Revealed: The top 10 drivers of the F1 2024 season

With all 24 races in the books, we are having a look back over our driver ratings and seeing who was the best throughout the year.

After every race, we rate all 20 drivers which means by this point of the season, we can see who performed consistently and who was consistently poor. This piece will focus on the best drivers, so here are our top 10 rated on the F1 2024 grid.

The best 10 drivers of the F1 2024 season

10.) Fernando Alonso – 6.71

A year of great frustration for Fernando Alonso as Aston Martin found themselves in a no man’s land pretty much from race one.

They had the pace to hold off backmarkers but the hopefulness of early 2023 was never recaptured and the Silverstone outfit look like a team with zero momentum.

Alonso did his best, dragging the AMR24 to 13 points finishes but five of those came close to start the season, suggesting the team fell down the order as the year went on.

9.) Pierre Gasly – 7.02

Having started the year in the worst car on the grid, Pierre Gasly would probably not have expected to end it on 42 points and in the top 10.

The Frenchman and Alpine have found some form at last and from Mexico onwards, Gasly has been a consistent challenger for points.

P3 in Vegas qualifying was an excellent achievement cut short by a mechanical retirement, but Gasly probably would not have wanted the season to finish given how he was driving. His hope now will be it continues once 2025 gets underway.

8.) Nico Hulkenberg – 7.15

Another excellent year for the Hulk in what was his last for Haas. Given the American team plucked him from the F1 cold, he has more than repaid the favour with the most points scored by a Haas driver since 2018.

As was the case in 2023, it was quali where Hulkenberg really shone but he at least had a better race car this year, meaning he was able to finish in the top 10 on 10 occasions and a high of sixth in Austria and Silverstone.

7.) Lewis Hamilton – 7.52

One of the most frustrating years of Lewis Hamilton’s career no doubt as he never truly seemed comfortable with the car.

It was always going to be an emotional year for Hamilton as he departs Mercedes but his win in Silverstone stands as not just one of his highlights of the year but one of the sport’s as well.

In the end though, he will be happy his time in the W15 is over and can now look forward to pulling on the red race suit for the first time.

6.) Carlos Sainz – 7.72

A brilliant start to the season petered off somewhat but it was nonetheless an excellent way for Carlos Sainz to finish his time with Ferrari.

A total of 290 points, the most in his F1 career, two wins, one pole and nine podiums show that the Spaniard was a key part to Ferrari securing P2.

5.) George Russell – 7.77

Australia is an outlier in what was a very consistent year for George Russell. While Lewis Hamilton found difficulties with his experimental car, Russell made the most of his and was able to secure a good amount of points, especially in the second half of the season.

His win in Vegas was the most dominant of his career and as he transitions into the role of team leader, it will be up to him to meet the challenge.

4.) Oscar Piastri – 7.92

An excellent sophomore year for Oscar Piastri but one that took a dive in the second half of the season.

It is no coincidence that once McLaren started asking Piastri to move out of the way of his team-mate, his form dipped and even after it was back to equal standing, the Australian failed to recreate his earlier performances.

A perfect race in Baku was the highlight but if there is one thing to take away from Piastri’s season, it was the overtake on Norris in Monza. The Australian means business and he now needs to find the consistency to move up a level.

3.) Lando Norris – 8.19

His best season yet but one that exposed weaknesses in his driving. Come at the king, you best not miss sums up the monumental task Lando Norris was faced with in 2024.

Verstappen has become the final boss of F1 and one that requires a rival to be near-perfect in order to beat him. Unfortunately for Norris, he wasn’t.

A number of poor starts cost him and even if he produced some of the best races of his career to date, he was still found to be left wanting in the title battle.

2.) Charles Leclerc – 8.33

Charles Leclerc may not have had as many highs as Norris but it was the Ferrari man’s consistency that sees him take second spot in this list.

It took until Canada for Leclerc to fail to finish in the top four and on just three occasions did the 27-year-old not finish in the top 10, highlighting how impressive his sustained performances have been.

Peaks of wins in Monaco and Monza were weighed down by his retirement in Montreal but overall, Leclerc was a mainstay in the top 10 and the main reason why Ferrari looked like they could snatch the title away from McLaren.

1.) Max Verstappen – 8.35

Given he won a fourth consecutive title, Max Verstappen topping our list will be little surprise but compare his score from this year to last and there is a noticeable drop off.

After a near perfect 2023, Verstappen ended the year on an average of 9.3 but this year he has dropped down to 8.35, just nipping ahead of Leclerc.

It was a season of highs and lows for the Dutchman. 10s in Bahrain, Japan, Imola and Brazil were countered by the two 5.5s he scored in Hungary and Belgium.

Memorable moments such as his crash with Norris in Austria and most recently his clipping of Piastri in Abu Dhabi also saw his overall score take a whack, meaning he was just marginally ahead of Leclerc come the end of the season.

But once again, like he did in the Drivers’ standings, Verstappen came out on top.

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