My Top Ten Drivers of 2016: The Rest...

Here are my views on those F1 drivers from 2016 who didn't make my top 10 ranking that I published a few days ago.

My top 10 drivers of 2016 can be read here.

Nico Hulkenberg
Photo: Octane Photography

As noted Nico Hulkenberg came close to sneaking into the top ten, and would have waltzed in had it been based only on the second half of the year. During the first part he in most rounds looked a shadow – possibly the accumulation of various frustrations from over the years rather weighing him down. And some reckoned in a similar sense that his Renault switch being confirmed for 2017 – a long overdue break – resulted in the Hulk finding his urge of old. But in fact his upturn could be traced to before that, to his home round in Germany before the summer holidays. From then on his drives were almost invariably excellent. We've long known about Hulkenberg’s tremendous raw speed but also that he's been unable or unwilling (or both) to adapt to the gentle touch the modern Pirelli requires, and some said that this campaign he'd finally started to learn from his team mate on how to get the best out of the rubber. And with his works move mentioned and that reportedly next year's tyres will be able to be leant on more, things may be coming right for him at last. 

Going through the rest in championship order brings us first to Felipe Massa, for whom the 2016 campaign was his F1 swansong. He started it well and got a run of points finishes – with China likely his season's high point on track at least – but over time he floundered somewhat and the deficit in qualifying and the races to his Williams team mate Valtteri Bottas often gaped. For all of the affection that his departure was greeted with, you'll struggle to find anyone who doesn't think he timed his retirement well.

Brazilian GP Report - Ending up where you started

Between the lakes, Interlagos translates as. Never did it seem more appropriate.

Even with Interlagos doing its worst, Lewis Hamilton
 did what he had to
Photo: Octane Photography

Yes, the local wackiness that threatened to but didn't arrive yesterday did today. Or it sort of did. The weather did its very worst from overnight between Saturday and Sunday, and didn't really ever stop. The disruption of the fare was typical really - a delayed race start, then slow circulating behind the safety car. Two red flag periods. Plenty thought at either of them that we wouldn't see any more action.

But also typically we did eventually get action, all of the proscribed distance indeed, and we were thankful that we did. As each delay was met with inevitable claims that the modern F1 pilot lacks in fortitude compared with their predecessors of generations passed, they then demonstrated not for the first time they lack nothing in that.

But as I said the local wackiness only sort of arrived, as not even that could set our story arc off its script. Somehow and scarcely credibly after all those 71 laps and the disruption outlined, taking us upwards of three hours from start to finish, we yet ended up roughly where we started. Lewis Hamilton won from pole, again (his first win at this venue). His team mate and title antagonist Nico Rosberg followed him in having started second, again. In both cases just like in the previous two rounds. In both cases it was all they needed to do to keep the championship chase ticking along. Thus, again, it's as you were.

Monaco GP Report - Fortune favours the brave

It's a pity really you can't have two winners of a Grand Prix. Today's really would have merited one. In a wet-to-dry Monaco Grand Prix, forbidding barriers nearby as ever, the sport's two best wet weather drivers (probably) disappeared into a race of their own. One thought of Jacky Ickx, Pedro Rodriguez, Zandvoort...

There could only be one victor, and it was Lewis Hamilton
Photo: Octane Photography

But just as was the case in the Netherlands dunes 45 years ago, in F1 there can only be one winner - no sharing; no honourable draws. And it was Lewis Hamilton that claimed the prestigious in-more-ways-than-one victory. The at least as impressive Daniel Ricciardo was the one this time to miss out.

Lewis had luck, though you could argue that given how his season has gone so far he was due some. He was also bold, particularly in almost uniquely choosing to skip a stop and go straight to the slicks from the full wet that everyone started on in the streaming conditions, in order to get track position on pole man and pace-setter Ricciardo. He also was bold in his driving, not to mention quick. Perhaps fortune favoured the brave today.

Not that's much compensation to Ricciardo, nor is it any slight on his own fortitude today, which also was considerable. As while there was no travesty in Lewis winning this one there was in Ricciardo losing it. From the off the Australian simply left everyone to be a spec in his rear-view while Lewis was bottled up by his team mate Nico Rosberg. Eventually after some synchronised swimming on lap 16 Lewis was allowed by and made a race of it, though by this time after just eight laps of green flag racing Ricciardo was 14 seconds up the road.

F1 2016 Season Preview: Sauber - Partial recovery

Sauber last year at least recovered from its husk of a 2014. Then it had somehow finished bottom of the constructors' standings with nil points, the first time it had done either since its 1993 debut. This was something rectified pronto in 2015, yet even so some of the problems of before still lingered.

Photo: Octane Photography

F1 has few certainties, but one that we thought we had disappeared in recent years, Even the usually fastidious Sauber squad, F1's pillar of the community, had sunk into a financial mire as so many others had. It first manifested in 2013 when there were reports of the Swiss team falling behind on its payments, including to its driver Nico Hulkenberg. The squad's no-scoring 2014 with an underdeveloped car seemed a manifestation too. Then for 2015 the team selected two drivers so far as we could tell on their ability to bring money, to the point that perhaps as many as three other drivers who believed they had contracts for that season were elbowed aside unceremoniously. One of them in Giedo van der Garde subjected the team to a public dispute in Melbourne's opening round, both in the courts and at the track. All quite the departure, as whatever else you thought of Sauber it used to be counted upon almost alone in F1 to do its business in the right way. Team principal Monisha Kaltenborn wasn't popular among her peers in Melbourne.

My Top Ten Drivers of 2015: The Rest...

Photo: Octane Photography

Here are my views on those F1 drivers from 2015 who didn't make my top 10 ranking that I published a few days ago.

My top 10 drivers of 2015 can be read here.

Don't listen to what Mark Webber claimed about there not being the depth of talent in F1 that there used to be. This was possibly the most difficult task of whittling drivers down to ten that I can remember, and a number of them who you suspect would have got in, perhaps comfortably, in previous seasons this time had to miss out. This applied especially to, in no particular order, Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button and Carlos Sainz.

Photo: Octane Photography

Romain Grosjean is rated extremely highly by many and there apparently is Pirelli testing data that indicates he is the fastest guy out there, bar none, and consistently. In support of this we can cast our mind back to late in 2013 when he alone it seemed took the fight to far superior Red Bulls. Sadly for him though ever since the Lotus has almost never allowed him to build on that. This year's machine wasn't a disaster as in 2014, but with the team's desperate financial situation in-year development was near zero and there were other manifestations such as using race gearboxes in practice making grid penalties for broken gearboxes more likely (indeed this is precisely what happened to him in Spa). To make matters yet worse he had to sit out a number of opening practice sessions in order to give reserve Jolyon Palmer time behind the wheel.

But just like in 2014 on the solitary occasion that his car allowed Grosjean pounced on the opportunity, and superbly, by fighting through after a grid penalty to finish third in Spa. Perhaps his performances in the final two rounds of the year were about as good too. Also his intra-team qualifying match-up was the most one-sided there was, being 17-2 in his favour over Pastor Maldonado. What counted against him though was that in races Maldonado often looked the quicker, helped by his abilities in eking out life from the Pirellis. Crashes in Canada and Russia were black marks too. But the biggest problem for Grosjean is the creeping risk he'll become the sport's next Nico Hulkenberg in being ignored unfathomably yet repeatedly by those allocating the plumb drives, and indeed again none of them snapped him up for 2016. He does get a move though to the debutant Haas squad, and at least he'll have a good chance there of getting into Ferrari's eyeline.

Photo: Octane Photography

Nothing about Jenson Button's campaign should have surprised us. We know from his time alongside Lewis Hamilton that he relishes a battle with a top-liner team mate. We know too that in such match-ups he rarely gets humiliated, and is more than capable of winning out on occasion. And all of this is exactly what we got in 2015. Generally team mate Fernando Alonso did the better in races but seldom was Button left far behind while in Monaco, as well as in a few late-season rounds, he was the quicker. And although qualifying is considered his weakness he gave away nearly nothing to stable mate Alonso here too.

There's not much we can reproach him for in 2015, though even the ever-sunny Jenson in the desperate McLaren-Honda situation showed frustration like Alonso on occasion, particularly in comments on the team radio towards the year's end. He also clattered into Maldonado in China as well as seemed overly spooked by understeer in Spain. But his effort never seemed to drop, as indicated by that he ended the season as he started it, fighting off far faster opponents. Having repelled Sergio Perez somehow for 42 laps in Melbourne he held off Valtteri Bottas successfully in Abu Dhabi for a P12 finish he seemed delighted with. Perhaps we're guilty of underestimating Button, making the mistake of assuming that behind an easy demeanour and smooth style there is not special talent and considerable pace. As explained he is one who cedes little even to the very best. Perhaps even Ron Dennis, one not always convinced of him it seems, was converted this year as Button is retained for 2016, and indeed showed the confidence to play hardball over his terms. It was befitting of what he did behind the wheel.

Russian GP Report: Russian stroll

So it was a lot like last year, only perhaps a little more so. The Russian Grand Prix has come and gone. A certain Vladimir Putin was conspicuous on the TV coverage including in and around the podium. And a certain Lewis Hamilton cruised to the win.

Lewis Hamilton triumphed yet again
Photo: Octane Photography

And that certain Lewis Hamilton just like then cemented his latest world drivers' title yet further with his triumph. Again only more so, as the man who that at the start of the race was his closest challenger as well as was the man who took pole and led from the off, team mate Nico Rosberg got nothing from the day due to an apparent throttle problem. Lewis's championship number three therefore in Sochi went from highly strong probability to racing certainty. Next time out in Austin should Lewis get two points more than Nico and nine more than Sebastian Vettel, who now is next up, it'll all be official. And even if he doesn't somehow he'll then have three more chances to wrap it up.

And while the Goddess Fortune smiled on him this time Lewis's defenders will point out that he of the Mercedes pilots had the mechanical misfortune two rounds ago in Singapore - albeit when he was due to get P4 at best rather than a potential win. And it's near-impossible to suggest credibly that his points advantage right now owes much at all to dumb luck.

Monaco GP Report: All about Monaco...

When one says the word 'Monaco' to an F1 fan several things no doubt spring to mind. Even over and above the usual slightly wearing stuff about posers on yachts and ostentatious wealth. And in terms of what we associate on track with Grands Prix around the Principality we got just about all of them in a single afternoon today.

For much of the way Lewis Hamilton had the Monaco
Grand Prix in the palm of his hand
Photo: Octane Photography

First off, the stuff we know about. For much of the way we got the slightly tepid entertainment we've grown to expect here. And with it something else we've seen plenty of times through the famous circuit's confines of the guy out front looking masterful with the race at his mercy.

Today that man was Lewis Hamilton. Leading into the first turn here is thought to be about 95% of ensuring the win and for Lewis, who managed that after his fine pole yesterday, for much of the way it looked 100%. At least. Immediately he cleared off from team mate Nico Rosberg in P2 and Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari in P3, who ran as a pair throughout, and did so decisively. He was 0.8 seconds away at the end of the first tour, 2.4 after five. Around there it hovered for a while (Lewis apparently managing a brake problem for a time), then when they hit traffic Lewis made yet more hay, and come lap 25 his lead looked an unbeatable eight seconds plus. It stayed of that order after all made what we assumed was to be their only tyre stops.

Such is Monaco's way it looked all over bar the shouting. But Monaco has another way. A flip side. And everyone - especially one assumes Lewis - was sharply reminded of it before this Grand Prix was out.

Australian GP Report: Lewis keeps command

In reality it was a race of one. His team mate was close throughout, but may as well as been nowhere near.

Lewis Hamilton took an imperious win today
Photo: Octane Photography

Lewis Hamilton won the Australian Grand Prix, and from the get-go it never looked in doubt. Yes Nico Rosberg as mentioned for the duration was never far from his exhaust scent. But Lewis was toying with his team mate. After the first lap of green flag racing following an early safety car appearance he was 2.3 seconds up the road. As expected too the rest were nowhere - at least as far back as we grew very used to in 2014. Come the end an hour and a half later things hadn't changed a great deal.

In between times a pattern developed. Time after time Nico eagerly trimmed the gap ahead, but as soon as it got to around a second and a half Lewis immediately put the hammer down to streak clear again. It was a classic retention of command while taking the least out of your car, your tyres and your fuel - especially important in the current formula. And for Rosberg it was all an exercise in futility. For all that we associate Lewis with his right foot - his instinctive skills and relentless attacking style - as we witnessed increasingly in the course of last season these days he also can control a race like Jackie Stewart.

F1 2015 Season Preview: Sauber - Reverting to type

Time was that you knew what to expect from Sauber. It was F1's pillar of the community. A solid midfield presence. It wouldn't stun anyone but it could be relied upon not to steer into choppy waters. But last year it rather failed to live up to billing, sliding down the order and even not scoring a single point which confined the team to finishing behind Marussia in the constructors' table in tenth.

Photo: Octane Photography

The C33 had rather a lot wrong with it. The team was keen to point its finger of blame towards the Ferrari power unit, which admittedly was nowhere near the Mercedes on anything. And the difficulties with it were compounded rather by the deal not being inked until October of the preceding year, giving the team next to no time to design the car around the unit, thus tainting the effort at source. It was perhaps this that it Head of Track Engineering Giampaolo Dall'Ara had in mind when he said in hindsight that the team's 2014 struggle was 'formed by circumstances before the season even began'.