Can Rosberg and Ricciardo be considered tier 1 drivers now?

[F1 addicted]

Rosberg has proven the last two years to be a very fast and good driver. He took the car where it shouldn't be yesterday and he did that last season too.
Ricciardo is outperforming Vettel since the beginning of the season. He's clearly a fast, smart and consistent driver. Maybe Kimi out and these 2 in. So the tier 1 looks like this: Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Rosberg, Ricciardo and (Button)?

[alexx_88]

That looks like an overly-loaded tier 1 for me. Also, I wouldn't have put Kimi in there in the first place. Sure, he is fast on his day, but he didn't prove an awfully lot in the last few years.

It also depends on the criteria used, if we are talking only about pace (qualy and race) I'd put Hamilton and Alonso in tier 1 and then Vettel close behind, while the others enumerated would be in tier 2: Rosberg, Ricciardo, Button, Kimi and possibly some others that didn't get their chance to shine.

[Emerson.F]

He is very quik and smart as a driver. But 3 of his wins where very lucky to say the least. 3 of those this year with a dominant car. If Lewis hadn't had such rotten luck he would have won those races instead of lucky Rosberg. Imo he is not 1 tier yet, but the year is long a he still has to prove he can beat Lewis in a straight fight wich up till now he hasn't done bar last year.

To me Tier 1 is Alonso, Hamilton and Seb close.

[NTS]

To me Tier 1 is Alonso, Hamilton and Seb close.

I'm surprised people put Alonso above Vettel in these lists. What has Alonso done the last years to prove anything? Some vague mention of "out driven a piece of --- car" is not really a qualification, for all we know Massa just did an even worse job making Alonso look good.

[SiLo]

That Merc looks so easy to drive I get the feeling you could put half the drivers on the grid in it and they would do the same thing.

Rosberg is good, I'll give him that, but I think his position in the WDC is a little inflated after Hamiltons retirements. We will have to wait until the end of the year to find out!

And Ric seems to be handling Vettel well, but again, it may suit him more than Vettel. I'll wait another year to decide on that one.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

To me Tier 1 is Alonso, Hamilton and Seb close.

I'm surprised people put Alonso above Vettel in these lists. What has Alonso done the last years to prove anything? Some vague mention of "out driven a piece of --- car" is not really a qualification, for all we know Massa just did an even worse job making Alonso look good.

What has Alonso done? Almost becoming champion in 2012 with a much slower car than the Red Bull maybe? Outperforming team mates and extracting everything out of the car?

Because he is not winning, doesn't mean he isn't a good driver.

[NTS]

What has Alonso done? Almost becoming champion in 2012 with a much slower car than the Red Bull maybe?

Sure, but then why isn't Hulkenberg in the tier 1 drivers list? He finished high-up in a car that was much worse than a Ferrari on multiple occasions.

Outperforming team mates and extracting everything out of the car?

That does not put him above Vettel in the list, because Vettel also consistently outperformed Webber. And we have no idea whether he "extracted everything out of the car", maybe that car would have been far further ahead with Lewis at the wheel? No way for us to know. Remember, Ferrari is not a mid-field team, they probably have an extra building in Maranello for the enormous amount of trophies they've won.

Because he is not winning, doesn't mean he isn't a good driver.

I'm not saying he is not a good driver, just that I think he should not be at the top of the tier 1 list without winning. Sure he outperformed Massa (a clear #2 driver), and yes he did get that car somewhere. But those two feats are not enough to be considered the top of the tier 1 list in my opinion.

[SilverArrow10]

Tier 1 is still Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton in no particular order.... Kimi on a good day. Someone who has won one race and someone who hasn't won the championship YET cant be put in that group. Maybe in the future for Riccardo, maybe at the end of the season for Rosberg.

[iotar__]

Up-voted not because I like it but wanted to see it. No and neither is Hamilton (1,5 tier at best) nor Vettel. Not the answer you were expecting? Is this elevating Rosberg because he's beating Ham from time to time, like Button at McLaren? No you don't have to be walk on water driver to beat Hamilton. Ricciardo is fast over one lap but not "all time great" .

Joking aside: Rosberg is where he always was which is fast but flawed, plus some nice racing adjustments and improvements: aggression and risks at last but with consequences (mistakes).

Ricciardo is an unknown - because of a car (above all the others in some aspects), opposition within the team and mostly the fact he is driving in a competitive no-man's land. It means he can make all mistakes and still end up on podium. I thought he underperformed in Monaco Q + start, the chance was to be close to Merc when SC happened, had mostly bad starts recently and his race craft is questionable. A bit over-hyped which is annoying because of results and Vettel. They'll run out of scale if he has really good race. Pluses: Q speed and handling pressure I guess.

Car helps in both examples, give them FI and they're finishing way behind Perez in Canada (before the crash).

[Mandrake]

Still too early to assess. It's early in the season and Rosberg still does not have too much pressure lying on him. It's gonna be worse come the end of the season. Same counts for Ricciardo this year. He has no pressure whatsoever. WCC and WDC are out of reach, so whatever he does is okay.

If Rosberg continues to show the mental strength until the end of the season he is certainly up there with the rest. Ricciardo I'd say can be evaluated if they are in a championship winning position.

[SiLo]

Rosberg seems to be a nice middle ground between Hamilton and Button. Good raw pace, but not the fastest, but able to think as well at the same time, although not quite to the levels we have seen Button do in recent years.

[stewilkinson]

It'd be interesting to see how fast Rosberg is when he doesn't have lewis' telemetry to look at.

[beelsebob]

It'd be interesting to see how fast Rosberg is when he doesn't have lewis' telemetry to look at.

It'd be interesting to see how fast Rosberg appears when he doesn't have Lewis blowing up every 5th race to look at.

[Cam]

Daniel Ricciardo is to be the latest winner of the prestigious Trofeo Lorenzo Bandini.

Past winners of the trophy are a roll-call of long and successful grand prix careers, including champions Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.

He's winning races, standing on podiums, scoring points and driving superbly. He's won the respect of many long term commentators, pundits and former WDC. What more proof can be given?

Whether he can remain tier 1, is another matter (kimi, looking at you).

[PlatinumZealot]

Rosberg is still not top tier to me. He has to prove him self by totally destroying and outpacing Lewis head to head on a track that you can actually overtake on. So far he hasn't beat Lewis in a fair fight.

Ricciardo is on the almost* Same Level as Vettel to me now. Speed for speed. he is lacking a bit in race planning.. but he will soon get there.