Welcome to The Gurgler’s 2021 F1 Season Power Rankings – our way of using various F1 based stats to answer the question of really who is the best driver in F1 so far in 2021 – and this edition is for the 2021 British Grand Prix Ratings.
We have already provided our thoughts on the race, along with a description of the race and more.
Read the 2021 British Grand Prix Race Review here.
But our 2021 F1 Season Power Rankings goes a little bit deeper than just points scored on the Sunday. We take on board Free Practice, Qualifying, performance in relation to team mate, fastest lap, and a few more stats that are attempting to highlight a driver outperforming the car.
A full explanation on what is included and the points awarded is below the visuals.
Our 2021 British Grand Prix Ratings has more than just a score, we have the race results, season progress, and so many F1 based points of interest.
Enjoy.
2021 F1 Season Power Rankings – R10 2021 British Grand Prix Ratings
Here is the breakdown of the best and blurst driver from the most recent race.
Despite the race win Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second in our G=Power Rankings for the 2021 British Grand Prix. You can’t say that Charles Leclerc didn’t deserve something from the race.
Lewis Hamilton might have been closer except he received our Grape rating for his race which is minus 5 points.
Lando Norris continues his great season by completing the G-Power Ranking podium. The upper midfield captured a welcome return for Dan Ricciardo, and also featured Max Verstappen, who up to the first corner of the first lap had a pretty good weekend, including winning the first ever Nap the Lap Sprint race.
Both Haas drivers were off the bottom in a welcome change.
2021 F1 Season Power Rankings Progress – Martini Medal Driver of the Year
Here are the current overall standings for our Driver of the Year winner – the Martini Medal. Named in honour of one of F1’s most unsung heroes – Pierluigi Martini of Minardi fame.
He may have had his Championship lead cut, but despite being a first lap casualty Max Verstappen is still well out in front. Given the maximum score is 100 here, he’s still a race to the good.
Lewis Hamilton edged further ahead of Lando Norris who has been catching him with a purple patch of form.
Introduced this week is a visual which shows the rolling points total and position of each driver within it. Some upper midfield movement with Ricciardo and Alonso overtaking Vettel.
2021 F1 Season Power Rankings – Other Interesting Stats
In case everything we have offered up isn’t enough, here is the best of the visuals from the F1 season so far.
TEAM MATE H2H
Here are the H2H results for the season so far.
Note that for the race we only count it when both drivers finish, unless the retired driver’s retirement was self inflicted as judged by us. So Max Verstappen’s race exit is not included.
Pierre Gasly and George Russell continue the only 100% records in qualifying. Mick Schumacher, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris lead the race H2H and their qualifying record is pretty good too.
QUALIFYING AVERAGE GRID POSITION + DISTANCE FROM POLE
So who is the most consistent qualifier? The closest to pole position overall time-wise? What’s gap between the team mates?
All of that is answered below. But here are the barely interesting facts.
Just four drivers remain 100% Q3 compliant in qualifying – Max Verstappen and the two Red Bull drivers, plus Lando Norris.
Max Verstappen has yet to qualify outside of the top three.
Ricciardo joined Q3 for a change. It’s been four races since Kimi Raikkonen has made it through Q1, which explains some of his plethora of first lap places he has gained.
Mr Saturday George Russell became Mr Friday with another Q3 visits, but he has yet to turn them into points for Williams.
Note that we have classed qualifying on the Friday session results not the sprint race.
RACE – FIRST LAP NET PROGRESS
Who’s gaining or losing on the first lap? Well Kimi Raikkonen continues to be the first lap king. Another five places in the Austrian Grand Prix sees his tally move to 22 places gained for the season so far and ten places in the last three races.
Although Pierre Gasly was unlucky with his incident in the Styrian GP costing him a top starting position to back of the grid, his season stats show he has yet to improve on any first lap this season. He is the worst overall and most negatively consistent. Although Bottas is yet to gain a place on the first lap this season. But is at least consistent with five zero net movement figures in a row.
At least Daniel Ricciardo is making up for some qualifying dross with good starts lately.
FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
For no good reason in the Free Practice results.
If you combine overall Qualifying (after Q3) and Free Practice, Max Verstappen has only been outside the top three in four sessions this season. 90% of this season’s sessions.
Down the other end, Nikita Mazepin has spent two thirds of his season in last place. although he avoided last all weekend.
2021 F1 Season Power Rankings – Points Explanation
Here’s how the points work this season. Essentially the perfect race (Win from Pole, Fastest Lap, thrash team mate, best in race etc) should amount to the perfect 100 points.
FIRST LAP GAINS +0.5pts per position gained -0.5pts per position lost.
CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS – 25pts to 1pt as per World Championship – Sprint Race Points added.
BEAT TEAM MATE (RACE) – 10pts (if both finish or other driver got self inflicted DNF)
FASTEST LAP – 5pts – 1pt for top five drivers.
GRID POSITION TO RACE POSITION – formula +/- relative finish to grid
BEST OF THE REST (RACE) – 5pts to 1pt – top five non Mercedes-Red Bull drivers
QUALIFYING – 20pts to 1pt – Grid Position 1 to 20.
BEAT TEAM MATE (QUALIFYING) – 5pts
BEST OF THE REST (QUALIFYING) – 5pts to 1pt – top five non Mercedes-Red Bull drivers
GREAT/GRAPE – 5pts Great 2pts Honourable Mention -2Pts Dishonourable Mention -5Pts Grape
BEAT TEAM MATE (QUALIFYING) Time Gap – Formula for % beaten team mate by
BEAT TEAM MATE (QUALIFYING) Position – 0.5 Pts for every position team mate is beaten by. 0 points for second car.
FREE PRACTICE HERO – 10Pts to 1Pt – Average Position across all three practice sessions.
WIN FROM POLE – Bonus 5 Points
WIN FROM POLE WITH FASTEST LAP – Bonus 10 Points