Here are the fresh F1 driver rankings after the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix.
The rankings are based on currently expected performance levels. They are not an accumulation of grades, not solely based on previous performances, nor based on a driver’s potential deep into the future.
We simply try to determine: Who is the most skilled driver right now?
1. Max Verstappen
Still the best racing driver in the world. He has reached the podium multiple times and started on the front row in an inferior car. His crash in Zandvoort was disappointing, but it happens even to the best. There’s no doubt Verstappen will continue showing his worth – he should have moved to Mercedes, though, instead of extending with Red Bull.
2. Lando Norris
Insane one-lap pace and always working on his flaws. Norris is underrated at this point, and his title last year was fully deserved. He still looks faster than Piastri, and he just picked up two impressive wins in a row. If McLaren can stay close to their front rivals, Norris should rack up more wins in the second half of the season. The championship is too far away from his reach.
3. Charles Leclerc
What’s going on with Leclerc? Despite dominating his teammate last year, Hamilton clearly had the upper hand over him in the initial stage of 2026. But ahead of Silverstone, Leclerc changed his breaks and made an adjustment to his setups, and then he beat Lewis three times in a row. This will most likely continue, even though Hamilton had the better performance in the Dutch GP. Leclerc is arguably F1’s fastest man over a single lap, and he’s an excellent racer too, so it’s only a matter of time before he gets on top of things.
4. Oscar Piastri
Piastri took a huge step forward in 2025. This year, we’ve seen him perform very well (in Japan and Hungary) and horribly (in Canada and Britain). He was extremely unlucky in Hungary, first losing the lead when Sainz ignored blue flags, and later suffering a gearbox failure. His race at Zandvoort was ruined by strategy, but he does need to improve his tyre management. Overall, Piastri is probably underrated at the moment. He’s somewhat close to Norris most of the time, and Norris is an elite driver.
5. Kimi Antonelli
This is a very high ranking for Antonelli, considering his age. He looks like the new Sebastian Vettel: Lots of mistakes, struggles in wheel-to-wheel racing, but he has incredible pace and knows how to manage a lead.
Early in the season, he was lucky as Russell had issues almost every single weekend. But over time, Antonelli has legitimately established himself as the quicker Mercedes driver on Sundays and he should only get better from here. With more Mercedes upgrades on the horizon, Antonelli is expected to win an additional handful of races before this season ends. He’s also the championship favourite according to the betting market.
6. Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton has looked good so far, but we’ve already been through his best tracks that all came early in the season – so I expect some regression. All of his podiums came in rounds where other top drivers had technical issues, and his Catalunya win came thanks to a perfectly timed safety car and an Antonelli retirement. Lewis is still doing great, much improved from last year, but the results look better than his actual driving. He’s been fairly lucky, and after Leclerc’s Silverstone adjustments, it looks like the dynamic between the Ferrari drivers will shift back to normal.
7. George Russell
Mr. Saturday has been underwhelming so far. He’s had his share of bad luck, and it seems like it’s getting to his mind. Some solid results at Barcelona, Red Bull Ring and Silverstone were followed up by two terrible outings at Spa and Hungaroring. Russell needs to work on his issues over the summer break and return to the driver he once was. It will be crucial to understand the car better and grab a few wins to prevent Antonelli from increasing his lead further. He showed good qualifying pace at the Dutch Grand Prix but struggled in the race. Classic Russell!
8. Carlos Sainz
Sainz had a complete meltdown in Hungary. Fighting for lower-end positions, he completely ignored blue flags and collided with Piastri. Disappointing to see that from such an experienced driver, who had otherwise been driving very well this season.
9. Alex Albon
Albon has proven to be nearly as good as Sainz. Not in terms of one-lap pace, which is still his main weakness – but he performs very well over a full race distance. Albon needs to be more consistent: He must avoid a drop in performance by the end of the year. It looks like he’s keeping focus this year, as he’s slowly gaining ground on Sainz, despite being far behind in the opening rounds.
10. Pierre Gasly
An excellent qualifier who lacks some racepace. A less exciting, but technically better version of Jarno Trulli. By the end of last year, we finally saw flashes of his talent again – mainly at Interlagos. Gasly is obviously a solid driver, and if the motivation is there, he can compete at the upper midfield. We saw this happening at Suzuka where he kept Verstappen at bay for over half the race to secure sixth – in my opinion, the best single performance by any driver in 2026. He got a podium and a solid points haul in Monaco after having a penalty overturned. Sometimes, he’s nowhere, but most weekends he’s performing well.
11. Fernando Alonso
Still one of the most exciting racers to watch. He is great at both overtaking and defending. Alonso somehow fought his way to ninth at Zandvoort and it looks like the recently upgraded Aston Martin suits him much better. Why is he not ranking in the top 10? It may not be clear due to having a weak teammate, but Alonso’s pace is slowly deteriorating which is natural because of his age (just turned 45). Stroll has beaten him on a few occasions recently and generally stayed close.
12. Oliver Bearman
Bearman performed well early in the season. It looked like he had taken another step up as he dominated Ocon for the first few months of the year. Since then, Bearman has slowed down a bit. This coincides with Haas being out-developed by the other midfield and backmarker teams. Bearman probably needs to move away from Haas if he wants to develop properly, but unfortunately the second Ferrari seat will be occupied by Hamilton for another year. I’m bringing Bearman down a few spots after a disappointing Dutch race, but he could easily move up a few places if he gets back to his early 2026 form.
13. Gabriel Bortoleto
Bortoleto showed great racecraft and aggressiveness in the junior series. In F1, his drives have been fairly anonymous. Despite performing well against Hülkenberg in head-to-head stats, Bortoleto did not show any major upside in his rookie year. Bearman, Antonelli and Hadjar all had their big moments – the Brazilian did not. That’s still the issue: He’s beating Hülkenberg more often than not, but at the same time, he hasn’t shown any singular elite performances. Two eighth places were promising, and Bortoleto has shown some nice qualifying performances to, but he needs to translate his speed into points more frequently.
14. Isack Hadjar
Hadjar had a solid but overrated rookie campaign. He was promoted to Red Bull a bit prematurely, but the good news is that Red Bull have a brand new car philosophy this year, plus a better environment, so Hadjar isn’t struggling like the previous Red Bull second-drivers.
With that said, he isn’t showing that much upside either. Hadjar hasn’t scored a legitimate podium yet, but perhaps it will come eventually. He does deserve some credit for his recent consistency, finishing top 6 in seven rounds in a row. Eventually, he could become a top 10 driver. Losing a race due to injury is not ideal.
15. Nico Hülkenberg
The Hulk has not only revived his career over the last three seasons; he has also made some major adjustments to his driving style. Previously known as an excellent qualifier, he now values race setups more. A small decline is expected due to his age. For now, he still looks decent in race trim, though it’s hard to judge in the inconsistent Audi. Despite being the one who scored points for Audi in the Netherlands, he looked slower than Bortoleto for large parts of the weekend.
16. Sergio Pérez
He didn’t get a fair chance at Red Bull by the end of his stint there. A return for Cadillac could work out for him. Pérez actually thrives in backmarker/midfield cars and can occasionally deliver some unexpected results due to his tyre management skills. Based on his performances this year, he seems much more motivated than Bottas, and is quite a bit ahead of his teammate in most sessions.
17. Liam Lawson
I may have been harsh on Lawson who has actually been solid this year. The biggest surprise is that he is more consistent. Previously, Lawson would make costly mistakes in almost every single race. He still does that occasionally, but this year, he’s had many clean races as well. Most of his big scores are due to a really fast car and retirements in front of him, so let’s not overreact. But he’s beating a highly rated young teammate, so credit where credit is due. Additionally, he was very close to Verstappen in a one-off for Red Bull. Everything points towards an improved Lawson who does deserve a seat in F1.
18. Arvid Lindblad
He performed a bit worse than expected in F2, but F2 results don’t mean much anymore: There’s simply too much variance.
Lindblad was projected to be slightly slower than Hadjar was in his rookie year, mainly due to his young age (18) and having less experience going into F1. This looks accurate so far, as Lindblad is only slightly slower than an improved Lawson. The car is allowing both drivers to fight for points every single weekend. Lindblad is still very raw, but over time, he could develop into a top 10 driver.
19. Yuki Tsunoda
I wasn’t planning on ranking him, but Tsunoda got to drive a race for Racing Bulls and he performed well enough that the team would bring him in again if they need to replace somebody. The Japanese had an excellent overtake in Zandvoort and understood the car fairly quickly. He ended up finishing ahead of Lindblad, which was a surprise.
20. Franco Colapinto
Colapinto finally had some strong performances as he finished 7th in Miami and 6th in Canada. Since then, he’s accumulated some more points, but nothing out of the ordinary. His biggest weakness is qualifying, because the race pace is fairly decent. Colapinto is an attractive driver for many teams as he brings a lot of sponsorships and attention with him. This might be enough for a one-year extension with Alpine, but unfortunately for the Argentinian, there are better drivers waiting in the junior categories and eventually he will be replaced.
21. Esteban Ocon
Esteban Ocon has very little upside. He is awful at setups and cannot lead a team, hence why he always performs at a level slightly below his teammates. When the car is good, he can score some points due to a decent natural instinct. Based on early 2026 data, it looks like Bearman is pulling away faster than expected which does not bode well for Ocon’s future. This should be his final year in F1. Ocon doesn’t have it in him anymore.
22. Valtteri Bottas
It’s weird to have Bottas back. He accomplished nothing in his final three seasons at Sauber, aside from the first handful of races. The Finn doesn’t seem super motivated either – and based on his weird social media posts, he has become mentally insane. With that said, he’s been unlucky this season and things could improve eventually. But he really needs to get closer to Pérez, and show that he actually wants to be a competitive driver fully focused on F1 – otherwise it will be a short return stint for Bottas.
23. Lance Stroll
How is Lance Stroll still in F1? If his father had any ambitions for Aston Martin, he should have replaced his son a long time ago. His biggest weakness is still wheel-to-wheel racing, and after so many years in F1, he is just not showing any signs of improvement. His qualifying performance reached a new low in 2025 as he lost every single session to an old Alonso. This year his car sucks, so Stroll won’t achieve anything. An absolute waste of a seat.
Check my current team rankings here!
Overrated drivers
A quick list of drivers that are currently overrated by the media and fans. For betting purposes, it’s useful to identify the drivers that are excessively hyped.
Kimi Antonelli: Some fans consider him the best driver this year. That’s absolutely ridiculous when you look at the actual driving. Kimi is very fast, but still raw, and only drives cleanly when he’s leading. I will accept that he can be part of a top 5 discussion based on his pace, but he isn’t the best driver overall. In a few years from now, maybe he will be.
Pierre Gasly: He’s driving well, but car improvement is the main factor behind his good results. He didn’t suddenly turn into a top driver at 30 years old. Other fans call him “underrated” which is usually the best sign that a driver is overrated. Gasly should be out-performing Colapinto by a bigger margin.
Isack Hadjar: Some good qualifying performances to open the season, and since then a nice string of top 6 finishes. But he’s incredibly far off Verstappen’s race pace and Hadjar will obviously never be an elite driver. I’m not even sure he would beat Lawson this year, had he stayed at Racing Bulls. Someone on F1 Discussions called him a “superstar”.
Lewis Hamilton: People think he’s “back”. The truth is that the season began with three of his strongest tracks coming early – Melbourne, Shanghai and Montreal. There were also multiple front runners retiring in all the races where Lewis finished on the podium. He undoubtedly looks better than last year, especially after his Catalunya win, but he’s no longer a top 5 driver in terms of skill.
Liam Lawson: Don’t get me wrong, he has improved quite a lot. But he’s also driving a super quick car, and Lindblad is gradually catching up with him. The good news for Lawson is that he has probably secured himself a drive for next year, even if it isn’t with Racing Bulls.
Underrated drivers
And here are some underrated drivers at the moment.
Lando Norris: He started the year quietly but has since found a rhythm and is now driving like a true world champion. Miami, Silverstone and Hungaroring were elite performances. There are still people who think that Norris is worse than Leclerc, Hamilton, Antonelli and Russell. In reality, he would crush all of them, except maybe Leclerc.
Oscar Piastri: Almost as underrated as Norris is. People assume Norris is a good-but-not-great driver, which in turn makes Piastri seem like a flawed driver. In reality, Norris is world-class and Piastri is great. If either of the two moves to another team, we would more easily notice that. Watch Piastri onboard and tell me if you can find five better drivers. It would be very difficult.
Carlos Sainz: He doesn’t get much attention in the slow, overweight Williams, and he screwed up in Hungary, but overall his pace has been great this year and Sainz deserves some credit for that. He should have moved to a new team, preferably Audi, but the Smooth Operator decided to extend with Williams for a big money deal.
George Russell: This is so funny – last year, people called him a top 3 driver and almost all online fans were so sure he was better than Norris and Piastri. Now, Russell had a handful of disappointing races, and suddenly he’s the new Ricciardo. This is an overreaction: Russell is still a very good driver. He had technical issues in three out of the six initial weekends, and then he had some underperformances. It’s only a matter of time before he bounces back with some strong drives. I rank Russell below Antonelli since he seems to struggle psychologically at the moment. But it’s not out of the question that Russell can catch up sometime after the summer break.
