There was a high standard throughout the Formula 1 field at the Belgian Grand Prix - which meant any small shortcomings cost drivers dearly in Edd Straw's rankings.
Some drivers, of course, had far bigger issues - and ended up being marked down accordingly.
Want to quiz Edd on his driver rankings? Sign up to The Race Members' Club to do exactly that - and ask your questions in reply to this post.
Champions-tier members can also try their hand at putting their own driver rankings together for Edd to react to in a separate feature!
How do the rankings work? The 22 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.
It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
And with each of the 11 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
PROS
- Made the most of the tow Isack Hadjar provided in Q3 in service of him to put the Red Bull on the front row against the run of play.
- Having very briefly led, then slipped to third, he got back ahead of Leclerc and only lost the position because of the VSC timing.
- Got everything he could out of the Red Bull.
CONS
- Uniquely, had the assistance of a team-mate with nothing to compete for in Q3, an opportunity that slightly simplified his weekend.
Verdict: Had put himself in position to finish second in what wasn't the second-best car.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
PROS
- Dominated team-mate George Russell all weekend.
- Didn't get impatient when he lost the lead because of the VSC, pacing his reeling in of Leclerc well before making a clean pass.
CONS
- Nothing more than a couple of track-limits violations in the race.
Verdict: Imperious, even when misfortune complicated his race.
Started: 19th Finished: 16th
PROS
- Made a good recovery just in time for qualifying having lagged behind Albon throughout practice, chasing down a problem that cost him chunks of time for "downforce related" reasons.
- Realistically, outqualifying team-mate Alex Albon and both Haas drivers was the ceiling of what was achievable in the Williams.
- Grid penalty and slow pitstop for a front wing change compromised his race result, but his pace was strong.
CONS
- Clipping the back of Ocon at La Source perhaps could have been avoided.
Verdict: Another strong weekend, with only very minor negatives.
Started: 8th Finished: 8th
PROS
- Even allowing for Nico Hulkenberg's problems, Bortoleto was the faster Audi driver on underlying single-lap pace.
- Did a great job to keep Arvid Lindblad at arm's length in the second stint once he'd jumped from 11th to eighth.
CONS
- Needed the fortune of the VSC timing, having run longer than the Racing Bulls, to jump to the front of the midfield.
- Initially held 10th but did lose a position to Gasly during the first stint.
Verdict: A strong weekend, but needed fortune on his side to get the result he did.
Started: 13th Finished: 7th
PROS
- Seemed more on top of the McLaren than Oscar Piastri from the start of the weekend.
- Showed strong pace both in qualifying and the race.
- Without the 10-place grid penalty that he wasn't responsible for, he would likely have been on the podium.
CONS
- Small error on his final Q3 lap meant his final run was aborted.
Verdict: Another strong weekend, with the Q3 error the only significant negative.
Started: 11th Finished: 10th
PROS
- Made a strong start to the weekend, initially having the edge on pace over Pierre Gasly even if that didn't carry through to qualifying.
- Drove a strong race, jumping Gasly and Liam Lawson in one opportunistic move on the Kemmel Straight.
- Winning the four-car scrap for the final point required a strong race drive.
CONS
- Lapped marginally slower than Gasly in qualifying, but only by 0.061s and put the second Alpine where it should be.
Verdict: Bounced back to something like his best after a couple of more difficult weekends.
Started: 21st Finished: 6th
PROS
- Back-of-the-grid penalty meant that reaching Q3 then towing Verstappen effectively constituted a successful qualifying session.
- Felt he was the most at one with the Red Bull as he had been all season, and had decent underlying pace.
- Produced a strong first lap to climb to 15th before the safety car meant he had to pit.
CONS
- Climb to sixth was not quite as dramatic as the 15 places gained suggested.
Verdict: Podium was potentially on the cards without the grid penalty that shaped his weekend.
Started: 7th Finished: 9th
PROS
- Had one of his strongest weekends pace-wise, likening it to his comfort levels to Montreal and Barcelona, where he also excelled on pace.
- Would have won the 'Class B' race after qualifying at the front of the midfield pack but for the VSC timing, which allowed Bortoleto to jump him.
CONS
- By his own reckoning, left maybe a tenth on the table in Q3 thanks to being too conservative on the brakes into Bus Stop, and he thought a lap in the 1m44s might have been possible.
- In terms of the comparison with Lawson, part, but not all, of that was down to having the cooling upgrade package that Racing Bulls will have on both cars in Hungary.
- Couldn't find the consistent pace to close the gap to Bortoleto once he'd lost track position.
Verdict: Among his best work of the season so far.
Started: 4th Finished: 2nd
PROS
- Had the edge on Lewis Hamilton in qualifying by a minuscule margin, despite losing a tenth or two to a yellow flag erroneously shown at the pit entry covering the formation of parc ferme.
- Did everything he could to stay clear of Antonelli, but realistically the Ferrari didn't have the pace to do so.
CONS
- Moving over on Piastri and hitting the McLaren was needless and he was fortunate to escape penalty.
- VSC timing helped him in his battle for second with Verstappen.
Verdict: Strong performance, but Piastri clash he caused could easily have hurt him.
Started: 14th Finished: 14th
PROS
- Outpaced Ocon throughout the weekend.
- Was at or close to the maximum of the car throughout, beating everyone he realistically could have done in the race despite the first-lap puncture.
CONS
- It would only have taken finding a few thousandths to have outqualified Sainz, and as he knocked a switch and compromised deployment he really should have been a place higher on the grid.
- While the clash between the Haas drivers was unfortunate, Bearman was perhaps the one who could have done more to avoid it.
Verdict: A largely strong weekend, with only a few rough edges.
Started: 9th Finished: 12th
PROS
- The comparison with Lindblad is better than it looks, as Lawson didn't have the cooling package upgrade - although he did have the new front brake ducts and rear wing.
- VSC timing and Lindblad's aggressive driving when he emerged from the pits didn't help his race.
CONS
- The gap to Lindblad didn't appear to be entirely explained by the difference in spec, especially as Lawson struggled particularly in the second stint of the race - with the team not suggesting he had any damage to explain it.
- Despite deployment struggles in the race, it could have been possible to take the final point, had he not slipped to third in the group of four cars battling for it.
Verdict: Spec offset made life harder for him than Lindblad, but he didn't appear to extract absolutely everything.
Started: 22nd Finished: 19th
PROS
- Prevailed in the intra-team battle with Lance Stroll, outqualifying him by 0.175s then running ahead for the vast majority of the race.
- Given how difficult it has been to shine in an inconsistent and difficult Aston Martin that's well off the rest, will at least be relieved that this should have been the last weekend with struggles at their worst.
CONS
- Did briefly fall behind Stroll when he was overtaken by his team-mate and Bearman on the Kemmel Straight on the lap-five restart, then losing another position on that lap to Hadjar.
Verdict: Troubled Aston Martin continues to make it impossible to fairly judge his performance, beyond it being better than Stroll's.
Started: 17th Finished: 18th
PROS
- Had one of his more "straightforward" weekends for Cadillac, meaning he made good progress through practice and qualifying.
- Lapped 0.148s faster than team-mate Sergio Perez in qualifying.
- Drove a clean race, but with the Cadillac in no-man's land between Williams and Aston Martin there wasn't a huge amount to race for.
CONS
- Perez's deployment problems in qualifying and early demise means there wasn't a clean pace comparison
Verdict: Bottas's most straightforward weekend, and one in which he showed he has good pace.
Started: 6th Finished: 5th
PROS
- The track time lost during Friday thanks to the FP1 hydraulic problem, and resulting late start for FP2, are a small mitigating factor when comparing him to Norris.
- Battled on well in the race after suffering damage when he was hit by Leclerc, an incident he was in no way at fault for.
- Unexpected power unit behaviour contributed to his deficit in qualifying to Norris.
CONS
- Struggled for confidence with the rear end, which made him more inconsistent and, overall, slower than Norris on single-lap pace.
- Never managed to get as on top of the car as Norris did.
Verdict: A middling weekend by F1 driver standards.
Started: 12th Finished: 13th
PROS
- Audi felt his race pace was similar to Bortoleto's, it was purely the race situation of spending much of the grand prix in battle that added up to the 29-second deficit at the finish.
- Gearbox problems in qualifying meant he didn't have the chance to match Bortoleto and make Q3.
CONS
- Being hyper-critical, you could argue there was a way to get the final point given he was in the four-car scrap. But given Audi's straightline speed weakness and the fact that he didn't get as much of a gain from the VSC pitstop thanks to a slower stop in the double stack, he never had track position.
- Even factoring in the mitigations, he didn't appear to be quite as quick as Bortoleto on single-lap pace.
Verdict: Marginally the second-best Audi driver.
Started: 10th Finished: 11th
PROS
- Outqualified Colapinto by 0.061s.
- Drove a good first stint to climb into the points after passing Bortoleto.
CONS
- FP2 crash at the exit of Fagnes did substantial damage and cost laps, even though he recovered well.
- Second stint turned a points shot into just missing out, which wasn't a disaster given the car pace - but 10th was possible.
Verdict: Similar on pace to Colapinto, but Friday crash and losing out in the race cost him.
Started: 15th Finished: 15th
PROS
- Beat team-mate Sainz in the race, although that was more down to circumstances with his team-mate's grid penalty and slow pitstop.
- The Williams was the ninth-fastest car, so there wasn't a huge amount left on the table and he did what he could to keep the quicker Bearman behind for a spell.
CONS
- Qualified 0.040s off Sainz having looked quicker throughout practice thanks to going the wrong way on set-up, saying "I regret that but that was on me".
- His underlying pace, once into the business end of the weekend, was slightly off Sainz's.
Verdict: Again, he was the second-best of the Williams drivers.
Started: 20th Finished: DNF
PROS
- Had a solid enough race, and spent a few laps ahead of Alonso after passing him on the Kemmel Straight after the early restart.
- Wasn't to blame for the gearbox problem that put him out.
CONS
- Lapped 0.175s slower than Alonso in qualifying.
- Had a similar race pace disadvantage to Alonso to his qualifying deficit.
Verdict: Lost the only battle he had to fight, which was with his team-mate.
Started: 5th Finished: 4th
PROS
- Prior to his FP3 crash, his pace suggested that he might be able to beat Leclerc.
- Dealt well in the race with the damage he was carrying, and the Ferrari error that meant he didn't get the increased front wing flap he had requested to rebalance the car.
CONS
- FP3 crash at Fagnes meant the car didn't feel the same in qualifying, which Hamilton put down to "something [that] wasn't the same on the rear suspension".
- While the five-second penalty he earned for the Turn 5 collision with Russell was extremely harsh, ultimately he has a stake in what should have been considered a racing incident.
Verdict: Saturday crash had a knock-on effect to qualifying and the race.
Started: 18th Finished: DNF
PROS
- The mitigation of a drag problem meant the comparison with Bottas wasn't a fair one.
- Wasn't in any way responsible for his elimination from the race.
CONS
- Although there was little chance to compare in the race given he retired with an inboard suspension problem, Perez was the second-fastest Cadillac driver - albeit with the caveat of the drag problem.
Verdict: Ranking is low more through lack of opportunity than any shortcomings on his part.
Started: 16th Finished: 17th
PROS
- Had deployment problems that cost straightline speed, contributing to the unrepresentative 0.688s deficit to his team-mate.
- Considering the car problems he complained of, he produced relatively consistent performance even if he didn't appear to get the most out of what performance that was there.
CONS
- While there were deployment problems in qualifying, the gap to Bearman was, according to team principal Ayao Komatsu, " bigger than it should’ve been, even without that".
- Was in the wars on the first lap - getting tapped at La Source by Sainz and then clashing with Bearman later in the lap, but that was more circumstantial than through misadventure.
Verdict: Felt stuck in the spiral of car problems that have characterised his season.
Started: 3rd Finished: DNF
PROS
- Russell's underlying qualifying pace deficit to Antonelli wasn't the half-second that the Q3 gap suggested owing to it being partly (but not entirely, given the team attributed it 50/50 to him and the power unit) down to the deployment troubles.
- There's a mitigating factor for his first-lap clash, given the Mercedes deployment problem that impacted all of its cars to varying degrees - with the team saying it was "more extreme" for Russell than Antonelli.
CONS
- Simply wasn't at Antonelli's level.
- First lap move on Hamilton was perfectly legitimate, but came with a level of risk that ultimately bit him.
Verdict: Although there were mitigating factors, Russell couldn't get close to Antonelli.
from The Race https://ift.tt/cb806aG
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