F1 2023 driver rankings

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How would you rank the drivers at the end of the 2023 F1 season?

Here are mine (full explanations coming in the future):

1. Max Verstappen
2. Lando Norris
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Fernando Alonso
5. Charles Leclerc
6. George Russell
7. Carlos Sainz
8. Alexander Albon
9. Esteban Ocon
10. Pierre Gasly
11. Oscar Piastri
12. Yuki Tsunoda
13. Nico Hulkenberg
14. Valtteri Bottas
15. Daniel Ricciardo
16. Sergio Perez
17. Zhou Guanyu
18. Kevin Magnussen
19. Lance Stroll
20. Nyck de Vries
21. Logan Sargeant
No rank. Liam Lawson (didn't compete in enough races)

[Aysedasi]

In all fairness to Checo, 16th and below Ricciardo, Bottas, Hulkenberg and Tsunoda is a little bizarre? I'm pretty close on your list otherwise although I'd rate Piastri above both Alpine drivers. I'd probably also put Sainz on an equal footing with Leclerc who had a really disappointing season, all in all.

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Really? I wasn't sure about Ricciardo, considering how few races he did although Mexico City and Hungary were both very good drives.

Yuki Tsunoda had a disappointing spell alongside Liam Lawson but generally held the upper hand over Ricciardo, which I found impressive, and comfortably beat Nyck de Vries, and had a series of very nice drives with Abu Dhabi the best overall.

Nico Hulkenberg always went backwards in races but that seemed to be because of the Haas car. In qualifying, he put in some properly brilliant laps like Spain and Austria and he was considerably better than Kevin Magnussen who has had a decent career. I thought it was a great comeback for him.

Valtteri Bottas didn't have the best of seasons and his racecraft is still letting him down, but in the second half of the year, he always outperformed Zhou, had some nice races like Bahrain and Qatar and a lot of good qualifying laps, and didn't make any mistakes of note.

Sergio Perez, on the other hand, rarely qualified near the top despite having the best car at every track bar Singapore, through total lack of pace, or mistakes, then his recovery drives were very rarely enough to get back to second, which is where you would expect him to be, and he was involved in so many silly incidents all season that cost him so many points. I thought it was by far the worst season of his predominantly very good career. Mercedes Bottas or Ferrari Barrichello would have been able to qualify and finish second to Verstappen most of the time, I feel, with this level of dominant car, but Perez did that almost never.

In time, I think Oscar Piastri will surely become better than Ocon or Gasly and Alpine will still regret letting him go, but this year I thought he was pretty much dominated by Lando Norris most of the time.

And I agree that Charles Leclerc had a very disappointing season but I would still say he held the edge over Sainz most of the time. It was a lot closer than I expected.

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My driver rankings for the 2023 season, with the scores in brackets their position relative to 2022.


1. Max Verstappen (no change). There can be no doubt about who ranks as number one this year. The only real question is whether Verstappen has put in the greatest individual season performance in F1 history, or just one of the greatest. The most remarkable thing about Verstappen’s season in 2023 was his consistency. This could be applied to Red Bull as well, considering they had not a single mechanical problem in a race, and just one in qualifying, all season, but Verstappen himself never had a single off day. There were many situations like qualifying in Silverstone, Zandvoort, Interlagos where the Red Bull may have been the best car but anything less than perfection from Verstappen would have cost him, but he delivered every time. His biggest mistake of the season was a lockup in Singapore qualifying, while only in Baku could there be a case for him being beaten on merit by Perez (he would surely have won in Jeddah without the qualifying problem). Verstappen broke all the records with his 19 victories, and ten consecutive wins, and scored an average of more than 25 points a weekend (thanks to sprint races), also scoring more than double the number of points of Perez in second which is unheard of. It was the most dominant season in Formula 1 history by one driver.

However, I am reluctant to call it the greatest season in history, simply because the dominance of the Red Bull and the underperforming Sergio Perez meant that there was rarely any real pressure on Verstappen, and so he didn’t appear to be performing at his absolute limit. There were no really special performances like his drive in Austin 2021, or that Jeddah qualifying lap. Because of this, I still don’t think it has surpassed Jim Clark in 1965 as the greatest season ever. But I do think that Verstappen has now become more consistent than any of the other greats in F1 history after going through a 22-race season without any significant off-days or mistakes. His best drive was probably in Monaco, both for the brilliant final sector and holding his own on such old tyres in the rain, while his comeback in Austin after the only other mistake in qualifying, was another standout performance and recovering to almost pass Leclerc for fourth in Singapore after all the bad luck was very impressive. The rate at which he closed on Perez in Zandvoort is worthy of a mention, as is the strong racecraft in Mexico City and Abu Dhabi. Miami was perhaps the defining moment of his season, as from a lowly grid slot he was still able to hunt down and pass polesitter Perez for victory in the closing stages. Verstappen’s season was fully deserving of all the records it broke and it is a genuine contender for the greatest season in history, solidifying his place among the absolute elite of F1 history, but hopefully he will be pushed harder in 2024 by the challenging pack.

2. Lando Norris (up one). He may still be winless in Formula 1, although he has now matched Nick Heidfeld’s record for most podiums without a win, but I think Norris is now the second-best driver in the world and the one who would give the biggest challenge to Verstappen in the same car. The start of the season in the old-spec McLaren was very disappointing, but Norris still clearly had the upper hand over Oscar Piastri, whose junior record is on par with that of Leclerc and Russell, and he had some standout performances like Spain qualifying. But after the McLaren became competitive in Austria, Norris became the closest challenger to Verstappen, and scored more points than anyone else. And I would still suggest that he was significantly better than Piastri. The weekend at Austin was his most impressive of the season, getting on the front row out of nowhere and staying in contention for victory for such a long time, while in Brazil he gave Verstappen a genuine challenge for the lead and totally left the rest behind. Norris may have been up against a weaker version of Daniel Ricciardo in 2021-2022, but I would argue that he would still have had the upper hand over even Ricciardo at his peak.

Norris still made quite a few mistakes in 2023, particularly in a number of qualifying sessions towards the end of the year with Mexico the most noticeable and he would surely have been on the podium with a clean qualifying session after that extraordinary fightback in the race, but he has the potential to be the closest rival to Verstappen over the next decade once these are ironed out. Another possible weakness would be his racecraft, although that is considerably less important in the DRS era, but he does tend to allow people to overtake too easily. But while Norris is certainly not a complete driver yet, his raw speed is as good as anyone else on the grid, and surely that first win will come soon.

3. Lewis Hamilton (up one). While he had certainly recovered a bit after the 2022 season, this still wasn’t Hamilton at his best, and perhaps he has now entered the inevitable decline. It is said that qualifying pace is always the first to go when drivers decline, and this year he seemed very evenly matched with George Russell. But Hamilton’s main weakness in 2023 was his consistency, having random weekends like Abu Dhabi or Monza where he was well off the pace of his teammate, and he also made that one huge blunder in Qatar as well as getting away with hitting Piastri in Monza. However, I fully believe that Russell is one of the top talents of the next generation and, on race pace at least, Lewis Hamilton comfortably still had the edge over him. He may not be as good as he once was, but Hamilton is still among the best drivers out there and I think in general he flattered the Mercedes car in 2023. Apart from those off-weekends.

Hamilton’s best drive of 2023 was probably Austin, where he totally left Russell behind all weekend and was a serious threat to Verstappen for victory before the disqualification, while Mexico City was similarly strong as he kept the tyres intact to beat the faster Ferraris. Earlier in the season, Hamilton took podiums when the car was good in Australia and Spain, and took a great pole position in Hungary which unfortunately disappeared by turn one. Singapore was perhaps one that got away, as Russell was quicker for most of the weekend, so Hamilton was stuck behind him for that final charge. I think Hamilton is past his peak now and would no longer be able to beat Verstappen in the same car, but he is still good enough to be world champion in the right circumstances.

4. Fernando Alonso (up one). At the age of 42, it is very unlikely that Alonso is still performing at the level that he did at his peak. It is possible that the Aston Martin, and Lance Stroll, are flattering his performances and there is actually a bit left in the car. But for much of the season it seemed fifth best, so for Alonso to narrowly hold onto fourth in the championship, his best result since 2013, shows he is still among the very top drivers. And the string of podiums at the start of the season when the car was good also suggested Alonso was maximising its potential. But in some of the races at the end, he seemed to drop in performance and Stroll was much closer and sometimes even ahead. I rated Hamilton and Norris ahead because they more often seemed to be putting their cars higher than they should be than Alonso did, although Alonso was more consistent and made fewer mistakes.

The highlight of Alonso’s season was his podium in Brazil. It is difficult for racecraft to be a defining factor in the DRS era, but that day Alonso proved that his is still the best on the grid with a fantastic defence against Sergio Perez. He also made that brilliant pass on Hamilton for third in Bahrain, while second in Canada and Zandvoort were other strong drives, particularly the latter as the Aston Martin was no longer among the top cars by that point in the season. His worst race of the season was Las Vegas with the silly mistake at turn one and lack of pace thereafter. But he will still be fully worth his place on the grid for a few more years, and is doing a better job in his 40s than Schumacher did.

5. Charles Leclerc (down three). It wasn’t as good a season for Leclerc as 2022 had been, with fewer standout races while the mistakes are still there. I still think he has significant potential, a better bet than his teammate to win a title if the Ferrari was good enough, and still popped up with a few brilliant performances, but overall wasn’t much better than Sainz who beat him to the one Ferrari win of the season, where Leclerc was off form. Perhaps the 2023 Ferrari didn’t suit his driving style as much as the 2022 edition did, with Ferrari having to compensate for Leclerc and Sainz having contrasting setup preferences, but Leclerc could have done better in 2023 and had some races where he had no pace at all, such as Miami, Spain and Zandvoort, while he also had quite a few crashes such as in Australia.

But Leclerc ranks ahead of Sainz due to generally still having the edge for pace, and he had more bad luck in the season but just beat him in the points. Bahrain was an unrewarded excellent drive as he was well ahead of Sainz before retiring, while the pole in Baku and third place was also good. Las Vegas was his best weekend of the season, perhaps losing victory to that safety car and recovering second with a brilliant final lap dive on Perez, and he seemed to rediscover his form with a lot of pole positions and a great front row in Abu Dhabi, although he still couldn’t win a race. It wasn’t Leclerc at his best in 2023 but he is still a potential future champion who might be able to give Verstappen a serious challenge in the equal cars.

6. George Russell (no change). To an extent, reputation has to play a part in these rankings. On paper, Russell’s season of finishing eighth to his teammate’s third, and crashing twice, doesn’t look great. But we have to remember that, considering how brilliant he looked at Williams and in that Mercedes call-up in Sakhir 2020, and considering Lewis Hamilton is one of the greatest drivers in history, it is most likely that both are still performing to a very high level, and Russell just isn’t quite as good as Hamilton. His two crashes were black marks for the season, as were the races late on where he was well off Hamilton’s pace such as Austin and Mexico, but over the season as a whole, I suspect the Mercedes drivers flattered the car a little, and for Russell to not be far off Hamilton is an impressive achievement and he did a better job than his final championship position would suggest.

Both Mercedes drivers had off-weekends and poor qualifying performances, but overall ended up tied 11-11 for qualifying, with Russell arguably just about having the edge over the driver with more poles than anyone else in history. While his race pace was less good relative to Hamilton, he still put in some great drives such as the podium in Abu Dhabi, the fightback in Spain and leading the race in Australia before a joke of the red flag cost him. He was also genuinely faster than Hamilton all weekend in Jeddah and in Silverstone before bad luck again with the safety car. His best weekend of the season was Singapore, right up until his costly unforced error, as he outpaced Hamilton again and put himself in genuine contention for victory. Being almost as good as even a past-his-best Hamilton is no mean feat, and Russell is still a potential champion in the right car, although maybe he won’t be the replacement for Hamilton that Mercedes hoped he would be.

7. Carlos Sainz (no change). Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc are all drivers who have absolutely destroyed good teammates, leading to accusations of them having cars built entirely around them. But Carlos Sainz has been teammate to all three, and fared very well against them all. Is it possible that the aforementioned drivers really are that good, and Sainz is just slightly behind them? Maybe, but Hamilton and Alonso are also among the all-time greats, and Russell not far off Hamilton, so I would suggest that the top seven in this list are significantly ahead of the rest. This placing for Sainz is quite harsh but overall, he was still slightly behind Leclerc for pace. It was a far better season than 2022 for Sainz, perhaps as the previous car had exploited Leclerc’s preference for oversteer, while in 2023 Ferrari compensated for Sainz’s understeer more to give the drivers a more level playing field.

However, Carlos Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race in 2023, and he did it with the best single race drive of the season in Singapore to hold off a charging pair of Mercedes by giving Lando Norris DRS to protect him. It was not the only time Sainz used DRS tricks, with his defence against Perez in Austria another significant highlight of the season. Beating Leclerc to pole and a podium in Monza was another strong drive. But while he was rarely dominated by Leclerc and didn’t have as many random terrible weekends as his teammate, he was just a little behind him at the majority of races in 2023 so places behind. I am less convinced of Sainz’s ability to win a championship in the future as I feel he has reached his peak now, and so he seems to have less potential than the likes of Norris, Leclerc and Russell who may still improve, but he deserves to have a lot more than two race wins at this point in his career and may surprise me by winning a championship one day.


8. Alexander Albon (up three). It is an interesting statistic that, by outqualifying Logan Sargeant at every race in 2023, Albon became the first driver to get a clean sweep since Max Verstappen did it to him in 2020. Albon seems a far stronger driver than during his woeful Red Bull years, but there is still an element of doubt as to whether he is actually being flattered by a stronger Williams and weak teammates, so this ranking may be too high. While he was actually further ahead of Latifi on outright pace than Russell was, Latifi seemed to have lost it a bit in 2022 and Albon doesn’t give the impression he is flattering the car in the way that Russell did.

However, it was the best season of his career, worthy of a place in the top ten, and the consistency to outpace Sargeant at every single race should be commended. The Williams was at its best on the high-speed tracks, and that also makes it easier to defend with, but Albon still made the difference with his drive to seventh in Montreal, after being the only driver to attempt the one-stop strategy and brilliantly holding off a train of cars for the majority of the race, one of the best drives by anyone in 2023. Seventh and eighth in Monza and Silverstone on similarly good tracks for Williams were also great drives, the former again a defensive drive. Zandvoort was another particularly notable performance, on a track less expected to suit the Williams but where Albon qualified fourth and finished eighth. But a low point of his season was crashing out of sixth in Australia. I don’t think Albon would fare any better against Verstappen than Perez did if he had another go at Red Bull, but he is the ideal driver to lead Williams in the coming years.

9. Esteban Ocon (up one). One of the most difficult decisions of these rankings was which Alpine driver to place ahead. Esteban Ocon seemed to have the edge over Pierre Gasly for the first half of the season while Gasly gained the upper hand towards the end, particularly in qualifying, but overall, I thought Ocon was just about faster than Gasly more often than the other way around, and lost more points to bad luck than the small points deficit that he had. Ocon is very much establishing himself as a top midfield driver, perhaps the Perez/Hulkenberg of the next generation, and while he has the occasional fantastic race, he also had races where he was well off Gasly’s pace for no apparent reason.

The obvious highlight of Esteban Ocon’s season was his podium in Monaco, with a brilliant qualifying lap and perfectly driven race being one of the finest drives of the season overall. He also held on well to his tyres in Las Vegas to take fourth, and was unlucky to lose sixth in Singapore. In the first half of the season, he was generally just that little bit ahead of Gasly with strong drives in Jeddah and Canada, for example, while Qatar was another particularly strong race to take seventh despite being sick in his helmet. Ocon didn’t make many significant errors but was just slow in races like Brazil, Mexico and Italy. Ocon could probably do a good job as a second driver for a top team, but is never going to be a championship contender.

10. Pierre Gasly (up three). Although Gasly ranks just behind Ocon, he generally was the better Alpine driver towards the end of the season, so may be their stronger driver next year. He had some great races where he was on the pace of the leaders, but Ocon usually wasn’t with him due to some random event rather than a comparative lack of pace, and in most races, Gasly was slightly behind his teammate rather than ahead of him.

The final few races were his best point of the season, with great qualifying laps and having a significant pace advantage over his teammate at times, and perhaps a battery problem was a big factor in his total drop off in Las Vegas, rather than just tyre wear. Gasly took one podium in 2023 in Zandvoort, which was probably his strongest drive of the season as he was quite fortunate to find himself in that position but then kept pace with the leaders for the entire race, actually going faster than Sainz, and capitalised from Perez’s penalty to get the podium. Australia was also a great race as he was on the lead pace but then made his biggest mistake of the season by wiping out both Alpines at the end. He also had a great race in Brazil and in Austin, but in most races was slightly off the pace of his teammate. I think he will be ahead of Ocon next year, but Gasly too is probably destined for a career in the midfield.

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11. Oscar Piastri. Suggestions that Piastri was the best rookie since Hamilton were probably exaggerated. Suggestions that he was as good as, or even better than Hamilton were ludicrous. But while I am not sure I would rate Piastri’s rookie season on par with that of Verstappen or Leclerc, he still showed significant potential and looked like he may be a world champion of the future, especially considering his junior record of winning F3 and F2 as a rookie. Piastri was fairly consistent and made no significant mistakes, and got plenty of good results in the quick McLaren.

But the big negative against his season is just that he wasn’t particularly close to the pace of Lando Norris, and he often ended up way behind him in races and in qualifying. Norris may be one of the top drivers in Formula 1, but Piastri was rarely faster than him and often got left behind in the races. Tyre management was probably his biggest weakness, but that is something that will come in time, and I expect that he will be among the top Formula 1 drivers in the future. Piastri’s best drive of the season was probably holding onto second in Qatar, while beating Norris in Jeddah before the McLaren was good and getting fourth on the first race with the updated McLaren in Silverstone were other notable highlights.

12. Yuki Tsunoda (up four). The plethora of different drivers, all unknown quantities, in the second Alpha Tauri made it quite hard to judge how well Tsunoda actually did in 2023. He initially looked very good against De Vries, who had had a brilliant debut at Monza 2022 but had also just had a poor season in Formula e. Then his reputation was hit by the few races spent alongside rookie Liam Lawson when they were more evenly matched than Tsunoda would have liked. But generally outperforming Daniel Ricciardo in the final few races made Tsunoda look good again.

Abu Dhabi was the highlight of Tsunoda’s season with sixth in qualifying and eighth in the race, both well ahead of Ricciardo, while he also put in some nice drives to get points in Baku and Spa when the car wasn’t at its best. Eighth in Austin was also a great result although in Mexico he blotted his copybook by throwing away points in a collision with Piastri, and finishing behind Lawson in Suzuka was a bad result for him. Tsunoda has significantly improved over his three seasons in Formula 1 and has generally eliminated the abundance of errors that plagued his first two seasons. At his best, he will probably be a good midfield driver like Ocon or Gasly, and may be considered a reliable number two at Red Bull in the future, although he wouldn’t challenge Verstappen.

13. Nico Hulkenberg. Driving a Haas that ate its tyres so quickly meant that Hulkenberg’s season was mostly about qualifying. He only finished in the points in one Grand Prix all season, taking seventh in a fine race in Albert Park that was his best drive of the season. Had the restart lasted long enough for positions to count, he actually would have finally taken that elusive first podium, although it would have been a very fortunate and underwhelming way to do it.

The rest of Hulkenberg’s season was all about putting in an extraordinary qualifying lap to make the top ten and then going backwards in the race and ending up outside the points, never actually being that close. He was generally faster than Magnussen in the races as well as in qualifying when the advantage was significant. In total, he made Q3 on eight occasions, and while second place in Canada stands out, it was quite lucky and the laps in Spain and in Austria were his most impressive. Hulkenberg was clearly the better Haas driver and proved that he was worth his return to the grid in 2023. Hopefully the Haas will have more competitive race pace then.

14. Valtteri Bottas (down two). The first half of Bottas’ season was totally anonymous, and he was often bettered by Zhou, while occasional races when the Alfa Romeo had pace, such as Hungary, seemed to be spoiled by Bottas’ racecraft continuing to be the worst on the grid. It seemed his heart wasn’t really in it anymore. But in the second half of the year, he stepped up a level and managed to consistently outpace Zhou Guanyu, while putting in some occasional flashes of the Bottas who did so brilliantly on his initial signing for Alfa Romeo.

Bottas’ season looked like it would go well after a great drive to eighth in Bahrain, but a series of poor results when he had no pace at all such as Jeddah, Baku and Catalunya which was affected by damage, turned this into a one-off. In the second half of the year, Bottas was almost always ahead of his teammate and scored points in Monza and Qatar with good drives, while he made Q3 again in Mexico and in Las Vegas where he was unlucky not to score. But the car was good enough for so much more in Hungary. I think Bottas is probably past it now, and while he was much better at Mercedes than he was given credit for, it is now time to retire.

15. Daniel Ricciardo (up four). The whole point of the Red Bull second team, in all its guises, is to test out and develop drivers who might one day have a chance of driving for Red Bull. And so it was an absolute no-brainer to drop Nyck de Vries and give Ricciardo the second half of the season to prove his worth. Had he performed as he did in 2020 and previously, he could have taken the Red Bull seat for 2024 from the underperforming Perez. But if he drove like he did with McLaren, he could have been ditched at the end of the season. The hand injury sustained in Zandvoort prevented Ricciardo from getting the full half-season and spoiled the plan somewhat, meaning he is having a second season with Alpha Tauri, but on the evidence of this half-season, he unfortunately looked more like McLaren Ricciardo than Renault or Red Bull Ricciardo.

The one exception to this came in Mexico City, where Ricciardo brilliantly qualified fourth and finished seventh, although Tsunoda’s penalties made it hard to judge how much this was down to the car. Hungary was also a good performance as he outqualified Tsunoda and recovered well after being hit on the first lap. But the rest of the season, he was outpaced by his teammate who is not considered a future champion and who was soundly beaten by Gasly in 2021-2022. Even if Tsunoda has improved, it did not look like Ricciardo at his best and while I think he should be given half a season next year to prove that he can still be a Red Bull driver again, the half-season he should have got this year before the interruptions, if Ricciardo is not clearly better than Tsunoda next year then it would make sense to replace him with Liam Lawson at mid-season.

16. Sergio Perez (down eight). For most of his career, Perez was among the top drivers in the midfield, and although 2021 was slightly disappointing, he showed in 2022 that he was the ideal second driver for Red Bull. But this season, Perez’s level dropped significantly, and he had by far the worst season of his career. Yes, he completed his ultimate job of finishing second in the championship, but there has never been an easier set of circumstances to do that, driving a dominant, 100% reliable car that is the fastest at every race bar one, and with the closest challengers so inconsistent that Hamilton ended up as his closest rival despite the Mercedes being the fourth-best car at most races, and him not having his best season. Perez started the season well with the win in Jeddah where he held off Verstappen, and Baku being pretty much on merit.

But after Verstappen hunted him down and beat him in Miami from ninth on the grid, Perez’s season turned sour. While Verstappen was consistently and relentlessly delivering race wins, only three more times did Perez qualify in the top six on the grid despite having the best car for another 16 races, often missing Q3 due to track limit violations, or mistakes, or sometimes just a complete lack of pace. He usually was better in the races when recovering, but only in Spa and Monza did he manage to finish second in a car that Verstappen won every race after Baku in, bar one. And Perez made so many silly errors that cost him points, such as turning in on Leclerc in Mexico, t-boning Albon in Singapore and Magnussen in Japan, or getting penalties in Zandvoort and Abu Dhabi that cost him podiums, or losing battles with Alonso and Leclerc on the final lap in Brazil and Las Vegas despite having a faster car. And Monaco was the worst of all with a crash in qualifying and multiple incidents in the race. He is fortunate to have kept his Red Bull drive for another season due to a lack of other options, but in any other year but 2023 he would have lost second in the championship. Being teammate to Verstappen seems to have mentally drained Perez and he is unlikely to get a contract extension. Hopefully he finds his form again in a lesser team from 2025, rather than retiring.

17. Zhou Guanyu (no change). Perhaps the most anonymous driver on the grid in 2023, Zhou seemed to have made a step up from his rookie season and was generally closer to Bottas, although Bottas also looked less competitive than previously. Zhou had a few strong races where he scored points and pretty much matched his teammate in the first half of the season, before falling behind in the second half and it was difficult to make an impression in a car that was among the weakest on the grid, with fewer occasional rounds where it was quick than the Haas, Williams or Alpha Tauri.

One such round was Hungary and Zhou did make the most of qualifying by beating Bottas to fifth on the grid, although he fluffed the start and then hit Ricciardo and ended up well outside the points. Qatar was another such race, and he did very well to make the points, just behind his teammate. His best drive of the season came in Spain where Bottas struggled with damage, but Zhou was much faster than him and finished ninth on merit. There weren’t really any significant mistakes apart from skating off in the wet in Zandvoort, and he was certainly better than other drivers on the grid, but generally Zhou wasn’t really fast enough, and it is difficult to see him retaining his seat once Audi take over Sauber and the need for his money is less.

18. Kevin Magnussen (down four). For many years, I had wondered if the Grosjean-Magnussen pairing at Haas was actually leaving more time on the table than appeared to be the case. And while he was better than Mick Schumacher in 2022, it wasn’t by much and Schumacher seemed to have more potential, raising questions about if the right Haas driver had made way for Hulkenberg. Unfortunately, 2023 was a terrible season for Magnussen and he was comfortably outpaced by the returning Hulkenberg, particularly in qualifying, although the car perhaps didn’t suit his driving style as well as it did Hulkenberg’s.

Magnussen did have some decent races, with Miami a particularly strong one as he qualified a fortunate fourth but held onto a point, and he also scored points in Jeddah and Singapore, where he qualified brilliantly. Qualifying in Las Vegas was another highlight and he generally got closer to Hulkenberg as the season progressed, but these were exceptions and in general he was usually struggling to clear Q1 while his teammate made the top ten, and then falling to the back in races as the Haas ate its tyres. But it wasn’t enough to rate him above the bottom group of drivers for the season. Magnussen hasn’t ever lived up to the promise of his first season in 2014 and I suspect 2024 might be his final season in Formula 1. However, it is possible that the next car will work better and suit him more and he could get the better of Hulkenberg.

19. Lance Stroll (down four). Although he has always been among the least competitive drivers in Formula 1, Stroll has always had the occasional great performance in him and in the last few years, seemed to be becoming more consistent. However, he took a significant step backwards in 2023 and had his worst season for some time. Perhaps it was the introduction of Fernando Alonso to the team that made Stroll look particularly bad, but he was frequently a huge margin off the pace of his teammate, and also got involved in too many incidents.

Stroll did have a good start and end to the season, with sixth in Bahrain with the injured hand probably his best drive, and a possible top six lost to mechanical problems in Jeddah. He found his form again in Brazil with a fine drive to fifth, and was quick also in Las Vegas and in Abu Dhabi. But there was an extended time between those races when he was miles off Alonso’s pace, particularly in Miami, Canada, Zandvoort although this was a theme at almost every race and making too many mistakes, such as crashing in Singapore and getting in many incidents in Monaco and Silverstone. There were rumours of him leaving Formula 1 at the end of the season and while the improved form at the end will surely keep him in until the end of 2024 and he still has the seat as long as he wants it for now, maybe Lawrence Stroll will decide to sell the team in the near future. Felipe Drugovich would surely have scored more points in the Aston Martin this year.

20. Nyck de Vries. For a driver to lose their seat after just ten races is harsh, particularly considering De Vries is a Formula 2 champion, a Formula e champion, and had had such an extraordinary debut in Monza 2022 where he finished ninth. The sacking was probably more a reflection on the team’s need to test out Ricciardo, but at Alpha Tauri, De Vries never gave the impression he would become even an average Formula 1 driver, certainly not a potential Red Bull driver, so it made far more sense to run Ricciardo. The fact that Liam Lawson performed so much better relative to Tsunoda when suddenly put in the car mid-season was a poor reflection on De Vries.
De Vries didn’t have any terrible weekends apart from Baku, where he crashed in qualifying and the race, but generally he was quite some distance off Tsunoda’s pace, beating him only in Monaco after his teammate suffered brake problems although that was still a decent drive. He is highly unlikely to drive in Formula 1 again, but is returning to Formula e where hopefully he will win races once more.

21. Logan Sargeant. Perhaps it is harsh to rank him below De Vries, but it is based on the fact that De Vries was slow and uncompetitive but made only one significant mistake in Baku, whereas Sargeant crashed on multiple occasions but was still a long way off Alex Albon’s pace and never outqualified him all season. I would still say that Sargeant has more potential than De Vries as he had a few strong weekends, but it was a disappointing season, and I am quite surprised that he looks set to keep his Williams drive for next year.

The highlights of Sargeant’s season were his first race in Bahrain, finishing twelfth and very close to Albon, while Interlagos and Silverstone were also near-misses of the points, and he managed it in Austin which was quite fortunate after the disqualifications and the decision not to review the results after track limit infringements went unpunished. Qualifying seventh in Las Vegas was also a brilliant result and probably the best moment of his season. But Sargeant ranks at the bottom because he crashed too often and made too many unforced errors like Singapore and Japan, while still never really being on the pace of teammate Alexander Albon. He will probably get a second season, but I don’t expect him to last much longer than that in Formula 1.

No rank – Liam Lawson. Five races isn’t quite enough for a fair ranking, but Liam Lawson had a very impressive cameo appearance and definitely deserves a Formula 1 drive in the future. He matched up to Tsunoda at least as well as Ricciardo did in the second Alpha Tauri despite being a rookie joining mid-season with no testing, and both Singapore and Japan were fantastic races, making Q3 and scoring points in the former and beating his teammate on merit in the latter. Apparently he has already got a drive with Alpha Tauri for 2025, but I think he might be in the car from the summer break onwards next season, either because Ricciardo has been deemed not good enough and dropped, or deemed certainly good enough and promoted.

[BTCC frog]

Those are my driver rankings. If other tententhers would like to give at least a top ten I will add them all up again to get an overall score using the real 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 points system.

[E.B]

I would have placed Fernando ahead of Lewis.
I also find it odd to see Ricciardo beneath Perez. Sergio was underwhelming, but Danny failed to impress me im afraid.

[chillibowl]

my top 10 also more based on my gut rather than an analytical approach.

1. Verstappen
2. Norris
3. Alonso
4. Hamilton
5. Sainz
6. Leclerc
7. Perez
8. Piastri
9. Russell
10. Albon

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

my top 10 also more based on my gut rather than an analytical approach.

1. Verstappen
2. Norris
3. Alonso
4. Hamilton
5. Sainz
6. Leclerc
7. Perez
8. Piastri
9. Russell
10. Albon

Excellent list Chillibowl.
I'd put Alonso above Norris or equal to him and Hamilton slightly above both.
Id also put Russell ahead of Piastri at this point in time because Oscar wasnt as consistent as Id hoped after his sprint win. Potentially better, definitely but still some fine tuning to do.
Russell's performance at Abu Dhabi was one of his best all year. Hopefully we see more of this form next year.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

I'd put Alonso above Norris or equal to him and Hamilton slightly above both.

i struggled there as well. close between all three really...or so i thought.

thinking about it more now, of the three, Hamilton is the works merc driver...did he score more than enough over Alonso and Norris to offset his factory advantage?

after seeing Bert's and Richard's lists, im a bit more inclined now to drop Ham a few more spots down?

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

i struggled there as well. close between all three really...or so i thought.

thinking about it more now, of the three, Hamilton is the works merc driver...did he score more than enough over Alonso and Norris to offset his factory advantage?

after seeing Bert's and Richard's lists, im a bit more inclined now to drop Ham a few more spots down?

We're all trying to be objective but personal objectivity is usually weighted by the values we each place on elements of car, circumstance, team capability etc.

For example, how would Hulkenberg have gone in Perez' seat? did his performances in the Haas weigh up to an equivalent level as Perez' performance across all of the year?
That is when it really starts to get difficult to be objective...

[steve_r]

Just my gut, without raking over the whole season or revisiting any of the stats.: -

1. Verstappen. Rarely put under any pressure. Amazing RBR DRS meant that when he was out of position, that passes were often easy. But he barely put a foot wrong all year long and is blisteringly quick and consistent.

2. Alonso. At the early part of the season he was getting some amazing results. The team almost certainly lost out in the development race and the results faded, but when there was a chance of a good result he seemed to take it. Always good to watch wheel to wheel.

3. Hamilton. Some clumsy wheel-to-wheel accidents have crept in. But his status as #1 Mercedes driver is back (if indeed he ever lost it).

4. Norris. A really good season. The upgraded McLaren allowed us to see the best of him. The odd blemish here and there, and his teammate seemed to be close or indeed sometimes faster in qualy, but on race day Norris was usually the #1 driver in the team. That first win surely is not far away.

5. LeClerc. Sainz may have rediscovered his form, but I personally rate LeClerc slightly higher. The Ferrari did not have the race pace to match the often amazing qualifying pace of LeClerc.

6. Sainz. As above - rediscovered his Mojo. A good season. Race win again.

7. Piastri. Very impressive rookie season. Sprint race winner. Often up at the sharp end. Could be the real deal. I am looking forward to seeing what he can do next season.

8. Albon. Williams is no longer the worst car on the grid. But nevertheless he often seemed to outqualify the car. A really solid season.

9. Russell. Matched Hamilton in qualy, but perhaps did not maximise the potential of the car in the races. Not as consistent as last year.

10. Perez. Started brilliantly. But many self-inflicted mistakes towards the mid and latter part of the year. Disappointing really, but ranked highly here for securing 2nd in the championship, often by doing things the hard way. Demonstrated in the wrong way why F1 is not just about the car.

= 11. Gasly / Ocon. I cant separate them. Both blew hot and cold. Both could deliver race wins if they were in the right car, and the Alpine was not that car.

13. Hulkenburg. Quick driver, as demonstrated by some of his qualifying performances. The Haas was never a potent weapon in race trim, so did not catch the eye very often on Sundays.

14. Magnussen. As above.

15. Bottas. The car slipped backwards down the order as the season went on. That makes it hard to rate him very highly. Beat his teammate.

16. Stroll. Had some good days, but usually annihilated by his teammate.

17. Tsunoda. Perhaps I am being harsh and perhaps he should be a little higher as evidenced by his good run in the final race. But not enough eye catching stuff other than that in a pretty average car.

18. Zhou. I might not have noticed if he did not turn up. Not his fault that the car was not very good, but nothing much to get the pulse running.

19. Ricciardo. Not enough races to really tell. Does not deserve a RBR seat, but I would like it if he could get back to the level he was in the past.

20. Sargeant. Not great. Had a couple of decent races, so maybe better days are still to come. Crashed too much.


I didn't rank Lawson - who I think did enough to deserves a seat in F1 at some point.

[BertMk2]

My list:

1) Max Verstappen - Peerless, totally dominated hardly put a foot wrong.
2) Lando Norris - Excelled in the updated McLaren.
3) Fernando Alonso - Made the most of the improved Aston and showed he's still one of the best.
4) Oscar Piastri - A great first season.
5) Charles Leclerc - Marginally the quicker Ferrari driver but still also the most prone to a mistake.
6) Carlos Sainz - Not much to choose between the Ferrari drivers and Sainz grabbed the only non-RedBull win of the year.
7) Alexander Albon - The Williams was clearly a better car this season and Albon took advantage of that.
8) Lewis Hamilton - Couldn't drag the Mercedes to the top step of the podium and some uncharacteristic mistakes in wheel to wheel combat. Came out on top in the team though.
9) Pierre Gasly - Looked to be the better of the Alpine drivers but also seemed to get screwed over by the team more often than his teammate.
10) George Russell - Some good days, some bad. A less consistent season from Russell and not as close to Hamilton as he'd have liked.
11) Yuki Tsunoda - Comfortably saw off De Vries and came out on top against Ricciardo. A much better season than I expected from Tsunoda.
12) Esteban Ocon - Got a podium in Monaco but other than that I can only remember clumsy driving and generally being unpopular.
13) Sergio Perez - Started well then had an absolute horror show. Seems weird saying that about the guy that finished 2nd but he got less than half the points of Max in the same car.
14) Nico Hulkenberg - Generally qualified well then went backwards as the car ate its tyres.
15) Lance Stroll - Had a promising start to the season but then showed he's nothing special after that. Comprehensively beaten by his teammate.
16) Valtteri Bottas - The better of the two Alfa drivers but largely a season to forget.
17) Zhou Guanyu - Beaten by his teammate - can't think of any real highlights or howlers.
18) Kevin Magnussen - Largely a season to forget for Kevin, same problems as his teammate with the tyres but usually started further back.
19) Daniel Ricciardo - disappointing comeback. He really needed to bury Tsunoda and didn't. Not helped of course by binning the car and injuring himself.
20) Logan Sargeant - Low expectations and struggled to meet them. Looked out of his depth for large parts of the season.

[S griffin]

I think it's a bit harsh to not put Checo in the top 10, despite his underwhelming season. It still had plenty of good points and did show on his day he can beat Max in the same car, even for allowing circumstances. Although he certainly wouldn't be in my top 5

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I think it's a bit harsh to not put Checo in the top 10, despite his underwhelming season. It still had plenty of good points and did show on his day he can beat Max in the same car, even for allowing circumstances. Although he certainly wouldn't be in my top 5

He has very few of those days though....

[Richard C]

I always find these types of discussions interesting. Especially the subjective nature of them. I personally find it hard to separate my personal feelings (hopes and wishes for drivers and teams) from a purely objective viewpoint. It is also just hard to do this. I tend to easily think who might be my top few and bottom few drivers, but struggle with ranking those in the middle in any confident way. My personal option is that Max is the best and right now Logan is the worst. I am really going out on a limb with that opinion!

I know there are a number of attempts at objective analysis on f1 driver performance. Using systems such as ELO and other methods crafted by the author of the ranking (where is our Schummy these days... he last posted his analysis of F1 for last season!). And how the model is defined can sometimes be a subjective impact on the outcome.

I found this 2023 analysis which is supposed to be objective and using a specific model that I think is supposed to help address the challenges of team performance.

https://f1-analysis.com/2023/11/28/f...iver-rankings/

It's ranking for 2023 is...

1. Max Verstappen
2. Lando Norris
3. Charles Leclerc
4. Carlos Sainz
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Lewis Hamilton
7. Oscar Piastri
8. George Russell
X. Daniel Ricciardo
9. Esteban Ocon
10. Pierre Gasly
11. Alex Albon
12. Yuki Tsunoda
13. Nico Hülkenberg
X. Liam Lawson
14. Valtteri Bottas
15. Kevin Magnussen
16. Zhou Guanyu
17. Sergio Pérez
18. Lance Stroll
19. Logan Sargeant

Note, the "X" is location in which (if I understand it correctly), the model did rank the drivers, but given little data, the ranking may not be particularly confident.

I guess the biggest surprise (or not depending upon your viewpoint on Sergio) is it ranks him extremely low. I think in short it is a measure of his performance against Max. I might personally nit-pick a few rankings (i.e. Albon maybe too low IMHO) But otherwise that ranking makes about as much sense as any other. I agree there is not enough information on Ricciardo and Lawson to create highly confident objective rankings.

Richard

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

He has very few of those days though....

But if we have 24 races next year and another Verstappen masterclass next year I'd love to see Perez have a year like Barrichello had in 2004.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Richard C

I always find these types of discussions interesting. Especially the subjective nature of them. I personally find it hard to separate my personal feelings (hopes and wishes for drivers and teams) from a purely objective viewpoint. It is also just hard to do this. I tend to easily think who might be my top few and bottom few drivers, but struggle with ranking those in the middle in any confident way.

It's hard to be purely objective - and I think it'd be a bit boring if we were, we'd all have the same list

Originally Posted by S griffin

I think it's a bit harsh to not put Checo in the top 10, despite his underwhelming season. It still had plenty of good points and did show on his day he can beat Max in the same car, even for allowing circumstances. Although he certainly wouldn't be in my top 5

He started the season well but then fell away hugely and seriously underperformed in what was by far the best car on the grid. Scoring less than half of the points that Max did is less than impressive - Perez really should have been on the podium at most races.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

It's hard to be purely objective - and I think it'd be a bit boring if we were, we'd all have the same list

The sole purely objective list is, somewhat prosaically, the final version of the WDC points score.

I say "purely objective" because the methodology is completely clear and there's no room for opinions. It is what it is!

[Aysedasi]

Ricciardo and Perez positions in that ranking are pretty weird. If we're ranking on limited data, I'd be putting Lawson ahead of Ricciardo. I would also place Alonso above both Ferrari drivers personally. However I agree entirely with your first paragraph.....

[Aysedasi]

I'm just hoping that somehow that RBR and Max fluff their exams next year....

[S griffin]

The least we can hope for is more drivers have their moment in the sun in 2024, rather than it all being Max and RBR

[LC2guy]

My Top 10 for the Full Season.

1. Max Verstappen
2. Lando Norris
3. Fernando Alonso
4. Oscar Piastri
5. Carlos Sainz
6. Charles Leclerc
7. Lewis Hamilton
8. George Russell
9. Alex Albon
10. Sergio Pérez

[S griffin]

Of course there's only one candidate for #1 in Max. After that it's hard to pick, due to many varying performances.

[AndreasDavour]

My top ten


1. Max Verstappen - He was best this year, but even though he has matured, I still wonder how he would fare under pressure.

2. Lando Norris - I'm not a super fan, but as a McLaren man I can't protest him in 2nd.


3. Fernando Alonso - He did make some stupid mistakes, but the closest competitor also was nowhere some times. One of the best entertainers this bland season.

4. Lewis Hamilton - I was debating whether to put Lewis or Fernando highest. When he was beaten by Russel he was really nowhere, but when he shone he was great. 3 & 4 are really equal on my list.

5. Carlos Sainz - Apart from a few mistakes he was the only non RBR runner to win, 'nuff said. Also one the the entertainers. Champion material? I'm not sure.

6. Charles Leclerc - Yes, I put Charles below Carlos. He gets all the bad luck, but I do believe you create your own luck, and combined with his stupid mistakes, and his lack of eagerness and brutality I don't think he is a champion. I do think he is the best qualifier of the lot, though.

7. George Russell - If you hold a candle to Lewis you are pretty good. He did put in some really good performances, but this is the ranking I'm most unsure about, because the car is such a weird thing.


8. Oscar Piastri - That's how a rookie season should look like. Now, that does not mean it has to continue, but if it does...

9. Alex Albon - Without a team that bully him, that boy can drive! Who would have thought!?

10. Pierre Gasly - I dislike the guy, but I can't for the life of me find anyone else among the rest to put in 10. Maybe Tsunoda?


I agree with BTCC frog that the top 7 are a huge step above the rest. They are just something. That does not mean the others are not very good drivers, they would not be in F1 if they weren't (the Russian gangster I count as the exception). But, those have that extra something.


That extra something is something severely lacking for Sergio Perez. With a car that good, to not be 2nd in all races and all quali sessions in a *massive* fail. Bottas in Mercedes should be the benchmark. Heck, I am tempted to but him in the 10 spot just because of that!