Driver ratings after one third of the F1 season: Who disappointed and who surprised?

We have completed 7 out of 23 races this season and it’s time to bring the drivers’ evaluation after the summary. Many riders were pleasantly surprised, on the other hand there are also many disappointments. So let’s take a look at both categories.

Surprises

Let’s start in a more positive mood. The big surprise this season is definitely Lando Norris. The British driver has become the team’s number one after Carlos Sainz and is absolutely rolling his teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

What’s more, he remains the last driver in this year’s starting field to score points in every race so far. Norris also scored two third places and is currently fourth in the championship.

Pierre Gasly is also increasingly surprising the F1 world. The Frenchman has completed his collection of podium finishes this season, adding a third place in the crazy race in Azerbaijan, which we wrote about here, to his second place from Brazil 2019 and victory from Italy 2020.

The man who was sacked from Red Bull for poor results never ceases to amaze the formula world. His contract at Alpha Tauri is due to expire this year and who knows if he won’t be able to move to a better team. The vacancy so far is in both Mercedes seats and one seat at Red Bull, where Gasly drove in the first half of the 2019 season.

Returner Fernando Alonso is also driving very well so far in Alpine. The Spanish veteran and 2005 and 2006 world champion is beating his teammate Esteban Ocon so far, and unlike his last F1 engagement, he seems to be enjoying the driving at least a little bit.

Disappointing

The biggest one so far is definitely Valterri Bottas. In the same breath, however, it has to be said that the mood around the Finnish driver in the team is basically at freezing point. Already in Spain, where Bottas refused to let go of his teammate Hamilton and made his path to victory a little more difficult.

It was all crowned in the race in France, where the Finn literally shouted down his team engineer and de facto the entire Mercedes. “Why didn’t ***** anyone listen to me when I said it was going to be a two-stop race!!! *****!!!” Words like that must have sent shivers down the spine of Black Arrows fans.

In general, however, we can say that especially in the last races Bottas has been giving the worst performance of the four strongest drivers from the Red Bull and Mercedes teams. And the speculation about his replacement by George Russell is probably not helping his psyche.

Yuki Cunoda is certainly not living up to his expectations. The 21-year-old Japanese driver has had few good results this season, but they are outweighed by three crashes in qualifying and only 8 points in the world championship standings. Moreover, the Japanese doesn’t go far for a punch and is often very sharp on the radio. But thanks to his results he should forgive himself for this.

Nikita Mazepin also has lackluster performances to his credit so far. The Russian Haas driver regularly loses a large amount of time to his teammate Mick Schumacher and even in the battle for the last places he is not afraid to defend to the brink of safety. The driver, who has to race only under the banner of the Russian Automobile Federation, is not only the target of criticism but also a clear disappointment in the opening third of the season.

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