Top Ten Formula 1 Drivers of the Past Decade

Almost without warning, another decade has slipped by. It’s been an interesting one in so many ways, but what about Formula 1? 

Michele Lupini takes a look back and picks his personal top ten F1 drivers of the past ten years. Well make that eleven — sometimes it’s just too difficult to leave one out, but this is how our man sees them stack up...

10. Robert Kubica

Many may wonder why Robert Kubica — a man who hardly featured in an F1 decade book ended by his presence — is on this list. But his story is an incredible one of pure determination to overcome a crippling rally injury. That he could even drive an F1 car is a miracle. Sadly Robert never got the chance to drive a leading F1 car again, but scoring five times the points of his Renault teammate in 2010 and bagging Williams’ only point of the past season eight years later, are a mere flicker of a career that could very well have been among the brightest lights of F1’s past decade...

9. Max Verstappen

F1’s youngest ever driver arrived to great fanfare amid an army of orange at most grands prix. He’s a proven winner and inevitably brilliant when his Red Bull can compete, to establish Verstappen as the young gun of F1 in the latter part of the decade. Armed with a more consistent Honda engine, Max is ready to fight to the top of this list in the next decade, but to do that he must temper his outlook — F1 is more than just his current team, especially considering the impending progress of among a growing crop of hungry younger rivals.

8. Mark Webber & Jenson Button

This is what happens when you need to put eleven names on a list of ten! Both Jenson Button and Mark Webber left F1 midway through the decade —  one as a former champion and the other as a man who came oh so close to doing so. Button was brilliant in the last seasons of the McLaren Mercedes, beating or matching his fellow world champion teammate Hamilton in the title chase in the years they were together, while Webber rose to fight his dominant teammate Vettel at Red Bull. Both of them are more than worthy of inclusion in this list...

7. Charles Leclerc

Carlito would not have been anywhere near this list a year ago, but his meteoric rise not only sets him out as a most plausible Driver of the Next Decade, it was also enough to force him well into this one’s Top Ten. Ferrari's re-found faith in Charles Leclerc is well placed off a mesmerising first season in red — a promotion based on a fine showing alongside Raikkonen at Alfa Romeo leaves just one question — were will he be on this list in ten years time…?  

6. Daniel Ricciardo

The Honey Badger is one of the enigmas of the past F1 decade. Outstanding in the car, Verstappen ultimately handed him the same fate he inflicted on Vettel to follow him out of Red Bull a few seasons anon. Daniel is among the most talented F1 drivers of his era — a man who can make the best from any situation is one of several top drivers that has not made the best of transitions. We can only pray that the 2020 Renault is up to this driver’s currently misplaced talent.  

5. Kimi Raikkonen

The Iceman started the past decade buggering around in rally cars, NASCAR trucks and the rest. But his comeback was impressive as he lifted that Lotus Renault out of the doldrums and then went back to Ferrari and even won a race among myriad brilliant radio conversations, unforgettable anecdotes and alarming party tales. Still right in there and enjoying life at Alfa Romeo, Kimi remains a massive F1 asset.

4. Nico Rosberg

The other world champion over the past decade, Nico Rosberg was a bit like a skyrocket. A big explosion after a long and fiery ascent and that was that. Point is Nico beat Lewis to the title in the same car in that often a fiery rivalry with his former karting rival and teammate to stand him apart as without doubt our best of the rest.

3. Fernando Alonso

Perhaps the disappointment of the decade, not seeing Fernando Alonso in a leading car over the past few seasons is a tragedy in itself.  

He's exceptional in an F1 car — two blindingly close seconds in the 2010 and ’12 titl chases at the hands of Vettel each time and another second in ‘13 were punctuated by a couple of dreadful seasons at Ferrari. Sadly, unlike Hamilton, Fernando never made the best decision heading back to replace him at a waning McLaren and ultimately out of F1.

The double F1 world champion who has since won Le Mans and will likely chase that elusive triple crown at the Indy 500 this year, Alonso started the decade as double world champion driving a Ferrari starts the next one behind the wheel of a Hilux. In the context of Kimi Raikkonen above, let’s hope that's a good thing...

2. Sebastian Vettel

Seb started the new era as its king and stayed there for four seasons. His first title was sensational, stolen from Alonso in splendid style, before a dominant display in 2011, holding Alonso’s charge off the next year and then ending the atmo era in mesmerising style. Vettel raced to nine wins on the trot to wrap up the most dominant championship of the decade with an emphatic 155 point advantage in 2013.

But the second half was not so kind to Sebastian — beaten by new Aussie teammate Ricciardo to a lowly fifth in the first year of the new turbo era, his jump to Ferrari brought great expectation the following season. But Maranello has been unable to consistently match Stuttgart since and it has been more difficult for Sebastian to maintain focus at oft-chaotic Ferrari, as it may have been for Hamilton and his dominant Mercedes.  

That said, Vettel has a enjoyed a better run overall in the past six seasons relative to how Hamilton scored in the first four years of the decade when Seb was champion, and while like Hamilton, he has been beaten twice by a teammate over the past ten seasons, Vettel has never lost a title to one of them, making this a far closer call to make than what many may currently want to believe...

1. Lewis Hamilton

Lewis won a sensational first world championship at the end of the previous decade, but he started this one watching from a distance as equipped with the best car on the track Seb sailed to four titles in a row. Hamilton never quite came to grips with an ebbing McLaren and then the last Mercedes of the previous era, with three fourth-places and a fifth in those four championship campaigns.

However, if ever an F1 move was perfectly timed, it was his shift to Mercedes a season prior to the switch to the new turbo era.  

Since then, with the exception of the year Nico Rosberg nicked the title from him, it seems that the current rules were made for Mercedes and Hamilton and that combination has since epitomised this age. But there's more to it than that — on his day, which has been most days in the second half of the past ten years, Hamilton has been indomitable, imperious. Invincible.  

It was a close call, but that last extra title and his refusal to stand down sets him ahead in my book — Lewis Hamilton is my Driver of the Decade. (Report by Michele Lupini)