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Finally, with the curtain call at Abu Dhabi, the 2018 season came to an end and it was a history-making season. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton again won the title after a first half of the season where they seemed to be in a spot of bother.
It was closely contested at the beginning with Mercedes taking the lead by the end of the season with the best car and of course the best driver. The season also marked the end(for now?) for the career of Fernando Alonso as he takes a sabbatical and leaves a seat vacant at Mclaren.
The next season is bound to have some changes in the pecking order with a new less complicated front wing specification to be introduced to promote better overtaking. The season also marks the end of the perennial underdogs of F1, "Sahara Force India" as they were taken over by the conglomerate Headed by Lawrence Stroll.
It was the season which gave an opportunity for many youngsters trying to make their mark in F1 to shine and many of the youngsters were able to impress massively and some even got the jump to major teams for next year, while others sadly missed out.
It was a season which was expected to be a thriller but through so many faults and unforced errors from his competitors, Lewis was able to turn this championship fight into a cakewalk.
Many drivers, when they look back at the 2018 season would call it "mission accomplished" while for some it would be a season to forget.as they head into the winter break on the back of a not so good season.
Let's take a look at the list of drivers who would look back at this season pretty happy while others who would be disappointed that they could never get their act together.
Winners
#1 Lewis Hamilton
Who else could it be? The biggest winner of 2018 is the guy who got the biggest prize in F1, The World's Driver Champion, Lewis Hamilton.
2018 is going to go down as the year when Hamilton peaked. A season where he hardly put a step wrong, was always on the attack and destroyed his opposition both on track and mentally.
The season includes some of his best race wins of all time. With the win in Germany and in Monza to be counted among the best wins of this generation.
By putting in a season like this in a car which was, at times, not the fastest Lewis has firmly cemented his place among the greats of the sport and for sure can lay the claim to be the best driver on the grid.
The question that would be on everyone's mind is where does Lewis go from here? After putting in a peerless performance what does Lewis bring for the next season?
#2 Charles Leclerc
Dreams do come true, don't they? Charles Leclerc will be driving a Ferrari next season. Yes, in just his second season in F1, Leclerc has been promoted to a team that is the dream team of so many drivers.
In a way, Leclerc has held on to his own personal record of not competing for more than a year in a series and getting promoted(Let's face it, Sauber is pretty much F1.5 these days).
It was a slow start to the season for Charles as he spun a few times early on but once he got the breakthrough result in Azerbaijan he really turned it up a notch and made Marcus Ericcson, his experienced teammate in the same team, look like an amateur.
For a driver of Charles Calibre, the real fight starts now. First, he needs to show this is where he belongs against his illustrious teammate and then step by step make progress.
#3 Piere Gasly
Not even Gasly would have thought that he'd get such a rapid promotion from Torro Rosso to Red Bull in the span of just one year.
But then no one really expected Daniel Ricciardo to leave Red Bull and go to Renault next year and a vacant seat opening up at Red Bull Racing team.
Gasly has been able to grab that opportunity on the back of a pretty impressive run at Torro Rosso in his Rookie year.
He was the standout driver in the team against Brendan Hartley as he had many standout performances on track, like the one in Bahrain and Monaco.
Scoring 29 points in a season when your teammate only scores four also helped him stamp his authority over Hartley and made Red Bull's choice easy. Would be interesting to see how he fares against next year.
#4 Nico Hulkenberg
Hulkenberg had a tough challenge up against him in Carlos Sainz, one of the best new talents on the grid and the way he literally dominated Carlos in the first few races of the year really set the tone for the rest of the season.
Although Hulk did taper off a bit in the second half of the season and was probably not as good as the first half and even allowed Carlos to come back at him and cut his lead a bit, still the gap he had over Carlos both in qualifying and races was pretty obvious.
As a cherry on top Nico was comfortably the "best of the rest" driver this season. In many ways, it was mission accomplished for Nico for 2018 as he comes up against a new challenge in Daniel Ricciardo in 2019, he'd need to up his game even more next season if he wants to take on the Honeybadger.
#5 Kimi Raikkonen
It sounds a bit weird to put a driver who was soundly beaten by his teammate, is losing his seat from a top team and moving to a midfield team to be named as a winner.
But in so many ways Raikkonen this season was able to put together a strong season which was much better than what he had done in the last few years.
This season Raikkonen made fewer mistakes, was at it all the time, was consistent and sometimes even put Vettel in the shadow.
His selection in Sauber could even be attributed to an upturn in Raikkonen's form.
He's proven himself to be a stable, consistent performer this season, although he lacks those last few tenths that made him a beast behind the wheel but he can still put the car where it belongs and will be an asset to Sauber next year.
Losers
#1 Valtteri Bottas
2018 would ring alarm bells loud and clear for Valtteri Bottas. It was a season where got showed up horribly. A points tally of 247 compared to 408 for Lewis shows just shows the gulf that is there between the two drivers.
Last year Valteri was able to snatch a win or two here and there, have a weekend where even Lewis found it tough to catch him. But this year there's just been a consistent gap between Lewis and Bottas.
To make clear how bad things were, Valteri Finished behind Kimi and Max Verstappen in fifth spot this year and arguably both of them had a comparatively less strong car beneath them.
Rumors have already started circulating that if Bottas is not on the mark next year then Mercedes can replace him with Esteban Ocon who was unfortunately left without a drive for 2019.
#2 Sebastien Vettel
Lewis Hamilton is currently the best driver on the grid. He has better numbers. He has proven himself to be better in the wet weather.
He has done a better job whenever things got tough and twice in a straight battle he has beaten Sebastian Vettel.
2018 is a year where Vettel needs to sit down and think where he's going wrong because he was completely outclassed by Lewis Hamilton throughout the season and a championship which should arguably have gone down to the wire was wrapped up with races to spare.
An uncertain Vettel with an aggressive charger strapping up in the next seat alongside, Hamilton literally having him in his back pocket and a Honda partnership looking to make Red bull a contender from next year onwards, it could be an important year for Vettel who just could not afford a similar season to the one he just had.
#3 Esteban Ocon
Ocon must be thinking what more he could have done to at least get a seat in F1. It's just a sad reality of Formula One (as well as poor management on the part of Mercedes) that a driver who is touted by many to be a future champion did not get a seat on the grid next year.
A conversation between Hamilton, Vettel, and Ocon during post-qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix personified F1's Situation at the moment with Ocon being asked if his future is sorted to which he replied no saying "One driver brings the money and the other owns the team".
Ocon was the better driver against Perez this season as he pretty much dominated him in qualifying by the scoreline reading 16-5 and was much better in races than Perez.
Things could still change for Ocon next year If Bottas' woeful form continues but will Mercedes put a young charger nest to Lewis is a question in itself.
#4 Carlos Sainz
Sainz Jr. was one of the disappointments of 2018. He came into the Renault works team with high hopes of forging a partnership with the French Marque.
He was up against Hulkenberg and many expected Sainz to be the guy who would end up ahead.
But at the end of the year, Sainz's reputation has taken a huge hit. He was out-qualified and Outraced by Hulkenberg throughout the year.
All around Hulkenberg proved to be a much better driver than Sainz and as a result, when the time came Sainz's contract was not renewed by Renault and in fact even Red Bull didn't pick up the option of putting him in Red Bull.
Ultimately he did find refuge with Mclaren and has a chance to redeem himself but still, he'll need to put in a much better season than 2018 to improve his reputation among the young chargers on the grid.
#5 Stoffel Vandoorne
A scoreline of 21-0 in qualifying in favor of his teammate. A points tally of 50-12 again in favor of his teammate.
Even if the teammate is the illustrious two-time World CHampion Fernando Alonso, the readings still look horrible.
2018 season could prove to be a career killer for Vandoorne because it is very tough to see how bounces back from this and can salvage even a seat in formula one in the future.
As a result of his below-par performance this year, Stoffel has been chucked out of the Mclaren team and will be taking part in Formula-E next season.
It's a sad end to someone who was touted to be such a big talent and a driver who would take McLaren to glory in future.
Could he have been given another year is questionable but now Stoffel needs to put his head down and start performing to try and reciprocate what Magnussen did after getting the boot from Mclaren?
