2023 Driver Ratings
Discussion
Now that the season is over how do we think the Class of '22 did? Here's my ratings - these are just for this season, so not intended in to rank them overall or anything like that.
So.. in WDC order...
Max Verstappen - 9/10
Much as I don't like him Max is an extremely talented racing driver and it's tough to argue with such a dominant display as he put on in '22. True he had easily the best car for most of the season but he still had to go out there and drive it well and he did. The only real blots on his copybook this season are his continued tendency to turn into Neanderthal anytime Lewis is nearby (see Brazil) and his failing to understand you get more out of a wingman in the long run if you don't go around giving them a metaphorical kick in the nuts for the lulz (see Brazil).
Charles Leclerc - 6/10
There's no denying Charles had pure pace this year and that he's shown some decent racecraft. But the errors.. sweet jebus the errors, they didn't cost him the championship - the WDC was never going to be on this year with the reliability issues combined with the team seemingly getting their strategies from badly translated fortune cookies but if those things hadn't been getting in his way I think that his errors would have been enough to kill his WDC bid.
Sergio Perez - 5.5/10
As aggrieved as he might feel about missing out on 2nd in the championship I can't help but feel that Sergio is lucky to have come away with third. At times he really struggled to make the most of his top flight equipment, yes the development of the RB18 pushed it more towards Verstappen's preferred characteristics but Sergio is no newbie - adapt or go backwards. Realistically if Sainz had gotten his s
t together in the first half of the season Perez would have found himself staring at a fourth place championship finish. We all know that Perez isn't there at RBR to fight for the title, but when your teammate wins two thirds of the races in a season you should be able to cruise to an easy 2nd or 3rd in the Championship, but Checo made real hard work of it.
George Russell - 8/10
Much was expected for George's first full season in the "big leagues" - and he delivered. The car wasn't good enough to be really in the mix but he kept plugging away and ground out solid result after solid result and was deservedly rewarded with that fine first win in Brazil. A few minor goofs here and there but nothing that proved too costly.
Carlos Sainz - 5.5/10
It seemed to take an age for Carlos to get on top of driving the '22 car and by the time he finally did it as too late to make a real bid for the championship. Getting that elusive first win at Silverstone seemed to settle him down a great deal and if anything he looked the better Ferrari driver post-Spa.
Lewis Hamilton - 7/10
Statistically his worst season in F1 - but all things considered he put in a decent showing. At times he was getting himself into the mix with cars that were way faster than the W13 and incredibly he only came away with two less podiums than Checo managed in the (much) faster RB18 and the same number as Sainz in the Ferrari! There were some clumsy moments (see the clash with Alonso at Spa) but there were some brilliant ones too (see the double pass at Silverstone). Overall I don't think he will be happy with his performance in '22 but I think that speaks more to the usual heights he hits rather than it being an objectively bad season in isolation.
Lando Norris - 8/10
A difficult, and largely anonymous season in terms of out and out results belies the fact that, once again, Lando was on some serious form. This year's McLaren clearly wasn't a great car, arguably the Alpine was faster (if a little more fragile). But Lando beat both the Alpine drivers in the standings. I have to wonder how long he's going to wait for McLaren to deliver a car worthy of his talents.
Esteban Ocon - 6/10
I'll admit don't quite "get" Ocon - some people will rave about him and speak of him in the same breath as the great talents of the "new" generation (Norris, Leclerc etc) but I just don't see it. He's a solid midfield runner and returned a solid midfield season, I think if he were to take a look in a crystal ball he'd see Perez's face - because I think he's destined to be F1's next professional journeyman.
Fernando Alonso - 8/10
For all of his, perhaps questionable, politicking out of the car he's still dynamite in it. Alonso put some truly special qualifying laps together this year, particularly in Canada. If it weren't for his disproportionate reliability woes he would have demolished Ocon this year.
Valtteri Bottas - 6/10
Made good use of Alfa's weight advantage early on in the season and he looked racier than I think we've seen from him in years. But as the car's performance faded so did he.
Daniel Ricciardo - 3/10
Another dismal year, and what is there to say about it that hasn't been dissected ad nauseum on F1 sites all year? Funnily enough he perked up a bit once it was confirmed that he was for the chop and he got a bit stuck in during some of the races. His recovery drive in Mexico was superb, unfortunately it only served to highlight just how far off his game he's been for the last two years.
Sebastian Vettel - 6/10
At times I think Seb drove extremely well this year, I'm just not convinced the Aston really let him show it. The A-spec was just plain slow and the B-spec seemed.. moody, particularly when it came to qualifying which I think obscured that Vettel was then quietly getting on with he job on a Sunday and his relative drubbing of Stroll in the points tally (despite contesting two fewer races) reflects that.
Kevin Magnussen - 6/10
This is difficult to call - Kevin put in some eye-catching drives in the first half the season but as the other teams developed the cars Haas just tumbled down the order and more and more you got the sense that Mick was getting on top of things and was starting to give Kevin a serious run for his money. His pole lap in Interlagos was a think of beauty however.
Pierre Gasly - 4/10
The car wasn't great, but I have to say Pierre was scruffy all year long. He can do much better, and he's going to have to next year as he takes his big steps into the the Post-Red Bull stage of his career at Alpine.
Lance Stroll - 4/10
Standard-issue Lance Stroll season really. Occasional flashes of speed in a watery mediocrity soup. Unlike his fellow 4/10 scorers, I think this is probably his level.
Mick Schumacher - 4/10
He really looked to be getting a handle on things in the second half of the season. But it was all too little-too late. Add in that when he got it wrong it tended to be in ways that not even all the T-cut in the world could fix and that probably doomed him - when the team didn't even have the money to be hitting the budget cap in the first place you can't go around writing off chassis every other race. Because that means less money for upgrades, which means lost points, which means lost prize money for next year and I think all that together led to him losing his seat. Hopefully he'll get himself settled in a reserve berth at somewhere like Merc and we'll see Mick 2.0 at some point because I do think he's got more to show us.
Yuki Tsunoda - 3/10
I was willing Yuki to succeed this year - last season I thought he showed promise if he could just channel those flashes of speed into something consistent and cut the errors. I thought it was at least worth giving him another year to find out. Sadly this year he's just been... "meh", he's not looked quick at any point really and when Gasly can underperform as much as he did this year and still nearly double Yuki's points tally I can only assume that he's there next year because Honda want him to be.
Zhou Guanyu - 5/10
It's unfortunate for Zhou that as he started to find his feet was when the car started to slip back down the grid. Otherwise I don't think the points gap to Bottas would have been quite so extreme.
Alexander Albon - 6.5/10
Freed from the black hole of despair, sorry I mean Red Bull Driver program, Albon seems to be flourishing. He seems in a happy place and has taken up the George Russell mantle of dragging that Williams to places it has no business being.
Nicholas Latifi - 1/10
It's over, thank god, it's over. I feel for Latifi I really do, he seems like a nice chap all things considered, but he's way out his depth in F1. I don't know enough about Logon Sargent to know whether he's going to be an upgrade, but it can't be any worse surely?
So.. in WDC order...
Max Verstappen - 9/10
Much as I don't like him Max is an extremely talented racing driver and it's tough to argue with such a dominant display as he put on in '22. True he had easily the best car for most of the season but he still had to go out there and drive it well and he did. The only real blots on his copybook this season are his continued tendency to turn into Neanderthal anytime Lewis is nearby (see Brazil) and his failing to understand you get more out of a wingman in the long run if you don't go around giving them a metaphorical kick in the nuts for the lulz (see Brazil).
Charles Leclerc - 6/10
There's no denying Charles had pure pace this year and that he's shown some decent racecraft. But the errors.. sweet jebus the errors, they didn't cost him the championship - the WDC was never going to be on this year with the reliability issues combined with the team seemingly getting their strategies from badly translated fortune cookies but if those things hadn't been getting in his way I think that his errors would have been enough to kill his WDC bid.
Sergio Perez - 5.5/10
As aggrieved as he might feel about missing out on 2nd in the championship I can't help but feel that Sergio is lucky to have come away with third. At times he really struggled to make the most of his top flight equipment, yes the development of the RB18 pushed it more towards Verstappen's preferred characteristics but Sergio is no newbie - adapt or go backwards. Realistically if Sainz had gotten his s
t together in the first half of the season Perez would have found himself staring at a fourth place championship finish. We all know that Perez isn't there at RBR to fight for the title, but when your teammate wins two thirds of the races in a season you should be able to cruise to an easy 2nd or 3rd in the Championship, but Checo made real hard work of it.George Russell - 8/10
Much was expected for George's first full season in the "big leagues" - and he delivered. The car wasn't good enough to be really in the mix but he kept plugging away and ground out solid result after solid result and was deservedly rewarded with that fine first win in Brazil. A few minor goofs here and there but nothing that proved too costly.
Carlos Sainz - 5.5/10
It seemed to take an age for Carlos to get on top of driving the '22 car and by the time he finally did it as too late to make a real bid for the championship. Getting that elusive first win at Silverstone seemed to settle him down a great deal and if anything he looked the better Ferrari driver post-Spa.
Lewis Hamilton - 7/10
Statistically his worst season in F1 - but all things considered he put in a decent showing. At times he was getting himself into the mix with cars that were way faster than the W13 and incredibly he only came away with two less podiums than Checo managed in the (much) faster RB18 and the same number as Sainz in the Ferrari! There were some clumsy moments (see the clash with Alonso at Spa) but there were some brilliant ones too (see the double pass at Silverstone). Overall I don't think he will be happy with his performance in '22 but I think that speaks more to the usual heights he hits rather than it being an objectively bad season in isolation.
Lando Norris - 8/10
A difficult, and largely anonymous season in terms of out and out results belies the fact that, once again, Lando was on some serious form. This year's McLaren clearly wasn't a great car, arguably the Alpine was faster (if a little more fragile). But Lando beat both the Alpine drivers in the standings. I have to wonder how long he's going to wait for McLaren to deliver a car worthy of his talents.
Esteban Ocon - 6/10
I'll admit don't quite "get" Ocon - some people will rave about him and speak of him in the same breath as the great talents of the "new" generation (Norris, Leclerc etc) but I just don't see it. He's a solid midfield runner and returned a solid midfield season, I think if he were to take a look in a crystal ball he'd see Perez's face - because I think he's destined to be F1's next professional journeyman.
Fernando Alonso - 8/10
For all of his, perhaps questionable, politicking out of the car he's still dynamite in it. Alonso put some truly special qualifying laps together this year, particularly in Canada. If it weren't for his disproportionate reliability woes he would have demolished Ocon this year.
Valtteri Bottas - 6/10
Made good use of Alfa's weight advantage early on in the season and he looked racier than I think we've seen from him in years. But as the car's performance faded so did he.
Daniel Ricciardo - 3/10
Another dismal year, and what is there to say about it that hasn't been dissected ad nauseum on F1 sites all year? Funnily enough he perked up a bit once it was confirmed that he was for the chop and he got a bit stuck in during some of the races. His recovery drive in Mexico was superb, unfortunately it only served to highlight just how far off his game he's been for the last two years.
Sebastian Vettel - 6/10
At times I think Seb drove extremely well this year, I'm just not convinced the Aston really let him show it. The A-spec was just plain slow and the B-spec seemed.. moody, particularly when it came to qualifying which I think obscured that Vettel was then quietly getting on with he job on a Sunday and his relative drubbing of Stroll in the points tally (despite contesting two fewer races) reflects that.
Kevin Magnussen - 6/10
This is difficult to call - Kevin put in some eye-catching drives in the first half the season but as the other teams developed the cars Haas just tumbled down the order and more and more you got the sense that Mick was getting on top of things and was starting to give Kevin a serious run for his money. His pole lap in Interlagos was a think of beauty however.
Pierre Gasly - 4/10
The car wasn't great, but I have to say Pierre was scruffy all year long. He can do much better, and he's going to have to next year as he takes his big steps into the the Post-Red Bull stage of his career at Alpine.
Lance Stroll - 4/10
Standard-issue Lance Stroll season really. Occasional flashes of speed in a watery mediocrity soup. Unlike his fellow 4/10 scorers, I think this is probably his level.
Mick Schumacher - 4/10
He really looked to be getting a handle on things in the second half of the season. But it was all too little-too late. Add in that when he got it wrong it tended to be in ways that not even all the T-cut in the world could fix and that probably doomed him - when the team didn't even have the money to be hitting the budget cap in the first place you can't go around writing off chassis every other race. Because that means less money for upgrades, which means lost points, which means lost prize money for next year and I think all that together led to him losing his seat. Hopefully he'll get himself settled in a reserve berth at somewhere like Merc and we'll see Mick 2.0 at some point because I do think he's got more to show us.
Yuki Tsunoda - 3/10
I was willing Yuki to succeed this year - last season I thought he showed promise if he could just channel those flashes of speed into something consistent and cut the errors. I thought it was at least worth giving him another year to find out. Sadly this year he's just been... "meh", he's not looked quick at any point really and when Gasly can underperform as much as he did this year and still nearly double Yuki's points tally I can only assume that he's there next year because Honda want him to be.
Zhou Guanyu - 5/10
It's unfortunate for Zhou that as he started to find his feet was when the car started to slip back down the grid. Otherwise I don't think the points gap to Bottas would have been quite so extreme.
Alexander Albon - 6.5/10
Freed from the black hole of despair, sorry I mean Red Bull Driver program, Albon seems to be flourishing. He seems in a happy place and has taken up the George Russell mantle of dragging that Williams to places it has no business being.
Nicholas Latifi - 1/10
It's over, thank god, it's over. I feel for Latifi I really do, he seems like a nice chap all things considered, but he's way out his depth in F1. I don't know enough about Logon Sargent to know whether he's going to be an upgrade, but it can't be any worse surely?
An interesting post, thanks. I am with you on Ocon, he's a solid F1 driver but I've never really seen anything that makes me think wow.
On the positive side, I also thought Alex Albon did a great job, and I was pleasantly surprised at Zhou's performance too. From what could have been a pay driver, Latifi style disaster he raced maturely and got some good results. He needs to take another step forward in '23 and thoroughly deserves another go, something which I can't really say about Tsunoda. He's just not delivered, and I think he's lucky to be back next year
On the positive side, I also thought Alex Albon did a great job, and I was pleasantly surprised at Zhou's performance too. From what could have been a pay driver, Latifi style disaster he raced maturely and got some good results. He needs to take another step forward in '23 and thoroughly deserves another go, something which I can't really say about Tsunoda. He's just not delivered, and I think he's lucky to be back next year
If it helps, here's a little homemade table showing who did the heavy lifting in each team:
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Credit to PhilAsia for a tidier table! Edited by JonChalk on Monday 21st November 22:20
Edited by JonChalk on Monday 21st November 22:21
JonChalk said:
If it helps, here's a little homemade table showing who did the heavy lifting in each team:
Team Pts Driver Pts %age
RBR 759 Ver 454 60%
Ferrari 554 Lec 308 56%
Merc 515 Rus 275 53%
Alpine 173 Ocon 92 53%
McLaren 159 Nor 122 77%
Alfa 55 Bot 49 89%
AM 55 Vet 37 67%
Haas 37 Mag 25 68%
AT 35 Gas 23 66%
Williams 8 Alb 4 50%
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Just had a very rough scan of the Alfa results and it appears most of the points bottas scored were in the first 7-8 ish races and the gap closed between them in the second half of the season - by then the Alfas were generally out of the points. So potentially a nuanced situation. Team Pts Driver Pts %age
RBR 759 Ver 454 60%
Ferrari 554 Lec 308 56%
Merc 515 Rus 275 53%
Alpine 173 Ocon 92 53%
McLaren 159 Nor 122 77%
Alfa 55 Bot 49 89%
AM 55 Vet 37 67%
Haas 37 Mag 25 68%
AT 35 Gas 23 66%
Williams 8 Alb 4 50%
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Dingu said:
JonChalk said:
If it helps, here's a little homemade table showing who did the heavy lifting in each team:
Team Pts Driver Pts %age
RBR 759 Ver 454 60%
Ferrari 554 Lec 308 56%
Merc 515 Rus 275 53%
Alpine 173 Ocon 92 53%
McLaren 159 Nor 122 77%
Alfa 55 Bot 49 89%
AM 55 Vet 37 67%
Haas 37 Mag 25 68%
AT 35 Gas 23 66%
Williams 8 Alb 4 50%
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Just had a very rough scan of the Alfa results and it appears most of the points bottas scored were in the first 7-8 ish races and the gap closed between them in the second half of the season - by then the Alfas were generally out of the points. So potentially a nuanced situation. Team Pts Driver Pts %age
RBR 759 Ver 454 60%
Ferrari 554 Lec 308 56%
Merc 515 Rus 275 53%
Alpine 173 Ocon 92 53%
McLaren 159 Nor 122 77%
Alfa 55 Bot 49 89%
AM 55 Vet 37 67%
Haas 37 Mag 25 68%
AT 35 Gas 23 66%
Williams 8 Alb 4 50%
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
KaraK said:
Zhou Guanyu - 5/10
It's unfortunate for Zhou that as he started to find his feet was when the car started to slip back down the grid. Otherwise I don't think the points gap to Bottas would have been quite so extreme.
I agree with your scores on the whole but I think this is harsh for Zhou. Agreed the points tally against Bottas tells one story, but Zhou had atrocious luck/reliability in the first half of the season that was beyond his control, not to mention a nasty crash in Silverstone, again not his fault. When his car was able to finish the race, he put in solid performances for a rookie - no major mistakes, no silly coming-together with others (looking at you Latifi) and Fred V talked very highly of him in the Abu Dhabi post race conferences. I’d say maybe 6, not stellar but better than average imo. It's unfortunate for Zhou that as he started to find his feet was when the car started to slip back down the grid. Otherwise I don't think the points gap to Bottas would have been quite so extreme.
JonChalk said:
If it helps, here's a little homemade table (sorry, formatting is ropey - it looks ok until submitted) showing who did the heavy lifting in each team:
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Formatting fixed.| Team | Pts | Driver | Pts | %age |
| RBR | 759 | Ver | 454 | 60% |
| Ferrari | 554 | Lec | 308 | 56% |
| Merc | 515 | Rus | 275 | 53% |
| Alpine | 173 | Ocon | 92 | 53% |
| McLaren | 159 | Nor | 122 | 77% |
| Alfa | 55 | Bot | 49 | 89% |
| AM | 55 | Vet | 37 | 67% |
| Haas | 37 | Mag | 25 | 68% |
| AT | 35 | Gas | 23 | 66% |
| Williams | 8 | Alb | 4 | 50% |
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Edited by JonChalk on Monday 21st November 19:07
parabolica said:
I agree with your scores on the whole but I think this is harsh for Zhou. Agreed the points tally against Bottas tells one story, but Zhou had atrocious luck/reliability in the first half of the season that was beyond his control, not to mention a nasty crash in Silverstone, again not his fault. When his car was able to finish the race, he put in solid performances for a rookie - no major mistakes, no silly coming-together with others (looking at you Latifi) and Fred V talked very highly of him in the Abu Dhabi post race conferences. I’d say maybe 6, not stellar but better than average imo.
Yeah, I could see an argument for 6 - the first three / four races his pace was nowhere compared with Bottas (particularly in qualifying), but he was a rookie and Bottas' single lap pace has never been in doubt. And his campaign in the second half shows a steady improvement.LukeBrown66 said:
Lol all, the Brits get high votes, whatever!!
Well apart from Lando being given a generous score., I'd have given him a 7/10, it seems rather fair. analysisGR- They asked him to keep up with LH as best he could and scored more points. A very successful season. 8/10 at least
LH- Consistent and although the score board showed GR on top, by the midway LH looked like he was on top of GR, A fair score at 7/10 and if he gets a completive car watch out GR.
Albon (if he counts) - Maybe a little generous but he had a few good displays in the Williams and difficult to score given his teammate.
Teppic said:
JonChalk said:
If it helps, here's a little homemade table (sorry, formatting is ropey - it looks ok until submitted) showing who did the heavy lifting in each team:
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Formatting fixed.| Team | Pts | Driver | Pts | %age |
| RBR | 759 | Ver | 454 | 60% |
| Ferrari | 554 | Lec | 308 | 56% |
| Merc | 515 | Rus | 275 | 53% |
| Alpine | 173 | Ocon | 92 | 53% |
| McLaren | 159 | Nor | 122 | 77% |
| Alfa | 55 | Bot | 49 | 89% |
| AM | 55 | Vet | 37 | 67% |
| Haas | 37 | Mag | 25 | 68% |
| AT | 35 | Gas | 23 | 66% |
| Williams | 8 | Alb | 4 | 50% |
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Edited by JonChalk on Monday 21st November 19:07
Teppic said:
JonChalk said:
If it helps, here's a little homemade table (sorry, formatting is ropey - it looks ok until submitted) showing who did the heavy lifting in each team:
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Formatting fixed.| Team | Pts | Driver | Pts | %age |
| RBR | 759 | Ver | 454 | 60% |
| Ferrari | 554 | Lec | 308 | 56% |
| Merc | 515 | Rus | 275 | 53% |
| Alpine | 173 | Ocon | 92 | 53% |
| McLaren | 159 | Nor | 122 | 77% |
| Alfa | 55 | Bot | 49 | 89% |
| AM | 55 | Vet | 37 | 67% |
| Haas | 37 | Mag | 25 | 68% |
| AT | 35 | Gas | 23 | 66% |
| Williams | 8 | Alb | 4 | 50% |
2 things for me:
No wonder McLaren let Danny Ric go
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
Edited by JonChalk on Monday 21st November 19:07
A consistent, and unrewarded, string of 11th places contributes nothing to the stats, but shows a potentially positive performance.
ralphrj said:
Autosport's score out of 10 averaged over the season
No idea if the raw data is available to be able to analyse, but would be really interesting to see the scores split in two, for the first and second half of the season.| Rank | Driver | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verstappen | 8.73 |
| 2 | Leclerc | 8.09 |
| 3 | Russell | 7.82 |
| 4 | Hamilton | 7.73 |
| 5 | Norris | 7.32 |
| 6 | Alonso | 7.23 |
| 7 | Sainz | 7.14 |
| 8 | Ocon | 7.00 |
| 9 | Vettel | 6.80 |
| 10 | Perez | 6.77 |
I'm predicting an improvement in ranking for Sainz, a switch in places for Russell and Hamilton, and pretty much the same for others, if comparing the 2nd half of the season to the 1st.
JonChalk said:
How is Zhou still in the Alfa team?
parabolica said:
KaraK said:
Zhou Guanyu - 5/10
It's unfortunate for Zhou that as he started to find his feet was when the car started to slip back down the grid. Otherwise I don't think the points gap to Bottas would have been quite so extreme.
I agree with your scores on the whole but I think this is harsh for Zhou. Agreed the points tally against Bottas tells one story, but Zhou had atrocious luck/reliability in the first half of the season that was beyond his control, not to mention a nasty crash in Silverstone, again not his fault. When his car was able to finish the race, he put in solid performances for a rookie - no major mistakes, no silly coming-together with others (looking at you Latifi) and Fred V talked very highly of him in the Abu Dhabi post race conferences. I’d say maybe 6, not stellar but better than average imo. It's unfortunate for Zhou that as he started to find his feet was when the car started to slip back down the grid. Otherwise I don't think the points gap to Bottas would have been quite so extreme.
On the rating, I suppose it depends on whether we are going to factor in the fact that he's a rookie.
In terms of recent debuts, you have Latifi in 2020 and Tsunoda in '21. On that score you'd have to say that Zhou is the best rookie for three years. Zhou is breaking through for China while Japan has a long line of drivers going back several decades.
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