[Driver] 2024 Driver Rankings

[chillibowl]

well that time to start filling in the days until next season!

my driver rankings for 2024.

1. Max - not the cleanest sheet but lots of highlights of this season. right or wrong, he is clearly the driver to beat.
2. Leclerc - tough one for me. when the car was there he delivered, Monza was a big highlight, and had a worse car than my next on the list.
3. Lando - an absolutely great season but some optimistic moves and failure to convert poles into wins have him at 3 for me. if he learned his lessons then expect him to be top shelf next year.
4. George - slow start with a difficult car and a lot of pressure given LH's early move announcement. second part of the season he proved to the non believers (like me) he has what it takes to lead a top team.
5. Carlos - what a gutsy season!
6. Piastri - did everything one would expect for a 2nd year and only getting stronger. handled team orders incredibly well.
7. Hamilton - some wins and podiums but lost his way at times.
8. Hulk - last third of the season he was driving lights out in that Haas! scored points in about half the races this season.
9. Alonso - could have been higher to be honest (ahead of ham and hulk). smashed his team mate and made AM the best of the rest.
10. Gasly - up and down but finished the season strong. 10th on the drivers table so 10th on my list.
11. Yuki - some great outings, bested his team mates. his best season to date i would think.
12. K Mags - hes both a fighter and entertaining guy but came on a little too late in the season imo.
13. Albon - unlucky as always but skilled when things were going his way which unfortunately didnt happen enough for him.
14. Lawson - tough seat/system to jump into part way through but kept up with Yuki. if he had a full season i suspect he would have been higher
15. Bearman - only 3 races, one race with very little warning, scored in 2 of them. benefits from less is more.
16/17. - hard to pick between Zhou and Bottas imo. both had a few moments and Bottas a tad unlucky to not have scored points at all...Zhou did but im undecided if that puts him ahead of his team mate or not?
18. Ocon - one huge points haul in Brazil but otherwise a very forgettable season and career imo.
19. Perez - could have been last on the list but had a very solid start to the season when the car was more to his liking.
20. DanR - he tried i guess.
21. Doohan - need to see more of course but sometimes thats a good thing.
22. Sargeant - he also tried and had a fairly good attitude about it all...respect!
23. Stroll - got smashed by his team mate, largely disappeared in the 2nd half of the season, looks to be completely unmotivated.

[S griffin]

I would put Sargaent below Stroll. Stroll could at least beat his team mate on a few occasions and not just any team mate, but one of the all time greats. Otherwise great list

[E.B]

I would probably have stuck Carlos higher than George and maybe Lando as well.
Otherwise an excellent list

[BTCC frog]

I mostly agree with that top ten, however personally I would have Norris second. I just think he is faster than Leclerc and Russell, both over one lap and particularly over a race distance when tyre wear is a factor. His racecraft is very weak but I think that extra speed is more significant.

I would also have Hulkenberg below Alonso and Gasly. I think he was in the enviable position of often having the best car in the midfield, and in one that wasn't so good last year, so when he has a good race it looks particularly impressive but he was also very inconsistent and the bad races weren't so obvious. Tsunoda's season was similar.

The biggest thing I disagree with the top ten on is the Sauber drivers. I don't think it's fair to judge the drivers in the slowest car based on the one race when points were on offer, particularly considering Bottas was ahead of Zhou that day until he was hit by Lawson. Over the rest of the season, Bottas was better than Zhou by a landslide. He won the qualifying head-to-head 21-3, and usually by ridiculous margins of over half a second. While Bottas frequently put the Sauber higher on the grid than it should be, Zhou was cut adrift at the back. In the races too, they tended to slip to the back but with Bottas typically ahead of Zhou by some distance. Bottas' races were more inconsistent and his racecraft was still lacking, but for me that is what prevents Bottas from making the top ten, where he would definitely be if only qualifying was included, but he is still well above Zhou who for me only ranks above Sargeant this year.

I also think the ranking of Ocon is way too harsh. In the first part of the year, when the Alpine was at its worst, he consistently beat Gasly in both qualifying and the race for the first five on the bounce. It was far more even in the mid-part and Gasly obviously had a huge advantage towards the end of the season, but I just don't believe the Alpine drivers had equal cars at the end of the year. It doesn't happen that two drivers can be so evenly matched for one and a half years and then suddenly have that big a difference between them. And there is history of drivers collapsing under Flavio Briatore once he had decided he wanted rid of them. Even in that period when Gasly's car has to have been far more upgraded than Ocon's, he still took that outstanding podium in Interlagos. I think Ocon should be just outside the top ten.

Also, I would have Magnussen a lot lower. I agree that he is super entertaining to watch but he was also just so much slower than Hulkenberg for most of this season.

At the back, I think it is harsh to have Stroll dead last, he should be close to it but had a few good races in the middle of the season. I would have him above Perez whose 'solid start' was only really Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Japan, and the lack of pace across Canada, Spain, Austria and Silverstone was about the worst we have ever seen from him, while he was still well off it and making so many mistakes in the final rounds. Verstappen makes the Red Bull look better than it is, but Perez also makes it look far worse.

[chillibowl]

fair point on Bottas v Zhou...should have looked at/paid more attention to the quali disparity between them. my bad there.

admittedly with Mags went with my heart more than results on that one.

Ocon, for sure my bias showing but actually thought i was being generous in his placement! maybe not tho lol.

Stroll i would have put even lower if i could. he's got all the accountability of the wealthiest pay driver of all time with no self reflection imo. at least with Sargeant, and DanR, Perez, even Ocon i felt alike those guys were trying and had something to fight for. subjective for sure. anyways, hes got a contract for 25 and 26 so hes only got up to go?

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by E.B

I would probably have stuck Carlos higher than George and maybe Lando as well.

interesting.

Russell's DQ in Belgium...of course rules are rules but that was one of the better drives this season despite the ruling imo.

although, Carlos' win in Australia and after surgery was also a season highlight!

quite reasonable to flip those two!

[Guthrie]

Perez down at 19 while his team-mate won the drivers' championship, not a surprise to see him losing his Red Bull seat.

[morninggents]

Good list with which I mostly agree. Stroll possibly above Sargeant. Can't see that Doohan's one appearance, which to me was uninspiring, put him above any other driver. I concede that at least he didn't crash.

[Alan52]

Mostly agree except I’d swap Gasly and Alonso and place Stroll above Doohan and Sargeant.

[morninggents]

I've just noticwd that Colapinto is not on the list. I would have put him somewhere around no. 16.

[Born Racer]

I'll go with a top ten for now.

1. Verstappen

He had it tougher this year and some chinks in the armour showed, particularly when it came to racing 'ethics', but I sense that even Norris doesn't consider that Verstappen did anything other than exploit the rules as much as he could and doesn't hold it against him and that it was all a legitimate attempt at playing the game. I'm personally not a fan of Verstappen's approach, but I can't deny that over the season, I think he was the best driver. He dug deep and showed a kind of consistency that other drivers couldn't over the year and was always there or thereabouts. Echoes of 2009 and the way Button dominated the first part of the season but held it together over the second half. There were sublime moments, of course, such as Interlagos. It was good to see him really have to work for the title. Gets the nod over Norris for 2nd, because he also had the measure of his teammate, but a more proven one.

2. Russell

I'm going to divide people here, but that's fine - it's all opinions and a bit of conjecture. I do feel, however, that he hasn't made people quite sit up and take as much notice as he may have done - he put his seven-time world championship-winning teammate in the shade on balance and had moments of absolute brilliance. Still a bit mistake-prone, but he seems to be exploring the limits and reining it in more, as he hits a new level.

3. Norris

Really accomplished and showed a poise that could have taken him to a title. Got hung out to dry on a few occasions, but drove more ethically perhaps. Very consistent and had the legs on a promising teammate overall. A contender for the 2025 championship if the McLaren is up to it.

4. Leclerc

A sort of return to form after Sainz was starting to really put him in the shade. Sainz appeared to start more strongly, but Leclerc responded. He had some wins that will turn out to be career highs in Monaco and Monza, but he was also just fast most of the time and like Russell, I sense, less mistake-prone without losing any of the speed.

5. Sainz

For me, one of the most intelligent drivers. Was shaded by a rejuvenated Leclerc, but still showed a level of clarity of thinking that will serve him well in the tight 'midfield' next year.

6. Piastri

A close one with Sainz and Hamilton, and it is to his credit that it is so easy to forget that it was only his second season in the top flight. He has a level of assurance that makes him seem like he's been around for longer and he looks like the most placid driver on the grid (which will help him sometimes).

7. Hamilton

I'll keep him above Alonso, just because his teammate was better, so I accept it was tougher competition, but there's no denying that by his standards, this was a poor season for a driver who clearly still has the skills. He was beaten overall by Russell and he clearly struggled with the handline, but he also let his head drop like he hasn't before - the time to go to Ferrari is right. His peak moments were still vintage Hamilton and I do hope his move to Ferrari brings that eighth championship or he at least puts himself firmly in the battle for it.

8. Alonso

It's quite incredible really just how on it he still is. A formidable racing driver still - I'm so happy to watch him competing and never want him to retire!

9. Hülkenberg

Put that Haas in places where it didn't look like it had any right to be and he did it quite a lot. A regular top ten runner but in a car that didn't usually look to be one of the top five, I have to put him in my top ten drivers.

10. Gasly

The scrap with Ocon was pretty tasty in the early part of the year and then Gasly just checked out and left him trailing. I know suspicions have been raised in this thread about that, but I can only go on what I see here and he was often a good bet in the Predictions Contest to figure in the points by the chequered flag. Purely as a 'how did he do that?' moment, Las Vegas qualifying was brilliance.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by morninggents

I've just noticwd that Colapinto is not on the list. I would have put him somewhere around no. 16.

Well spotted! Not sure how I forgot him also would have put him in and around there as well.

[Born Racer]

Now I'll attempt the rest (most of them). This is where it gets a bit messy and tricky. I haven't included the impressive Bearman or Doohan because they competed so little.

I should preface this list saying that I don't feel well placed to comment with any authority here, because I haven't compared intra-team performances enough, so it's a huge dollop of conjecture and an enormous dose of perception.

11. Colapinto

Frankly (sorry), I thought he just came out of the boxes and impressed a lot. Tarnished by a series of shunts, he didn't do enough races to probably classify him among the rest, but as far as potential goes, and in terms of delivering results too, well, he gave a bit more than a flash in the pan.

Albon had been impressing me, but then this guy came along.

12. Tsunoda

Lawson may have got the nod and Red Bull are probably right, but after starting to falter, Tsunoda became a bit more consistent this year. His temperament still seems wrong for F1. He sort of amuses but frustrates me in that he knows he's the way he is, but hasn't done much to change it. Maybe the hot headedness on the radio shouldn't be read into that much, because a few moments aside, he has actually been a steady and quick pair of hands.

13. Lawson

He made the impact he needed to. He didn't have enough races for me to judge him well against Tsunoda, and I don't doubt he may have been better overall - I think I voted him Driver of the Grand Prix at least once.

14. Ocon

Brazil was brilliant and he was okay, but he's looked better before and he mostly dropped off in the second part of the season.

15. Albon

He looked good. Then Colapinto turned up. Had some issues not of his making, but he's had better seasons. I'm looking forward to the battle with Sainz and I do think he's better overall than he's made himself look this year.

16. Stroll

So, so anonymous. But he did sneak more than a few good results and his teammate is one F. Alonso. You sense, however, that he will never do anything special in F1 terms.

17. Magnussen

Quick on his day, but less impressive than in 2023. He loves a battle and I like that. Over the limit at times and sometimes just really close to it. Soundly beaten by Hülkenberg, though.

18. Pérez

We know his season was awful. His own standards were fairly decent before this year. He lost his head and lost the plot and is made to look bad because it's so tight and tough at the top of the top category. If you are as behind your teammate as he was, you just fail to score the big points and the end result was what we saw. He had his good moments and if he got his head together and felt confident again, he could perhaps produce good results in another team, but we said that about Ricciardo and...

19. Ricciardo

Like most people, I wanted him to do better, but we barely got any flashes of the Ricciardo spark out on the track that we used to. He wasn't awful, but he just wasn't anything more than average. He had a good F1 career and he will probably be a brilliant driver in something else now.

20. Zhou

Neither he nor Bottas inspired me this year. I know I'm possibly missing something because they were in the not-at-all-good Kick Sauber, but there was little in the way of standout performances going on. He seemed higher up than Bottas a lot of the time, though, and he delivered the points at the end of the day.

21. Bottas

I rate Bottas a reasonable amount, but he didn't really have any standout moments this year. I think many of us would have expected him to salvage at least a few points.

22. Sargeant

He probably tried really hard, but just wasn't modern-day F1 material.