Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica Among My Top 10 Drivers

It’s that time of year again where lists of top 5, top 10, and top whatever drivers start popping up all over the ‘net’. I find each of them quite interesting because these lists are a sort of ‘peoples choice awards’ for Formula 1 fans and the list varies quite a bit from one web site or blog to another, but each does make me think, hmm maybe I should have considered him a little higher on the list or ‘what on earth is he so low down for. Anyway, I wanted to put up my top 10 drivers list because they include Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica and deservedly so. Both drivers had pretty good seasons in their own right and I’ve already put up their seasons numbers with the posts BMW Sauber Season Review Where the Numbers Came From Part 1 and Part 2. So if you read on you’ll find out what I think.

1. Fernando Alonso
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Felipe Massa
4. Robert Kubica
5. Lewis Hamilton
6. Kimi Raikkonen
7. Nick Heidfeld
8. Jarno Trulli
9. Mark Webber
10. Jarno Trulli

When I look around, at the lists I find, Robert Kubica seems to be slotted into 5th place most of the time because Lewis Hamilton is always above him. I can’t wrap my mind around that one however. Although I have said many times Lewis is a great driver, he’s never had the opportunity to show just how talented his is by driving a much poorer car than his McLaren. You can see I put Sebastian Vettel up front and that’s because he drove the pants of his Toro Rosso showing his ability to challenge even the front runners and making many think ‘just wait until this guy has a great car’.

Back to Robert Kubica. For most of the season he did the same thing as Vettel by driving the car above what it really was scoring podium after podium and a win just as Vettel did so how can I justify putting Lewis Hamilton who in my mind is unproven before Robert Kubica.

I also put Nick Heidfeld up there just behind Kimi Raikkonen in 7th overall. I’ve already taken some heat for this one, but I see things a bit differently. Heidfeld consistently drove very well and most of the time recovered a lot of ground from his poor qualifying position. I have a hard time buying into the idea that he isn’t a top 10 driver just because of his inconsistent qualifying. It did affect where I placed him somewhat, but not to a great extent. Remember, Kimi suffered the same qualifying issues and so did Kubica toward the end of the season.

There were many times where Heidfeld showed the same speed as Kubica and both Ferraris and McLarens during a race. To me he’s one of the great passers on the grid and showed it when he had the chance. Heidfeld is a smooth driver, not a hard charger or seat of your pants type of driver and so doesn’t get so much attention because smooth isn’t exciting.

Feel free to argue my driver positions here and especially on where I’ve placed the BMW Sauber drivers.