Your Top 10 Drivers 2004

[bella]

righty ho then - now the fat lady's just finishing her chorus line, i think we're in a decent position to be able to consider our top 10 drivers for the year.

put aside all bias (if i can do it, so can you), and think about who you think has driven the best, progressed the best, whatever, in any series.

list the championships you're considering, your top 10 drivers, and if necessary, an explanation for your decision. don't worry if you've only been watching one series, everyone can play.

now, who'd like to start us off?

[Mackmot]

Sean McIntosh - Impressed me lots with his attitude and ability, he will win British Renault next year

Borja Garcia
Jamie Green
Nelsonho Piquet
Mike Conway
Scott Speed

- All just done the business, dominating championships and showing people how to be true champions

Alex Lloyd - Overcoming a lot of difficulties to impress well

Danny Watts - did a lot better than I thought he would in the Lola, I didnt really rate him as a top driver until this year

Ryan Sharp - So close to winning a top championship, he really deserved it, except for cocking up at donington.

Colin Braun -from a very talented family running his own team in US FR and doing very well

[SALEEN S7R]

Vitantonio Liuzzi
Jamie Green
Richard Lyons
Nelson Piquet
Enrico Toccacelo
Andre Lotterer
Adam Caroll
Alexandre Premat
Lewis Hamilton
James Rossiter

[Russfeld]

Sadly I'm struggling to think of any, the wow factor just isnt there

[flor]

Sebastian Vettel was very impressive, cant wait to see him in F3

[Mathias]

Originally posted by Russfeld
Sadly I'm struggling to think of any, the wow factor just isnt there

That's cos you're into EuroF3!

[Kicking-back]

Russfeld casts an eye over every racing series there is, pretty much.

[Mathias]

I know, I know... I was only kidding.

[Russfeld]

I should also qualify my statement by pointing out the first non-pro series I really started following was F3000 in 1997, and when you break your duck on the likes of Montoya, its hard to relive the experience again with any other driver.

[Gaz]

James Rossiter - Came on leaps and bounds this season and certainly was the find of the year in the UK.

Jamie Green - Awesome performance in the Euroseries. Blew a very talented field away and should be Britain's next Jenson Button if he can get the breaks.

Valle Makela - Won the UK Formula Ford series with ease and was always exciting to watch. Hope he can find the budget to progress up the ladder next year.

Ryan Cannon - Bit of an outsider this one. This kid showed well in UK Formula Ford despite racing a 4 year old car and having absolutely no budget whatsover.

Mike Conway - Was awesome this year. Blew a strong Renault field away and won the series with ease. Looks good for an F3 title push in 05.

Sean McIntosh - One of the revelations of the season. Awesome win at Oulton Park, great guy, great attitude, Canada can be proud, he should go far.

Vitantonio Liuzzi - The next Schumacher? Who knows but he was brilliant all season.

Adam Carroll - Just missed out on the Brit F3 title. Never gave up and took Piquet right to the wire. With a bit more luck could have won the title. Here's hoping he can find the budget for a GP2 or World Series drive next year.

Danny Watts - Hard to say just how good he was this season as it's hard to gage just how good/bad that Lola was. Whatever, he did an impecible job of developing that car so quickly and won in superb style at Castle Combe. Another guy I hope can find the budget to move up in 05.

Scott Speed - Came back from a disastrous 2003 to win a strong Formula Renault Eurocup title. Has all the assets required to become the US's next F1 star.

Outsiders worth a mention -

Stuart Gough - Drove superbly in the few races he contested in the UKFFord series. Here's hoping he can find the budget to do things properly in 2005.

Ryan Sharp - Did a solid job in the V6 series. Maybe should have won it but still a fine job from the Scot.

[littleman]

A few weren't in single-seaters but so what.

Heikki Kovalainen
Nelson Piquet Jnr
Jamie Green
Mike Conway:
For doing exactly what people expected - and that ain't easy.

Robbie Kerr:
Stunning pole lap in the Zytec at Silverstone.Always bang on it whenever he gets a chance.Why isn't he in the Williams shoot-out?

James Rossiter:
Brilliant Rookie year in F3.Surprised alot of people - including me.

Danny Watts:
For scaring the Dallara's to death all season in a car that wasn't supposed to.Castle Combe win was emphatic.

Rob Huff:
Looked like he'd been in the BTCC for years.Graduated with honours.

Gary Paffett:
Monster season in DTM.Humbled many big names and very nearly won it.

Eric Salignon:
Brilliant return to form after a torrid 2003.Should have won the Masters.

[rdjones]

Ok here goes:-

James Rossiter
Nelson Piquet Jnr
Jamie Green
Danny Watts
Tim Bridgeman
Mike Conway
Paul Di Resta
Sean McIntosh
Richard Lyons

[flexible-flyer]

1/ piquet (convincingly won the hardest championship to win)
2/ lyons (came through much bad luck and injustice to STILL take his and his teams first nippon title)
3/ kovalainen (every year and one slot up the championship he is in. he made sure he did it.)
=4/carroll (never gave up despite the bad luck that seems to follow him like a shadow)
=4/rossiter (did exactly what he should have done and came third! lol. big improvement i feel)
6/green (did what he should have and dominated the euroseries in the dominant machinery against an overrated grid)
7/luizzi (again did what he had to do)
8/lloyd (made the most out of his bad luck and probably actually made it even better than it would have been had he did bf3)
9/doornbos (only rossiter imo beats him for rookie of the year. like rossiter he perhaps had the best car but so, he did well)
10/conway (another did what he had to and did it well case)

[Fiorentina 1]

Vitantonio Liuzzi
Jamie Green
Richard Lyons
Nelson Piquet jr
Heikki Kovalainen
Scott Speed
Alexandre Premat
Jon Fogarty
Colin Fleming
Andreas Wirth

[Daisy]

1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Jamie Green
3. Scott Speed
4. Vitantonio Liuzzi
5. Mike Conway
6. James Rossiter
7. Nelsinho Piquet
8. Adam Carrol
9. Alexandre Premat
10. Robert Doornbos

Vettel is in my eyes the best driver of the year. Winning 18 out 20 races, and the races he didn't won he finished 2nd and 3rd. I cannot wait to see him in the F3 Euroseries next year, he will drive for Mücke.

[topgirl]

1. Kovalainen
2. Carroll
3. Liuzzi
4. Piquet
5. Conway
6. Doornbos
7. Monteiro
8. Watts
9. Bridgeman
10. Green

[Mackmot]

People that are just writing lists, please can you tell us why. It sort of makes the point of this thread faily pointless. What have you seen of these drivers, why do you think they are special.

[topgirl]

Oh yeah, sorry!!!
Kovalainen-he dominated the world series this year, and deservedly won the title in a tough championship.
Carroll-always a fighter to complete the year on little budget, gave it his all and showed his talent.
Liuzzi-dominated F3000, what more is there to say?!
Piquet-did the job he was expected to do.
Conway-impressive in FRenault, will be interesting to see how he does in F3 next year.
Doornbos-Did a good job in his rookie year.
Monteiro-only rival to Kovalainen in World Series, good drive in a good car.
Watts-managed to do the unexpected at Combe, showed talent.
Bridgeman-drove well to get the title.
Green-more or less did what was expected!

[bella]

is doing what was expected worthy of a top 10 list though?

[fantasytoca]

I'm stuggling to think of 10 single seater drivers that I would say really qualify to be on a top 10 list but I would have

1. Rossiter - really did well in his first year in F3 - not only great result but his racing and whole attitude seem to have really matured.
2. Green - as someone else said - a driver deserving of a future if ever there was one.
3. Watts - another very deserving driver - Danny is well known and respected for his skills in car development and providing great feedback to his engineers - and this year at least he seems to have toned down his off track activities a little too so is hitting the headlines for the right reasons - lets hope Danny who has always had a struggle for budget can find the funds he needs to do whatever he chooses for 2005.
4. Kovalainen - well done Heikki - a driver I for one hope we will see in Formula 1 soon.

[strider]

You could say M Schumacher only did what was expected, but if this was a top 10 F1 drivers list, most people would include him.

[Mathias]

Without wishing to start a TGF debate, I wouldn't include him precisely because I don't think he has "has driven the best, progressed the best, whatever". Yes, he won the championship, and yes he was pretty dominant, but he was only rarely exciting to watch in 2004 IMO, whereas there were a lot of drivers further back down the field who were doing much more interesting things in far less impressive machinery. OK, there may not have been 10 of them, so TGF may have had to have crept in at the bottom of the list, but...,

[Mathias]

...back on topic: It's a little tricky for me because I made the mistake of focussing on F3 this year and didn't perhaps actually physically see as much of the other serieses as I'd need to form definitive impressions, so I'm going to pick 5 guys from British F3 and 5 from elsewhere - but (Mr Russfeld) that isn't an indication of any belief that BF3 is *necessarily* the best racing series in the world. Though of course it is. Tee hee.

So, in no order at all: Adam Carroll (actually, that bit is in order), Lucas di Grassi, Danny Watts, Nelson Piquet and (reluctantly) James Rossiter in British F3. Though Piquet is borderline for me - lovely bloke, but he should have blown everyone away this year far more than he did. [Honourable mentions too to Nesto Viso and Rob Austin.] In the big wide world, and again in no order: Jamie Green (apart from that one), Alex Lloyd, Alexandre Premat, Valle Makela, Heikki Kovalainen.

The more astute among you will notice that the Flying Scotsman™ Andrew Thompson isn't on that list. To be honest, he really did impress me this year, but Bella asked for us to put biases aside, so I excluded him to avoid accusations. However, Andrew did some great things again this year and he's not only impressed me, but Chris Weller and Sam Smith have a lot of good things to say about him too (according (I've heard) to this week's Autosprout). So there. Ner.

[Kidzer]

Hmm, avoiding bias

In no real order...

Mike Conway - Dominated British FRenault

Sean McIntosh - Driver who is showing a lot of promise

Nelsinho Piquet - Won the british F3 Championship under loads of pressure. Not as convincingly as many people expected but he still won it..

Tim Bridgman - Privateer winning a single-make series against top teams

Danny Watts - The boy done good in a Lola

Grudgingly...Gorgio Mondini - Formula Renault v6 Eurocup champion

Scott Speed - Absolutley dominant this year

Pascal Kochem - Won the 2 rounds so far of a prestigous german motor racing scholarship and has had some good showings in german FRenault over the past 2 seasons

Ryan Sharp - Did well this year...moral champion :-)

[John Weed]

now pay attention in this list. I will not put them in order because I don't think any of them deserve any more than the other.
Gary Paffet, Kovalainen, Nelsinho Piquet, Green, de Oliveira, Liuzzi, Lyons, Lotterer, Conway and Courtney.
If anyone has any objection for those names, I will explain why and how they are better.