<< Return to the news list

GPToday.net's 2019 F1 driver rankings - #2 - Lewis Hamilton

Published on 22 Dec 2019 11:21
2
By: Fergal Walsh & Harry Mattocks

A trend of Lewis Hamilton over the last handful of years has been stamping down a more impressive route to the title with each progressing year.

Whether or not his championship success in 2019 was his best or not is a subjective opinion, but Ferrari’s failure to mount a challenge allowed Hamilton to step into a clear second place in the all-time title tally list.

Hamilton displayed some superb performances throughout the year, proving to the world the broadness of his sill and talent, as he picked up a sixth drivers’ championship.

In the opening segment of the year, it briefly appeared that Hamilton would be challenged throughout the year by teammate Valtteri Bottas, when it became apparent that neither Ferrari or Red Bull were up to the task.

However, the Briton blitzed the year and withstood the challenges that faced him to place himself on the top spot more often than not throughout the season – taking home a win ratio of 52%.

11 race wins match the most he has taken in a world champion campaign, as he also achieved that number in 2014 and 2018.

Despite the dominance of his championship, as he succeeded over Bottas by 87 points in the end, Hamilton took a noticeable lack of pole positions. In fact, it marks the first season since 2015 where he failed to take double-digit pole positions.

He took 5 poles in 2019, which matches his lowest throughout a season with the Mercedes team, having also secured 5 during his first year with the Silver Arrows in 2013.

But despite the lack of poles, Hamilton still won out the qualifying and race head-to-heads against Bottas, by convincing margins.

	Lewis Hamilton	Valtteri Bottas
Qualifying head-to-head	14	7
Race head-to-head	15	6
Average qualifying gap	-0.122	+0.122

It was a breath-taking year from Hamilton, with hiccups occurring rarely throughout the year. The 34-year-old emerged as the deserving world champion as he displayed class, resilience and determination.

It’s great that a lot of the younger drivers in F1 often cite Michael Schumacher as their earliest memories of F1, watching him dominate seasons as he provided inspiration for their careers.

There is little doubt that in years to come, new generations of drivers will call back to Hamilton as their earliest F1 memories, as it’s Hamilton who has set the very tall benchmark for the new era of F1.

Hamilton's best moment of 2019: Dominance in Abu Dhabi

It was once perceived that Hamilton's concentration dipped following title success, however he showed no such traits this year. He ended the season in style and sent an ominous message to his rivals ahead of 2020, as he was utterly untouchable throughout the Abu Dhabi weekend.

Hamilton's worst moment of 2019: The German Grand Prix

Mercedes' home race was far from how it hoped it would turn out, as Bottas ended up in the barrier, retiring from the race. Hamilton was incredibly lucky to not join him, as he hit the wall after sliding off at Turn 15, before narrowly avoiding the barriers later in the race, right where Bottas crashed out.

Race Ratings

AUS	BAH	CHN	AZE	SPA	MON	CAN
7.0	8.5	9.0	8.0	8.0	10.0	9.0

FRA	AUT	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA
9.0	7.5	9.5	6.0	9.5	9.5	8.5

SIN	RUS	JPN	MEX	USA	BRA	ABU
8.5	9.5	8.0	10.0	8.5	7.0	10.0

Driver Rankings

#20 - Robert Kubica

#19 - Antonio Giovinazzi

#18 - Pierre Gasly

#17 - Romain Grosjean

#16 - Lance Stroll

#15 - Kevin Magnussen

#14 - Kimi Raikkonen

#13 - Daniil Kvyat

#12 - Nico Hulkenberg

#11 - Sebastian Vettel

#10 - George Russell

#9 - Daniel Ricciardo

F1 News Lewis Hamilton Mercedes

Replies (2)

Sparky1

Posts: 15
I’m not sure why you even have ratings for the drivers. Max is the only driver you give massive credit to for every race. Even if he had a DNF you gave him a high rating while others received N/A.
Max did have a great year and surely deserves the number two rankings in anyone’s list other than this one. You let personal feelings cloud your mind every week. You need to take off the rose colored glasses when viewing Max. Lewis still dominated the season.
- + 0
- Dec 22 2019 - 12:03
- xoya
  
  Posts: 583
  Oranje colored glasses, to be fair. :)
  + 0
  
  Dec 22 2019 - 18:21