Ten Drivers Who Underacheived in 2019

Here's the second part of Wednesday's article: ten drivers who didn't quite meet expectations in 2019.

F1: Romain Grosjean

Many fans will say Sebastian Vettel for not challenging Lewis for the title but aside from a few spins which might have cost him third in the championship, much of that was down to the Ferrari car. Instead I'll go Grosjean, who had a wretched year. Him and Magnussen tangled on several occasions, Haas scored well below their expected points tally and he was lucky to be signed to another year as Nico Hulkenburg was probably a better choice.

Supercars: Jack le Brocq

Another category were many would disagree with my pick. Most would argue that Fabian Coulthard's points score relative to McLaughlin merits his place on this list but I think third was about right for where I expected him to be. Instead I'm going to say Jack le Brocq but for measures that were beyond his control. While his replacement of Chaz Mostert at Tickford was controversial as some considered Tom Randle better suited to the drive, Jack had a bad year most caused by underinvestment and being forced to essentially co-drive during the endurance rounds.

MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo

This season was extremely tough for Jorge Lorenzo and it has proven to be his final. There was hype for Lorenzo moving to partner Marc Marquez at the factory Honda team, but it proved unfounded as the former champion shockingly finished nineteenth, causing the end of his full time MotoGP career. Now the question is if Alex Marquez can do a better job because otherwise there might be conceivable thought that the Ducati is actually the better bike.

WEC: Dempsey-Proton Racing

In terms of results, Dempsey Proton achieved what they wanted: a world GTE-AM Championship. However, they were caught tampering with the fuelling times for the cars, and having not admitted who tampered with them their results for all races rpior to when they were caught (Fuji) were thrown out, handing the championship to team Project One. The car #77 crew, Matt Campbell, Christian Ried, and Julien Andlauer, lost two victories but fought back by claiming three more including a Le Mans win to claim second in the title but Dempsey-Proton will be furious.

Formula E: Jose Maria Lopez

Had Nelson Piquet not been kicked out mid season by Jaguar the two south Americans would have pushed each other for this, but it was a season of errors and when there were none, bad luck for Lopez. He only finished in the points twice, was regularily around the back of the field and was even disqualified from Berne, which was the only thing that could have made his season worse. To top it all off, his LMP1 program with Toyota led to no wins at Le Mans and no championship for the 2018-19 SuperSeason.

NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson

Johnson this year was the archetype of a driver winding down their career. He missed the playoffs for the first time in living memory, didn't win a race and even only picked up one podium, at Daytona in the summer. Hopefully he can win a race in 2020, otherwise his glittering career will end on a sour note.

IndyCar: Sebastien Bourdais

IndyCar was the toughest series to pick for because with the exception of Colton Herta, most drivers finished where they were expected. I'll pick Bourdais not because of his position but because he caused a couple of large shunts such as the one at Indianapolis that eliminated five cars.

DTM: Pietro Fittipaldi

The Astons overall struggled in their first season, generally finishing just outside the points. Indeed only one of the beat the lowest of the continuing cars, Pietro Fittipaldi. It really wasn't suprising, considering that his teammate Jonathan Aberdein was my Overachiever, that he was dropped. He will continue in his F1 test driver role in 2020 which he has performed much better in.

WTCR: Augusto Farfus

Farfus did perform well in 2019. He scored two podiums, two fourths and about half of his performances netted points. But, ignoring his absence due to other commitments at Macau, he also had many retirements in the season. Farfus needs to be just a bit more consistent in 2020 and then he should be near the championship.

BTCC: Senna Proctor

The BTCC was another series that didn't see so much variation based on predictions. Senna Proctor, though, will be my choice due to his performance compared to teammate Ash Sutton. He finished 20th. Sutton finished 8th. Sutton has a drive next year following Subaru leaving the sport. Proctor may not.

That is all for this Top 10. Next week I should have an interview to go with my regular content! See you guys then.