[Official] Driver of the Grand Prix - Belgian Grand Prix 2017

[bauble]

Like some others I suspect, I often wonder at the reasoning behind some choices for DoTR. How much is genuine appraisal of a driver's performance, and how much biased by personal favouritism? Either way it does not matter as it is an individual's opinion, and therefore can not be 'wrong'.

Belgium Grand Prix;

Lewis Hamilton is the best driver in the best car, so should start from pole and win the race. Having managed that was there anything about his drive that made the feat praiseworthy?

Sebastien Vettel is the second best driver in the second best car. He started second and finished second. Nothing special about that I feel.

Daniel Ricciardo is not he best driver, and does not have the best car so to finish third is a good result. He was ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second best car, and Valteri Bottas in the best car, so we can dismiss them from our considerations
Nico Hulkenburg was next, a decent driver in a decent car, a decent result. Grosjean far from the best driver in a far from best car did well, as did Felipe Massa in the Williams. Both, I suggest worthy of consideration. Ocon in the fourth best car made a complete bog of his race, and can not possibly be DoTR. Sainz a reasonable driver in a reasonable car did reasonably well, Stroll did no more and no less than expected, while Kyvat, and Palmer failed to impress to any great degree. Vandoorne finished in the a very poor car, an achievement in itself but not outstanding, and Magnusson was way behind his team mate so fails the test. Ericsson did as well as can be hoped with the Sauber, but did no more than that. Perez proved to be Wally of The Race, and Max Verstappen and Pascal Wehrlein were unable to make their mark due to early retirements. Fernando Alonso did well enough with a car way below his talent level, but spent too much time complaining.

In my view it has to be between;

Ricciardo.
Grosjean.
Massa.

All did better than expected.

You may take this analysis seriously or not it is a personal choice each one of you has to make.

[F1Guy]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I trust that's tongue in cheek.......


Edit - Blimey - you did vote for him. That's about as extraordinary as it would be if F1Pete voted for Vettel....

Yes, tongue firmly in cheek Chief.

The guy who deserves DOTD hardly ever wins on this forum anyway (especially when it is a certain British driver). It's a waste of time really. So I wasted my vote on the least person who deserved it.

As a bigtime Daniel Ricciardo fan, I can honestly say that he does not deserve DOTR. He was out done by Max all weekend. He happened to be at the right place at the right time and made a very good pass on VB and KR. That was his one and only highlight of the entire weekend. If not for Max's car letting him down again, DR would not have even been on the radar for DOTR. That's just my opinion. Sorry Daniel.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by bauble

In my view it has to be between;

Ricciardo.
Grosjean.
Massa.

All did better than expected.

You may take this analysis seriously or not it is a personal choice each one of you has to make.

No, that's pretty close to my own assessment actually......

[bauble]

The guy who deserves DOTD hardly ever wins on this forum anyway (especially when it is a certain British driver). It's a waste of time really. So I wasted my vote on the least person who deserved it.

Let's face it, it is not very often that any driver does an outstanding job that merits singling out. In my opinion the most outstanding performance of the season so far was Lance Stroll's second place at Baku (I disregard the Bottas free lap farce). His eventual 3rd in the result was the least expected result for some time, and fully deserved.

I agree there have been some good performances by various drivers so far in 2017, but none that will go down in history. I rather think that we should be asking; "Was there a Driver of The Race" not who is....?


I accept that some will now bring up Max Verstappen .....................

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

As a bigtime Daniel Ricciardo fan, I can honestly say that he does not deserve DOTR. He was out done by Max all weekend. He happened to be at the right place at the right time and made a very good pass on VB and KR. That was his one and only highlight of the entire weekend. If not for Max's car letting him down again, DR would not have even been on the radar for DOTR. That's just my opinion. Sorry Daniel.

Well Ricciardo gets my vote. "He was out done by Max all weekend" - except the race of course (and this is driver of the race not driver of the weekend). The move off the restart and putting the Red Bull on the podium means Daniel gets the vote.

[F1Pete]

When I vote for driver of the race, it is usually 90% based on driver performance. The other 10% is based on other factors where favouritism can be a factor at times.


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[gert]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

The guy who deserves DOTD hardly ever wins on this forum anyway (especially when it is a certain British driver).

I think that certain British driver had the car most suited to Spa, so it is really hard to tell if he did something special or not.
Yes, he beat his teammate in the same car - but that can be said about 10 of the participants.

Autosports seems to disagree with me, they gave your favorite driver a 10.
Then again they gave Max a 9 for his 7 laps, and Ricciardo only 8.

I voted for Ricciardo, for his pass on Bottas and because he managed to keep a Ferrari and a Mercedes behind in a car that certain has not the same engine power.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by F1Pete

When I vote for driver of the race, it is usually 90% based on driver performance. The other 10% is based on other factors where favouritism can be a factor at times.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't have a favourite driver, but that's more or less what I base my vote on and sometimes that can be the race winner.

[Compromised]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

Yes, tongue firmly in cheek Chief.

The guy who deserves DOTD hardly ever wins on this forum anyway (especially when it is a certain British driver). It's a waste of time really.

How could Lewis realistically get driver of the race? As said earlier, best driver, best car. At Spa a win was expected, sure he worked for it (or was he just running a pace ?) but it was still expected. Monza I expect Lewis to win. If he wins Singapore maybe the driver of the race?