MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo rated best driver in F1

Lewis Hamilton won 10 grands prix and Nico Rosberg nine, but Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo has been rated the best driver in Formula 1 this year by the two leading English-language publications in the sport.

Ricciardo won just one GP in his Renault-powered Red Bull RB12 – and that success came after Lewis Hamilton retired with an engine failure while leading.

The 27-year-old from Perth, where he’s now back home on holidays, was restricted to third place in the world championship against the mighty Mercedes W07s of world champion Rosberg and triple champion Hamilton.

But Motor Sport’s grand prix editor Mark Hughes and his Autosport equivalent Ben Anderson ranked Ricciardo higher than that pair and the rest of the field.

Both scribes rated Hamilton No.2 while they had Rosberg, who retired within a week of toppling Hamilton for the title, at No 4.

Anderson had Ricciardo’s teenage teammate Max Verstappen at No.3, while Hughes had Fernando Alonso, hamstrung by a Honda-powered McLaren, at No. 3 and Verstappen at No 6.

But in the eyes of both Ricciardo was the superstar of the year, with the hugely-respected Hughes saying his season “carried through it a seam of gold”.

“He just keeps meeting every challenge thrown at him,” Hughes said.

“Partnering an incumbent four-time champion [Sebastien Vettel in 2014] around whom the team was built and outperforming him? Check.

“Taking victories whenever the car made them feasible? Getting the team around him with a winning combination of personality and performance? Perfect defence and exquisite ambushes? Finding an advantage from understanding these trickiest of tyres?

Comprehensively outperforming the fast Russian chosen to replace the four-time champion, so much so that the new kid was demoted? Check, check, check, check and check.

“So this year’s challenge, once Daniil Kvyat had been sent back to [Red Bull’s junior team] Toro Rosso, was to measure up against what many feel is a once-in-a-generation talent – Max Verstappen – while still maximising everything Red Bull had to offer.

“Well, Ricciardo did that too, outqualifying him 11 times to six and comfortably outscoring him in their time together.

“He should have won both Spain and Monaco and the reasons he didn’t were not to do with him – and he did win in Malaysia.

“Even if that victory came only after Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes blew its engine, that was fair exchange for Hamilton having inherited Monaco after pole-setting Ricciardo lost the race through his team not having tyres ready at his pitstop.

“But they were just the headlines: his season carried through it a seam of gold.

“Should a Red Bull have been on the front row in China and leading the race? That qualifying lap was almost as scintillating as his later one at Monaco.

“It would have been fascinating to see what his China race would have been had he not picked up a puncture on lap two. In his recovery, he made up 20sec on team-mate Kvyat and was right on his tail at the flag.

“In Hungary he was as impressive in attack as he was later in defence. At Monza he pulled off the pass of the season on Bottas. In Singapore he split the Mercs on merit.

“The only challenge remaining? How would he handle a title fight? It would be great if we found out in 2017.”

Autosport’s Anderson said that, while Rosberg and Hamilton had the best cars,  Verstappen attracted a lot of attention with his “occasionally dazzling displays of brilliance”, but that it was Ricciardo who had been the best driver.

“After a troubled 2015, when Ricciardo struggled to process Red Bull-Renault's dip in form following his breakout winning campaign of the previous year (he won three GPs in 2014 to teammate Vettel’s none), the amiable Australian was back to his very best this season,” Anderson said.

“Having previously got a little too hung up on world championship ambitions made unrealistic by Red Bull's current competitive standing, Ricciardo re-focused on the job at hand this year. The result was a truly outstanding level of performance, achieved consistently through the campaign.

“True he only won once, a victory inherited when Hamilton's engine blew up in Malaysia, but Ricciardo could easily have won in Spain and Monaco too, had Red Bull completed sharper strategic pit work on his behalf.

“Verstappen joining the team from the Spanish GP onwards forced Ricciardo to raise his game, but he did just that, beating Verstappen 11-6 in the intra-team qualifying battle, and outscoring the Dutch teenager 220 points to 191 in the 17 races they did together.

“Race form swung back and forth between the two, but Verstappen might be one of the most instinctively brilliant racers Formula 1 has ever seen.

“Nevertheless, Ricciardo's more measured approach was at least a match for Verstappen in this respect.

“Where Ricciardo was truly exceptional was in qualifying. Time and again he delivered scintillating laps at the crucial moment in Q3.

“Before Renault had even introduced its major in-season update Ricciardo was fifth on the grid in Bahrain, and a quite brilliant second in China.

“He kept debutant Verstappen in check with a stupendous final run in Spain, was on pole in Monaco, and on the front row again in Baku and Singapore.

“Double world champion Alonso was certainly impressed, declaring Ricciardo the best driver in F1 right now. On this year's evidence Autosport is inclined to agree.”

Motor Sport’s 2016 F1 driver rankings:
1. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull-Renault)
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Fernando Alonso (McLaren-Honda)
4. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
5. Sebastien Vettel (Ferrari)
6. Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Renault)
7. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
8. Romain Grosjean (Haas-Ferrari)
9. Carlos Sainz Junior (Toro Rosso-Ferrari)
10. Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Mercedes)

Autosport’s 2016 F1 driver rankings:
1. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull-Renault)
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Renault)
4. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
5. Fernando Alonso (McLaren-Honda)
6. Carlos Sainz Junior (Toro Rosso-Ferrari)
7. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
8. Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Mercedes)
9. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India-Mercedes)
10. Sergio Perez (Force India-Mercedes)