
With the Formula 1 season having come to a close last Sunday in Abu Dhabi, we at Zarb times shall look at the drivers' performances across the season, starting with the drivers of the top 3 teams - Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas), Ferrari (Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen) and Red Bull (Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen).
Lewis Hamilton
A simply brilliant and remarkably consistent season by the British driver, arguably his best ever season in Formula 1. Whether you like him or not, you've got to say that he was the best driver this season and made pretty much no mistakes whatsoever throughout the year.
He actually had a rather poor start to the season, and arguably, team-mate Bottas was performing better than him. In fairness to Hamilton, in the season opener in Australia, he drove very well and would have won the race had it not been for an ill-timed Virtual Safety Car which enabled Sebastian Vettel to take advantage by pitting and maintaining track position in first place. He had a poor weekend in China where he finished fourth. It took Hamilton until the fourth race of the season to register his first win of the campaign, one which came in rather fortunate circumstances, after he profited from team-mate Bottas' rotten luck when the Finn suffered a puncture whilst leading, 2 laps from the end of the race.
Despite this poor start to the season (certainly by Hamilton's standards), he led the World Championship, which actually highlighted a key aspect of Hamilton this season - even when he had some poor races, he still scored the points on a consistent basis and almost always brought the car to the finish - for that matter, he only suffered a race retirement in Austria through absolutely no fault of his own when he suffered a fuel pressure problem. The only one possible mistake you could say Hamilton made this season was in his home race in Silverstone, when he got a poor start from pole position and left himself vulnerable to being overtaken by others, and whilst not his fault, ended up being spun round by Kimi Raikkonen (Raikkonen was given a 10-second time penalty for his role in the incident). Even then, Hamilton still managed to finish in second place, impressive given that he was running in 18th place at one point, one of 17 podium finishes this season, equalling the all-time record of most podium finishes in a season for a 3rd time (Hamilton achieved 17 podium finishes in 2015 and 2016 previously, and Sebastian Vettel did so in 2013, whilst Michael Schumacher achieved 17 himself in 2002).
Of course, we must highlight how Hamilton was truly brilliant during the season. Some of his qualifying laps were simply on another level, namely in Hungary and Belgium where in both instances he claimed pole position in the wet condition, highlighting just how supreme he is in difficult and changing conditions. His qualifying lap in Australia was also very impressive, setting a fastest lap-time 0.6s quicker than anybody else. However, the standout lap, arguably the lap of the season, came in Singapore, where on a track Mercedes tended to struggle in the past, he claimed pole by setting a lap 0.3s quicker than anybody else, most notably 0.6s quicker than his rival for the World Championship Sebastian Vettel. Possibly that was psychologically the most important moment in the season, as Hamilton delivered a quite stunning lap which, it could be said, shocked all F1 followers.
He also had some brilliant races along the way, most notably in Monza, where he won in front of the Tifosi after getting past Vettel on the opening lap and putting relentless pressure on Raikkonen before making a brilliant overtake for the win, one which personally I was extremely lucky to witness. Other notable drives include Germany where he won having started from 14th on the grid, and, in Russia, after poor strategy from Mercedes meant that he lost track position to Vettel, he pulled off a fantastic and courageous overtake to regain the place, highlighting his superb racecraft. There were other less stand-out race wins, but which were clinical and precise, such as in Barcelona, France and Hungary. This is also notwithstanding the fact that Mercedes did not always boast the best car this season.
Hamilton is now just 18 wins short of Michael Schumacher's win record and 2 short of the record for most World Championships (whilst already boasting the record for most pole positions). The question that lies here is: can Hamilton go on and equal these records? He has now signed a new contract with Mercedes until 2020, which means that he will remain with the team for another 2 seasons. If Hamilton maintains his current driving level and Mercedes remain consistent, then doing so is definitely not impossible and few would bet against him doing so. Very few can argue that Hamilton was the best driver this season and he's a fully-deserved World Champion.
A simply brilliant and remarkably consistent season by the British driver, arguably his best ever season in Formula 1. Whether you like him or not, you've got to say that he was the best driver this season and made pretty much no mistakes whatsoever throughout the year.
He actually had a rather poor start to the season, and arguably, team-mate Bottas was performing better than him. In fairness to Hamilton, in the season opener in Australia, he drove very well and would have won the race had it not been for an ill-timed Virtual Safety Car which enabled Sebastian Vettel to take advantage by pitting and maintaining track position in first place. He had a poor weekend in China where he finished fourth. It took Hamilton until the fourth race of the season to register his first win of the campaign, one which came in rather fortunate circumstances, after he profited from team-mate Bottas' rotten luck when the Finn suffered a puncture whilst leading, 2 laps from the end of the race.
Despite this poor start to the season (certainly by Hamilton's standards), he led the World Championship, which actually highlighted a key aspect of Hamilton this season - even when he had some poor races, he still scored the points on a consistent basis and almost always brought the car to the finish - for that matter, he only suffered a race retirement in Austria through absolutely no fault of his own when he suffered a fuel pressure problem. The only one possible mistake you could say Hamilton made this season was in his home race in Silverstone, when he got a poor start from pole position and left himself vulnerable to being overtaken by others, and whilst not his fault, ended up being spun round by Kimi Raikkonen (Raikkonen was given a 10-second time penalty for his role in the incident). Even then, Hamilton still managed to finish in second place, impressive given that he was running in 18th place at one point, one of 17 podium finishes this season, equalling the all-time record of most podium finishes in a season for a 3rd time (Hamilton achieved 17 podium finishes in 2015 and 2016 previously, and Sebastian Vettel did so in 2013, whilst Michael Schumacher achieved 17 himself in 2002).
Of course, we must highlight how Hamilton was truly brilliant during the season. Some of his qualifying laps were simply on another level, namely in Hungary and Belgium where in both instances he claimed pole position in the wet condition, highlighting just how supreme he is in difficult and changing conditions. His qualifying lap in Australia was also very impressive, setting a fastest lap-time 0.6s quicker than anybody else. However, the standout lap, arguably the lap of the season, came in Singapore, where on a track Mercedes tended to struggle in the past, he claimed pole by setting a lap 0.3s quicker than anybody else, most notably 0.6s quicker than his rival for the World Championship Sebastian Vettel. Possibly that was psychologically the most important moment in the season, as Hamilton delivered a quite stunning lap which, it could be said, shocked all F1 followers.
He also had some brilliant races along the way, most notably in Monza, where he won in front of the Tifosi after getting past Vettel on the opening lap and putting relentless pressure on Raikkonen before making a brilliant overtake for the win, one which personally I was extremely lucky to witness. Other notable drives include Germany where he won having started from 14th on the grid, and, in Russia, after poor strategy from Mercedes meant that he lost track position to Vettel, he pulled off a fantastic and courageous overtake to regain the place, highlighting his superb racecraft. There were other less stand-out race wins, but which were clinical and precise, such as in Barcelona, France and Hungary. This is also notwithstanding the fact that Mercedes did not always boast the best car this season.
Hamilton is now just 18 wins short of Michael Schumacher's win record and 2 short of the record for most World Championships (whilst already boasting the record for most pole positions). The question that lies here is: can Hamilton go on and equal these records? He has now signed a new contract with Mercedes until 2020, which means that he will remain with the team for another 2 seasons. If Hamilton maintains his current driving level and Mercedes remain consistent, then doing so is definitely not impossible and few would bet against him doing so. Very few can argue that Hamilton was the best driver this season and he's a fully-deserved World Champion.
Valtteri Bottas
An extremely frustrating + disappointing season for the Finnish driver. He ended up being the only driver from the top 3 teams not to win a race this season.
To be fair to the Finn, however, he did suffer a fair share of misfortune during the season as well which was not his fault. Bottas actually started the season quite well and perhaps even performed better than team-mate Hamilton. He would have won in Baku had it not been for a puncture 2 laps from the end, which was incredibly unfortunate, and you could argue that at this moment his World Championship hopes were killed off and it was a massive psychological blow to the Finn. His retirement in Austria, which came through a hydraulic failure, was also extremely unfortunate yet costly as well.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes' team principal, caused some controversy when after the Hungarian Grand Prix he referred to Bottas as a "wingman". On the one hand, it could be argued that Bottas' confidence took a massive hit from that. If you want to argue over whether Bottas did his job of a wingman, you would have to say he did his job extremely well when needed, notably in Monza when he kept Kimi Raikkonen behind him before making his (Bottas') pit stop later on in the race, and this enabled Hamilton to get past Raikkonen later on in the race, which meant he (Hamilton) won the Italian Grand Prix. Another example is when he let Hamilton through whilst leading the Russian Grand Prix, which was a harsh call by the team and arguably unnecessary given the way things panned out in the end (I shall not go into further debate about the issue as I discussed this previously). It could also be argued that having to let Hamilton through in Russia, when he (Bottas) was leading on merit, had a severely negative effect on his confidence. Having said that, however, Bottas must be given credit for actually obeying instructions and sacrificing himself both for the team and his team-mate's World Championship battle.
For all the perceived misfortune, however, the fact is that this was a largely disappointing season for the Finn. He finished 5th in the World Championship, behind even both the Ferrari drivers and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, and it looks all the more disappointing when Hamilton's results (in the same car) are put into perspective. To further highlight the disappointing season he had, since the summer break he finished on the podium in just 3 out of 9 races, whilst it's worth noting that in Monza he finished 4th on track but was promoted to 3rd thanks to a penalty for Verstappen.
Bottas in the summer signed a contract extension with Mercedes for 2019, with the option of a further year. Bottas needs to a show marked improvement next season if he is to keep his place at the team beyond 2019, particularly given that Esteban Ocon is now the team's reserve driver.
Sebastian Vettel
A season which started so promisingly for the German has to be classified as very disappointing. Vettel made far too many mistakes this season, which ultimately cost him any shot he had at the World Championship, especially given how consistent Hamilton was this season.
He started the season in brilliant fashion, winning in Australia (even if through a little bit of good fortune), and won in Bahrain where he managed his tyres to perfection. In China, he was unfortunate to be involved in a collision with Max Verstappen who was at fault for the incident, which ultimately meant an 8th-placed finish for Vettel.
However, Vettel this season made a very high number of costly, avoidable and stupid mistakes, and it could be argued that Ferrari let him down as well. In Baku, he locked up and ran wide when trying to overtake Bottas on the Safety Car restart, which cost him a second place, and in hindsight, it may well have cost him the victory given Bottas suffered a puncture - Vettel in the end finished the race in fourth, and to add insult to injury, Hamilton (Vettel's rival for the World Championship) went on to win the race. In Barcelona, Ferrari decided to make an additional stop with Vettel during a Virtual Safety Car period, which ultimately cost him track position as he slipped from second down to fourth. In France, at the start, he locked up and ended up steering into the side of Bottas - another driver error from Vettel which cost him points.
Whether this one really cost him points is debatable + subjective, though he also made an error during qualifying in Austria, when he blocked Carlos Sainz and was given a 3-place grid penalty for the incident, which meant that he started the race behind Verstappen and team-mate Raikkonen, who both went on to finish ahead of him in the race, whilst it could be said that it was an even more costly mistake given that Hamilton failed to finish that race. Hockenheim, however, was arguably the most costly mistake of all, when on a slippery track, he crashed out from the lead of the race, and to add to his misery, Hamilton went on to win the race. Another very costly mistake he made came in Monza, when starting from 2nd place - and here you could argue Ferrari made a strategic mistake during qualifying when they elected to send out Vettel on track first for the final lap of qualifying - he got overtaken by Hamilton on the opening lap, and instead of concede the position, he tried to defend aggressively and ended up hitting Hamilton and (Vettel) got spun round. As if that was not bad enough, Hamilton winning the race would have been even more painful for the German. Poor strategy by Ferrari meant he lost track position to Verstappen in Singapore, costing him a further World Championship points. Ferrari made another blatant strategic error in qualifying in Japan, when they chose to put intermediate (semi-wet) tyres rather than the dries in tricky conditions, when it was clearly too dry for the intermediates, and then to compound the situation, Vettel made an error on his qualifying lap and he ended up having to start the race in 8th place. As if this was not disastrous enough, in the race itself, he collided with Verstappen after attempting a stupid and clumsy overtaking manoeuvre which resulted in him dropping to the back of the field (ultimately he recovered to finish in 6th place). In United States, Vettel was given a 3-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under red flag conditions during practice, another needless and unnecessary driver error. Then, in the race, he ended up spinning again after contact with Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull.
That's not to say Vettel didn't have good moments, either. His drives in Canada and Silverstone when out in the front were both very controlled drives, and his drive in Belgium after overtaking Hamilton on lap 1, was thereafter very good.
However, he made errors that he could not afford to when up against a driver of Hamilton's calibre. One could argue that this is the second consecutive season where he failed to win a World Championship when he had the tools at his disposal to do so. A question lies: how long is it before Ferrari's patience with Vettel runs out? Does them replacing Kimi Raikkonen with Charles Leclerc, a young and hungry driver, mean Ferrari are not entirely satisfied with Vettel? With a young and hungry Leclerc at the team next year, the pressure on Vettel to perform at Ferrari will be greater than ever - the question is: can he handle it or will it break his career?
Kimi Raikkonen
Despite this being his last season with the team, it was ironically his best season since rejoining Ferrari back in 2014. He achieved 12 podium finishes this season, as many as team-mate Vettel, and also got his first win since Australia 2013 (also his first - and only - win since returning to Ferrari) after winning the United States Grand Prix, whilst he also set the fastest ever lap in a Formula 1 car (in terms of average speed) en route to taking pole position in Monza.
Whilst it was generally good, reliability let Kimi down this season, notably in Barcelona + Abu Dhabi, whilst the other 2 retirement were through no fault of his own - in Bahrain the team released him unsafely thanks to a botched pit stop, whilst in Belgium he was an innocent victim of a crash which damaged his rear wing.
The one key area where Raikkonen did struggle however was qualifying, losing that particular battle 17-4 with an average gap of 0.256s to Vettel. Due to some sub-standard qualifying performances, it meant that he was sacrificed in races for his team-mate, although team orders were not so present at Ferrari this season.
Many argue that since being told he was going to be dropped by the team for next season in Monza, Raikkonen has been driving better than before. In fact, between Monza and Abu Dhabi, Raikkonen scored only 1 point fewer than Vettel, and it's worth noting that Kimi had a DNF in Abu Dhabi. To put it a bit more into perspective, if you exclude Abu Dhabi, since Monza, Raikkonen finished ahead of Vettel 4 times out of 7, and scored more points than his team-mate.
Next year Raikkonen will be joining Sauber, for whom he debuted back in 2001. This could actually prove to be a good move for the Finn, as he joins a team making solid progress, and he's now free from the internal politics and pressure of Ferrari. There's no doubting that this will be an interesting move, one which could turn out to be a big success.
Max Verstappen
A season that essentially should be split into two. He started the season off extremely poorly, getting involved in all sorts of incidents and collisions. In the season opener in Melbourne, he ended up in a spin after he picked up damage trying to get past Kevin Magnussen (they did not collide or make contact). In Bahrain, during qualifying he crashed after a driver error, whilst during the race, when trying to overtake Hamilton, he inexplicably squeezed him off the track, and ended up making contact and he (Verstappen) gave himself a puncture which caused him to retire from the race. In China, he first ran wide whilst trying to overtake Hamilton in a place where overtaking is near impossible, and then, even worse, he collided into Vettel whilst trying to pass him and got a 10s time penalty for the incident. To add insult to injury, his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo (who was behind him before he ran wide when trying to overtake Hamilton) went on to win the race. In Baku, he was involved in a collision with his own team-mate which caused both to retire from the race. In Barcelona, despite finishing on the podium, he had contact with a lapped Williams which caused him to lose a part of his front wing, although he did get away with it. Then, in Monaco, during final practice he crashed his car into the wall and unnecessarily, causing him to miss qualifying and start the race from last.
From Canada onwards, however, his season was impressive to say the least. In qualifying, he beat Ricciardo 13-2, although one of the times Ricciardo beat him was in Mexico where the Aussie took pole position (and Ricciardo took both of Red Bull's 2 pole positions this season). Since the summer break, only Hamilton scored more points than the Dutchman. Verstappen took 2 race wins this season, in Austria and Mexico, both of which were extremely mature drives. Two very impressive drives came in Russia and United States, when in both instances he started from lowly grid positions - in Russia he finished 5th after starting in 19th place, executing some brilliant overtakes along the way, and in United States he took second place after starting all the way down in 18th position. He would have won in Brazil as well had he not been taken out by Esteban Ocon who was idiotically trying to un-lap himself (Max did go on to finish second in that race). This season was undoubtedly Verstappen's best in Formula 1, finishing on the podium 11 times (a personal record in a season), earning more World Championship points than in any previous season (249), and recording his best ever World Championship finishing position (4th), ahead of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
Few can argue with the belief that Verstappen has improved considerably as the season went on and that he has shown an increased maturity, particularly since Monaco. If Red Bull provide him with a good car and the Honada engines which the team are switching to next year are reliable and powerful, then providing he keeps on improving and retains his composure all throughout next season, Verstappen is undoubtedly a serious contender to challenge for the World Championship in 2019.
Daniel Ricciardo
In the end, this was frustrating and disappointing season for the Aussie, who is leaving Red Bull to join Renault for 2019. He was without a doubt the most unfortunate driver in terms of car reliability (in comparison to the other drivers in the top 6), suffering a total of 8 retirements during the season, which is as many as Lewis Hamilton has suffered in total since joining Mercedes back in 2013.
His season actually started quite well, finishing 4th in Melbourne, and winning in China after executing some brilliant overtakes in the latter part of the race, most notably on the 2 Ferraris and 2 Mercedes'. He also won in Monaco despite suffering an MGU-K failure around a third of the way through the race. Those victories, however, were the only 2 podium finishes he scored this season.
In terms of the battle with his team-mate, Ricciardo fared rather disappointingly - he lost the qualifying battle to Verstappen 15-5 (the session in Monaco is being excluded since Verstappen did not take part following his crash in Saturday practice), and in the races where both drivers finished, Verstappen beat Ricciardo 8-3. It could be argued that Ricciardo has been unable Verstappen's dominance within the team, and therefore the man from Perth has elected to jump ship to Renault.
In fairness, there were races where Ricciardo was compromised by Red Bull's strategy, or even sometimes his own starting position for that matter due to grid penalties, though with regards to the former, in Abu Dhabi, when staying out long meant he lost track position. He was not helped by reliability either, as mentioned earlier, and one wonders what he will be in for next year since he will be driving with the Renault factory team next year, and thus be using the Renault engines again.
When Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013 from McLaren, few people thought that it was the right career move for him as back then Mercedes were a struggling midfield team and McLaren were a front-running car, instead Hamilton has gone on to win 4 World Championships with the Silver Arrows. Will Ricciardo's move to Renault prove to be as successful as Hamilton's to Mercedes, or will it backfire like many of Alonso's career moves? Only time will tell.