Five months in and 14 grands prix down, the longest Formula 1 season in history has reached its mid-season break.
That pause in the action offers a great opportunity to reflect on how each driver has performed so far in 2024.
So here’s Edd Straw’s verdict – with this year’s F1 field ranked from worst to best.
How do these rankings work? The Race ranks all 20 drivers after each Formula 1 event based on their overall performance.
This factors in not just results, but also other key factors such as underlying pace, execution, their performance relative to their team-mate, the role of luck, errors and the myriad other factors that make up a grand prix weekend.
To take stock in the August break, these have been averaged out to create a mid-season ranking. It’s based on a simple calculation, taking the mean average of their positions over the year and ranking them in order based on that.
This is not the same methodology as used for The Race’s overall top 10 driver ranking at the end of the season as that factors in other considerations, but this gives some idea of how a driver has performed over the year so far.
Best ranking: 12th
Worst ranking: 20th
Average ranking: 17.9
Sargeant battled parts shortages and specification disadvantages during the first half of 2024 and can rightly point to the unseen factors making it difficult to judge him. However, even accounting for that he’s been hit and miss.
His genuine pace has shone through on occasion, but consistency remains a problem and even the mini-upturn approaching the break was interrupted by a difficult Spa weekend.
There’s unrealised potential there, but it’s impossible to disagree with Williams’s decision to drop him for 2025.
Best ranking: 7th
Worst ranking: 20th
Average ranking: 16.9
Zhou came into the season determined to kick on, but instead has struggled through what is, all things considered, his worst F1 campaign to date.
A significant part of that is down to the mess that is Sauber as often problems have held him back. That’s meant low rankings on weekends primarily as a result of having no opportunity to show what he can do.
However, Zhou’s struggles to adapt to a confidence-sapping car have meant he’s rarely been near team-mate Valtteri Bottas on pace and mean there have been few bright spots. Save for his run to 11th in Bahrain and lively performance in the China sprint, it’s been a painful year.
Best ranking: 8th
Worst ranking: 20th
Average ranking: 13.9
Stroll’s campaign has been very much in line with what we’ve seen before. When things are going well, he has put together some very solid weekends, with Hungary, Bahrain and Silverstone standing out. When things aren’t going well, he’s prone to going missing.
There were occasions when Aston Martin was struggling where he did show well relative to Fernando Alonso, although when both are at their best he’s not able to reach that level as even on weekends such as Hungary where he beat Alonso in qualifying and the race, his overall performance was actually marginally less impressive than his team-mate’s.
Best ranking: 5th
Worst ranking: 20th
Average ranking: 13.8
At his best, Magnussen is as hard-charging and combative as ever – Austria proved that.
But save for the Red Bull Ring the only other occasion he troubled the scorers was Australia. And a big part of that is his qualifying deficit to Nico Hulkenberg, who is on average a tenth-and-a-half quicker – a big disadvantage in the tightly-packed midfield.
There have only been a couple of genuinely poor weekends when Magnussen’s frustration has got the better of him, but overall he’s not replicated the highs or the consistency of his team-mate.
Best ranking: 6th
Worst ranking: 20th
Average ranking: 13.3
Early on, Perez was consistently ranked in the top 10 performers thanks to his solid drives in support of Max Verstappen, but since then it’s been a painful run.
The last eight events have produced a best ranking of 13th, which was for his performance at Spa where he put the car second on the grid then faded to ‘last in class’ from a promising position – a struggle not solely explained by questionable strategy.
Given his lengthy struggles to get anything approaching the potential out of the Red Bull and the fact that the team actively considered dropping him – and might yet – it’s clear he’s not producing the performance level needed in what is admittedly a very tricky car.
Best ranking: 5th
Worst ranking: 19th
Average ranking: 13.0
Bottas’s performances have been, all things considered, impressive for Sauber. The trouble is that the team’s problems have meant there have been weekends where it’s been almost impossible for him to achieve a decent ranking.
But at his best, he’s been extremely effective, with Australia and Belgium weekends where he cracked the top six in the rankings and unquestionably got what he could out of the car.
Bottas is still capable of being very quick and when the Sauber has given him a chance he’s generally performed well. But he’s a good example of how a team that’s underperforming can make it difficult even for an accomplished driver to make a good impression.
Best ranking: 6th
Worst ranking: 18th
Average ranking: 12.9
Ricciardo’s rankings over the year reflect a clear upward trend. Across the first eight events, he never rose higher than 14th, but in the next six he was in the top seven four times. While that was interspersed with a couple of iffy weekends, it has been the most convincing run of Ricciardo’s RB stint.
Replicating that consistently from now will be the key, but while overall he’s been the less impressive RB driver the trend is encouraging for him.
Best ranking: 6th
Worst rankings: 18th
Average ranking: 12.1
The fact Ocon’s form has been decent when Alpine is all over the place suggests the team’s eagerness to drop him isn’t rooted in performance.
When things have been running smoothly Ocon has been able to show his class with strong weekends in Belgium, Miami and China. But too often, he has been given limited opportunity to impress thanks to problems not of his making.
He’s had the edge in qualifying by a slender margin in terms of average performance and raced well, but his average ranking is dragged down by the damage done by the Monaco first lap incident with team-mate Pierre Gasly and also the Silverstone and Hungary weekends where Alpine was not at its best.
Best ranking: 2nd
Worst ranking: 19th
Average ranking: 11.7
Alpine’s troubles mean Gasly’s form has been more stuttering than it was at the back end of last season, but at his best – for example in Spain, where he was outstanding – he’s been able to remind everyone how good he’s capable of being.
But even with the confounding factors of the team’s problems and some variation in specifications earlier in the season – not to mention some diff map troubles that were spotted in Miami – he and Ocon have been relatively evenly matched overall.
Gasly has ended the first half of the season with some difficult weekends, but in the run of seven events from China to Austria he was only once ranked outside the top eight.
Best ranking: 2nd
Worst ranking: 19th
Average ranking: 10.8
Albon has made the top three in the rankings three times this year, although the troubles suffered by Williams and costly mistakes such as the crash in Friday practice at Melbourne that damaged the monocoque and led to team-mate Sargeant being benched have made for some difficult weekends when he’s ended up ranked well down the order.
However, the trend is good and even in a season of underperformance for Williams, Albon has had plenty of good showings in a car that’s generally been solid Q2 fodder but usually better-placed only to flirt with, rather than score, points.
There’s every chance that with a major upgrade coming and what Williams will hope to be a more straightforward second half of the season that consistency will return.
Best ranking: 2nd
Worst ranking: 19th
Average ranking: 10.4
Tsunoda’s season so far has been comfortably his best in F1, to the point where it’s curious Red Bull wasn’t willing to consider him as an alternative to Perez for its A-team.
Consistently strong in the first quarter of the season, things have become a little more difficult lately and even in Hungary where he drove a good race to points on a one-stopper, his ranking was hurt by a heavy Q3 crash.
The introduction of the unsuccessful RB upgrade in Spain, which was only carried over in partial form after struggles with through-corner balance, made life more difficult for him. He’s also not been error free, notably with the spin that cost him likely points in Canada. But overall, an impressive season and he should regain momentum after the August break having taken the pain of a grid penalty at Spa.
Best ranking: 1st
Worst ranking: 19th
Average ranking: 9.5
At his best, for example in Japan where he earned top spot in the rankings, or in Belgium where he prevailed in the tight midfield battle, Alonso has been as good as ever.
But there were also poor weekends, notably Imola and Austria, where he wasn’t at his best.
When Aston Martin was struggling most with the behaviour of its car, there were signs Alonso wasn’t necessarily in the mood to dig deep. But after the Hungary upgrade, his form has picked up again, while his return of five top-six rankings shows that even amid the fluctuations he’s still capable of mixing it with the best.
Best ranking: 3rd
Worst ranking: 18th
Average ranking: 8.9
Just as last season, Hulkenberg has played a starring role in qualifying. But in contrast to last year, when at times his frustration at the Haas’s inevitable tyre-chewing decline meant he didn’t get the most out of races, there have been some outstanding race performances as well this year.
Hulkenberg has been ranked in the top five on five occasions this year, but most significantly he’s backed up his top-10 finishes with no less than five 11th places when the car hasn’t quite had enough for points.
It was only really in Bahrain and Belgium where he didn’t make much of an impression during a campaign that has reminded everyone how good he is and earned him a move to Audi.
Best ranking: 1st
Worst ranking: 16th
Average ranking: 8.1
As Mercedes has made progress, so Hamilton has come alive. His rankings in the last three events – two firsts and a second – indicate that he’s back somewhere near his best.
The rest of the season has been more up and down, but having not managed better than sixth in the first nine weekends he’s usually been at or near the top since then.
Generally, his struggles in qualifying have hurt his rankings, which along with the inconsistency of the Mercedes early in the season made it difficult to judge the level he was at. But even with the ongoing stylistic difficulties he’s battling, once up front his class has shone through.
Best ranking: 1st
Worst ranking: 13th
Average ranking: 7.4
Russel lies only eighth in the championship but, as the rankings reflect, his overall performances have been better than that position would suggest.
The exclusion at Spa and retirement at Silverstone cost him in points terms, but the fact he’s just ahead of his team-mate in the average rankings shows how consistently good he’s been.
On top emphatically in qualifying, with an advantage of around a tenth of a second in dry conditions, Russell has also had the edge on Hamilton in terms of race performances – more often finishing ahead when both have been classified and running ahead on track around two-thirds of the time.
Best ranking: 1st
Worst ranking: 13th
Average ranking: 7.0
Piastri’s season has steadily improved in terms of rankings, although it’s worth noting that the first of his two number-one positions came in Miami where he was running ahead of Norris before the safety car changed everything.
There have been a few difficult weekends – notably in Spain and China, where the pace wasn’t what it should have been – but that’s to be expected for a driver with his experience level.
Most fascinating is the trend of Piastri’s season. He has been outperformed by Norris overall but is proving able to beat him with greater frequency of late. The future will decide how that battle plays out, but what Piastri has definitely done this season is prove he’s taken a step forward since his rookie year.
Best ranking: 1st
Worst ranking: 17th
Average ranking: 6.9
Sainz’s missed race is accounted for in his average ranking and his lofty position reflects a season that’s mixed some obvious highlights – the strong start and win in Australia – with occasions when he’s produced unobtrusively effective weekends such as at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.
He’s also been extremely close to team-mate Charles Leclerc on qualifying pace, underlining how unfortunate he is to be dropping down the grid in 2025 having failed to land a place at a frontrunning team.
Only in Canada has he been ranked in the lower reaches of the 20 after a weekend of errors, but generally even on his bad days Sainz has done a good job and has always brought home decent points when he’s made the finish.
Best ranking: 2nd
Worst ranking: 12th
Average ranking: 5.4
As Norris himself has regularly pointed out, it’s been small details that have cost him at times this season. But overall, he’s produced a consistently high level of performance and has only failed to get into the top 10 of the event rankings once.
The question mark primarily hangs over starts and first laps, as illustrated by what happened in the early seconds of the race at Spa that defined a frustrating grand prix.
But so much of what Norris does is outstanding, blending speed, intelligence and good tyre management to produce a strong body of work with just a few slightly rough edges still to be ironed out.
Best ranking: 1st
Worst ranking: 16th
Average ranking: 5.4
Recency bias would make it feel like Leclerc’s had a disappointing season, but save for his difficult Red Bull Ring and Silverstone weekends he’s been a permanent presence in the top 10.
That includes two top spots, for that dominant weekend in Monaco and a Spa event where he dragged everything out of the car in both qualifying and the race.
Despite Ferrari’s struggles since introducing the upgrade at the Spanish GP that increased its car’s porpoising problems, Leclerc’s consistently good performances and well-executed race drives have kept him in the mix for second in the championship.
Best ranking: 1st
Worst ranking: 10th
Average ranking: 3.9
While Verstappen’s life has become a little harder of late, he’s still performing at a sky-high level.
He’s taken the number one spot five times in the rankings, and only twice fell out of the top five. Hungary was inevitably the low-water mark with 10th, primarily thanks to his rash move on Hamilton that miraculously didn’t put the Red Bull out of the race.
That Verstappen’s worst ranking is better than any other driver’s reveals much about the high standards he sets as even on weekends where there have been mistakes – Monaco, Austria and Hungary – he has otherwise generally performed well.
That’s doubly impressive given the narrow window of the tricky Red Bull RB20.
