Tommy Smith: My Ultimate Driver

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Aussie charger Tommy Smith is next up to give us his best of the best, creating the ultimate racing driver.

Smith picks some legends of Formula 1 and some classic moments to back up his picks. Here’s who the VAR driver would pick.

INTELLIGENCE

“Fernando Alonso, he is super intelligent on track with his overtaking & defending. He’s never involved in incidents on track, His defending from Lewis Hamilton in Hungary 2021 in a much slower car was very impressive & has probably been the best overtaker this year. He’s well ahead of his car, even in Miami he watched Stroll overtake from the circuit TV during the race. He’s only gotten more intelligent through his career.”

WET WEATHER SKILL

“A close tie between Ayrton Senna & Max Verstappen, but I will go with Senna as the cars were super tricky to drive & the discrepancy between cars wasn’t as big back then, so came more down to the driver. His ability to find the ideal racing line and the grip on track was unbelievable. There’s a reason he was known as the ‘Master of the Rain’.”

QUALIFYING PACE

“I’d have to say Max Verstappen, not once the last few years had I thought he wouldn’t be in contention for Pole Position , especially the laps when he’s under pressure, he can deliver unbelievable Qualifying laps, he’s really competing with himself this year.”

CORNERING ABILITY

“Haven’t mentioned Michael Schumacher so has to be him, you don’t win seven F1 World Titles being slow in the corners. The great drivers you can just tell have that bit of magic around them & feel that like Michael or any good driver, they can tick all these questions. I don’t think he ever finished behind a teammate until he came back from retirement and Nico Rosberg beat him, but Michael had nothing else to prove by then, it was just his hobby.”

READ MORE: Fighting to the end: F3 Summer Wrap-Up

TYRE MANAGEMENT

“This one has to be Lewis Hamilton, the amount of times he’s done the fastest lap of the race on old tyres or made a compound last a lot further then the tyre life window Pirelli suggests has helped him win a lot of races & have that edge over his teammates.”

BRAVERY

“The Iceman was very brave back in his McLaren days. There’s a video of Kimi Räikkönen flat out up Eau Rouge & along the Kemmel straight at Spa after someone had blown their engine & the visibility was zero, but Kimi never lifts the throttle. I think there’s a point where it’s not brave, but slightly crazy. Kimi could have probably raced MotoGP.”

OVERTAKING ABILITY

“Daniel Ricciardo, place him in a car he has confidence with & his overtaking ability is unbelievable & it’s not just the car because his teammates weren’t doing overtakes as brave. His pass on Sebastian Vettel in Monza 2014, Baku 2017 & Shanghai on Hamilton & Valtteri Bottas 2018 were very impressive.”

SMOOTH OR AGGRESSIVE

“I’d like to be Smooth, but I tend to be more aggressive which is great in some areas like the opening laps as I normally move forwards. But with these Tyres if you’re too aggressive, the end of the race is very difficult which I’ve learned the hard way this year. It’s definitely a balance as in Qualifying you still need to be aggressive to maximise the tyre.”