2008 Driver Rankings (Finalized)

Here are the Final Driver Rankings for 2008. These rankings relate to top-flight, four-wheel circuit racing series, and do not include motorcycle racing, feeder series, drag racing, or rally racing. I will release a number of other charts through the winter that will incorporate those series as well, but this chart is my primary one and the one I updated each week as the season went on.

In order to be ranked on the main chart, a driver had to run at least half the season. Since NASCAR has tons of guys in this category, I cut it off at the top 35 when I started. Other guys would have made this chart in decent position (A.J. Allmendinger, for instance) but was not in the top 35.

Here's my tentative schedule for future postings:

• Dec. 3: Best of Category
  
• Dec. 4: Full IndyCar, and F1 Charts.
• Dec. 6: NASCAR Charts
  
• Dec. 7: Feeder Series Chart
• Dec. 10: MotoGP, NHRA, and World Rally Championship
• Dec. 14: Overall & Comprehensive Charts (there is a difference, it will be explained then).
• Dec. 17: The only currently running chart, the 08-09 A1GP chart.

The Rankings

Scott Dixon is the #1 Driver on the chart for 2008. With 6 wins and 13 podium finishes in 18 races, it's unsurprising to see him near the top. Helio made for an IndyCar 1-2 thanks to 8 runner-up finishes for the season.

The top 20 is fairly balanced amongst drivers from each of the three series, but the 2nd quarter of the chart is throughly dominated by NASCAR. When inputting the points, it is clear that NASCAR drivers have a difficult time reaching the pinnacle of the chart, but the Chase and almost Chase drivers had really strong stats to make it to the top.

Bringing up the bottom of the list is Force India's Adrian Sutil, who had a major combination of poor qualifying, difficulty finishing races (albeit many were mechanical errors), and failing to score a single bonus point to thank for an 80th place finish. He does have Kimi Raikkonen to blame for preventing him from his shining glory of the '08 season, when he was running 4th late in Monaco when the '07 World Champ clobbered him in the Nouvelle Chicane and knocked Adrian out of the race. Had he finished 4th or even 5th, his season ranking would have been 1.028, enough for 78th place and placing Jaime Camara at the bottom.

A1GP Qualifying @ Sepang

I have enjoyed watching A1GP for a few years. The racing was pretty decent for most of the feature races, and it fills a major void after IndyCar & F1 end their seasons. Having an IndyCar team affiliated with it this year makes it a tad more interesting, although I will miss see the promising Jonathan Summerton in the Team USA car.

Qualifying for A1GP at Sepang was so-so for Team USA, as Marco qualified 12th for the sprint race and 8th for the feature. In the sprint race only the top 8 are scored, so he'll need a great start and a good pitstop to do it. I hope the pitstop rule mixes things up, since the sprint race tends to be very processional with few people trying to do anything that would impact the car in time for the feature.

In other AOWR driver news, Canuck racing for Lebanon Daniel Morad pull a shocking third place for the feature race. His qualifying was otherwise bipolar, with his qualifying time being 18th of 20. Fellow Atlantics Driver David Garza of Mexico did the opposite, qualifying eighth for the sprint and 18th for the feature.

Sprint Race Grid (AOWR Drivers in Bold)

1. Switzerland (Neel Jani)
   
2. France (Loic Duval)
   
3. New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
4. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
   
5. Italy (Edoardo Piscopo)
   
6. Great Britain (Danny Watts)
7. Ireland (Adam Carroll)
   
8. Mexico (David Garza)
9. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
10. India (Narain Karthikeyan)
    
11. South Africa (Adrian Zaugg)
    
12. USA (Marco Andretti)
13. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
14. Australia (John Martin)
15. Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes)
    
16. Monaco (Clivio Piccione)
17. China (Ho Pin Tung)
    
18. Lebanon (Daniel Morad)
    
19. Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto)
    
20. Korea (Jin-Woo Hwang)

Feature Race Grid

1. Ireland (Adam Carroll)
2. Great Britain (Danny Watts)
   
3. Lebanon (Daniel Morad)
4. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
   
5. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
6. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
   
7. India (Narain Karthikeyan)
8. USA (Marco Andretti)
   
9. France (Loic Duval)
10. China (Ho Pin Tung)
11. Monaco (Clivio Piccione)
    
12. Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes)
13. Australia (John Martin)
    
14. Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto)
15. New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
    
16. Switzerland (Neel Jani)
17. South Africa (Adrian Zaugg)
18. Mexico (David Garza)
    
19. Italy (Edoardo Piscopo)
20. Korea (Jin-Woo Hwang)
    

The new "Power Boost" for one lap rule turned everything on its head for this round. If you screw up on the boosted lap for feature qualifying, you will fall way behind like surprisingly Neel Jani did. He had a bad Q4 lap, and got pushed all the way to 16th! This is the series champion who had won three straight poles at Sepang, including the Sprint race.

NASCAR to Kyle Busch: No Test for You!

The F1 test Kyle Busch was given by Toyota has been cancelled by NASCAR.

Because Kyle finished sixth in the Nationwide series in his abbreviated schedule (including a record-tying ten wins), he is being strong armed to the Nationwide awards banquet, which falls at the same of time as the proposed test for Toyota that is in Japan.

In case you were wondering why a NASCAR driver would get such a deal, it is more of a gesture of appreciate for kicking so much butt early in the season than a trial for a ride.

"I don't get to drive the formula one car anymore," said Busch, who did not contest the entire Nationwide calendar this year.
"I have to go to the Nationwide banquet and accept my sixth place awards instead," he confirmed.
"NASCAR took me away from the formula one car."

While NASCAR thinks it's the greatest thing to ever happen to racing, worldwide F1 is king, in spite of its numerous flaws. It's good PR, and would especially be so if Shrub runs competitive lap times.

This decision is one that might hurt NASCAR's relationship with Toyota. That's one I wouldn't want to disrupt. After all, they are the only manufacturer in the series that isn't in financial shambles at the moment. It may be the only one left in a few years for all we know.

Chinese GP Trouble?

Autosport is reporting that the Chinese Grand Prix may be in jeopardy after 2010. Poor ticket sales and sponsorship uncertainty may force F1 to leave Shanghai for the foreseeable future.

Shifting away from GPs with certain audiences (Canada, France) to places that can give a huge fee but lack racing heritage or a hardcore fanbase has lined Bernie's pockets well. There are plenty of problems with these races though. Anyone watching the newer Grands Prix, especially China, Malaysia and Bahrain can tell the attendance is poor. Whatever novelty existed in their inaugural runs has subsided, and as a result fewer fans come out. Combined this with the fact tickets for F1 races are far out of reach for the average person in many of these countries, hopes of bringing new fans to the track are doubtful. While you could argue the demographics of Brazil are similar, consider that Brazil had three native sons on the grid of its Grand Prix, one of whom nearly become World Champion.

Save the Japanese Grand Prix, most of the Asian GPs exist because the organizers have been willing to dish out the money. They are hanging by a thin cord, and in China it looks ready to snap.

From a racing standpoint, I would not be so sad to see the Chinese GP go. Shanghai is yet another Hermann Tilke track with all the things you've come to expect: flat and a long straight leading into a hairpin. It never seemed like the fans that did come were very enthusiastic. The racing was not special either. In the last two years, the only interesting thing that happened was Lewis Hamilton's crash on pit in last year. On a plus side for F1, it would save money for teams to not have to go to China as well (particularly in '09 when it is not bundled with Japan).

My hope is that it causes Formula One to relook at Canada & the US for races in the future. The organizers actually made money on the events, which of course means they have the opportunity to stick around a very long time. Likewise, the brass need to think long and hard about future Asian races planned in India and Korea.

I don't think it will happen, after all this is Formula One we're talking about. Logic and F1 goes as well together sometimes as Alonso and Hamilton.

TCC's Driver Rankings, 2008 Edition

This is a project I've been working on for several weeks now, and I'm ready to unveil it. I have developed a driver ranking system, where drivers from several different series can be compared to one another through a balanced, statistically based manner.

Some of the factors I look at in the rankings:

• Wins
• Second Place finishes
• Third Place finishes
• Finishes in quarter of the field
• Finishes in top half of the field
• Poles
• Front row starts
• Top quarter qualifying
• Top half qualifying
• Fastest Laps
• Leading laps
• Most Laps Led
• Most Positions Gained from start to finish

With these, I average everything based on the number of races each driver ran. There are examples of drivers who ran significantly less races during a season finishing much higher up in rankings (notably, Mark Martin in NASCAR). For qualifying stats, they are averaged against the number of qualifying sessions each driver ran. I did this separate from racing a few weeks in after NASCAR had three weeks in a row with rained out qualifying. Why should I award bonus points to drivers who get handed poles? This also made a heck of a lot of sense when I applied it to a few development series, GP2 and Indy Lights notably, that ran two-race weekends in which one race was determined by the other's finish. Again, finishing eighth in a GP2 race doesn't merit free pole points.

This listing is only the top 15 drivers among three series: Formula One, IndyCar, and NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Top 15

1. Scott Dixon, IndyCar - 28.035

The Iceman cometh at the top of the chart for 2008. Finishing in the top 3 in 13 of 18 races and six poles helped the Kiwi finish in #1.

2. Helio Castroneves, IndyCar - 25.715

The IndyCar Series runner-up is also runner-up here. Although it took him a long time to win some races, Helio had eight second place finishes on the season.

3. Lewis Hamilton, Formula One - 24.722

Hamilton will have to console with just being World Champion, as more parity in F1 held him to third. Like in real life, Hamilton was barely the top F1 guy in these rankings.

4. Felipe Massa, Formula One - 24.306

Massa was barely #2 among Formula One drivers. In fact, going into the Brazilian Grand Prix he was actually ahead of Lewis in the rankings, thanks to more fast laps.

5. Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR - 22.071

While doing the ratings, I've noticed it is very difficult for a NASCAR driver to ascend to the same heights as F1 & IndyCar guys. Jimmie's season has been very solid though and is deserving of a top 5 finish.

6. Kimi Raikkonen, Formula One - 21.444
7. Carl Edwards, NASCAR - 19.863
8. Ryan Briscoe, IndyCar - 19.701
9. Kyle Busch, NASCAR - 19.591
10. Tony Kanaan, IndyCar - 19.181
11. Robert Kubica, Formula One - 16.833
12. Heikki Kovalainen, Formula One - 16.806
13. Dan Wheldon, IndyCar - 16.736
14. Jeff Gordon, NASCAR - 16.063
15. Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR - 15.769

With one race left in the NASCAR season, their drivers are still provisional. I'll be doing a more comprehensive listing soon, after the Homestead race. I also have rankings for feeder series, NHRA, and WRC as part of the need something to do in the offseason activities.

Au revoir, Australia

After a single, contractually obligated showing at Surfers Paradise, the IndyCar Series isn't coming back. While it is a nice street course and a good crowd to boot, I'm not sad to see it go. The direction the IndyCar Series needs to be moving in is a series that is North American based - most of the races in the US with a few in Canada and maybe one in Mexico.

In an economy like the one we're in right now to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on one race seems rather stupid. Motegi survives because the IRL's engine supplier foots the bill, whereas organizers only issued part of the bill for Surfers. My guess would be that only Indy is as expensive for the teams as Australia. But the big difference between these two events is that winning an Indy 500 has a lot of clout. Even non-racing fans know of the 500, and if a general sports fan sees one IndyCar race a year it's probably this one. I hazard to think no sponsor gives two hoots if you won Surfers, but tell them you're a 500 champ and it might be a different story.

One thing though to the IndyCar organizers: find another event or negotiate with ISC to move up Homestead now. While ending a season abroad is a bad scenario, having a four week layoff between the penultimate and final race is just as horrible.

On a good front for Surfers Paradise organizers, they've hooked up with A1GP. With a five year contract with the series, it is a good fit. A1GP has an international focus in its venue, but has had such a fluctuating schedule that it does not have a signature race. With Surfers there is a great opportunity to be that race.