2021 Season - Rate the Drivers

[Chrill]

As promised, here's France:

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team:
Lewis Hamilton - 8/10 | Tried to keep tyres alive, didn't manage
Valtteri Bottas - 7/10 | Like Lewis but further behind

Red Bull Racing Honda:
Sergio Pérez - 7/10 | Ran much faster at the end but could not catch Lewis
Max Verstappen - 8/10 | Got past thanks to some mighty DRS work and a straight-line speed advantage anyway

McLaren F1 Team:
Daniel Ricciardo - 8/10 |
Lando Norris - 8/10 |

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team:
Sebastian Vettel - 7/10 |
Lance Stroll - 8/10 | Found points from way back, and only 10s down the road from Vettel

Alpine F1 Team:
Fernando Alonso - 7/10 |
Esteban Ocon - 5/10 |

Scuderia Mission Winnow Ferrari:
Charles Leclerc - 5/10 | The car didn't work
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 6/10 | The car didn't work but at least he tried

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda:
Pierre Gasly - 8/10 | Still not finding that absolute mega result despite solid qualifying
Yuki Tsunoda - 7/10 |

Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen:
Kimi Räikkönen - 5/10 |
Antonio Giovinazzi - 6/10 |

Uralkali Haas F1 Team:
Nikita Mazepin - 4/10 |
Mick Schumacher - 6/10 |

Williams Racing:
Nicholas Latifi - 6/10 |
George Russell - 9/10 | Getting closer to them points. Maybe Styr.. No? OK, maybe Austria.

[Chrill]

Styria Styria Styria!

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team:
Lewis Hamilton - 8/10 | The car does not have the pace, but he had a pit stop over Bottas which is strong
Valtteri Bottas - 6/10 | Could not match Hamilton at all, and only kept Perez behind because the Mexican started poorly

Red Bull Racing Honda:
Sergio Pérez - 7/10 | Had the pace to fight Bottas, but not the position. Came from too far back in the end, but one more lap would have seen him 3rd
Max Verstappen - 10/10 | Lights to flag, dominant display. Nothing else to it in my book

McLaren F1 Team:
Daniel Ricciardo - 5/10 | This is starting to worry me
Lando Norris - 9/10 | Still clearly the best of the rest, Sainz could not catch him here

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team:
Sebastian Vettel - 5/10 | Started in the middle, finished there
Lance Stroll - 7/10 | Qualified better, so started and finished in the points. Boom

Alpine F1 Team:
Fernando Alonso - 7/10 | It's slowly getting better for the old Spaniard
Esteban Ocon - 5/10 | New contract, not a new great result to reflect it. Went nowhere, like many others

Scuderia Mission Winnow Ferrari:
Charles Leclerc - 9/10 | Maybe 70% at fault for his lap 1 troubles, but fought back beautifully. Deducting one for that first lap
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 9/10 | Great race pace, even unlapping himself over Hamilton. Remember he started outside the points!

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda:
Pierre Gasly - X/10 | Could probably have enjoyed a great race but, well, didn't
Yuki Tsunoda - 6/10 | Kept on Alonso's tail but never found his way past. Even ran behind Russell for a bit!

Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen:
Kimi Räikkönen - 7/10 | Always strong in race, although he is slipping on Saturdays. Not good enough for points
Antonio Giovinazzi - 5/10 | Often out-qualifies the old Finnerino, but rarely beats him on a Sunday

Uralkali Haas F1 Team:
Nikita Mazepin - 2/10 | A full lap down on Mick, although he was briefly ahead after the start. He just does not have the stamina to be fast all race
Mick Schumacher - 7/10 | Well he kept Latifi behind, but I'm not quite sure what he did to achieve that

Williams Racing:
Nicholas Latifi - 3/10 | Did he have issues here? I don't know, but he was +3 laps down despite Russell running solidly in the points
George Russell - 9/10 | I mean, he was going to score points wasn't he? He was surely going to. Let's hope Austria brings it

[Penfold]

Austria 1:

Merc:
Hammy - 8
Val - 7

Red Bull:
Surger - 7
Max - 9

McLaren:
Ricky Hairdo - 6 - Awful qualifying, great race start, car issue, got stuck behind people
Chuck Norris - 9

A team called Aston Martin:
My Fault Again - 5
Speedy Stroller - 7

Alpine:
Alonso - 7
OffOn - 5

Ferrari:
'It is I' - 6 - Is it my imagination that this guy clips a lot of other cars? Enjoyed a strong recovery drive after ending Gasly's race... points deducted for carelessness
Rally Guy's Son - 8 - Point off for qualifying effort, but took full advantage of having tyre choice

Boris Johnson (aka Alpha Tory):
Greasy Peril - X - Nice one Charles!
Tsunoda - 6

Alfauber:
Kimi - 7
Adam Ant - 5

Haas:
Massivespin - 2
Mickey Boy - 6

Williams:
Latifi - 4
Jack Russell - 9 - This guy has all the luck!

[eurobrun]

Austria

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team:
Lewis Hamilton - 7/10
Valtteri Bottas - 7/10

Red Bull Racing Honda:
Sergio Pérez - 5/10
Max Verstappen - 10/10

McLaren F1 Team:
Daniel Ricciardo - 6/10
Lando Norris - 10/10

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team:
Sebastian Vettel - 6/10
Lance Stroll - 4/10

Alpine F1 Team:
Fernando Alonso - 7/10
Esteban Ocon - 4/10

Scuderia Mission Winnow Ferrari:
Charles Leclerc - 7/10
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 7/10

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda:
Pierre Gasly - 8/10
Yuki Tsunoda - 5/10

Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen:
Kimi Räikkönen - 3/10
Antonio Giovinazzi - 4/10

Haas F1 Team:
Nikita Mazepin - 3/10
Mick Schumacher - 6/10

Williams Racing:
Nicholas Latifi - 3/10
George Russell - 9/10

[Chrill]

Can't say I agree with your rating of Russell here! Qualifying 8th, being on a superior strategy to those around him (mediums), he should have stayed close to the Ferraris but he dropped out of points. I'm on holiday now, so I won't be at the computer much, but I definitely rate this as one of Russell's top 3 worst races of 2021.

[eurobrun]

Britain - The GP, not the "Sprint thing"

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team:
Lewis Hamilton - 8/10
Valtteri Bottas - 6/10

Red Bull Racing Honda:
Sergio Pérez - 5/10
Max Verstappen - x/10

McLaren F1 Team:
Daniel Ricciardo - 8/10
Lando Norris - 9/10

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team:
Sebastian Vettel - 3/10
Lance Stroll - 6/10

Alpine F1 Team:
Fernando Alonso - 8/10
Esteban Ocon - 6/10

Scuderia Mission Winnow Ferrari:
Charles Leclerc - 10/10
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 8/10

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda:
Pierre Gasly - 7/10
Yuki Tsunoda - 6/10

Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen:
Kimi Räikkönen - 4/10
Antonio Giovinazzi - 5/10

Haas F1 Team:
Nikita Mazepin - 4/10
Mick Schumacher - 3/10

Williams Racing:
Nicholas Latifi - 5/10
George Russell - 5/10

[Chrill]

I rated one Austria, but I'll skip the 2nd because it's been a while now. Still on holiday, so I'm inconsistent in rating!

Great Britain, let's go.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team:
Lewis Hamilton - 7/10 | Incredible pace near the end to catch Leclerc. Scared him off the track, had Leclerc turned in it would've been a second Verstappen crash. Deducting one point for Verstappen-crash, and one point for Leclerc-scare. Neither move seemed fair to me.
Valtteri Bottas - 7/10 | Genuinely not sure if he was in this race. Lost positions on the start and the restart and honestly looked slower than a Ferrari here. Huh.

Red Bull Racing Honda:
Sergio Pérez - 4/10 | Got stuck early on, dumped his hard tyres, then was stuck with a shite strategy and failed to overtake midfield cars. Weakest race of the season? At least managed to remove Hamilton's FL point, so that increased Verstappen's gap somewhat.
Max Verstappen - X/10 | Hard to rate. I blame Hamilton for the crash, but in a sort of 60/40 scale. Verstappen knew he could never make that corner from so far out, turned in anyway. Expected outcome.

McLaren F1 Team:
Daniel Ricciardo - 7/10 | Picking up the pace somewhat, but still some ways behind his team mate
Lando Norris - 9/10 | Honestly, without the slow pit stop he might've been able to battle Bottas. And he definitely could have tipped the scales in favour of Leclerc, because Hamilton would have had to negotiate this guy again.

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team:
Sebastian Vettel - 4/10 | Not his race. A typical Vettel spin, and he was out.
Lance Stroll - 8/10 | Solid stuff, scoring points from like 14th on the grid.

Alpine F1 Team:
Fernando Alonso - 8/10 | Master of the first lap. Luckily he got THREE of those this weekend, one on Saturday and two on Sunday. Made the most of his getaways to bring himself in front of faster cars, and kept many of them behind all race.
Esteban Ocon - 7/10 | One of the guys stuck behind aforementioned first lap master Alonso.

Scuderia Mission Winnow Ferrari:
Charles Leclerc - 10/10 | From 4th to 3rd at the start, slipped past Hamilton (and Verstappen) in the crash, and then... looked set to WIN? In a 2021 Ferrari? Wow. Such a shame it didn't work for him, I was desperate to hear the Italian anthem, aka the Ferrari/F1 song.
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 7/10 | Recovered nicely in the Sprint after being pushed off by Russell, but couldn't match the McLarens in the race.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda:
Pierre Gasly - 6/10 | Sincerely mediocre race, but was on for points until he got a puncture
Yuki Tsunoda - 7/10 | Equally mediocre race really, but at least he got the point. So that's a bonus point. That's why he's at 7 when Gasly is 6.

Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen:
Kimi Räikkönen - 5/10 | It's all getting rather uninspired. Maybe Kimi really should retire after this year.
Antonio Giovinazzi - 6/10 | Still stronger in quali than race, perhaps he should join Kimi in retiring. Alfa Romeo could do with a pairing like Gasly and Schumacher, no?

Uralkali Haas F1 Team:
Nikita Mazepin - 7/10 | Didn't have the pace on Schumacher, but had the tyre management. Bonus point for a genuinely good overtake on his team mate
Mick Schumacher - 5/10 | Was faster, like always, but killed his tyres and could not fend off Mazepin. Dead last.

Williams Racing:
Nicholas Latifi - 7/10 | Solid clean race, beating Kimi and the Haases (and both Red Bulls, but I mean...)
George Russell - 7/10 | The sprint was not his friend, and 12th ended up being the best he could realistically achieve.



Obviously, my man of the match is Leclerc.

[Penfold]

Oh yeah, second Austria race, oops....

Umm, I'll do Silverstone one soonish... unusually for me just off the race as I didn't watch any of the qualifying nonsense

[Chrill]

The Sprint was actually a good bit of racing, I'd say. View it as part of the race proper, and just see it as we get extra laps.

[Chrill]

Let's all get to rating the racing at Hungaroring, and I'll then clear the cobwebs from the document and assemble some stats!

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team:
Lewis Hamilton - 8/10 | Clean start, enough to stay away from the bowling game behind him into turn 1. Took the 2nd start ahead of the Medical car which was impressive. Struggled a bit on his first stint, but got faster with every change of tyres. Almost collapsed at the podium, that looked a bit scary to me.
Valtteri Bottas - 1/10 | This is all on Bottas. Was it enough to secure a Mercedes seat for 2022?

Red Bull Racing Honda:
Sergio Pérez - X/10 | Bottas ended his race.
Max Verstappen - X/10 | Bottas ended his race, even though Verstappen fought back with the damage to secure two points.

McLaren F1 Team:
Daniel Ricciardo - 3/10 | With so few drivers running, NOT scoring points is an achievement. Could not beat a broken Red Bull, nor two healthy Williams cars. Too weak, much much too weak.
Lando Norris - X/10 | Wanted to rate him due to an excellent start, but honestly he was only in the race for a few hundred meters.

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team:
Sebastian Vettel - 9/10 | The only thing he did wrong was not making the pass, instead locking up a couple times. And not being able to extract fuel, but that's not really on Vettel as such.
Lance Stroll - 1/10 | Replicated on Leclerc what Bottas attempted on Norris, to great effect.

Alpine F1 Team:
Fernando Alonso - 9/10 | Valiant defending with Lewis (their combined age is 76!) definitely saved the win for Ocon.
Esteban Ocon - 10/10 | Vettel was within 2-3 seconds all race long, but never found his way past. We did not see Ocon miss a single braking point all race, never ran wide. Excellent composure under pressure, easy 10/10 for me.

Scuderia Mission Winnow Ferrari:
Charles Leclerc - X/10 | Stroll ended his race.
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 8/10 | Made up a lot of places into turn 1, but struggled to pass Tsunoda and Latifi which hampered his chances of a win here.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda:
Pierre Gasly - 9/10 | Got caught out badly by being on the outside into turn 1, dropping him way back. With a healthy car was able to fight back and even beat his team mate.
Yuki Tsunoda - 7/10 | This may seem harsh after a best-ever 6th, but he should have been near the podium considering where he was at during the restart. Could not pass Latifi on-track, and dropped way back. So much so that Gasly could pit for fresh tyres at the end and grab the bonus point for FL.

Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen:
Kimi Räikkönen - 8/10 | Found points when Vettel was DSQ, despite being dropped WAY back with a 10s penalty after taking Mazepin out in the pits at that messy restart.
Antonio Giovinazzi - 7/10 | Got a Stop/Go for speeding in the pitlane at that first start, which was deserved seeing how there was so many staff running around at the time. Never fast enough to catch back up.

Uralkali Haas F1 Team:
Nikita Mazepin - X/10 | Taken out by the old Finn.
Mick Schumacher - 6/10 | Looked a bit slower than usual, but without Mazepin it's hard to really tell. Ran in the points after a clean start, but dropped back before even pitting.

Williams Racing:
Nicholas Latifi - 9/10 | Realistically the best he could have hoped for. He ran 3rd for so long, but lost out to Tsunoda for 6th. Had he grabbed the AlphaTauri, that would have been a perfect 10.
George Russell - 8/10 | You'd think Williams scoring double points warrant a double-10 too? Nah. Russell beat a hopeless Ricciardo, a penalised Raikkonen, and a broken Verstappen. More is required for a higher score than this.


Driver of the race? Naturally Ocon, but shoutouts to Latifi, Hamilton, and Alonso.

[Penfold]

I will get to both these races this week, but just wanted to mention that Danny Rick had pretty heavy damage after being collected by the unfortunate Leclerc at turn 1.

[Chrill]

Ah yes, I forgot he was involved. I only saw the stricken Norris in front of me. Perhaps Ricciardo deserves a Verstappen-esque rating.

[Penfold]

I think so, car was pretty buggered by all accounts

[Penfold]

Hungary:

Merc:
Hammy - 8
Val - 1 - Can just about resist giving him and stroll zeroes....

Red Bull:
Surger - X - Let the Bottas/Stroll carnage begin!
Max - X

McLaren:
Ricky Hairdo - X
Chuck Norris - X

A team called Aston Martin:
My Fault Again - 9 - Couldn't get the move done but that's all on Ocon for not cracking under the pressure! 
Speedy Stroller - 1

Alpine:
Alonso - 9 - Him holding back Lewis felt like watching F1 before mad aero, and then mad aero + DRS, ruined the show
OnOn - 10

Ferrari:
'It is I' - X
Rally Guy's Son - 8

Boris Johnson (aka Alpha Tory):
Greasy Peril - 8
Tsunoda - 7

Alfauber:
Kimi - 7
Adam Ant - 6

Haas:
Massivespin - X
Mickey Boy - 6

Williams:
Latifi - 9
Jack Russell - 8

[Chrill]

Almost a carbon copy of mine, but that's OK. You don't have to be an individual. Pfft, sheeple.