Drivers of the year 2013 - Q1

Over the next few days I will be counting down the best drivers of the year in a three stage format pretty much exactly like qualifying. Accepting that it's not always the easiest to tell which drivers have shown better given the differences in car performance, but also allowing that in general the best drivers mostly end up in the best cars (with the exception of Nico Hulkenberg) then starting with 23 to 17 here are the first drivers to be knocked out of possibly (but probably not) the definitive Formula 1 driver list of the year.

23. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus)

A bit of a squandered opportunity for Heikki as he replaced Kimi Raikkonen for the final two races of the year. One Q3 appearance and two dreadful starts didn’t make the impression he wanted.

22. Max Chilton (Marussia)

It was a solid rookie year, in fact he finished all the races which is something a first year driver has never done before. It still doesn’t stop me wanting to put him last as mostly he finished there and was completely trounced by his team mate Jules Bianchi. The most infuriating thing was the likes of the BBC and Sky making excuses for him; even though he did improve as the year went on if he finds himself with a seat next year it’s another poor reflection on F1 that money talks just a bit too much.

21. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham)

There was a perception that van der Garde was being dominated by Pic as much as Chilton was by Bianchi but that was not the case at all. He was outstanding in the wet qualifying of Belgium and actually out-qualified Pic 10-9 over the season. Deserves another year as he seemed to be getting better.

20. Charles Pic (Caterham)

It is of course very difficult to judge the drivers from the newer teams as they were consistently about a second off even the slowest of the midfield runners. So despite his qualifying against van der Garde the fact that Pic was leading 8-4 when both Caterhams finished the races showed that Pic had it when it counted this year.

19. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)

Out in Q1 10 times isn’t exactly a great advertisement for future job prospects. But in truth his first year while patchy wasn’t that bad in my eyes at least. Admittedly he had trouble putting an entire weekend together but when looked at closely he often wasn’t that far off his highly thought of team mate Nico Hulkenberg. The second half was when he really came alive when Sauber made the car more driveable, while his seventh place in Japan was a fantastic drive. 

Again with the lack of testing in F1 at the moment, he deserved at least one more year which Sauber obliged by not employing a barely born but rich Russian Sergey Sirotkin.

18. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)

After 2012’s heroics Williams produced a dog of a car which left dear Pastor frustrated. It didn’t help that his rookie team mate was consistently out qualifying him. His race experience told on Sundays when he more often than not finished in front but his criticism of Williams when he knew he was leaving was poor and his single point for the year was equally so. His move to Lotus next year is defined by money even though on his day he can compete with the best.

17. Adrian Sutil (Force India)

Sutil made quite the comeback in Australia after being away for a year with a spectacular performance that rather overshadowed his team mate Paul di Resta. It’s strange that for the majority of the year Sutil lingered behind di Resta and didn’t have nearly as many highlight showings, but Sutil is still the one with the higher profile and by the looks of it the one to stay in Formula as he’s signed for Sauber. He’s a good solid driver, but despite the odd standout showing, he’s never going to give you that spark every race.

For 16 - 11 click here 

all photo's taken from autosport.com