F1 2022 Mid Season Driver Ranking

11 of 22 races done. How would you rank the drivers this year after the first half of the season? 

I haven't done a race by race rating so these may be inaccurate but my tiers would be:

Tier 1: Verstappen, Leclerc

Tier 1.5: Hamilton

Tier 2: Norris, Alonso, Russell

Tier 3: Perez, Vettel, Bottas 

Tier 3.5: Sainz and Ocon I guess? ( Maybe Magnussen? )

Edited by FTB, 11 July 2022 - 10:26.

Strange that you put Russell behind Hamilton even though Russell outscored Hamilton most of the year. And Perez is doing a truly stellar job this year in a second driver role, even won Monaco on merit. Norris very close to Max & Leclerc level imho, he just needs to become more constant but talent wise he is Tier 1 imho.

Stroll has been very underwhelming this year imho but we know they won't replace him (although they should).

Zhou did well this year (in particular his race pace is pretty good) but in all honesty: Pourchaire should get that seat. Zhou is a good driver but there are better ones, like Pourchaire, out there.

AlphaTauri drivers have been a bit underwhelming as well. Tsunoda constant up and down, Gasly not on the same level as the previous two seasons. And Ricciardo oh well his drop in form makes me sad.

Tier 12: Latifi.

Edited by William Hunt, 11 July 2022 - 10:45.

Max has been great as well. Albeit he's lost out a few battles with Leclerc too easily and was outclassed by Perez in Monaco, fortunate to end up where he did. .

Edited by messy, 11 July 2022 - 10:59.

@ Messy: seems like a fair ranking but... where is Bottas? Surely he should be in the top 10. Also I wouldn't put Norris behind Sainz or Alonso behind Ocon. Alonso had a lot of bad luck this year. Vettel also had several nice drives. Sainz made a bit too many driver erros for me so I would put him lower. Albon for sure deserves to be in the top 10.

Edited by William Hunt, 11 July 2022 - 11:00.

Yeah, as I said these are maybe inaccurate. And good point about Norris too. So maybe just move Hamiilton to tier 2? 

Edited by FTB, 11 July 2022 - 11:03.

Tier 1: Verstappen, Leclerc (Best drivers)

Tier 2: Russell, Hamilton, Norris (Top drivers)

Tier 3: Ocon, Alonso, Bottas, Perez (Consistent performers)

Tier 4: Sainz, Magnussen, Vettel (Solid, less consistent)

Tier 5: Ricciardo, Gasly, Tsunoda, Zhou, Schumacher, Albon (Need to show more)

Tier 6: Latifi, Stroll (Shouldn;t be on the grid)

Edited by Ali623, 11 July 2022 - 11:11.

Give Hamilton a car that allows him to win a race and he is still Tier 1 imho but, like Gerhard Berger said, 'when you are older you don't take the same amount of risks anymore if it's not for a win' (quote of Berger about Hamilton).

But Russell did outperform Hamilton for most of the year. But not in Silverstone where we saw that Hamilton can still do it.

Edited by William Hunt, 11 July 2022 - 11:04.

Really? Did you watch that race weekend or just checked the results?

1. Leclerc

2. Verstappen

3. Russell

4. Perez

5. Norris

6. Hamilton

7. Sainz

8. Ocon

9. Alonso

10. Bottas

Yep - Did you?

Give Hamilton a car that allows him to win a race and he is still Tier 1 imho but, like Gerhard Berger said, 'when you are older you don't take the same amount of risks anymore if it's not for a win' (quote of Berger about Hamilton).

But Russell did outperform Hamilton for most of the year. But not in Silverstone where we saw that Hamilton can still do it.

I disagree that Russell out performed Hamilton most of the year, they are equal on Saturday's and Hamilton has had to many issues that wasn't his fault on Sunday's for it to be a fair comparison, looking at race pace Hamilton is the faster of the two despite the results. If we are working in tiers like OP, I'd put them both neck and neck at the moment.

As for the rest just like last year there are two drivers a million miles ahead of the rest, and its Verstappen and Leclerc

Edited by SilverArrow31, 11 July 2022 - 11:49.

@ Messy: seems like a fair ranking but... where is Bottas? Surely he should be in the top 10. Also I wouldn't put Norris behind Sainz or Alonso behind Ocon. Alonso had a lot of bad luck this year. Vettel also had several nice drives. Sainz made a bit too many driver erros for me so I would put him lower. Albon for sure deserves to be in the top 10.

Edited by messy, 11 July 2022 - 12:05.

Edited by William Hunt, 11 July 2022 - 12:18.

1. Verstappen

2. Leclerc

3. Russell

4. Perez

5. Alonso

6. Norris

7. Sainz

8. Hamilton

9. Bottas

10.Ocon

11 of 22 races done. How would you rank the drivers this year after the first half of the season? 

I haven't done a race by race rating so these may be inaccurate but my tiers would be:

Tier 1: Verstappen, Leclerc

Tier 1.5: Hamilton

Tier 2: Norris, Alonso, Russell

Tier 3: Perez, Vettel, Bottas 

Tier 3.5: Sainz and Ocon I guess? ( Maybe Magnussen? )

Ofc this is a subjective list and it's subjective for everybody but imo Russell, Hamilton and Alonso should definitely be in the same tier.

Russell simply hasn't shown the consistent race pace to warrant these rankings, or to be listed in the same tier as Leclerc or Verstappen, who have shown great race pace much more consistently than Russell. The points difference between Russell and Hamilton can be put down to luck. I'd have both in the tier below the best (LEC, VER) as top racers alongside perhaps Norris and Alonso with Perez around about #7.

@ Paths: we don't know what the pace of Russel or Norris would be if they had a Ferrari or Red Bull. Russell had only 1 DNF so far this year and in all other races he finished either 3rd, 4th or 5th but never lower as 5th: that's pretty consistent to me. In fact he is the most consistent driver in the whole field imho.

One could make an argument to put Norris in Tier 1 considering the way he is trashing Ricciardo in what I believe is a very poor McLaren car. Lando is probably outracing that car.
Perez is clearly doing a much better job as Sainz: he came 5 times 2nd and won in Monaco.

Edited by William Hunt, 11 July 2022 - 12:29.

Russell simply hasn't shown the consistent race pace to warrant these rankings, or to be listed in the same tier as Leclerc or Verstappen, who have shown great race pace much more consistently than Russell. The points difference between Russell and Hamilton can be put down to luck. I'd have both in the tier below the best (LEC, VER) as top racers alongside perhaps Norris and Alonso with Perez around about #7.

@ Paths: we don't know what the pace of Russel or Norris would be if they had a Ferrari or Red Bull. Russell had only 1 DNF so far this year and in all other races he finished either 3rd, 4th or 5th but never lower as 5th: that's pretty consistent to me. In fact he is the most consistent driver in the whole field imho.

Consistent results, with some decent luck thrown in. I'm talking pace, where we can use Hamilton as the comparison. I think they've been evenly matched in the season so far with Russell a slight qualifying edge and Hamilton a slight race pace edge. That speaks very well for Russell, because it's his first year in the team. He's doing everything to show that he can be a leader of a team so far. However, sometimes Hamilton has looked considerably faster in races, and though it's a tough comparison for both because they are of a very high standard, there have been enough instances of quite large deficits for me to not quite rank him (or Hamilton) this year alongside the metronomic superiority of pace both Leclerc and Verstappen have shown. Perez on several occasions has been competitive with Max but it seems the car development is now moving away from what he'd prefer and Max his getting his pointy front end. Leclerc has been super almost every weekend. I don't think we can say that for Hamilton and Russell, and that's to be expected because Russell is not settled into the team the way Max and Charles are theirs. Anyway, that's my view. Maybe Russell is on that level with Max and Charles but I need to see more, really.

Edited by messy, 11 July 2022 - 13:06.

Edited by Retrofly, 11 July 2022 - 13:13.

Edited by SenorSjon, 11 July 2022 - 16:19.

Verstappen & Leclerc

Russell, HAM, ALO

Bottas, Norris, Perez, MAG, Sainz, Ocon, Vettel, Albon

Zhou, Gasly, Stroll, Tsunoda, Schumacher, Ricciardo, Hulkenback

King Latifi

I've done this from the top of my head. 

Edited by 1player, 11 July 2022 - 15:51.

Tier 1 - Max and Charles

Tier 2 - Lewis

Tier 3 - George, Fernando and Lando.

Tier 4 - Carlos, Sergio and Esteban

Tier 5 - Sebastian, Zhou, Kevin and Valtteri

Tier 6 - Pierre, Alex, Mick S and Yuki

Tier 7 - Daniel

Tier 8 - Lance and Nicholas L

Edited by Marklar, 11 July 2022 - 16:21.

LOL at pretty much everybody putting Hamilton below, if not far below Russell.

Lewis had a crappy start to the season, but I'm not sure we've been watching the same two recent races where Hamilton was closer to his 7 WDC form than lower ranked than a fast, but still unproved driver.

 

We're judging the previous eleven races, not the previous two. If we're hyst selecting a couple of random races, why not Jeddah and Imoa? I appreciate that Goerge has had a bit of luck but given that it's  6-5 to George in quali and 7-4 on race day it's perfectly legit to place Russell higher. Especially given that he's new to the team and Lewis has been there for a decade.

Hamilton has looked quicker when both are running under the same circumstances (especially in race trim), but he has been inconsistent and overall not at the level that we are used to.

Credit to Russell who has had a really solid start in a new team (and difficult car), but if Mercedes holds their current form I'd expect Hamilton to be ahead come the end of the season.

We're judging the previous eleven races, not the previous two. If we're hyst selecting a couple of random races, why not Jeddah and Imoa? I appreciate that Goerge has had a bit of luck but given that it's  6-5 to George in quali and 7-4 on race day it's perfectly legit to place Russell higher. Especially given that he's new to the team and Lewis has been there for a decade.

Hamilton was unlucky with Magnussen in Spain and George was lucky with SCs in Melbourne and Miami when he was doing worse than Hamilton. I would say Hamilton should be leading 7-4 in h2h races.

Edited by FTB, 11 July 2022 - 19:33.

As always, I've given this about five minutes' thought:

1. Verstappen
2. Leclerc
3. Pérez
4. Russell
5. Bottas
6. Norris
7. Ocon
8. Hamilton
9. Magnussen
10. Alonso
11. Vettel
12. Albon
13. Sainz
14. Schumacher
15. Gasly
16. Tsunoda
17. Zhou
18. Ricciardo
19. Stroll
20. Latifi

Edited by ANF, 11 July 2022 - 21:03.

14. Schumacher
15. Gasly
16. Tsunoda
17. Zhou
18. Ricciardo
19. Stroll
20. Latifi

Edited by Ferrim, 11 July 2022 - 21:12.

I find all this "Russell's race pace has been nowhere near Lewis' but its been distorted by experimental setups and luck" narrative less convincing the longer we get into the season and the longer George is ahead in the table. Admittedly, Lewis has pulled himself back ahead in the last couple of races - but I think Russell absolutely deserves his due for matching Hamilton from the off.

I've not realised that Hamilton had significant advantage in race pace and usually the one between him and Russell who is ahead after T1, finishes the race ahead. People mention all the races where Russell benefitted from things like SC but I, for example, think, that Russell had Hamilton covered in Canada if not for that overoptimistic slicks attempt in Q3. He's the one ahead in points despite having the only DNF of the season within the team and neither of his races were as poor as Hamilton's in Imola. I think they've been very close on performance this season, would be around tied on points if accounted for luck/misfortune.

Leclerc, Verstappen - Top two are way clear. Very difficult to split them. Charles has been great in qualifying whereas Max is getting to that point in races when I'm now extremely shocked if he doesn't win.

Hamilton, Russell, Norris, Alonso - All four have shown glimpses. Nando has been extremely unlucky, Lando is dominating Riccairdo again. Russell has settled quickly and is doing everything he should be doing but when he needs that extra tenth in the race, I still think Lewis has him covered.

Ocon, Bottas, Sainz, Perez - All unspectacular but doing a decent job.

Magnussen, Zhou, Vettel, Schumacher, Albon - Have shown occassional glimpses but still plenty of off-sessions and mistakes from all. 

Stroll, Tsunoda, Gasly, Ricciardo - Big fat meh. Gasly is the real disappointment here while Ricciardo seems to have checked out.

Latifi - Silverstone qualifying aside, I really don't understand how he's still on the grid.

Edited by MJB5990, 12 July 2022 - 08:15.

Top - Verstappen and Leclerc too easy

Perez, Russell, Bottas, Norris, Hamilton, Ocon all doing well.

Alonso, Magnussen, Albon, Sainz mostly well but can sometimes go a bit awry.  

Schumacher, Vettel, Gasly, Zhou, Tsunoda - stand out moments but need consistency from themselves or the car... or just seem annoyed like Gasly and Vettel. 

Oh no its the rest who are at the point of bye bye - Ricciardo, Stroll, Latifi. Goodness me. Goodness me. 

1. Verstappen

2. Leclerc
3. Pérez
4. Russell

5. Ocon
6. Norris
7. Alonso

8. Sainz
9. Hamilton
10. Magnussen
11. Bottas
12. Vettel

13. Zhou
14. Albon

15. Gasly
16. Schumacher
17. Tsunoda
18. Ricciardo
19. Stroll
20. Latifi

Correlation between having the best car and highest rating is s little too high for me to be taking this kind of vote very seriously….

Its always been a common side effect of rating threads that a driver placing a front running car roughly were it is expected to be will often get a 8 or 9, while a driver doing the same in a midfield car will get a 6 or 7.

Correlation between having the best car and highest rating is s little too high for me to be taking this kind of vote very seriously….

I tried to take the car factor out of account, but it is very difficult to do so, as most coverage is skewed towards the top teams, thus you tend to only see the lower midfield and runners when something goes wrong. We didn't see too much of Ocon in Austria, yet he was probably in the top 3 drivers in that race. 

But also, the top drivers are generally in the top teams.