Fernando Alonso Voted Off Best F1 Driver of 2010

Sebastian Vettel may have won the 2010 Formula One championship and ranked first in plenty of statistics throughout the recently ended campaign, but the German driver stopped short of passing Fernando Alonso in the Best Driver of the Year poll conducted by British magazine Autosport.

The aforementioned publication asked all the 12 team principals in the paddock who they think was the top performer of 2010 and it comes as no surprise to us that the Spaniard emerged in 1st place. Each team principal was asked to give the poll conductors a personal Top 10.

“Their individual results, which are kept secret, were then converted into the new points system (25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1) and the final scores added up to discover which driver the team bosses believed had done the best job throughout the campaign,” said the report from Autosport.

Driving the third fastest racer of 2010, the Ferrari F10 – although some could argue that the McLaren MP4-25 lost plenty of ground to the F10 in the second part of the season – Alonso managed to put himself into title contention until the final round of the season, when only a poor race strategy from Ferrari prevented him from becoming triple world champion.

Many argued that, had Alonso won this year's title, this would have been by far his best title performance to date. The Ferrari-an voiced his enthusiasm over his maiden campaign with Ferrari, saying that this was his best season in Formula One.

“I am very pleased to learn that the majority of team principals chose me as their best driver of the year, even if it goes without saying that I would have preferred to receive that accolade in the guise of world champion,” said Alonso to Autosport.

“It is yet another reason to claim this has been an amazing season, despite the disappointment at the final hurdle. The team and I fought all the way to the very end, without ever giving up, even when it all seemed like a lost cause: we staged a remarkable comeback. Next year, we will be looking to do better, but I will still remember 2010 as a wonderful year.”

Second place in the Top 10 was taken by newly crowned world champion Sebastian Vettel, while followed by Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber. Here is the complete top, as revealed by the British publication.

01. Alonso 229
02. Vettel 220
03. Hamilton 196
04. Webber 146
05. Kubica 129
06. Button 86
07. Rosberg 68
08. Hulkenberg 17
      Massa 17
10. Barrichello 11