After watching the first three Formula One races of the 2015 season, we could take it no more and decided that something is needed to spice up what is quickly shaping up to be another long, boring year of watching Mercedes run away with the team championship and Lewis Hamilton run away with the drivers’ championship. What we need is a drivers’ ranking where – ahem – other, more entertaining elements are taken into account besides merely the ability to bore everybody to tears while driving a wildly overpriced car the fastest over the same courses year after year.
With the inaugural AutoSportsNation F1 Drivers’ Rankings, ASN will acknowledge genuine good driving every race – not merely who has the fastest car – as well as other notable events of the week or the race. Additionally, we will debut two awards for every race – The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award and the Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award – which will recognize either poor driving or decision-making [in the case of the Maldonado Award] and lack of decorum or social skill [in the Hamilton Award]. There is usually no shortage of either in every race.
Since there are – at best – 20 cars in any given field – ASN will not be following the standard official F1 tactic of awarding orange slice points to the top ten, instead, we will only be recognizing the top three from every race and instead of concocting a convoluted point system, ours will be simple – three points for the week’s winner, two points for second, one point for third. Think of it as a gold-silver-bronze arrangement. Season winners will be tallied up from the weekly winner point totals for our 2015 ASN World Champion.
Since we are launching the ASN F1 Drivers’ Rankings after the season has begun, we have some catching up to do – so we will give the results of this year’s first three races here and then move on next week for Bahrain’s winners.
The 2015 Formula One season continues with the Bahrain Grand Prix in Bahrain at 8 a.m. [PDT] on NBCSN on April 19, 2015.
2015 ASN Australian Grand Prix Winners
1] Lewis Hamilton – the expected blowout victory.
2] Sebastian Vettel – a podium finish first time out for Ferrari.
3] Jenson Button – down two laps but finished the race.
Honorable Mention: Giedo van der Garde, who didn’t drive but for making Sauber honor their contract.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award: The Ferrari pit crew for Kimi Raikkonen, for failing to tighten one of his rear wheels properly during a pit stop – knocking Raikkonen out of the race.
The Lewis Hamilton Doofus Award: Hamilton wins his own award right out of the gate with his podium line to Arnold Schwarzenegger – “I thought you were taller, man.”
2015 ASN Malaysian Grand Prix Winners
1] Sebastian Vettel
2] Max Verstappen
3] Kimi Raikkonen
Maldonado Award: Marcus Ericsson of Sauber – who made it all the way until the fourth lap before crashing out.
Hamilton Award: Vettel – who, after winning, said, “I just want to get pissed tonight!” ASN heartily concurs with Vettel’s post-race sentiment, he just should have kept it away from the open mics.
2015 ASN Chinese Grand Prix Winners
1] Hamilton
2] Vettel
3] Romain Grosjean – turning in the best finish for Lotus so far this year
Maldonado Award: Maldonado wins his own award with two spin outs and failure to negotiate the pit stop entrance – an impressive race even by his sub-standards.
Hamilton Award: Hamilton again wins his own award after deciding it would be a good idea to spray champagne into the ear and head of a clearly unimpressed Chinese grid girl on the podium.
2015 ASN F1 Drivers’ Season Standings
1] Vettel – seven points
2] Hamilton – six points
3] Verstappen – two points
Maldonado Award – A three-way tie between Ericsson/Maldonado himself/Raikkonen’s pit crew
Hamilton Award – Hamilton leads his own award, taking two out of the first three races.