[akash_v12]

BHPians, it's been one of the best seasons of the year in the recent past. What a fantastic year we've had. Ups and downs, championship fights all around and fantastic battles between the two contenders.



It will be Max for me. No doubt, some of his move were dirty at times but so did the rivals and boy, did he drive. Completely deserves it. Lewis comes second on this list for me, followed by Lando Norris & Sergio Perez. In P5 is Fernando Alonso, what defence he’s done throughout the years deserves all praise.

Image source: Formula 1

[SaiSW]

Max Verstappen 100% the best driver, but I hope Kimi also gets a respectable number of votes, sad what happened to him in his final race.

[Hayek]

Don’t think there was a debate here. It was Max all the way. I still think he needs to mature a bit - he gets frustrated and makes mistakes or fouls that are certain to get you red carded, but for raw pace, with an inferior car, and a never say die attitude, there is no one better than him. Let’s recognise that bar a tyre failure when in the lead and Hamilton (arguably) driving him off the road in one race, it would not even have been close. Hamilton deserves credit too - particularly for the professionalism and near perfect driving he showed in the last 4 races. But he is a 7 times World Champ, and despite my Schumi bias, a strong candidate for the GOAT of F1 - so that was the least one expected of him.

[VW2010]

Perez. This championship all throughout was won by Perez for the team. From Baku's win to what he did yesterday. My driver of the year. Last year, same time, he probably did not have a team to race, and this year he comes out as the best teammate any driver can have. Max owes this championship to Perez. Max winning against Hamilton and mercedes mafia makes this the best championship ever. Hamilton had a free ride with no really good competition in terms of cars for so many years. Finally the young max does what many wanted .

[libranof1987]

Max all the way. What a fight he's put up, and deservingly, won the championship.

Sure, it is no joke for someone to win seven / almost eight championships but for Hamilton, it has been as much as the superiority of the car all these years as his ability. Max has given it all, at times taken a high-risk-high-reward approach to win the race. And definitely with way less bias in the team (him - Checo vs Ham - Bottas).

[NKB]

It is Max… I like his aggressive driving style and the way he uses every bit of track to get that extra out of it every lap. Definitely he had a good car but as compared to Silver Arrow not fast enough. The pole setting lap in Q3 in Abu Dhabi was one of the best laps of the year specially how the practice sessions had gone. But I was more thrilled with last lap during Jeddah Q3. What an epic drive till he kissed the wall at last turn. The admiration was reflecting even on the face of Toto. As for entire race, I think Zandvoort was amazing. What a flawless drive and that too under tremendous pressure infront of his home crowd. A championship well deserved. After all a bit luck or him when mattered after all he had is Baku, Silverstone and Hungary.
For other drivers –
Hamilton He had the superrior car on trck but he also showcased all his experience and mature driving something which is expected out of him. The form that he has displayed specially inthe second half of the season, we can expect a lot coming from him in the coming season as well.
Perez - two valiant defences against charging Hamilton sums it all. I mean to put up that defence against Hamilton when he was driving a rocket was some thing worth watching over and over again. As Max said “Checo is a legend”
Norris and Gasly – two very capable drivers and certainly lot is expected from them in the next season.
Bottas – Lets see what he does as a lead driver for his new team. I feel he seems to have all the pace till quali and then not much in the race. Hope he overcomes this.
Schumacher (this one is purely out of my affection for The Schumacher) – Hope he gets a capable racing car for the next season and is able to score points. Two Q2 appearances with that junk car was amazing result.

[motorworks]

Driver of the year should be Max, for the simple reason that he was the only one who truly challenged Lewis in every race! And that’s a lot to do considering the kind of run Lewis and Mercedes have been having for the last 6-7 years now. We all know that Redbull had a much better car this year, but the Mercedes was no slouch, it was an even match all the way, and on many tracks the Mercedes was far better too. So, to sort of beat Lewis more or less in an equal car, that’s not easy, hence Max should be the driver of the year.

However, Lewis still is one of the best, and his drives in the 2nd half of this year were phenomenal too. He is far too consistent, that’s an unbelievable trait!

And both of these guys pulled such a significant gap to the rest of the pack in most races ( including their team mates) and this probably says the quality of these two guys!

Best of the rest, well, it has to be Carlos Sainz. I wouldn’t say Perez because he still finished behind Bottas, and Perez actually made a lot of mistakes in the first half of the season, to be fair the car and team were new to him, so understandable what he went through in a new team, and also he was sacrificed on many instances for Max, but even in spite of all that he was way too behind max. And hence the best of the rest driver has to be Carlos Sainz! The pressure of Ferrari, the pressure of being labelled as a number 2 driver even before the start of the season, and well the pressure of matching or even beating Leclerc ( who is Ferrari’s golden boy ) was way too high. And almost everyone admits in the paddock that Leclerc is one of the best over one lap, so this is what Sainz was up against! To be fair, Leclerc beat Sainz in races as well as qualifying, but overall Sainz delivered more on points, mostly due to his 4 podiums. Point being, for someone to come in to this environment and even match his team mate is fantastic, leave alone score more points. And hence, Sainz is my driver of the year ( apart from Max and Lewis )

[Chetan_Rao]

In a car with an average qualifying pace advantage in thousands of a second for the first half of the season, then trailing on average by more than 2 tenths in the second half, it's hard not to conclude Verstappen has extracted far more on track than his car was capable of on paper.

Hamilton has delivered some stellar drives even accounting for the quality of equipment at his disposal, and showed immense class in the aftermath of yesterday's events. That's a man brought up right if I ever saw one, and Anthony Hamilton deserves a lot of credit for that.

On the balance of the whole season, esp. the sportsmanship Hamilton displayed yesterday that I value as much as sporting merit, I'm not inclined to vote for one over another.

For 2022, looking forward to what Russell can deliver over a season in a Mercedes after that one-off appetizer. Sainz had a great first season in the scarlet car, and Leclerc has the quality to bounce back. Norris and Ricciardo both have a point to prove, and Ocon has quietly matured while partnering Alonso. Checo may be one to watch for if the close racing promised with new regs actually materializes.

Most of all, hoping old man Alonso gets a capable car under him so the unfinished duel from 2007 can go one last round before both of them retire.

All of this, of course, if F1 as we know it survives the aftermath of Abu Dhabi 2021.

[AZT]

Hamilton took the L like a BOSS. Also came back from 32 points behind to take it to the last race. All past successes aside, drove like a champ and behaved like a champ, I could never imagine Max or his father ever walking up to Lewis had Max lost.

My vote goes to the 7 time champ.

[iamahunter]

Originally Posted by AZT

Hamilton took the L like a BOSS.

No, I don't think so, if he was a true sportsman he would have attended the post race interview as well.

We have seen mercedes doing things for the camera. Remember Toto started to clap for Bottas when the camera turned to him. Same thing applies for Sir.Crybaby, only for the camera man. But he couldn't gulp his ego for the post-race interview.
Another one, what happened to Bottas yesterday, he's clearly being treated like an unwanted child who's leaving the house next year.

Honestly what Perez(he was just a pro defender!) did for Max yesterday was nothing in comparison to what Bottas has been doing for Hamilton for so many seasons.

My vote clearly goes out to SuperMax!

[AZT]

Originally Posted by iamahunter

No, I don't think so, if he was a true sportsman he would have attended the post race interview as well.

Till 10.45 local time they were all with the stewards. Toto and Lewis also discussing with legal team, this wasn’t by choice but rather they needed to close that thing out before anything post race. Even Masi didn’t give the post race interview, sneaked out the side and left.

[thecarguy]

Originally Posted by iamahunter

No, I don't think so, if he was a true sportsman he would have attended the post race interview as well.

We have seen mercedes doing things for the camera. Remember Toto started to clap for Bottas when the camera turned to him. Same thing applies for Sir.Crybaby, only for the camera man. But he couldn't gulp his ego for the post-race interview.

I hope you understand that Mercedes skipped the post-race interviews as they are still considering legal options against FIA's rule-breaking for a show, which incidentally handed Max the title. As you might know, anything said by Merc can be used against them in court. So one should think beyond the obvious, even if they're pretty biased. So all this "Sir Crybaby" talk does not make sense.

Now for Max. We all had seen his "crashcraft" in Brazil and Saudi, clearly incapable of taking a loss to the chin, then leaving the podium ceremony immediately. Imagine what he would have done if he had lost the race in such a fashion. I can already visualize Horner and Marko would've threatened to pull out of the sport.

[100Rabh]

Sergio Pérez is my driver of 2021. He has been the perfect wingman for Max for the entire season. Max owes a lot to him.

[McLaren Rulez]

Sainz has shown himself to be the equal of Verstappen, Norris and now Leclerc. The guy is so under-the-radar, it's almost ridiculous.

[ScorpioYadav]

I am a neutral viewer with a little bias towards the underdog and am happy for Max to finally win his first title.

But the way Lewis Hamilton came back into title contention in the last couple of months was simply very impressive.
Especially his coming from behind win at São Paulo was the stuff what we watch this sport for.
And the fact that till the last lap, he was winning the championship but Red Bull played their pit stop strategy better doesn’t take anything away from Hamilton, the driver.

Therefore, my vote goes to Lewis Hamilton.

For the honourable mentions, behind the top 2, was impressed by Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sergio Perez. Also Valterri Bottas did hold his own despite the imminent separation & his points were crucial in Mercedes clinching the Constructor’s title.

Really bullish for Red Bull next year for winning the constructor’s championship with the confident champion in their lead car & Checo Perez with an year’s experience in this car with Hamilton getting a new wingman might take some time for them to get their synergies working.