Rank this seasons drivers?

[MrBig]

There's been a lot discussion on here recently about the relative merits of various drivers ahead of the big shake up for 25 and 26, so I'm interested to see how everyone would rank the current drivers list. Straight 1-20, 1 is the best, 20 the worst, no joint ranks allowed. Doesn't have to be based on recent form, just your overall view of their ability behind the wheel.

Having thought of this, I realised it's actually harder than I thought, and I will probably change my mind again in a few weeks

Max Verstappen
Lando Norris
Carlos Sainz Jr.
Lewis Hamilton
Oscar Piastri
Charles Leclerc
Fernando Alonso
George Russell
Sergio Pérez
Yuki Tsunoda
Nico Hülkenberg
Lance Stroll
Daniel Ricciardo
Pierre Gasly
Esteban Ocon
Kevin Magnussen
Zhou Guanyu
Valtteri Bottas
Alex Albon
Logan Sargeant

[resolve10]

Some choices are too close to make. I'm cheating and putting them into groups.

1 - Max Verstappen - Lewis Hamilton - Fernando Alonso

2 - Charles Leclerc - Lando Norris

3 - George Russell - Carlos Sainz - Oscar Piastri

4 - Daniel Ricciardo - Sergio Perez - Pierre Gasly - Alex Albon - Valtteri Bottas - Yuki Tsunoda - Lance Stroll

5 - Esteban Ocon - Nico Hulkenberg - Kevin Magnussen - Zhou Guanyu

6 - Logan Sargeant

Also tricky as some have exceptional one lap pace (Leclerc), some are excellent racers (Alonso) and some are solid points scorers but not top tier drivers (Sainz, Bottas, Gasly).

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

resolve10 said:

Some choices are too close to make. I'm cheating and putting them into groups.

1 - Max Verstappen - Lewis Hamilton - Fernando Alonso

2 - Charles Leclerc - Lando Norris

3 - George Russell - Carlos Sainz - Oscar Piastri

4 - Daniel Ricciardo - Sergio Perez - Pierre Gasly - Alex Albon - Valtteri Bottas - Yuki Tsunoda - Lance Stroll

5 - Esteban Ocon - Nico Hulkenberg - Kevin Magnussen - Zhou Guanyu

6 - Logan Sargeant

Also tricky as some have exceptional one lap pace (Leclerc), some are excellent racers (Alonso) and some are solid points scorers but not top tier drivers (Sainz, Bottas, Gasly).

Groups 1,2,3 and 6 I would totally agree with. Group 4 and 5 are very close, Maybe move Ricciardo down and maybe Hulkemberg up?.

I am pretty certain Sargeant and Magnussen are going, Zhow Guanyu should be going, the only way he will get a drive is because of the Chinese sponsorship he brings.

Ricciardo should not even have a drive, but I would not be surprised if he somehow manages to hold on for anther year somehow.

[resolve10]

I'm standing by Danny Ric in group 4. If anything I'd have him closer to 3 than 5. He had some cracking drives for Red Bull up to 2019, and I think that was partly his undoing as it raised expectations for his Renault/McLaren stints. When things go bad for him they tend to snowball and become really bad, like when he got lapped in Monaco by Norris when they were teammates.

He's not the sort of driver to drag a slow car up the field, he suits being in a competitive car. I'm sure all drivers would say that, but I think the opposite is true of Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly & Alex Albon (to name a few examples) who have had very strong seasons in the midfield, but, in my opinion, lack the final 5-10% to be a top tier driver.

[pissonheads]

resolve10 said:

Some choices are too close to make. I'm cheating and putting them into groups.

1 - Max Verstappen - Lewis Hamilton - Fernando Alonso

2 - Charles Leclerc - Lando Norris

3 - George Russell - Carlos Sainz - Oscar Piastri

4 - Daniel Ricciardo - Sergio Perez - Pierre Gasly - Alex Albon - Valtteri Bottas - Yuki Tsunoda - Lance Stroll

5 - Esteban Ocon - Nico Hulkenberg - Kevin Magnussen - Zhou Guanyu

6 - Logan Sargeant

Also tricky as some have exceptional one lap pace (Leclerc), some are excellent racers (Alonso) and some are solid points scorers but not top tier drivers (Sainz, Bottas, Gasly).

1 - Max Verstappen - Lando Norris: Not a Max fan but he's driven incredibly well so far even when he has struggled with setup and the Mclaren/Ferrari new found pace. Lando has put in a great performance thus far, showing real top tier talent

2 - Charles Leclerc - Hamilton: Don't think either have been their best and have had times had disappointing session, but both showing star quality again and getting the results. Disclaimer, I am an undisputed Ham fan and can't wait to see him in rosso.

3 - Carlos Sainz - Oscar Piastri - George Russell: Carlos has been great and possibly deserved to be in group 2, hope he gets a good seat for '25. Young Piastri really impressing me, he is up against top tier talent across the garage in Lando. Russell doing well but like so show more star quality.

4 - Fernando - Alex Albon: Impressive drives but don't think Alonso as fast right now as some making out (put those handbags down please PHers). Alex driving well again but a few unforced errors.

5 - Valtteri Bottas - Yuki Tsunoda - Pierre Gasly - Lance Stroll: Best of the rest group maybe. Think Stroll gets undue criticism, he hasn't been completely overshadowed. Bottas PR king atm, what a lad - tough car but want to see more on track.

6 - Sergio Perez - Daniel Ricciardo: Both disappointing. Perez has got to be better in Qualifying or get the overtaking done early if he is going to start so low down, he could be the reason Red Bull loose out on the constructors which is unacceptable looking at the start of the season and what Max has achieved.

7 - Esteban Ocon - Nico Hulkenberg - Kevin Magnussen - Zhou Guanyu: All a bit 'so so' though a few good sessions from some.

8 - Logan Sergeant: Struggling with the level of F1 atm, needs to pull something out the bag soon.

[entropy]

Not sure if Lewis belongs at the top with Fred & Max.

He's regularly being beaten by Russell and George hardly gets credit for it.

I'm becoming cynical about the whacky set-up experiments excuse. Either Lewis doesn't know how to set up the car and / or he has lost faith with Merc. Even with a clean sheet of paper for this year Merc take one step forwards and the next race they take two steps back.

BTW I'm not trolling. Genuinely wondering if Lewis has past his peak or lost some motivation / confidence?

[Rotary Potato]

I've added a "2024 only" rating in brackets, as I think some drivers are currently underperforming, and some are overperforming ... but for better or worse, this is my ranking. Everyone seems to have forgotten there's been 21 drivers this season ... with Logan Sargeant currently 21st in a 20 car field.

1 - Max Verstappen (2)
2 - Lando Norris (1)
3 - Lewis Hamilton (9)
4 - Fernando Alonso (8)
5 - Charles Leclerc (3)
6 - Oscar Piastri (5)
7 - Carlos Sainz (4)
8 - George Russell (10)
9 - Yuki Tsunoda (6)
10 - Esteban Ocon (13)
11 - Pierre Gasly (14)
12 - Nico Hulkenberg (7)
13 - Sergio Perez (15)
14 - Alex Albon (11)
15 - Valtteri Bottas (16)
16 - Danny Ric (19)
17 - K Mag (17)
18 - Lance Stroll (18)
19 - Zhou Guanyu (20)
20 - Oliver Bearman (12)
21 - Logan Sargeant (21)

I rate Lewis and Fernando as top tier drivers, but right now it's just not happening for them. Not gelling with the car? Getting old and lost their edge? Unmotivated in their current team? I don't know what it is, but they don't seem to be performing at their highest level right now. I'd still take them over the majority of the field for my F1 team that exists solely in my head!

On the flipside, Tsunoda is having a great season. Before the season started, Danny Ric was being talked about as all-but-there as the next Red Bull driver, and here we are with Yuki having comfortably put things in perspective. I'm still not sold on how 'good' he really is, but there's no denying his form currently. It's for a similar reason I put Bearman so low ... he's only had 1 opportunity, and so not really had a chance to show how good/bad he really is, beyond not fumbling things while the spotlight was on him.

If the bottom 5 regular drivers (so Bearman aside) were never seen in F1 again, I would shed no tears. It's a shame, as there are a couple of right characters in there (Danny Ric & K Mag) but you need more than livening up the place to deserve a spot on the grid.

[parabolica]

pissonheads said:

resolve10 said:

Some choices are too close to make. I'm cheating and putting them into groups.

1 - Max Verstappen - Lewis Hamilton - Fernando Alonso

2 - Charles Leclerc - Lando Norris

3 - George Russell - Carlos Sainz - Oscar Piastri

4 - Daniel Ricciardo - Sergio Perez - Pierre Gasly - Alex Albon - Valtteri Bottas - Yuki Tsunoda - Lance Stroll

5 - Esteban Ocon - Nico Hulkenberg - Kevin Magnussen - Zhou Guanyu

6 - Logan Sargeant

Also tricky as some have exceptional one lap pace (Leclerc), some are excellent racers (Alonso) and some are solid points scorers but not top tier drivers (Sainz, Bottas, Gasly).

1 - Max Verstappen - Lando Norris: Not a Max fan but he's driven incredibly well so far even when he has struggled with setup and the Mclaren/Ferrari new found pace. Lando has put in a great performance thus far, showing real top tier talent

2 - Charles Leclerc - Hamilton: Don't think either have been their best and have had times had disappointing session, but both showing star quality again and getting the results. Disclaimer, I am an undisputed Ham fan and can't wait to see him in rosso.

3 - Carlos Sainz - Oscar Piastri - George Russell: Carlos has been great and possibly deserved to be in group 2, hope he gets a good seat for '25. Young Piastri really impressing me, he is up against top tier talent across the garage in Lando. Russell doing well but like so show more star quality.

4 - Fernando - Alex Albon: Impressive drives but don't think Alonso as fast right now as some making out (put those handbags down please PHers). Alex driving well again but a few unforced errors.

5 - Valtteri Bottas - Yuki Tsunoda - Pierre Gasly - Lance Stroll: Best of the rest group maybe. Think Stroll gets undue criticism, he hasn't been completely overshadowed. Bottas PR king atm, what a lad - tough car but want to see more on track.

6 - Sergio Perez - Daniel Ricciardo: Both disappointing. Perez has got to be better in Qualifying or get the overtaking done early if he is going to start so low down, he could be the reason Red Bull loose out on the constructors which is unacceptable looking at the start of the season and what Max has achieved.

7 - Esteban Ocon - Nico Hulkenberg - Kevin Magnussen - Zhou Guanyu: All a bit 'so so' though a few good sessions from some.

8 - Logan Sergeant: Struggling with the level of F1 atm, needs to pull something out the bag soon.

I mostly agree, but I would switch Carlos and Lewis, and move Yuki up to group 4 and Hulk up to group 5. Both Yuki and Hulk are the ones picking up 1 or 2 points when one of the top 5 teams don’t form the top 10.