2021 DRIVER RATINGS: THE SEASON SO FAR
The F1 circus is into its first week of the summer break after the dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix. Now is a better time than ever to look back on the first 11 races of the 2021 season and rate how the grid have done so far from the title challengers to the Haas drivers struggling for any sort of pace.
The obvious place to start with this is Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen who are both having a great start to their seasons - with both drivers having lead the championship at one point or another and some great on track battles - this rivalry is really building up to be one the the greatest the sport has witnessed in recent years. With Hamilton trying to retain his title and also become the most decorated driver in F1 history is putting his heart and soul into every race while Verstappen is fighting with all he has to take a maiden title and Red Bull's first since Sebastian Vettel in 2013.
Rating /10
Lewis Hamilton - 10/10 - 4 Wins & 8 Podiums
Max Verstappen - 10/10 - 5 Wins & 8 Podiums
Another driver which has so far had a 10/10 season would be Lando Norris (McLaren) currently at the tine of writing sat in third in the championship standings on 113 points in a car which is clearly slower than that of the Mercedes and Red Bull is doing very to well not only out perform teammate Ricciardo but also be consistently fighting towards the front end of the field.
Lando Norris - 10/10 - 0 Wins & 3 Podiums
Now to the drivers who have had a good season so far but are one result away from it being a 10. My first nomination(s) is the two Ferrari drivers of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz currently sixth and seventh in the standings respectively. With Sainz getting to grips with the SF21 amazing quickly and with two podiums already this year Sainz is maybe a victory away from his season being a 10 - with teammate Leclerc having taken a sole podium so far at the British Grand Prix - Leclerc has had some poor luck this year with having to pull out the Monaco Grand Prix due to a crash in the qualifying session - a race he could have won and a race where Sainz took his first podium of the year and his first for Ferrari. Im also giving Ocon a 9/10 for his win in Hungary and how he was able to control the race and fend off the likes of Vettel for so long.
Charles Leclerc - 9/10 - 0 Wins & 1 Podium
Carlos Sainz - 9/10 - 0 Wins & 2 Podiums
Esteban Ocon - 9/10 - 1 Win & 1 Podium
For those having a solid season and are driving very well and have gotten themselves some 'surprise' results maybe with the odd podium or a large points haul...
Sergio Perez - 8/10 - 1 Win & 2 Podiums
Pierre Gasly - 8/10 - 0 Wins & 1 Podium
Fernando Alonso - 8/10 - Showing he's still got it at 40...
Sebastian Vettel - 8/10 - 0 Wins & 1 Podium
George Russell - 8/10 - First points for Williams
Nicholas Latifi - 8/10 - First points in F1
Now jumping down a few ratings for those who have somewhat underperformed or aren't up there with their teammates...
Lance Stroll - 5/10 - Outperformed by Vettel
Yuki Tsunoda - 5/10 - Outperformed by Gasly
Daniel Ricciardo - 5/10 - Daniel needs to find his rhythm in the McLaren
Valtteri Bottas - 5/10 - Not showing the true pace of the Mercedes under him.
Its difficult to rate the likes of the Alfa Romeo's and Haas because theirs only so much the pace of their cars will allow but I'd say that;
Kimi Raikkonen - 4/10
Antonio Giovinazzi - 4/10
Mick Schumacher - 4/10
Im only going to give Mazepin lower because he has made consistent mistakes not because of 'that' incident before pre season.
Nikita Mazepin - 2/10
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