We’ve enjoyed 13 action-packed rounds of the 2022 Formula 1 season and it’s Max Verstappen leading the way as he aims for a second title – but how do our judges rank his and his rivals’ performances so far? Here is the full Power Rankings leaderboard at the F1 summer shutdown.
How it works
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Our five-judge panel assess each driver after every Grand Prix and score them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
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Our experts’ scores are then averaged out and the mean of those scores are then used to produce a Power Rankings leaderboard, which has been expanded below
Verstappen is the driver on top heading into the summer break, the reigning champion enjoying an 80-point lead as he chases his second title. The Dutchman has won both Sprints, taken eight Grand Prix victories, three pole positions and 258 points after 13 rounds in 2022. Six more Grand Prix wins and he’ll have broken the record for the most in a season… Our judges are suitably impressed.
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Charles Leclerc leads the way when it comes to qualifying as he’s taken seven pole positions already in 2022 – but the Ferrari driver hasn’t won a race since Austria, after which Verstappen took the spoils in France and Hungary. Although it hasn’t been the easiest season for Leclerc, he’s impressed our judges and garnered a score just below that of his rival.
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Fourth in the standings, but third in our rankings, George Russell has had a terrific start to life as a full-time Mercedes works driver. The W13 isn’t at the the level it needs to be for the Silver Arrows to add another constructors’ championship to their already impressive haul but Russell has taken five podiums in it, and finished no worse than fifth in every race bar his home Grand Prix – where a Lap 1 crash stopped his sterling run.
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Lewis Hamilton has scored just below Russell so far, the seven-time champion having taken a podium in Bahrain but followed that up with a string of disappointing races including P10 in Saudi Arabia and a low of P13 at Imola. But he’s now on a roll and has taken five consecutive podiums including P2 in both France and Hungary. His Power Rankings score is on the rise.
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In a McLaren that is clearly not the easiest to manage, Lando Norris has scored some impressive results. He’s the only driver outside Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes to take a podium so far in 2022 and he’s taken points in all but three Grands Prix. Taking machinery into account, Norris currently sits fifth in our Power Rankings leaderboard.
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The first five weekends of the season were far from ideal for Fernando Alonso, who retired twice and suffered a low of P17 in Australia. From Spain to Hungary, however, he’s notched up eight consecutive points scores with a best of P5 at Silverstone, and most recently finished sixth in France and eighth in Hungary – not to mention his brilliant performance in qualifying in Canada when he put his Alpine on the front row. This season, only Verstappen and Hamilton have taken more consecutive points finishes than Alonso.
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Carlos Sainz started the season with consecutive podiums and then hit a rough patch with consecutive retirements in Australia and at Imola. He delivered a maiden pole and victory at Silverstone and was unfortunate not to finish in Austria. With P5 in France and P4 in Hungary, Sainz is a joint seventh on the leaderboard so far.
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Sergio Perez is the driver level with Sainz in the Power Rankings, the Red Bull racer having put in some brilliant performances this season with a strong run from Bahrain to Monaco, where he took his first and only win so far this season. The Mexican driver retired in Canada and Austria to bookend his British GP podium, but recent results in France and Hungary have seen Perez finish outside of the top three.
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Esteban Ocon began 2022 with a bang, taking P7, P6, P7 in the first three races and scoring points in every Grand Prix bar Imola, Monaco and Silverstone in an impressive run for Alpine that has most recently yielded P5 in Austria, P8 in France and P9 in Hungary.
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It’s fair to say that Magnussen has hit the ground running on his return to Formula 1, the Danish driver taking P5 in the season-opener and following that up with points at Jeddah and Imola. He did suffer an unfortunate stretch of five poor races from Miami to Canada but top 10s in Silverstone and Austria showed, again, what Magnussen is capable of.
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Leaderboard
