As the halfway point in the season is upon us, it is time to look at who has been impressive, and who has been disappointing so far in the 2014 Formula One season.
There have been some intriguing characters emerge this season, with rookies giving their more experienced team mates a run for their money, two World Champions in one team and other World Champions finding it tough against their respective new team mates. This is how everybody has fared so far. Remember that these ratings are nothing more than my own personal opinion, so be sure to write your comments and your ratings below!
Red Bull Racing-Renault
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel (GER)
Rating: 7/10
Vettel’s chase for a record-equalling fifth World Drivers’ Championship has gone terribly. When he has been strong, the car has given up on him, and when he hasn’t been so strong, he has been comprehensively beaten by his team mate, Daniel Ricciardo. His race pace has generally been good, as well as his starts, but his qualifying – usually one of his biggest assets has been his downfall so far this season. Interestingly, Vettel has appeared to lose a lot of points due to poor strategy or down to bad luck, something which hampered Mark Webber during his time at Red Bull quite a bit. The German needs to bounce back with some good results and quickly, especially as his team mate has two wins to the Vettel’s zero.
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
Rating: 9/10
Ricciardo is the absolute star of the season so far. He has been the best of the rest in a car which is probably the best of the rest, and took a fantastic first win in Canada, a circuit where Red Bull were supposed to be at their weakest. He followed that up with another dramatic win at Budapest. His qualifying has been absolutely superb, which looking back at his time at Toro Rosso, doesn’t surprise me too much, and his race pace has massively improved. He now has five podiums to his name, and had a further one taken away from him. He is currently best of the rest in the standings behind the two Mercedes drivers, but his position as best of the rest is under threat from others.
Mercedes AMG
No. 44 Lewis Hamilton (GBR)
Rating: 8.5/10
Firstly, it should be worth noting that due to the considerable performance advantage that the W05 Hybrid has over the rest of the field, it’s quite difficult to rate the two Mercedes drivers.
Hamilton’s form in the first five races was simply incredible, notably at Malaysia and in China, where he simply decimated Rosberg. He hasn’t had as much of a qualifying edge as was expected over Rosberg, especially in the dry. He was unlucky not to win in Australia and in Canada, but uncharacteristic qualifying mistakes at Monaco and in Austria cost him dear, but he bounced back by taking a hugely important victory at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone and battling third places at Hockenheim and at Budapest, the latter having started from the pit lane.
No. 6 Nico Rosberg (GER)
Rating: 7.5/10
Rosberg has been incredibly consistent in the races this year and has finished in the top two in nine of the races so far. He has had some luck go his way, but has delivered results even when the Mercedes was a bit fragile. He suffered his first retirement of the season at Silverstone but bounced back by winning his home Grand Prix. He hasn’t yet had a weekend where he has completely put Hamilton in the shade, but he has taken four very good victories already this year. He somewhat struggled a little bit in the rain at Hungary, but still leads the championship at this stage of the season.
Ferrari
No. 14 Fernando Alonso (SPA)
Rating: 8.5/10
It hasn’t been Alonso’s best season to date so far, but certainly not his worst. He has picked up really from where he left 2013, by consistently picking up points and the odd podium. Many were expecting Kimi Raikkonen to give him more of a challenge than what Felipe Massa did, but it’s been quite the opposite, with the Spaniard beating the Finn in every race so far. He has had a few off days, and has been lucky once or twice, but for Alonso to have an ‘off day’ and to finish fourth isn’t bad going one bit. The Spaniard has finished every race bar Bahrain in at least sixth. Raikkonen’s best result is sixth. He took a fantastic second place in Hungary, which could have been a win if the safety car went his way.
No. 7 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)
Rating: 4/10
Raikkonen’s return to the team that helped him win his world title has not gone to plan one bit. He has been outqualified and outraced by Fernando Alonso at pretty much every event, and seems to find himself making contact with other cars, despite it not being his fault in most cases. He has shown flashes of great speed however, at Spain and at Monaco. Yet, the ‘Iceman’ must do better; especially following his high-speed shunt at Silverstone, where some called him to be banned for his actions. He said himself that there have been no positives this season, but after being embarrassed in qualifying; he bounced back excellently at Hungary, taking sixth having started 16th.
Lotus-Renault
No. 8 Romain Grosjean (FRA)
Rating: 7/10
The Frenchman has begun this season where he left off last season, by placing his car in places that it is not capable of being. In the dreadfully slow Lotus, Grosjean has gotten into Q3 on a number of occasions this year, and has delivered a handful of points. He has destroyed ‘qualifying specialist’ Pastor Maldonado in both qualifying and in the races and has not shown any signs of returning to the 2012 ‘first lap nutcase’ Romain Grosjean, except for a daft crash behind the safety car at Hungary.
No. 13 Pastor Maldonado (VEN)
Rating: 3/10
‘He tried to kill me!’ was what Jean-Eric Vergne said about Maldonado at the Bahrain Grand Prix. This pretty much sums up the Venezuelan’s season so far. Usually when the car hasn’t given up on him, he has been crashing into things. He did have a strong run at Austria, however. He has been very unlucky, and has improved his ways in recent races, but must get on top of Grosjean soon, especially in qualifying.
McLaren-Mercedes
No. 22 Jenson Button (GBR)
Rating: 6.5/10
Button’s season has been intriguing. He scored a podium in the first race, but he has barely troubled it since as the McLaren has dropped backwards pretty swiftly. He has also been beaten by his rookie team mate on quite a few occasions, something that shouldn’t be happening to a World Champion. He nearly took a very important podium at Silverstone, but narrowly missed out, probably his best race for a long while.
No. 20 Kevin Magnussen (DEN)
Rating: 5/10
The young Dane ‘done a Hamilton’ on his debut and finished on the podium, which was a truly remarkable result. He has troubled Button on quite a few occasions so far this season, which raises questions about the future of the World Champion. He has been involved in a few rookie bumps here and there, mainly with Kimi Raikkonen, but the speed has been eyebrow-raising. He qualified an impressive fourth at Hockenheim and at Australia and showed brilliant race pace in both races.
Force India-Mercedes
No. 27 Nico Hulkenberg (GER)
Rating: 8/10
Hulkenberg’s return to Force India has been pretty successful. He has scored points in almost every round, and has outperformed the car on more than one occasion so far this year. His consistency is pretty remarkable, and is comparable to that of Fernando Alonso’s. He has had a few off days, and Sergio Perez has punished him on those days, especially at Bahrain and Austria, and at Hungary, where he caused a stupid collision by crashing into his team mate.
No. 11 Sergio Perez (MEX)
Rating: 4/10
Perez has had quite an interesting season so far. He delivered a brilliant podium in Bahrain, and has beaten Hulkenberg on more than one occasion so far this season. However, he has also got himself involved in a fair few incidents, something that Hulkenberg has not. This has cost him a lot of points, and he has a lot of work to do if he is to beat the German.
Sauber-Ferrari
No. 99 Adrian Sutil (GER)
Rating: 4/10
Sutil has adjusted to Sauber relatively well; however, he is yet to deliver a point for the team. He was having an excellent race at Monaco before crashing, and has come closest out of the two Saubers to deliver a point. For a driver with the experience, Sutil needs to be picking up the points for a team that so desperately needs them. He came pretty close in Hungary, finishing 11th.
No. 21 Esteban Gutierrez (MEX)
Rating: 3.5/10
Gutierrez was given an arguably easier task this year in Adrian Sutil as his team mate. While the two have been relatively evenly matched, Gutierrez has also continued to get involved in incidents and making a lot of mistakes. He also finds himself well down the points standings, but he has often outqualified Sutil, and was running in the points at Hungary before a MGU-K failure ended his race.
Toro Rosso-Renault
No. 25 Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA)
Rating: 6/10
Vergne needed to up his game in qualifying and he has done just that. His race pace this season has been good and has delivered a handful of points despite retiring from five races already this season. He has struggled at times to beat his team mate and the pressure is on for him to up his game as Carlos Sainz Jr is waiting in the wings.
No. 26 Daniil Kvyat (RUS)
Rating: 6/10
The very young Russian exploded into Formula One by stealing Sebastian Vettel’s youngest point scorer record. He has given his more experienced team mate a run for his money at quite a few events so far this year. He has also suffered a few failures which were out of his control. He has had quite a few anonymous days though, but doesn’t seem to be making the rookie mistakes that the other rookies have been, bar a clumsy collision at Hockenheim.
Williams-Mercedes
No. 77 Valtteri Bottas (FIN)
Rating: 8.5/10
Having been dubbed the ‘new Raikkonen’ early in his career, Bottas finds himself being the leading Finn in the standings so far this season. Although he has not shown the qualifying speed he has at every race, his race pace has been mighty impressive, finishing in the points in every race he has finished. He also took his first podium in Austria, a fantastic result for him and for Williams, and currently has three following two brilliant second places.
No. 19 Felipe Massa (BRA)
Rating: 4.5/10
Massa’s first season at a team not powered by Ferrari hasn’t gone too badly. He finds himself in a car capable of finishing on the podium, and has adjusted to life at Williams pretty well. His qualifying performances have been great, including a superb pole in Austria, but his race pace and overtaking has been a bit off. He also wasn’t completely innocent in the crash that eliminated himself at Hockenheim.
Marussia-Ferrari
No. 17 Jules Bianchi (FRA)
Rating: 5/10
Bianchi had a dreadful start to the season, causing multiple accidents and finding himself outqualified by Chilton. It all came good for him, however at Monaco, where he picked up the team’s first ever points. He hasn’t beaten Chilton by the same sort of margin that he has done last year though.
No. 4 Max Chilton (GBR)
Rating: 3/10
Chilton has definitely improved from last season, notably in qualifying, where he has given his team mate a run for his money on more than one occasion. Earlier in the season, he was delivering results whilst Bianchi was hitting things. He has dropped off since Monaco, notably causing his first retirement in F1 by stupidly hitting his team mate, but still beats at least one Caterham on a regular basis.
Caterham-Renault
No. 10 Kamui Kobayashi (JAP)
Rating: 5/10
Kobayashi’s return to F1 after a year out has hardly gone according to plan. Although he has often outqualified one of the Marussias, he was beaten in that very important Monaco round, where it was Bianchi who scored points for one of the teams to be introduced for 2010. More point opportunities may arise for Caterham as they are now fighting with Sauber over tenth in the standings. It should be worth noting that the Caterham is probably a worse car than both the Sauber and the Marussia, so Kobayashi isn’t doing too bad a job considering.
No. 9 Marcus Ericsson (SWE)
Rating: 2.5/10
The Swede’s introduction into Formula One has been a highly tough one. He has made lots of rookie mistakes and has been very often outqualified by Kobayashi. On the plus side, he has delivered Caterham their best result to date, 11th place at the Monaco Grand Prix. Not a huge amount should have been expected for a rookie in arguably the worst car on the grid, but I haven’t seen much in the way of a brilliant performance from Ericsson yet.
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