Driver categorisation

[daallo]

Diego Duez, listed as Silver, died last year in a road accident, I knew him personally. He would be proud.

I don't know why he was given a new addition this year as last year he was not listed. I is nice to keep him out of memory and the tremendous effort he made to race around the world without money from his family, a real driver.

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by daallo

Diego Duez, listed as Silver, died last year in a road accident, I knew him personally. He would be proud.

I don't know why he was given a new addition this year as last year he was not listed. I is nice to keep him out of memory and the tremendous effort he made to race around the world without money from his family, a real driver.

Thanks for mentioning this, daallo. I have tended to remove drivers from my list if they are no longer with us. Recent examples are Allen Simonsen and Sean Edwards. It feels quite horrible doing it, considering it is just deleting a line from a spreadsheet, so I am happy to leave Diego on the list if you think he would be proud to still be there.

[Mike E]

Latest additions/changes:

http://1drv.ms/1GM0HTf

Platinum added:
Nico Hulkenburg

Golds added:
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
John McIntyre

Silvers added:
Sacha Bottemanne
Daniel Clarke
Kei Francesco Cozzolino
Dimitris Deverikos
Michael Funke
Jake Giddings
Shinya Michimi
Jose Monroy
Nikita Zlobin

Bronzes added:
Tomas Toni Forne
Alistair McKinnon

Johnny O'Connell downgraded from Platinum to Gold.

[Bob Baldwin]

Still a lot lot questions . How did Taylor make Platnum

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Bob Baldwin

How did Taylor make Platinum?

Winning two major championships (Grand-Am DP, TUSC Prototype) in as many years and being a regular call-up for a factory team would probably do it. Now if you want to know why Taylor wasn't considered Platinum last year then I'm as stuck as you are.

Besides that there is the catch-all stipulation that the FIA can classify a driver in a ranking because they feel a driver's performance is worthy of it even if he does not satisfy any two of their given criteria.

[Mike E]

Here is a link to the updated list (with a few years of history).

http://1drv.ms/1lkIENq

Some changes:

Gold to Platinum
Earl Bamber
Joao Barbosa
Tom Blomqvist
Max Buhk
Max Goetz
Christopher Mies
Harry Tincknell

Platinum to Gold
Marco Apicella
Adrian Fernandez
Marc Goossens
Johnny Mowlem
Kuno Wittmer

Silver to Gold
Vincent Abril
Sebastian Asch
Katsumasa Chiyo
Andrew Davis
Tom Dillman
Mario Farnbacher
Adderley Fong
Billy Johnson
Cameron Lawrence
Luca Ludwig
Michael Meadows
Wolfgang Reip
Alex Riberas
Jeff Segal
Mark Shulzhiskiy
Jonathan Summerton
Nick Yelloly
Adrian Zaugg

New gold
Antonio Giovinazzi
Jazeman Jaafar
Vito Postiglione
David Reynolds
Mark Winterbottom

Gold to Silver
Terry Borcheller
Dean Fiore
Ben Hanley
Katherine Legge
Maurizio Mediani
Ilya Melnikov
Giacomo Piccini
Andy Pilgrim
Sylvain Tremblay

I was going to write some comments but I'm too tired.

[Bob Baldwin]

Interesting on the Silver to Gold Category

[Victor_RO]

I see a small but significant number of V8 Supercar drivers who have applied for categorisation. Hints at who'll be racing in the Bathurst 12 Hour besides the already-announced drivers?

[Juntos]

FIA at its worst !

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Mike E

I was going to write some comments but I'm too tired.

I'll take over then

SMP will be very pleased to see both Mediani & Melnikov downgraded to silver, neither looked that far off the pace in ELMS (or GT Open for Ilya). IIRC the ACO don't have any input to the driver classifications? Because if they did then I'd be suspecting a sweetener here.

The silver -> gold looks like a classic case of shutting the stable door after the horse bolted. Abril, Chiyo, Dillman, Fong, Meadows, Reip, Shulzhisky, Yelloly, etc. The Nissan drivers & Abril can be explained away with their Blancpain titles but it's not so easy for the others.