Fan backlash over Oscar Piastri F1 23 rating: ‘How is he lower than Stroll?!’
EA Sports have updated their driver ratings for F1 23, and while Oscar Piastri has received the biggest boost of any driver, fan reaction centred around the opinion that he should have been rewarded further.
The driver ratings take into account four scores before coming to an overall rating, with Experience, Racecraft, Awareness and Pace all rated to bring together a driver’s overall score on F1 23.
The ratings change on a monthly basis as the season progresses to reflect the real-world form of those on the grid, and McLaren driver Piastri’s rating has surged by three points to 79 overall, though some fans took exception to this – believing the rookie’s score should be higher than more experienced counterparts.
F1 23 ratings update: World Champions up; Stroll, Sainz, Russell and others down
While Piastri’s rating has changed the most after a breakthrough month for the young McLaren driver, there have been multiple other changes to drivers’ scores on F1 23.
Max Verstappen leads the way with an overall score of 96, moving up a further point, and fellow World Champions Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso also go up a point to 93.
Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg have all been rewarded with a ratings rise, while those to fall a point are Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, with Lance Stroll dropping two overall points to 81.
When EA Sports posted on social media about the driver ratings update, some F1 23 players pointed out the difference in score between Piastri and Stroll in particular, perhaps unfairly, given the huge uptick in McLaren’s form of late.
Replies from fans included: “I saw they had Stroll higher than Piastri and they lost me”, “How is Piastri not at least low/mid 80s?”, “Well you’re not caught up if Piastri is 79”, “Piastri 79? Stroll 81? Ok…”, “Oscar getting the upgrades but 79 is far too low”, alongside support for the Aston Martin driver with one asking: “Why did Lance get nerfed so much????”
Others questioned why Daniel Ricciardo has not yet been added to the game again, with Nyck de Vries still in place despite having been replaced by the Australian at AlphaTauri last month.
PlanetF1.com recommends
F1 silly season: Predicting the full grid the for the F1 2024 campaign
The seven drivers out of contract at the end of the F1 2023 season
Updated F1 23 driver ratings
Max Verstappen: 96 (up 1)
Fernando Alonso: 93 (up 1)
Lewis Hamilton: 93 (up 1)
Charles Leclerc: 89
Lando Norris: 89
Carlos Sainz: 88 (down 1)
George Russell: 87 (down 1)
Sergio Perez: 87 (down 1)
Alex Albon: 86 (up 1)
Pierre Gasly: 86 (up 1)
Valtteri Bottas: 86 (down 1)
Esteban Ocon: 85
Yuki Tsunoda: 83 (up 1)
Nico Hulkenberg: 82 (up 1)
Lance Stroll: 81 (down 2)
Kevin Magnussen: 80
Zhou Guanyu: 80
Oscar Piastri: 79 (up 3)
Logan Sargeant: 71
Nyck de Vries: 70
(Score changes are from previous update in July)
Read next: Lewis Hamilton bias, Aston Martin-Honda and best rookie season – Your F1 questions answered