Interesting read: Driver-by-driver review & rating for 2014

I enjoyed it, perhaps other folks might too:
The 2014 driver-by-driver review: Every driver's season reviewed and rated | Features & Experts | Sky Sports Formula 1


Ricci
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Championship position –3rd, 238 points; Best result – 1st (x3)

Without doubt Daniel Ricciardo was the standout performer of 2014 after a remarkable debut season at Red Bull. Don’t be fooled by the smiley exterior, the 25-year-old proved to be a tough competitor on track. He comprehensively outperformed his team-mate and reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel, winning the qualifying battle 12-7 and the race head-to-head 14-5. Indeed perhaps those performances played a part in Vettel leaving for Ferrari a year before his Red Bull contract expired.

Ricciardo finished the season as the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race and was always seemingly the man on hand to capitalise when Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg hit strife. That ability would help him pick up three victories, including one in Hungary which the Australian feels was a straight fight.

This really was the season that Ricciardo came of age and established himself as a top F1 driver and as a man capable of delivering Australia’s first world title since Alan Jones in 1980. 2015 will represent a different challenge as he becomes de-facto team leader, but there is no reason to think he cannot build on this year and continue to be a front-runner. WE

2014 rating: 9/10


seb
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Championship position – 5th, 167 points; Best result – 2nd

What was it that Fernando Alonso said of the recently-crowned quadruple World Champion last November? Ahh, yes: “When he will have a car like the others, if he wins, he will have a great recognition and be one of the legends in F1. When one day he has a car like the others and he is fourth, fifth, seventh, these four titles will be bad news for him because people will take these four titles even in a worse manner than they are doing now. So there are interesting times for Sebastian coming."

How resonant those words sound a year later in the wake of Sebastian’s defeat to Daniel Ricciardo, his average finishing position of fifth, and the German’s struggles – bordering on inability – to master the rear-end instability of the RB10. Which isn’t to say that his four titles, in the RB10’s aerodynamically pitch-perfect successors, should be considered hollow triumphs, but there’s no denying that one skill every great sportsman possesses is the ability to adapt. It’s a test which Sebastian ignominiously failed in 2014.

In total, there were just four podium visits, and none at all to the top step where Ricciardo stood on three different occasions. But for the German’s bad luck on a few occasions, it could be termed a thrashing. Still, if you think 2014 has been a bad year for Vettel’s reputation because of Ricciardo’s exploits, spare a thought for what it did for Mark Webber’s and try not to wince. PG

2014 rating: 5/10


alonso
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Championship position – 6th, 161 points; Best result – 2nd

So, the partnership that was meant to dominate F1 has crumbled, two years early and without a single World Championship title to its name. That Alonso leaves Ferrari with the same status as when he arrived – a ‘mere’ two-time world champion – certainly reflects a case of Ferrari having failed Fernando, rather than Fernando failing Ferrari. Such a reality was never more the case than in 2014, with the team’s hope that a move away from an aerodynamic-dominant formula would present the springboard from which to return to winning ways proving to be as flawed as the F14 T they created to suit the new engine regulations. As a result Fernando graced the podium just twice all season – and not once the top step.

Not that such an unusually low-key run of results harmed Alonso’s standing in the sport – in fact the two podiums he did achieve, particularly his gallant tyre preservation run to second place in Hungary, only served to increase his widespread reputation as the best all-round driver in F1. The fact the Spaniard also turned what had been an eagerly-anticipated intra-team battle with Raikkonen into an effective no-contest in his favour only added further fuel to the feeling that he was still operating at his peak, even if Ferrari quite definitely weren’t. That he’s heading back to McLaren of all places shows how exasperating his time at Maranello became. JG

2014 rating: 8/10


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loldonado got 3/10...what utter nonsense, he deserves maybe half a point, lol. enjoy.