Here are the fresh F1 driver rankings after the 2026 British 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 best right now?
1. Max Verstappen
Still the best racing driver in the world. He has reached the podium twice in an inferior car. The qualifying performance in Monaco was also something extraordinary. It’s time to move to another team, though. Max should try to get Russell’s seat at Mercedes, though it seems like rumours are now sending him to McLaren.
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 looks faster than Piastri still, although the results aren’t always going his way at the moment. McLaren seemed close to Mercedes in Miami and Canada, but they haven’t been near the front since. Despite all, Norris is doing great in the car.
3. Charles Leclerc
What’s going on with Leclerc? Last year, he dominated Hamilton, and now it seems to be going the other way. The new car clearly doesn’t suit his driving style. But Leclerc, an otherwise adaptable driver, shouldn’t be struggling like this. Perhaps his recent wedding and his wife’s rumored pregnancy take away some focus. He beat Hamilton in qualifying in Austria, but proceeded to have a terrible race. After making an adjustment to his setup, he finally won at Silverstone. He should move to second on the list if he can repeat such a performance.
4. Oscar Piastri
Piastri took a huge step forward in 2025. This year, we’ve seen him perform very well (in Japan) and horribly (in Canada). In the last few rounds, he’s been underwhelming, although he did beat Norris in Austria. The McLaren driver matchup should be close in the weekends to come. Right now Norris seems to be in better form, but it’s generally tight between the two papaya drivers.
5. Carlos Sainz
The more I think about it, Sainz is probably the only driver who’s been near-flawless this season. He deserves to drive for a better team but foolishly decided to sign with Williams. That decision looked okay last year, but Sainz is now realising that he won’t go anywhere with them. Hopefully, he can continue to perform at a high level and eventually find a better seat.
Before you start thinking Hamilton is better: Sainz also had times where he outperformed Leclerc for a few months, during stretches of 2021, late 2023 and early 2024, only to be exposed as the inferior driver long-term.
6. Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton has looked great 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 perfect 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.
7. Kimi Antonelli
Antonelli was lucky early on in the season, then had some top performances, and recently the luck is turning against him. The scary thing is that Kimi is only 19, so he will continue to improve as a driver. He looks like the new Sebastian Vettel: Lots of mistakes, struggles wheel-to-wheel racing, but he has incredible pace and is great at managing a lead.
8. George Russell
Mr. Saturday has been underwhelming so far. But over the last three races, the luck has turned around, and Russell is now fairly close to Antonelli’s point count again. It does look like Kimi has more pace in the car currently, but that could easily change. Russell was ranked as the fourth best driver last year, and if he can get to understand the car better (similar to Leclerc) he might again rise in the rankings.
9. Alex Albon
Albon has proven to be nearly as good as Sainz. Not in terms of one-lap pace, which is still Albon’s main weakness – but he performs very well over a full race distance. Just like Oscar Piastri, Albon needs to be more consistent: He must avoid a drop in performance by the end of the year. He’s been unlucky to start the season, and the slow car is not doing him any favours either. At the same time, Sainz has been incredible, so Albon hasn’t really been noticed. He finally had a bit of a breakthrough in the Monaco qualifying session where he beat Sainz on merit. Generally, he’s around a tenth behind his teammate, which isn’t bad considering how strong Sainz is.
10. Oliver Bearman
Bearman continues to show amazing progress. He has huge potential and is already out-performing Ocon at just 20 years old. Bearman looked really good by the end of 2025. He seems like a top 10 driver already. The interesting question is how much more he can progress. Young drivers tend to improve a lot in their first 3-4 seasons, but Haas isn’t a great environment, so hopefully Ferrari will promote Bearman as soon as possible. With Hamilton’s recent performances, Bearman risks getting stuck at Haas for another year. But now rumours are sending him to Red Bull.
11. Pierre Gasly
An excellent qualifier who lacks some racepace. A less exciting version of Jarno Trulli. By the end of last year, we finally saw flashes of his talent again – mainly at Interlagos. He’s 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 – probably 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.
12. Fernando Alonso
Still one of the most exciting racers to watch. He is great at both overtaking and defending. It’s so unfortunate that Aston Martin cannot even compete in the midfield. He’s strolling around as a backmarker due to the disappointing car, and that’s no worthy way of finishing his career. 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 (turning 45 in July). He says he wants to continue, but eventually his decline will be obvious. Alonso was out-qualified by Stroll for the first time in ages.
13. Isack Hadjar
Hadjar had a solid, albeit 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 may not struggle like the previous Red Bull second-drivers. He had a strong weekend in Canada, then almost scored a podium in Monaco – but he’s still way off Verstappen’s pace. Eventually, Hadjar could turn into a top 10 driver. He’s quite close already, as it’s really close between the drivers in the 9-13 range.
14. 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, and perhaps later in the year, he will drop behind Bortoleto. For now, he still looks slightly better in race trim than his teammate, though it’s hard to judge in the inconsistent Audi. Despite several solid performances, points have evaded the Hulk so far this season.
15. 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 elite performances. An eighth place in Britain was promising, but Bortoleto has to back it up with more scores.
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 very 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 occasionally, but this year, he’s had some clean races as well. Most of his big scores are due to a fast car and several retirements in front of him. But he’s beating a highly rated young teammate, so credit where credit is due. Lawson deserves to continue in F1, especially if he can continue improving.
18. Esteban Ocon
Esteban Ocon has very little upside at this point in his career. 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. Haas should start looking at other options, because Ocon seems to be getting worse – losing to a young driver like Bearman will not do his mind any good, and again, he doesn’t bring much to the team.
19. 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 is 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. Thus far, Lindblad has shown some promise with a few top performances, particularly in his Australia debut. But there have also been races where he was nowhere near his teammate. Great qualifying drive at the previous round, though.
20. Franco Colapinto
Colapinto finally had some strong performances as he finished 7th in Miami and 6th in Canada. The car must be really quick. Colapinto will have to back it up with more good drives – if he continues to perform well against Gasly, he should rise in the rankings. Colapinto is an attractive driver for many teams as he brings a lot of sponsorships and attention with him.
21. 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 might have gone 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.
22. 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: Most fans consider him the championship favourite now, and it makes sense due to his lead. But he’s making mistakes in most races, and only gets away with them because of the car’s dominance. His first two wins were entirely down to luck (Russell had battery issues in both China and Japan, and the Suzuka safety car timing was perfect for Antonelli). Miami and Monaco were great performances, but that doesn’t change the fact that Kimi is a bit overrated. Now that he’s also experiencing some bad luck, it will be interesting to see how it affects his mind.
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.
Isack Hadjar: Some good qualifying performances to open the season, but he’s incredibly far off Verstappen’s race pace. 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 definitely looks better this year than last year, especially after his Catalunya win, but he’s no longer a top 5 driver.
Liam Lawson: He had some fortunate results to start the year and a solid points haul. I expect Lindblad to win the H2H battle over the entire season. Lawson has already scored enough points to secure a decent position in the WDC, so another team could pick him up for the future.
Underrated drivers
And here are some underrated drivers at the moment.
Lando Norris: Very quiet start to the year. But we know how fast he is once he gets into a good rhythm, and if McLaren can improve the car, Lando could challenge for wins on some tracks. We saw this in Miami where he performed at a world-class level. In Canada, he was projected to score a top result but the team messed up the tyre choice at the start.
Carlos Sainz: He doesn’t get much attention in the slow, overweight Williams, but he’s pulling off some great drives. Just watch his qualifying onboards and his consistency in the races. Since the middle of last season, he’s had a clear edge over Albon. From a sporting perspective, Ferrari made the wrong decision to replace him with Hamilton.
George Russell: This is so funny – last year, people called him a top 3 driver and almost all online fans were certain 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 two underperformances. It’s only a matter of time before he bounces back with some strong drives. I rank him behind Antonelli since he seems to struggle psychologically at the moment, but over the entire year, Russell could be the better performer among the Mercedes drivers. We’ll have to see.
