[Exediron]

  Graham Hill and Damon Hill got there first I'm afraid.

 
But if Rosberg wins it this year (barring any unexpected tragedy in the next few months) it will be the first time a World Driver's Champion lived to see his son win the title. And I suppose the first time a WDC's son equals his father's number of titles as well, although both of those fall solidly into the realm of trivia.
 
I wonder how long it will be before a third-generation driver wins a title? Or even races in F1, for that matter. It doesn't look like it will be Damon's son at this point, so at a minimum we'll have to wait probably twenty years or more to find out.

 

[Pudu]

Fernando should be working on his 5th title this year. For years I used to loathe Ferrari and the way they went racing. Now I just feel bad for them.

I'm a huge fan of Daniel's, and I absolutely love that he is showing Vettel his rear wing all year, but it's a bit premature to say he deserves the championship. Rosberg has done a much better job than I thought he was capable of - however the championship lead is 11 points and the reliability score card is 1.5 - 4.

I have been thoroughly enjoying this season and hope it goes to the last race - but I desperately don't want it decided by a reliability imbalance twixt teamates. It would be great if Merc collectively stumbles enough for RB to catch up to within striking distance, but please don't let one Merc driver stroll away because the other's car keeps failing.

 

[oqvist]

Well if one driver better understands the car and can keep it going it´s part of being a good race driver too .
 
Mercedes have the resources to keep two cars going so I don´t think it´s a Ferrari case where they always sacrifice and dedicated one as second driver.

 

[Pudu]

It's not like Nico is kicking the tires and changing the oil on a regular basis.

 

[Hutnicks]

Nico "Tell me what to do"
 
 
Hamilton "Whos behind me, whats he on?"
 
 
There are worlds of difference between the two with regard to driver maturity and racing mind.
 
 
 I hope the silver star gets it's head out over the break and returns with equal footing for their drivers.
 
I hope the same for Ferrari, but theres no way that's going to happen. Ferraris biggest problem is and always has been hubris. They act like they just won the world championship no matter how pathetic a machine they build. That's a culture which is hard to change.

 

[oqvist]

They are on equal footing why would Mercedes give Lewis favors? Lewis is asking just as much what to do as Nico. Remember Monaco just for one.
 
Kicking tires only wreckers that have no clue do. But anyway it´s seldom a coincidence that two drivers having an equal car and one get more mechanical failures. He do that because he push harder then his material can tolerate. So it´s not just "bad luck"
 
Now some teams can´t really support two cars and Ferrari is known for prioritizing one car over the other but Mercedes certainly seem to support both drivers equally.

 

[Hutnicks]

Plain and simple. I'm tired of Rosbergs whining whenever he's not in the lead.

 

[oqvist]

  Plain and simple. I'm tired of Rosbergs whining whenever he's not in the lead.

 
Fair enough but Lewis does it 10x more. I can be more annoyed with Nico playing the political game. When Lewis shunts him off the road he never complaints and express how he really feel about it. And he don´t complain much open. Remember when he was forced to keep behind Lewis last year. Imagine the chatter on the radio if Lewis would have to stick behind Nico. It would be 10x worse going by Monaco lol.

 

[Exediron]

Fernando should be working on his 5th title this year. For years I used to loathe Ferrari and the way they went racing. Now I just feel bad for them.

I'm a huge fan of Daniel's, and I absolutely love that he is showing Vettel his rear wing all year, but it's a bit premature to say he deserves the championship. Rosberg has done a much better job than I thought he was capable of - however the championship lead is 11 points and the reliability score card is 1.5 - 4.

I have been thoroughly enjoying this season and hope it goes to the last race - but I desperately don't want it decided by a reliability imbalance twixt teamates. It would be great if Merc collectively stumbles enough for RB to catch up to within striking distance, but please don't let one Merc driver stroll away because the other's car keeps failing.

 
I'll credit Nico for surpassing my expectations, but at several points this season he's really critically failed to deliver, and that's why in the long run I think with anything near equal DNFs he hasn't got much of a hope. On Sunday he once again showed what is in my opinion his greatest (and possibly only significant) weakness as a racing driver - overtaking. If you think about almost any world champion you can come up with a raft of great moves they've pulled over the years, brilliant close racing where they came out ahead. For Nico, I'm afraid the best I can manage right now is brilliant close racing where Lewis came out ahead. He's great in clean air and certainly better than many drivers on the grid when it comes to racecraft, but I said earlier I wasn't convinced he could beat Lewis in a fair fight and I'm still not. I rate Rosberg about the same as Vettel circa 2011, although I think more time in a front-running car might help him refine the overtaking as it did for Vettel (who is still certainly not the class of the field at overtaking).
 
At this point in time, my rough opinion of how the drivers seem to shake out:
 
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
 
Tier 1
Alonso, Hamilton
 
Tier 1.5
Bottas, Ricciardo, Vettel
 
Tier 2
Button, Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Massa, Raikkonen, Rosberg
 
Tier 3
Bianchi, Kobayashi, Kvyat, Magnussen, Perez, Vergne
 
Tier 4
Gutierrez, Maldonado, Sutil
 
Tier 5
Chilton, Ericsson

 

[oqvist]

How could you possible put Maldonado ahead of Chilton and Ericsson. Particularly Ericsson and Kobayashi sit in the worst car in the field. It has no downforce and it over and understeer at the same time  but they still crash less then Maldonado who has several years in F1 showing just about nothing.

 

[Eee Pee]

   It has no downforce and it over and understeer at the same time 

 

 
 
Grossjeans has got to be lower also.  Move Crashdonado down one, move Mini Mag down one, and Grossjeans down one rung, respectfully.  Kimi could be up to 1.5 but the return of his is not working out as well as I think EVERYONE had hoped it would.

 

[oqvist]

As for Grosjean he has always been fast but his judgement has been lacking. But he gotten a LOT better. Look at how well he did after Kimi left and he got designated number 1 driver. He has always had good support at Lotus but they don´t quite have the funds to keep two cars going.
 
He was never as bad as Maldonado anyway. Now Grosjean don´t have the Lotus to impress with he got earlier which may make it look like he is a worse driver all of a sudden. Same probably goes to Maldonado some of his newbie looking misstakes is due to that bad Lotus but still it´s no Caterham...
 
A new idea 2 race format. 1 race with identical formula cars and next F1 cars. Then we would get a better idea about who is the best driver and who sit in the best car. 

 

[Exediron]

  How could you possible put Maldonado ahead of Chilton and Ericsson. Particularly Ericsson and Kobayashi sit in the worst car in the field. It has no downforce and it over and understeer at the same time  but they still crash less then Maldonado who has several years in F1 showing just about nothing.

 
It was a hard call, but it came down to the fact that Maldonado has proven that he can deliver results, albeit only in very specific circumstances; Chilton and Ericsson haven't even done that yet. Chilton's never won any championship anywhere, and Ericsson hasn't done so since F3. Maldonado, disappointing though he is, won the GP2 championship and at least beat one of his teammates in F1.
 
Also, I rated Kobayashi and Bianchi above Maldonado - they're the ones who actually do something with their back-marking cars. I personally consider Ericsson the weakest driver on the grid at present; he's only saved from being a disappointment by the fact that this is exactly what I expected of him after his GP2 performance.
 

  Grossjeans has got to be lower also.  Move Crashdonado down one, move Mini Mag down one, and Grossjeans down one rung, respectfully.  Kimi could be up to 1.5 but the return of his is not working out as well as I think EVERYONE had hoped it would.

 
I'm basing Grosjean mostly on my impressions from last year - this year we don't have much of a standard for comparison, as both the car and his teammate are a pretty far cry from last year. Magnussen you may have a point on, although I think he's appreciably better than the drivers I have down in T4 - maybe he needs a 3.5 for himself. If I had a 3.5 I'd probably demote Vergne to keep him company, and possibly Kobayashi.
 
As for Kimi, I'd love to put him in 1.5 but I just can't on the strength of how he's performing right now. Once he gets on top of the car - and I do think he's making good progress, his race today was every bit as good as Vettel if not better - he'd probably move up.

 

[Eee Pee]

  I'm basing Grosjean mostly on my impressions from last year...
 
As for Kimi, I'd love to put him in 1.5 but I just can't on the strength of how he's performing right now.

 
Well that's not fair now is it.

 

[Hutnicks]

   
Fair enough but Lewis does it 10x more. I can be more annoyed with Nico playing the political game. When Lewis shunts him off the road he never complaints and express how he really feel about it. And he don´t complain much open. Remember when he was forced to keep behind Lewis last year. Imagine the chatter on the radio if Lewis would have to stick behind Nico. It would be 10x worse going by Monaco lol.

I don't think the Hamster is half the whiner you make him out to be here. I see Nico as having an air of entitlement he has not yet earned. I'm not a fan of either driver to any great extent, I could name 6 other drivers I'd rather see in a title fight this year but that ain't gonna happen.
 
Nico has been the publicity whoring F1 equivalent of a lapdog. Much the same as Vettel was the darling of the Marko  "Assemble your very own world champion" camp. The problem is in a fair fight Nico is grossly lacking. In a lead from start to finish everythings wonderful. When he's in the pack its "Hey get on to Whitmarsh, the guys ahead of me didn't lift for the yellow" or they beat me up and took my lunch money, or I chipped a nail on the steering wheel, or the helmets messing up my hair again.
 
Boo Frickin Hoo Nico. Pray to god you never get dumped back into a lesser team. The Perez's and Grossjean's of the world will just practice using you for brakes.
 
Yea. I don't like the guy and haven't for many many years.