Welcome to the TJ13 first half season review by @F1TheAJ

 

Rate the F1 season – Part 1- Australia to Germany 2016

So, how is the 2016 season holding up so far? Was Hungary really the worst race of the season? Why was Spain just a little bit better than Austria but head and shoulders above Azerbaijan? It’s interesting to see how races compare when converted to numbers on a sheet of paper. Personally I thought the season opener in Australia was a pretty good race but I would never have guessed that Rio Haryanto (who didn’t finish the race) would have won this Driver of the Weekend but that’s exactly what happened (albeit a sympathy vote?) Can’t remember that far back? Let’s take a little trip down memory lane and remind ourselves who we voted for and what we thought of each race…….

RACES:

Races scored out of 10. Ranked out of 12. Name of Driver of the Weekend (position of driver in race)

Race 1, Australia– Score: 7.26, Rank: 5th. Driver of the Weekend: Rio Haryanto (DNF)

Controversy over the F1 website driver of the day. Haryanto had 22k+ votes, but ‘many’ were deemed to have come from the same source, so were disallowed. Therefore the ‘official’ F1 Driver of the day was awarded to Romain Grosjean, who won with only 13K votes. Not so with this poll, which Haryanto won fair and square, even if he did only get as far as L17 on his first ever GP. Spectacularly scary crash when Alonso and Gutierrez came together and Alonso miraculously walked away from his mangled car unscathed (except for a few broken ribs, collapsed lung etc; none of which were enough to stop him doing a few press ups to show just how ok he really was before being whizzed off to hospital in the nearest ambulance.) First poor strategy call by Ferrari lost Vettel P1. Also those immortal words ‘I can’t get past this guy’ were uttered by the current WDC, in relation to none other than the Wonder Kid, Max Verstappen. Also had a trial run of the very unsuccessful new qualifying procedure……..

Race 2, Bahrain – Score: 7.04 Rank: 6th Driver of the Weekend: Romain Grosjean (5th,)

The F1 drivers proved that they could write and spell in their letter raising concerns over the qualifying procedure and governance of F1 which prompted a response of ‘what do they know about it? They are not part of it’ from Bernie…….. DNS for Vettel as his engine couldn’t get him to the starting line. Most action in the mid field, with Romain Grosjean giving a particularly impressive performance, hence the Driver of the Weekend award.

Race 3, China – Score: 7.77  Rank: 3rd Driver of the Weekend: Daniel Ricciardo (4th)

An event full of drama and carbon fibre as no less than 35 front wings were used in this race. Vettel tore a strip off Kvyat for ‘driving like a madman.’ (a taste of things to come.) Ricciardo had a tyre failure which in no way hindered his progress back through the field to a position just shy of he podium, winning our Driver of the Weekend accolade in the process.

Race 4, Russia – Score: 5.24 Rank: 10th Driver of the Weekend: Max Verstappen (DNF)

Daniil Kvyat compounded his downward trajectory by colliding with Vettel not once, but twice, causing Vettel to retire from the race and himself from Red Bull. First showing for Max Verstappen as Driver of the Weekend who cut a swathe through the field before retiring on L34 with engine failure.

Race 5, Spain – Score: 8.65 Rank: 1st. Driver of the Weekend: Max Verstappen (1st)

Oh Viva Espania!! Ranked best race of the year so far and not without good reason. The two Mercs collided on the opening lap, Ricciardo’s strategy was changed from a two stop to a three stop, (covering Vettel) and effectively handing the race to Max Verstappen who drove brilliantly on a two stop strategy, keeping Raikonnen in P2. Verstappen romped to his first ever F1 victory on his first ever race for Red Bull. History was made that day, and we all saw it happen.

Race 6, Monaco – Score: 7.49 Rank: 4th Driver of the Weekend: Daniel Ricciardo (2nd)

Red Bull played a strategic blinder getting Ricciardo into Q3 on supersofts when the rest of the field were on ultras but this advantage came to naught when the rain came down and the race was started on wet tyres under safety car conditions. Ricciardo on pole was looking good as he came into the pits to change onto inters. Hamilton was the only driver who stayed out on wets until he came in to change to ultras.Then came one gigantic blunder by Red Bull: Ricciardo pitted and had to wait 13 seconds for the team to come up with a set of tyres, loosing P1 (again.) He won our Driver of the Weekend, though.

Race 7, Canada – Score: 6.52 Rank: 8th. Driver of the Weekend: Max Verstappen (4th)

Although only coming home in 4th place, this race was all about the amazing defensive driving of Max Verstappen in the latter stages of the race, keeping Rosberg at bay. Vettel’s run of ‘bad luck’ (or bad strategy) continued as while trying to take advantage of the VSC to get fresh tyres, he was left crawling down the pit lane at 60Km/h as his rivals sped past at full speed (very short VSC period.)

Race 8, Azerbaijan – Score: 4.78. Rank: 11th Driver of the Weekend: Sergio Perez (3rd)

A brand new track, which promised so much yet, delivered so little. Hamilton tried to rearrange track layout in qualifying by smashing off a bit of a corner, which didn’t really work. Good driving by Perez added a soupcon of interest to this race. Beautiful city: looks like a nice place to go on holiday.

Race 9, Austria – Score: 8.15, Rank: 2nd, Driver of the Weekend: Max Verstappen (2nd)

Suspension failure was flavour of the weekend with 4 cars getting in on the action courtesy of the newly introduced kerbs (destruction of the car did seem a little harsh for exceeding track limits.) Another DNF for Vettel (tyre failure.) Excellent drive by Verstappen who looked as if he could have been on for his second win of the season but his tyres gave up the ghost a few laps from the end, leaving Hamilton and Rosberg to slug it out for P1. A double collision on the last lap between these two made for a dramatic finish. Rosberg lost his front wing and was considered at fault and received a 10s penalty and two points on his licence. An honorable mention for Pascal Werlein for getting Manor’s first point of the season, placing them in P10 in the constructor standings ahead of Sauber.

Race 10, Great Britain – Score: 6.72 Rank: 7th Driver of the Weekend: Max Verstappen (2nd)

A poor start under safety car conditions, which went on far too long into the race. Max put on yet another spectacular show, both during qualifying (beating his teammate for the first time this year) and the race itself. Fantastic overtake on Rosberg around the outside of Becketts, as well as some great defensive driving saw Max take our Driver of the Weekend for the fifth time this season.

Race 11, Hungary – Score: 4.63 Rank: 12th Driver of the Weekend: Kimi Raikonnen (6th)

Officially the lowest scoring race of the season so far. With the uncharacteristic downpour during qualifying, most of the action took place on Saturday, with four red flags during Q1 alone. Not a great track for overtaking, there was not much action during the race. The TV cameras focused on the spat between Raikonnen and Vestappen for P5 and P6, with Kimi winning our Driver of the Weekend as a result. Hamilton edged his way to the front of driver standings for the first time this year.

Race 12, Germany – Score: 5.37 Rank: 9th Driver of the Day: Daniel Ricciardo (2nd)

The outcome of this race may have been more interesting than the race itself, as there was quite a lot riding on it. Hamilton managed to increase his lead in the driver standings to 19 points and Red Bull overtook Ferrari in the constructor standings. Ricciardo started in P3 and finished in P2, securing his P3 in the driver standings and winning our Driver of the Weekend to boot.

 

Graph 1:

Mean reader score (/10) for each race:

Table 1:

Mean reader score for each race, Driver of the weekend and % of reader vote for driver of the Weekend

Rank	Race	Mean Score (/10)	Driver of the weekend	% of reader vote for driver of the weekend
1	Spain	8.65	Max Verstappen	76.9
2	Austria	8.15	Max Verstappen	33.96
3	China	7.77	Daniel Ricciardo	44.44
4	Monaco	7.49	Daniel Ricciardo	46.8
5	Australia	7.26	Rio Haryanto	26.43
6	Bahrain	7.04	Romain Grosjean	26.17
7	Britain	6.72	Max Verstappen	71.14
8	Canada	6.57	Max Verstappen	55.85
9	Germany	5.37	Daniel Ricciardo	43.09
10	Russia	5.24	Max Verstappen	23.55
11	Aserbaijaan	4.78	Sergio Perez	61.14
12	Hungary	4.63	Kimi Raikonnen	34.9

 

Drivers:

Graph 2: Mean % of reader vote for each driver in the Driver of the Weekend Poll (over 12 races)

 

 

Table 2:

1) Mean of % of reader vote for each driver in the Driver of the Weekend poll across all 12 races,

2) Driver ranking as a result of 1)

3) Number of times the driver was voted Driver of the Weekend

Name	Mean % of reader vote	Driver ranking	No of times voted Driver of weekend
Max Verstappen	29.18	1	5
Daniel Ricciardo	15.73	2	3
Lewis Hamilton	10.08	3	0
Sergio Perez	7.03	4	1
Kimi Raikonnen	4.98	5	1
Romain Grosjean	4.25	6	1
Nico Rosberg	3.38	7	0
Daniil Kvyat	2.94	8	0
Rio Haryanto	2.92	9	1
Fernando Alonso	2.81	10	0
Kevin Magnussen	2.76	11	0
Sebastian Vettel	2.40	12	0
Filipe Massa	2.35	13	0
Pascal Werlein	1.95	14	0
Jenson Button	1.74	15	0
Carlos Sainz	1.54	16	0
Valteri Bottas	0.77	17	0
Jolyn Palmer	0.67	18	0
Nico Hulkenberg	0.36	19	0
Esteban Gutierrez	0.34	20	0
Marcus Ericson	0.17	21	0
Filipe Nasr	0.08	22	0

 

It does look as if the Red Bull drivers are getting the lion’s share of the readers votes here, with Max winning Driver of the Weekend 5 times and Daniel 3 times, with Perez, Raikonnen, Grosjean and Haryanto winning once each.

Also the four out of five of the races which received the highest reader scores were races where Red Bull Drivers won Driver of the Weekend.

A coincidence, or is thejudge13.com a Red Bull fansite? Or is it just a reflection of Red Bull going from strength to strength as the season progresses? Please leave your comments below………