Ranking the Drivers Talent

[Racing Steward]

I like to do this every year in the off-season. And im sure some responses will be to look at the point standings but that is a lazy, unreliable and bogus way of ranking the talent of the drivers IMO.

So tell me: In equal equipment where do the current drivers rank on talent. Assuming everyone had a great car set up perfectly to their style.

My Ranks
1. Scott Dixon
2. Sebastien Bourdais
3. Justin Wilson
4. Ryan Hunter Reay
5. Will Power
6. Simon Pagenaud
7. Dario Franchitti (This is where I think Dario was at before his retirement. Its sad to lose a champion who was as good as Dario was. He has nothing left to prove and will go down one of the All Time Greats and it was a pleasure to have watched him race)
8. Helio Castroneves
9. James Hinchcliffe
10. Tony Kanaan
11-15: Ryan Briscoe / Charlie Kimball / Graham Rahal / Marco Andretti / Oriol Servia
16-20: Josef Newgarden / Takuma Sato / Simona De Silvestro / Ed Carpenter / James Jakes
21-ETC: Tristan Vautier / Alex Tagliani / EJ Viso / Sebastian Saavedra

[Glenn]

I like to do this every year in the off-season. And im sure some responses will be to look at the point standings but that is a lazy, unreliable and bogus way of ranking the talent of the drivers IMO.

So tell me: In equal equipment where do the current drivers rank on talent. Assuming everyone had a great car set up perfectly to their style.

My Ranks
1. Scott Dixon
2. Sebastien Bourdais
3. Justin Wilson
4. Ryan Hunter Reay
5. Will Power
6. Simon Pagenaud
7. Dario Franchitti (This is where I think Dario was at before his retirement. Its sad to lose a champion who was as good as Dario was. He has nothing left to prove and will go down one of the All Time Greats and it was a pleasure to have watched him race)
8. Helio Castroneves
9. James Hinchcliffe
10. Tony Kanaan
11-15: Ryan Briscoe / Charlie Kimball / Graham Rahal / Marco Andretti / Oriol Servia
16-20: Josef Newgarden / Takuma Sato / Simona De Silvestro / Ed Carpenter / James Jakes
21-ETC: Tristan Vautier / Alex Tagliani / EJ Viso / Sebastian Saavedra

Hard to argue with this ranking. Personally I'd put Power in 2nd, RHR in 3rd, Pags in 4th, and Bordais in 5th.

[Riss]

I like to do this every year in the off-season. And im sure some responses will be to look at the point standings but that is a lazy, unreliable and bogus way of ranking the talent of the drivers IMO.

So tell me: In equal equipment where do the current drivers rank on talent. Assuming everyone had a great car set up perfectly to their style.

My Ranks
1. Scott Dixon
2. Sebastien Bourdais
3. Justin Wilson
4. Ryan Hunter Reay
5. Will Power
6. Simon Pagenaud
7. Dario Franchitti (This is where I think Dario was at before his retirement. Its sad to lose a champion who was as good as Dario was. He has nothing left to prove and will go down one of the All Time Greats and it was a pleasure to have watched him race)
8. Helio Castroneves
9. James Hinchcliffe
10. Tony Kanaan
11-15: Ryan Briscoe / Charlie Kimball / Graham Rahal / Marco Andretti / Oriol Servia
16-20: Josef Newgarden / Takuma Sato / Simona De Silvestro / Ed Carpenter / James Jakes
21-ETC: Tristan Vautier / Alex Tagliani / EJ Viso / Sebastian Saavedra

I like this. This should be fun.
1. Dixon
2. Wilson
3. Bourdais
4. Power
5. RHR
6. Pagenaud
7. Kanaan
8. Hinchcliffe
9. Helio
10. Simona
11. Kimball
12. Servia
13. Sato
14. Newgarden
15. Marco
16. Briscoe
17. Tags
18. Rahal
19. Ed
20. Jakes
21. Viso
22. Vautier
23. Saavedra

[NaBUru38]

Do you mean the current rank, or the historic rank?

My current rank is:

1. Dixon
2. Pagenaud
3. Power
4. Castroneves
5. Kanaan
6. Wilson
7. Hunter-Reay
8. Andretti
9. Hinchcliffe
10. Bourdais

[sean26]

didn't we do this last winter?

[davidgarvin]

Is anyone going to receive a gratuity for these rankings?

[shakespeare]

didn't we do this last winter?

With RS, this is a perpetual topic.

[Danny Noonan]

Will be interesting to see what Bourdais can do next year. He has still shown signs of being quick, but as compared to Wilson who is also with a mediocre team at best he doesn't compare well.

[Tree0404]

in the current approximate 2/3 SC/RC & 1/3 Oval schedule....

TIER ONE
1. Dixon
2. Power
3. RHR
4. Wilson
5. Pagenaud
<Franchitti>
6. Bourdais

TIER ONE POINT FIVE
7. Hinch
8. Helio
9. Kanaan

TIER TWO
10. Marco
11. Servia
12. Kimball
13. Sato
14. Briscoe

TIER THREE
15. Simona
16. Newgarden
17. Rahal

TIER THREE POINT FIVE
18. Carpenter/Conway (If they were a conglomerate of one driver, I'd probably put them at #10)
19. Tagliani

TIER FOUR
20. Viso
21. Jakes
22. Vautier
23. Saavedra


The crazy thing is....probably 20 of the 23 full-time drivers could win on any given race day (sans Carpenter on an RC/SC, Simona/Jakes on an oval, or Vautier/Saavedra anywhere)

EIGHTEEN of the 24 drivers listed (including Conway) have wins. The only ones without: Saavedra, Vautier, Jakes, Viso, Newgarden, Simona

and the only drivers I don't see having any shot at winning currently are Saavedra and Vautier. Newgarden could grab a victory on an oval or an RC/SC while Simona could grab a RC/SC win and on the perfect day, Jakes and Viso have shown that they could steal one on a RC/SC (maybe even Viso on an oval).

Thats crazy.

[jdlingle]

I love this kind of stuff. Makes for great debate.

My $.02 for this year:

1. Scott Dixon
2. Will Power
3. Justin Wilson
4. Ryan Hunter Reay
5. Sebastien Bourdais
6. James Hinchcliffe
7. Simon Pagenaud
8. Helio Castroneves
9. Dario Franchitti
10. Tony Kanaan
11-15: Charlie Kimball/ Simona De Silvestro / Marco Andretti / Takuma Sato / Ryan Briscoe
16-20: Josef Newgarden / Graham Rahal /Oriol Servia / Ed Carpenter / James Jakes
21-ETC: Tristan Vautier / Alex Tagliani / EJ Viso / Sebastian Saavedra

[Danny Noonan]

I've never been a big Scott Dixon fan, but his career stats are just phenomenal.

He won his 4th race ever in a stacked CART field in 2001 for PacWest at Nazareth. Finished 8th as a rookie which wasn't too shabby considering the talent at the time.

In 2003, won his first ever IRL race at the "old" Homestead and his first championship.

If you dismiss 2004 & 2005 when Toyota was on the way out, he hasn't finished lower than 4th in points in any year in IndyCar since 2003.

Has won 3 Championships, has finished 2nd twice and 3rd three times in the Championship.

He's won races in 11 different years and he is only 33 years old.

He's won multiple races in a seaon 9 times including the last 8 years in a row.

He's won 3 or more races in a season 6 times, and has won 4 or more races in a season 4 times.

The only guys with more wins have last names of Foyt, Unser and Andretti. He could very, very realistically finish his career with more wins than anyone other than AJ & Mario and it's not out of the realm of possibility he could pass Mario and his 52 wins.

[NoviVespa]

A.J. Foyt
Mario Andretti

[Hitokiri]

What amazes me about many of these list is that we have guys like Kimball ranked over other drivers like Graham even though Graham beat him pretty bad when they were teammates. Then we have Newgarden on the bottom of the ladder even though he did dramatically better this past season on a small single car team without an experienced teammate to lean on or learn from.

Then we have a guy like Bourdais who's been inconsistent throughout the year with flashes of awesomeness every once in a while but yet everyone gives him a green card because of what he accomplished in Champ Car.

I'm just talking out loud here and this is my opinion but just wanted to share my thoughts. I will share my list by tomorrow hopefully.

[Buellboy]

1. Hunter-Reay
2. Dixon
3. Power
4. Hinchcliffe
5. Bourdais
6. Wilson
7. Kanaan
8. Castroneves
9. Pagenaud
10. Andretti

[RA64]

based on 2013, all drivers that ran half the season or more:

1. Scott Dixon
2. Simon Pagenaud
3. Justin Wilson
4. Sebastien Bourdais
5. Will Power
6. Helio Castroneves
7. Ryan Hunter Reay
8. James Hinchcliffe
9. Tony Kanaan
10. Charlie Kimball
11-15: Dario Franchitti / Takuma Sato / Marco Andretti / Oriol Servia / Simona De Silvestro
16-20: Graham Rahal / Josef Newgarden / Ed Carpenter / James Jakes / EJ Viso
21-ETC: Tristan Vautier / Alex Tagliani / Sebastian Saavedra