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Now we all have drivers we like and ones we hate, but who are the ones whom... There's no feelings at all one way or another.

For me it's Bottas, yes he's a good driver but.. If he was an ice cream flavour he'd be vanilla, mind you look at the guys he's replaced at teams, Bruno Senna at Williams (whom weather you liked him or not.. I know I wanted him to do well and do the senna name proud), then he replaces Rosberg after 3 years of gripping drama at Mercedes.

I could never get excited whenever he was in the lead, I get the same feeling as whenever Irvine, barrichello or massa lead in a ferrari in the schumi era, its hard to describe

I genuinely don't have a driver I hate. I have several I'm completely apathetic about, wouldn't miss them if they never raced again, but even dislike is far too strong. None of them get to me on that level.

Team bosses can because of their influence on rules, so manufacturer team bosses especially can get me annoyed, they currently are with Merc,Ferrari and Renault apparently all teaming up and now demanding the mgu-h stays so they can keep out new manufacturers in 2021, that was literally mentioned as the reason. Don't want to hijack your thread about it so I'll dig up the 2021 engine thread and put the story in there but yeah I'd happily slap Toto,Sergio and Cyril silly right now.

Drivers, meh. They have so little influence on the Sport as a whole and are all the same, ego's galore and react accordingly when things go wrong. Getting annoyed at one is like getting annoyed at them all to me. How much they moan is indicative of how much they've got to moan about, that's all.

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"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."
-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

I would agree with Bottas being someone I can't get excited about.

I'm happy when he beats Hamilton, but not because I am excited for Bottas.

I'd say the same about Hulkenberg and Vandoorne. Hulkenberg is very good, but not very exciting. Vandoorne just seems to fly under the radar, I neither like nor dislike him.

Perez maybe too, I used to find him exciting but now he is just... there. Ericsson I don't really even notice.

All the rest I have some sort of leaning towards liking or disliking.

1. Sergey Sirotkin
2. Marcus Ericsson
3. Lance Stroll
4. Stoffel Vandoorne

I don't hate any of these drivers but I have never found any reason to be invested in seeing any of them do well. Have to wonder when they will join other indifferent drivers of the past like: Gutterirez, Nasr, Kvyat, Palmer, Sutil, Vergne, and Chilton.

Am on the verge of giving up on Sergio Perez. In spite of six career podiums, including this year at Azerbaijan, I am not caring very much about his races unless he is fighting with someone I either like or dislike.

Edit: Has taken me a while to become enthused about Valtteri other than as a supporting element for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton. Since the middle of last year though he has come up in my estimation and I have enjoyed seeing him holding his own among the big three teams. I think he has gotten to the point where he belongs there.

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Mission WinLater

I don’t think anyone apart from maybe three Marcus Ericsson fans would actually notice if he retired tomorrow. Not to be harsh, but for someone who has driven 4.5 years, he has done absolutely nothing memorable. By the end of this year he will have done 100 races, and I struggle to recall anything significant about his career.

Stroll comes across as less charismatic than even the Finnish drivers, plus those eyebrows are distracting weird

Vandoorne I fear has been a victim of hype by mclaren, a combination of that and the car you do kinda feel like... Your looking to see what the team see in him.. But cant

Eriksson is the oddest, basically in a team because his backers own it, but apart from being a meme cos of grosjean and being the first swede in ages to be in f1.. He's just there

I don't really hate any of the current drivers (and thinking back, I'd struggle to name drivers I did genuinely hate) but I wouldn't shed a tear if Marcus Ericsson, Lance Stroll or Brendon Hartley weren't on the grid next year. I'd include Sirotkin on that list if it wasn't for the fact that he's a rookie in an awful, awful car.

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Pick 10 | 1st x3, 2nd x3, 3rd x7
2018: 5th | 2017: 6th | 2016: 8th | 2015: 2nd | 2014: 15th | 2013: 17th | 2012: 11th

The car you drive dictates a lot about what happens with perception.

If the Mercedes engine was like it was in '14 people will have a different perspective of Stroll.

You really believe that the difference in Williams' performance from 2014 to now is down to the Mercedes engine? :'D

Yes I do.

Before the other engine manufacturers caught up, Williams were next best, and not even Mclaren was close to them with same engine.

Upper class: Bottas, although he comes up as a genuinely nice well mannered person.
Middle class: Sainz, Perez. Perez is a spent force. Both Sainz and Perez just sank in the obliviousness. Perez was called, after an odd podium, for two weeks long the best driver bla-bla in his class. And I can not remember a single race of him after Azerbaijan. Sainz is here for some years, and no, I am not particularly impressed.
Lower class: Ericcson, Vandorne. The Ericcson hype is incredible, people even claim he was at the level of Wehrlein. Yet he got beaten both of him and Leclerc. Vandorne is more of a victim of a bad car and strong teammate.

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The end is near

I don't think Ericsson being similar pace wise to Wehrlein was unrealistic. They were the closest pair of team mates in terms of average qualifying gap last year. Barely any difference at all. Ericsson made quite a lot more mistakes in the race, but if we don't include them, pace wise, they were pretty similar and both had some decent strong races and both had some that were way off the pace. Ericsson hasn't made as many mistakes this year and looks better than last year to me. But Leclerc is cetinly looking better than Ericsson now already. To me, this shows that Leclerc is actually a fair bit better than Wehrlein.

If we didn't already have 'Hulk' he'd be known as the 'The Hulk' for sure...

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Shoot999: "And anyone who puts a Y on the end of his name as a nickname should be punched in the face repeatedly."

Well this is unlikely to be popular, but Kimi Räikkönen leaves me completely cold. What most consider to be a cool Finnish laconic style just strikes me as monosyllabic rudeness. I don't dislike the guy at all, I just don't find his every utterence to be hilarious.

Vanilla is my favourite flavour of ice cream, which maybe explains why I quite like Bottas

The answer that came to mind when I first read this was Hulkenberg. He's a good driver but just a bit meh.

Well I like Kimi as a driver but I also consider he can be a bit of a knob sometimes. I agree he's sometimes rude and I don't always get why some of the things he says are considered so funny

I do realise that it seems that most don't find Bottas very exciting at all. I can't say I do. But I really respect his personality. He seems like exactly the same person in and out the car. Never sounds out of control with anger. He shows a bit of frustration, but keeps calm. I also respect that when he's made a mistake, he knows it at the time and admits he could have done better. He's sometimes possibly a bit hard on himself perhaps. But when he realised he wasn't doing great towards the end of last year, he seems to have turned around since then. Admittedly, he tried too hard in Australia, but that was possibly an example of the speed he now has this year. He pushed it too far then but seems to be pushing to the limit more and being a lot more aggressive now.

To me, it seems that if Bottas has had a very strong race, but the end result ends up not being that good (happened a lot this year), he tends to not get the recognition he deserves and often doesn't get that many votes. I'm almost wondering if it is because some can't sympathise with him as much as other drivers. Whenever Hamilton suffers bad luck but still has a good drive but not the best result, he seems to get loads of votes in comparison. The best example of this this year I think was China. I feel Bottas was the driver of the day there. But due to certain circumstances, Ricciardo got the lucky chance to go for it and take the win. He got significantly more votes than Bottas despite having very uneventful majority of the race. I just get the feeling that if Hamilton (who does have many more fans than Bottas) did the exact same as Bottas that day, I think people will have felt for him more and he could have been much closer or even ahead of Ricciardo with the votes.

I do get feelings for Bottas, and have been feeling sorry for him a lot of this year. He hasn't had any good luck yet. If he has luck, it is always bad. The list of things not going his way is very long now. Losing out on a likely win in China due to a safety car and getting 2nd. Losing out out on a win in Baku due to a puncture and then retiring. If he had won, that will have been some good luck, as 2nd or possibly 3rd will have been more likely. Getting knocked to the back by Vettel in France. Then following that, had a damaged car and even his pit stop later on in the race was effectively as long as Vettel's with his penalty. This likely cost Bottas from finishing 6th ahead of Magnussen. Retiring in Australia missing out a likely 2nd place. Then this latest race, he likely will have been 2nd or at worst 3rd without taking the risk of not pitting. Given what Bottas did, I'm surprised about there being so few that respected his drive. His start was very good compared to his team mates and his 2nd stint looked strong and was catching Vettel. Then the pressure he was under was huge and he did some really good defending. Not sure why people suggested he should have done this for longer. It was likely doing this that ruined his tyres. Remember how close Ricciardo was near the end when Bottas's tyres were done? If he had worked hard on defending for another lap, 5th will have been a likely end to the race. I myself was indeed feeling a bit emotional for Bottas after that race.

One other member of this forum who I think has noticed Bottas's good performances more than many is Zoue. Who I remember saying he/she wasn't a big fan of Bottas, but thought he did really well. This was on the Chinese DOTD page I think and that day, I get the feeling that another driver doing the same job as Bottas that people are more emotional about will have had more votes.


In terms of drivers I struggle to feel emotional about are possible Verstappen and maybe Alonso. I just don't seem to like Verstappen's attitude while he is racing. And that puts me off liking him and feeling that sympathetic when things go wrong for him. I kept quiet about this before the start of the season because i though I would have a load be against me for saying it. But I myself thought that if Verstappen drove similar to last year, his luck of avoiding bad outcomes in incidents would go at some point. Given the amount of times his starts last year included contact and avoided punctures, i thought that if he continues like that (thought it was likely) I could see him having a load of issues. Canada and Mexico were examples last year. Both times contacting someone’s front wing with one of his rear tyres. Very lucky indeed both times to avoid a puncture. He's continued to take unnecessary risks this year and the bad results of doing so have happened far more often. Driving like he does will mean that some of the time, he can have truly outstanding races as he takes all the chances possible. But if he does this all the time, he's going to keep having incidents. And I just can't feel sorry for him. I also don't like the way he talks to the media usually. But when he's not directly talking to the media but just happens to be pickes up by the microphones, he comes across as quite nice. Shows his respect for other drivers in the pre podium room. Remember him saying it was unfortunate for Bottas to get hit out in france when he saw the replay. But he will need to change his attitude and overly aggressive driving style for me to get to like him more.

The problem I have with Alonso is similar. His attitude over the past few years has been terrible IMO. While driving he sounds like he has so little respect for the team. The recent radio broadcasts haven't been helping with the way they are edited so i shouldn't take them so seriously. But some of the things he said last year and before were very unreasonable. He often sounds like he would rather not be there. I respect he's one of the best drivers on the grid, but given how unhappy he sounds, I often think he should give his seat to someone else. In terms of his driving, I see little wrong with it.

You said something interesting there how, say if Bottas had the drive/incidents Hamilton had on Sunday it would be more "we'll he is in a frontrunning car" as opposed to any credit given to his driving skill, less great drive to the podium.. More I should bloody hope he got a podium with that merc package

I do notice this happens in general, Hamilton and Alonso are good examples the way some go on about their performances you'd tbi k they were driving an old Minard with a life w16 in the back and still beat everyone else, whereas others, vettel being a prime example, it's always the car, I think bott as is destined to be thought of as someone who only can do well in a good car

Bottas is the single most boring driver in F1. Zero personality on track and off it.

So... boring? In your view, is that good, bad ... or unimportant?

I was debating of writing this or not, but here we go. I am concerned more about the off track behaviour in this thread. The on track we have discussed in depth in other threads throughout the years.

For me it is Hamilton, he leaves me cold. Boy the guy can drive, he is a ferocious driver and throughout his career he rose to what was expected from him, and then some. Absolutely brilliant drives, very much in touch with the car, he can read the race, he is the complete package.

But personality wise... I can't stand him sometimes, I warm up to him and then he says something and blows it all away, going in a vicious circle. I do not like all the cheeky comments, the way he is playing mind games and he is trying to get to the others heads. In some sports this is natural, funny, even expected, but in this one is just not much fun. He did show a lot of ego, in the first part of his career, which is expected as a young lad I guess. Comparing himself to Senna etc. or thinking that he is so much better than the other drivers (which he was, but being a d*ck about it is never a nice touch). Comments about monkeys at the back, comments about Button and Rosberg, trying to get a fellow driver into trouble (he did lie at liegate after all). And let's not even start on his social media gaffes!

It just kept adding up. Nowadays he is handling himself much much better, so it is easier to follow him. Although I still find him to be very clever and playing a lot of mind games. Accusing Vettel of being a bad example for kids after Baku was a great instance of these mind games, coming from the same guy that pulled the "it's because I'm black" race card when receiving a penalty... Was that a good example for kids? Just bad taste. On Baku still, he made a few comments that show how good he is in these mind games. How he wants to win the right way. Or that it was obvious that Vettel is mentally weak for some time now. Just many many comments intended to drill into his opponent's confidence. He is a great driver, but his personality makes it difficult for me to root for him. I found myself wishing that he let his driving do the talking instead of him coming up with some stupid remark over the years.

Similar story with Alonso. He just comes across as pompous and spoiled, all the while being a great driver. It spoils it for me. Not even go to the heavy stuff like his involvement (or not) in Spygate or Crashgate, he is not called "Teflonso" by accident. And by god, does he feel entitled, he talks like a Millennial! His recent comments about the greatest victory in Le Mans, almost brought tears to my eyes...

Vettel is a similar story, albeit a lot softer than the other two. He has his grey moments on track, but he is by far the most likeable character of the three mentioned so far.


In general though, I will never be friends with any of these drivers, so the only thing that I am interested about is their driving. And they are excellent drivers, easily within the top 10 or 15 of all time in my books. Hamilton is trying to sneak into the top 5, the only realistic chance of the guys out there at the moment. It's a shame that I can't feel emotional about them, though I recognise that we are watching some of the best out there fighting it out

Better make sure you've got your suit of armor back from the cleaners!

Agree with the general gist of what you wrote. Some characters make it quite hard to like - I'd include Kimi in the above as, as much as I admire him for just getting on with it and never getting personal, I really don't like the way he can be extremely obnoxious to tv reporters who at the end of the day are just doing their job - but in the end it's their driving that keeps me watching and what really counts. Helps if you can warm to them personally of course but as drivers all of the above are top notch

To be fair "if you can't stand" someone then you clearly get emotional about them so to speak. More replying to siao's post than yours.

Sadly I don’t feel much emotional attachment to any drivers any more.

Maybe it’s just me getting cranky in my old age but I used to have a huge emotional attachment to F1 but find myself becoming more indifferent in recent years.

Oddly enough (going against the grain apparently) I find myself cheering more and more for Bottas because he seems such a humble and generally nice chap.

Zoue: yeah, I agree. Kimi is almost there as well, although I generally think that he can't be arsed rather than getting out of his way to be mean. Not excusing it of course, this is part of their job.

mikeyg123: I agree, you do have a point. But also, that's why I said can't stand him "sometimes". I don't get into much thinking about the drivers, it only annoys me when they do something. Which, in fairness, is not that often. So generally I guess I don't get emotional at all, only when they do something stupid do they trigger an emotion of "meeeh". I'm not going to come into the forum ranting and shouting, getting the pitch fork out and blaming heaven and earth. I will discuss things, but I'm trying not to be biased by personal traits of the driver, just by their actions on track. I don't care about Lewis's playboy style for example, only care about his conduct as a driver.

I haven't really got emotional about a driver since my favourite driver retired. I found myself really worrying about how he's going to do in the races etc. Ever since, I am enjoying the racing without having the extra burden of worrying how my favourite driver is doing. It is making it easier to watch, almost liberating! I can also try and be more objective with some stuff that other fan boys would be ranting about. I do have soft spots for some drivers (especially if they are driving for my favourite Italian team sporting a cavallino!), Vettel being one of them - it didn't stop me though from including him in my list above. So there, hopefully objective enough!!

I had something similar a few years ago with Kvyat. They had an interview with him before a race and he came across as a very humble and cool guy, enjoying his opportunity to be in F1. That was about it!

How about the facts you mention in your post? There are many drivers who would love to be in the top echelon of their sport, but will never get there because no one will sponsor them.

I have no drivers I hate, I have very few drivers I would consider myself a fan of. I think only Räikkönen is a driver I will always follow, and hopefully a team will snatch up Vandoorne before he is bled dry. He deserves a team worthy of his talent, and I like his no-hyperbole style, though it would seem you have to blow your own horn in modern F1, if Hamilton is anything to go by.

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Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity.

Maria de Villota - Jules Bianchi

Of course bad. Why watch a sport if there's nothing to enjoy? He's like an excel worksheet.