[ManHolDenPoker]

...were not, in my opinion, the two who fought it out for the title on sunday.

both of them made plenty of shocking errors through the season and often drove like nonces. as did their teams.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that, for me, if i was building a team today and basing my driver payroll on 08 driver performances, i'd have:

1. F Alonso
2. S Vettel

as my main guys.

Vettel took a while to understand how to make it to Turn 2 in a Grand Prix, but when he did, he took Bourdais to the cleaners.

I'm still struggling to fathom the allocation of design, engineering and aero resources between the Red Bull teams, because the Toro Rosso was clearly the better car by mid-season.

About the same time, Renault came good. And Alonso shone, proving to the doubters that he still has it and, when the machinery is anywhere near him, he is capable of winning grands Prix on merit as well as luck.

cheeky and mischievous off track as well, especially when he was being tongue-in-cheek, less so when his inner demons were taking over.

As for the rest:

1. Hamilton.
sometimes drove like an absolute numpty. did he deserve the title? well, he won it, so you'd have to think yes, but, just like last year, his season was inconsistent and, at times, unconvincing. but, most of the time, he was incandescent.
If he could ditch the smugness, the manipulative cunning, the lateral moves under braking and keep the red-hot pussycat, he'd win a lot more friends.
impatience nearly cost him the title. if he'd waited another corner in Spa, it's hard to see how he could have lost the win, and it's not the only example.
massa v hamilton, who was more worthy? a coin toss, for mine.


2. Massa. Actually, you can photocopy Hamilton's season summary. Except the red-hot girlfriend. And the moves under brakes. And the smugness. and the cunning.
Massa's go has always been to disappear as hard as he can, but he has shown terrific racecraft this year as well. some of his overtaking moves have been brilliant, opportunistic and brave, which proved many doubters wrong.

why did he lose the title in the best car? It wasn't always the best car. ferrari and mclaren traded that honour through the season.

he probably shouldn't have been as close as he was. if the pit penalty in singapore was indicative, then he should have had a drive-thru and lost valencia. he was gifted points in Spa as well and let's not forget Kimi's present.

Had he won, he'd have deserved it just as much as hamilton did.


3. Kimi. kimi, kimi, kimi.
Steve Robertson is the smartest man in motorsport to organise kimi's mega dollar 2010 extension at ferrari.
in the rush of relief that followed no mclaren win in 07, people rewrote kimi's bio that year. at times in his championship year, kimi drove like crap.
this year, he drove like crap again. the big differences were that a) massa was better and b) only one mclaren took points off him this year.
according to my sources, it was the year where his utter disinterest in testing, development and engineering came home to roost, which is why he would be slow for the first stint and come good mid race so often. my guys tell me he was just trying to work out how to drive the car and, when he did, he took off.
not good enough. nowhere near it.

4. kubica.
What approached a stellar year sort of petered out. that may have been as a result of bmw putting a lot of brainpower into getting nick up to speed in qualifying (and altering the package from RK's preferences). it may also have been frustration that the development got halted in favour of the 09 car as soon as the season's objectives had been achieved.
still a coming man, he just needs to eradicate the Q2 starts.

the rest:

Heikki.
oh dear. for a man who took his first win, he's had an awful year. outclassed at almost every turn by his team mate, he couldn't shoulder a Toro Rosso off the front row in Monza and ended up an embarrassed second.
when the pressure was on and massa needed help at the end of the season, kimi was there to provide it.
where was heikki when the mclaren season was on the line and hamilton needed help? about 10th and buggerizing around with Red Bulls and Toyotas most of the time.
too slow, no challenge to his team mate and time is already running out on what was a promising career.

Heidfeld.
there's something to be said for bmw's sympathetic approach to driver management with nick. a consistent points gatherer, he's just the thing a team needs to have firing if it wants to challenge for the contructor's title in 09, not some blistering ego. so they worked hard to counter his awful first half (at some expense to RK's challenge) and he finished the season off by providing his team mate with a challenge and racing well.

webber.
drove some superb races and, as ever, qualified brilliantly. drove some less convincing races, too, but on the whole was never challenged by his team mate. less cursed with early reliability than he has been, he raked in points in the first half of the season, only to see the team's pace evaporate in the second half. even his one-lap talents couldn't regularly get him into Q3.

DC
an overdue retirement for a man who was given every opportunity to be world champion, but didn't take them.
still, a good guy and a good ambassador. can't help thinking he'd have been better thought of if he'd retired a year earlier.

trulli.
sporadic. sometimes brilliant, sometimes awful and harder to pass than a $7 note.

glock.
picked up from early disappointments and ended up having a solid year. challenged his vastly experienced team mate. surprised at his mental strength and resilience. will be a solid player into the future.

Rosberg
his star has dimmed, but it's not all his fault. drove some superb races and some superb qualifying sessions, too, but by the back end of the season, Williams' development had stuttered to a (comparative) halt.

nakajima.
frankly, surprising. and, on balance, surprisingly positive. there were tracks (brazil, for one) where he looked out of his depth and barrier shy. on other tracks where inexperience didn't bite so hard, he was competitive and feared no rival. surprised he outqualified his team mate as often as he did (though rosberg held the clear advantage).

piquet

you're not good enough, son. go home.

bourdais.
tough year against a coming man. tough breaks in races like Spa, where he went from podium to nowhere in half a lap. deserves another shot.

Honda:
err, the car's so bad, who would know? honestly? rubens came good late in the year, but the impression was that neither driver was giving it everything in the early to mid season.
and who could blame them?

F India

Fisi showed the thing wasn't awful in the wet (monza, brazil), but we know where fisi ranks in the show and sutil didn't knock him off enough, nor by enough.