2022 F1 mid-season driver ratings – how has the grid performed?

In what has largely been a difficult year for Mercedes, struggling for pace in the early part of the season and porpoising affecting their car heavily, Russell has still showed his immense talent to even be ahead of one Ferrari driver in the championship.

It’s been an incredibly impressive year for the young Briton, who hasn’t seemed fazed by the fact his team-mate is a seven-time world champion.

While Lewis Hamilton has started to get the better of Russell recently, in the early part of the season the 24-year-old was consistently beating his illustrious colleague and still remains ahead in the championship.

Russell claimed his first-ever pole in F1 at the most recent round in Budapest and leads Hamilton 7-6 in qualifying, so there are many positives for him heading into the last half of the season and should easily build on the five podiums he has so far.

 

Carlos Sainz Jr – 7/10 

2022 has been a very topsy-turvy season for Sainz. While this year has seen him get a first-ever pole and victory in F1, there’s still been moments to forget for the Spaniard.

He spun off into the gravel in Australia, got stuck behind the Williams cars in Monaco which cost him victory, while he only has one pole compared to his team-mate’s seven.

To be fair to Sainz, a lot of his low moments this season have come through bad luck, retirements in Imola and Austria for example, but at times he’s still been a long way off Leclerc and is even behind Russell in the championship.

However he has still put in some very good drives, like Silverstone and France, which is why his score is pretty solid, but still with much to work on after the summer break.

 

Lewis Hamilton – 7/10

The start of this season was tough for Hamilton and had a lot of people doubting him.

He had beaten Russell just once in a race in the opening seven rounds, was eliminated from Q1 in Jeddah and was severely impacted by the porpoising.

However, Hamilton has managed to turn it around and quieten the doubters with five consecutive podiums before the summer break, with only Verstappen scoring more points in that time.

Had it not been for a late safety car, there is an argument to be made that he would have won in Silverstone, while a DRS problem prevented him from going for pole in Budapest.

It has been very impressive to watch Hamilton in this back end to the first half of the season and that’s what has upped his score.

It also has to be said that at the start of the season he was experimenting with a lot of different car setups – to help the team – which cost him at the time.

Now it seems like the worst of times are behind though – Hamilton and Mercedes can go into the second part of the season feeling positive, with a good chance to snatch a race win.

 

Lando Norris – 7.5/10

In a season where his team-mate has largely struggled, Norris has been putting in one solid performance after another and the 22-year-old has now added that consistency to his game.

Seventh in the championship, he comfortably leads the midfield and is the only driver outside of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes to finish on the podium this season.

Even more spectacular, the way he conducted himself in Spain and Monaco despite suffering hugely with tonsillitis was immense.

The Brit simply got on with his job and earned a very solid P8 and P6 in the races, while even finishing above his team-mate. That just shows how good Norris has been in 2022.

 

Esteban Ocon – 6.5/10 

Ocon has had a season to be proud of so far and has continued his reputation of never really making any mistakes.

The Frenchman has been very consistent, finishing inside the points in all but three races, is ahead of his team-mate Fernando Alonso in the championship – although the Spaniard has been on the end of some bad luck – and has taken the fight to the likes of Norris and Alonso.

However, if there’s one area which lets him down, it is his qualifying, where he trails Alonso 8-5 this season.

If he improves on that, then come the end of the season this score could easily be higher but nonetheless, a very solid year for Ocon so far.

 

Valtteri Bottas – 6/10 

Moving to a new team can often be difficult, yet the transition for Bottas has been pretty smooth.

He finished inside the top 10 in Hungary after starting P18, scored sixth in Baku and he was also on for points in Miami had Mick Schumacher not crashed into him.

There are further cases but the car has been problematic, putting a limit to how competitive Vettel can be.

The German has often been knocked out in Q1 – six times this season – but that is still better than his team-mate with him out-qualifying Lance Stroll eight times to three in 2022.

The four-time world champion is also 12 points ahead of him in the standings, meaning Vettel’s driving this season can be looked at in a positive light.

 

Mick Schumacher – 4.5/10

It’s been a bit of a rough sophomore year for Schumacher, who is now driving with a more competitive car and a better skilled team-mate than his rookie season.

It took him until the 10th round to score some points, with Schumacher squandering various opportunities up to then.

There’s the case of Miami, two high-speed crashes in Jeddah and Monaco, while  fell out of the points in Barcelona with poor race pace after qualifying inside the top 10.

Yet Schumacher’s time finally came with a very good performance at Silverstone when he went from P19 to P8, which he then followed up with sixth in Austria.

The potential of Schumacher was clear for all to see over those two weekends but he’s not done it often enough for his score to be above average.

 

Yuki Tsunoda – 4/10

Here’s another driver in his sophomore year, and the season actually started off quite well for Tsunoda.

The Japanese driver scored points in three of the opening six races – although he didn’t start in Jeddah due to a reliability issue – and has got the better of Gasly various times in qualifying.

However, the young Red Bull junior is currently on a seven-race streak of no points. Last time out in Hungary was pretty bad for Tsunoda, when he finished last of the runners, a minute behind Nicholas Latifi who was next up ahead.

That run doesn’t tell the whole picture though, with reliability issues plagueing his season so far, Azerbaijan and France also being examples alongside Saudi Arabia.

However, there’s still much to improve upon and he really needs to end the current streak that he’s on, considering Tsunoda’s spot for the 2023 grid isn’t fully confirmed yet.

 

Zhou Guanyu – 4.5/10

Although he lags quite far behind his team-mate in the championship, Zhou’s rookie season has been rather unlucky.

He was on course for points in Baku until a hydraulics problem forced him to retire, Zhou also qualified inside the top 10 in Silverstone but then he had that horrific incident on lap one, while the Chinese driver was also put out of the races in Miami and Barcelona due to problems with his car.

Despite those incidents, there’s still been signs of promise from the 23-year-old who got points on his F1 debut, as well as a very solid P8 in Canada.

In fact, Zhou has reached Q3 a couple of times this season and he’s been able to hold his own against Bottas on a Saturday.

Obviously he’s still a raw talent and hasn’t quite got the consistency yet, but there’s been some positive moments from Zhou this season.

 

Lance Stroll – 3.5/10

It’s been a difficult season for Stroll, who only has four points in 2022 and has never finished a race above P10.

Of course his car – second-slowest on the grid – makes it difficult but against Vettel, Stroll’s not really put up too much of a fight and is behind in the standings despite the German missing the first two races of the year due to COVID.

He was also out-qualified by reserve driver Hülkenberg at the opening race of the season, so qualifying is certainly an area Stroll needs to improve upon.

On eight occasions he has been out in Q1 but he has been good at recovering in the race.

The Canadian scored a point in Miami despite starting from the pit lane, gained seven places in Canada to finish P10 and the 23-year-old just missed out in Hungary.

But on the whole, it’s been pretty sub-par for Stroll and if it’s difficult going up against Vettel, next year will be even tougher with Alonso joining the team.

 

Alex Albon – 6/10

On his comeback to F1 – after a year as Red Bull’s reserve driver – Albon has performed pretty well in what is the slowest car on the grid.

Although he is P19 in the championship, he has delivered some very good drives to score valuable points for Williams.

He performed tyre heroics in Australia when he climbed from last into tenth while only pitting with a lap to go, while he also finished ninth in Miami.

In terms of going up against his team-mate, it’s not really been much of a match with Silverstone being the only weekend where Latifi has out-qualified Albon.

All of this resulted in the 26-year-old recently signing a multi-year contract with Williams, so it’s been a very positive comeback into the sport for him.

 

Nicholas Latifi – 3/10

In contrast, Albon’s team-mate continues to struggle in F1 with Latifi being the only driver who has started every race this season to not score a point.

He consistently gets beaten in qualifying and the closest Latifi has come to scoring a point is his P12 in Silverstone, meaning the Canadian is now fighting for his F1 future.

With his contract expiring at the end of this season, these next nine races are crucial for Latifi to try and stay in the sport.

The writing is perhaps on the wall with him more often than not trailing at the back, the Williams driver’s one bright moment this season coming when he got into Q3 at the British GP.