This is how good (or bad) the 20 drivers were: “It’s just not going forward”, says Formula 1 expert Marc Surer about Mick Schumacher, for example
Charles Leclerc may have lost what seemed a certain victory at the Barcelona circuit due to a power train failure, but in the traditional scoring on Monday after the Spanish Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver secured the day’s win and with it the maximum number of points (25) for the 2022 Driver of the Year ranking.
Leclerc and Mercedes driver George Russell were the only ones to receive a score of 1 from both expert Marc Surer and the editorial team’s Formula 1 core team, so the user voting had to decide.
A total of more than 1,000 votes were cast, and in the end the difference was marginal: Leclerc was graded with an average of 1.70, Russell with 1.73.
Third place went to Valtteri Bottas, followed by Sergio Perez, who Surer advises after the pit radio about Red Bull’s team strategy: “Please stop whining!” Because he probably wouldn’t have stood much of a chance against Max Verstappen, even with a free run.
Surer: Gentle criticism of Verstappen
Verstappen himself, reigning 2021 Driver of the Year, had “made a mistake and scolded too much” when his DRS went on strike, according to Surer, and therefore only received a grade 2 from the Swiss expert despite winning on track.Verstappen finished eighth in the day’s standings.
Lewis Hamilton, fifth in our ranking with an overall score of 2.1 and fifth on the track, is said by Surer to have “motivation problems. A driver who wants to give up the race and then still finishes in fifth place … “
Surer is also critical of Kevin Magnussen, who collided with Hamilton on the first lap (“An unnecessary action”), of Carlos Sainz (“He didn’t see any land at his home race either”), of Pierre Gasly (“What’s wrong with the sovereign Gasly?”) and of Guanyu Zhou, who “unfortunately failed again in qualifying”.
Sebastian Vettel was rewarded for a valiant drive with P10; Mick Schumacher, on the other hand, came away empty-handed in 16th, making him, along with Nicholas Latifi, the only one of the 20 regular drivers who has yet to sign on in 2022. “It’s just not going forward,” Surer said of the German.
How we award the grades
The idea behind our grading system is to give grades (1 = Very Good, 6 = Unsatisfactory) to the performances on a weekend and especially in the race. The idea is to exclude external influences that the drivers cannot control themselves. And so that not only the editors evaluate subjectively, as is the case with football magazines, we have created a total of three equal pillars with the readers and the expert.
The ultimate Barcelona 2022 driver ranking:
01. Charles Leclerc, grade 1.2 (reader 1.7 – Surer 1 – editorial 1)
02 George Russell, grade 1,2 (Readers 1,7 – Surer 1 – Editors 1)
03 Valtteri Bottas, grade 2.0 (readers 2.0 – Surer 2 – editors 2)
04 Sergio Perez, grade 2.0 (readers 2.1 – Surer 2 – editors 2)
05. lewis hamilton, grade 2,1 (readers 2,3 – Surer 2 – editors 2)
06 Lando Norris, grade 2.3 (Readers 2.8 – Surer 2 – Editors 2)
07th Esteban Ocon, grade 2,3 (reader 2,8 – Surer 2 – editor 2)
08 Max Verstappen, grade 2.4 (readers 2.2 – Surer 2 – editors 3)
09 Fernando Alonso, grade 2.5 (readers 2.5 – Surer 2 – editors 3)
10. Sebastian Vettel, grade 2,7 (readers 3,0 – Surer 3 – editors 2)
11th Yuki Tsunoda, grade 2.7 (readers 3.1 – Surer 2 – editors 3)
12: Carlos Sainz, grade 3.5 (readers 3.6 – Surer 3 – editors 4)
13th Pierre Gasly, grade 3,6 (readers 3,7 – Surer 3 – editors 4)
14th Alexander Albon, grade 3,7 (readers 4,0 – Surer 3 – editors 4)
15th Nicholas Latifi, grade 3,7 (Readers 4,0 – Surer 3 – Editors 4)
16th Mick Schumacher, grade 3,9 (readers 3,6 – Surer 4 – editors 4)
17 Lance Stroll, grade 4.0 (readers 4.0 – Surer 4 – editors 4)
18th Kevin Magnussen, grade 4.1 (Readers 4.2 – Surer 4 – Editors 4)
19th Guanyu Zhou, grade 4.2 (readers 3.7 – Surer 4 – editors 5)
20. Daniel Ricciardo, grade 4,3 (Readers 3,9 – Surer 5 – Editors 4)
And this is how we calculate:
The rating by expert Marc Surer and the rating by our editorial team are used to calculate the average. This average results in our driver ranking. We only show one decimal place, but for the calculation we use all decimal places. These decimal places, some of which are not visible, are used to determine the ranking order of two drivers in the event of a supposed tie in grades.
The driver grade World Cup standings 2022:
01st Charles Leclerc (118)
02nd Max Verstappen (92)
03. George Russell (62)
04th Valtteri Bottas (58)
05 Sergio Perez (51)
06 Lando Norris (42)
07 Alexander Albon (38)
08 Lewis Hamilton (38)
09 Kevin Magnussen (31)
10th Sebastian Vettel (16)
11th Pierre Gasly (14)
12th Carlos Sainz (14)
13th Yuki Tsunoda (10)
14th Esteban Ocon (8)
15th Guanyu Zhou (4)
16th Fernando Alonso (4)
17th Lance Stroll (4)
18th Daniel Ricciardo (2)
19th Nico Hülkenberg (0)
20th Mick Schumacher (0)
21st Nicholas Latifi (0)
The driver with the most points will receive an award for Driver of the Year 2022 at the end of the season.