Following last year’s switch to a revised method of rating F1 driver performances, we’re reverting to the previous process – and there’s a specific catalyst for that change
ALEX KALINAUCKAS
Let’s start off with both a little secret and also something correcting the record from the 2023 Formula 1 season. The alternative headline for this column was: ‘An apology to Nico Hulkenberg’.
The sentiment here is that the Haas racer was the one to suffer most in our driver ratings for 2023, when it was race performances only that were assessed for a mark out of 10. That’s a rather hyperbolic way of describing the situation, of course. But ultimately, when it came to our regular rankings following each F1 weekend last year, Hulkenberg’s consistent qualifying heroics were ignored.
But a change we’re making at Autosport means that, even if Haas’s VF-24 turns out to be no better in race trim than the tyre-chomping VF-23, when Hulkenberg inevitably wrestles it to a high qualifying position then he’ll find the reward that was missing in our assessment criteria.
In short, we’re going back to our old, tried-and-tested method of creating a rating from every session of each F1 weekend. In most cases, this means a driver will be scored on how they perform in a combination of the sessions that matter most – qualifying and the race. But, should a driver pick up a penalty or eliminate themselves from the later sessions in a crash (think Lance Stroll’s accident in qualifying for the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix), this will once again be factored into their overall score.
Of late, I’m no stranger to publicly apologising for calling something wrong about a particular F1 driver, but it was our 2023 system that did for Hulkenberg’s average rating last year. Yet it’a another driver who was actually the catalyst for our switch back to the previous method. This is Red Bull racer, and 2023 drivers’ championship runner-up, Sergio Perez.
On so many occasions last year, Perez wasted golden chances to succeed with what will go down as one of F1’s best cars. Think here that five-race sequence of missing Q3 during the early summer run.
Perez’s average Autosport race-only rating from last year was 6. That put him 12th in the overall order – behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. But, had we been using the ratings method we’re returning too, Perez’s scores likely would have ended up lower. Those good examples of battling back from, say, qualifying disappointments in Aust
