Grand Prix Driver

[Christopher]

Nobodyin the Formula 1 field had a fault-free weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix - but that's perhaps for the best considering the two major battles that developed in the closing stages of the race.

How do the rankings work? The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.

Aside from the fact he could perhaps have opened out the steering to avoid the risk of damage posed by contact set in motion by Max Verstappen steaming up the inside late on, Hamilton had a strong weekend.

He struggled with the car being a little too snappy in the warmer temperatures but qualified decently and then produced a strong race. He used the undercut to get ahead of Verstappen then held him back in the second and third stints.

A tricky first lap meant he was shuffled back to 11th and, having started on mediums, he was surprised to be called in early - which left him stuck in the early-stopper train and ultimately not quite in the hunt for points. With a different approach, he likely would have finished ahead of his team-mate.

But he largely made up for that in the race with an unexpected, and well-executed, one-stop strategy that yielded ninth place, having held off the Aston Martins, both on fresher rubber, in the final stint.

Albon felt there was more pace in the car in qualifying, but the run plan in Q2 meant he lost performance in dirty air. He made up for that with a great start on softs, taking advantage of the outside line at Turn 1 - but never trying to grab too much - to take ninth on the first lap.

He was always destined for an early stop and ended up in the queue behind Hulkenberg. He also felt Alonso was backing him up at times to help Stroll, which ensured there was no chance to fight back into the top 10.

He chased Sergio Perez for most of the race - Russell was actually ahead after the start - but ran longer in the first two stints and was never able to threaten a pass on track on his way to salvaging four points.

But that inevitably meant an early stop and, given the car's pace, no chance of points - although he did just keep Bottas at bay on the last lap after falling into his clutches when he was lapped by Russell.

That was made worse by opting to stop him early in an attempt to undercut and gain positions, which paid off short-term but not long term. That showed by the fact he made an extra stop late on after a long hard stint, but that only turned a bad finish into a slightly worse one.

After taking fresh power unit components and starting from the pits, running long on hards was the only option, but it was a strategy that went nowhere before he retired with what was described as a suspected hydraulic leak.

Verstappen dominated the opening two days of the Miami Grand Prix weekend and looked like he would take a routine victory on Sunday until his error led to him clattering the bollard at the chicane. Although Norris had some good luck to get the lead from Verstappen, the world champion could not match the McLaren on the hards and accepted he was beaten on merit after the race. Still, Verstappen had more to be satisfied with in his performance than he had to be frustrated with.

A very average weekend for Perez. He did not make any major errors, but a couple of small mistakes at crucial times prevented him from better results. He was very fortunate he did not wipe out Verstappen at the start of the grand prix and while he was only seven seconds from his team mate by the finish, he had lost out to both Ferraris too. Not his best performance of the year so far.

Sainz had a decent enough weekend in Miami. Not as quick as his team mate throughout the weekend and having to contend with an improved McLaren team, Sainz still put in a decent performance over the three days. Fourth would have been a good result, beating a Red Bull, however he lost that due to an understandable penalty for sliding into Piastri, even if it was nothing egregious.

A frustrating weekend for Stroll. While he appeared to have the pace, he did not get the luck. He retired as the second victim of the turn one clash in the sprint race, then outqualified his team mate for a second time in grand prix qualifying. Pitting early for hard tyres did not work out for him at all and while he managed to make up some ground after the restart, his penalty undid all his hard work. A shame, but he probably deserved more.

Alpine were in much stronger form in Miami than they had been for many of the earlier rounds of the season. Although Gasly missed out on a point like his team mate, he had been ahead of him before his early stop allowed Ocon to overcut him and was never more than five seconds behind his team mate after the restart. He should be happy with his performance across the weekend.

At his home grand prix, Sargeant had one of his better performances of the season. He made not major errors and even managed to beat his team mate for the first time ever in sprint qualifying. He had a respectable showing in Saturday qualifying and was matching his team mate in the grand prix before being taken out by Magnussen. A weekend where he deserved a better result.

One interesting dynamic of sprint rounds is how drivers can have vastly different fortunes in the sprint sessions and grand prix sessions. No one demonstrated that better in Miami than Ricciardo. He looked like a rockstar after sprint qualifying and the sprint race with a very strong showing, only for it all to fall off when it mattered most. He later suggested that his poor grand prix performance on being stuck behind rivals with too much wing level to make his way through the DRS train he was in. Fortunately for Ricciardo this was a sprint round, as based on his results in the grand prix sessions alone, this would have been another very disappointing weekend.

A fairly unremarkable weekend for Bottas where he did not commit any major mistakes but also did not have many outstanding moments either. Missing out on Q2 by a slim margin was his highlight of the weekend, but by the end of the first lap he was already down in 19th place. The Safety Car likely did not help him but even if he finished behind his team mate, he at least kept pace with him over the second half of the race. Although he got a penalty for impeding in sprint qualifying, it was fair to say the blame was more on his new race engineer than Bottas himself.

Zhou had a fairly understated weekend where his performance flew under the radar, but that is perhaps unfair to him. Although Sauber do not have a car capable of fighting for a top ten in typical circumstances, Zhou managed to finish 11th in the sprint race and pick up five places in the grand prix to go a fair way to make up for his underwhelming Saturday. Fighting to keep his Sauber seat for 2024, beating Bottas over the weekend would not have hurt his chances.

One of the better drivers of the weekend, Hulkenberg demonstrated what it is that Audi find so appealing about him in Miami. Consistently ahead of his team mate across the weekend, Hulkenberg secured two points with seventh in the sprint race, then reached Q3 in grand prix qualifying. He showed guts fighting with Hamilton early in the grand prix but appeared to get suckered into making an ill-judged early switch to hard tyres that cost him compared to the cars ahead. However, he did pretty good work to move up the field after the Safety Car and just missed out on the points in 11, but that was still a very strong result.

Magnussen arrived in Miami eying a chance to fight for points around one of his favourite circuits. He left after gaining five points on his superlicence and will now be staring down the barrel of a race ban over the remainder of the year. Although his sprint race penalties were down to his attempt to support his team mate, such tactics should not be rewarded. He probably deserved his penalty for hitting Sargeant in the grand prix, then had yet another penalty on top of that after driving through the pit lane under Safety Car without stopping.

Oscar probably deserved a 5/10 for blowing so much opportunity. I would add 1 to Lewis for actually getting his tires to work and out pacing his teammate by a long shot. Mercedes got their learnings on, and it will probably show next round when they challenge for 6/7th.

I fully agree with the 7. Up to the SC Norris was actually underperforming considering how good his car was. After the SC he was flawless when it mattered.

Even Norris himself will agree that this race was not one of his finest. But who cares?

Yes, so was I. As I recall, the first time they showed the voting, Norris was way ahead with second place (Piastri maybe?) in single figures. The second time they showed it, Bottas had shot up to second place. My guess would be that a mischievous Discord server (or similar) decided at that point to crash the vote, having seen how few votes would be needed to push Bottas up the rankings.

The winners list unsurprisingly features some of the greatest racing drivers to have ever lived, and the two most recent winners of the race in its F3 form are back to see if they can master the famed Guia Circuit once again.

There were several other F2 drivers ruing the chance they did not get to race in Macau this weekend having already missed out on the opportunity over the last three years when the race ran for F4 cars during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 British F4 runner-up has spent two years in FRegional with little to show for it. He got a podium in the Middle East at the start of this year, but only two points finishes from 39 FREC races. He did all three of the official post-season FIA F3 tests with Jenzer, just like his Macau team-mates, and has been testing privately with the team since in an old GP3 car.

3a8082e126