Poll: Who deserves the WDC title 2012 the most?

[LionKing]

Another season done and dusted. What can I say, SV and RBR did it again. Congrats to them.

Was SV most deserving of the title? Not my call. But in my mind Lewis and Fernando were more consistent all season long, producing better drives than SV, despite NOT having had the downright fastest cars at their disposal.

Actually Lewis DID indeed have the outright fastest cars this disposal.

Vettel did produce great drives all season. MONACO, SPA, ABU DHABI, etc...

[Nando]

SPA was a good drive. a really good one at that.

Monaco he passed a number of guys in T1 going off road. Half the job done.
Abu Dhabi they changed downforce levels and gearing on the car so he had i think the highest top speed out of anyone.
And some more luck there of course, would not be a race without the luck-dose.

[Pup]

Alonso - can't stand him personally, but I think he was the best driver. Hamilton a close second, in that he had probably his best, most consistent season to date, and would have walked it were it not for some absolutely miserable luck.

[skgoa]

I don't like the word "deserve" in this context. Vettel got the most points, so he deserves the title. F1 is a team sport and there is no such thing as luck, just preparation and ability to roll with the punches. I did vote for Hamilton, though, because I believe he has driven the best of all this year. On track, he has been near perfect. Now if omly Ferrari manage to build a good car...

[Drpesq]

Another season done and dusted. What can I say, SV and RBR did it again. Congrats to them.

Was SV most deserving of the title? Not my call. But in my mind Lewis and Fernando were more consistent all season long, producing better drives than SV, despite NOT having had the downright fastest cars at their disposal.

I just have to single out Fernando - NO other driver in my mind would've been able to drag that (mostly) dog of a car as far up the grid on race day as he did, and I mean no one. He certainly gets an A for sheer effort. In the end, the machinery did not match up to his talent.

I feel for Lewis too - had his team ( and other braindead drivers..) not screwed up - he probably would've been up there fighting for it too.

Just my 2 cents.

Agreed +1

In my mind, a fine line exists between childish, unpersuasive and unsportsmanlike conduct in the face of defeat and the burning will to win. Alonso and Hamilton have converted that childishness into a killer instinct. They are, by a decent margin, the only two drivers on the grid with experience, skill and that killer instinct.

I honestly think that such a killer instinct is the result of overcoming adversity. Hamilton has suffered a few tough seasons and Alonso more so. While SV did serve a brief stint with Toro Rosso, he definitely has had a charmed career in F1 to date with no real setbacks. I, for one, am very curious to see how he performs when that happens. When he starts wrestling the 3rd or 4th fastest car to victory and punches above his weight - then I may respect him more (not to say that I don't respect him now). When he is no longer the team darling... When he has a fast teammate (sorry Mark). Then we'll see what he's really made of.

The WDC title goes to the driver with the most points. That is Vettel. Simple as that. But the real question is whether the WDC gets awarded to the driver with the most skill who has done the best job. If the WDC title were supposed to go to the most deserving driver - I say Monsieur Vettel is close but not as worthy as Hamilton or Alonso.

DRP

[Cylinder]

Alonso - can't stand him personally, but I think he was the best driver. Hamilton a close second, in that he had probably his best, most consistent season to date, and would have walked it were it not for some absolutely miserable luck.

+ 1

[LionKing]

SPA was a good drive. a really good one at that.

Monaco he passed a number of guys in T1 going off road. Half the job done.
Abu Dhabi they changed downforce levels and gearing on the car so he had i think the highest top speed out of anyone.
And some more luck there of course, would not be a race without the luck-dose.

At Monaco he was behind a slower cars and fell 13 seconds behind Webber. He stayed on track and he was the fastest driver on damp track. When he pitted and came out he was just 3 seconds behind Webber. He could have even won if the circuit did not dry a bit for another 3 laps. That is how he jumped Lewis and Massa.

Also he did not go off at T1 by choice. Grosjean caused a massive accident at start as usual and he had to avoid the stationary car. I don't think he had any option to choose the other side or we would be talking about Vettel causing a pile up for eternity...

At Brazil, Alonso made a mistake and overshot T1. Then he went straight accelerating through the new run off while others were properly taking the T2. He joined track just in front of Webber and Massa ( I think ) and did not do anything about it.

At Abu Dhabi, they must have traded lap time performance vs top speed with the set up changes, otherwise they would have gone with new set up in the first place anyway. He did not just catch with Webber or was doing great laptimes on hard tires because they set up his car for overtaking. I don't have the DRS speed data for Abu Dhabi but even with changes and DRS enabled, Vettel's RBR did not seem to have much against Button's McLaren in straights.

[WhiteBlue]

It is difficult to make such an appreciation. All three contenders have a lot to go for.

Alonso was outstanding this season and has probably driven the best season of his career so far. He delivers with a rock steady confidence but his performance is also flattered by a very humiliating team policy towards his team mate. Towards the season's end Massa really demonstrated what he can do when the car gets right and the team call for him. So one has to assume that the early season hopeless Massa has something to do with the crushing imbalance of the driver appreciation within that team. It makes Alonso look better than he probably is. Alonso also has to concede the qualifying crown to both Vettel and Hamilton. They appear to be much better at extracting one lap performance from a car. Alonso shared that deficit with Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton equally has a lot to go for. He is probably the most improved driver of the three contenders this year. He delivered a few very inspired drives and often did his magic in the qualifying lap and we love him for that. He suffered most from operational blunders of his team, lack of reliability and DNFs cause by other drivers from the leading trio. He should really have won the Brazil race and the fact that he did not just sums up a season where lady luck crapped all over him.

Vettel is the least experienced man of the three in terms of GP starts but already a seasoned veteran in terms of WDC campaigning. His qualifying skill is second to none. He isn't as experienced as Alonso in the race craft department and it shows sometimes when you have to dig deep and make an eye blink decision how to deal with a hairy situation in traffic. Alonso is arguably vastly more experienced and frequently makes better calls in such situations. But that is about the only small thing one could say detrimental of Seb. He did not have the fastest car for most of the season nor the most reliable but his team made practically no operational errors and when his car was fast he made it count. In the face of adversity he kept his nerves as seen in Abu Dhabi and Interlagos.

I would say that all three deserved the title equally and the one with more luck and the better team performance got it in the end.

[FoxHound]

He did not have the fastest car for most of the season nor the most reliable

What? Are you being serious?

[Blue fellow]

He did not have the fastest car for most of the season nor the most reliable

What? Are you being serious?

McLaren seemed to have the fastest car for most of the races. And Ferrari was the most reliable.

[shelly]

I agrre with the analysis from whiteblue.

[Gerhard Berger]

It is difficult to make such an appreciation. All three contenders have a lot to go for.

Alonso was outstanding this season and has probably driven the best season of his career so far. He delivers with a rock steady confidence but his performance is also flattered by a very humiliating team policy towards his team mate. Towards the season's end Massa really demonstrated what he can do when the car gets right and the team call for him. So one has to assume that the early season hopeless Massa has something to do with the crushing imbalance of the driver appreciation within that team. It makes Alonso look better than he probably is. Alonso also has to concede the qualifying crown to both Vettel and Hamilton. They appear to be much better at extracting one lap performance from a car. Alonso shared that deficit with Michael Schumacher.

Alonso had some not so good qualifying sessions towards the end of the season, but looking at the season as a whole, he did a great job but was handicapped by a car that was particularly weak in qualifying.

FYI
Alonso vs Massa was 17 - 3 in Alonso's favour.
Hamilton vs Button was 17 - 3 in Hamilton's favour.
Vettel vs Webber was 11 - 9 in Vettel's favour.

[Sombrero]

The one who wins the most GP deserves the title. Fortunately this is the case this season.

[FoxHound]

What point in having a fast car that wont finish races?

Hamilton lost near or around 80 points due to reliability.
He was the only driver that had an average higher grid position to Vettel and Webber.

4.30 Ham
5.05 Vet
5.85 Webber

Hamilton had the fastest car around Singapore and Abu Dhabi, meant little when the car doesn't make it to the flag.
Just thought I'd point that out.

[WhiteBlue]

Sometimes the team mate statistics do not tell the whole story. And I concede that it was more an impression than something I could prove by hard data. We have to watch Alonso in a superior car like the 2007 McLaren again to judge him on his qualifying performance. If I remember right he did not outshine a very green Hamilton at that time. In fact it ended Alonso 2 vs Hamilton 6. I would call that a chink in his amor. Not a big deal if you are as good as he is at his race craft. Nevertheless his competitors this year did better when they had the tools to do so.