Driver ratings from the 2021 season: Part 1

Finley Crebolder
Add as a preferred source on Google
Esteban Ocon celebrates winning the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix

Esteban Ocon celebrates winning the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix

We’re kicking off our driver ratings for the 2021 campaign with those that finished in the bottom half of the World Championship standings.

Here’s how well we think each of them drove this year…

Esteban Ocon: There were question marks about Ocon’s ability after a fairly poor return to the grid in 2020, but the Alpine has very much proved himself again this year.

There are few more formidable team-mates around than Fernando Alonso, and the Frenchman was more than a match for him for the majority of the year, scoring just seven points fewer and drawing the qualifying head-to-head battle. That’s a record to be proud of.

He had some bad weekends where he was very much second best to the Spaniard, but boy did he have some good ones too. The highlight was of course when he claimed victory in Hungary, but that wasn’t the only top drive with him seconds away from a podium in Saudi Arabia and impressing hugely in Portugal and Qatar, too.

The Alpine driver became a race winner, held his own against one of the best around and restored his reputation in the process. If he can make another step forward in 2022 and get the better of Alonso, there’ll be little doubt that he’s a big talent. 8

Sebastian Vettel: Vettel was another driver who many didn’t rate particularly highly after his disastrous 2020, and while he hasn’t done enough to banish those doubts entirely, he’s certainly showed there’s life in him yet.

Unfortunately for the German, the machinery at his disposal has been far weaker than he would have hoped for with Aston Martin often being the slowest of the midfield teams. Given that, the fact that he crossed the line inside the top five on four occasions and in P2 twice, even if he was ultimately disqualified in Hungary, is immensely impressive.

The same can’t quite be said for how he compared to his team-mate, but he was still the stronger of the two drivers for most of the year, just perhaps not as comfortably as many would expect from a driver of his calibre.

Ultimately though, the four-time World Champion did enough to show that he’s still got it and deserves a place on the grid, although it’s hard not to think he’s past his best. That will become clearer if he has a better car underneath him next year. 7

Lance Stroll: Looking at how he compared to his team-mate, Stroll undoubtedly made a decent step forward in 2021, but it wasn’t really big enough to make people sit up and take notice.

In terms of race-day performances, it was arguably his best season yet with the Canadian finishing ahead of Vettel more often than not and finishing more races inside the top 10. Things weren’t perfect though with him making a fair few mistakes and failing to claim the big points hauls that his team-mate did.

However, the main issue for him was his one-lap pace, shown by the fact that he only out-qualified Vettel, a man who arguably isn’t as quick as he once was, eight times. His recovery drives were often excellent, but the fact that he had to recover from a poor Saturday so often is an issue.

Going up against a four-time World Champion, Stroll had the chance to finally get rid of his pay driver tag, but didn’t take it. On a brighter note, his driving was, on the whole, the best it has been in his time in F1. 6

Yuki Tsunoda: Big things were expected of Tsunoda ahead of his rookie year on the grid, but while there were some flashes of brilliance, he didn’t live up to the high expectations.

For most of the year he was a long way off team-mate Pierre Gasly in every area, being firmly second best on both Saturdays and Sundays. He simply didn’t have good pace and made costly mistakes too often, even for a rookie.

It wasn’t all bad though, with him showing just how talented he is with excellent Sunday drives in Bahrain, Baku, Hungary and Abu Dhabi, although two of those weekends consisted of earlier crashes. At the final round in particular though, it was clear that there’s a top driver in there somewhere.

There’s little doubt that when he’s on it, the Japanese driver is a massive talent, but he needs to be on it far more than just a handful of races in 2022 now that he’s got a season of experience under his belt. 5

George Russell: With the Brit moving to Mercedes next year, the 2021 campaign turned out to be Russell’s last with Williams, and it was undoubtedly his best.

As has always been the case, he was one of the best drivers on the grid in qualifying, with his simply stunning lap in Spa earning him a front-row start and his first podium, in a car that was one of the slowest on the grid.

What really made the campaign such a good one for him though was his improved Sunday performances. While nine of his 16 points were earned by his qualifying lap in Spa, the rest came courtesy of three excellent performances.

There’s still room for improvement, shown by his crash in Imola and his poor reaction to it, but all signs suggest he’s more than good enough to step up and partner Lewis Hamilton. 8

Kimi Raikkonen: Kimi’s final season as a Formula 1 driver turned out to be a fairly uneventful one with him showing glimpses of the ability that made him one of the best around.

For the first time since he joined the team, the Finn was the slower Alfa Romeo driver in qualifying and relatively comfortably too, being out-qualified by Antonio Giovinazzi 13 times.

While he lacked pace though, his race craft was still very good and saw him score 10 of the team’s 13 points with four top-notch drives that showed even at his age he’s good enough to compete at the highest level.

There’s little doubt that he’s not as good as he once was, but it was still a final year that allowed him to leave the sport with his head held high and served as a decent ending to a wonderful career. 7

Nicholas Latifi: Latifi’s second season as a Formula 1 driver was nothing special but was at least a solid improvement on his first in a number of areas.

The Canadian managed to out-qualify Russell for the first time and then did it again later in the year, also making it out of Q1 four times and often going faster than at least one Alfa Romeo as well as the Haas pair. That being said, he was still a long way off his team-mate most of the time.

Things were better on Sundays too as he claimed his first points in F1 with an excellent P7 finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix and almost added to his tally further in Monza and Saudi Arabia.

If you compare his season to Russell’s, it wasn’t a great one by any means, but if you compare it to his own previous one, it was clearly a step in the right direction. 6

Antonio Giovinazzi: Giovinazzi took a step in the right direction himself, but just didn’t do enough in races to retain his spot on the grid for the 2022 campaign.

His Saturdays were generally excellent with the Italian much faster than Raikkonen and making it into Q3 on four occasions which, given the machinery he had, is quite the achievement.

However, his performances in races were nowhere near as good. While he got his fair share of bad luck, he often simply didn’t have the pace or the race craft to stay ahead of faster cars, nor those in evenly matched ones to him.

It’s a shame his time in F1 seems to be over for good given he did at times show that he can be a very fast driver on his day, but all things considered, he can’t have too many complaints about his team’s decision to drop him. He just didn’t perform when it mattered most. 6

Mick Schumacher: With him in the slowest car on the grid by quite some distance, it was also going to be a difficult rookie year for Schumacher, and he can be pleased with how he handled it.

The only driver that had comparable machinery to him was his team-mate and he won their intra-team battle with ease, only being out-qualified by Mazepin once and beating him 11 times in the 14 races that both finished. The German also occasionally managed to fight a Williams or Alfa Romeo and drove well in such battles.

The big downside was undoubtedly the number of times he crashed with him costing his team a lot of money due to the damage his mistakes caused, reportedly more than any other driver.

That being said, it was still a good rookie year, and with him gaining more experience and his car surely improving next year, the only way is up, which is an exciting thought. 7

Nikita Mazepin: For Mazepin on the other hand, his driving is in just as much need of improvement as the Haas car. Well, maybe not quite, but it’s close.

The Russian was far, far slower than Schumacher throughout the season, and pace wasn’t his only problem with him infuriating a number of drivers with his aggressive and arguably unsafe moves.

He did at least improve in both areas towards the end of the year, but will have to do at a faster rate next season if he wants to convince people he’s in the sport because of his ability rather than his money. 4

 

Driver Ratings

Related Articles