these factors into place. His hefty salary, his experience and then look at what he has achieved since he joined Toyota. While he hasn’t had a great car at the same time he never seemed to push the team to go further like his brother. Yes I did just compare him to his brother. Unfair? No not really he bought it on himself when he claimed he was the 3rd best driver at the start of the year. With 5 points to his team mates 8 points “3rd best” drivers in f1 perform a lot better than the odd average performance. As said on a formulapod pod cast “Ralf happens”.

Hero Moment: Strong race in Hungary.
Zero moment: Monaco pretty much last all weekend while his team mate was after points.



25th Christijan Albers
Championship Position 25th 0pts
Best Finish 14th Bahrain, Spain
Best Qualifying 21st

The former DTM drivers 2nd season ended with him getting the boot from the team after France where he set off from the pits taking the refuel hose with him, that was probably his most noticeable moment his other crashing out in Australia after his ear piece fell out and distracted him. Being at the back of the grid and out performed constantly by his team mate it was hard to see any shining moments.

Hero Moment: His only 2 finishes of the season at Bahrain and Spain.
Zero moment: Sacked by Silverstone



26th Sakon Yamamoto
Championship position 24th 0 pts
Best finish 12th Japan
Best Qualifying 21st Japan

With 7 starts this season he has had more chances than some of the other drivers ahead of him in this list. He also had the improved B spec Spyker at his disposal but was no match for his team mate Sutil. His debut lasted 4 laps before he went into the wall, Only in F1 because he has the money, which isn’t how you impress.

Hero Moment: Staying on the track in Fuji until the finish.
Zero moment: The other 6 races…


CONCLUSION:
So there you have it how I rated the drivers this season. Some were harder than others but in different ways. For instance it was easy to place Yamamoto last but hard to remember a point where he shone. The fact being I really really had to think for any point where I thought “”wow he did well there” really killed his chances of placing anywhere respectable. Drivers like Hekki Kovalainen had abysmal starts but really improved and ended on a high whilst others when went out with a whimper. But the hardest point was deciding Lewis or Kimi for No.1. It was hard and it was close? How close about the same as the final championship standings.