Formula One’s summer break offers the perfect opportunity to look back on the opening 12 races and assess where each driver stands.
Max Verstappen may be on his way to a third world championship at a canter, winning 10 races already this year. But the chasing pack is not without its star performers.
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Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc have all led their teams’ efforts this year, picking up podium finishes and occasionally – well, briefly – challenging the Red Bulls. Even those who have snatched at points, such as Alex Albon at Williams and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, are putting in quietly impressive campaigns.
But which drivers make up our top 10? Here’s our rundown, and as always, let us know your thoughts on the ranking in the comments section below.
10. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
This season has not been a walk in the park for Ferrari or Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard’s highest finishing position came at the season opener in Bahrain (fifth), and he largely stayed around the mid-points pack throughout the year, the lowest moment coming in Belgium.
Because of the SF-23’s inconsistencies, Sainz’s results and no podiums so far this year aren’t entirely on him — and Ferrari still faces questions even with it being summer break. It’s been a relatively quiet year for the Spaniard, but he has had a few standout moments, like the dummy move he pulled on Pierre Gasly in Australia.
Carlos Sainz with a stunning dummy move on Pierre Gasly 😮💨👌#AusGP #F1 @Carlossainz55
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 2, 2023
He was honest in Azerbaijan about how he was “really struggling out there with confidence” and made a few conservative moves that weekend, like backing off in a few corners.
That being said, compared to teammate Charles Leclerc, the two are fairly level in the championship with a seven-point gap (and one driver) between them. Although Leclerc has pulled in three podium finishes, Sainz has been close to his teammate. In head-to-head race results, Sainz trails Leclerc, 7-5.
Summer break provides a reset opportunity while Ferrari continues to understand the car better.
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9. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
The standout rookie from the class of ’23, Piastri has proved why he was so coveted as a young driver preparing to step up to F1 this year. Even through the early part of the year, he hadn’t made the major errors you’d anticipate from a driver stepping up to F1, especially with a car as tricky to drive as the McLaren.
It took a while for the updates to arrive that really turned McLaren’s form around, yet Piastri had quietly impressed through the early part of the year. He was never too far off Lando Norris’s pace — and much closer than Daniel Ricciardo was last year — and once the upgrades arrived that made McLaren a real contender up the order, Piastri was straight on it. Without the safety car at Silverstone, he’d likely already have a podium to his name. The qualifying displays at Silverstone and for the Spa sprint, running Max Verstappen close for pole both times, speak to Piastri’s quality.
He may only have half of Norris’s points total and trails 7-3 in their head-to-head race results, but Piastri has really stood out through his first half-season in F1. If his recent form can continue through the remaining races, the Australian could yet place higher in our end-of-season rankings.
8. Alex Albon (Williams)
Williams largely flew under the radar most of the season as most people focused on Aston Martin leapfrogging to challenge the traditional “big three.” But Alex Albon made a bold claim in Bahrain about his team’s progress that they’ve arguably lived up to, largely thanks to his performance.
“Everyone’s, I’m sure, looking at Aston Martin right now on the podium, thinking what steps they’ve done, but we’re second,” the 26-year-old said, referring to the most gains made over the winter. “(When) you look at us from last year to this year in this position, 12 months on, I have to say we’ve done an amazing job.”
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Albon launched Williams into points during the season opener with a tenth-place finish and has tallied all 11 of the team’s points, including hauling six in Canada and four in Great Britain. He frequently has extracted the most out of the FW45, sometimes leading DRS trains like in Montréal or beating both Ferraris like in the UK. Williams being fairly competitive has become a regular theme.
He’s emerged as a team leader and a star defender, finding ways to put Williams into contention for the rare points openings.
150 days 🌍📸
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) July 31, 2023
7. George Russell (Mercedes)
George Russell was a close match for Lewis Hamilton in their first season as Mercedes teammates in 2022, scoring the team’s only victory of the season and finishing 35 points clear in the championship.
But 2023 has seen momentum swing back in Hamilton’s direction as Russell struggles to perform at a consistently high level. Hamilton leads their qualifying head-to-head 7-5 and is up 7-3 in races that both have finished. He also has four podiums to Russell’s one, scored at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Russell has been open about struggling to feel totally comfortable with the feel of the Mercedes W14 car, which has undergone considerable changes with the updates that arrived in Spain. That difference in confidence could explain why he hasn’t quite been on Hamilton’s level so far this year.
The high points in Russell’s season are often tempered by bad luck. Russell qualified well in Australia and led the early stages before a power unit issue forced him to retire. He was brilliant throughout the Miami weekend. The poorly-timed safety car at Silverstone denied him a top-four finish ahead of Hamilton, while he recovered well from a Q1 exit in Hungary to finish sixth. But there’s still more for Russell to find to bridge the gap to his teammate.
6. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
Post-Baku, 2023 looked very different for Sergio Pérez. He’d not only won two of the opening four races, but he’d done so by going toe-to-toe with Max Verstappen and defeating the Dutchman. It meant it was time to start musing how — or even if — Pérez could mount a serious bid for the world championship.
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We got the answer in the races that followed. A qualifying crash in Monaco knocked Pérez’s confidence, setting off a run of poor form that would stub out his title hopes before they’d even had a chance to ignite. He failed to reach Q3 at five races in a row, scoring just one podium in that time; Verstappen just kept on winning.
Pérez has only shown glimpses of the early-season form lately, the gulf in the level of performance between him and Verstappen being made clear at Spa. Yet that still represented his best weekend for some time, qualifying well and coming home a comfortable second, which is really the bare minimum to be expected with such a dominant car.
With the championship long gone, the final 10 races should be about Pérez trying to break Verstappen’s win streak and rekindle his race-winning form. Street tracks like Singapore and Las Vegas may help bring out the best in him — something we’ve not seen for a little while now.
5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
It’s been a far cry from the season Charles Leclerc and Ferrari hoped for going into 2023. Aspirations of going one better than P2 in the championship last year quickly faded when the extent of Red Bull’s dominance became clear, insult being added to injury by the DNF when running third in the Bahrain season opener.
Leclerc has still been Ferrari’s leader so far this year. He out-qualified Sainz eight times, scored sprint and grand prix poles in Baku, and stood on the podium three times, regularly maximizing what his Ferrari car — more inconsistent and trickier to drive than last year — can do. There have been errors, such as Miami qualifying, when Leclerc has tried to overdrive, and his lows have perhaps been lower than Sainz’s this year.
But the highs have also been so much higher. The weekend performance in Baku was superb, and he was the closest thing to a challenger to Verstappen in Austria, coming within eight-hundredths of a second from pole. Ferrari’s current situation means not much more has been possible for Leclerc this year.
If Leclerc can iron out the occasional errors and Ferrari can establish itself as the second-quickest team through the second half of the year, expect more podiums to follow.
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4. Lando Norris (McLaren)
The 2023 campaign began with McLaren sometimes battling to make its way out of Q1 and set to be a backmarker, but the upgrades that began in Austria launched the Woking-based crew and its drivers onto a different path, one that led to dominant performances by Lando Norris.
But before we get into the ‘glory’ days of the British driver, let’s rewind to Australia — yes, the race with the red flags and mayhem. Norris brought the consistency that fans saw in him and McLaren last season as he brought home a decent points finish (sixth place) and kept Pérez at bay longer than most would expect, given the performance differences between the MCL60 and RB19. Several weeks later, Norris secured the maximum in Monaco when a late rain shower nudged him more into contention and was one of the fastest drivers on intermediates.
Then came Austria, Great Britain and Hungary — securing consecutive podium finishes in the latter two races. There are still weaknesses in the MCL60 that need to be addressed, but Norris extracted the maximum out of the car. If McLaren continues on this path and Norris stays in top form alongside rookie teammate Piastri, the Woking-based team could truly steal fourth by this season’s end.
First half of the season is done for @LandoNorris! 🙌
He's completed the final day of @pirellisport tyre testing in Spa. 👊#F1
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 2, 2023
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
This season looked poised to be a backward tumble for Mercedes when it showed up to Bahrain with the zero sidepod concept again and was still off the pace of Red Bull. And even with the change in design as the Silver Arrows continue to develop the W14, it’s not in an ideal form, as seen by the return of bouncing in Belgium. What is different this year, though, is Lewis Hamilton is getting as much pace and performance out of it as possible for the most part.
In Hungary last month, Hamilton ended his pole position drought that dated back to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which is also his last victory. He spoke about an under-discussed component that factors into stellar drives: confidence.
“When you lose that confidence, you shed a lot of time. Last year, I had no confidence in the car. Started out this season with very little confidence in the car and bit by bit started to get the thing on the right rails, on the right track,” Hamilton said in Hungary, later adding, “The confidence has finally come back, and that’s what you’re seeing today. It’s literally just having the confidence to be able to throw that car into the corner, and it’s going to stick.”
2. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
Fernando Alonso has rolled back the years in 2023. After spending the best part of the last decade driving F1 cars, unable to satisfy his competitive desire to be at the front of the pack, Alonso’s move to Aston Martin was a masterstroke.
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The early positive signs from testing were confirmed in Bahrain when Alonso reached the podium, a feat he’d repeat in five of the opening six races. A better tire strategy call in Monaco, when Alonso had Verstappen cornered on strategy as rain neared, would have made him a race winner for the first time in over a decade.
While Aston Martin’s form has dipped in recent races, losing ground in the fight to be ‘best of the rest’ to Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, Alonso has continued to lead its charge. Except for his spin-off in the Spa sprint, the Spaniard has barely put a foot wrong so far this year, reminding us why he is considered one of the greatest drivers of his generation. You wouldn’t think it’s been 17 years since he last won an F1 title.
Alonso has gotten closer than most of the grid to really challenging the Red Bull drivers so far this season. Even with Aston Martin’s step forward, Alonso deserves a lot of credit for spearheading its on-track charge.
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
This should come as no surprise to anyone.
Max Verstappen has shown this season that he’s a generational talent, throwing together an impressive first half of a season that’s breaking records and setting the bar even higher for future champions. At the beginning of the season, he went toe-to-toe with his teammate but has since taken a commanding hold on the driver standings. Verstappen looks set to snag his third consecutive world championship in late September/early October, barring any mechanical failures or driver errors.
A “down” weekend has been rare for the Dutchman, one of the very few examples being Azerbaijan when he missed out on both pole positions to Leclerc (it was a sprint weekend) and both wins to Pérez. Verstappen was too careful during the opening stint of the grand prix and overworked his tires trying to catch up, arguably not performing at his absolute peak as, say, Bahrain or Canada.
Yet, as Verstappen leads a championship charge, he’s keeping things light, cracking jokes on the radio and seeming genuinely happy despite not having a major threat breathing down his neck. He said in Belgium that he does “feel more comfortable in the car, and it’s all about little details.” If his comfort level is still growing, the grid better watch out for the second half of the season.
🗣️ "We could never have dreamt of getting to summer break unbeaten, that’s never been achieved before."
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) August 1, 2023
(Top photo of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton: Dan Istitene/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
