Formula 1 team bosses vote Fernando Alonso as best driver for 2012

[FA fan]

Formula 1 team bosses vote Fernando Alonso as best driver of 2012
By Jonathan Noble Thursday, December 13th 2012, 11:16 GMT

Fernando Alonso has been voted as the driver of the year by Formula 1's team bosses in AUTOSPORT's annual team principals' top ten poll.

The Ferrari driver, who lost out on the world championship by just three points to Sebastian Vettel, dominated the voting this year.

AUTOSPORT asked each of F1's current team principals to pick their top ten drivers for the season, with points being awarded under the current scoring system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1

The individual votes are kept secret so team bosses can give a more honest appraisal of their views.

Alonso was a clear winner this year, securing the biggest winning margin in the five years since AUTOSPORT began the top ten.

He was voted as best driver by eight of the 12 team principals. His score of 269 points gave him a 71-point margin over last year's top driver Sebastian Vettel.

It is the second time in the five years that the team principals' top ten has been running that Alonso has taken the number one spot.

He was voted as top driver in 2010, after also losing out on the championship in the final round.

Lewis Hamilton may have endured his frustrations on track with McLaren this season, but his efforts behind the wheel were acknowledged as he beat the returning Kimi Raikkonen for third place overall.

Nico Hulkenberg's form at Force India was also recognised on his F1 comeback, as he was voted as the seventh best driver by the teams.
AUTOSPORT team principals' top ten:

1. Fernando Alonso 269
2. Sebastian Vettel 198
3. Lewis Hamilton 177
4. Kimi Raikkonen 176
5. Jenson Button 104
6. Mark Webber 66
7. Nico Hulkenberg 50
8. Nico Rosberg 30
9. Sergio Perez 30
10. Felipe Massa 27

[Tobes]

Eight out of twelve team principles can't be wrong... :xmassmile:

[Massimo]

So now the drivers, team bosses, journalists and fans think Fernando is the best?
To bad Bernie and the FIA thought otherwise

[Katu]

i would have put Hamilton ahead of Vettel, otherwise pretty good summary

[Hornet]

No wonder Helmet Marko is salty lately. :xmastongue:

[FA fan]

Eight out of twelve team principles can't be wrong... :xmassmile:

I'm sure the 4 team principles that didn't vote for him as the best are from the following teams:
1-red bull
2-torro Rosso
3-Renault
4-mclaren. :xmasbiggrin:

[bluesilhouettes]

I believe that Whitmarsh did. He once said that when asked.

[Rishu]

i would have put Hamilton ahead of Vettel, otherwise pretty good summary

I agree. Reliability of his McLaren & his pit crew let him down. He did a pretty good job.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[REDARMYSOJA]

Any other result would have been a joke.

[varun]

this is great,,,
Whatever in the world Vettel and cows may say.,,,
BUt it really must be an awkward feeling WHEN THE WORLD IS SAYING THAT "ALONSO HAS REALLY DRIVEN THE BEST AND HE DESERVES THE 2012 TITLE"...and i feel good abt it.that Vettel may even be doubting himself!
even this is the feeling in the paddock....!!!

[fratelliferrari]

I have a feeling Fernando didn't get a vote from Horner :xmastongue:

[Alessandra]

This is great news. :xmasbiggrin:

[Rob]

Maranello, 13 December – End of year awards are an ephemeral pleasure but nevertheless it’s satisfying to get one. In Formula 1, the ones that maybe carry the most weight are those voted for by the sport’s inner circle, as was the case in a survey carried out by the British magazine “Autosport.”It polled the team principals from all twelve teams that took part in this year’s world championship, asking them to put in order the top ten drivers of the past season and then allocated them points as per the current championship system. Well, Fernando Alonso got a resounding vote: the champion from Oviedo racked up 269 points, a whole 71 more than Sebastian Vettel. The voting was carried out in strict anonymity, but there’s no problem in making public the fact that the Maranello Scuderia’s team principal, Stefano Domenicali, allocated his 25 points position to his Spanish driver, but even without this, Fernando would have come out on top by a considerable margin. Apart from Domenicali, seven other Team Principals chose Alonso as the best driver of the season: it’s the second time in the last five years, the other being in 2010, that the Spaniard has come out on top in this poll. Felipe Massa also made it into the top ten, even if in tenth spot, which is a further sign of confidence in him, following the “Casco d’Oro” received last Monday from the Brazilian magazine “Racing.” This most prestigious Brazilian motor sport award follows on from a second part of the season in which Felipe made great progress.

“I was pleased to be chosen by the team principals as the best driver of 2012,” Fernando told www.ferrari.com. “As I said yesterday in Madrid, I think it will be very difficult to repeat what was almost a perfect season this year, but we will try, which isn’t saying much, but it’s true! Of course, next year I would prefer to win the title, happy to leave this prestigious yet idealistic award to one of my peers…”

http://www.ferrari.com/english/formu...rincipals.aspx

[wisepie]

Credit where credit is due and who better to recognise that fact than our competitors. It proves a point but I'm sure Felipe deserves to be higher than 10th after what amounted to a real challenge for him all year, both mentally and physically. Bravi tutti e due.

[Massa#1]

Massa 10th grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

What a crock of .......................that is.

[fratelliferrari]

What a joke that is. Massa 10th why??? Can you see the whole list anywhere?

[Alessandra]

And.....in F1 Racing magazine Jan. 2013 - Alonso is Man of the Year. from a panel of columnists, broadcasters, ex- F1 drivers, technicians, magazine editor.

Vettel is voted their best driver but it's interesting to see how many have felt the need to have Alonso in a category of his own, since the existing 'points awarded' WDC simply does not reflect the reality of the situation within the sport driver-wise.......

Peter Windsor : "The contrast between Alonso's work in a difficult car and Vettel's work in a similarly difficult car ( in the first half of 2012) is so stark as to make a nonsense of the point scoriing system."

Pat Symonds: "Fernando Alonso is a worthy winner of this category (Man of the Year) and it will surprise no-one if he continues to be so for many years to come".

[fratelliferrari]

Alonso was the best driver this year that's a fact. Now we go on to next year and we will be the best with driver, team and in points!

[Kyss4k]

What a joke that is. Massa 10th why??? Can you see the whole list anywhere?

I think the 10th place is about right. Maybe he could have been one place up, but this season was no shine from him. The end of te season was fabulous but the other drivers in the top ten list did a better job overall. Next year will be different tho, the only thing he needs is to start where he ended and it could be 2008 kind of drive

[ferrari4life]

Someone should ask Marco to comment on this.. Seems like the man is a more bitter winner than a looser.

[71dino]

i also think that Hamilton should have been second... Filipe shpuld be rated much higher than 10th, he came back strong toward the latter part of the season.

[Nova]

Lewis should be higher than Vettel..
Felipe should be right around Webber. I do think he is better than Button.

[Rob]

What a joke that is. Massa 10th why??? Can you see the whole list anywhere?

H finished the season better than Fernando, he had cracking second half of the year. 10th well deserved, plus having team Principals doing the votes shows they all think Felipe done good job.

[SashAlex]

Well deserved/ He's been fenomenal this season. For me, he's a true champion and right now he's got one place above Michael in my list.

Let's hope that Ferrari will manage to give him a car next season that'll put him on equal terms with RBR.

Forza Ferrari !

[fratelliferrari]

10th place is way too low! He drove a fantastic second part of the season and should end higher up then Perez and Webber.

[Tobes]

10th place is way too low! He drove a fantastic second part of the season and should end higher up then Perez and Webber.

I was surprised he was as high as 10th, as much as we all love him, he was absent for the first half of the season, he's said himself his mind wasn't 100% on the job due to the contract situation...

[fratelliferrari]

That is right but the car wasn't suited to his drivingstyle as well in the first half of the season. He was great at the second part of the season! I don't know how high Perez has ended but he drove absolutely poor after he had signed with Mclaren. Massa should be higher up then Perez at least, because his podiumplaces were because of the strategy not because of his great driving!

[Katu]

That is right but the car wasn't suited to his drivingstyle as well in the first half of the season. He was great at the second part of the season! I don't know how high Perez has ended but he drove absolutely poor after he had signed with Mclaren. Massa should be higher up then Perez at least, because his podiumplaces were because of the strategy not because of his great driving!

one could also say that one of Massa's podium was because tougher competitors were already elliminated and not to manage a podium that day would have been an achivement. i think that's quite fair that Perez is ahead of Massa, there were like 3-4 races Perez drove after signing for Macca, Massa's first half of the season brought tears to every Ferrari-suppoter's eyes

[fratelliferrari]

It hurted me as well Katu to see Felipe driving in the first half of the season. After every race I had to defend him against my friends but I was sure that he would be getting better! It wasn't Felipe's choice as well to score not a lot of points in the opening races you know, and part of it was Felipe's mentality (which I think is logical if you are not sure if you can keep your job for the next year) and partly the car. But i respect your opinion as you do with mine :xmastongue:

[Katu]

It hurted me as well Katu to see Felipe driving in the first half of the season. After every race I had to defend him against my friends but I was sure that he would be getting better! It wasn't Felipe's choice as well to score not a lot of points in the opening races you know, and part of it was Felipe's mentality (which I think is logical if you are not sure if you can keep your job for the next year) and partly the car. But i respect your opinion as you do with mine :xmastongue:

of course opinion is very individual and we see things how we want to see them. i cannot say i am very objective in this subject. just thinking how many times people were ready to replace Massa with Perez already in the middle of the season should say that Perez is/was at that time not worse. i think if you count only last part of championship, you could have other results, but for me it seems pretty fair Perez and Massa in that order.