My Best & Worst Formula 1 Qualifiers of 2022 (TIER LIST)

[@TommoMcCluskey]

You're missing a trick if you don't click the mystery F1 KZbinr link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6TbqWiBZrWli7s

[@bugattiwu]

Que grande eres magic!!!

[@henrrryyyy]

Clicking that is my single greatest regret... That has knocked years off my life.. YEARS!

[@bjdmcvxd7542]

Que grande eres magic!!!

[@Lsr7102]

How do I unsee this?

[@GoganLiesbrecht]

What The Fuck

[@Joe-hl2ts]

Zhou deserves the praise. he did class for his rookie season, bottas is no easy teammate at all, and ESPECIALLY in qualifying, probably one of his best areas.

[@TommoMcCluskey]

I fully expected Valtteri to do to Zhou, what Pierre did to Yuki last year. Far from it.

[@doktorhund6926]

im looking forward to sauber audi.

[@NotRudeBro]

Looking forward to Zhou staying with audi.

[@barsk1]

@@TommoMcCluskey Valtteri isnt a selfish teammate, he has and will help out a guy like zhou to benefit the team and be open and helpful about setups, tires etc and this fact has been in news interviews.

[@realyopikechannel]

Zhou is a good racer but if they banned mazepin for having ties to the Russian government when the Ukraine war broke out why hasn't the FIA banned Zhou someone who has directly taken payouts from the Chinese government, a government which is openly committing genocide. either Zhou needs to make a public statement denouncing the ccp and return their cash, or he needs to be banned from the grid like mazepin. we can not normalize allowing these people who are making money off literal genocide into the sport, anyone who turns a blind eye to the ccp is a pos. but like everything else the fia says one thing then does another. kinda like how they preach about gay rights then race in countries where its punishable by death to be gay

[@willlashley1378]

the surprise to me was how close the two ferraris were. fair play to Carlos for staying within touching distance of a qualifier of Charles’ calibre

[@vivekmohan4271]

If you're beating a quali god then Carlos deserves to be in the quali god tier too

[@askeladden450]

charles isnt even that good a qualifier. he is much better in the races

[@JMiles-dd5ub]

@@askeladden450 how can you say he isnt a good at qualifying when he has the most poles this season lmao. You can be great in both quali and race pace.

[@MarcvM5676]

@242turbo6 He's not completely on Charles' pace though. The 6-5 in the second half in favor of Carlos seems that way, but that's considering they took France Q2 time (Carlos was faster in Q2 but didn't set a time in Q3). Also Charles didn't really qualify in Brazil with the tyre fiasco and the red flag. In Mexico Charles' drs wasn't working in the second straight. I don't wanna take anything away from Carlos, he did great, but these stats make it seem like he pretty much beat Charles in the second half of the season in qualy.

[@joako3733]

@@vivekmohan4271 he's not beating him tho

[@zyxwl2015]

For the Alpha Tauri duo, as much as I love Yuki, I don't think you can put them in the same tier when there's literally a 0.3s difference

[@TommoMcCluskey]

But considering Pierre completely demolished him in quali last season...?

[@zyxwl2015]

@@TommoMcCluskey Yes, but I personally that's not relevant to 2022 tiers ranking imo. Yuki (likely) has a lot of potential to get even faster, but right now Gasly is still faster than him, so we can't say for sure Yuki will be as fast or faster than Gasly in the future. But I can see your points as well

[@ehrlichgesagt863]

@@zyxwl2015 same for me with stroll i mean the argument of he has been long at the team doesnt really make sense if both where before the regulations changes there and he even said that most came from 1 quali in the first part and second part he was equal with somebody getting called god like for the past races.

[@itswais77]

Gasly has always been good in quali but he drove like he didn’t want to be here this year

[@JusticeSheperd]

@@zyxwl2015 You can't just isolate a year and not consider the growth/lack of growth from the previous year, you won't have an accurate judgement for this years performance. Also if you actually watched the whole video, you would find out they're not on the same tier

[@midniteauthor]

I knew nothing about Zhou before this season other than people saying he was only a pay driver and wasn't really impressive in F2. He immediately made me a fan, and he has shown himself to be a great driver. Solid performances throughout the season with a car that decides to break whenever it pleases. Great move on Albon in Abu Dhabi and that save in Monaco was spectacular.

[@asdjkhasdhjasd]

not to mention zhou along with bottas are a very solid and wholesome duo

[@midniteauthor]

@@asdjkhasdhjasd yeah they get on really well. It’s great to see.

[@notthefia9154]

I’ve been a supporter of Zhou since he joined F2 in 2019 and he immediately impressed me, he had so much pace but was plagued by poor reliability from Virtusoi and unfortunately that’s the story of his 3 seasons in F2, he started in 2020 as the main favourite for the championship but again reliability literally took him from being on pole for round 1 and leading into the distance, to P6 in the championship come the season end which lead to Renault not giving him the F1 call up they wanted to give him for 2021, he was the clear favourite for the championship in 21 in the first quarter he looked dominant, but unfortunately neither him or Virtusoi had the pace or the consistency to catch Piastri and PREMA, no one in the entire field had an answer to that car. It saddened me to see all the hate he got from fans who knew absolutely nothing about him other than “Chinese, lot of money, 3 seasons in F2… pay driver” when in reality no, he’s a driver who like Norris has bucket loads of money but has the talent to 100% back it up and overshine that

[@BrokeAndSquare]

Sainz has been a very underrated qualifier since joining Ferrari. I remember people thinking he’d have a hard time being within half a second of Leclerc.

[@elianioriofarrell]

It's race pace he struggles with massively.

[@TommoMcCluskey]

He's gotten more comfortable. I expect him to really give Charles a run for his money next year.

[@BrokeAndSquare]

@@elianioriofarrell I agree. It took him a long time to adapt to the F1-75. Had to change his driving style significantly. I think his race pace was fine over the last 3 races of the year though.

[@vukker7030]

@@BrokeAndSquare Yea ferrari developed the car away from Charles in favor of Sainz tho

[@BrokeAndSquare]

@@vukker7030 People say that, but there’s no evidence of such. What makes the car faster overall might benefit one driver over another. Regardless, his second half of 2022 followed the same pattern of 2021, and that car had no development.

[@brandnewties]

I would love to see a vid (perhaps baked into the end of season report) that covers *how Tommo would structure the 10 episodes of DTS for this season* Some notable stories are obviously the first wins and first poles, Haas' slight bounceback, Danny's struggle and departure, Seb's retirement, Merc's struggles, Ver-Lec battles... Want to hear what Tommo thinks!

[@TommoMcCluskey]

Hmmm, I like this idea.

[@victorvieira7469]

@@TommoMcCluskey please do this, I literally just subbed when I saw that you might do it

[@samturpie1756]

That’s actually a fantastic idea!!

[@deakksyy]

Zhou seems to be closer to Bottas in qualifying considering Bottas himself is a very good and consistent qualifier

[@matrixpolaris679]

Tbf most of the times he outqualified Bottas were when it was wet, and we all know how bad Bottas is when it rains. In dry sessions he regularly had the measure of Zhou

[@lukasralys6096]

bottas and consistency dont go together tbh edit: sometimes he is good enough to outperform lewis, but sometimes, especially in the wet he is just nowhere

[@JAILFOOD]

🏳️‍🌈🚫

[@HurairahGT1]

Based tommo liking your comment

[@marcgallant5270]

Fair assessment on Stroll quali, his race pace but more specifically his race STARTS! is what saves him most weekends.

[@justinburley8659]

The fact that you could bet money on him making up multiple positions on lap one at the end of the season is nuts! Hopefully he can carry that form into next season alongside the King of race starts

[@tiinah5602]

Yess I'm so ready for all the post season content! Thanks Tommo for making these! They bring so much to my whole Formula 1 experience

[@TommoMcCluskey]

Thank you Tiina 🙌

[@hayleyemma7953]

Zhou has really impressed me this year. Considering Bottas being a talented driver, Zhou has really shown up! And Carlos, he's also impressed me alot. Especially considering Charles is an absolute animal of a qualifier, Carlos has been up there!

[@newbenate1444]

Charles was exceptional in the qualifiers it’s just a shame that Matteo and his team messed him up during the race day

[@olehleskiv420]

Lance has made huge progress in qualification this year. Still not good enough but right direction. Moreover, his old strong sides (race pace, first lap) are still there.

[@justinburley8659]

Hopefully he can stop making silly mistakes that apparently warrant death threats, but I’m starting to see that it may just be a weird quirk of his. Similar to Maldonado, who was super fast, but would just have some really stupid crashes

[@vushnekov3665]

I’d put him at solid to be honest. The guy is up against vettel who isn’t an easy teammate to beat

[@joannaxuan4265]

Lando lost twice to Daniel in the first half of the season, but in Canada he had an engine failure in Q2, and In Spain he was insanely sick. So the fact that these are the only two times Daniel beat Lando is...... really bad for Daniel.

[@bizarrebunny5579]

Lando is yet to be outqualified in the head to head battles, he beat Carlos both McLaren quali head to heads. He’s a beast in quali And the Merc drivers this year have been a sensational pairing icl imo they’re by far the best team pairing on the grid

[@danbruh33]

No doubt about that. Even though I’m a max fan I do believe George, Lewis and Charles aren’t that far off from his quali and race pace

[@dannysstart2218]

@@danbruh33 15 wins says other wise.

[@cpb1998]

@danny sstart and some of those were a result of engine failures and bad strategy calls.

[@illyricus.]

@@danbruh33 you’re giving the impression that Max is way ahead on quali and race pace in equal machinery, which is not true. When it comes to quali, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there probably won’t be one better than Charles Leclerc these days. Dude is simply magical on quali even with a bad car. Imo he’s the true Mr. Saturday. Now when it comes to race pace people like Max, Lewis and Fernando are absolutely monsters, however I can’t absolutely compare them as they don’t drive equal machinery. The other drivers are below them leclerc included in race pace (imo)

[@eskybakzu712]

@@illyricus. So when it's about qualifying, you can compare absolutely and come to a certain conclusion, despite different cars. But when it's about race pace, then it's simply not possible to conclude anything?

[@Oscqr]

best takes of any f1 youtuber, never feel like banging my head against a wall like I do with a lot of other channels cheers tommo

[@TommoMcCluskey]

I appreciate that, but also we'll never agree on anything. Feel free to put your fist through your screen when we inevitably disagree. 😅

[@glenrobinson10]

Most top 5 qualifications: • Max Verstappen - 20 • Charles Leclerc - 20 • Carlos Sainz - 19 • Sergio Perez - 17 • Lewis Hamilton - 11 • Lando Norris - 6 [!!!!!] To do that in the 5th fastest car is insane.

[@dannysstart2218]

i''d say 4th/5th espeshially when you concider how it was in first race... still he over acheived

[@Robalexe]

Does Lando have more than George? I don't think so

[@dannysstart2218]

@@Robalexe it clearly says top 5 then shows lando's... to make a point...

[@Robalexe]

@@dannysstart2218 George is tied with Lando on 6 top 5s. Weird to think how many times George has qualified 6th.

[@christiancolstruplarsen9813]

Not to say that using the average is wrong, but an alternative is to use the median instead. That way you don't disregard outliers like Kevins 2+ second gap to Mick but neither do you punish them by effectively doubling the gap because of a single off-day. It's commonly used in stastics to mitigate the effect of outliers (as an example income statistics can paint a skewed picture of a populations wealth if 1% of them is billionaires while 50% lives in poverty.) Just a thought for future videos of this kind :) great video as always!

[@IA-mg3gq]

It would make more sense to describe their quali paces as a percentage difference. For example, outqualifying your teammate by 0.1s in Austria is impressive given the shorter lap, however in Austin, that would be very close.

[@TommoMcCluskey]

Fair point that Christian.

[@Maximilian_Ingrosso]

@@IA-mg3gq it's not that big of a difference, austria is something like 1m 10s a lap and austin is something like 1m 30s. Thats a 22% difference which sounds like a lot but if you're comparing tenths it's not that noticable. 0.100s in austria is therefore comparable to 0.122s in austin. not really a huge difference. 0.200s would be 0.244s and 0.300s would be 0.366s. It's not really that noticeable and i think it's easier to then just show it as a number since that's easier to envision. we are used to seing times in quali, not percentages. Even though each track is different we still have a somewhat understanding of what difference 0.1s is and what 0.3s and 0.5s is and so on overall.

[@banathey]

Proud of Yuki What a comeback from last year K-Mag should be on rapid Zhou has been very impressive this season Lando deserves Quali God , best of the rest in a 2018 quality McLaren car Alonso and Ocon should both be on Rapid Mercedes Quali battle has been exciting

[@TommoMcCluskey]

KMag has done better than Schumacher, but he hasn't wiped the floor with him either.

[@banathey]

@@TommoMcCluskey wow you actually replied wow thank you I think K-Mag even if take away Brazil , that Haas has been decreasing in pace i think K-Mag has done a good job , similar to Alex who i understand has been a donkey car

[@sheeshman9713]

If you look up the word "average" in the dictionary it just says Ocon. Average /ˈav(ə)rɪdʒ/ (adjective) "Esteban Ocon is the most average driver on the F1 grid, never shit but never good."

[@pancon5]

@@sheeshman9713 😅

[@crazyaids93]

Lando made every Q3 session btw 🔥

[@reinomeister]

Norris is so good in Qualifying, I'd love to see him in a top tier car soon

[@pancon5]

I'd love to see him on that second Red Bull, Max - Lando, Ham - Rus, Charles - Carlos would be epic stuff!

[@neosonixyz]

@@pancon5 that's just 2021 on an industrial scale Imagine the rivalry

[@WH0oo...]

Doesn't Lando get lifts on Max's jet? If they get along, which Lando seems to, that could be a great pair. Lando deserves a competitive car.

[@reinomeister]

@@WH0oo... yeah theyre good friends, but i think lando could be close to max, so they couldnt have a clear no 1

[@asdjkhasdhjasd]

@@WH0oo... I fear there might be bad blood between them once they have to fight each other for a championship

[@krill1432]

I think it would have been interesting to also see and take their average qualifying position into consideration, but still a really interesting and well done vid

[@TommoMcCluskey]

Fair point aye

[@kuwaleetalukdar4129]

I agree

[@Soli11]

Interesting! But I really don't understand how Kevin is not in the rapid category if Albon and Zhou is there. Haas is one of the slowest cars on the grid and he got it into Q3 multiple times. He is the only one who has managed a pole position out of the top 3 teams. He also put the Haas in P4 in Imola. Fair criticism of his races, but this is a quali video.

[@youdontknow1056]

I agree. I have always seen Kevin as a Quali driver. He is super quick on one lap. He has shown it many times.

[@asdjkhasdhjasd]

@@youdontknow1056 and he's also known to be very solid on lap 1s, where every driver would be pushing to get a better track position

[@Tooms100]

@@asdjkhasdhjasd he's literally known for getting race ruining damage on lap 1 this year

[@Soli11]

@@Tooms100 This season, yes. But Kevin is one of the greatest starters on the grid. He overtook 8 cars during 2 laps in France. When you are that aggressive then there are risks, but also great rewards for when you get it right.

[@4matic81]

Zhou and Russel deserve much of the Praise for the quali. And Max comparison in the last 11 race is like checkmate to his team mate, what a monster.

[@1MattMega]

Went ahead and did in a Bell/Pyramid distribution (of my own): QGD (3): VER/LEC/NOR RAP (4): HAM/RUS/SAI/ALO SOL (6): ALB/MAG/VET/ZHO/BOT/OCO MID (4): PER/TSU/GAS/STR SLO (3): SCH/LAT/RIC Always cool to check out tier lists!

[@pancon5]

A fine distribution, I think PER could be argued that he could be in OL over probably OCO (or ZHO?), perhaps he looks worse than he really is because Max is an absolute monster.

[@TRiToX91]

I'm super impressed by Zhou. Had very low expectations for him but concidering he's a rookie and in a midfield car, plus some bad luck throughout, he has propper smashed it this year

[@ezypeazyy]

As a Lando fan I really hope McLaren can start the be competitive again when the new windtunnel is built. He deserves it. He defo has the quality to fight for podiums every week and maybe even a championship if he has the right car. Just hope he doesn‘t waste his career at McLaren

[@the420secrets6]

Tommo really tried to sneak Albon in Rapid 💀

[@ar17hd]

Deserves to be there

[@NotRudeBro]

Deserves it tbh

[@sergeantsupreme4395]

@@ar17hd for beating Latifi? 💀

[@mertcanhacfazloglu4862]

@@sergeantsupreme4395 He was 12th-14th a lot of times with the slowest car on the grid (most of the time)

[@ar17hd]

@@mertcanhacfazloglu4862 for getting consistent Q2s and beating cars he shouldn't on paper

[@adwnpinoy]

Rather than average (mean) times, I think the median may have been a better measure

[@Glegh]

Albons got to be up there, he was very fast giving the boat he had to drive

[@TommoMcCluskey]

I promise this isn't my burner.

[@ar17hd]

Also alex recently said he's still not 100% from his surgery mishap so still to do so well in quali which wasn't his strong suit in the rb so a big improvement

[@parkerwalsh3340]

Calling the Williams a boat is massive understatement. That thing is slower than the DMV!

[@EF.707]

@@TommoMcCluskey is it 👀?

[@milol.akkaraprud8681]

@@TommoMcCluskey 🤔😂

[@TheApexHound]

Very interesting watch man, Didn't expect some of them to be that close!

[@damsel5755]

I really enjoy the positive vibes about all drivers and teams in you’re vids. Legitimate criticism is great and useful, but you always keep it fair and kind, I just love that.

[@justamanchimp]

You're so right about Zhou, he's been massively underrated imo, The Race made an overall tier list ranking the 20 drivers and they put him at 17th.. I would have easily put him in the top 10 for this season, it was almost as impressive as Leclerc was at Sauber, if anything, it's more impressive given he was against an established quick guy like Bottas and Leclerc was going against Ericson

[@stevenst6337]

Crazy how close Lewis and Russel were on pace. Must have some similarities in driving style that they are both getting the max performance out of it.

[@lukasralys6096]

they dont, their driving style is very different, and thats why george is not quicker than lewis on the race pace, his driving style comes with more tyre degradation

[@aydendutton20]

@@lukasralys6096 score don’t lie though 🤷‍♂️

[@lukasralys6096]

@@aydendutton20 i mean yes, i didnt mean to take anything away from George (sorry if it sounded like it), to do what he did against a 7 time world champ in first time of asking is incredible, but data doesnt lie on race trim lewis was on average faster, especially in the later parts of the stint and that just comes down to tyre management

[@oj7177]

@@aydendutton20 score only shows a side of the story though

[@dannysstart2218]

or they are just very close to each other... that mercedes wasn't a bad car... just not the car merc are used too.

[@dobrilaa]

Zhoe showed great strengths this season as a rookie, but fam he is not rapid just cuz he's a rookie. How can one team mate be out qualified through out the season and then be rated as "rapid" and his overall faster team mate is just "solid"?

[@Ravenko-]

his list makes 0 sense.

[@lucvanogtrop7181]

I would love to see the comparison between average gridslot between the teammates! Great video tho!

[@Takeangel1995]

I'd love to see a tier list with race starts. That would be really interesting.

[@olly9560]

Thorough analysis with great explanations, love it Tommo! Nice one

[@herewegoagain7403]

listening to Goatifi's podcast and how unstable the Williams is, Alex is properly rated at Rapid

[@jamestravis21]

I've yet to hear that podcast but that car was clearly broken for most of the weekend in Brazil and Albon still got out of Q1.

[@milol.akkaraprud8681]

Yeah Alex’s comeback is 👊

[@raghavkrishnamurthy8475]

Sainz has been very impressive in the second half of the season.Overcoming that deficit to Charles and actually beating him(ik its not by much) is incredible. It's show on raw pace how fast and gifted he is. And there are people saying Checo is better than Sainz🤦

[@pancon5]

Absolutely no disagreement with the tiers! The Mercedes pairing sure is exciting, Russell is one tough competitor! Curious to see what happens next year. The Ferrari boys too. Lando needs to get on that second Red Bull and then all hell will break loose with the top 6.

[@deeznoots6241]

Tbh both Mercs should be quali gods, if the gap was a tenth ahead for either of them you would have put the one ahead in quali god but because they’re both incredibly rapid they make each other look more mundane

[@trillabite5673]

Leclerc is potentially the best qualifier ever in F1.

[@electronights3589]

It’s crazy to think that the only time Sainz really out qualified Charles were either grid penalties or Ferrari blunders

[@bari2471]

In CotA he did out qualify him fair and square (by 0.06 seconds iirc)

[@electronights3589]

@@bari2471 Yea that’s fair

[@chris_4429]

yeah but if he didn't outqualify him then he was mostly within a tenth behind especially in the second part of the season

[@mertcanhacfazloglu4862]

@@chris_4429 so he drives better if the car is worse?

[@MrBuurh]

This video displays perfectly why if Mercedes, Ferrari & RB have very similar cars to each other next year, Max will probably win the title, his team mate just isn't up to it! Whilst George/Lewis & Charles/Carlos will take points off each other, Sergio is nowhere near Max's pace so he will always be getting maximum points! I knew it was close between the Merc boys but didn't realise how close Carlos was the Charles, fair play👏

[@macca409]

I’m already prepared for Tommo’s F1 livery reactions + redesigns for 2023!

[@Christian-ye1ob]

Some of these weird gaps could be attributed to the varying track length. Would love to see the gaps as a percent of the total lap times

[@ewitzharry6931]

Tbh when thinking about seb and lance i didnt expect them to be so close

[@NotRudeBro]

Lance was actually faster than him a lot of the times.

[@justinburley8659]

As an Aston Martin fan, I was pleasantly surprised with how competitive Lance was in qualifying this year. He even got the team’s best dry quali result with best of the rest in COTA

[@neosonixyz]

Lance is overhated He's a decent driver, it's just he has a habit to make stupid moves

[@mixswist]

Lance is a fast driver, he also a second youngest driver to finished on the podium behide Max by just 12 days. But he sometime make a weird move and people will trash him for being a pay driver.

[@Robalexe]

Lance stepped up significantly in quali the second half of this year. His quali at Austin was especially insane (a dry quali nonetheless).

[@mohammedsendagire4225]

Really well thought out Video Tommo! Better than just doing a best drivers of 2022 ranking (although I’m sure that ones coming as well no complaints) great work!!

[@noxen7682]

K-Mags qualifying has been amazing this year

[@danieu1510]

valtteri should've been in rapid, man qualified a Alfa Romeo in top 6 sometimes while zhou usually struggled to get into q2

[@acethechurro]

can't wait to see a video like this for this season

[@Alex-gx2hu]

As soon as you add expectations it isn’t really a tier list of how fast the drivers are in qualifying. It becomes how well they did compared to what you expect and that leaves space for a lot more unconscious bias

[@JanStront]

Great video, nice insights! The only thing I’d say might be a bit tricky in making these averages in lap time differences is the difference in circuit lengths; i.e. if you’re 1% faster than your teammate in Monaco it’s less of a difference in tenths than it would be at Spa for example as it’s a longer track. Maybe it would be more representative to put the difference between the teammates in percentages instead of tenths as you then eliminate the “unfairness” of the different track lengths.

[@ybkboost]

IMO, in the head to head graphic I think you should consider switching the greater than or less than symbol instead of switching the drivers faces around.

[@dylanf1]

love the detail of this tier list, its very nuanced and takes everything into account. amazing! :)

[@a.hernando2210]

Carlos' qualy pace was so underrated this year. He's so close to the best qualifier on the grid, he would smash any other teammate at this level.

[@jojow8513]

Lando beat Carlos in qualifying head-to-head in both years they were teammates, and Lando was a rookie at the time so I wouldn't say Carlos would smash ANY other teammate. You could argue Carlos has improved since then but no doubt so has Lando. Remember he came within a tenth of outqualifying Max's RB for pole at Austria in 2021, driving a much slower McLaren. That said, Lando is arguably up there with Leclerc when it comes to best qualifiers on the grid. It would be fascinating to see the two of them go head to head over one a quali session in identical cars.

[@a.hernando2210]

@@jojow8513 I agree with you, Lando is also one of the best qualifier, so close to Leclerc, would be so interesting to see that battle. I also think Carlos qualy pace has improved since he joined Ferrari, he is much better than he was at McLaren when it comes to do the perfect lap.

[@Wickey934]

He lost to rookie Norris two times when they were teammates, Leclerc also beat him 3 years in a row pretty hardly. He is fairly rated

[@lozssaddict]

Damn man, you really went in on this. love it though. Honestly wouldn't change anything. You make a compelling point.

[@wss33]

Aston pitted Seb in singapore just as he was about to massively improve. So just with that one qualifying, the statistics would turn into his favour. Overall he was faster. The whole season.

[@BowlingOGs]

I think what we all forget is that Max ist simply insane. Hard to compare in my opinion

[@lukasralys6096]

its hard to compare, but not because he is insane, but how the redbull build their car to suit only 1 driver, tbf to them i has been working for years with seb, and now with max Edit: I am more surprised that ferrari doesnt focus on 1 driver anymore and give the same car to both drivers

[@BowlingOGs]

@@lukasralys6096 I can just agree

[@ierbutza21]

@@lukasralys6096 Carlos & Leclerc are similar in the way they drive,well at least to what Ferrari had in the last 30 years so it makes sense not to Schumi again,RB is in the Schumi/Vettel era now as most dominant teams tend to,Merc was the same with Lulu when Bottas was there ,that + the budget cap.My guess with Ferrari is they are waiting to see who breaks 1st before returning to the nr1 tactics.

[@lukasralys6096]

@@ierbutza21 Merc had the same car for both drivers always, they wouldnt even put new parts on if they only had them for 1 car, wtf are you even talking about

[@Sebastian-yl7nq]

"Given the horrible car underneath them" -> Mercedes Other teams would kill for a car like that. P3 in constructors, not far off from P2. Absurdly good reliability, more often than not in contention for podiums and in the second half of the season even race wins.

[@maroc-al-helmidi]

I’m really curious to see Gasly in a good car again, considering how he made starting in the top 6 a habit in the 2021 Alpha Tauri

[@mayanksharma5478]

One more interesting comparison is to rank drivers according to starting grid position(despite penalty) and their finishing positions. See who gained and lost more positions.

[@OscarMartini]

U did Stroll dirty there tbh. He should be in solid

[@christianorsa]

Yess these end of season comparison videos are the best!

[@Drrolfski]

I actually 100% agree with this tier list, which is rare. There's usually always at least one position on someone's tier list that you disagree with.

[@israel4101]

The irony is that Perez's seat would be in jeopardy if Max hadn't destroyed Albon and Gasly. But here we are, with his teammates' expectations so low that you can literally be 0.4s slower and still have your seat fully secured.

[@tomhoward4905]

Biggest bugbear is measuring qualifying performance by time, when it should be as a percentage compared to pole position. This way the gaps aren’t affected by lap length

[@makarandjakhalekar7408]

Putting the average qualifying position of each driver as a comparison would also have been a good idea. Time deltas relative to teammate are good but they don't tell the whole story.

[@burneraccount9359]

Lewis and George should both be quali gods. The man has 103 poles which as we know is the most in F1 history by over 35 poles. Years with the team is irrelevant, it's about being able to extract the most out of the car he was given which is a universal skill that doesn't change between teams. The fact George qualified close to Lewis should say something about Georges insane qualifying pace

[@ezypeazyy]

103 poles don‘t matter for a statistic that is just about this season. You could make an argument for Lewis being in quali god also this season but not with „103 poles“ as your argument bc that‘s his overall career and not just this season

[@MassiveEverywhere]

Are you gonna do one for race head to head as well? Really enjoyed this

[@elevenpro7989]

To put Vettel into solid, especially next to Tsunoda seems inappropriate to me, with Checo and Bottas I think solid is fair, but again, I don't think they are on the same level as Yuki. All the others I think I agree, nice video!

[@monkeh86]

Good list, don’t really disagree with any of it. Good call on Zhou I think, at first maybe a bit surprising, but Bottas’ qualifying is basically his strongest trait, so for a rookie to push him so close is really impressive 😊

[@notfrom63rdmilsim]

12 - 10 Ocon did a great job against one of the best drivers out there .. quality driver

[@drillnewsandclips3798]

brilliant video as always Tommo! In my opinion, K Mag has been brilliant at qualifying this season in a very eh car, I'd have him in Quali God

[@alanhammon1139]

the f1 game trio in the top

[@Mystery_Meat]

I think all your ratings are fair. Thank you for putting Norris in S teir. My boi is gonna have his day soon.

[@blenzo8344]

I would've put both Mercedes drivers in quali god cuz it's obvious they are both extracting the maximum out of the car in quali. what more can you expect them to do?

[@manbearted]

I feel like Russell should maybe be in qualigod for your tierlist. I think if you're going to take in experience at a new team into context for other drivers, you should do it for Russell as well. The fact that he matched Hamilton this season and got pole with the third fastest car is enough.

[@silverghost289]

He's very quick, yes, as he should be because he's been in the sport for 4 years. He's driven plenty of Mercedes cars in the past so he understands the characteristics of Mercedes specified parts. He's known to be Mr. Saturday and lost so if you put him in Quali God then Hamilton would have to be there as well.

[@manbearted]

@@silverghost289 I would agree for my personal tier list. I'm just making the point that Russell would prbly be higher than Hamilton in this tier list to be consistent with how he rated zhou over bottas and yuki over Pierre.

[@frruxsdov8644]

@@manbearted Situation with Russel is not the same with Zhou. Russel had been driving mercedes for 1-2 years( not that frequently but anyway). And he had a lot of experience from Williams as well. And this year’s cars are completely new so I doubt if driving the mercedes for the first time would change anything. And he got outqualified even though Hamilton was testing different set up( some of which were completely garbage). So I do not think he should be higher than Hamilton. Actually I think that Ham is the one who should be qualigod here.

[@kj48tiger]

Hamilton in 38, Russell has been in f1 for quite a while and is without a doubt in his qualifying prime. Experience within the team doesnt really matter because the cars are completely different than they ever were. Hamilton was faster.

[@manbearted]

@@frruxsdov8644 Again, I agree that Hamilton is faster. However, this tier list isn't about actually ranking the drivers in terms of pace. You make a good argument that Hamilton was faster in the beginning of the season with worse setups, but you also ignore the fact that they were virtually equal in the last half. Again, I agree that Hamilton is the faster qualifier, but I'm viewing the list through the framework that was set up for this particular tier list which considers years of experience at a team, how well they matched with a teammate, and how well they performed relative to their expectations coming in. You can disagree with the criteria tommo considered, but that is a different topic. I personally would not put Russell in my top tier for qualifying this year, but I'm saying in the scope of this list with the criteria that tommo considered russell probably belongs to be in the top tier for this list.

[@tomdehua]

Vettel and Stroll both belong one category higher imo. Vettel drove very well this year and Stroll was close behind him in Quali and the Races. Underrated driver imo

[@abirgaming1502]

Great list... Even though I love vettel.. I'd rather put vettel alongside with stroll in mid atleast in terms of qualy pace

[@Drizzydid]

Shot for everytime Tommo says "this is interesting". Blimey mate you're too much.

[@pascualvalle7120]

High quality video mate

[@felixtherien3813]

I’ve been watching you for a long time and I love your content but think it would be fun to have a little music on the background!!

[@Cooper3471]

Love the vid, only thing I would've loved to see like a point system as well, knocking out in Q1 no points, Q2 maybe 1 and Q3 maybe 2 or 3. Obviously Redbull, Merc and Ferrari should be high but it would be interesting to see the likes of the midfield drivers as well and see how often they put a car maybe where it shouldn't be

[@miguelgodinhomatias3002]

Can you the same video but on Race Pace? Would be an awesome video!

[@chrisdub1339]

Honnestly i would've put Russel in quali god. He was so close to Lewis (even beat him sometimes) the entire season. Lewis has been there for quite awhile now and won many titles, George being able to keep up with him, in his first season Mercedes, just shows how good he is.

[@kj48tiger]

Hamilton in 38, Russell has been in f1 for quite a while and is without a doubt in his qualifying prime. Experience within the team doesnt really matter because the cars are completely different than they ever were. Hamilton was faster.

[@finleycollins8598]

Great vid idea

[@Okie247]

Thank you for lessening the pain

[@manavkumar6590]

Norris and Leclerc are the only two drivers who have never been outqualified by a teammate in F1. Even Verstappen got outqualified by Sainz when both were rookies but Norris managed to outqualify a far more experienced Sainz over their 2 years as teammates.

[@anameyoucantremember]

Because Sainz is really bad and Norris really good

[@manavkumar6590]

@@anameyoucantremember Then why did Sainz beat Norris. You're underestimating Sainz like most casual fans. Anyone who is able to keep up with Verstappen and Leclerc in equal cars is extremely quick.

[@Wickey934]

​@@manavkumar6590Norris beated Sainz two years in a row in quali (not by much but still). Leclerc beat him 3 years in a row pretty hardly. He only menaged to beat rookie hardly 18 year old Verstappen

[@clean6089]

Pretty good list! Agree with basically everything here!

[@justamanchimp]

Tbh I think I agree with this whole list, apart from maybe lando but then when I think about it, actually in fairness to him, he smashed practically every weekend and slapped the midfield most of the time

[@jojow8513]

Lando beat Sainz in quali head to heads in both years they were teammates and Lando was a rookie at the time. And look how close to Leclerc Sainz is now in qualifying. In 2021 he also frequently outqualified a Merc or a RB and came within a tenth of putting it on pole over Max in Austria 21 in a McLaren. He almost managed to drag that absolute dog of a McLaren into Q3 in the first two races this year when the car was appalling & still had brake issues. His only quali losses to Ricciardo this year came about because of an engine failure in Canada and a marginal lap-time deletion in Barcelona when he was really ill with tonsillitis. Otherwise it would have been a whitewash. He is scarily rapid in qualifying, right up there with Leclerc imo.

[@MordechaiKarp]

So Valteri and Pierre out qualify their team mates and get put in a lower tier?

[@peepetys7188]

Yeah this guy is crazy

[@BoxingOfficionado]

This almost made my head explode. Beats team mate, put in tier below 💀

[@zakstratford744]

Not sure I agree with the experience logic. Maybe name the tiers differently but you cannot say zhou is more rapid than bottas while being 2 tenths down. If that was the case then russell should be in his own tier for basically matching a 7 time world champion in his first merc season

[@silverghost289]

Difference is Zhou is a rookie, Russell is not he's been in the sport for 4 years now.

[@zakstratford744]

@@silverghost289 You completely missed my point. The gap between a rookie and solid midfield driver should be expected to be similar to the gap between a driver who spent 3 years in a backmarker and a 7 time world champion.

[@youafruitcup]

I want to dislike Zhou bc I think there’s drivers that deserve more of a chance in F1 like Robert Shwartzman and Theo Pourchaire but he really has proven he’s worth a race seat at at least a mid field team

[@salmarix7]

Gasly is faster than yuki. The stats are RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. Just cause it's yukis second season at alphatauri does not mean he is faster. Gasly is the overall better driver pretty much everywhere. Also the Alphatauri has been the arguably 2nd worst car this season (because AT have had such high peak performance) and Pierre has not taken a step back, though yuki has advanced.

[@joepafjiga9015]

Great Video!!

[@kartikkaushik9811]

The tier list would be more useful/entertaining if it was about absolute quali pace instead of factoring in the ‘expectations’ or experience or ‘form’ of a driver. Certainly speaking of their expectations is good but not in the tier list itself. Like I feel like the rankings for Pierre and Zhou are certainly skewed because of that. It would also make the older tier list a lot more fun and useful to reference in years going forward

[@subbyskaldon]

Stroll definitelly should get higher possition than Seb by my opinion mainly because Seb is a 4x world champ even tho yes not the youngest, also in places like Abu Dhabi the other drivers helped him out because it was his last quali (respect)

[@filvag9522]

I think Vettel managed to extract more out of the car on weekends when it had higher potential, whether you finish P16 or P18 on a bad weekend for AM is less relevant than whether you manage to get in Q2 or Q3 on a good weekend imo

[@ApexCris]

Being less experienced doesn't change how a driver performed, it merely means they get more leeway for not performing at the level of their teammate. Atleast in my book. I don't see how Zhou and Tsunoda, who were objectively slower than their teammates, can go in a higher tier than said teammates.