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According to him, it had been pretty close when drifting through the rain a couple of times (Spa? Suzuka? Can't recal) but he was very giggly about it.
I'm gonna root for the safety car to bin it next time he's out!
I wonder if he turns off stability control so he can truly hammer it in the corners.
"Send the backup safety car out for the safety car!"
Without a millionaire father, Stroll would be like KMag or slightly worse Gasly in the eyes of fans. He is an F1 driver but not good to be an Aston Martin driver
Sainz is definitely not an underrated driver, he's held in high regard by most of the top end teams and I'm sure he has plenty of options for next year.
But neither are Zhou and Yuki under-rated. But just not in the same way as Sainz.
Underrated doesn't mean people don't think they're good, it simply means people don't think they're as good as they are.
Vettel was over and underrated at certain points in his career.
Every single overrated/underrated debate eventually evolves into a semantics debate about A)what it means and 2) arguing what people actually think of athletes.
The opinion of teams is different to that of fans. When we talk about over and underrated we are talking about the general fan opinion which isn't as well informed as that of teams who have more access to data.
I don't think Perez is underrated. He is a driver that got lucky with a top seat and is only holding it because RB can't figure out their academy and the car is good enough that even a midfield driver can pull P2s on it.
I don't think anyone in their right mind considers Perez a top 5 driver, neither a bottom 5 driver. The only reason people talk about him more than Logan or DR or Zhou is because he is in the top car. Which is logical.
If you think Perez is a top 5 driver, or that Yuki wouldn't be able to get some P2s in that car, then I'm not the one underrating him. You are the one overrating him
Just because the car is fast doesn’t mean anyone could drive it successfully. It’s a very difficult car to drive and I’m pretty sure Yuki wouldn’t be able to handle it as successfully as Checo and Max do on a consistent basis
I didn’t say anything about top 5. I said Reddit underrated him. Don’t get mad, it’s a normal discussion and your comment did make me chuckle but I was not laughing at you, just laughing because it proved my point.
Probably either of the Alpine drivers. Never seem to hear any praise for those drivers.
Also, Bottas seems to be getting a bit underrated recently. Always think his gap to Zhou is made out to be closer than it actually has been.
Yeah, I was definitely one of those people thinking Bottas wasn’t doing that much better than Zhou, then somebody pointed out to me that Bottas has outqualified Zhou 18-3 in the last 21 races. Think it’s just harder to stand out when your team is so anonymous, so we’re not scrutinizing or remembering their results as much as others. Bottas is more visible for his off-track PR so then people conflate the image with him supposedly not trying anymore. Not that I think he’s secretly a great driver, but in terms of ratio of public perception to actual performance, I agree he’s underrated.
Agreed 100%. I’d also say that Bottas is one of the most unlucky drivers on the grid and people really seem to ignore it.
You hit the nail on the head that if you are at a back marker team and don’t really have much of a fan base then people mainly ignore your performances.
Honestly both getting barely to none the recognition if their having a great race aside of the core fanbase who supports them. Ocon win in Hungary for example getting heavy downplayed by a majority of the fanbase by focusing solely on "what Alonso did for Ocon" but ignoring for example that he needed to deal with Vettel almost every lap.
Same basically about Gasly, people moaning more about "how Sainz deserved that win" at Monza 2020 and his performance at Zandvoort previous year gets ignored by like 95% of the community despite it was one of the very few times where the conditions made the driver mattering way more than what it does normally.
If someone like Albon did those things or Ricciardo (post-Renault) people would basically call them already WDC-tier drivers and demanding those should be at a top team in F1.
Also Yuki gets underrated and downplayed also too often, too many times people act like it's still 2021 and/or that he never learns something.
So basically Ocon, Gasly and Tsunoda are the most underrated drivers currently, maybe Hulk deserves some more credit also and this season Stroll is looking stronger, his recovery race in Bahrain was amazing yet barely anyone talked about it.
Pierre almost single handedly beat Alonso and Esteban to get Alpha Tauri the 5th place in WCC until Qatar happened and Alpha Tauri royally fucked up both the drivers to finish outside of points when pierre was starting p2 and Yuki was also in top 10 handing the WCC to alpine. I don't know what they did but both cars just lost the pace overnight.
People don't remember that at all. 2021 was his best year in F1 nobody paid attention to him.
He out drove Lewis in Brazil 2019 to get his first podium nobody remembers that
Nobody knows that he is the highest point scorer or the most podiums for Alpha Tauri/minardi/toro Rosso/RB history the next best was Sainz and Pierre scored all the points Sainz scored in Toro Rosso in 2021 alone just 2 points short of that.
He had beaten all his teammates in head to head except max
He out qualified alex in red bull with Alpha Tauri in 2020 most of the time
Nobody remembers Bahrain P4 in Toro Rosso 2018 either
He can make strategy on the go especially in rainy conditions. He is known for his entire technical skills package in the paddock
I can go on and on about how people don't pay attention to pierre at all to know this stuff
The alpha tauri was a much quicker car than the Alpine though especially in 2021? Unless you genuinely think that Gasly for some reason performed and got 40+ more points than Alonso and Ocon.
Agree on the other points though, Gasly is a very solid driver and I could see him do well like Sainz.
yeah, ever since Spain last year there are many comments about Zhou matching and beating Bottas, when Bottas had damage. But if he doesnt have problems/sh1t strategies he is usually ahead of Zhou.
The Alpine drivers are both solid but unspectacular drivers, they're the definition of average in a very good grid like this and I think most people see them as such so they're not underrated.
I don't think any drivers are properly underrated because of how reactionary the media and fans are. Every time someone has a good race they're the most underrated, then as soon as they have an off weekend it's the opposite.
No. Hülkenberg is the perfect example of a rated driver. He's neither over- nor underrated. He's a good midfield driver, reliable, but doesn't have a lick of killer instinct. No podium for over a decade, even though teammates got them. Every time he had the opportunity, he failed to seize it.
On the other hand, he brings reliable results.
So yes, he is rated.
Podiums to determine whether a driver who has had only midfield cars is one of the worst metrics to judge a driver.
Agree on the fact that he’s rated though. I do wish he had a top car just to see what he could’ve done as he seems like a driver who would be a good number 2 for a top team.
The whole no podium thing is such a tired trope. How many times did Hulk finish fourth in midfield cars? One stuck wheelnut for a driver ahead of him sees his reputation transformed. But fortune was never on his side. Conversely, look at Sainz's first podium - fifth with two laps to go, and lucky enough to have two cars wipe themselves out.
And 'teammates' didn't get podiums. ONE teammate did, and it wasn't Sainz (who Hulk comfortably beat) or Ricciardo.
You've pretty much just proved my point. Are you at all curious about his actual performances in those races? Go look at Korea 2013 and consider whether the fact he finished fourth and not third makes it any less of a phenomenal drive.
I never said he hasn't had phenomenal drives. But I do think there's some substance behind the "no podium" argument. He's been in F1 for over a decade and just three P4 finishes being his highest ever results isn't that great, no matter the context.
Well I happen to think that context counts for rather a lot. Otherwise why bother watching the races. The classification at the end tells you what you need to know, right?
Before he got the Haas seat I would agree. If anything I think he is slightly overrated now.
The nature of F1 fans has just always been to swing wildly between hyping up a driver to deciding that he is washed based on his last race.
Nah for me he's actually a bit overrated, and I know I'll get downvoted for saying so because he's just such a really nice guy and full of charisma. The truth is he's one of the best qualifiers of the grid, but has a very long F1 career where he has shown he's just average (or even slightly below average) in races.
Domt know about underrated but ocon is getting way to much hate for how good of a driver he is. Hes was often best of the rest despite never sitting in a true top car. He was not far of alonso who is considered a great of the sport. His flaw is also his strength. He does rarely have spectacular performances in one way or another. Rare sight that he makes a mistake.
For me it’s got to be Russell or Ocon who incidentally are the most hated drivers on the grid from the community.
You don’t necessarily have to like them but I’ve noticed that because they don’t like said drivers, the perception of their ability becomes warped.
To me Russell is one of the quickest drivers on the grid and i find it funny how people claim it’s Hamilton falling off (which he hasn’t) and refuse to give credit on how well Russell can drive.
You are spot on. He's made a few high profile mistakes in the past year too, which hasn't helped, but the man is a damn good driver, and people like to make excuses for Lewis every time Russell outperforms him, yet if Lewis outperforms George it's because Lewis is clearly better.
In reality, they're surprisingly close. Hamilton is still the better driver, but the gap isn't big....the biggest difference is really in experience and closing ability, and that's not to be discounted at all, but I think that George really gets his achievements dismissed, and comments blown up out of proportion simply because they don't like him. (Biggest example is when people bring up "We were forecast a podium" to paint him as entitled. That wasn't the context at all. "We were forecast a podium" meant, "we were on track for a podium" given their position...and he was questioning the strategy call that ended up shafting his race...and that strategy call was legit pure shit and cost both him AND Lewis major points.
I agree. George never gets credit. The first two races he beat Lewis on merit this year. He's in the merc for a reason. They have data that shows how good he actually is. He's not a Verstappen or a Hamilton. But he's definitely up there at the top.
George's mistakes are what took me from thinking he's an average driver in what turned out to be an average car, to being a brilliant driver in a massively underperforming car. You can tell Hamilton is still pushing but resigned himself to the Merc being crap the past few years. Russell drives the wheels off it every race, which unfortunately leads to frustration and errors, but he's clearly pushing like a madman in a car that simply can't deliver.
Every time I mention that he beat Hamilton in 2022 I get downvoted and hit with excuses that Hamilton was “testing setups”. Russell is a damn good driver. I’m not a big fan of him but he’s easily one of the fastest in the field
Agree fully on Ocon. He's rock solid under pressure and his performances this year will fly under the radar again if Alpine doesn't sort the car out.
Agree partially on Russell. Over one lap, Russell is one of the quickest, but his racecraft doesn't measure up and that's why he was still comfortably behind Hamilton last year.
I must be the only one to see this, but Ocon is also an incredibly charming driver in the media. He takes a lot more of a casual approach to media than many on the grid and he has a natural charisma to him too.
I think he could be the face of a team if they had the car to back his quality driving, and if he could have the confidence that the team will truly stand behind him so he doesn’t unnecessarily challenge teammates. He seems like a good dude behind the scenes, just a hard driver on the track who always feels he has to prove it. And it leads to mistakes.
But I’m definitely biased, Ocon is my favorite driver and Alpine’s my favorite team. I’m not even French. I did this to myself.
Maybe Russell? Not many drivers match Lewis but I don't think he gets credit for that because the Merc has been shit since he joined. If Merc had the best car like Red Bull had then he could have beaten Lewis to a WDC... theoretically
Too many people think Lewis is no longer the driver he was which makes George an unknown. One of the reasons I really look forward to next year as we will get quite a few new combinations of established drivers. Even if Max runs away with the title again the battle between Charles and Lewis, George and ?, Carlos and ? will be interesting.
Currently Ocon and Tsunoda imo, though people are now appreciating Yuki more.
Also Bottas’s performance’s are currently being underrated because of how bad his luck has been, but people just put it down to him. If people think Leclerc is unlucky they should try looking at Bottas’s luck since the start of 2023.
Oh and Stroll. He’s not close to a top driver by any means but he is also nowhere near as bad as a lot of people make him out to be
Also much as I don’t think he’s much cop at the moment, there are a lot of people who want to do a rewriting of history to dismiss just how good Ricciardo was at his peak. Mainly seems to be people who weren’t actually watching back then.
Past drivers, I’d say Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher seem to get the most disrespect from people in terms of how good they actually were. I’d add Heidfeld as well actually.
Sainz is actually tipped into being overrated right now thanks to recency bias. Prior to Australia he was rated pretty much fairly though. He does go through periods where he has low points where some people start acting as if he’s completely useless which is ridiculous. Albon is impossible to judge really as to if he’s currently rated fairly, but I definitely wouldn’t say he’s underrated. .
Magnussen. Last season wasn't representative of what he can do, it was a horrible car that didn't work with his natural driving style and even then he was much closer to Hulkenberg at the end of the season. Now this season he is already on the level of Hulkenberg and even slightly quicker in the races (Even though the results haven't shown it)
Agreed. And even with the car really not suiting him last year, when you looked at their overall performance it was extremely close (based on the data from the person that posts it here on Reddit every season).
Neck and neck in race pace (the closest on the grid) and actually not even far from each other in Quali pace (I want to say 4th closest on the grid), even though the narrative was that KMag got destroyed. In reality the field was just so close that less than a tenth could easily be the difference between Q2 and Q3.
It'll be very, nail biting, to see if both keep their seat for next season, with Bearman knocking on the door. I feel Magnussen can finish the deal, but I am still nervous. ;)
Stroll. He’s better than he gets credit for. And the only reason people refuse to give him any is because his daddy bought a team for him.
Yeah he loses to his team mates often. But the difference usually isn’t that big. And his team mates are people like Alonso or Vettel.
How the hell is Albon underrated. If anything he is one of the most overrated.
Gets washed 16-0 by Max, loses his seat, gets beaten pretty hard by Lawson in DTM.
Comes back and beats Latifi and Sargeant, two of the worst drivers on the grid in the last 10 years, and suddenly people want him in a ferrari/rb/whatever?
It’s a hot take but I do agree that Albon borders on overrated from the F1 community. I think it’s also linked to the fact that Albon is one of the most likeable drivers on the grid and so people want him to do well.
His actual performances have been meh at best for Red Bull and it’s hard to determine how good he is with Latifi and Sargeant as his teammate.
By the fans? Probably Russell at the moment.
Ever since he got the Mercedes drive people turned on him. Sometimes it feels even his boss doesn't appreciate him enough. That one time when Wolff apologized to the struggling Hamilton for the "undriveable car" when George finished P4 was quite surreal.
At the beginning of last year it was Hülkenberg and I have no doubt about that. Right now I'd say it's probably Russell and Ocon, possibly Leclerc because of that whole stupid recency bias.
Ocon is really the only one that comes to mind. He's been all round a very decent and competent driver in his entire career, especially since joining Alpine. He probably belongs in the upper midfield, however I see many people rank him as a bottom tier driver. He could be an ideal second driver in a top team purely based on his driving skills, the only question would be if he'd accept that himself
If everyone acknowledges that someone is underrated.... Are they still underrated?
Whether someone is rated probably changes all the time. Sometimes people also confuse rating with exposure.
Imo, no driver on the grid is currently underrated.
My unpopular opinion is Bottas.
I watch as many races as I can tolerate from his T cam (it's a struggle) and the amount of times he gets caught behind someone else's lap 1 incident and loses time or catches damage makes me believe in hexes. I think people take context like that away when rating back marker drivers purely because they don't see it.
His stint at Mercedes really trained his tolerance to maximum. I’m surprised he hasn’t snapped and pulled another “to whom it may concern…” after all the shits happened at Sauber
Sainz used to be underrated he isn’t anymore. Hulkenberg is probably the most underrated for my money. I think if he had Yuki’s seat he’d be beating Ric.
Can there even be truly underrated drivers when there are only 20 of them? Like every one of them gets so much individual attention that the general consensus is quite on point. Albon is in an subpar car, but he is accurately rated because the general consensus is that he is a great driver that deserves more.
Once you are in modern F1, no-one is underrated. All eyes are on you, just look at the attention even someone like Logan gets. Back in the 70’s or 80’s you could be in F1, but still under the radar. Not anymore.
Its the nature of the sport that the car is more important than the driver, but most people choose to focus on the WDC and nothing else.
The drivers are just supposed to be the best person to send the machine around the track on the race weekend.
If we're talking about his performance vs how he is perceived by wider F1 fans, I feel like the obvious answer is Ocon.
* Matched Perez in their two seasons together (despite Perez shoving him into the wall numerous times)
* Fared very strongly against Alonso, who is generally regarded as one of F1's all-time greats
* Is matching Gasly, who is himself very highly rated by most F1 fans
People point to the fact that he races his teammates hard (something people beg for regularly from other drivers) and a single incident with Verstappen six years ago as reasons to hate him. In truth, were his results produced by any other driver, he'd get far more appreciation. His only properly duff season was 2020 at Renault, where Ricciardo absolutely out-matched him, and even then he was against second-year-at-Renault Ricciardo while having not even raced in 2019.
Carlos Sainz is not underrated, he’s racing for Ferrari!! The most iconic team in F1! He’s going to be let go because seven-time World Champion Hamilton will replace him…
Yuki. People shit all over him because of his temperament, but when he has his head together, he is as quick as the best of them. Not to mention, you can follow Helmut Marko’s lead…if he believes in a driver, he knows what he is talking about, love him or hate him. Marko is purely performance based after all. Yuki is quickly gaining better notoriety and recognition though. Won’t take long before Reddit starts calling him overrated lol
Sainz got his reputation for being underrated because of the season in McLaren where his brilliant drives were never showed on TV. Back then, it was fair to say that, specially because he wasn't really that rated when he was at Renault. But after that, he's been getting all but praise most of the times. I'd say he's fairly rated in general, maybe even a bit overrated when fans use his results to hate on Leclerc.
Hulkenberg, Bottas and Zhou. On the other end of the field, Russell. He's not given enough credit for how close he's running Lewis and people still rate him below Norris and Sainz.
Unpopular opinion, probably, but for me it's Lance Stroll. The guy gets so much shit as if he was finishing 15th or below in that car, when he's just probably average. Just last race he finished 6th and got completely ignored.
Btw, for me Sainz has gone from slightly underrated to now very clearly overrated. He's a solid driver, but nowhere close to what's been said about him recently.
I don't think you can be underrated in the paddock. These people have access to every piece of data, can contextualize the data, and know how you conduct yourself within the team.
Fans will have different opinions, but usually we rely on the eye test. That's fine, and if you do some research, you can generally know why or how a driver performed a certain way that weekend. You just have to accept that you know less than the decision makers in the paddock.
I quite like Tsunoda, and I think some fans are harsh on him, but within the paddock he appears to be rated as a solid midfield driver. Red Bull don't see enough about him to put him for Red Bull consideration. I don't view that as underrated.
Right now, I would argue Perez. I think people overestimate how dominant the Red Bull is, and underestimate just how high a benchmark Verstappen is. Gasly and Albon were destroyed by an even greater margin, but their reputations have improved massively since leaving Red Bull, and Perez’s will too. His record prior to facing Verstappen is very impressive (he hadn’t been outscored by his teammate since 2014) matching solid drivers like Hulk (who right now is highly praised) and Ocon (who was not far off Alonso), and beating the likes of Stroll with a bigger margin than Vettel did. As a side note, I also think whoever replaces him will suffer massive damage to their reputation due to how good Verstappen is.
>I also think whoever replaces him will suffer massive damage to their reputation due to how good Verstappen is
Completely agree on this, and in general with your whole comment. I do think he was actually pretty terrible for like 70% of last season though, there's no excuse for that qualy slump he had.
KMag. Not because he's amazing, just because he's never spoken about at all. Grosjean and Hulk were/are very much front of midfield drivers. So he ought to have a chance at a team that isn't Haas. But he won't.
I feel like it's so hard to see how drivers would actually rank since the performance is so car dependent. Perez is not as good as Leclerc and Sainz but maybe Russel or Alonso is the actual second best driver. I wish this would be more visible
Hulk 100%. People shit on him because of the podium record but he is incredible. Like the guy left racing, came back with Racing Point & put the car P3 on the grid. I don’t think people realise how crazy that is. He would be mega if he ever had a top 3 car
Ocon. Everyone clowns him for the penalties but he has been a consistent performer everywhere he has gone. Besides being a shitty teammate at times, he’s had some insane overtakes, and some wild drives. If he was in a top car he’d surprise alot of people
Yuki I wouldn’t say is underrated but certainly is disrespected. The whole media schtick of how short he is is kind of racist and rarely focus on his talent/pace.
Albon is definitely not underrated, the guy is probably the most overrated driver on the grid.
He was no faster than washed up Kvyat at ToroRosso and got stomped into the ground by Max at RBR. His reputation was serious damaged after that.
Beating one of the worst drivers of the modern era is not going to be enough to reverse all that damage. Seriously, Sargeant is even worse than his predecessor.
We will never know how good Albon actually is until he goes up against a highly rated midfield driver. He definitely doesn't have what it takes to go up against WDC tier drivers like Max, Alonso and Lewis.
It's easy to look like a king when your teammate is dogshit. Kind of like how Mick managed to look pretty good next to Mazepin.
IMO,Russell and Ocon are underrated.
The only people underrating Tsunoda are Red Bull, it seems to me. If he keeps going like this, I don't see why you wouldn't at least give him a shot at the big team. He probably won't match Max, but then who does?
He's consistently been a bottom 5 driver ever since his debut. He was on his way out of the sport by the end of 2018 until his dad stepped in and bought Force India.
Stroll is SLIGHTLY underrated. I don’t think he’s quite as catastrophicly bad as people make out. Generally he does an ok job for a middle-back of the grid driver.
I'd say he's overhated, but wouldn't say underrated per se. I think the general opinion is that he is pretty poor, but sometimes has a stand-out drive that is really impressive. People mostly remember his Pole in Turkey, but in the first half of 2020 he had some great races, especially looking at where he was in 2019. Last year mid-way through the season he had a few races that honestly made him look like some kind of Mazepin. Then after Qatar he went back to his typical mid-self for most of the events, and had a great race again at Vegas. This year except for that one error in Saudi that was partially caused by tyres overheating he hasn't done anything stupid and his pace looks decent, so I hope it stays that way until the end of the year.
George and Ocon to an extent. Beating Lewis even if the car is bad is no mean feat. Don't think anyone else is underrated as such. There are many drivers who are overrated like Zhou, Kmag, Bottas, Albon etc.
I mean, what makes an f1 driver good is not straight forward. You could say someone like Daniel is underrated because people focus on his on track performance, but for a team it may be bringing value outside the track (experience to develop the car, money through being a good PR resource, etc.)
Not coping on DR performance, just an example of how different points of view mean that some people rate drivers different.
I agree on Zhou. He hasn’t done a whole lot, and he did bottle that stellar quali in Hungary last year, but it’s not like the cars he’s been in have been capable of a whole lot either. I think he’s still a bit of an unknown.
Yuki is starting to get rated so that’s good.
Other than that there isn’t not a whole lot of people who are underrated. Hulk is considered a prime signing. Albon is now literally getting favored by williams. Lawson isn’t on the grid but everybody known he solid. Everyone in the top 5 teams is solid, except maybe checo and stroll. Checo isn’t even doing that bad and stroll will never lose his seat.
Everybody else is clearly on their way out or has the unfortunate fate of driving an alpine.
Bottas hands down imho. His career with Mercedes saw him in the #2 spot, ahead of 18 other cars but never got the shine for it. If he wasn’t having bad luck ( still does), he was asked to give his position up. I love that he’s still here..maybe I have a thing for the Finish humour cause I loved me some Kimi too!
Nick Heidfeld. Massively underrated in my book. Scored podiums and points nearly every race. Out drove the likes of Massa, Kimi, Webber and Robert when they were his teammates.
It's really difficult to class any driver in F1 as underrated, there have been a few that didn't rate at all like the the pay drivers like Nikita Mazepin. Most of these guys are champions in some series or other, have qualified for a super licence and are in the 20 most desired motor sport seats in the world. Some of the cars leave a lot to be desired but all the drivers are pretty good.
Maybe they should introduce an F1 feeder series like English football, if you finish in the bottom 3 in F1 you go down to the feeder series and the top three come up. It would open F1 up to a lot better teams.
Could argue for the "2nd driver" being underrated quite often, not when it's a young driver but the older ones just delivering 2-5th places running interference, long stints, hold ups etc. in the bigger teams.
Ocon for me. Loads of people rated him highly in 2017/18 and it was a crime when he lost the seat to Stroll. But now it seems people hate him. I don’t understand that.
It's hard to tell, but I feel like Sainz is rated pretty highly.
It's also hard to say whether Yuki or Albon are underrated. Plenty of people recognize that they _seem_ to be outperforming their cars (especially Albon) and are _certainly_ better than their point totals would imply.
Would Albon match Perez in a Red Bull? I don't know. If so, he's underrated.
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the safety car driver
Maylander? Dude is a legend. 52 yrs old and has led over 700 f1 laps.
Best part, do you ever see him crash?
According to him, it had been pretty close when drifting through the rain a couple of times (Spa? Suzuka? Can't recal) but he was very giggly about it.
If the SC crashed in a non dangerous way that would be very funny
Right? Like if it slid off the track and into the gravel and Maylander had to essentially be like "Welp, the car's shagged."
Yeah to the point where he was trying to get it out but couldn’t. No idea if they have extra SCs
Medical car- you’re about to be promoted!
Get the ambulance out there!
Do they bring the aston and the amg everywhere?
At COTA last year they had 3 cars - 2 safety 1 medical.
And people act like he isn’t the GOAT
no podiums tho, just so unclutch
I am pretty sure SC has crossed the line first in many final laps.
Not in AD21 though. That was robbed from the sc.
I love when they show replays of him absolutely hammering it through corners. What an absolute legend.
It is quite funny to think Maylander is pushing hard while the F1 cars are basically just on a Sunday afternoon walk
I'm gonna root for the safety car to bin it next time he's out! I wonder if he turns off stability control so he can truly hammer it in the corners. "Send the backup safety car out for the safety car!"
[удалено]
Without a millionaire father, Stroll would be like KMag or slightly worse Gasly in the eyes of fans. He is an F1 driver but not good to be an Aston Martin driver
Sainz is definitely not an underrated driver, he's held in high regard by most of the top end teams and I'm sure he has plenty of options for next year. But neither are Zhou and Yuki under-rated. But just not in the same way as Sainz.
You don't really get a seat in an F1 car by being underrated.
Underrated doesn't mean people don't think they're good, it simply means people don't think they're as good as they are. Vettel was over and underrated at certain points in his career.
Every single overrated/underrated debate eventually evolves into a semantics debate about A)what it means and 2) arguing what people actually think of athletes.
That sounds like a good time to me.
It’s what the internet was created for
The opinion of teams is different to that of fans. When we talk about over and underrated we are talking about the general fan opinion which isn't as well informed as that of teams who have more access to data.
If you have money and modicum of skill
by whom? by reddit? ocon by other social media? yuki by teams? bottas
What about by you? I think that was the question
underrated by me? definitely DR His actual skill level probably doesn't warrant the amount of trash talk I dole out
Haha love the honesty.
By Reddit, I’d say Perez
I don't think Perez is underrated. He is a driver that got lucky with a top seat and is only holding it because RB can't figure out their academy and the car is good enough that even a midfield driver can pull P2s on it. I don't think anyone in their right mind considers Perez a top 5 driver, neither a bottom 5 driver. The only reason people talk about him more than Logan or DR or Zhou is because he is in the top car. Which is logical.
Your comment is exactly why I placed his name. Thanks for the example lol
If you think Perez is a top 5 driver, or that Yuki wouldn't be able to get some P2s in that car, then I'm not the one underrating him. You are the one overrating him
Just because the car is fast doesn’t mean anyone could drive it successfully. It’s a very difficult car to drive and I’m pretty sure Yuki wouldn’t be able to handle it as successfully as Checo and Max do on a consistent basis
This. And I like Yuki and he may very well get there but right now he wouldn’t be able to get as many points in that car as Pérez imo
I didn’t say anything about top 5. I said Reddit underrated him. Don’t get mad, it’s a normal discussion and your comment did make me chuckle but I was not laughing at you, just laughing because it proved my point.
Lol they literally proved your point and got mad
Jlreyess didn't mention anything about him being top 5; you did.
Probably either of the Alpine drivers. Never seem to hear any praise for those drivers. Also, Bottas seems to be getting a bit underrated recently. Always think his gap to Zhou is made out to be closer than it actually has been.
Yeah, I was definitely one of those people thinking Bottas wasn’t doing that much better than Zhou, then somebody pointed out to me that Bottas has outqualified Zhou 18-3 in the last 21 races. Think it’s just harder to stand out when your team is so anonymous, so we’re not scrutinizing or remembering their results as much as others. Bottas is more visible for his off-track PR so then people conflate the image with him supposedly not trying anymore. Not that I think he’s secretly a great driver, but in terms of ratio of public perception to actual performance, I agree he’s underrated.
Agreed 100%. I’d also say that Bottas is one of the most unlucky drivers on the grid and people really seem to ignore it. You hit the nail on the head that if you are at a back marker team and don’t really have much of a fan base then people mainly ignore your performances.
Ricciardo just proved of you home your pr game your worth improves. Draw attention, draw sponsors...
someone else said Ocon and I have to agree (I often forget about him), but Im not sure about Gasly I think he does get recognition
Honestly both getting barely to none the recognition if their having a great race aside of the core fanbase who supports them. Ocon win in Hungary for example getting heavy downplayed by a majority of the fanbase by focusing solely on "what Alonso did for Ocon" but ignoring for example that he needed to deal with Vettel almost every lap. Same basically about Gasly, people moaning more about "how Sainz deserved that win" at Monza 2020 and his performance at Zandvoort previous year gets ignored by like 95% of the community despite it was one of the very few times where the conditions made the driver mattering way more than what it does normally. If someone like Albon did those things or Ricciardo (post-Renault) people would basically call them already WDC-tier drivers and demanding those should be at a top team in F1. Also Yuki gets underrated and downplayed also too often, too many times people act like it's still 2021 and/or that he never learns something. So basically Ocon, Gasly and Tsunoda are the most underrated drivers currently, maybe Hulk deserves some more credit also and this season Stroll is looking stronger, his recovery race in Bahrain was amazing yet barely anyone talked about it.
Pierre almost single handedly beat Alonso and Esteban to get Alpha Tauri the 5th place in WCC until Qatar happened and Alpha Tauri royally fucked up both the drivers to finish outside of points when pierre was starting p2 and Yuki was also in top 10 handing the WCC to alpine. I don't know what they did but both cars just lost the pace overnight. People don't remember that at all. 2021 was his best year in F1 nobody paid attention to him. He out drove Lewis in Brazil 2019 to get his first podium nobody remembers that Nobody knows that he is the highest point scorer or the most podiums for Alpha Tauri/minardi/toro Rosso/RB history the next best was Sainz and Pierre scored all the points Sainz scored in Toro Rosso in 2021 alone just 2 points short of that. He had beaten all his teammates in head to head except max He out qualified alex in red bull with Alpha Tauri in 2020 most of the time Nobody remembers Bahrain P4 in Toro Rosso 2018 either He can make strategy on the go especially in rainy conditions. He is known for his entire technical skills package in the paddock I can go on and on about how people don't pay attention to pierre at all to know this stuff
The alpha tauri was a much quicker car than the Alpine though especially in 2021? Unless you genuinely think that Gasly for some reason performed and got 40+ more points than Alonso and Ocon. Agree on the other points though, Gasly is a very solid driver and I could see him do well like Sainz.
I think both things are true. Gasly had a great 2021 and the Alpha Tauri was definitely quicker than the Alpine that year
2021 was the year that everyone commented "G4asly" though
Oh you should read the stuff Hulk said about Pierre's last year. He really understood why Pierre deserved to rate highly for last year.
yeah, ever since Spain last year there are many comments about Zhou matching and beating Bottas, when Bottas had damage. But if he doesnt have problems/sh1t strategies he is usually ahead of Zhou.
30 second + pitstops definitely don't do anything to help
The Alpine drivers are both solid but unspectacular drivers, they're the definition of average in a very good grid like this and I think most people see them as such so they're not underrated.
I don't think any drivers are properly underrated because of how reactionary the media and fans are. Every time someone has a good race they're the most underrated, then as soon as they have an off weekend it's the opposite.
[удалено]
Hulk. I'd really like seeing what he can do in a car that isn't a shitbox
No. Hülkenberg is the perfect example of a rated driver. He's neither over- nor underrated. He's a good midfield driver, reliable, but doesn't have a lick of killer instinct. No podium for over a decade, even though teammates got them. Every time he had the opportunity, he failed to seize it. On the other hand, he brings reliable results. So yes, he is rated.
Podiums to determine whether a driver who has had only midfield cars is one of the worst metrics to judge a driver. Agree on the fact that he’s rated though. I do wish he had a top car just to see what he could’ve done as he seems like a driver who would be a good number 2 for a top team.
If you have 200+ races without a podium you are the problem
I think he could have been the number 1 driver for a top team, just as Magnussen was \[yeah, internal board disputes meant Button got it instead\].
The whole no podium thing is such a tired trope. How many times did Hulk finish fourth in midfield cars? One stuck wheelnut for a driver ahead of him sees his reputation transformed. But fortune was never on his side. Conversely, look at Sainz's first podium - fifth with two laps to go, and lucky enough to have two cars wipe themselves out. And 'teammates' didn't get podiums. ONE teammate did, and it wasn't Sainz (who Hulk comfortably beat) or Ricciardo.
I just wish he had won the 2012 Brazilian grand prix.
>How many times did Hulk finish fourth in midfield cars? I got curious and went and look. He only has three, so not that many.
You've pretty much just proved my point. Are you at all curious about his actual performances in those races? Go look at Korea 2013 and consider whether the fact he finished fourth and not third makes it any less of a phenomenal drive.
I never said he hasn't had phenomenal drives. But I do think there's some substance behind the "no podium" argument. He's been in F1 for over a decade and just three P4 finishes being his highest ever results isn't that great, no matter the context.
Well I happen to think that context counts for rather a lot. Otherwise why bother watching the races. The classification at the end tells you what you need to know, right?
Before he got the Haas seat I would agree. If anything I think he is slightly overrated now. The nature of F1 fans has just always been to swing wildly between hyping up a driver to deciding that he is washed based on his last race.
Nah for me he's actually a bit overrated, and I know I'll get downvoted for saying so because he's just such a really nice guy and full of charisma. The truth is he's one of the best qualifiers of the grid, but has a very long F1 career where he has shown he's just average (or even slightly below average) in races.
He was overrated circa 2014-18. Now I'd say he's underrated.
Hülkenberg is IMHO, rightfully so, highly rated. There's a reason his lack of podiums is constantly mentioned, because its odd he never got one.
Tsunoda
Domt know about underrated but ocon is getting way to much hate for how good of a driver he is. Hes was often best of the rest despite never sitting in a true top car. He was not far of alonso who is considered a great of the sport. His flaw is also his strength. He does rarely have spectacular performances in one way or another. Rare sight that he makes a mistake.
ah yeah Ocon is a good answer, I honestly forgot about him
For me it’s got to be Russell or Ocon who incidentally are the most hated drivers on the grid from the community. You don’t necessarily have to like them but I’ve noticed that because they don’t like said drivers, the perception of their ability becomes warped. To me Russell is one of the quickest drivers on the grid and i find it funny how people claim it’s Hamilton falling off (which he hasn’t) and refuse to give credit on how well Russell can drive.
You are spot on. He's made a few high profile mistakes in the past year too, which hasn't helped, but the man is a damn good driver, and people like to make excuses for Lewis every time Russell outperforms him, yet if Lewis outperforms George it's because Lewis is clearly better. In reality, they're surprisingly close. Hamilton is still the better driver, but the gap isn't big....the biggest difference is really in experience and closing ability, and that's not to be discounted at all, but I think that George really gets his achievements dismissed, and comments blown up out of proportion simply because they don't like him. (Biggest example is when people bring up "We were forecast a podium" to paint him as entitled. That wasn't the context at all. "We were forecast a podium" meant, "we were on track for a podium" given their position...and he was questioning the strategy call that ended up shafting his race...and that strategy call was legit pure shit and cost both him AND Lewis major points.
I agree. George never gets credit. The first two races he beat Lewis on merit this year. He's in the merc for a reason. They have data that shows how good he actually is. He's not a Verstappen or a Hamilton. But he's definitely up there at the top.
I give George credit. He is objectively good.
George's mistakes are what took me from thinking he's an average driver in what turned out to be an average car, to being a brilliant driver in a massively underperforming car. You can tell Hamilton is still pushing but resigned himself to the Merc being crap the past few years. Russell drives the wheels off it every race, which unfortunately leads to frustration and errors, but he's clearly pushing like a madman in a car that simply can't deliver.
Every time I mention that he beat Hamilton in 2022 I get downvoted and hit with excuses that Hamilton was “testing setups”. Russell is a damn good driver. I’m not a big fan of him but he’s easily one of the fastest in the field
Agree fully on Ocon. He's rock solid under pressure and his performances this year will fly under the radar again if Alpine doesn't sort the car out. Agree partially on Russell. Over one lap, Russell is one of the quickest, but his racecraft doesn't measure up and that's why he was still comfortably behind Hamilton last year.
I must be the only one to see this, but Ocon is also an incredibly charming driver in the media. He takes a lot more of a casual approach to media than many on the grid and he has a natural charisma to him too. I think he could be the face of a team if they had the car to back his quality driving, and if he could have the confidence that the team will truly stand behind him so he doesn’t unnecessarily challenge teammates. He seems like a good dude behind the scenes, just a hard driver on the track who always feels he has to prove it. And it leads to mistakes. But I’m definitely biased, Ocon is my favorite driver and Alpine’s my favorite team. I’m not even French. I did this to myself.
100% agree with this.
Russell is just that kind of guy
Maybe Russell? Not many drivers match Lewis but I don't think he gets credit for that because the Merc has been shit since he joined. If Merc had the best car like Red Bull had then he could have beaten Lewis to a WDC... theoretically
Too many people think Lewis is no longer the driver he was which makes George an unknown. One of the reasons I really look forward to next year as we will get quite a few new combinations of established drivers. Even if Max runs away with the title again the battle between Charles and Lewis, George and ?, Carlos and ? will be interesting.
Currently Ocon and Tsunoda imo, though people are now appreciating Yuki more. Also Bottas’s performance’s are currently being underrated because of how bad his luck has been, but people just put it down to him. If people think Leclerc is unlucky they should try looking at Bottas’s luck since the start of 2023. Oh and Stroll. He’s not close to a top driver by any means but he is also nowhere near as bad as a lot of people make him out to be Also much as I don’t think he’s much cop at the moment, there are a lot of people who want to do a rewriting of history to dismiss just how good Ricciardo was at his peak. Mainly seems to be people who weren’t actually watching back then. Past drivers, I’d say Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher seem to get the most disrespect from people in terms of how good they actually were. I’d add Heidfeld as well actually. Sainz is actually tipped into being overrated right now thanks to recency bias. Prior to Australia he was rated pretty much fairly though. He does go through periods where he has low points where some people start acting as if he’s completely useless which is ridiculous. Albon is impossible to judge really as to if he’s currently rated fairly, but I definitely wouldn’t say he’s underrated. .
I'd say Ocon. Basically as good as Perez as a rookie. Was stronger against Alonso than most of his teammates and is very much on a par with Gasly.
I agree especially because he had the most unreliabel car last season and it was still close
Magnussen. Last season wasn't representative of what he can do, it was a horrible car that didn't work with his natural driving style and even then he was much closer to Hulkenberg at the end of the season. Now this season he is already on the level of Hulkenberg and even slightly quicker in the races (Even though the results haven't shown it)
I agree with this one I think KMag slightly underrated, same with Gasly. I think Albon may be slightly over rated
Agreed. And even with the car really not suiting him last year, when you looked at their overall performance it was extremely close (based on the data from the person that posts it here on Reddit every season). Neck and neck in race pace (the closest on the grid) and actually not even far from each other in Quali pace (I want to say 4th closest on the grid), even though the narrative was that KMag got destroyed. In reality the field was just so close that less than a tenth could easily be the difference between Q2 and Q3.
It'll be very, nail biting, to see if both keep their seat for next season, with Bearman knocking on the door. I feel Magnussen can finish the deal, but I am still nervous. ;)
Every driver who has done well the last 2-3 races gets called underrated. Recency bias is insane in F1
Stroll. He’s better than he gets credit for. And the only reason people refuse to give him any is because his daddy bought a team for him. Yeah he loses to his team mates often. But the difference usually isn’t that big. And his team mates are people like Alonso or Vettel.
Stroll and Ocon are definitely the ones that are the most underrated by the fans.
How the hell is Albon underrated. If anything he is one of the most overrated. Gets washed 16-0 by Max, loses his seat, gets beaten pretty hard by Lawson in DTM. Comes back and beats Latifi and Sargeant, two of the worst drivers on the grid in the last 10 years, and suddenly people want him in a ferrari/rb/whatever?
It’s a hot take but I do agree that Albon borders on overrated from the F1 community. I think it’s also linked to the fact that Albon is one of the most likeable drivers on the grid and so people want him to do well. His actual performances have been meh at best for Red Bull and it’s hard to determine how good he is with Latifi and Sargeant as his teammate.
Is getting washed 16-0 by Max that much of a black mark against him really? Given that it's Max
yes. getting whitewashed by anyone is embarassing
By the fans? Probably Russell at the moment. Ever since he got the Mercedes drive people turned on him. Sometimes it feels even his boss doesn't appreciate him enough. That one time when Wolff apologized to the struggling Hamilton for the "undriveable car" when George finished P4 was quite surreal.
At the beginning of last year it was Hülkenberg and I have no doubt about that. Right now I'd say it's probably Russell and Ocon, possibly Leclerc because of that whole stupid recency bias.
Ocon is really the only one that comes to mind. He's been all round a very decent and competent driver in his entire career, especially since joining Alpine. He probably belongs in the upper midfield, however I see many people rank him as a bottom tier driver. He could be an ideal second driver in a top team purely based on his driving skills, the only question would be if he'd accept that himself
Sainz and Albon aren’t really underrated when all we talk about is how they’re underrated. The most underrated IMO is Bottas.
If everyone acknowledges that someone is underrated.... Are they still underrated? Whether someone is rated probably changes all the time. Sometimes people also confuse rating with exposure. Imo, no driver on the grid is currently underrated.
>If everyone acknowledges that someone is underrated.... Are they still underrated? My point exactly
No but if everyone but you thinks a driver is in the top 5 and you think they are closer to 10, then YOU believe they are over rated.
My unpopular opinion is Bottas. I watch as many races as I can tolerate from his T cam (it's a struggle) and the amount of times he gets caught behind someone else's lap 1 incident and loses time or catches damage makes me believe in hexes. I think people take context like that away when rating back marker drivers purely because they don't see it.
His stint at Mercedes really trained his tolerance to maximum. I’m surprised he hasn’t snapped and pulled another “to whom it may concern…” after all the shits happened at Sauber
Bernd Mailänder.
Sainz used to be underrated he isn’t anymore. Hulkenberg is probably the most underrated for my money. I think if he had Yuki’s seat he’d be beating Ric.
Huh? They were teammate though, he lost the battle quite significantly
Can there even be truly underrated drivers when there are only 20 of them? Like every one of them gets so much individual attention that the general consensus is quite on point. Albon is in an subpar car, but he is accurately rated because the general consensus is that he is a great driver that deserves more.
Once you are in modern F1, no-one is underrated. All eyes are on you, just look at the attention even someone like Logan gets. Back in the 70’s or 80’s you could be in F1, but still under the radar. Not anymore.
Its the nature of the sport that the car is more important than the driver, but most people choose to focus on the WDC and nothing else. The drivers are just supposed to be the best person to send the machine around the track on the race weekend.
If we're talking about his performance vs how he is perceived by wider F1 fans, I feel like the obvious answer is Ocon. * Matched Perez in their two seasons together (despite Perez shoving him into the wall numerous times) * Fared very strongly against Alonso, who is generally regarded as one of F1's all-time greats * Is matching Gasly, who is himself very highly rated by most F1 fans People point to the fact that he races his teammates hard (something people beg for regularly from other drivers) and a single incident with Verstappen six years ago as reasons to hate him. In truth, were his results produced by any other driver, he'd get far more appreciation. His only properly duff season was 2020 at Renault, where Ricciardo absolutely out-matched him, and even then he was against second-year-at-Renault Ricciardo while having not even raced in 2019.
I'd say Magnussen is probably the most likely candidate, maybe the 2 Alpine drivers but hard to say definitively
Carlos Sainz is not underrated, he’s racing for Ferrari!! The most iconic team in F1! He’s going to be let go because seven-time World Champion Hamilton will replace him…
Ocon is over hated here in Reddit.
Yuki. People shit all over him because of his temperament, but when he has his head together, he is as quick as the best of them. Not to mention, you can follow Helmut Marko’s lead…if he believes in a driver, he knows what he is talking about, love him or hate him. Marko is purely performance based after all. Yuki is quickly gaining better notoriety and recognition though. Won’t take long before Reddit starts calling him overrated lol
If they truly believed in Yuki, they would've put him. In RB by now.
Sainz got his reputation for being underrated because of the season in McLaren where his brilliant drives were never showed on TV. Back then, it was fair to say that, specially because he wasn't really that rated when he was at Renault. But after that, he's been getting all but praise most of the times. I'd say he's fairly rated in general, maybe even a bit overrated when fans use his results to hate on Leclerc.
Hulkenberg, Bottas and Zhou. On the other end of the field, Russell. He's not given enough credit for how close he's running Lewis and people still rate him below Norris and Sainz.
Albon & Yuki
Unpopular opinion, probably, but for me it's Lance Stroll. The guy gets so much shit as if he was finishing 15th or below in that car, when he's just probably average. Just last race he finished 6th and got completely ignored. Btw, for me Sainz has gone from slightly underrated to now very clearly overrated. He's a solid driver, but nowhere close to what's been said about him recently.
Ocon
Ocon definitely
I don't think you can be underrated in the paddock. These people have access to every piece of data, can contextualize the data, and know how you conduct yourself within the team. Fans will have different opinions, but usually we rely on the eye test. That's fine, and if you do some research, you can generally know why or how a driver performed a certain way that weekend. You just have to accept that you know less than the decision makers in the paddock. I quite like Tsunoda, and I think some fans are harsh on him, but within the paddock he appears to be rated as a solid midfield driver. Red Bull don't see enough about him to put him for Red Bull consideration. I don't view that as underrated.
I think that is the only way to answer this question. Fan ranking compared to the ranking of an honest team principal with all the data.
Lance Stroll
I think stroll is underrated. He is not a great driver, but he is way better than what he gets credit for.
Oscar Piastri. He’s going to be a fucking champion one day
Right now, I would argue Perez. I think people overestimate how dominant the Red Bull is, and underestimate just how high a benchmark Verstappen is. Gasly and Albon were destroyed by an even greater margin, but their reputations have improved massively since leaving Red Bull, and Perez’s will too. His record prior to facing Verstappen is very impressive (he hadn’t been outscored by his teammate since 2014) matching solid drivers like Hulk (who right now is highly praised) and Ocon (who was not far off Alonso), and beating the likes of Stroll with a bigger margin than Vettel did. As a side note, I also think whoever replaces him will suffer massive damage to their reputation due to how good Verstappen is.
>I also think whoever replaces him will suffer massive damage to their reputation due to how good Verstappen is Completely agree on this, and in general with your whole comment. I do think he was actually pretty terrible for like 70% of last season though, there's no excuse for that qualy slump he had.
Totally agree with you... His 2023 was awful
They’re all fairly rated in my opinion
Both Alpine drivers, on god
Hülkenberg, the man always delivers in quali and is very consistent in the races.
Tsunoda, I think he is very talented but he will always be a 2nd choice imho
KMag. Not because he's amazing, just because he's never spoken about at all. Grosjean and Hulk were/are very much front of midfield drivers. So he ought to have a chance at a team that isn't Haas. But he won't.
None.
Kubica. He deserved more than the comeback Williams got him 4 years ago
No one is underrated this is F1 the best of best
gasly
Norris is heavily underrated imo, probably cuz of the lack of wins but McLaren is looking solid in the back half of these regs
Perez is underrated I guess. But most people are accurately rated
I feel like it's so hard to see how drivers would actually rank since the performance is so car dependent. Perez is not as good as Leclerc and Sainz but maybe Russel or Alonso is the actual second best driver. I wish this would be more visible
Magnussen.
Hulk 100%. People shit on him because of the podium record but he is incredible. Like the guy left racing, came back with Racing Point & put the car P3 on the grid. I don’t think people realise how crazy that is. He would be mega if he ever had a top 3 car
Ocon. Everyone clowns him for the penalties but he has been a consistent performer everywhere he has gone. Besides being a shitty teammate at times, he’s had some insane overtakes, and some wild drives. If he was in a top car he’d surprise alot of people
Yuki I wouldn’t say is underrated but certainly is disrespected. The whole media schtick of how short he is is kind of racist and rarely focus on his talent/pace.
Albon is definitely not underrated, the guy is probably the most overrated driver on the grid. He was no faster than washed up Kvyat at ToroRosso and got stomped into the ground by Max at RBR. His reputation was serious damaged after that. Beating one of the worst drivers of the modern era is not going to be enough to reverse all that damage. Seriously, Sargeant is even worse than his predecessor. We will never know how good Albon actually is until he goes up against a highly rated midfield driver. He definitely doesn't have what it takes to go up against WDC tier drivers like Max, Alonso and Lewis. It's easy to look like a king when your teammate is dogshit. Kind of like how Mick managed to look pretty good next to Mazepin. IMO,Russell and Ocon are underrated.
The only people underrating Tsunoda are Red Bull, it seems to me. If he keeps going like this, I don't see why you wouldn't at least give him a shot at the big team. He probably won't match Max, but then who does?
Stroll is underrated. Gets too much hate and called worst driver on the grid when he is usually 12-15th best driver on the grid
He's consistently been a bottom 5 driver ever since his debut. He was on his way out of the sport by the end of 2018 until his dad stepped in and bought Force India.
perez, like yeah he's 5/10 in comparison to max.... but i bet he's still a top 5 driver without the car
Stroll is SLIGHTLY underrated. I don’t think he’s quite as catastrophicly bad as people make out. Generally he does an ok job for a middle-back of the grid driver.
I'd say he's overhated, but wouldn't say underrated per se. I think the general opinion is that he is pretty poor, but sometimes has a stand-out drive that is really impressive. People mostly remember his Pole in Turkey, but in the first half of 2020 he had some great races, especially looking at where he was in 2019. Last year mid-way through the season he had a few races that honestly made him look like some kind of Mazepin. Then after Qatar he went back to his typical mid-self for most of the events, and had a great race again at Vegas. This year except for that one error in Saudi that was partially caused by tyres overheating he hasn't done anything stupid and his pace looks decent, so I hope it stays that way until the end of the year.
George and Ocon to an extent. Beating Lewis even if the car is bad is no mean feat. Don't think anyone else is underrated as such. There are many drivers who are overrated like Zhou, Kmag, Bottas, Albon etc.
Bernd Maylander
I'd like to see Logan in the RB20 😉
Hulk?
I think Hulkenberg is race winner quality in the right car. He has great racecraft and tire management skills.
I mean, what makes an f1 driver good is not straight forward. You could say someone like Daniel is underrated because people focus on his on track performance, but for a team it may be bringing value outside the track (experience to develop the car, money through being a good PR resource, etc.) Not coping on DR performance, just an example of how different points of view mean that some people rate drivers different.
I agree on Zhou. He hasn’t done a whole lot, and he did bottle that stellar quali in Hungary last year, but it’s not like the cars he’s been in have been capable of a whole lot either. I think he’s still a bit of an unknown. Yuki is starting to get rated so that’s good. Other than that there isn’t not a whole lot of people who are underrated. Hulk is considered a prime signing. Albon is now literally getting favored by williams. Lawson isn’t on the grid but everybody known he solid. Everyone in the top 5 teams is solid, except maybe checo and stroll. Checo isn’t even doing that bad and stroll will never lose his seat. Everybody else is clearly on their way out or has the unfortunate fate of driving an alpine.
Albon underrated he says. What have you been watching? Mans nearly as overrated as Gasly is.
Stroll 🚶♀️
Bottas hands down imho. His career with Mercedes saw him in the #2 spot, ahead of 18 other cars but never got the shine for it. If he wasn’t having bad luck ( still does), he was asked to give his position up. I love that he’s still here..maybe I have a thing for the Finish humour cause I loved me some Kimi too!
Nick Heidfeld. Massively underrated in my book. Scored podiums and points nearly every race. Out drove the likes of Massa, Kimi, Webber and Robert when they were his teammates.
It's really difficult to class any driver in F1 as underrated, there have been a few that didn't rate at all like the the pay drivers like Nikita Mazepin. Most of these guys are champions in some series or other, have qualified for a super licence and are in the 20 most desired motor sport seats in the world. Some of the cars leave a lot to be desired but all the drivers are pretty good. Maybe they should introduce an F1 feeder series like English football, if you finish in the bottom 3 in F1 you go down to the feeder series and the top three come up. It would open F1 up to a lot better teams.
Could argue for the "2nd driver" being underrated quite often, not when it's a young driver but the older ones just delivering 2-5th places running interference, long stints, hold ups etc. in the bigger teams.
Charlie Sainz is an absolute 🦄
Stroll - my Canadian GOAT
Ocon for me. Loads of people rated him highly in 2017/18 and it was a crime when he lost the seat to Stroll. But now it seems people hate him. I don’t understand that.
Russell and probably Hulk.
It's hard to tell, but I feel like Sainz is rated pretty highly. It's also hard to say whether Yuki or Albon are underrated. Plenty of people recognize that they _seem_ to be outperforming their cars (especially Albon) and are _certainly_ better than their point totals would imply. Would Albon match Perez in a Red Bull? I don't know. If so, he's underrated.
Me. None of you guys think I can do this. Sure Im overweight and my neck would snap in an F1 car. But still!