A new Formula 1 season means it is once again time for Edd Straw to assess the performances of all 20 drivers in qualifying and the Grand Prix.
Here's who he thinks were the best performers at the season-opening Bahrain GP:
How do the rankings work?
The 20 drivers are ranked in order of performance from best to worst each Grand Prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racing skill to consistency and whether they have made crucial mistakes. A key consideration will be how close each driver has come to unlocking the car's maximum performance potential.
It is important to note that this reflects the performance of the entire weekend, bearing in mind that qualifying is effectively “lap 0” of the race and the key to laying the foundation for the race, and is not a ranking of all competitors . round qualities of every driver. It's simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the rankings will fluctuate greatly from weekend to weekend.
And since each of the 10 cars has fundamentally different performance potential and “luck” (i.e. factors beyond the driver’s control) contributes to the outcome of the weekend, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 1 Complete: 1
This was Verstappen out of a picture book: he fought tirelessly to get the car through practice, followed by a well-executed qualifying session in which he stole pole from a potentially faster Ferrari.
He controlled the race as you would expect, setting the fastest lap and being as untouchable as you would expect from a driver in his class with a power advantage.
Verdict: Picked up where he left off last year.
Started: 3 Complete: 5
Russell exceeded his targets in qualifying as he was one of the few to deliver anything close to the maximum the car was capable of in the third quarter. This surprisingly earned him a third place on the grid.
After briefly running second, cooling management dictated his race and fifth place was realistically the best he could have achieved given the car problems and the racing speed of the Ferraris.
Verdict: A strong start to an important season.
Started: 6 Complete: 9
Alonso's self-proclaimed overperformance in qualifying suggested the Aston Martin was better than it was.
This meant he fell back to the mean in his race, ultimately resulting in a lonely ninth place, which was as good as the car's race speed would allow.
Verdict: Did what he could with the fifth best car.
Started: 2 Complete: 4
Leclerc had the pace for pole position and set the fastest time in second qualifying, but admitted that “the last lap wasn't the best lap”.
This was partly because he only had a set of fresh soft tires available and felt he lost his rhythm and couldn't get the front wing flap adjustment while driving on used tires in the third quarter. But several small moments, particularly in Turn 11, cost him.
The dramatic brake temperature shift, for which there is no evidence he was responsible, affected his race and resulted in what he thought could have been second place ahead of Perez turning into fourth place.
Verdict: Shades Sainz stated that had it not been for the braking problems he would probably have finished at the front.
Started: 4 Complete: 3
Q3 was disappointing, especially after a strong Q1 meant he had two new sets of soft tires available and ended up a tenth behind his teammate, although Leclerc also underperformed.
Losing a place to Perez at the start ultimately cost him the chance of second place as he was unable to hurt the Red Bull driver despite never losing sight of him, which wasn't a huge failure given the car's speed disadvantage.
Verdict: Disappointing qualifying but a decent race.
Started: 5 Complete: 2
Perez was much happier with the car's entry-level stability compared to last year, describing it as “a step better”.
However, he was too conservative in Turn 1 on his final Q3 lap, which cost him a quarter of a second on Verstappen, and therefore should have been closer.
He made good use of the car's speed and had second place in the bag after the first stint without being able to completely overtake Sainz.
Verdict: Red Bull's number two did well.
Started: 17 Complete: 11
Zhou found himself on the wrong side of qualifying after what he called a “tricky and inconsistent” run in practice, finishing just 0.001 seconds ahead of Bottas. But he ran a strong race, staying out of trouble at Turn 1 as he was on the outside line, and went from 13th to 11th thanks to a proactive pit stop strategy on the first lap. He stopped early to take advantage of the undercut and gain positions.
Despite finishing 10th midway through the stint, Stroll's pace in a faster car and similar strategy meant Zhou was always destined for 11th.
Verdict: A well-executed race to start the season.
Started: 12 Complete: 10
With Aston the clear fifth-fastest car, tenth place was probably the preliminary target for Stroll, but life was made unexpectedly difficult for him when he spun at Turn 1 at Hulkenberg.
From then on he delivered a quiet comeback with a strategy based on taking advantage of the undercut and securing a successful tenth place.
Verdict: Qualifying was mediocre, but his recovery from the race was impressive.
Started: 7 Complete: 6
Had he made his final Q3 lap and not just made a slight improvement when a lap started with a slide in Turn 1, Norris could have made the front row.
However, that would have flattered the McLaren and made little difference to his race, other than perhaps giving him a chance to beat Russell, who he was parked behind at the end and didn't have the speed to attack.
Verdict: Could have qualified and done better with a stronger final Q3 lap.
Started: 13 Complete: 15
Since the Williams wasn't as “refined” as he would have liked, Albon was content to have placed the car a few places further up the grid than expected.
Unfortunately his race was marred by cooling problems, meaning it was a frustrating race for management and prevented him from seriously engaging in the fight on the edge of the points positions.
Verdict: Showed good pace but held back in the race.
Started: 11 Complete: 14
Tsunoda's performance level was impressive and he was unlucky to miss the third quarter by 0.007 seconds.
He attributed this to wheelspin at Turn 8, but the 0.149 second lead over Ricciardo clearly reflected their relative speed.
The strategy was against him and resulted in undercutting losses at both stops after he finished tenth in the first stint.
Ricciardo's soft strategy led to a situation at the end of the race where he was slow to let his teammate pass, leading to embarrassing behavior on the slowing lap.
Verdict: Unnecessary antics towards the end of the race or during a slowing lap will damage his ranking.
Started: 8th Complete: 8th
Piastri was always just a fraction away from Norris all weekend, struggling with the balance of the car and unable to give his confident best.
Nevertheless, he was within a tenth of a second in qualifying and would have followed Norris to the finish in seventh had McLaren not allowed Hamilton to get past at the second stops – helped by a moment when Piastri exited the Turn 1 pits.
Verdict: A solid start, but the second best McLaren driver this weekend.
Started: 19 Complete: 17
Ocon had the more orthodox weekend of the two Alpines, delivering roughly what the car was capable of in qualifying and then following a conventional strategy.
Although he briefly fell behind Gasly at the start, he regained the lead when his teammate was held up in Turn 1.
But there was little to be gained with the slowest car in the field.
Verdict: Good performance under hopeless circumstances.
Started: 20 Complete: 18
None of the Alpine riders had the means to do anything other than stand at the back, although Gasly was arguably more unlucky.
Because he was at the back of the queue for the final Q1 runs, his tires were not in good condition for his push lap and he ended up a tenth and a half behind Ocon.
A good start to the race was then undone by the clash between Stroll and Hülkenberg, with Gasly's well-executed three-stopper allowing him to chase down his teammate in the final stint.
Verdict: A good job in a doomed cause.
Started: 10 Complete: 16
Hülkenberg was one of the stars of qualifying and showed good race speed.
It's just that this was all undone by the misjudgment in the first corner that led to him tipping Stroll.
As a result, his front wing was damaged and he had to make a pit stop on the first lap. He then showed good pace to be able to fight for a point, although with the caveat that he benefited from plenty of clean air.
Verdict: A great weekend that was ruined by a mistake in Turn 1.
Started: 9 Complete: 7
Although Hamilton was far more confident with the rear of the Mercedes W15, he was unable to show this because he trailed in qualifying with a setup that was only marginally slower than Russell's, far less than the 0.225 second gap at a snap in Turn 4 costs him.
Like his teammate, waning concerns meant it was more about survival than attacking, meaning little progress could be made.
Verdict: Cooling problems meant little chance of recovering in the race.
Started: 14 Complete: 13
Ricciardo was the second best RB driver all weekend. His arguments with Tsunoda towards the end of the race were due to him having a new set of soft tires for an offensive final stint compared to his teammate's hard tires.
It's clear that he's not completely happy with the car yet, which was reflected in his difficulty getting a clean qualifying lap.
Verdict: A mediocre weekend.
Started: 16 Complete: 19
After a solid but unspectacular qualifying in which he set an almost identical time to his teammate, the first 15 seconds of Bottas' race went brilliantly, he adjusted the start brilliantly and made progress.
Unfortunately, this meant he ended up directly behind the Stroll/Hülkenberg collision and damaged the rear of the Haas.
As a result, he suffered front wing damage, which he carried for the rest of the race, and a wheel nut problem during his second pit stop cost him a further 50 seconds.
Verdict: The racing accident gave him little opportunity to impress.
Started: 15. End: 12
Although Magnussen didn't have the one-lap speed of Hülkenberg and couldn't come close to his teammate in Q3 after struggling with mid-corner understeer, he delivered a successful race to claim 12th place, and could keep him potentially faster cars behind.
This was the kind of racing that last year's tire problems made impossible.
Verdict: The speed of qualification remains an issue.
Started: 18 Complete: 20
Sargeant's pace deficit to Albon was compounded by his tire temperature issues in the final Q1 run, where he failed to improve his lap time. This put him 0.373 seconds behind Albon.
His race was effectively over on lap 10 when an electronics problem caused the brakes to move forward. Although he came back to the pits and had a new steering wheel installed, he was condemned to a distant finale.
Verdict: Unfortunate but unremarkable weekend.
