[Ben Needham]

How would you rank the drivers performances at the mid point of the season? Here’s my list, with a short explanation of each ranking:

20 – Mazepin – A painful mix of slow and messy and rarely found ahead of Schumacher.

19 – Tsunoda – Too many weekend-damaging accidents. Flashes of brilliance but horribly inconsistent.

18 – Latifi – Has been closer to Russell this year and drove well in Hungary to gain points. Other than that, too far off the pace.

17 – Ricciardo – The biggest disappointment of the year so far. He still gives the impression that it could suddenly click and everything will be fine, but Norris has comprehensively shown him the way.

16 – Raikkonen – A fairly anonymous start to the year, with a couple of bad errors, such as running into his team-mate in Barcelona, as well as some increasingly infrequent “Old Kimi” brilliance.

15 – Giovinazzi – Equally anonymous; I barely notice he’s racing most of the time. On balance, better than Kimi so far.

14 – Schumacher – Seems to comprehensively have the measure of Mazepin, but is making too many errors (see Monaco and Hungary). His racing seems good and with a better car it’ll be interesting to see what he can really do.

13 – Bottas – An immensely frustrating first half of the year. On weekend’s when he’s “off”, he’s really off (Imola/Silverstone). On weekend’s when he’s doing better, bad luck hits (Monaco). He’s disappointed me more this year than any of his previous Mercedes outings and I think the relationship must now come to an end.

12 – Stroll – A quiet year so far, but he seems to be comparing reasonably well to Vettel, which may be a good or bad thing, depending on how good Vettel is (a strange question to ask of a 4-time WDC but 2020 means it needs to be mentioned).

11 – Ocon – A great win from a lucky situation to round off the first half, as well as some anonymous performances in Austria and Silverstone. He seems to be a “confidence driver” and it’ll be interesting to see if the win gives him a boost.

10 – Perez – I personally don’t rate his season as highly as some seem to be. I think Albon would have been around this level. Inherited a win in Baku with a strong performance, but other than that, he hasn’t strung together a full decent weekend and has compared poorly to Verstappen. That said, he seems to be doing exactly what Red Bull want him to do and Bottas is making him look even better than he is.

9 – Vettel – Some great performances in Monaco, Baku and Hungary and some less “flashy” good drives as well. After a very slow start, he seems to be settling in nicely and gradually starting to show Stroll the way.

8 – Sainz – Has compared surprisingly (to me at least) well to Leclerc and deserves a lot of credit for a good start to the year. A few mistakes in Imola and some qualifying issues have blotted a pretty decent year so far.

7 – Leclerc – Immensely fast, as we’ve come to expect, but needs to shake some of the mistakes he makes. I don’t buy that he’s been unlucky and seems to overdrive the car on street circuits. I’m find myself extra critical with Leclerc because he has incredible potential, as we saw with a stunning drive at Silverstone.

6 – Alonso – Shook off a slow start very quickly and has easily been the better of the two Alpine drivers. He seems to still have what it takes, even against Ocon, who is clearly no slouch.

5 – Russell – Fantastic on Saturday’s, but falls back to the car’s real level on Sunday’s. Always ahead of his team-mates (except, it seems, when there are points to be scored!). There’s not much more that he can do until the car improves.

4 – Gasly – Very difficult to place Gasly, but on balance, I think he’s been very good again. Total destruction of his rookie team-mate, but also delivers good points when the car is up to it.

3 – Hamilton – Generally flawless as usual and has obliterated Bottas. Seems fairly calm under new pressure from outside the team, but only one win in the last seven races won’t leave him overly confident going into the break. Costly mistakes in Imola and Baku, as well as some poor decision making at Hungary and Monaco have overshadowed some otherwise great drives.

2 – Norris – An unbelievable season so far with not a single mistake to my memory. A coming-of-age year.

1 – Verstappen – His first real title fight and he’s deservedly been leading for most of it. Baku, Silverstone and Hungary are the only races he hasn’t been 1st or 2nd and all were due to damage (mostly not of his own making). If he’s felt any pressure, it hasn’t shown.

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