F1 Driver Power Rankings: Round 3
Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images
MELBOURNE, Australia — With the Australian Grand Prix in the books, here is the third iteration of this year’s F1 Driver Power Rankings.
↓20. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) Race Position: 12th
I have found the person I am going to nitpick for the rest of the year. Carlos Sainz has managed to push my buttons in only three races into the new reason. How a Ferrari driver can be this incompetent and a loser boggles my mind. Not to sound extremely rude and harsh towards him, it is important to point out that Sainz is arguably the best person and personality on the current grid. Yet his lackluster performance wherever he goes has shown that he doesn’t possess the talent and driving skill to someday become a superstar F1 driver. That reality becomes especially problematic when you are driving for Ferrari. At a point in time when Ferrari’s other driver (who checks all the previous boxes) struggles with form and luck to begin the year, it is expected as a bare minimum for the other driver to step up and cover for the team. Sainz has failed at that so far. If a driver becomes the unofficial second driver wherever he goes, he has to look in the mirror and acknowledge that there has to be something that creates these parallels in all his teams. Verstappen was prioritized above him in Toro Rosso; Renault retained Hülkenberg and released him when they signed Daniel Ricciardo; Lando Norris quickly became the franchise driver at McLaren; and now he is playing second fiddle to Charles Leclerc. Whether from being a through and through F1 fan or from just watching Netflix’s Drive to Survive, everybody knows how ambitious and self-confident Carlos is. Yet there is a time where as a driver (especially as one from one of the top teams) you need to show glimpses of excellence frequently; not just once or twice a season. Carlos is consistent, and while that is what most drivers strive for, in some weird way, it may also be his biggest flaw.
Previous Ranking: 14
↓19. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) Race Position: DNF
Charles’ race didn’t even last one lap as he was pushed off the track to get stuck in the gravel right at the edge of turn three. While it is not necessarily fair to judge him on the DNF considering how early it happened and that it wasn’t his mistake, the fact of the matter is this was the continuation of an underwhelming qualifying performance the day before which follows two disappointing races to start the season. Just a year ago, it was Verstappen who had DNF’d two out of the first three races and Charles was the one who had won two of those three races. Now it is the opposite. However, the main difference is, despite the gap that had formed last year after three races, nobody had any doubt that Red Bull was going to hang around with Ferrari all the way through the season. As it turned out, not only Red Bull hung around, their performance improved and Ferrari’s car got worse, which led Verstappen to dominate Ferrari the rest of the season. This time around with roles and results swapped, nobody has the sense that Ferrari has the capability to turn things around and challenge Red Bull. So despite being only three races in, it feels like another lost season for Ferrari and Leclerc, one that makes you wonder how they went from having the best car to a mediocre car in less than a year’s time.
Previous Ranking: 6
↔18. Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) Race Position: 15th
Nyck de Vries has been consistently bad to start the season. While there are other drivers who are also trying to make something out of bad cars, aside from de Vries, every one of them has at least managed to outperform the car at some point during the race weekend whether through qualifying performance or race pace. de Vries has been the only driver in all three races to have been sunk back in the grid without having ever given the indication that he could pull a surprise result out of the hat. His season can only be defined as uninspiring so far.
Previous Ranking: 18
↑17. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) Race Position: 11th
I might have jinxed Bottas after the first race with my praises. It has been back-to-back bad race weekends for him now, and it is not just in terms of results. One can have weekends where you might end up with a disappointing finish, but at least you might be able to show some presence in one of the two weekends. With Bottas he has been extremely poor in qualifying and race pace in both Jeddah and Melbourne. He had a very solid opening race in Bahrain, but he now appears to be out of sync with the car; struggling to get a result out of it. One of Bottas’ notorious flaws is that he could out of nowhere get into these random slumps that are way off from his regular driving ability. While he has always managed to revert back to form, if in fact he is in one of those slumps, history suggests that the slump will last a couple of more races.
Previous Ranking: 19
↑16. Logan Sargeant (Williams) Race Position: 16th
Sargeant had a great first race to begin the year. And while he has crashed back to Earth ever since, I would still say that I am impressed with his ability as a driver. In a sport where favoritism, nepotism, and other similar factors play a huge role in drivers getting their seats without true merit, Sargeant is at least proving that he isn’t fully an alien to F1.
Previous Ranking: 17
↓15. Kevin Magnussen (Haas) Race Position: 17th
Magnussen hasn’t had the best of starts to the new season. In a way that mirrors last year, while one Haas car is off to the races, the other seems to be substantially off-pace than the other. While I always thought that Nico Hülkenberg was a better driver to begin with, Magnussen, who is supposed to be the one that is extremely familiar with the development of the car, is looking way off from how he performed last year. Maybe it’s the fact that his teammate this year is a peer rather than last year’s sophomore driver Mick Schumacher. While the inexperienced Schumacher was struggling with the inconsistent Haas, Magnussen was able to stand out as Haas’ lead driver, which gave him even more confidence while driving the car. However Schumacher is gone now, and the guy that replaced him has so far made Magnussen seem expendable; something that was unthinkable just four months ago.
Previous Ranking: 11
↓14. Zhou Guanyou (Alfa Romeo) Race Position: 9th
While he is one spot below this week from last week’s Power Rankings, Zhou has actually had a very decent start to the year. He has outperformed Bottas in all phases of the past two race weekends. He has shown poise, consistency, reliability, and most importantly growth as a driver. While he may be down one spot, in reality, Zhou is one of the positively trending drivers on the grid.
Previous Ranking: 13
↓13. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) Race Position: 10th
Kind of similar to Zhou Guanyou, Yuki Tsunoda also has had a decent start to the year. The clear indicator of that is that, despite not being a perfect driver himself, he has easily outperformed teammate Nyck de Vries in all three races. That is always an indication of a driver’s consistency. While it is hard to conjure something up from the underbudgeted AlphaTauri, Yuki has so far managed to hover just around the top 10 in all three races. As a leader, he has quickly stepped into the void that was left by the departure of Pierre Gasly.
Previous Ranking: 10
↑12. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) Race Position: 8th
Piastri is one of the drivers trending upwards as well. While testing and the opening race in Bahrain foreshadowed an abysmal season for both Piastri and McLaren, Piastri has been able to bounce back well since then. While the P8 of this race is mostly a result of the number of retirements and crashes in the race, it is still an achievement considering how inferior the McLaren is at the current stage of the season. The team won’t be losing sleep over how this result came to fruition.
Previous Ranking: 15
↑11. Lando Norris (McLaren) Race Position: 6th
Arguably the worst and most disengaged driver in the first two races, Lando Norris had a very impressive race in Melbourne, one that showed his potential as a future World Champion. While Norris currently lacks the discipline, his natural feel for the car is his greatest strength in pulling off unexpected results. He took full advantage of the chaotic nature of this crazy race by not making any mistakes and one by one picking off his midfield rivals to end the race with a remarkable P6. Having said that, the result does seem an outlier as well and I don’t expect a top-10 finish by either McLaren’s in Azerbaijan.
Previous Ranking: 20
↓10. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) Race Position: DNF
It was a very unfortunate race for Alpine, who were both running very firmly in points to end the race until a red flag restart ruined the race for both of them. The chaos that ensued in the restart led to massive crashes, which led to another red flag when, ironically, the two Alpines collided with one another. What was supposed to be a great weekend for both Esteban and Alpine turned into a nightmare at the very last lap of the race in an otherwise strong performance.
Previous Ranking: 8
↔9. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) Race Position: DNF
Similar to Ocon, Gasly was having a great race himself until the restart ruined both of their afternoons. Since the difficult qualifying session he had in the first race of the season, Gasly has been on a tear, having outperformed Ocon in each of the three races. He has made a swift transition to his new team, and Alpine will be satisfied with themselves at knowing that they have made the right choice for their new driver.
Previous Ranking: 9
↑8. Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) Race Position: 7th
Hülkenberg is having one of his best starts to a season this year. Although he had some misfortune as well, his overall pace and performance have been very impressive, and more importantly, he’s been a clear step ahead of his teammate Kevin Magnussen so far. While the two have had a frosty relationship in the past, the fact that Hülkenberg is outperforming Magnussen could reignite some of the problems the two have had in the past. While this doesn’t necessarily seem imminent at the moment, the discrepancy between the two teammates is one of the noteworthy points of the season so far. While team boss Guenther Steiner will be delighted with the team’s result this weekend, he will also be wondering if Hülkenberg is outperforming the car or rather Magnussen is underperforming.
Previous Ranking: 12
↔7. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) Race Position: 4th
I’m not a fan of Stroll for two reasons: 1) His billionaire dad got him into F1 through sponsoring Williams, and then eventually bought a team for his son to drive once his position in Williams was insecure. 2) He isn’t a great driver. The combination of these two factors made Lance an easy target, and many fans including myself were quick to jump the gun to dislike him. However, a fair man should admit when one is doing a good enough job. The Aston Martin car is currently on the same level as Mercedes and Ferrari, with each car being better than the other on a given race weekend based on track configurations and circuit layouts. That puts the Aston car on a level where they should aim to be a minimum P6 in races. When you have a world-class driver like Fernando Alonso, you bump that up a couple of positions. So when you are not a Fernando Alonso (or a Lewis Hamilton for instance) a P4-P6 range becomes a very decent No:2 driver result. Therefore Lance has been great as a No:2 driver this year. Had it not been for a car issue in Jeddah, Stroll would have had three races in a row within that range, in essence becoming the ideal driver to partner up Alonso. Aston Martin have one of the most solid driver pairings on the grid, and that is also in large part thanks to Stroll’s consistent performance this season, which is especially impressive considering his wrist surgery just days before the season opener.
Previous Ranking: 7
↑6. Alex Albon (Williams) Race Position: DNF
Albon had a very surprising performance throughout the weekend, often finding himself within the top six in lap times. He especially dominated the middle sector of the track, setting purple sectors, and earning himself a P6 starting position. And although the race started off well for him as well, he unfortunately crashed his car, ending a weekend where he was one of the star performers and had looked set for solid points as well.
Previous Ranking: 16
↓5. George Russell (Mercedes) Race Position: DNF
George Russell had a very unlucky race. After a very solid qualifying where he was on the front row with Max Verstappen to start the race, George was quick to gain the lead from Verstappen, and applied a great pitstop strategy where he would retain the lead once everybody else pitted as well. However the brilliant strategy was the turning point of fortune for Russell, as right after his pitstop a red flag came out, halting the race and giving everybody a free opportunity to change their tyres. With their strategy ruined, Russell went from leading the race to losing several positions. And although he managed to gain back places, Russell’s power unit went on fire on lap 18, ending his race prematurely. In what could have been a 2-3 podium for Mercedes, luck prevented Russell and Mercedes from a memorable weekend. Either way, it was an impressive race that showed that Mercedes isn’t as bad as everyone tries to make it seem.
Previous Ranking: 4
↓4. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) Race Position: 4th
His drive on Sunday could have easily pushed him into the top three of this ranking, but the truth is Checo had a bad weekend overall where he struggled with the car through the practice sessions and qualifying. The number of retirees in the race helped his cause in climbing up to P4, but that still doesn’t take away from the fact that he had a bounce-back performance on Sunday afternoon.
Previous Ranking: 1
↔3. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) Race Position: 3rd
Possibly the most in-form driver alongside Verstappen at the moment, Alonso seems very cool, happy, and relaxed in his car as he secured another easy podium in Australia (although for a second Carlos Sainz seemed to have ruined the entire race for Aston Martin on the last lap). Fernando looks genuinely delighted with the condition of the Aston Martin, which stems from the happiness of knowing that he has a proper car for the first time in a decade. While podiums will be satisfactory for him and the team for the current year, I expect an even more dangerous Alonso next year if Aston Martin doesn’t face a radical drop suddenly.
Previous Ranking: 3
↑2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) Race Position: 2nd
On the podium for the first time this season, it was a vintage drive by Hamilton, one that could hopefully rejuvenate and remotivate him into embracing the car and showing more passion for success in a year that Red Bull already seems destined to win. The Mercedes car is very good, and while they are unaccustomed to that role, they could easily become the Red Bull of 4-5 years ago if they just show a bit more grind and belief.
Previous Ranking: 5
↑1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) Race Position: 1st
Although the chaotic nature of the race and the multiple red flag restarts made things a bit more complicated, it was another easy race for Max that mostly involved managing tyres and coasting into the afternoon sunset. I honestly can think of much to write here because of the ease and lack of competition in which Red Bull is winning their races. There is not much to be said other than the fact that unless they have mechanical failures or car accidents, there is no car that could hold the Red Bull back for the entirety of a full race.
Previous Ranking: 2
Next Up: Azerbaijan Grand Prix
After the first extended break of the F1 season, the drivers will be competing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of the month. Looking back, my predictions for the Australian GP didn’t come to be true. I expected a more competitive midfield race with Leclerc being back in the mix after having served a grid penalty last time out. Despite the pre-season buzz surrounding their grid-best straight-line speed, Ferrari continues to be a disappointment heading into the fourth race of the season. For some reason simulation results anticipate Ferrari to be superior to cars outside of Red Bull, but the actual performance on track has instead shown a very mediocre car. With three races under the belt, it is easier to make expectations heading forward until the Imola upgrades come in. For Azerbaijan, I expect a Red Bull 1-2, with only Fernando Alonso having the potential to split the Red Bull cars in qualifying and potentially hanging onto a P2 on the narrow street circuit of Baku. Also, despite their whining, Mercedes is a much better car than the team makes of it, so far being at worst on par with Ferrari. They will also look to squeeze in a result through qualifying. And although it’s only been three races, I’m throwing in the towel for Ferrari. I can’t be bothered with them.
