Vote for your 2022 Australian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

44 comments on “Vote for your 2022 Australian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

1. 

   wsrgo (@wsrgo)
   10th April 2022, 17:58

   No contest really.

   Honourable mention to Albon. As the race winner today once said, “Alex, you were on it mate!”
2. 

   Pat
   10th April 2022, 18:04

   Perez for me that fight with Russell was great. Also his other overtakes. Charles second.
3. 

   David BR (@david-br)
   10th April 2022, 18:07

   An easy one (Leclerc).
4. 

   Adam (@rocketpanda)
   10th April 2022, 18:12

   Albon, 100%. Almost the entire race on 1 set of tyres in the slowest car, from the very back of the grid and grabbed a point. That wasn’t just a good strategy, that was down to him to make that pace work and keep cars around him that were much faster at bay. Very, very impressive stuff.
   1. 

      elchinero (@elchinero)
      10th April 2022, 18:27

      Someone voted for #44 …
      1. 

         erikje
         10th April 2022, 20:31

         He maximised his potential as a driver. So deserved vote I guess.
         1. 

            melanos
            10th April 2022, 21:46

            that does not make it best driver of the weekend, just about average
            1. 

               Fahlen
               10th April 2022, 22:34

               That is literally what LeClerc did, was he about average too?
      2. 

         ian dearing
         11th April 2022, 9:25

         Perhaps you guys who question people voting for 44 every time one of these threads appear ought to lay out the criteria in which you will accept a vote for him? And why you don’t apply that criteria to others.
      3. 

         Adam (@rocketpanda)
         11th April 2022, 12:12

         This comment was about Albon, what are you talking about.
   2. 

      Biker56 (@biker56)
      10th April 2022, 18:36

      +1 Got to agree.
   3. 

      MichaelN
      11th April 2022, 11:00

      Albon would be my pick as well. Not only did he drag that slow Williams into P10, already a big surprise after their lack of pace throughout practice, he did so on a strategy that was highly unusual and that others – including none other than former world champion Fernando Alonso – couldn’t make work. He also did it with two safety cars and one VSC further compromising the strategy, and had to work pretty hard on track to fend off faster cars.

      Yes, Leclerc won – but he pretty much had to given how much better the Ferrari was at this track. He didn’t have to do anything special, which is fine; it’s how a lot of races are won in good cars.
5. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   10th April 2022, 18:46

   LEC for both DOTW & DOTD is an easy choice, with an honorable mention to ALB for the latter.
6. 

   hamiledon
   10th April 2022, 19:01

   Pole, Race Win, Fastest Lap -> Leclerc
   1. 

      melanos
      10th April 2022, 19:17

      I do not necessarily disagree, but Charles had it a little too easy. Only in the restart he had to fight a bit to keep the position.

      Max on the other hand was unlucky again, but was also not that perfect. With a tidy lap he could have made pole but didn’t. And the start was a bit too slow, forcing Checo to lose momentum, and a position to Merc’s #2 driver.
      1. 

         RomTrain (@romtrain)
         10th April 2022, 21:29

         Well, at least RBRs no.1 driver made another podium.
         1. 

            Esploratore (@esploratore1)
            11th April 2022, 5:19

            Number 1 driver perez? The one who 2 races in 3 ends up having to overtake hamilton when he should be pulling away from him?
            1. 

               RomTrain (@romtrain)
               11th April 2022, 6:23

               In Melanos simple world the driver in front in the WDC is the no.1 driver.
            2. 

               melanos
               11th April 2022, 23:30

               You say that

               At RBR Max is still very much the #1 driver although he is behind at the moment in the WDC

               It is in your anencephalic world where RBR’s #1 got the podium
            3. 

               Esploratore (@esploratore1)
               12th April 2022, 11:00

               Hadn’t noticed that part of the comment with merc number 2, I think it’s too early to say who should be number 1 at mercedes, they’re pretty evenly matched.
7. 

   F1 frog (@f1frog)
   10th April 2022, 19:34

   I voted Albon for somehow keeping pace with the McLarens despite the 57-lap old tyres and scoring a point for Williams from the back of the grid. Honourable mention to Leclerc for a dominant win, but he misses out courtesy of that small mistake on the restart that gave Verstappen a sniff of an opportunity.

   Would it be possible for racefans to add a ‘Team of the weekend’ vote as well? I would actually vote Aston Martin for Australia, for repairing two damaged cars in qualifying and then using that genius double stop strategy for Stroll that almost got him points (if Williams had done the same, Albon would have finished seventh). It’s just a shame that their drivers let them down.
   1. 

      melanos
      10th April 2022, 21:44

      You mean the team minus the drivers?

      Could be interesting, and a bit complicated. Most of the time teams are unremarkable, and big screwups are far more common than inspired performances. Worst team of the weekend would surely be easier.
      1. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore1)
         11th April 2022, 5:20

         I actually would like team of the weekend, sometimes performance varies and not the same team is the best all races, see red bull vs ferrari the 2nd and 3rd race.
8. 

   NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
   10th April 2022, 22:05

   In every way Leclerc did great. RedBull seemed faster at many points…

   But here he is 26/26 points.
9. 

   Fahlen
   10th April 2022, 22:16

   1. LeClerc is head and shoulders above the rest, no competition really. Hoping to see a non Mercedes/Red Bull team/driver to win the title pretty much since Raikkonen if I may consider Brawn to be “somewhat of a Mercedes itself” :D
   2. Albon did an amazing job getting a point in a Williams in only his third race for the team.
   3. Then I liked Hamilton, great start, harrassing a Red Bull for position before the pit stops and was about to retake the position right before the safety car came out.
10. 

    juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
    10th April 2022, 22:41

    Albon, Alonso and Leclerc were all brilliant over the weekend.
    1. 

       Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
       11th April 2022, 8:16

       @juan-fanger

       Did Latifi do even more brilliantly than Alonso? At least he didn’t finish last.

       I would say that Alonso’s performance was extremelly poor after he pitted. After a few laps, bottas and other drivers in slower cars and older tyres pulled away from him while alonso fell behind everyone and shreadded his tyres.
       1. 

          Broom (@)
          13th April 2022, 8:15

          It was but his tyres were less durable and was caught up in a train. In trying to make up place with no DRS advantage he only ended up with worse tyres.
11. 

    Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
    11th April 2022, 1:34

    Leclerc, of course. No doubt about that.
    Also goog weekend for Albon, Russell and Norris.
12. 

    Esploratore (@esploratore1)
    11th April 2022, 5:22

    Went for albon as he obviously would have less votes but I see he had plenty, leclerc is showing what some of us saw already when he was in sauber, that he’s a top driver, he just drives the car as fast as verstappen, there’s no driver faster than him, give him a really strong car and you get stuff like this race, give him a car 3 tenths per lap behind and you get stuff like silverstone 2021.
13. 

    Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
    11th April 2022, 9:31

    Difficult to look beyond Leclerc really I think. He just got everything right.

    Honourable mention to Albon of course for having enough pace to make the Williams strategy work.
14. 

    SteuRui17 (@steurui17)
    11th April 2022, 9:34

    IMHO this vote is underlying how much is difficult to maintain a consistent and bias-free judgement parameter.

    When Hamilton and Vettel before him were cruising to victories without notable errors, comments were full of “it was too easy for him to be DoW”, “anyone would be able to do that in that machinery” and so on. This time we have a driver that had a similarly dominant machinery but also made a big mistake that put in danger a first place that never appeared in doubt, and yet we have a crushingly one-sided poll result in his favour.

    Do not get me wrong: I rate Charles very highly and will be more than happy if he continues this winning-form, I am just a little baffled by these polls results and comments.
    1. 

       Hans Herrmann (@twentyseven)
       11th April 2022, 10:27

       steurui17 first of all it’s just an opinion poll, that means the winner is the best in people’s opinions and facts play a minor role in the result. So if Leclerc continues to dominate, even if it’s due to his emence skill the opinions will change as people become bored and look for excuses to vote for other drivers.
       In my opinion, leclercs teammate showed just how finely tuned your race weekend needs to be to deliver a good result. Sainz got ankle tapped in quali and that wobble propagated through his weekend culminating in a massive misjudgement and a spin off the track. Leclerc is not cruising home in machinery that almost drives it’s self, he stuck it on pole and withstood pressure from max, bringing it home first. In will’s driver rating I expect Leclerc to get no greater than a 7 or maybe an 8 (given that it was a grand slam). He had it easy but at this point in the season in these unpredictable cars, getting a grand slam is a heck of an achievement.
    2. 

       David BR (@david-br)
       11th April 2022, 13:17

       @steurui17 Sorry, I’m lost, what was Leclerc’s big mistake? Did I totally miss it?
       1. 

          SteuRui17 (@steurui17)
          11th April 2022, 13:28

          At the restart he missed the apex in the last turn, thus Verstappen was able to attack him on the straight. There are some onboards video from Max’s car view from which is easily noticeable.
          Granted, not the worst error possible, but he was the one leading the restart and with the better pace…
          1. 

             someone or something
             11th April 2022, 13:46

             Granted, not the worst error possible,

             And not a “big” mistake by any stretch of the imagination. He slightly missed an apex while pushing. That’s the extent of his mistake. Of course, this briefly put his lead at risk, but he was able to see off Verstappen’s challenge with a simple defensive move.
             – tiny error
             – not completely unforced (Red Bull had very strong straight-line speed again, and the track layout pretty much leaves you no other choice than pushing through the hairpin, so that’s where he had to drop the hammer)
             – was able to correct the mistake without any external factors playing into his hands
             – no consequences whatsoever

             => A mistake smaller than this has yet to be invented.
             1. 

                SteuRui17 (@steurui17)
                11th April 2022, 15:03

                Well, this is your opinion and I accept it, but I think your conclusion is not so straighforward as you want to imply:
                – “tiny error”: what does “tiny” mean in this case? We are talking about a sport were they all are constantly on the limit, races were lost for errors in centimeters magnitude and here his positioning was missed by quite a lot more
                – “not unforced”: unforced or not, it is still an error
                – “no consequences”: the fact that it had no consequences is not meaningful in analysing the error itself (as the stewards like to point out :) ). Moreover this was only the third race, if the same situation should repeat at the championship decider I doubt Max will surrender the first corner so easily…

                That said let me repeat: I agree that there are far worse error out there, but at the same time I think that it must be taken in consideration while debating about the DoW
    3. 

       davidhunter13 (@davidhunter13)
       11th April 2022, 18:17

       Leclerc made a small mistake that righted itself immediately. Strange thing to have a go at him for.

       Also we know these new cars can run far closer than they’ve been able to for years and years, so it really is more of a race now. Drivers even commented that the pace was relentless, constantly putting in quali laps, unlike in the past where someone would get so close then lose a lot of performance. So yeah I think Leclerc drive almost flawlessly and had Max behind him unable to catch up on true pace.
15. 

    Todfod (@todfod)
    11th April 2022, 10:45

    Voted Leclerc.. But Albon deserves it as much. Shame Alonso had those problems in qualifying and got unlucky with the safety car. I reckon he would have taken DOTW if his car and team didn’t let him down.
16. 

    Luke S (@joeypropane)
    11th April 2022, 11:18

    Could well have been Alonso, if he managed to get that quali lap in and start 4th/5th, but alas…

    Remove all the what-if’s and Leclerc got the absolute maximum result possible without so much as a flinch.
17. 

    Lamalas (@lamalas)
    11th April 2022, 13:07

    imo,

    DOTW: Charles L or A Albon.
    DOTD: George Russel.
18. 

    The Dolphins
    11th April 2022, 18:50

    I can understand people applauding Albon on his drive to p10 but that strategy was anything but ideal. I can’t imagine the setup on that Williams was such that it performs best on Hard tyres, even 57 lap used ones, compared to a Soft or Medium compound. If that really is the case that is absurd. The team should have called him in with 10 laps to go to put on the Soft compound and race for p9 or p8 with fresh rubber.
19. 

    Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
    12th April 2022, 12:42

    It can’t be Albon because he qualified poorly and was even disqualified from qualifying altogether. So it’s Leclerc. Again. I don’t want to vote for him a 3rd time but I sort of have to.
    Driver of the race is another matter, and is tightly contested between Albon and Leclerc. But a grand chelem is something special.
20. 

    bogaaaa (@nosehair)
    13th April 2022, 3:16

    Danric for not being able to have a crack at George by his team, when he was quicker than Norris while George was getting away.

Comments are closed.