Ranking the 2022 F1 drivers from worst to best

Our dedicated F1 team has closely followed the progress of all 22 drivers that participated in the 2022 F1 season - and now the season is over it's time to reveal our ranking of the 20 full-time drivers from worst to best.
This ranking is not simply about ordering the best drivers based on their overall ability, but specifically analysing their performance levels relative to their available machinery over the course of the full 2022 F1 season.
Substitutes Nico Hulkenberg and Nyck de Vries are specifically excluded, because the fact they only did a handful of races between them makes comparison to the rest of the grid unfair, but our F1 experts have examined the details of every other driver's 2022 campaign to come up with a definitive order, taking into consideration myriad factors - such as overall pace in qualifying and the races, consistency, rate of mistakes, how each progressed through the year, how they fared against their respective team-mates, and many more.
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[@PlittHD]

Mazepin's season was great, too. Zero Crashes, no teammate shenanigans and he avoided any controversy.

[@purwantiallan5089]

KasuKasu's season also great, PlittHD.

[@Amm17ar]

Mmmmmm......One BIG contoversy imo haha!

[@LimitPro1]

He became a moving chicane though lol

[@eetuvaisanen7087]

@@Amm17ar He avoided all controversy on track at least

[@mistaTVD3199]

I would agree with that statement. You could argue getting booted from his seat was "controversial", but that decision was easy for HAAS, it didn't fall into the realm of controversial.

[@forzaf1gtaracingandmore824]

Zhou should’ve been ahead of Yuki, less mistakes, good rookie season like Yuki, Yuki crashed more this season.

[@DoctorTauri]

He had a shittier car and did miracles with it despite the crashes

[@baulbvb]

Zhou was simply slow...

[@samuelarmstrong6304]

@@baulbvb the, you

[@jtc4119]

@@baulbvb shutup

[@ethanparris]

zhou was dreadful

[@Roguescienceguy]

Zhou deserves better. All those DNF's and he had highlights. At Baku he was properly fast before the engine went poof again and the way he controled that tankslapper in Monaco was genuinely epic

[@jakem5039]

Zhou got destroyed by Bottas though

[@eeeeeee3245]

@@jakem5039 bottas scored the majority of his points in the first few races when the car was still competitive & zhou was still adjusting; he scored 3 points after the first 9 races. in the second half of the season zhou was much closer & occasionally beat him in both quali and the race

[@gelmir7322]

I honestly think he got shaken up by that terrible crash in silverstone that was a really hardcore experience for his rookie year. But he managed to move on and gone back to his initial form. Too bad the alfa cars loses its earlier competitiveness and during the first part Zhou was plaque with reliability issues.

[@jjhh6754]

@@jakem5039 I guess we're here because the final points doesn't tell everything. Hope you can understand.

[@Asuka.the.Perfectionistic]

the crash in silverstone set the team back a lot, that chassis was properly fast, shame it got destroyed in the crash

[@whassupg89]

Latifi in 20th. I did not see this coming

[@Robin-Visser]

Latifi just had some bad luck. Abu dhabi 21 he was fenomenal

[@purwantiallan5089]

@@Robin-Visser phenomenal by triggering his own crashgate??

[@aaronyoghurt9210]

Had to mention, he was only using 10% of his power this season

[@tarun1982]

@@Robin-Visser I see truth in what you say because in 2021 Latifi turned the championship battle on its head and changed the outcome.

[@rodanerobinson8132]

🤣🤣🤣

[@Squilliam-Fancyson]

Finally a F1 format that starts with Latifi.

[@SharpesRifles]

Perfection dear sir

[@agent6599]

The starting grid this year

[@EverSoPossiblyPat]

No matter your opinion of Max, hard to deny his season was absolute dominant

[@cryton00]

His treatment of Checo makes him an absolute wanker.

[@TheGooGaming]

Most wins in a season in history right, people stopped paying attention cause he didn't get the vettel streak record but he still got the total wins record 14

[@beeman4266]

Yeah.. I wanted Charles to win but it's hard to deny that Max and the car were just on another level this season.

[@web-slinger1814]

@@TheGooGaming 15

[@jakelex1177]

true, not a fan but he had a great season and 100% deserved this title

[@anubis1119]

Zhou's ranking here is only associated with his points. If you look closely into his season. His team strategy is no better than Leclerc's. his car in later half season is less competitive. And even with all the odds against him. He is able to follow Bottas closely and perform steadily in mid field.And he sometimes out qualified Bottas in Saturday and Sunday.Not to mention he somehow made the fastest lap in Japan, and that miracle spin save in Monaco. I believe he deserves a higher ranking here. Maybe next year when all other rookies enter the game, we can have a better comparison then.

[@z3toot]

Yeah the ranking is shit, gasly did horrible too and he gets better ranking than zhou lol

[@florisbackx1744]

I'm genuinely curious to hear what the higher high of Lewis were vs Russel. I was also a bit puzzled by Zhou's ranking especially cause the argumentation was so positive. And love seeing Lando this high up, he truly made the best of the car.

[@jessetaylor4357]

Genuinely I couldn’t believe they ranked Lewis higher than George when he had clear a better season than Lewis for one he got the only merc pole this season and the only win so I’m very puzzled by this list tbh 😂

[@Higomad]

Yep makes no sense at all, George’s first season in the merc too.

[@johndough247]

If you look only at the total points and wins it seems like Russell of course, but if you consider that Hamilton was almost exclusively saddled with experimental parts to try to manage the horrible performance of the W13 (and most of them failed, setting him back more), where he ultimately landed in average finishes and points is telling. It could go either way tbh, but I understand the argument for Ham. It's the same reason why Alonso was the better driver even though Ocon outscored him, he had car trouble that resulted in 6 DNFs compared to Ocon's 2.

[@mikaonthefly3871]

He is a Lewis fan and it hurts him to accept that George beat him

[@stop9273]

@@jessetaylor4357 Lewis was quicker in quali and had more racepace

[@sopvp7719]

I think many people dont realise how good Lando performed in 2022 because he was almost always better than the rest but didnt have the car to fight with the top 3 teams. We almost never actually saw him on camera during races

[@jgagnier]

I’m no Lando fan, and found it laughable that some ranked him 1st in 2021 when he had a miserable second half, soundly beaten by Gasly. Yet, he did impress me this season. He was solid the whole way through, and I have him 3rd behind Leclerc. Bravo!

[@mohammadnashitsiddiqui2168]

Tbf he didn't have to fight others by that logic too, since he was much faster than everyone but Alpine, and Alpine had so many mechanical DNFs

[@Duval-In-The-Wall]

@@jgagnier Lando had 4 punctures in his last 7 Grand Prix, this derailed him and the team that season

[@jgagnier]

@@Duval-In-The-Wall He finished in the top 6 once in the last 12 races, after finishing outside the top 5 once in the first 10 races. Misfortune happens, but it doesn't excuse everything.

[@Duval-In-The-Wall]

@@jgagnier Hungary- Bowling Spa- Too wet in quali,no race anyway Monza- P2 Russia- Rain came in out of nowhere Turkey- Ferrari were miles faster Mexico- Puncture Brazil- Puncture Qatar- Puncture Abu Dhabi- Puncture

[@Billiamiscool]

Something that impressed me this season was the every full time driver on the grid both scored points and got into Q3 at some point, I mean, when was the last time that happened?!

[@guidoguido2245]

In 2018, every single driver scored points, don’t know about Q3 tho.

[@danielraeburn3718]

2018 is the only other year since moving to top 10 score points (2010) that has had every full time driver (or even the top 20 drivers if we had 22 or 24) score points. Going back to 2008, when we switched to 3 part qualy, this is the first time with every full time driver has made Q3. This season was a truly unique!

[@Wizzkidwas]

even more of a fun fact: Latifi was NOT the last full time driver to get a Q3, that honour fell to Albon instead

[@Alex_49_YT]

@@Wizzkidwas Proves Latifi‘s the goat

[@soundscape26]

Funnily enough Latifi reached a Q3 but no Q2... other than that one time of course.

[@ayyjoaoPT]

You got Latifi right, that's about it.

[@Dorlan2001]

And he would be #22 if they decided to count De Vries and Hulkenberg, his performance was pathetically weak. He is a nice guy, but lacks racecraft and pace.

[@robo4821]

got max right too

[@erospetercsaba]

Norris second? Hamilton ahead of Russel? 😂 What is this guy on?

[@antoniohagopian213]

@@erospetercsaba Hamilton is the one they listen to fix the car in the first half one the season. When the car was fixed Lewis was a lot faster.

[@joshflynn2173]

@@erospetercsaba So do you agree ocon is ahead of alonso?

[@TheGabyGail]

Idk how you have Zhou at 17th, behind Tsunoda and arguably Gasly aswell. Bottas is a proven solid driver & Zhou did amazing after getting more comfortable in the car after the half season mark

[@adamsmith4953]

Pretty ez, Zhou got half as many points

[@TheGabyGail]

@@adamsmith4953 Points doesn't mean anything without context. So you mean Ocon was better than Alonso then?

[@hanswurst6712]

How can u use a word like "amazing" to describe Zhous performance? He did OK, not more. Their was literally nothing to be excited about. Not a single great or amazing performance which would justify your claim that he did "amazing".

[@TheGabyGail]

@paper plane Idk if you are new to F1 viewer or don't pay attention to details, so let me explain. The Alfa Romeo car was pretty competitive the first 6 races. With all his expirience in F1, Bottas scored 78% of all his 2022 points in these 6 first races, meanwhile rookie Zhou with no F1 expirience took some time getting used to the major upgrade from his 2021 F2 car and didn't do as good in compared to Bottas in the start, but at around the midway point of the season, he really stepped it up & at times even outperformed Bottas, but at that point the car development at Alfa had went down the toilet so it's unfair to look at the points alone.

[@jessepinkman9118]

He DNF’ed in the points in Baku, he was just behind Vettel when he retired and Vettel went on to finish p6, so that’s 6 points minimum lost for Zhou

[@frankmills1917]

"Performance level relative to machinery". It's there, guys. Good drivers with good cars does not automatically put them higher in the rankings especially if they did not perform well to their potential.

[@purwantiallan5089]

Yep. For that i do agree.

[@jastorman]

Agree, but how do we know a car's true performance if there's a big difference between teammates. Take Norris vs Riccardo for example, Is Norris extracting magic out of a mare or is he performing at the car's level? The car's actual performance level could be anywhere between Norris's performance or Riccardo's. This is why I don't trust these ratings that purport to be scientific or data driven, there'll always be wriggle room for the rater's biases to enter into it.

[@faisholjunaria8880]

@@jastorman That's true, most of them are guesswork, and also well in this case, the trust of whoever rate this with Ric's not so apparent quality. I'm a Mclaren fan, and while I agree Lando generally had a great season and carried us, I think Ric having the worst season of any driver bar Latifi kind of pushed his ratings up.

[@frankmills1917]

@@jastorman It would be interesting to know how different or the same both cars of mclaren are.

[@Shoikan]

@@frankmills1917unless the team is in financial trouble, the position in the team championship is too valuable (quite a few million USD) to purposely harm a second drivers performance. While there might be some differences (you want your best driver to have most chance at winning), you don't want your second driver to be too far behind. So the idea that Norris might have had a 5-10 places per race better car is bullshit. I absolutely LOVE Ricciardo, and I think he is a great driver in the right car, I simply think his driving style did not work with the McLaren. Nothing more, nothing less.

[@kevinsmits1196]

well, you got first and last correct. The other 18 tho, very questionable...

[@soundscape26]

All our lists would be questionable to others... that's what makes this discussion so interesting to have.

[@purwantiallan5089]

@@soundscape26 agree. Agree.

[@dahorn100011]

I'd rank lando above Max. Max had a car which eclipsed the rest of the field. Lando was dragging the McLaren to positions it shouldn't have been in

[@riddif]

@@dahorn100011 Swap them and i don't believe Max can do what Norris do

[@_qwe_fk_1700]

@@riddif lol. What has Max done that makes you believe this. Max has never been slow in any of the cars he has driven.

[@patosentado9665]

I agree with most of it, but Alonso could be even more close to the top, he got much more of the car that was really in it, and was the driver with most overtakings over the year.

[@MMAli-rq8kd]

Ahead of Russell in 5th Maybe?

[@kakmaster6945]

Even when his car dnf'd like 6 times.

[@Marcushalberstram749]

Alonso > Russell, even at his lowest he never had weekends like Russell in Singapore or COTA

[@christo6142]

He also drove into the back of his team mate for no reason ha ha. The USA drive alone should put him in 5th or higher though

[@kakmaster6945]

@@christo6142 Well, although it was Alonso's fault, Ocon was weaving a little and the slight turn in the Brazil strait does make it difficult to judge. Even then though, he almost doesn't make mistakes and if given a good enough car could challenge for the title.

[@Sigil_Firebrand]

Honestly I would have swapped Zhou and Stroll, Zhou never really set a foot wrong, and Stroll had quite a few Daddy's Crash moments.

[@sandalphoncpu]

This is more like a rank based on team and driver performances rather than purely on driver performance. Zhou had at least a dozen points taken from him due to reliability and he’s ranked lower than both AT drivers who didn’t even outperform their car one bit. Vettel was challenging the faster Mclarens and Alpines in a tractor in some occasions on the 1st half and almost every race on the 2nd half and at least 30 points were thrown away due to AM’s terrible strategies.

[@jandlnicholsonashcroft2488]

I'd have Russel above Hamilton, think I'd have had Sainz higher too based on his good judgement calls but not sure if I'd have put him above the Mercs. Also maybe Alonso higher than Hamilton? It's pretty tough without all the data. Max definitely at the top though, I think Norris is a good call as he trounced his team mate in a middling car and always seemed to be in positions that seemed a bit high for the performance. Agree with Le Clerc, turn of speed is almost unparalleled but he isn't a strategist like Sainz and makes errors under pressure.

[@Paulorrrrrr]

Hamilton made one really bad mistake all year in Belgium. I would argue the Singapore crash was not as bad. Everyone who pushed that race crashed/slid out. Russel crashed on others multiple times and his one win was the one race Merc was faster. It was also in the race that Max nicked Hamilton out. Hamilton's performance in the Dutch grand prix was incredible and he was screwed by insane bad luck & two safety car deployments. Russel was good but IMO Hamilton, overall, was better even if the points don't reflect that.

[@sigmundferd1359]

@@Paulorrrrrr to me it basically hinges on how much you beleive Lewis was using horrible setups early in the year vs having a hard to adjusting to the car. If we ignore that part altogether I'd say Lewis was marginally better though.

[@shakmarriott4820]

@@Paulorrrrrr in the Dutch Grand Prix Russell matched him all race it’s just because Hamilton was further up the grid why they wasn’t closer watch the gap between them it doesn’t move

[@Jay-nk6dm]

@@sigmundferd1359 is there anything to *not* believe? Russell said he was, lewis said he was, toto said he was, the lead engineers said he was, and in australia you could literally see the sensors on his car during the race. At this point someone would just have to be a hamilton hater to not "believe" that hamilton was doing experiments on setup during the season.

[@valazor2668]

I don't get all these rankings. George has been consistently faster or on pace with Hamilton, George outscored him in the championship, George has 1 pole while Hamilton has 0, George has 1 win while Hamilton has 0. Yet most rankings put Hamilton above George? I seriously think this is purely to not piss off the LH44 fans at this point. George had an insane season. Absolutely bonkers considering this is his first year in Mercedes and he beat Lewis on EVERY SINGLE FRONT.

[@King0neEurope]

Great list. Only thing I would change is putting Russel in front of Hamilton, because it was the reality. Hamiltons gap in points reflects mistakes and not bad luck as 2 of the DNFs were self inflicted. Plus Russel was faster in the first part of the season and pn the same level in the second part. So overall, objectively speaking, Russel was the better driver this year.

[@Aphex271]

Alonso in 6th is a yoke! A YOKE!

[@purwantiallan5089]

Alonso should've been 19th.

[@gordonfreeman7320]

@@purwantiallan5089 you seem to have accidentally added a 9 there, surely you meant first, right?

[@nlborix]

zilly boyz

[@patosentado9665]

A yoke is the piece tha joins an ox to the cart. I agree. Alonso has been pulling the car and the whole team to some results pulling like an ox.

[@seriousmechanicing]

@@patosentado9665 he pulled his teammate ahead of himself in the standings. What a hero!

[@mattpetrek712]

Lets all pray Mcclaren can get a fast car for next year. Next year will be phenomenal if we can see lando fighting up front

[@LH_27]

McLaren* not Mcclaren

[@MJisAGlorifiedDemarDerozen]

My dream would be to see Lando at Redbull with Max .. those two in the same car head to head would be pure entertainment

[@Spaceboi318]

With a good car and Norris, I can see F1 having a big 4 instead of big 3 teams. Norris is so talented, and Mclaren has the resources and expertise, but they need to execute.

[@Fredrick656]

Won’t be a turn around season that’s for sure. Give it another year or two.

[@marissasturzaker3483]

This did not age well haha

[@vishalrao5202]

I would definitely give Alonso a top 5 spot. If not for horrible Alpine reliability, Alonso would have scored massive points and he was genuinely better than Ocon throughout the season. Also I believe George was the better performing Mercedes driver this season. If not for his consistency in the first half, there was no way Mercedes would have been in the fight for P2 towards the end. He had frustratingly amazing consistency in the first half (coming from an RB fan)! My top 6 would look something like this : 1. Max 2. Lando 3. Leclerc 4. George 5. Alonso 6. Lewis

[@James-gr5mx]

Ham was experimenting with the car in the first half of the season. He also was 0.2 sec quicker than george overall this season. He dominated him in the second half but was unlucky with safety cars, DNfs and crashes. How do you give alonso excuses but not ham? biased lecrec,george and alonso should be below ham

[@ksfreestylers1146]

Hamilton was faster than George and George was much luckier than Hamilton. When Lewis stopped experimenting after Baku he pretty much made Russell look like Bottas

[@gauravkachru2003]

@@James-gr5mx Simply because Ham never took his car where is did not belong. But I agree LeClerc should certainly be below Ham & Alonso in my opinion.

[@johjoh9270]

While I partially agree, In fairness Lewis was also that low because it was him testing stuff (that not always worked) at the beginning of the season, he was quicker again later on, wouldn't really place Leclerc and Max all the way on top personally though

[@esterfon-pat8723]

I agree with most of the ranking. But I'd put Zhou higher and Gasly lower.

[@Destins2]

Nah gasly was only that low bc of this car.. we all know what he’s capable of in the right car. Perez was too low on this list and zhou and how Lewis was ahead of George is beyond me😂

[@magnustan841]

I’m calling it, I respect and enjoy the content you guys put out, but you underrated Zhou. Should be at least 4 places higher. He never crashed the car on his own, ONCE. He had the measure of his vastly more experienced teammate in quali and race for several races from Baku onward. Like Alonso, he also had rotten luck, from being crashed out in the Imola sprint and his car failing multiple times. Highly likely he would have added to his points tally. Looking forward to see where his career goes from here. 🇨🇳

[@purwantiallan5089]

Lanzhu Zhong also underrated Guanyu Zhou.

[@jcoxdj]

I agree. Zhou was solid all year.

[@h3llbouy]

Then make your own youtube channel and give random ratings as per your biases, guys.

[@fireinthenight9028]

their rating it's so crap. doesn't take into account car to performance ratio over the season luck and skill sets. Haas was only good at the beginning of the season but Mag extracted some important points when it mattered, even scored freaking pole , that's alone is amazing. Team who scored zero points and end up last , last year. Plus he was out for a year and the rule changes. So many factors. Aston Martin was a crap car but Vettel was doing wonders when he could. Alonso was Alonso and done some brilliant moves , unfortunately reliability of a car doesn't let him get higher in the standings. Zhou was the only rookie in a season in Alfa while Bottas done best job he could even outperform Mercedes at the beggining , funds and upgrades run out extremely fast too. these guys should be much higher for just that matter. Russell coming 4th or 5th when porpoising was a big issue for merc for a long time. I think was the last team to sort it out.

[@hkr667]

Years ago I might have argued that never crashing your cars might mean that he is not fighting and defending hard enough and leaving points on the board, but since the budget cap a rarely crashing driver is a huge skill to have.

[@tiggie_96]

So Carlos had “unique demands” in the Ferrari but Checo underperformed flat out? This list could’ve been done better imo. By that logic, if Perez won the championship, he maybe would’ve been placed 5th on your list 😂

[@theread3480]

checo had the luxury of driving one of the best F1 cars ever created, sainz did not

[@2Xboti]

@@theread3480 the luxury of driving a car molded for his teammate.

[@Jimbo7]

@@2Xboti something that a top tier driver should be able to overcome, especially when they literally started branching the design philosophy to try to help him catch back up

[@Drrolfski]

Lando indeed was amazing, the performer cameras didn't let you see perform in 2022.

[@sarabekela9419]

How is Vettel not in your Top 10? Some of his Performances were unreal, and he actually had a somewhat competent teammate unlike Albon, and he was so close to finishing P11-P10 in the standings with a car that was not supposed to be in that position, and that is with Disaster Strategy Calls and Slow Pitstops

[@tunisiandom9318]

I don't agree on calling Stroll somewhat competent. "barely competent" would be more like it. I mean somehow he is put over Zhou and Dani who do less mistakes than him (I know Ricc's standing suffered from his horrible pace) but those whom are definetly lower than Stroll are Mick and Latifi and they are utterly incompetent.

[@arindamsaha7062]

@@tunisiandom9318 you just hate Stroll, that's it. He is better than Zhou, because Stroll can out-qualify Vettel. And outqualifying Bottas is easier than doing it to Vettel. Also, Stroll has made some really good moves in the season, but his mistakes here and there have overshadowed them

[@sarabekela9419]

@@arindamsaha7062 True

[@govindbhachu4077]

His first half of the season was terrible.

[@sarabekela9419]

@@govindbhachu4077 Bruh, his Car was the 2nd worst Car on the Grid, how much do you expect to get out of it apart from a Few rare Points finishes?

[@grencho1]

Perez and magnussen deserve higher positions on this ranking

[@LH_27]

I think 19th for Schumacher is a bit harsh since he was much closer to his teammate then the likes of Ricciardo and Zhou. And Haas got much slower towards the end of the season when he was as fast and faster than Kmag

[@zer4884]

He make too many mistakes, crash too much which cost the team a lot of money and didn't get the full out of the car like kmag did in the first couple races.

[@robert7622]

@@zer4884 Na Kmag made more mistakes.. Schumacher was just too slow in quali.. Just not fast

[@FacelessBeanie]

Knew there would be Mick sympathisers when I saw the justified 19th rank lol

[@momoiroyui]

@@robert7622 more mistakes yet less cost of repair.

[@bscommissions892]

Not to forget all the fuck ups from Haas that season that cost Mick points finishes. But oddly enough neither the Race or british media in general ever take that up when it comes to Mick. Its always about the crashes that get blown way out of proportions. But I’m not surprised. The narrative was set from the beginning. I hope Haas has a horrible 2023 season. They deserve it.

[@ivarvdk2610]

George lost 7 points in the second half of the season, how is he not higher then hamilton

[@rickyrico80]

Because he is not hamilton 😶

[@swl0323]

Because he is golden boy for The Race.. u cannot explain much

[@arindamsaha7062]

Because Hamilton had better stats/pace in both Quali and Race. Even with a car missing pieces of the floor, he finished just 1.3s behind his teammate with a perfectly fine car in Brazil

[@isaacm2374]

Because speed and performance isn't about points. It's about measuring qualifying pace and race pace. Which are metrics casual observers don't follow or take into consideration.

[@alexcslim4362]

If you judge f1 that way then you don’t understand this sport. You can’t judge f1 with stats and results cos they do not show the true picture case in point Hamilton, Alonso, lando and albon to some point

[@marekmasopust3998]

Imagine - taking the only pole of your team in a season - taking the only win of your team in a season - beating your team mate in points - still being ranked worse 😂😂

[@ksfreestylers1146]

Hamilton was literally marginally better than Russell. After he stopped experimenting he made him look like Bottas effectivelly. He only won in Brazil because he screwed Lewis in quali. He only finished ahead because he had tons of luck all season, he only got the pole because Hamilton had a drs problem at that particular q3.

[@justamanchimp]

I would have put Zhou way higher than that..

[@greenbeans623]

TheRace getting back at Checo after he critisized them after singapore. Reason to put him in 9th was him not getting 2nd spot but no credit to him helping with first constructors. Sainz crashed way more times and made way more errors than checo but he got higher.

[@99hrs]

I was about to say This channel does nothing but shit on checo.

[@spaz2401]

im excited to see how zhou does over the years

[@NerdChannelBrasil]

Well, if he dont improve in 2023, Pourchaire is right there.

[@BeautifulBCHomes]

Lando Norris as 2? Kind of crazy.

[@bradweinberger6907]

He took one of the slower midfield cars to 7th more times then not and Riccardo was back in 15th with the same car. Similar to latifi and albon gap in performance

[@soundscape26]

@@bradweinberger6907 Not disputing his 2nd place on this list, but "one of the slower midfield cars"? If your midfield includes McLaren and Alpine then kinda yes... but McLaren comfortably beat all other 5 teams.

[@rigoaguilar819]

Russell, Alonso, and Hamilton were all better than Norris. Egregious ranking, I'm afraid.

[@bradweinberger6907]

@@rigoaguilar819 they were ahead in better cars. Not better overall when factoring machinery

[@theonewhoknocks2118]

@@rigoaguilar819 agreed. Norris was exactly where he have to be. Nothing espectacular to as high up on the list. Maybe 4th would be more reasonable.

[@eeyvrcs]

I'm more a fan of Lewis than George but biases aside I would say that for George's first proper season with Mercedes, next to a 7-time world champion, outscoring him on merit, getting Mercedes' only win of the season on merit, and considering each driver's standing relative to their 2021 season...I'd have to say George overall wins. I want to see Lewis comeback in 2023 and challenge, nay win, his 8th title but just assessing the 2022 season I have to say George did a great job. He certainly proved he was the better choice over Bottas.

[@ksfreestylers1146]

The fact that it was his first season in the team doesnt really matter since the cars were completely new this year. Plus Russell has been with Mercedes for a long time. Hamilton was faster both on Saturdays and Sundays still at 37.

[@eeyvrcs]

@@ksfreestylers1146 I knew someone would chime in with this comment. Fortunately I can saying that I did consider all these points but still it doesn't matter. The points don't lie, the win doesn't lie, the stats don't lie. Doesn't matter how long George has been "with" Mercedes, next to Lewis he's a rookie to the team which makes George's accomplishments all the more impressive. Keep in mind George adapted to the initial horribly purpoising car better than Lewis. Anyway, like I said, I'm more of a Lewis fan and I do think Lewis won the second half of the season once Mercedes improved the car but I won't let that blind me to George's accomplishments.

[@leonardoluc6362]

Sir/drama Queen in front of George LOL no way!

[@davidruiz5028]

Russell's performance this year as a whole was very impressive, I give him the edge over Hamilton.

[@iKSmurf]

The fact that he could somewhat perform early while hamilton was struggling to do anything with the car shows how good Russell is and will become. I agree with you on this one.

[@alexyou3233]

@@iKSmurf Wasnt hamilton doing experiments?

[@iKSmurf]

@@alexyou3233 Most likely but even he admitted he that he didn't feel confident in the car while Russell was able to push it a bit more.

[@atharvakate5165]

@@iKSmurf source?

[@ksfreestylers1146]

@@iKSmurf when was Russell able to push it a bit more? Hamilton was faster in pretty much every race

[@saichanakyakovalluri2487]

Russell in rookie season with Mercedes he should be ahead of Hamilton...

[@shameergani]

He doesn’t want to get hate from Lewis fan boys. That’s why 😂

[@fablewalls]

Are you new to F1? If you are new - that's OK but if you have followed F1 for more than 6 weeks you'll know that 7 times world champion was asked to do all the testing and set up while the junior guy was asked to focus on racing. Bet real fans will still be explaining this in 10 years time.

[@yugarten8523]

i see a trend in these negative comments, 90% of them are from Indians lol.

[@Euclides287]

@@yugarten8523 Indians and Pakistanis don't like Lewis for whatever reason. 😂

[@Batman22222]

Another DTS noob..... ranting on KZbin, What a surprise! 🤣🤣

[@MsBloodyFox]

GOD DANMIT MY FAVOURITE DRIVER SHOULD BE HIGHER!!!!

[@eamartinez88]

I would've put Checo a little higher. Red Bull gave him a different floor than Max during a long period of the season and his strategy always seemed a little off other than Monaco.

[@Orovcol]

3:49 Stroll‘s sixth place at Suzuka? You might want to get that right…he finished 12th

[@floriankubatta6640]

He means Singapore i think.

[@soundscape26]

@@floriankubatta6640 Yeah, it was Singapore.

[@purwantiallan5089]

@@floriankubatta6640 yep. Florian san, have u watched TUN vs AUS recently? Australia narrowly beaten Tunisia 1-0.

[@wss33]

Yeah, Singapore. Where the team called Seb into pits just as he was about to outqualify Stroll, to put him on the wrong tyres. And where Seb was way faster and ahead of Stroll in the race, just to get fucked by strategy so Lance finishes ahead.

[@Orovcol]

@@wss33 Yep, they ruined quite a lot of his races this season

[@tomaslopes626]

Good ranking. Only difference for me is hamilton(6)

[@lemarkexyz2931]

Alonso 4 ham 5 russ 6 for me

[@johntreherne4611]

There is a point to be made that Norris managed to take so much out of a uncompetitive car. However considering how badly things went for his team mate the gap is deceptive everything went wrong for Riccardo.

[@purwantiallan5089]

John, i belive it definitely is.

[@christianhorner001]

That McLaren has loads of pace. It's the setup and development path under Andreas that's ruined its driveability and ultimately stopped them from achieving 3rd place if they took Daniel's recommendations. Lando would be a race winner if they developed the car to Daniel's recommendations.

[@shiiiiiiiiime]

@@christianhorner001 you chat more shit than the real Christian Horner

[@luigico8657]

You gave rather good compliments to Zhou, with his only drawback of being not being flashy enough. Outqualifying his teammate consistently by the end of the season, him being a rookie, and taking reliability into consideration should rate Zhou much much higher.

[@MrLabbott]

Glad to see it's not just the F1 commentators, and the F1 power rankings crew have an absolute obsession over lando Norris.

[@Alex14Davies]

You can have all the talent in the world, but he’s mentally fragile. Would get exposed in a proper title fight

[@Plugitinbby]

because he’s outperforming where his car should be? Pretty obvious why people like him as a driver.

[@Luke13373]

@@Plugitinbby He has the 4/5th best car and basically had a quiet season driving in the middle of no where. He's not outperforming the car, Ric is so much underperforming that people think the car is bad so Lando must be amazing.

[@livwake]

@@Luke13373 it could well be both, ric is underperforming but lando is putting it way above what it deserves

[@MrLabbott]

So over "hE iS OuT pErfOrMiNg ThE CaR" maybe he is sometimes but I've seen him end up in the power rankings in the top five after crashing his car and it's his fault The bias is what makes people dislike him. He takes out Charles in Brazil, and still makes it into the top 10 in the power rankings. In a car that's not competitive and just sits in no man's land. Lando may be out performing the car but we don't know that because there's no way to gauge his performance cuz Danny Ricardo is absolutely terrible. Sorry if you're Danny Ricardo fan but he has been bad and has never performed in the car. When lando was up against Carlos they were pretty equal Carlos is a number two at best. Then Danny Ricardo goes to McLaren in all of a sudden lando Norris is the king of F1 and in the top three in the power rankings every week no matter what he does he can qualify terrible finish out of the points crash the car top three in the power rankings. It's an absolute joke and this is an absolute joke, I know you're taking finishing order out of it and I know that they're taking the equipment out of it, and he did outperform his teammate but that's the only thing he did. George outperformed his teammate all season! Yet finishes behind Lewis Hamilton. And yet they both somehow finish behind lando.

[@nathanm5594]

Some mental gymnastics there to rank lewis higher than George, GR only non RB / Ferrari to win a race

[@Euclides287]

I'm guessing Ricciardo performed better than Norris last season because he won a race and Lando didn't. If you look at the bigger picture rather than final driver standings, you'll know why Hamilton and Alonso are ranked higher than their teammates.

[@NorthWoodPen4]

We need team rankings too

[@fireteunxphg1954]

Russel being below Hamilton is a joke 😂.

[@grammarlings6517]

Lewis outqulified Russell 13-8, more podiums and better pace overall. Do you think that Ocon should be higher than Alonso?

[@recelehberger1603]

K-mag should rank a little higher in my opinion

[@paul1983]

In my opinion, Zhou should be ahead of Stroll, besides that some minor changes, like swapping Albon and Perez and Russell and Hamilton.

[@JSmith-nu4bl]

Great analysis

[@Alexisasful]

Swap Vettel's place with Ocon's and we got something more accurate

[@Kv1n5846]

Russell being in the top 5 in 19/22 of the races seems like a factor u have not even thought about.

[@hankwells2637]

Some people can’t let the greats be out performed. But I do think George out performed Hamilton by a decent margin.

[@daviasdf]

@@hankwells2637 Agreed.

[@ajestuesta]

No way Lewis is ranked above George this season. George was much more consistent. The points gap between the two tells a pretty good story, not the whole story but enough in my opinion.

[@thelarry383]

@@hankwells2637 the points standings don't tell the entire story considering hamilton's race pace and quali performance was better than russell

[@harry4454]

@@ajestuesta lewis outperformed George I'm nearly every race once Mercedes stopped Lewis testing the car. I'd say next year will be a lot different

[@DoctorTauri]

LMAO PEREZ 9th? The bias shows HARD

[@archieaburden]

perez at 9th is absolutely absurd.

[@jangho6565]

Seeing how the driver pair ranking went, can't wait to see how this goes.

[@jangho6565]

..........some good and some GHASTLY fucking takes.

[@eleycki]

Bottas always started well and diminished / didn’t improve.

[@DonRaynor]

The Aleph Romeo diminished. Can't do well when your car does not keep up (unless you're a generational talent, like Russel)

[@evanwilliams3821]

@@DonRaynor bottas did great throughout the season the car just went to absolute shit

[@TheAndy675]

@@DonRaynor Hes not aggressive enough. Routinely lets people pass too easily.

[@nickel36]

Bottas is an exceptional qualifier, and is slightly less proficient at racing. We've seen this from his years against Hamilton, sometimes out qualifying him but virtually never out racing him.

[@griffinconaway732]

Bottas single handedly got alfa romeo 6th in the standings

[@abhijitdeo1800]

Seb deserve a better ranking somewhere near Alonso.

[@_RobertS]

I agree that HAM and RUS were close, but I would place RUS ahead of HAM based on this season as a whole. Yes, in the last quarter of the season HAM probably had higher peaks in general. But for me he was clearly struggling to keep up with RUS in the first half, possibly even the first 3/4 of the season, and that put him behind overall.

[@atharvakate5165]

Not in the last quarter...... Lewis has beaten Russell since canada when they stopped experimenting but the damage was already done in previous races

[@Jaxymann]

I’d argue Russell deserves the number 3 spot - not only did he drag Mercedes demonstrably worse than the RB/Ferrari into places higher than it had any right to be, beat Hamilton in his first season at a new team and got his maiden win with a storming drive in Brazil, but his consistency was unparalleled: Russell only finished lower than 5th three times the whole season - the DNF in Silverstone, 14th in Singapore and 8th in Japan. That's a 5th place or better finishing rate of 86% alongside a podium rate of 36%. Even more impressive than the top 5 streak between Bahrain and Monaco is that had it not been for that DNF in Silverstone, that streak would have extended until Singapore - 17 races in a row. The man's consistency is insane.

[@ksfreestylers1146]

that proves you didnt even watch the races

[@kevincolwell3066]

Putting Lewis in front of his teammate when he lost to him by 2 places and 35 points is a joke at best.

[@bazictv]

Then Ocon should also be ahead of Alonso? C'mon man, be real

[@jmill1334]

@bazictv yeah but that was obvious bad luck for Alonso by anyone's view. Anyone who watched the season saw Russell outperforming Hamilton right out of the gate.

[@yugarten8523]

@Viki M are you serious ?

[@yugarten8523]

Lewis outqulified Russell 13-8, more podiums and better pace overall ! Points don't tell the whole story.

[@thelarry383]

@Viki M Hamilton's race and quali pace was ahead of russell. That's not 2nd driver material

[@lool130]

Theres no way any people think hamilton was better than russel anytime this year thats nonsense

[@dusancicovic5334]

This is most realistic list i saw. Agree with it, even if i wish that Charles was higher on that list

[@mzhuang4242]

A tier list is better than ranking. Some drivers are so close to each others.

[@ClassicFormulaOne1]

I would put Russell in front of Hamilton. Remember that this was Russell's FIRST season at Mercedes and he was immidiately on the pace beating Hamilton quite consistently. He won a race, Lewis did not. Overall Russell was more impressive then Hamilton in 2022.

[@Steezboy3000]

Glad to see Lando get his due

[@VirtualGobllim47]

People forget that were we see the best perfomances isn't at the front, you have less competition, only one or two other drivers per race, the worse your car is should climb you up the order

[@marqusdeanux5393]

I’d swap the mercs, may this be a Russell fan from his days at Williams, but I think his show of strive at the start of the season out competing Lewis and still maintaining that overall competitive edge over his teammate. This may just be bias however 😅😂

[@joshd171294]

I agree with this tbf although it’s hard to know with Norris as Ricciardo has been struggling so much in the McLaren

[@andrewf9423]

Apline was quicker the whole year and he beat them to a podium and beat both drivers

[@JochoPorocho]

No way you place Checo 9th. This has been his best season ever and don't forget what he did for the team to achieve both championships

[@fleraganger6338]

Crazy you think it's his best season ever when he got crushed by his teammate. I'd say his best season yet is the one that swayed redbull into giving him a race seat, his 2020 season. He comfortably beat Stroll and for the majority of the season got the most out of the car, with some magical tire-managment focused drives. He has been much slower than Max, and he doesn't seem to have gotten the grip of the new 18", so his magical skill to preserving the tires hasn't been found yet. No fucking way you're telling me this is Perez best season ever, even Perez himself knows this isn't his best season.

[@wss33]

What the fuck did Perez do? He drove the best car. That’s it. He’s not even in the top 10.

[@james31666]

Eagerly waiting for #20 knowing full well it's Latfifi

[@DimmyV]

Lando for 2nd is a great shout. Future world champion for sure

[@teamlean3717]

Zhou should have been in the top 9, he drove like a consummate veteran in his first season. He took all the points available to him & rescued a P11-13 from the fire more than q few times. Name a rookie who did better than him in their first season in the last 10yrs ...

[@zondaboy6493]

lol

[@sfrandoom8694]

Norris, Albon, Tsunoda, Verstappen, Sainz. Thats whose rookie season was better than Zhou´s

[@soundscape26]

No way did Zhou's season warranted him a Top 10 on this list.

[@Kickout_Claymore]

Lando did so well

[@thememers_dude]

No way hamilton season was better than russel driving for Mercedes for the first year

[@kgrich836]

The bias knows no bounds for the British media and Lewis. Classic Lulu outscored, more poles and wins for George but the Brits got his back. Lewis crashed or had contact 9 times

[@tomdoes3d.design]

Puttin Hamilton above Russel is a joke. Outperformed Hamilton in his first season with a big car.

[@rameshg878]

Because every avg f1 knows the main reason for George being ahead of Lewis is , Lewis helping team in the 1st half of the season to understand the car with experimental setups, while George running with traditional , faster setups, and some unlucky safety cars that helped George, by ruining Lewis races like , Australia, Miami, zandvoort.. and Lewis showed he is miles ahead of George in 2and half of the season... like finishing P2 from P7 in hungery, while gorge ended up out side of podium places from P1.. and holding checo to FINISH P2 in Mexico with hard tyres, while George didn't even close to checo with same strategy.. and finishing P2 from P6 or P8 in Brazil (thanx to max).. ofcourse he made some mistakes, and appreciate George's super consistency. But Lewis marginally ahead of George. Ahh, don't worry u r not goanna understand it, u will do when u grow up

[@grammarlings6517]

Best ranking and analysis I've seen so far. Agree with the substantive comments. Nice analysis. I agree with other comments that Zhou could be argued to be a little higher.

[@deeparshankhadka6402]

Zhou shouldn't be that far down

[@hanswurst6712]

Oh yes he should be.

[@saintuk70]

Totally agree with the Lando position, and Alonso.

[@mlit83]

I'm happy with the rankings

[@cremilar]

Lewis as high as 4th? PFFFFFT!!!!! This year proved he's the average driver we all knew he was without the best car on the grid

[@Sum_Guy]

Perz below Sainz?

[@grammarlings6517]

Perez crashed in Monaco, then only beat the Ferrari because Ferrari strategy was awful. I rate Perez very highly, but yeah makes sense to me, he didn't get 2nd in the best car.

[@BAndersen-ee1xy]

11:57 This seems more a list of someone’s favourite drivers than a worst to best list.

[@massimo4683]

why? he gives good points and i think the list is very well argumented.

[@LSs1Power]

I agree with your ranking except i would rank Russel over Ham for the reason that it is his first season as the team and to come ahead of your seasoned teammate is something deserving of praise.

[@soemoe8237]

Ham above Rus? Rus suffered more DNFs. Ham made more mistakes. Despite all of these, Rus got a pole and a win and beat Ham in points. Ham's second half of the season form couldn't beat Rus's first half of the season form. If you consider the peak performance, Rus got a pole and a win. If you consider the consistency, Rus beat Ham in points even after suffering more DNFs. And this is Rus's first season with Merc. I think Rus should be P2 or P3. I'm sorry. After I've posted this, I check the number of Rus's number of DNFs. I was wrong. But I still have to say, in this season Rus outperformed Ham clearly. Let's wait and see another season who will be the better driver.

[@isaacm2374]

Lewis had 2 DnF's and Russell only 1. I agree that Russell was better than in terms of consistency in races and point accumulation. So in the races George was better. But in qualifying despite Russell's pole, Hamilton beat George 13-9 in qualifying. Close but showed on Saturday he's the faster driver.

[@alexcslim4362]

Which dnf were more that’s lies

[@davothedon]

As much as I like Russell, I think it's a stretch to say that he "clearly outperformed Hamilton." On the whole, they are very well matched, with Hamilton perhaps having the edge in outright speed. IMHO it's the strongest driver pairing on the grid and I doubt Mercedes could be happier.

[@arran2264]

Hamilton’s first half of the season form was largely compromised by a string of bad safety car luck that propped up George and taking on more experimental set ups than George to try help Mercedes fix the W13 Hamilton according to AWS was the driver closest to extracting the most out of his car all year (this is due in part to Verstappen being able to coast some victories ahead in free air) If anything Hamilton should be higher, probably 3rd best

[@theracingban]

mind you hamilton ran experimental setups for half the season and when the car was more competative lewis was always the one closer to wins look at zandvoort cota silverstone mexico france hungary, just because rus got the win and pole doesnt make him better look at kmag he was very good this season even got pole but i wouldnt put him above someone like alonso or ocon who didnt get any poles or podiums

[@qetuowrzip7681]

i think this is a fair ranking

[@charleswhite6226]

George should be above Lewis. Russell was consistent the entire year. The streak of top 5 finishes kept Mercedes in the Constructors vs Ferrari.

[@Zadkiel862]

GOATifi being consistent one last time.

[@Rubbellos6]

I would put Russell ahead of Hamilton because the consistency as well as the first half of the season along with a pole and race win has to be valued. Verstappen at No.1 isn't really debatable from my point of view but there may be an argument for putting Leclerc over Lando for No.2. Overall I'm fine with the list though.

[@harry4454]

I think the reason Hamilton is ahead is because he was testing the car a lot and once they stopped George was beaten in basically every race

[@Dwagginz]

@@harry4454 Rus fangirl here and I think I agree with you, Harry - It's easy to overlook (and I have too in the past) how much work Hamilton was doing behind the scenes. I personally still edge towards George being the stronger of the two this season but it's a very fine line. Apart from that spell where he struggled, George very much lived up to his name of Mr Consistency.

[@n8pls543]

​@@harry4454 Both cars would've been testing things. It makes no sense to suggest that Mercedes would be putting upgrades/setups on for races if they didn't work, and if Mercedes was doing that, you would have to question their competence.

[@harry4454]

@@Dwagginz his top 5 (or 6) finishes consistently throughout the year was very verstappen like in previous years and he definetly lived up to his Mr. Consistent name even very early Lewis vibes but I think people really undestimate how great Hamilton really is, he had a terrible year worse than 09 season. George is great very much mercs future and I'm a fan of him too, hopefully next year merc don't need Lewis to sort out the car and they have a more even playing field it'll be very exciting

[@janineheemskerk2655]

For two years in a row now Lewis had a better 2nd half of the season compared to the 1st half. With George, Carlos, Lando, Charles and Max only getting better with experience, Lewis needs to be on his best for the whole season to get that 8th title.

[@SooDoNimm]

Alonso is top 5 for me. It’s crazy how much he extracted from that Alpine; it’s too bad the car’s reliability sucked.

[@benjamillan922]

Vettel and Pérez deserve a higher ranking

[@gerardogomez3654]

Perez's season was way better than Ocon, Alonso, Russell, Hamilton and Sainz's. I gotta give credit to George for consistency, but Perez's season was up there given the direction that RedBull developed the car towards Verstappen's liking

[@callumbrockhurst1523]

Spot on. Great to see Norris being ranked on his performance rather than position, get this man in a front running car!!

[@tunisiandom9318]

Leclerc paying the price for Ferrari's incompetence in his own ranking does not seem fair. Many strategic calls robbed him victories (at least Silverstone and Monaco) and the two mistakes he made which only affected him shouldn't put him behind Norris who had also many crashes (He took out Gasly in Miami and nearly took out Charles in Brazil, he crashed in Emilia Romagna qualifying also). It overall does not seem fair.

[@lukeclarke9400]

The driver is the one in the car. They ultimately make the final call, the video is right he IS too passive. Sainz basically told the pit wall to f-off multiple times this year, le Clerc did as he was told always.

[@henrypeters3663]

Rewatch the gasly Norris crash mate. Think you’ll find it was gasly’s fault

[@tunisiandom9318]

@@henrypeters3663 How is it Gasly's fault ? Gasly has been on the track for a corner already so he is not "rejoining" and Norris is overtaking him, Gasly was on the racing line ... Norris just did not move enough to the left... look at Gasly onboard he was steering to the right and he was on same line as the cars ahead.

[@furkanalbayrak5129]

How did both stroll and vettel get p6 in suzuka 😂

[@thatonenigeriansformula]

Loved ocon this season

[@alessandraderango2766]

Honestly....I'm a little bit shocked to see Norris ahead of Leclerc.....💁🏻‍♀️

[@douwe3300]

I'd put Hamilton in front too.. Most mistakes were Ferrari's, but Leclerc made some crucial mistakes this season and he knows that. If Norris was in the other Redbull I bet it would've been exciting as f**.

[@alessandraderango2766]

@@douwe3300 All drivers made mistakes..Ham and Norris included....it only depends on how much they push over the limit of the car..the one's of Lec look worse because, at that time, he was leading the championship 💁🏻‍♀️....In my mind, it was an amazing season for Lec..having always fought against Redbull and, sometimes, against it's his own team as well

[@onlyDPGS]

The Race is UK based, I'm not shocked at all

[@alessandraderango2766]

@@onlyDPGS Agree 💁🏻‍♀️

[@iMeze]

How you placed Lewis above Russel is beyond me.

[@Euclides287]

Lewis spent the first part of the season running experimental parts. Once Mercedes stopped using him as a guinea big, Lewis started outperforming George and outqualifying him on a regular basis, sometimes by half a second.

[@Heathen.Deity.]

You need to take into account races 2-8 were enforced test sessions with horrendous prototype cars for Hamilton. Mercedes had no choice and it needed to be done.

[@flamingburritto]

You said you are ranking based on how they performed relative to the cars and yet you put the good cars with good drivers higher. Alonso should be higher on the list, so should Seb and Checo. And Russell should be higher than Hamilton. The only rankings in this list that make sense are Max at no.1 and Latifi at no. 20.

[@Sweaty__Sheep]

I'm really surprised that you out Russell below Hamilton