We’re (just over) halfway through the season, so it seems a good time to recap the year and see how everyone has done.
Lewis Hamilton
1st | Pts: 250 | Wins: 8 | Podiums: 10 | Poles: 4 | FL: 2 | Ret: 0
Lewis Hamilton just keeps on winning. Eight of the first twelve races have ended in that familiar combination of the British and German national anthems. That takes him up to 81 Grand Prix victories and suddenly he is just 10 shy of what had, until recently, seemed an unassailable record.
Valtteri Bottas has been closer to him in qualifying this year but Hamilton has generally been setting the car up for races and perhaps that is why he now has a commanding championship lead of 62 points. He is well on his way to a sixth world championship. All that denies him an A+ was that rare off day whilst ill in Hockenheim.
Highlight: Holding on with ancient tyres for an emotional win in Monaco.
Lowlight: Uncharacteristic mistakes from driver and team in Germany.
Grade: A
Valtteri Bottas
2nd | Pts: 188 | Wins: 2 | Podiums: 9 | Poles: 4 | FL: 2 | Ret: 1
Bottas came back from the winter break with a new beard and a steely determination. That brought about the notion of ‘Bottas 2.0’ and the Finn backed it up with a comfortable victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. A few more strong performances followed and he was keeping his world champion teammate honest but, since Monaco, things have started to slip away from him.
Hamilton slowly but surely eked out a championship lead and then, just as Mercedes are deciding who gets the second seat next year, Bottas has had a couple of shockers. He crashed out in Germany when he had an excellent chance to gain points on Hamilton and then had a clumsy start at the Hungarian Grand Prix which left him having to recover from last place. And suddenly he is far closer to third than first in the standings. Will he be far lower in the standings at a different team next year?
Highlight: Redemption in Baku after last year’s heartbreak.
Lowlight: That costly crash at the Hockenheimring.
Grade: B
Sebastian Vettel
4th | Pts: 156 | Wins: 0 (Best: 2nd) | Podiums: 6 | Poles: 1 | FL: 1 | Ret: 0
Sebastian Vettel has had a tough year. A string of issues have plagued him all the way back to that fateful rainy day in Hockenheim last year and this season started similarly. With errors whilst under pressure, most notably in Bahrain and Canada, leaving people questioning whether he has cracked, if he is thinking of retirement, etc. A new, young, hungry, and most importantly fast, teammate is testing his resolve too.
He has managed to enter the summer break on a more positive note, however, with strong podiums in Germany and Hungary. And it’s worth remembering he has generally been ahead of Charles Leclerc in the standings all year too. He will need to end a run of being outqualified by the young Monegasque soon though.
Highlight: Laying to rest his Hockenheim demons with a drive from last to second place.
Lowlight: The highly controversial penalty that cost him a win in Canada.
Grade: C+
Charles Leclerc
5TH | PTS: 132 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 2ND) | PODIUMS: 5 | POLES: 2 | FL: 2 | RET: 2
The start of Leclerc’s Ferrari career has been something of a rollercoaster ride but, so far, the downs have been far more excruciating than the ups have been euphoric. A win in only his second race for Ferrari was cruelly taken away by a mechanical error in the final few laps. A strategy error meant he was knocked out of Q1 at his home race and then crashed as he tried too hard to force overtakes on race day. And then Max Verstappen rudely barged his way through to snatch another victory away in Austria.
But he has shown some real speed and, since changing his approach after the Canadian GP, has outqualified Vettel five times in a row. He just needs to iron out the mistakes which, whilst understandable from someone in only their second season of F1, you can’t be making at the front of the grid.
Highlight: A fantastic duel with Verstappen at Silverstone and a podium at the end of it.
Lowlight: Either win that was snatched away but Bahrain was probably the more agonising.
Grade: B-
Max Verstappen
3rd | PTS: 181 | WINS: 2 | PODIUMS: 5 | POLES: 1 | FL: 3 | RET: 0
Arguably the star of 2019 so far, Verstappen is having a fantasic year. He has picked up where he left off last year in terms of performance and seems to be relishing his new role as de facto team leader. Dramatic wins in Austria and Germany, along with impressive consistency, have seen him close in on Bottas and he is now in an unlikely battle for second in the championship.
This has led to debate over whether he is the best driver in the sport right now. I think that is a little premature. He is in excellent form at the moment but we have to see him over the course of a high-pressure title battle at the very top before he can seriously be compared to Hamilton and potentially argued as the best. Nonetheless, he will be getting the only A+ in this report.
Highlight: Both wins were showstoppers but the Austria comeback was paricularly impressive.
Lowlight: Being punted out by Vettel at Silverstone.
Grade: A+
Pierre Gasly
6th | PTS: 63 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 4th) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 2 | RET: 2
Whilst I have been writing up this report card, the news has broken that Pierre Gasly has been demoted. And sadly, it has not come up as much of a surprise (despite Red Bull’s repeated assurances that he would see out the season with them). Being promoted to Red Bull in only your second full season and coming up against an in-form Verstappen is an unenviable task. But it has to be said that Gasly has been embarrassingly off the pace.
Consistently a second per lap slower than this teammate in qualifying and races; even being lapped by him in Austria and Hungary. He showed potential last year so where has it gone? Maybe it’s just a lack of confidence that has spiralled out of control. This demotion is unlikely to help with that if so…
Highlight: Silverstone looked like it might have been a breakthrough and resulted in 4th.
Lowlight: But it wasn’t. And at the next race he drove into the back of a Toro Rosso to boot.
Grade: D-
Daniel Ricciardo
11TH | PTS: 22 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 6TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 4
Ever since breaking his front wing a few metres into the first race of the year, Daniel Ricciardo’s move to Renault has proven to be pretty frustrating. The team have not only failed in their goal of closing the gap to the top three teams but have, in fact, dropped behind McLaren and are now battling for fifth. The Aussie has experienced similar engine blow-ups as he did with Red Bull’s Renault engine last season and it is thoroughly testing his ever-cheery persona.
He does, at least, seem to have improved his understanding of the car – having struggled initially to adapt – and is now regularly outpacing his teammate. But surely the Honey Badger is currently questioning his move somewhat.
Highlight: Qualifying fourth in Canada, Renault’s highest grid position since 2010.
Lowlight: Another mechanical failure in Germany costing him the chance of an upset.
Grade: C+
Nico Hülkenberg
14TH | PTs: 17 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 7TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 3
What or whoever cursed Nico Hülkenberg, did so very thoroughly. This year’s German GP looked like being his best chance of a long overdue podium but yet again it wasn’t to be, as he slid agonisingly into the barriers whilst very much in contention.
His reputation is in some danger too. After a strong start to the year, he now seems to be a little slower than Ricciardo most weekends. This, combined with a lack of the consistency he has generally been renowned for, has meant that rather than being a name mentioned in regards to available front-running seats, he is now fighting to hold on to his Renault seat. A few eye-catching performances straight after the summer break certainly wouldn’t go amiss.
Highlight: A strong run to seventh in the first race of the year.
Lowlight: That crash in Germany costing another chance at a podium.
Grade: C
Romain Grosjean
17TH | PTS: 8 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 7TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 6
It has been another error-strewn season for Romain Grosjean. From repeated clashes with his teammate to spinning at the pit exit during a practice session, these are incidents that a driver of his experience shouldn’t be making; certainly not with this frequency.
He certainly still has a flash of speed on his day and the fact that he was proven right with regards to his idea to revert back to the Australia-spec Haas car helps his cause. But there were questions over his seat last year and surely Guenther Steiner will be assessing his options again.
Highlight: Having his suspicions that the car had actually become worse proven right.
Lowlight: Immediately spinning into the barriers at the pit exit during Practice 1 in Britain.
Grade: D
Kevin Magnussen
13TH | PTS: 18 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 6TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 1
This year, Kevin Magnussen has generally been qualifying very well but then suffering from Haas’s non-existent race pace and coming out of the weekend without much to show for his efforts.
He has also, obviously, been on the other end of those inter-team collisions with Grosjean, though, which haven’t helped. The fault has generally laid somewhere between 50/50 and Magnussen and he continues to not make many friends out on the track. Not that he seems to care. His outright speed is currently keeping him in an F1 seat but, at some point, surely he’ll have to ask himself if there isn’t another way when it comes to wheel-to-wheel racing. Particularly with your teammate.
Highlight: Starting the season with a strong sixth-place finish in Australia.
Lowlight: The collision with Grosjean at Silverstone taking out both cars.
Grade: C
Carlos Sainz
7TH | PTS: 58 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 5TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 2
Could this be the year that Carlos Sainz truly shows what he is made of? After a year of not getting to grips with the Renault car, many people seemed to have forgotten that Sainz was pretty evenly-matched with Verstappen during their respective rookie years. But this year, he is revelling in his new role as team leader at McLaren and heads into the summer break as ‘best of the rest’.
After an overeager move around Verstappen in Bahrain cost him a haul of points, Sainz has gone on an impressively consistent run and finished the first half of the season with consecutive fifth-place finishes. He will need to address qualifying, however, where his rookie teammate has generally had the edge.
Highlight: The fifth place in Hungary that had him singing ‘Smooth Operator’.
Lowlight: Forgetting how few prisoners Verstappen takes in Bahrain and costing himself dearly.
Grade: A-
Lando Norris
10TH | PTS: 24 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 6TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 4
Lando Norris has had more than his share of bad luck in the first 12 races of his F1 career but, nonetheless, he has made quite the impression. He got into Q3 in his first ever qualifying session – something not achieved in a McLaren since Fernando Alonso in Monaco last year. He then finished sixth in the next race. An 8-4 lead in qualifying over his more experienced teammate is also particularly impressive.
The significant points deficit to Sainz is fairly unrepresentative. Whilst the Spaniard has been excellent, the youngster in the sister car has lost many points through no fault of his own; two mechanical failures, a poorly-timed safety car and a slow pit stop, all coming whilst he was running between sixth and eighth. But he has remained positive and even made memes out of most of his misfortune. The teenager from Somerset is a breath of fresh air in the sport and appears to have the speed to indicate that he’ll be around for some time.
Highlight: Sixth place in only his second ever race.
Lowlight: Getting unlucky with a safety car at his home GP when on for a good result.
Grade: B+
Sergio Pérez
16TH | PTS: 13 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 6TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 1
Normally, by this point of the season, Sergio Pérez would have managed to grab himself an unlikely podium somewhere. But this year, the car appears to have taken a step back and he hasn’t had that bit of luck he often manages to find – indeed, he was the first to spin out in Germany and his teammate nearly grabbed a podium.
After a reasonably promising start to the season, Pérez hasn’t scored a point since Azerbaijan back in April, generally finishing every race just outside the points in 11th or 12th. An update in Germany seems to have improved the Racing Point so the Mexican will hope to score some points and get back ahead of his less experienced teammate in the championship.
Highlight: Qualifying fifth and then holding on to sixth in Azerbaijan.
Lowlight: A clumsy spin in the German rain ending his chances in his type of Grand Prix.
Grade: C-
Lance Stroll
12TH | PTS: 18 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 4TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 1
Lance Stroll may be the higher Racing Point driver in the championship but he owes that to an inspired (and slightly lucky, obviously) strategy gamble in Germany. It left him briefly leading the race, having been running near the back of the field previously. He couldn’t quite hold on for a podium but fourth place tripled his points tally.
Stroll has held up his reputation for starting races very well but much of that is down to his awful qualifying record. He is 12-0 down against Pérez and has only managed to get out of Q1 on one occasion. That is something he will really have to improve upon to be taken more seriously in the paddock.
Highlight: Suddenly, incredibly finding himself leading a Grand Prix in Germany.
Lowlight: Staring down the barrel of a qualifying whitewash at the start of the summer break.
Grade: C-
Kimi Räikkönen
8TH | PTS: 31 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 7TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 0
Is Kimi Räikkönen back to his best again, free from the spotlight at Ferrari and back to just enjoying racing? Or have Alfa Romeo built a great car and Antonio Giovinazzi just isn’t up to it? It’s hard to say what Räikkönen’s renaissance is down to but he is driving very well and with fantastic consistency.
His recent years at Ferrari weren’t a total failure but he rarely hooked up a qualifying lap and was normally a bit shy of the frontrunners. This year, about to turn 40, he has been comfortably ahead of Giovinazzi in qualifying and the races, picking up steady points and finds himself only a couple of positions lower in the championship than he often was in a Ferrari. There’s life in the old dog yet.
Highlight: Bwoah, who knows? It was all okay.
Lowlight: See above.
Grade: B+
Antonio Giovinazzi
18TH | PTS: 1 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 10TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 1
It has all just been very underwhelming from Giovinazzi, sadly. He has now managed his first point in the sport, at least, but generally it’s all been races spent thoroughly in no man’s land. Honestly, it’s difficult to even make up two short paragraphs regarding his season thus far. So, I won’t.
Highlight: A first point in Austria.
Lowlight: Having eighth in Germany taken away after a 30-second post-race penalty.
Grade: D
Daniil Kvyat
9TH | PTS: 27 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 3RD) | PODIUMS: 1 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 2
The torpedo has returned. And in style, with Toro Rosso’s first podium in over a decade at the German GP. The rest of the year so far has been pretty solid, although he has been bested by his rookie teammate more often than he would probably like.
He’ll also likely be frustrated to be passed up for the Red Bull seat – we will see when we return from the summer break. But he appears to just be enjoying being back in F1 after a rollercoaster few years.
Highlight: An unlikely podium on the same weekend that his first child was born.
Lowlight: Missing out on a Red Bull seat again; another dip in his Red Bull rollercoaster.
Grade: B-
Alexander Albon
15TH | PTS: 16 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 6TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 1
It has been a convincing start to Alexander Albon’s career, having come into the sport without much hype and off the back of only third in last year’s F2 championship. But, suddenly, he is about to be thrust very much into the spotlight with a move to Red Bull to partner Max Verstappen…only 12 races into said career.
It’s a hell of an ask. He has seemed pretty unflappable thus far, however, consistently scoring points and showing good wheel-to-wheel ability in a four-corner side-by-side battle with Kvyat in Hungary. Time will tell if this move is too soon for him.
Highlight: A strong eighth place in his first Monaco GP.
Lowlight: Perhaps not being the Toro Rosso on the podium in Germany – he had the chance.
Grade: B-
Robert Kubica
19TH | PTS: 1 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 10TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 0
Robert Kubica’s return has not been quite the fairy-tale story that many had hoped for. The Williams has been, of course, a long way off the rest of the pace but generally Kubica has also been a fair way off the pace of his teammate. There have been rumours regarding whether the drivers have equal machinery but, after swapping chassis, it would appear the Pole sadly just doesn’t have the pace.
He did at least claim the unlikeliest of points in Germany to have something to show for what is nonetheless an incredible comeback, nearly a decade after a near-fatal injury. We must not forget the man is basically driving with one hand.
Highlight: A points-finish in Germany in a car that seemed unlikely ever to achieve one.
Lowlight: Consistently driving round in last place, being lapped two or three times.
Grade: D+
George Russell
20TH | PTS: 0 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 11TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 0
George Russell is now the only driver without a point but that is far from the story of his impressive debut season thus far. Whilst Kubica is an unknown quantity since his return, Russell has frankly destroyed him. 12-0 in qualifying and 10-2 on Sunday. And beating your teammate is about all you can do in a car so off the pace as this year’s Williams.
The car did get an update in Hungary and Russell very nearly dragged the car miraculously into Q2. Last year’s F2 champion would appear to have a very bright future ahead of him.
Highlight: That Hungarian qualifying lap. 16th in this Williams is stunning.
Lowlight: Missing out on a point in Germany.
