A Look At The Castrol Driver Rankings

Since first being released last January, the Castrol Driver Rankings have been for good for a lot of heated discussion over their value, but not always much else. Still, it's a conversation starter, and any project that tries to rank 2,000+ world drivers is going to be interesting.

Here's a list of IndyCar drivers considered in the Top 100 in the world right now. IndyCar is actually pretty well-rated by Castrol (T-3 with 24 Hours of LeMans), just behind F1 and NASCAR, and ahead of everyone else:

Will Power: 6th
Dario Franchitti: 9th
Hélio Castroneves: 16th
Scott Dixon: 18th
Ryan Brisoce: 21st
Ryan Hunter-Reay: 29th
Tony Kanaan: 37th
Marco Andretti: 45th
Justin Wilson: 48th
Dan Wheldon: 53rd
Danica Patrick: 68th
Vitor Meira: 80th
Alex Tagliani: 83rd

Well, that should raise some eyebrows. If you're wondering, your top Indy Lights finisher is James Hinchcliffe, ranked 245th, just a few points ahead of J.K. Vernay.

Francesco Dracone: Protecting 1,133rd Place At All Costs.

I still have my doubts about the usefulness of this system (due to his lack of a full-time ride, Paul Tracy is ranked lower than Milka Duno), but any site that lets me see the highest-rated Estonian driver in the world (Sten Pentus of Formula Renault 3.5, of course; he rates 244th overall), what country racked up the most points (Will Power, Mark Webber, and the Aussie Mob, 39,937) or where Stefan Wilson ends up (561st) is absolute gold as a time-waster.