Driver ratings from the 2021 season: Part 2

Finley Crebolder
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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen on the grid at Zandvoort. September 2021.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen line up alongside each other for the Dutch national anthem.

In the second part of our 2021 driver ratings, we take a look at the drivers that finished inside the top 10 in the standings.

Here’s how well we think they all performed this year…

Max Verstappen: He may have won the title thanks to a controversial call in his favour in the finale, but there’s no doubt whatsoever that Verstappen deserved to become a World Champion in 2021.

He was simply sensational for the vast majority of the year, performing at an extremely high level on a remarkably consistent basis, shown by the fact that he finished inside the top two in every single race where he didn’t pick up a puncture or collide with another car.

Most of those incidents weren’t his fault either with the Red Bull man doing nothing wrong at Silverstone and the Hungaroring, although he did make a few errors such his collision-causing overtake attempt on Hamilton in Monza and his qualifying crash in Saudi Arabia. All in all though, mistakes were few and far between.

Sure, he could have maybe benefitted from being a little less aggressive at times, but there was very little he could have done better over the course of the year and it’s not outlandish to say he would have wrapped up the title fairly comfortably if not for some bad luck. There’s no such thing as a perfect season, but the Dutchman was closer than anyone to one. 9.5

Lewis Hamilton: He may not have achieved his aim of winning an eighth title, but make no mistake, when it comes to driving this was yet another immensely impressive year from Hamilton.

Taking on a driver performing well as Verstappen in an often inferior car was one of the biggest challenges he has ever faced and he took it on excellently, consistently squeezing every ounce of potential out of his car and usually handling wheel-to-wheel battles with his title rival perfectly.

The Brit wasn’t quite as flawless as his Red Bull counterpart though, making errors in Baku and Imola and being way off the pace all weekend in Monaco. However, such issues were nowhere to be seen in the closing stages of the year with a stunning run of form getting him back in the title fight.

With such a run, he would have undoubtedly deserved the title if he won it, and would’ve done so if normal rules were followed in Abu Dhabi. If he has the car though, he’ll no doubt be right in the mix again in 2022. 9

Valtteri Bottas: Bottas won’t be, and while that’s because he’s leaving Mercedes for Alfa Romeo, going by his 2021 performances he probably wouldn’t be even if he was staying with the German team.

To be fair to the Finn, he was much stronger than Red Bull counterpart Perez for the vast majority of the year in terms of pace which led to him outscoring the Mexican and thus securing the Constructors’ Championship for his team.

However, arguably a more important job for him was helping team-mate Hamilton win the Drivers’ Championship and he didn’t do well in that regard, providing less assistance than Perez did for Verstappen on the whole due to timid wheel-to-wheel racing and poor races at Imola, Baku, Hungary, Mexico and Abu Dhabi where he was nowhere near the front of the field.

Excellent performances at Monza and Istanbul Park showed that he’s still a top driver on his good days, but unfortunately for him and Hamilton he had a few too many bad ones. Still, at least he did enough to secure one title for his team. 6.5

Sergio Perez: His first year with Red Bull was far from perfect, but Checo was undoubtedly an improvement on his predecessors and played a big part in his team-mate winning the World Championship.

Early on it looked like that wouldn’t be the case as he failed to put a strong weekend together, struggling on either Saturday or Sunday, but he well and truly found his feet for the first time in Baku, running in P2 for most of the race before stepping up and winning when his team-mate got a puncture. When he then followed that up with a P3 finish in France, it seemed as if Red Bull had finally found the second driver they’d been looking for.

However, a poor run of form raised question marks again, but he well and truly proved himself in the final seven races as he claimed three podiums and twice did Verstappen an enormous favour by heroically holding off a charging Hamilton in Turkey and Abu Dhabi with some glorious wheel-to-wheel racing.

In terms of pace alone, the Mexican wasn’t good enough for most of the year, but the fact that it was his first season in a notoriously tricky car to drive earns him some leeway, and ultimately he made for it with his performances at the business end of the year. He may have scored fewer points than Bottas, but he was the better of the two when it mattered most. 7

Carlos Sainz: Before this season, Sainz was widely considered to be a very good driver but perhaps not quite up there with the very best. Now, that’s no longer the case.

Unlike so many others that had joined new teams, the Spaniard adapted to his new machinery extremely quickly, scoring points in five of his first six races with an excellent P2 finish in Monaco the highlight.

After then failing to add to his tally in France, he went on to score points in every single race from Austria to Abu Dhabi, claiming three further podiums in the process to ensure he finished the year ahead of Leclerc in the standings. However, whether he was actually better than the Monegasque is very much up for debate as he trailed both Saturday and Sunday head-to-heads by a decent margin and perhaps had luck on his side more than his team-mate.

The fact that there’s even a debate to be had though is a huge compliment to him. What’s more, given this was his first year, he’s surely only going to get better, which is a very exciting thought indeed. 8.5

Lando Norris: Many expected Norris to very much be number two to new team-mate Ricciardo in 2021, but he took charge and became the team leader with top-notch performances throughout the season.

In the first half of the season, there was arguably nobody around driving better than him as he claimed three podiums and finished inside the top five in all but one race thanks to perfect drives weekend after weekend.

The second half of the year started off well too with him taking P2 in Italy and claiming his first pole position in Russia. However, he threw away a win there by misjudging the conditions and failed to finish any higher than P7 for the rest of the year, although that was in part due to the fact that McLaren dropped down the pecking order.

He’ll be disappointed he couldn’t hold on and finish in the top five in the standings for the first time, but the Brit should be delighted with his season nonetheless. On the whole, there were very few better performers. 9

Charles Leclerc: Given the lofty standards he sets for himself, Leclerc was a bit disappointed with his 2021 season once it was over, but it wasn’t a poor year by any means.

Granted, he was outscored by a team-mate for the first time in F1 but that doesn’t tell the full story with him finishing ahead of Sainz on both Saturdays and Sundays the majority of the time. When he was at his best, he quite clearly looked the stronger of the two.

While he claimed two pole positions and almost won in Silverstone though, he did make the odd mistake too, such as his crash after his pole lap in Monaco which cost him a huge chance of victory at his home race, and Sainz tended to be the one to step up more when a big opportunity presented itself

That being said, the 24-year-old still drove very, very well more often than not and remains right up there with the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen on his day. 8.5

Daniel Ricciardo: Drivers often have a season of two halves, struggling on one side of the summer break and thriving on the other, and that was the case more so for Ricciardo than anyone else this year.

The first half of his first year with McLaren was, to be frank, bad. While he did finish inside the top six four times, he was a long, long way off his team-mate and the Ferrari drivers throughout most weekends as he struggled to get used to his new car.

On a brighter note, he really stepped things up in the second half of the campaign, winning in Monza with a simply perfect performance and often being more than a match for Norris, although he did still have some poor rounds too.

He won’t look back on the season too fondly, but his performances once he was more comfortable with his car showed that the top driver is still in there. Expect to see him a lot more often next year. 6

Pierre Gasly: Gasly reignited his Formula 1 career with a very strong 2020 season and followed it up with an even better one in 2021, with the Frenchman undoubtedly one of the drivers of the season.

He was one of the stand-out performers in qualifying time after time, boasting a higher average grid position than everyone except the Mercedes and Red Bull pairs in a car that his team-mate often failed to get into Q3 in.

Sundays weren’t bad either with him claiming nine top-six finishes, including a podium, and only failing to score points when making it to the finish line on three occasions.

He did occasionally struggle to produce strong race pace but most of the time he was hugely impressive throughout the weekend. Someone get this guy a top car soon, please. He deserves it. 9

Fernando Alonso: The same can be said for Alonso who returned after three seasons away from Formula 1 and looked like he never left, often driving as well as he did when he was a younger man.

He didn’t exactly hit the ground running, being second best to team-mate Esteban Ocon for the first five rounds, but once he found his feet after that any doubts about his abilities disappeared with him consistently one of the best performers on the grid.

The highlights were his P3 finish in Qatar and his stunning defending against Hamilton in Hungary that earned his team a victory, and they were just two of many top-class Sunday drives he delivered.

There’s room for improvement when it comes to outright pace and a driver of his calibre would have hoped for a bigger margin over his team-mate, but he was never going to immediately hit his peak again in his first season back. If he can build on it next year though and is given a top car, there’s little doubt that he can fight the very best. 8.5

 

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