Sebastian Loeb, Shane Van Gisbergen, Kelly discussed on The Autosport Podcast
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
Mega. I'm not suggesting he isn't, but that is that he can't have that bonus point, if you like. And the other one is, yeah, we talked about the collective French Grand Prix, but that's not the reason why he lost the world challenge. The reason he lost the world championship was because of strategic strategy areas by Ferrari and unreliability. And also think, and Carlos Sainz hinted at this at the end of the year. He was an early stage of the season. He was bowled over by how leclerc could hang on to that car. I think that was a fast car at the start of the year, but I don't think it was an easy car. I watching the clerk is like, it's difficult to see it on with modern F one cars because they are on rails in a way that previous year hasn't. But you can see it with the cloud. You can see the body language. He's hanging on to it, and ultimately he came unstuck at the French Grand Prix by over, it was too much. But he's just great to watch on a qualifying lap. I think he got absolutely the most out of a car that ultimately wasn't good enough to win the world championship. 14th place, Carlos Sainz, I will add in. Where did the other rally drivers rank then Tom? So Kelly Robin perra was third, but how does that compare with the other drivers in the series that you were covering this year? Because the next place in P 16, he was prepared with what you'd call title rival if you could use those words. I mean, he was the only one who could really push Kelly as close as possible, but realistically there wasn't really a title fight because Carrie sort of sewn it up midyear. So Tarek was superb. Definitely deserves that spot in my eyes. The reason why he deserves that spot is his performance in Finland against Robin pair on home soil where he absolutely destroyed him in a car that really was not shouldn't be able to do that. He needed to time it. It was all over the place. He looked like he was going to crash all the time, but he actually got through and actually destroyed the opposition. So yes, the other rally drivers obviously Sebastian Loeb who is a former list topper as we've already said. He's back in the list, P 25, he's had a great year. Obviously one Monte Carlo rally, 80th career, WRC win, the oldest driver to win a WRC event at 48 years old. A side of that, he also was second and Dakar. Also was in successful extreme E and in the world rally rage, championship. So he was a busy man at 48 and race champions. Just amazing. He's just such a cool character and you know, still has it at 48. It's incredible to watch. So even though he didn't do a full year in a certain series, when we put this list together, you're taking that into account. That's pretty much the full rally raid, I think. And extremely. I mean, obviously they're shorter calendars. But I mean, but that's a great example of someone who climbs up the list in the top 50, but Tom couldn't put in that high in his top ten because he didn't do that many of the rounds. Yeah. But in this, we can bump him up a bit because he did all this. I mean, I think he's just such a cool dude. He was like the smokes a cigarette that jumps in a rally car and just does it. But what the cool thing about the Monte Carlo rally win was there was no setup changes on that car, the entire rally, he just jumped in, drive it one of the rally. No changes. It's just a freak of nature. He really is. Back in the top back in the top 50 as well for the first time since 2013 when he finished 12th in your list. So yeah, I mean, I had to go quite a way back to find it. I wasn't quite sure when his last prince would be, but that was his last world championship win, wasn't it? 13. I'm pretty sure he's one of the highest highest overall in the last 20 years as well, I'm using the top 5 of 6. I think him and Scott Dixon probably the two top non F one drivers. The other serve auger 49th, scripting to the top 50. Let's go to the other end of the list then, before we come on to a big F one chat, is we go to the end of the list. There's 50, which means there's a 51st. So how much of your time is spent with that long list? I mean, how long is it is it? 175, but how do you even mention some of the names that just missed out if you happen to hand? That's the thing. I mean, there is a big debate over some names you put quite high up to start with in the preliminary list. And then the correspondent will go back and do you and say, I'm delighted that this person is so high. But why haven't you included the second and third pick from my list? So then you're faced with the conundrum of do we include the second or third person? Or do we bump them down a bit so that the requirements have several drivers from, say, super formula, isn't there? So super formula champion to make on a jiri is in the 21 on this list. Up from 28 last year. So a really good year for Nigeria. I mean, he did win very comfortably. That championship. And I think that was one of the elements that made him such a clear for this list. But then it also therefore makes the case for other drivers from that world. Slightly more difficult. On the flip side, you could say, well, we've got Shane van gisbergen in a number ten and no other supercar drivers. Should we have included another supercars driver? So that conversation was had. We had the discussion over which. So formula drivers should go into the list. So one of those that was mentioned was Sasha finestra, who was second in super formula. Another was rear hirokawa, who was third in super formula who also won the world insurance championship and LeMond this year, vitta. What counted against hirokawa was that he was ranked at number 5 of our prototype drivers this year in Gary Watkins,