They were the best and worst F1 drivers of the 2024 season

Who were the best F1 drivers of 2024?

Max Verstappen is the undisputed winner of the GPblog Ratings in 2024. Verstappen scored an average of 8.3, putting him at the top of the league. Verstappen scored a 10 four times for a race weekend this season, with the Brazilian Grand Prix being obviously the highlight of the season. Above all, Max's consistency this year has ensured that once again that no one could match him in the standings.

Number two is Lando Norris. As in the world championship standings, the Briton is also the first man behind Max Verstappen. There were no exceptional races from Norris, but he did manage to stay at least close over a full year. However, with a seemingly better car, there could have been more in it, leaving Norris stuck with a 7.4.

Third place is shared by Charles Leclerc and George Russell. Both had a season that was more consistent than previous years, and were better than their teammates, but still had too many worse weekends. For example, Leclerc scored unsatisfactory results in Canada, Austria and at Silverstone, where Russell had worse weekends in Australia, Hungary and Miami.

Carlos Sainz completes the top five this season with a 6.8. The Spaniard particularly had good weekends in Australia and Mexico. Over the season as a whole, however, he again fell short of his teammate, resulting in a slightly lower average mark.

Notably Lewis Hamilton finished just inside the Top 10. The Briton was always good for a spot in the top five in recent years, but not in 2024. Hamilton comes no further than ninth place with a 6.4. Hamilton was considerably slower than his teammate in qualifying this season, and on more than one occasion failed to recover from his Saturday result in the race. Hamilton still had some great races, including in Belgium and Las Vegas, but over the entire season it was not good enough.

Who were the worst F1 drivers of 2024?

At the bottom of the list of drivers, there are five drivers who would 'fail in school' under different systems. The highest score out of the bottom 5 goes to Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian drove his last race in Singapore and for good reason. Ricciardo was simply no longer fast enough in 2024 and came up short in the battle against Tsunoda, forcing him to make way for Lawson.

Guanyu Zhou drove a colourless season for which he got an average of 5.1. The Chinese did not come close to Bottas again and therefore did not get a seat for 2025 either. Lance Stroll gets the same mark. The Canadian had few highs and mostly many lows, including his bizarre crash in China and getting stuck in the gravel trap in Brazil.

Sergio Perez earned an average grade of 5.0, making him the second worst driver this season. The Mexican lost more and more ground on Verstappen, failed time and again to get through the first qualifying sections and also messed up a race several times. Only Logan Sargeant finished behind the now ex-Red Bull driver. The American was given a second chance by Williams after a poor debut season, but Sargeant did not make the most out of it. He was far too slow and, in addition, crashed his Williams several times before it was passed to Franco Colapinto.

GPblog F1 Ratings 2024