F1: We rank the top-10 drivers of 2022

Our ranking of the best 10 drivers in F1 in 2022 is based on our evaluation of their ability, and performance vs. their teammate in equal equipment over the course of the season.

This takes into consideration many factors – pace in qualifying and the race, overtaking ability, consistency, and number of mistakes.

10th – Alex Albon – overall Rating 6.0

Taking a massive career setback in stride after being destroyed by teammate Max Verstappen at Red Bull, Albon led the Williams team on track all season and his margin over teammate Nicholas Latifi was even greater than George Russell who he replaced.

He regularly carried the slowest car on the grid into places it wasn’t capable of, and his qualifying performances at Spa and Austin were noteworthy.

He beat his teammate Latifi in the race 17 to 4 and in qualifying 18 to 3.

9th – Esteban Ocon – overall Rating 6.5

Ocon was not quite at teammate Fernando Alonso’s level in terms of performance with the Alpine car. Ocon finished ahead of Alonso in the final points tally because Alonso had some terrible luck with reliability.

Ocon’s aggressive on-track maneuvers trying to beat his more talented teammate left a sour taste in Alonso’s mouth and resulted in the Spaniard jumping at the chance to leave the team for Aston Martin, though money was certainly a factor as well.

Ocon was beaten in qualifying by his teammate 12 to 10.

8th – Sergio Perez – overall Rating 7.0

Perez won twice for Red Bull in 2022 and almost finished 2nd in drivers points, but he was once again overshadowed by an all-time great teammate.

Max Verstappen is the best driver in F1 today, and will go down as one of the best in history. He consistently beat Perez like a drum, much the same way the other greats of the sport like Juan Fangio, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton schooled their teammates when in their prime.

Early in the season, when the car had the understeer he prefers, he was closer to Verstappen, but as Verstappen and his Engineer Gianpiero Lambiase set the Red Bull up with oversteer to make it faster, Perez was unable to keep up with the Dutchman who typically beat him by 15 seconds or more on race day.

Verstappen out qualified him 18 times to 4.

7th – Fernando Alonso – overall Rating 7.2

When you consider how Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen both raced into their forties in F1, but clearly not as fast as in their prime, at 42 Alonso’s speed was staggering given the equipment he was driving. His driving ability on race day reminds us of Max Verstappen. When the lights go out and the race begins, Alonso’s ability shines.

He suffered appalling luck and unreliability in 2022 so one has to ignore the fact his teammate Esteban Ocon scored more points. It was usually Alonso who was carrying the team.

He outperformed a young, and fast teammate and his front-row qualifying in the rain in Montreal just underscored his talent, even at 42.

6th – Carlos Sainz Jr. – overall Rating 7.5

After a slow start where he was regularly out qualified and outraced by Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, Sainz figured out his Ferrari and he was usually the faster Ferrari driver in qualifying after the Austrian GP – and only fractionally behind when not.

Leclerc did out qualify him 15 times to 7 largely because early in the season Sainz was coming to terms with the Ferrari.

Sainz enjoyed his first F1 win at Silverstone, but it came with a bit of luck and it probably was not his best drive of the year, which might have been Monza where he started 18th and drove through the field to finish 4th, or France where he started 19th and finished 5th.

5th – Lewis Hamilton – overall Rating 7.8

Lewis Hamilton’s 2022 season was among the worst three of his career, one where he failed to score a single pole or victory, something his teammate George Russell managed to do in identical equipment

The seven-time champion recorded his worst ever position in the driver standings after finishing sixth, 35 points adrift of teammate George Russell.

The 2022 season was also the first of Hamilton’s 16-year career in which he failed to win a grand prix and Hamilton may have reached that age when a driver begins to decline.

But maybe not.  Hamilton out qualified his teammate 13 times to 9.

Hamilton finished 2nd 5-times, four of which were behind Max Verstappen. If the talented Verstappen was not driving that Red Bull, and it was any other driver, Hamilton would have four wins in 2022, so the Mercedes W13 was not as bad a car as some think, it was just that Verstappen is so good.

4th – George Russell – overall Rating 8.0

Mercedes is Lewis Hamilton’s team, make no mistake about that. What Hamilton wants, Hamilton gets.

Considering it was Russell’s first year with the Mercedes team that favors Hamilton, he beat Hamilton in points (by 35), poles (1 vs. 0) and race wins (2 vs. 0). His Sprint Race Win and Feature Race wins in São Paulo were done with perfect execution.

Although he was out qualified by his teammate Hamilton 13 to 9, Russell’s consistency on race day saw him beat Hamilton 12 times to 10, and he came closer than any teammate to matching Hamilton since Alonso in 2007.

With a year under his belt with the team, look out in 2023.

3rd – Lando Norris – overall Rating 8.3

Lando Norris out qualified his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo 20 times to 2 and on race days he was usually the driver scoring McLaren’s best finish.

No one crushed their teammate more convincingly in 2022 than Norris did, and the gaps were significant.

We don’t know whether Norris was so good, or Ricciardo so bad – a driver in serious decline. Norris beat him so bad, he destroyed Ricciardo’s confidence, which forced McLaren to terminate Ricciardo a year early and hire F1 driver Oscar Paistri.

In F1 you either perform, or you are out. Even Nicholas Latifi’s big checks could not guarantee him a ride any longer at Williams.  Only the best survive in F1.

2nd – Charles Leclerc – overall Rating 8.8

Nine poles in 2022 (the most of anyone), Charles Leclerc is clearly a fast driver. But costly mistakes at Imola and Paul Ricard, coupled with poor Ferrari reliability and strategy, saw him finish a distant 2nd to Max Verstappen in the final point standings.

Ferrari was arguably the fastest car all season (12 poles – 9 for Leclerc and 3 for Sainz) and if anyone other than Max Verstappen was driving the Red Bull, Leclerc would have been 2022 World Champion and Ferrari would have taken the Constructors’ Championship.

1st – Max Verstappen – overall Rating 10.0

To say Max Verstappen was the best F1 driver of 2022 is an understatement. Red Bull’s flying Dutchman was in brilliant form all year as he became just the 11th driver to win back-to-back world titles with very few mistakes, giving him a perfect score of 10.0

Driving what was clearly not the fastest car, that award goes to Ferrari who won more poles than any car on the grid, when Verstappen put his visor down and the lights went out on race day, he drove like a man possessed regardless of where he started on the grid.

He beat his teammate Sergio Perez in every measurable category by a wide margin, driving equal equipment, which tells us one of two things, Verstappen’s ability is far superior, or the Red Bull car was far from the best and Verstappen carried it to victories on race days.

Verstappen took eight DHL pole position awards this season, but only started P1 seven times because he picked up a grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix, after having gone fastest in qualifying. Verstappen’s tally was the second-best behind Leclerc, who had nine.

When he started 14th in Spa due to a grid penalty for an engine change, he still won.

His 15 wins in 2022 broke the record of 13 held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.

He scored 454 total points on the season, surpassing the previous record set by Lewis Hamilton in 2019.

Verstappen beat second-placed Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ championship by 146 points. This was the largest margin of victory in the hybrid era – surpassing Hamilton’s 124-point win over Valtteri Bottas in 2020 – and the second best in F1 history – behind Vettel’s 155-point gap to Fernando Alonso in 2013.

His most memorable victory of 2022 had to be at the USGP where a blotched pitstop saw him come out behind title rival Charles Leclerc and 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen first hunted down and passed Leclerc’s Ferrari and then set off on a 10-lap chase of Hamilton’s Mercedes who was some 3-seconds up the road.

Driving consistent laps so as not to destroy his medium Pirelli tires, Verstappen reeled in Hamilton a 1/10th here and 2/10ths there. On some laps, Hamilton reopened the gap by 1/10th and then Verstappen would take back 2/10ths.

It was a battle of the two titans of the sport and when Verstappen finally caught Hamilton, he gave the British driver a lesson he won’t soon forget, surprising him with a late braking pass at the end of the long COTA back straight.

Hamilton gave him a fight for a few corners, but despite DRS, could not find a way back around Verstappen. Defeated, Hamilton finally gave up the fight and Verstappen beat him by 5-seconds at the flag over the final 3 laps.

In Parc Ferme, Hamilton sat in his car motionless for around 30-seconds, head leaning forward in defeat, realizing he had just been beaten by the best driver in F1……..again.

Only a very talented driver can drive as consistently as Verstappen does and this was never more evident as in Mexico City where he drove an entire stint on his medium tires and the times never varied my more than 1-second.

Below are his lap times, all in the 1m22s bracket except for two Virtual Safety Car laps. No other driver can do this, as track conditions change, tires wear and traffic gets in the way. This is simply incredible.

1m 22s and repeat 😮

Incredible lap time consistency from @Max33Verstappen 💪#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/mp3pKn9Kpj

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 4, 2022

Verstappen simply has no equal.

 

Mark C. reporting for AutoRacing1.com