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Performance and results don’t always align in Formula 1. That’s why at The Race we create our own ranking of the drivers based on being trackside and in the paddock for every single race, qualifying session and free practice.
Our judgement is based exclusively on how each driver performed during 2024, taking into account the quality of their machinery. This isn’t about ranking the drivers in order of how good they are overall, but purely what they delivered during the 24-event season.
We consider all manner of criteria - qualifying speed, stint speed, errors, execution, consistency, their all-round contribution to the teams and much more.
Our ranking is not the opinion of any one individual, but instead drawn put together by our team of F1 journalists – Scott Mitchell-Malm, Mark Hughes, Ben Anderson and Edd Straw.
NEW ENTRY
Jack Doohan takes last place simply because he had no opportunity to climb higher.
His one outing for Alpine was perfectly respectable and a solid foundation for his rookie season in 2025.
DOWN 2
Logan Sargeant failed to make the step Williams required in his second season. He paid the price for that, and his many crashes, by losing his drive after another accident at Zandvoort.
Yes, he was often lumbered with old-spec parts but that was partly down to his damage streak and the lack of performance. And after Alex Albon damaged his monocoque in Australia, Sergeant’s confidence took a hit when he had to give his car to his team-mate.
But the big problem was he was unable to turn flashes of speed into anything consistent.
DOWN 2
Zhou Guanyu’s mini-revival in the final triple header, qualifying well and grabbing Sauber’s only points with a superb drive to eighth in Qatar, proved what he’s capable of in F1. But much of his season was a nightmare.
The team played a large part in that. There were only a handful of events where he had the same car spec as team-mate Valtteri Bottas and there were so many problems - some of them not talked about publicly by Sauber - that partly explain his poor results.
However, he also struggled with a lack of confidence in the car on corner entry and he only escaped Q1 four times.
DOWN 4
Aston Martin’s struggles made life difficult for him, but this was probably Lance Stroll’s least impressive season of his eight in F1.
He scored points only six times. And while there were five occasions where he qualified or finished ahead of Fernando Alonso he was usually slower than his team-mate - on single-lap pace by an adjusted average of almost a quarter of a second.
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Stroll also seemed to lose interest as the car dropped off, failing to score a point in the final 11 events. There were also stupid errors such as rear-ending Daniel Ricciardo before the safety-car restart in China and going off on the formation lap in Brazil before carelessly driving into the gravel.
DOWN 7
Based on the first quarter of the season, Sergio Perez would be ranked far higher on this list. But as Red Bull’s performance advantage vanished, so his level plummeted alarmingly.
In the first six events, he banked 103 points. In the remaining 18, he scored a feeble 49 and became increasingly lost.
There was hope a new deal in June would restore Perez’s confidence by settling his mind, but as team principal Christian Horner admitted, that didn’t work.
Even at its worst, the Red Bull was a points-scoring car and Perez’s performances cost it the constructors’ championship.
NEW ENTRY
Franco Colapinto’s high points prove he justifies a full-time seat in the future and his early outings were particularly impressive.
Points finishes in Azerbaijan and the United States, backed up by near-misses in Italy and Singapore, in his first four races justified Williams’s decision to promote him.
He is ranked this low because the crashes, two in Brazil and in qualifying in Las Vegas, were so costly to the team and he had only nine weekends to make an impression.
He was about two tenths off team-mate Albon in terms of single-lap pace when you take into account the many factors that distorted the picture - a good performance in the circumstances.
His attitude and mindset were laudable and the big impression he’s made means he probably won’t be on the F1 sidelines for long.
NO CHANGE
Daniel Ricciardo’s season started terribly and he was lost in the early races. But there was an uptick in form from the ninth race of the season in Canada.
While the consistency was never rock-solid, Ricciardo had strong weekends in Austria, Hungary and Belgium and was close to getting a Red Bull promotion in the August break.
That promotion didn’t happen and his form after the break dropped off, resulting in him being unceremoniously axed after September's Singapore Grand Prix even though, on average, he was only just over a tenth off RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda on qualifying pace.
DOWN 2
Ricciardo’s replacement at RB was Liam Lawson. He immediately justified his place with a strong seasonal debut at Austin, setting the fastest RB lap of the weekend in Q1 then finishing 10th despite starting from the back thanks to a grid penalty. Lawson cited his successful comeback race as the highlight of his part-season.
He also scored with seventh place in the wet at Interlagos. But there were a few too many scrapes along the way, which meant his 2024 mini-campaign was good rather than great.
UP 3
Judged only by his strong late-season run - once the braking stability of the Haas improved enough to give him the confidence he needs - Kevin Magnussen would be ranked much higher.
Unfortunately, he only had occasional flashes of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg’s performance in the first two-thirds of the season, his main contribution aggressive rearguard actions in service of the team.
Late on, he produced some of his best work in F1 - notably an outstanding Mexican Grand Prix weekend that netted seventh place.
If this is, as it appears, the end of his F1 career, then he at least went out on a high.
NEW ENTRY
Ollie Bearman’s fragmented season of three isolated outings, two for Haas and one for Ferrari, means he can’t realistically be ranked any higher. But he made a big impact.
His Saudi Arabia seventh place after having been thrown into Ferrari action on Saturday in place of the unwell Carlos Sainz was an incredible start. He followed that up with a point in Azerbaijan and then a Brazil weekend where he was faster than Haas team-mate Hulkenberg - but ultimately had too many off-track moments in the wet Interlagos race.
Of the three drivers who joined mid-season, Bearman made the biggest impact and showed he potentially has a very bright F1 future.
DOWN 3
Although Esteban Ocon’s season ended with a run of events during which he griped about the car, contributing to his early Alpine exit, he had his strong moments during 2024.
While his second place in the wet in Brazil stood out, he put in some good performances in losing causes in the first half of the season - picking up points in Miami, Canada and Spain on top of taking an impressive ninth in Belgium.
But in the second half of the season team-mate PIerre Gasly outclassed him in dry conditions - and Ocon was convinced he had car problems that the team couldn’t detect.
There were also flashpoints such as Monaco, where his lunge on Gasly at Portier - in the aftermath of an instruction not to fight the sister car on the first lap - led to a threat he would be benched.
It was a sad end to his Alpine career, one in which his class only sporadically shone through.
UP 3
For the only time in his F1 career, Valtteri Bottas finished the season point-less. But it wasn’t for a lack of speed or effort.
He would have scored points early on but for a combination of pitstop troubles and an engine problem in China. For much of the season after, he was restricted to occasional Q2 appearances and battling races in the lower order. The fact he escaped Q1 10 times shows the qualifying speed is still there.
But if this is the end for his racing career in F1, he goes out with his head held far higher than the championship table suggests.
DOWN 6
Albon couldn’t repeat his heroics of 2023 in a Williams that was a better all-round car, but lacked the peakiness of previous years. He spent much of his season toiling outside the points
Albon scored four times, peaking with seventh in Azerbaijan, but there were too many untidy weekends where things weren’t maximised. Australia exemplified that, where a heavy crash on Friday reduced Williams to one car.
At his best Albon was fast and led the team well, but he couldn’t quite drag the consistency of performance needed to make it a threat to do better than ninth in the championship.
UP 1
This was Yuki Tsunoda’s best season so far in F1, one in which his consistency improved and he saw off the challenge of another RB team-mate in Ricciardo and outperformed Lawson late on.
It was only during the middle stages when RB lost its way and he became less consistent that he lost out in a likely place in our top 10. But there were so many strong weekends - Australia, Japan, Miami, Monaco and Brazil among them.
By his own admission, he needed to work on his emotional control and communication style - and he has made big gains, with only a couple of moments when the red mist set in.
Tsunoda was the second most-impressive driver in the Red Bull F1 stable this season.
UP 4
Hulkenberg was the lynchpin of Haas’s unexpectedly strong 2024. Including sprints, he scored points 13 times and bagged 70% of the team’s total.
There were a few mistakes, notably tagging the wall in Azerbaijan and an off in Brazil. He also had a spell when he struggled for rhythm in the car in the second half of the year.
But for the most part, Hulkenberg was Haas’s Mr Reliable, peppering his consistently good performances with the occasional head-turning moment such as setting fourth-fastest time in qualifying in Abu Dhabi.
That he finished 11th a remarkable seven times shows how reliable a threat he was in the midfield.
DOWN 4
It might seem harsh to place a driver who won twice only ninth, but Lewis Hamilton’s season was erratic and he too often made life difficult for himself with poor qualifying performances.
For the first time in his F1 career he was comprehensively outperformed by a team-mate in qualifying, with George Russell on average 0.170s quicker at Mercedes.
But for all that, Hamilton was often outstanding in races, showing all his old tyre-management skills and racecraft. And at Silverstone he ended a long win drought with one of the most memorable victories of his career.
UP 2
Pierre Gasly’s was a season of two halves. The good half was actually only the final quarter of the campaign once Alpine introduced a major upgrade package at Austin in October.
That led to an impressive run of results for Gasly, who was only denied even more points in this run by a strategic error at Austin and an engine failure, after qualifying a brilliant third, in Las Vegas.
Third in the wet at Interlagos was the high point of that run, after starting down in 13th after bad luck in qualifying, as Gasly did most of the heavy lifting in Alpine’s surprise rise to sixth.
But he also produced some great performances when the car was poor, although team-mate Ocon did have the edge at times very early in the season,
Gasly was also delighted by the fact he achieved his personal target of not causing any car damage through his own accidents, although he did clash with Ocon at the start in Suzuka and picked up some floor damage.
UP 1
Oscar Piastri broke through as a grand prix winner with victory in Hungary and pulled off a brilliant pass on Charles Leclerc to take a second win in Baku. He also ambushed McLaren team-mate Lando Norris for the lead on the first lap at Monza, laying down a marker.
There was much that was good about Piastri’s season, as he made a significant contribution to McLaren’s constructors’ championship victory - scoring 44% of its points. He always reliable and completed every lap of the season.
However, even taking account it’s Piastri’s second season he didn’t make the inroads into Norris that it appeared he might. On average, he was 0.129s slower in qualifying and there were few occasions when he unequivocally outpaced and outraced his team-mate - with his tame run after the Baku win disappointing.
There’s more to come for Piastri and he proved he can be a threat to Norris. But it didn’t happen enough in 2024.
DOWN 4
Alonso slated F1’s power rankings that feature on the official Formula 1 website at the end of a season in which he finished outside the top 10. But don’t worry, Fernando, we thought you did a great job!
Alonso fell well short of the heights of 2023 when he was a podium regular, but that’s down to the shortcomings of the Aston Martin AMR24.
This left him fighting a rearguard action for the whole season, as even when the car was capable of some startling qualifying performances early in the season - starting on the second row in Saudi Arabia and China - it regressed to its natural position in the race.
And the Aston Martin got less competitive as developments made the car harder to drive, yet Alonso still picked up regular good results. The list of impressive weekends is long - Bahrain, Japan, Canada, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Singapore and Abu Dhabi all stood out even though he never finished higher than fifth.
The main downside to the season was a patchy run in the second quarter of the year, in which only his sixth place in Canada really grabbed the attention.
Overall, he got the most out of the package, comfortably outperformed team-mate Stroll and saved Aston Martin more embarrassment.
UP 2
Sainz’s valedictory Ferrari season was probably the best of his four years with the team. His wins in Australia and Mexico stood out, as did an impressive run in the first part of the campaign.
That was supported by a consistent body of work, only let down by the occasional bad weekend - notably crashes in Canada, Azerbaijan and Brazil (twice).
And while he was second-best of the Ferrari drivers, he had his strongest season relative to team-mate Leclerc in qualifying - based on our adjusted averages, he was just under four hundredths down over the season.
In doing so, he took Ferrari to within 14 points of the constructors’ championship. He can consider himself desperately unlucky not to be staying at Ferrari given that was a result of the unexpected availability of Hamilton.
UP 5
Russell achieved something unique in F1 history: comprehensively outperforming Hamilton in qualifying over a season in the same car. On average, he was the aforementioned 0.170 seconds quicker - a significant margin against the driver with the most pole positions in F1 history.
He backed that up with plenty of good race performances, even if often it was difficult to untangle how well he was performing from the capricious swings of the Mercedes.
His wins in Las Vegas and Belgium were brilliantly executed, even though he lost the Spa victory to a minimum weight breach, while he lucked into a triumph in Austria thanks to being an excellent third when Verstappen and Norris clashed.
He also cut down on the mistakes from the previous year, even though there were still a few too many incidents - the qualifying crash at Austin and Friday shunt at Mexico City particularly costly. But none of the three occasions he failed to score were down to his errors - provided you accept the stewards' judgement that his late crash in Australia was down to Alonso’s driving ahead.
Fast, consistent and increasingly dependable, Russell showed he’s now ready to lead Mercedes.
UP 1
Norris achieved many things in 2024: taking his first grand prix victory - and adding three more, flirting with a title fight he never really made happen and being the spearhead of McLaren’s constructors’ championship.
As a driver, in terms of the pure technical skills of putting together great qualifying laps, managing race stints brilliantly, leading from the front, chasing well and recovering when down the order, he was excellent.
The only asterisk against his season was the fact that when it came to wheel-to-wheel combat he wasn’t at the same level as Verstappen.
There were races where he could have won, notably Austria, where Verstappen proved too tough an opponent - and to be a title winner Norris still needs to make gains. He also threw away second place in Qatar by failing to spot yellow flags.
But he did show late in the season that he is learning - notably in Mexico where he out-thought Verstappen and drew a ludicrous retaliatory lunge out of him.
Norris missed too many chances in 2024, but it was nonetheless a formidable season.
UP 1
Leclerc was never a championship threat in 2024, yet finished just 18 points behind Norris. The highlights were obvious - winning at home in Monaco, in front of the tifosi at Monza, and with a brilliant display in the United States Grand Prix. But that was supported by plenty of strong results, finishing in the top four 18 times.
The low points were barely worth speaking of. Austria was a disappointment, caused largely by injudicious car positioning at the start, while Silverstone went wrong only thanks to sacrificing Friday to running the troublesome new floor spec and a terrible strategy call. Other than those two weekends, the only other occasion he didn’t score was in Canada, a weekend ruined by car problems.
He was ahead of team-mate Sainz the majority of the time, although he faced a tougher challenge than in previous seasons in qualifying. But what really made an impression was how consistent Leclerc was and the lack of mistakes.
This campaign proved beyond doubt that if he gets in a championship-challenging car, he’s ready to win it.
NO CHANGE
Could any driver other than Verstappen have stayed clear in the drivers’ championship fight given Red Bull’s struggles after early dominance? Probably not.
Particularly vital were his wins in the Emilia Romagna, Spanish and Canadian Grands Prix at the start of Red Bull’s slide that extended his points lead.
He then scored consistently after that, before a late-season rally with two wins in the final four events - including a stunning wet-weather victory at Interlagos - gave him victory by a healthy 63 points. In the 18 grands prix after McLaren’s great step forward in Miami, Verstappen still outscored Norris by 10 points.
There were mistakes along the way, more so than last year, but that’s inevitable given he was only afforded the chance to be out front on his own in the early races. And when in the thick of the fight, he more often than not thrived.
This wasn’t Verstappen’s most dominant title win or the most dramatic, but you can make a case it was his best - given he did the near-impossible and overcame the competitive gravity that should have dragged him into a closer title battle.
