Team bosses vote Lewis Hamilton as driver of the year

But, unlike what happened on track this season, it was not his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg who emerged as his closest challenger.

As part of the annual Formula 1 season review, AUTOSPORT has again exclusively polled every team principal for their top driver list of the year.

These lists are kept secret, so the bosses can be honest about their opinions, and only the overall results are collated together using the F1 scoring system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.

The form that Hamilton displayed en route to capturing his second world championship this year was enough to deliver him a comfortable margin at the head of the rankings.

However, although Rosberg pushed Hamilton until the end of the season for the championship, the German only ended up fifth overall in the rankings.

Instead, it was Fernando Alonso who emerged as the team principals' second best driver, with his performance in the underwhelming Ferrari serving to impress.

Daniel Ricciardo's brilliant season for Red Bull, as he became the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race, secured him third place ahead of Williams' Valtteri Bottas.

Marussia's Jules Bianchi, who remains in a serious condition in hospital following his accident at the Japanese Grand Prix, was ranked eighth overall - having delivered his and his team's first world championship points at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Christian Horner, Red Bull

Toto Wolff, Mercedes

Federico Gastaldi, Lotus

Marco Mattiacci, Ferrari

Eric Boullier, McLaren

Vijay Mallya, Force India

Monisha Kaltenborn, Sauber

Franz Tost, Toro Rosso

Claire Williams, Williams

Graeme Lowdon, Marussia

* Caterham not included due to multiple changes of management