Who Was Your F1 Driver of the Year?

[Paul Jeffrey]

With the Grand Prix season now over, RaceDepartment invite you to vote for the Formula One 'Driver of the Year' award.

2018 wasn't a classic season by any stretch of the imagination, however the year was notable for several standout performances from the class of 2018 - be it individual races of inspired driving, consistently out performing the machinery underneath the driver or spectacular comeback performances - the choices are near endless.

Sometimes the final results tables don't always do justice to the overall performance of a driver over the 21-race calendar, leaving us to wonder who the majority of our readers consider to be the overall best F1 driver of 2018... so what better way to find out than a good old fashioned voting poll!

Leave a comment and vote above...

 

 

[Benutzername]

Tricky. Easiest thing is too compare drivers to their teammates and the ones who stand-out in that category would be my favourite drivers this season anyway:
Hamilton, Alonso, Gasly, Leclerc and as honoravle mention... Magnussen and Vettel.

Hamilton had one of his best seasons in my opinion, mentally he was so, so strong this year. Bottas is quick and had shown that at the start of the season but Baku mentally broke him. He never quite recovered and naturally was relegated to the 2nd driver this season.

Alonso dominated Vandoorne obviously.

Magnussen was surprisingly good this season and if Vettel would not have made so many mistakes, he would be one of the best drivers this season, too. But he, too, seemed to be mentally weaker than Hamilton.

But one can not forget Leclerc and Gasly, both with their first full F1 season both beating their more experienced teammates easily.
Gasly had some really incredible performances.
Leclerc was even better.

For me, Leclerc is the driver of the year. What a strong rookie season and a promotion to Ferrari.
Gasly on the other hand got promoted to Red Bull. The next season will be interesting with those two talents in strong cars.

 

[formidable]

Leclerc, with any doubt.

 

[Jonny Austin]

Leclerc is good but how can he be the best driver when his best finish is 6th?His season only got going in the second half & his team mate Ericsson is lame so their is no decent comparison to make.He has potential & will probably upset Vettel next year but the best driver now?
Hamilton has been head & shoulders above the others this year.Vettel & Max made to many errors,Ricciardo had to many failures & Bottas & Raikkonen were just to slow most of the time.

 

[Boby Kim]

The upcoming world champion: Leclerc.
The lines that guy races...

 

[muzikant]

 

[Slowdive]

Leclerc is good but how can he be the best driver when his best finish is 6th?His season only got going in the second half & his team mate Ericsson is lame so their is no decent comparison to make.He has potential & will probably upset Vettel next year but the best driver now?
Hamilton has been head & shoulders above the others this year.Vettel & Max made to many errors,Ricciardo had to many failures & Bottas & Raikkonen were just to slow most of the time.

Seriously? Put Hamilton in a Williams car and he doesn't even sniff the top 10 every race.

 

[TrumpetReich]

Even as a die hard Ferrari fan who'd love see Hamilton retire from every race for the rest of his career, I can't argie against it. Hamilton was definitely the driver of the year.

 

[M-Bimmer]

Logically speaking, it’s gotta be Leclerc, followed by Max & Kimi.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Seriously? Put Hamilton in a Williams car and he doesn't even sniff the top 10 every race.

What a strange thing to say...
Put most drivers in a Williams and they would be hard pressed for a top 10 finish.
But in Italy both Williams drivers were in the top 10, are you saying either of then are better than Hamilton? Really?

 

[RasmusP]

Leclerc for me. Not because of his raw performance but I really liked his behavior combined with his really good performance!
Staying out in Brazil, telling the team he'll try another lap although they wanted to call him in and then managing to get into Q3. Showing great skills in battles, never risking too much but going for the gap if possible.
Never being a spoiled brat to his team unlike Verstappen or Hamilton. Also never searching for lame excuses when mistakes happen.
Apart from the "he always will be stupid" towards Magnussen there was only nice manners and respect coming from this guy while he still showed what he got.
That makes him the driver of the year for me. He's just different in a positive way compared to everyone else on the grid. And he earned my personal respect for him this season.
I hope he will keep up being such a respectful person in the future.

 

[ears]

Sometimes the final results tables don't always do justice to the overall performance of a driver over the 21-race calendar

And encouraging a 10 page rant fest amongst a bunch of opinionated internet forum users is going to set the record straight?!

 

[giga1tr]

1st Leclerc 2nd Kimi.
2019 will be very exciting

 

[Flip-Flop Driver]

Hamilton.
He even beat Alonso and Leclerc according to the statistics using this model.

 

[Slowdive]

What a strange thing to say...
Put most drivers in a Williams and they would be hard pressed for a top 10 finish.
But in Italy both Williams drivers were in the top 10, are you saying either of then are better than Hamilton? Really?

The person I was responding to was trying to argue that LeClerc wasn't that good because his top finish was 6th. As if Hamilton finishing 1st or 2nd each race means he's the best driver. It's next to impossible to say who the best driver is with such a disparity in equipment. Want to know who the best driver is? Have them all come and race Indycar, then you might know.

Also, using your logic, I guess Fernando must suck.

 

[snyperal]

Hamilton for me. Had the slower car but secured poles when needed to and made them count. He destroyed Seb mentally at his home gp, no small feat.

I didn't like the wave by from Bottas, but its all part of the game.

Next year is going to be exciting and Leclerc will probably put Seb over the edge. Cannot wait!

 

[michelforest]

Hamilton. Yes, he drives a Mercedes, but Senna drove a McLaren Honda from 1988 to 1991 and no one can deny his talent, right? It's not just about having the best car, it's what you do with it and Hamilton was pretty much flawless all season long. If Mercedes remains as good in 2019, I see no reason why he should not win a 6th WC.

His main rival is Vettel, a great driver, but he has shown his limitations in 2018.He's simply not in the same league as Hamilton.

Leclerc was the most impressive rookie, by a mile. As driver of the year: let's wait... I think he will be that in a few years.

 

[delpinsky]

I voted Leclerc because he did some good things in this 2018 and he's going to be a Ferrari driver for the next season. So it's some kind of wish he's going to do some "magic" next season with a better car.

Hamilton, well, he's a talented driver on an almost invincible battleship.
Vettel is as good as Hamilton but with some limitations in his character that made him do some bad mistakes which costed him dearly. That's why he finished 2nd.
Verstappen is for sure the present best young driver and a future Champion if he manages to drive a superior car.
A word for Kimi: FERRARI FANS LOVE YOU no matter what

 

[Dirk Steffen]

I just came here to comment how so very useless that groupshot in the opening post is.

Half the drivers do not have the courtesy to take of their sunglasses and the photographer does not realize to ask the drivers to take their caps off so the purpose of the groupshot can be fulfilled to be able to recognize these drivers in years to come?

This is a very badly executed groupshot.

For all intents and purposes the photographer could have handed one of these to all drivers before the shoot:

 

[Nick Hill]

My opinion is split between Hamilton (my least favorite driver), Kimi (my favorite driver), and LeClerc. I ended up voting for LeClerc, but I'm not sure I really have any clear justification for him over the other two. I think you can make a strong case for any of the three. I realize Kimi finished a good ways behind Seb, but I am absolutely certain Ferrari strategy leaned towards trying to get Seb wins and using Kimi as a foil...in their shoes, I would have done the same, but with 20/20 hindsight, Kimi appears to have been the calmer, more consistent driver this year and I think could have gotten closer to (though probably not beaten) Hamilton.