Indy Racing League driver Ryan Briscoe has topped Formula One star Mark Webber and 2009 Le Mans and ALMS winner David Brabham to be the top  ranked Australian driver in a new world driver ranking system.

The Castrol Driver Ranking System claims to fairly compare drivers across a number of different race series and styles.

The rankings analyse performances over 50 major National and International racing series, points are awarded based on a bewildering formula based on results from qualifying, racing and fastest laps.

Events and series are also given a rating based on the number of rounds and the “importance” of the event or series.

The rankings were revealed at the Autosport International Show in Great Britain by former F1 driver David Coulthard.

“You tend to think F1 is the pinnacle, but is it rallying? Is it sportscars? Is it some guy racing in Australian Formula 3? I didn’t know until last night that there is an Australian F3 championship!”

That’s OK David, hardly anyone here knows about it either.

2009 World Formula One Champion Jenson Button came out on top of last years table from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb.

Briscoe was the first Australian in seventh place one ahead of Mark Webber.

Despite winning the Le Mans 24 hour race and the ALMS series David Brabham was way back in 44th one place behind Simon Pagenaud who didn’t win either. Marcos Ambrose was even further back in 61st place.

And just where was local V8 Supercar champ Jamie Whincup?

Well the V8 Supercars are obviously not viewed by the ranking committee quite as highly as Mr Cochrane might feel they deserve.

Whincup finished 115th.

Should In Pit Lane readers want to waste their valuable time keeping track of this rubbish it can be seen at http://www.castroldriverrankings.com/rankings/