The Most overrated driver's in Formula one!

First topic message reminder :

This isn't bear baiting but i'm genuinely interested to know who everyone think's is overrated and doesn't deserve the hype they get.

Guy's such as Kubica and Raikkonen in recent years, although top driver's (two of my favorites) are often portrayed in this mystic light, is it because of they're laid back attitudes? up and down performances? where as you have someone like Vettel who wins and wins and wins but doesn't do it with great style or with the same excitement as others do (although again if your winning from behind you've probably messed up somewhere before) .

So how do you portray someone who is overrated? a driver who lives off a past reputation (Schumacher, Massa and to an extent Raikkonen and Hamilton) or someone who "lucks" in to a top car and isn't really challenged aka Vettel ( though i suppose 22 wins 4 years is pretty tasty no matter what the car). Or alternatively young driver's such as Perez and Kobayashi who have some brilliant performances but have a whole load of mediocrity in between.

Such as Jenson Button in a BAR and Jenson Button MBE in a Brawn/Mclaren!

You missed MBE off the first "Jenson Button" if youre going to do it... do it properly

The first Jenson Button MBE did not have MBE status till after he won his first WDC.

Interesting to note that the drivers who have received most votes so far are the ones who tend to polarise opinion the most...and tend to have the largest number of critics, regardless of their achievements.

Still, its one of those quirks that seems unique to F1, in that how well you're regarded in the sport isn't necessarily determined by the amount of silverware in your trophy cabinet.

Everybody has different ways to rate them. Impossible to say how good they are because of different engines and ther limitations.

Why are we discussing 'who's the most over-rated'? It's pointless! We should be discussing who are the real contenders and who is seriously in with a chance of winning the 2012 Formula 1 World Title. Will the financial resources and faster development of car by McLaren & Red Bull through the european phase be key, or will the unpredictable 'tyre lottery' remain the decisive factor throughout the season.

Anyone who thinks Jenson can only cut it in the current regulations needs to rewind to his early days in Honda (2004-2006), he often outperformed the car both in race and qualifying taking several podiums,before eventually taking his maiden win in Hungary 2006, it was then that you knew he could cut it with the big guns, especially as he came 3rd in the 2004 drivers standings which is impressive when you consider you had Ferrari, Mclaren, Renault and a competitive Williams.

Do not think he is overrated at all, and when he needs to race, he can race. I do feel the current regulations limit racing ability in every driver, if it were up to me I'd give em a fuel hose and tyres that last longer than 10 laps because F1 shouldn't be about who is easier on tyres, it should be about who is the better racer after all it is called 'motor racing' not 'motor tyre management'.

John wrote:Why are we discussing 'who's the most over-rated'?

I believe we are discussing this because it is a thread about who the most Overated driver is...

harryspiv wrote:Anyone who thinks Jenson can only cut it in the current regulations needs to rewind to his early days in Honda (2004-2006), he often outperformed the car both in race and qualifying taking several podiums,before eventually taking his maiden win in Hungary 2006, it was then that you knew he could cut it with the big guns, especially as he came 3rd in the 2004 drivers standings which is impressive when you consider you had Ferrari, Mclaren, Renault and a competitive Williams.

Do not think he is overrated at all, and when he needs to race, he can race. I do feel the current regulations limit racing ability in every driver, if it were up to me I'd give em a fuel hose and tyres that last longer than 10 laps because F1 shouldn't be about who is easier on tyres, it should be about who is the better racer after all it is called 'motor racing' not 'motor tyre management'.

Agree with your comments about Button, however like a few other people on here, you're way off base about tyres.

For starters, even the softest compound tyres last a lot longer than 10 laps in all but the most extreme conditions. MOST of the time the problem is getting them "switched on", i.e. finding the temperature at which they give maximum grip.

The only thing I would ask Pirelli to do is produce a compound with a much wider optimum operating window as currently the performance of the same compound can vary so much from track to track, that it is a bit of a lottery. You're also forgetting that its not just tyres that are managed.

Fuel loads and engines are also major factors. Because engines have to last a certain number of races, they are rarely run at maximum revs. We have also seen Red Bull and McLaren under-fuel their cars, which means the drivers have to run off their maximum pace to make sure they can finish the race.


So please, once again, everybody DON'T JUST BLAME THE TYRES!!!

Was watching the 2002 season recorded from the Sky F1 channel and heard something amusing. In 2002 the penality for "causing an avoidable accident" was introduced and guess who was the first driver to be penalised for it.... Massa - i laughed.

What madness, cant beleive this topic has had so many responses.

So any front runner in a sport isn't there through tallent but actually through being over rated? The mongo meter is reading extremely high in here.

So by 606 reasoning the HRT drivers are potentially the world class drivers with all the talent on the grid?

Can everyone who posted please state their career position and how far you have got in your company so far?

haha completely agree this topic is ridiculous. Absolutely pointless and was always going to be a hamilton slating match.

John thank you very much for posting, i was seriously starting to think i was alone in this funny farm.

When i clicked on this topic i thought it would be 2 pages of OP getting told to be quite.

Im sure i read Alonso said Hamilton is the best raw talent on the grid but hey what would he know over the 606 sunshine bus? i mean hes only a world champ just like the other over rated world champs like lewis, vettel, jenson.

The thread is about who is the most over rated driver. Not who is the best driver. Nobody is hyping up HRT drivers therefore they are not over rated.

On the other hand all we ever hear is how certain drivers are going to win multiple WDC's. When they repeated choke under the big occasion or are not as good as before then you have to question of they are over rated or not.

Its not a question of if they have the skill or not. 23 of these 24 drivers are the best drivers in the world according to Martin Brundle!

In reference to world class drivers - Over the last few seasons there's been a few genuine world class drivers with astonishing ability to not only go fast but actually make the sport exciting to watch. Alonso, Hamilton & Kubica are in my opinion the only world class drivers in recent years to accomplish this. It was these drivers that entertained us the viewers, however that wasnt enough. Therefore the FIA decided they wanted a 'show' so they brought in artificial DRS & KERS followed by shocking tyres to allow the 'not so able' drivers to compete and actually make overtaking manoeuvers like that of the previously named drivers. Now the 'world class drivers' who actually want to race are being handcuffed and restricted from showcasing there natural ability and are therefore failing to perform and are then labelled ludicrously as......over-rated!

Truly ridiculous

Hamilton is the clear and easy winner here. Seeing a thread where a few posters dare to say he is a better driver than Vettel just makes it even more obvious.

Second would be Rosberg. Lots of hype but really hasnt delivered all that much. Has won a few races, and hasnt had the very best car, but there is a reason he has never gotten into the very best car either.

Nobody else is really that overhyped. Raikkonen a bit at times, and Bruno Senna a bit at times.

Now in past years some really overrated F1 drivers were Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, and Juan Pablo Montoya. All insanely overrated, probably even more than Hamilton today.

Every driver (barring perhaps most of the new age sponsored drivers) are in F1 largely on merit. The drivers who have always frustrated and under-whelmed me were those seemingly happy to fill the rear gunner roles in teams. In that category I would put Rubens Barrichello, Eddie Irvine and Felipe Massa. Talented drivers but all seemingly lacking real desire/ambition to shake off shackles and race for titles. I will bet they are now sitting in their mansions or aboard their yachts thinking of what they might of achieved if they had developed a backbone.

The most pointless vote ever, Hamilton was obviously going to win on here because he's the easy target, embarrassing. If he'd been in the RB since 2010 he'd have five titles by now n vettel would have a big 0!

Alonsofan30   Yeah, we get you dislike Hamilton, don't throw it in our faces every post

dangerous_mouse wrote:What madness, cant beleive this topic has had so many responses.

So any front runner in a sport isn't there through tallent but actually through being over rated? The mongo meter is reading extremely high in here.

So by 606 reasoning the HRT drivers are potentially the world class drivers with all the talent on the grid?

Can everyone who posted please state their career position and how far you have got in your company so far?

Actually, I don't believe its all that absurd.

F1 is probably unique in all sports in how dependent success is on the technology, rather than the ability of the competitors (I refer you once again to the "90% down to the car, 10% down to the driver" quote by Ross Brawn).

Therefore, out of all sports people, F1 drivers are probably the fairest game out there for accusations of being over-rated.

If such a discussion is absurd, its mainly down to the fact that everyone has a different idea of what constitutes "over-rated", just like Greatest Of All Time debates are purely subjective for the same reason.

But then, thats one of the reasons discussion boards like this exist.

This thread has brought so many new insights.

John wrote:If he'd been in the RB since 2010 he'd have five titles by now n vettel would have a big 0!

All you do is prove exactly why Hamilton won this poll to begin with, and exactly how overrated he is with comments like that. Unless you mean he could trade places with Vettel and have Webber as his teammate in a Red Bull. Then I guess it could be possible, but you could say that about atleast 5 other drivers in that case. Even then Hamilton was too poor to win a title in 2011 in any car, with any teammate.

alonsofan30 wrote:

John wrote:If he'd been in the RB since 2010 he'd have five titles by now n vettel would have a big 0!

Unless you mean he could trade places with Vettel and have Webber as his teammate in a Red Bull.   Then I guess it could be possible, but you could say that about atleast 5 other drivers in that case.    Even then Hamilton was too poor to win a title in 2011 in any car, with any teammate.

That exactly what I meant along with Alonso being there. Your 2011 argument makes no sense whatsoever, your saying if Hamilton was in an RB in 2011 he would not have won the title???? you think hamilton would of endured mid-pack crashes with massa in an RB? I dont think so. Hamilton would of poled it & n sped off with ease, like Vettel did. 2012 hamilton was probably the driver of the season, mclaren's reliability killed off any title chance.

Its a little silly to start pulling the Hamilton victim card when the majority of posters on this section are Hamilton fans.

Anyway, I considered Hulkenburg, but plumped for Vergne. Underqualifies the car and makes moves on inferior drives in the race.

John wrote:The most pointless vote ever, Hamilton was obviously going to win on here because he's the easy target, embarrassing. If he'd been in the RB since 2010 he'd have five titles by now n vettel would have a big 0!

Alonsofan30   Yeah, we get you dislike Hamilton, don't throw it in our faces every post

That's impressive winning five tites in four seasons  

er 2008 plus winning what vettel has done in an RB from 2010 to 2013

hence, why people state alonso would be a six time champ.

Fair enough, if Vettel had been driving the 2008 Mclaren instead of the Torro Rosso he would be a five time champ too  

John wrote:er 2008 plus winning what vettel has done in an RB from 2010 to 2013

hence, why people state alonso would be a six time champ.

If my Auntie had balls she'd be my Uncle.

bogbrush wrote:

John wrote:er 2008 plus winning what vettel has done in an RB from 2010 to 2013

hence, why people state alonso would be a six time champ.

If my Auntie had balls she'd be my Uncle.

You might want to check...just in case...

Relatives can be like F1 designers...they'll try every trick in the book...


Anyway, all other arguments aside, I think we can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that, if Alonso or Hamilton had been driving for RB for the last 4 years, they'd have that many more world championships under their belts.

It'd be interesting to see peoples' perceptions of them, had things turned out differently.

Depends if they were driving against Vettel or Webber

Nearly 2 years have passed since this article has been published and I can say that Lewis Hamilton has improved immensely as a driver. This season he has not crashed into another driver and his only DNFs have come from punctures.

I believe most of this has come from a lack of expectation since Red Bull and Vettel have dominated. Everybody assumes Vettel will win. And of course he pretty much does.

Hamilton has matured away from the spotlight at the front of the grid and is developing his new tyre management skills well and because of this I now don't see him as the most overrated. It will be interesting to see how he reacts when/if he is ever in a WDC challenge and if he will handle it better than before.

I would put Hulkenburg as the most over rated. Before tyre changes this year him and that car were no where. Now, he's being courted by Renault? I don't get it...

dyrewolfe wrote:

bogbrush wrote:

John wrote:er 2008 plus winning what vettel has done in an RB from 2010 to 2013

hence, why people state alonso would be a six time champ.

If my Auntie had balls she'd be my Uncle.

You might want to check...just in case...

Relatives can be like F1 designers...they'll try every trick in the book...


Anyway, all other arguments aside, I think we can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that, if Alonso or Hamilton had been driving for RB for the last 4 years, they'd have that many more world championships under their belts.

It'd be interesting to see peoples' perceptions of them, had things turned out differently.

No, not necessarily true. Two championships were barely won. If Vettel is better than either then it's fair to assume those two would haven been lost.

Very true. Vettel has had the best car and done exactly what was expected of him and delivered the title 4 times in a row. When Senna had the greatest car ever, nobody called him overrated did they. Vettel keeps doing what people expect him to do and always seem to match expectation.

The only thing that will stop him getting 9 in a row will be mechanical failure. That car/driver combination is unstoppable right now!

They have made winning look exceptionally easy

Spoiler:

Alessandro lets just remember Senna won his titles in probably the best car on the grid (but not as definitely the best carvon the grid as Red Bull has been). Plus let us remember his team-mate was the ultra competitive multiple world champion Alain Prost unlike never world champ and not in world champ class mode Mark Webber who Seb has had as his team-mate.

Saying that though, there's only been 6 occasions where a team has had 2 WDC simultaneously. And one in the last 20 years

Hilarious set of results. Webber gets hardly any votes, whislt driving the best car for 5 years and Hamilton get's loads whislt not

I thought this forum was better than that

Webber don't get any votes because no one rates him anyway. It's the most over-rated driver poll & Webber is not a 'stand out' driver or a driver who people like seeing struggle, unlike Hamilton.