Rating Each Drivers 2021 Season – 10 – 1

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Hello, welcome to the second part of this look at F1 Drivers performance in 2021 and this time we look at the top 10 so get your cup of Yorkshire tea at the ready!

=9 Daniel Ricciardo 50%

As shown by the graph of his performances from race to race Ricciardo was either very good or very bad. There was never a period where he got a good run of results. His bad races were really bad as well which means looking at it this way may overestimate his performance

=9 Lando Norris 50%

Lando Norris is a strange one. The first half of the season was almost faultless, the second half of the season was awful. At the moment I’m erring that the Lando of the first half of the season is more a true reflection as there are some significant luck elements in some of the second half of the season his punctures at Qatar and Abu Dhabi. There are some mistakes though at Russia and Brazil so maybe it was just regression.

8. Carlos Sainz 52.38%

A good season from Sainz managed to beat his highly-rated teammate and was pretty consistent overall. He never produced a spectacular performance but was just really consistent.

7. Pierre Gasley 52.9%

Pierre Gasley had a brilliant season. As you can see from the race by race graph he had a pretty poor start to the season but from Monaco onwards he was mostly really good. He never had a stand-out performance but was just consistent and delivered a positive result on most race days.

6. Lance Stroll 55.5%

Maybe a controversial one but the reality is there isn’t too much difference from the driver in 11th to here and different performance in one race or another would change it. Most drivers are at the same level in reality and a lot is the car. Moving on to stroll it was a pretty good season and his bad races were followed by good ones.

5. Kimi Raikkonen 58.8%

Goodbye Kimi. This was a very respectable performance for his final season. To get into the top 5 is really good as well.

Looking at his career as a whole he was best in the first 5/6 seasons. Where he averaged a 75% positive result which is the level of the top drivers. After he won his title there was a drop off to 60% positive with a clear decline as he got older. He was clearly a good driver though well deserving of his record. What he could have achieved if he maintained his level from the first 5 years would have been interesting to see.

4. Valterri Bottas 64.7%

A good season for Valterri overall he mostly produced positive performances. Mexico City can be excused because he was hit from behind at the start. The less said about Hungary the better and maybe if he wasn’t taken out by George Russel at Imola that would have been a bad result as he was not performing well.

3. Lewis Hamilton 75%

75% positive contribution is excellent from the 7-time world champion. However, being supercritical in the first half of the season there are a few performances that have probably cost him the world title in reality. The mistake in Azerbaijan and lackluster weekends by his standards at Monaco and the Austrian GP on review would be where you would say the title was lost. Incredible performance towards the end of the season to get back in the fight and be a lap away from winning it.

2. Fernando Alonso 78.9%

Incredible performance for Alonso. He clearly still has it even though he was away for 2 years. If he had a title-winning car he could win it his performances are that good.

1. Max Verstappen 88.8%

Well, not much of a surprise. He has been phenomenal and a deserved winner of the world championship for the season as a whole. To be that consistent is incredible. The Hungarian Grand Prix was massively compromised by Botta’s bowling and maybe the Italian Grand Prix would have been worse if he didn’t retire but overall this is a top performance.

Thanks for reading let me know your thoughts in the comments.

To leave a comment for the author, please follow the link and comment on their blog: Sport Data Science.

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